Is there a equipment rental place near you? they might be your best bet. Remember, when you need to use it, others will be also.

Might be better for you to look for farms that are going out of business and buying their used equipment.

you could try posting this on the market farming list serve where they seem to have more people from your area.

Here is a link that might be useful: marking farming list serve i think

@myfamilysfarm - thank you for the suggestion. I was hoping to borrow from a peer rather than go to a rental place. The thought being I could borrow a piece of equipment up to 100 miles away and hopefully avoid timing issues.

@Randy41 - thanks for the advice and the link, very much appreciated.

if you are just getting started i would recommend a good ground crew over a mechanical transplanter. getting a transplanter dialed in and working smooth can be a learning experience in and of its self. they are also rather temperamental and delicate. i personally would not loan one out to anyone accept a good fiend i trusted and knew they had the experience and knowledge to run it with out breaking it and the integrity to pony up for rushed repairs if they did mess it up. tha last thing i need is to have a key piece of equipment down when i need it most. i would run with a ground crew till i could find one i could buy and get dialed if for what i needed.

A good crew can work just as well as a transplanter, if you can find one. Otherwise, just do what you can with what you have.

O would think a mechanical transplanter on a produce farm would be used almost daily from April through mid July. I know we are planting almost daily during those months on my farm. As other have said get a crew to hand plant and I believe with most transplanters you need a crew of 2 to 3 people any way.

But considering how much a diversified produce farm that does succession planting plants is planting seedlings, buying, not renting or borrowing a transplanter would make economic sense

this is a good concept. they have small business incubators where people can start their business up with less capital investment. there should be small farm incubators where people who want to farm can borrow necessary equipment for cheap.

There has been times when I wished we had been closer to large vegetable farmers. Not only to borrow equipment, but to be mentored by them. Unfortunately I found out that we were the only one in 2 counties, except a sweet corn grower.

Over the years, we found that some of the smaller 'farm' equipment would work for us. Transplanters not included. Our local rental place bought 1 tiller and now several of them have them. We need to ask for them and prove that the rental people could make enough money off of the items.

Thanks for all the very helpful responses.

Regarding find a good crew, any suggestions on sites or ways to start sourcing a good crew? I'm interested in the idea of using a custom operator as well. Appreciate any thoughts.

Andy

My son worked as a landscape, not just a mowing crew, but a true landscaper. If you can work with a company that does alot of planting, then that would be my first recommendation. Production planting, like 500 plants per hour each man.

Remember most landscape companies have specialists like what I'm describing, that have to 'mow' when there isn't planting to do. If you can finding that type of person, expect to pay them well. You won't need them long, but I know my son could plant like that.

He needed someone to hand him plants and know how far apart. Be well organized before that person comes in. It was strange watching him, he could 'hop' between the spaces to plant in. Now he's got too old for that. I had trouble keeping him supplied. I had another person just running trays to me, sometimes 2.