Lettuce seeding

Does Farmbot reliably sow small seeds?

I’m particularly interested in lettuce.

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@roryaronson have you had sucess with small lettuce seeds?

Farmbot can sew seeds of any size, however some intervention by the user is required depending upon the size of the seed.

The Farmbot uses a Luer Lock needle and a vacuum pump system to provide suction so that a vacuum will grab and hold the seed in place on the tip of the needle for planting. The Luer Lock needle component can be set up for different sizes depending on the seeds you are planting.

To plant larger seeds you simply change the Luer Lock needle to a larger size and for smaller seeds use the smaller size needle. If you have very tiny seeds you can custom order a very small Luer Lock needle to do the planting.

This video explains a lot!

You can check amazon for Luer Lock needles. They have the same connection hardware. Just do a search online or go to your local Pharmacy and buy Luer Lock needle directly.

@sam_uk yes, I’ve had success sowing small lettuce seeds with the smaller needle provided in the kits. I recommend using the seed tray (as opposed to the seed bin) when working with smaller seeds so that you can better control the quantity that the FarmBot grabs each time.

And as @Marc mentioned, luer lock needles are widely available in all sorts of sizes, so depending on the exact seed (shape and size) you’re using, you may want to try a few different needles to hone in on the best one for your application.

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Great to hear, thanks…

Does any functionality exist to use to the camera to check germination?

If after X days no green is visible in spot Y then re-plant the seed?

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Not at the moment, but that is an idea we have for future development!

Think that would be a great use-case for the farmware-part, wouldn’t be.