Is A Grafting Robot A Good Investment?

By Author: Rosario Berry
Total Articles: 304
Comment this article

Grafting fruits and vegetables is becoming a popular practice on a global scale. Grafted vegetables are created by attaching the top part of one plant to the root system of another. When the tissues heal, they fuse into a single plant with the best qualities of each individual plant. Manual grafting is extremely labor-intensive so it is no surprise grafting robots were developed. The big question is whether a grafting robot is a good investment. To investigate this issue, it is important to understand the benefits of grafting, the drawbacks of manual grafting, and the benefits of automating the process.

By selecting an appropriate rootstock, fruit and vegetable grafting consistently reports three benefits. The first benefit is disease resistance. This is the most important concern for residential and commercial growers and the driving force behind the popularity of grafting. When growers raise certain vegetables in the same fields or ground in a greenhouse every year diseases can become established in the soil. This decreases yield in each subsequent harvest. Grafting has proven to effectively combat a variety of diseases ...
... and fungal infections.

Another benefit of vegetable grafting is improved tolerance of environmental stresses. The most common environmental stresses are salinity and temperature extremes. Since grafting allows for fruits and vegetables to withstand hotter and cooler temperatures the growing season is extended and the plants can be grown in areas which weather previously did not allow. The final benefit is increased vigor and yield of each plant. Grafted plans consistently lead to bigger harvests and better quality of fruits and vegetables over a longer period with less inputs.

The reason grafting was not widely adopted long ago was due to the drawbacks of manual grafting. The first drawback is the top part of one plant may not perfectly match the root system of another due to poor cuts. Another drawback is physically touching cut baby plants transfers heat from the person to the plant. This can be harmful to baby plants in particular because of cell sensitivity. The third drawback is manual grafting increases the risk of virus or bacterial infections in the plant. Finally, manual grafting is extremely time and labor-intensive which makes it difficult to do on a commercial scale.

To overcome the drawbacks of manual grafting the grafting robot was developed. Grafting robots fully automate the process of grafting fruits and vegetables. Some robots are semi-automated while new versions of fully automated grafting robots have been made available as well. Most semi-automated solutions can graft at a speed of 600 to 800 graphs per hour but require a minimum of two workers. This makes the fully automated grafting robot more popular for large-scale grafting projects. Grafting robots have proven to be a good investment at almost any scale as they promote healthier fruit and vegetable plants as well as save a significant amount of time and energy.

About the Author:

Rosario Berry is a professional freelance writer, like to introduce Helper Robotech Co. . Grafting Robots have proven to be a good investment at almost any scale as they promote healthier fruit and vegetable plants as well as save a significant amount of time and energy.

Rosario Berry is an eminent author writing and publishing articles on various topics.