ZR Auto launches dry sower

Owner of South African based ZR Auto & Development, Rodney Sachs, has come up with his version of a dry sower that aims to deliver maximum sowing speeds while maintaining the high standards of sowing precision.

His invention, the Simplicity, is a compact, self-contained and highly accurate machine that caters for short runs, used in the horticultural industry, and long runs, which are marketed within the brassica/vegetable and forestry industries.

Easy adjustment

Designed to sow seeds as small as begonia, to seeds as large as pine, this machine can be adjusted to sow single or doubles. "Seed change is a 30 second operation, while tray format change takes merely a minute," says Sachs. "Technically speaking, the Simplicity sows one row of the tray every 1.10 seconds."

The Simplicity range is manufactured in a modular form, so it can be purchased as a plain sower or with or without a dibber, as well as filling lines, cappers and watering system. All components are stand-alone machines and can be added to the Simplicity sower as required.

Variety of machines

As eucalyptus seed are now of a higher quality, and the introduction of cloning has resulted in the Fluid Drill concept falling away, ZR Auto & Development introduced the Dry Sower to their portfolio. It was soon producing a variety of machines, from complete automated sowers to smaller tabletop sowers. This soon grew into the likes of the DS96, the Table Top and then the Simplicity. All the machines are manufactured using the highest quality of materials that are non corrosive and maintenance free.

The Simplicity has its own air supply, therefore does not need a remote compressor. It is so simple you literally put it on a table, plug into a 220V supply and start sowing. "It takes 30 seconds to change the seed run and two minutes to change the head of the machine to suit a different tray configuration if being used," explains Sachs.