Cultipacker
Encyclopedia
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
, forming a smooth, firm seedbed
Seedbed
A seedbed or seedling bed is the local soil environment in which seeds are planted. Often it comprises not only the soil but also a specially prepared cold frame, hotbed or raised bed used to grow the seedlings in a controlled environment into larger young plants before transplanting them into a...
. Where seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
has been broadcast, the roller gently firms the soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
around the seeds, ensuring shallow seed placement and excellent seed-to-soil contact.
The cultipacker differs from the field roller
Roller (agricultural tool)
The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses or oxen....
in that it is made up of many sections that form peaks and valleys in the soil where
packer has been used.
The term cultipacker is almost exclusively applied to ridged packers, while the term roller may refer to either a smooth or a ridged packer.
A common practice amongst food plotters is to make their own cultipacker using a variety of plans specifically meant for building cultipackers.