ALPHA

ADJUSTABLE LEVELING POT WITH HOLDER ARM

 ABSTRACT

Agriculture has been a potential economic sector in Indonesia, yet the

farmers face many obstacles. The obstacles vary from climate changing, pest or
bugs invasion, infection or disease, even the technology of pesticide and farming
tools. This technology may lead to a bigger problem, one of them is plastic bags
littering. The common plastic bags that are being used by the farmers are polybags
for seedling bed process. This bag has several instant advantages beside its long-
term impact. We already know where the plastic will end up, the sea. Researcher
also invented the biodegradable plastic which a high percentage of it ends up in
landfills, where nothing biodegrades. There is a compostable plastic made basically
from potato starch, but this technology is not cheap and has not capable to the
farming sector’s needs. Every farmer will eventually choose anything that could
raise the profit and lower the price, making the polybags as the star in seedling bed.

The usage of this polybags needs to be stopped and replaced by a better

technology. There are tray pots which are not a one-time use but they are made for
certain types of plant that have strong root. In another case, some students from
Indonesia invented the bio-pot which is made from hay waste or coconut fibers, and
the problem is they couldn’t find the manufacturer for the mass production. Even
though this pot is eco-friendly, this pot is a one-time use.

Alpha, which stands for Adjustable Leveling Pot with Holder Arm, is a
container to help farmers in seedling bed process. This tool basically a reusable pot
equipped with a well-designed arm which has cone shaped end to dig a hole into
the ground. This device is expected to replace the polybags, even the tray pots, and
help the farmers in doing their works faster with higher benefit.

Keywords: seedling bed, polybags, bio-pot, reusable pots.

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 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is one of the agrarian countries in South East Asia. Indonesia

becomes an agrarian country since 80% of the livelihood of its people is farming.
Farming has been one of the working sectors with a high potential both in
environmental aspect and economic aspect. In farming, there are many kinds of
plants to grow depend on the variety, culture, process, and other measurement. One
of them which is the most popular is the horticulture plant. This plant may be grow
in specific plantation or in a home yard. Horticulture plant is divided into five types,
they are the fruticulture, horticulture, olericulture, biopharma, and landscape. In its
cultivation process, horticulture plant has several steps to follow. The steps are
seedling bed, land preparing, planting-caring, and ends with harvesting.

Seedling bed is a step to prepare the seeds individually before they are
transferred to the plantation. This step’s objective is to obtain good and stable
seedlings. The seedling is expected to adapt well with its environment. This step is
crucial because the seeds are susceptible to the climate changing, pest or bugs
invasion, and infection or disease. Farmers are commonly using polybags in
seedling bed. The farmers minimize the possibility of failure by doing the seedling
bed in the polybags since the seeds are planted separately from each other. Little do
they know the effect from using this plastic bag.

Land preparing is a step to plough or prepare the soil to be soft and ready to
be planted. Through this process, the surface of the ground is dredged in order to
open the channel for the air and sunlight. This channel allows the air and sunlight
to reach deeper ground and increase its fertility.

Planting is a step to transfer the seedlings from the seedling bed to the
ground. This step’s objective is to give the seedling the chance to grow bigger in a
wider space. After planting, caring is also important because if any invasion is
happened then the whole plantation will be affected. Until the harvesting time is
come, the caring should continue to be done.

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 BACKGROUND

CURRENT SEEDLING BED PRACTICE AND PLASTIC PROBLEM

Farmers have been using polybags for their seedling bed process. They
choose the polybags because of the short-term advantages. Unfortunately, most of
them do not know what they have done. They do not concern about the sea-littering
because of the plastic garbage. Actually, the polybags may be used for 2-3 years or
1-3 times usage but most of the time they are being thrown after a one time use with
a small seedling.

Figure 1. The usage of small polybags in chili seedling. (source:http://kadutzatph.blogspot.co.id/)

Figure 2. The usage of large polybags for several plants

(source: self documentation at Balai Penelitian Sayuran Bandung)

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 Tray pots have been the alternative for seedling bed process beside the
polybags. These tray pots are also affordable with more times of use. They are
designed to contain the plants which have strong root since the method of taking
out the seedling is by levering the soil and this method has a risk to damage the
root.

Figure 3. The usage of tray pots in chili seedling

(source: http://indobgd.blogspot.co.id/2015/02/tutorial-menanam-cabai-dalam-pot-atau.html)

The seedling bed process is crucial because the 0-4 weeks seedlings cannot
adapt well to the condition of the ground of plantation. They are susceptible to the
climate changing, pest or bugs invasion, and infection or disease. To minimize such
things, the container in seedling bed have to several functions. The functions are:

a. Helping the farmers to control or watch the seedlings one by one if there
are any threats.
b. Avoiding the seedling to get in an overflow or infected by pest.
c. Helping the farmers to give the right amount of dung
d. Compositing the plantation easily
e. Making the nutrition way to reach the root fast to be absorbed
f. Allowing the cultivation in any weather and making the productivity
increase

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 The problem that we must concern about is also the litter that is being
produced by the farmers. Even if they have used the tray pots, the plastic will not
be recycled for centuries. Mieszkowski (2007) states that,

“Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide -- about 2 percent in

the U.S. -- and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend
eternity in landfills, but that's not always the case. ‘They're so aerodynamic that
even when they're properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and
become litter,’ says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against
Waste. It's as litter that plastic bags have the most baleful effect.”

We cannot exclude the fact that the agriculture use less plastic than our daily life
style since they are connected. Furthermore, the problem with plastic bags is not
just where they end up because they never seem to end. Stephanie Barger, executive
director of the Earth Resource Foundation, says that all the plastic that has been
made is still around in smaller and smaller pieces, and plastic does not biodegrade.
Biodegradable plastic is designed to be recycled easily by the earth, unfortunately
it is never really degrading. Redstone (2012) reveals some surprising facts about
biodegradable plastic, which are:

a. A high percentage of biodegradable plastic ends up in landfills, where

nothing biodegrades.
b. Biodegradable plastic bags typically can’t be recycled with other plastic
items.
c. Biodegradable bags can harm the environment.

The students from Indonesia made several options to replace the polybags
and tray pots to use in farming. The options are the bio-pot which is made from hay
waste or coconut fibers. The other problem is they couldn’t find the manufacturer
for the mass production. Even though this pot is eco-friendly, this pot is a one-time
use and may lead to a complicated preparation in the beginning of the planting
season and lower the productivity.

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 PROBLEM FORMULATION

Indonesia’s farmers have a limited knowledge about the correlation between

their habits in using the polybags and tray pots may lead to the biggest world’s
problem today. To sum up here is the problem formulation:

•cheap
•easy to get
•one time use
•unrecycleable
•common use for most of types of Polybags
plants
•have several sizes
•broken after use

•pricey yet affordable

•easy to get
•several times of usage
•unrecyclable
•have several sizes
Tray Pots
•have a risk of damaging the roots
•made for several types of plants

Figure 4. Problem formulation; Causes and the characteristics.

PROBLEM SOLUTION

The solution is basically simple, the farmers need to stop the usage of plastic
materials in their farming activity. We need to minimize the plastic-litter producing
as the plantation also working especially in seedling bed process. The seedling bed
process need a replacement tool for polybags and tray pots. We can conclude that
the demands from the replacement are:

a. Affordable
b. Continuous and unlimited usage
c. Easy to use
d. Recyclable
e. Minimizing the damage to seedling
f. Flexibility of sizes
g. Increase the farmer’s productivity

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 CONTENTS

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

ALPHA, which stands for Adjustable Leveling Pot with Holder Arm, is a
container to help farmers in seedling bed process. This pot is expected to meet the
requirements to replace polybags and tray pots completely. ALPHA pot consists of
two main parts, the tray and the adjustable layer of pots. ALPHA has two types of
size, there are the small and the large pot. Those sizes also have more sizes since
they are adjustable. The small tray has 63 pots and the large tray has 12 pots.

Figure 5. The comparison between small tray and large tray of ALPHA.

The adjustable pot has a unique design

that allow the user to custom the height and
diameter of the pot. This function helps to
optimize the space and soil in seedling bed. The
pot consists of basic pot, basic layer, and three
adjustable layers. The layers will shape the
height and diameter of the pot. Each layer has
different size of diameter and stacking the layers
will shape the finish height of the diameter.

Figure 6. Assembly of Adjustable Leveling Pot

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 Third Layer

Second Layer

First Layer

Basic Layer

Basic Pot

Figure 7. Detailed parts of Adjustable Leveling Pot

Figure 8. DIfferences in adjusting the level of the layers

Figure 9. Comparison between small pot and large pot.

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 The tray is designed to each size. It has exact hole diameter to the basic pot.
The basic pot is welded to each hole meanwhile the basic layer fits into the hole
without being welded. The distances between holes are measured to have a free
space so the layer can be adjusted easily. This condition allows different sizes of
pots in one tray.

Figure 10. Different layers of pots in one tray

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY WITH NEW EQUIPMENT

The large pot has a complementary tool

which is an extension to push down the layers and
grab the soil and the seedling in one push. The
small pot has a small size and allows the user to
slide down the layers easily and take the seedling
with bare hands. On the other hand, the large size
pot contains a large amount of soil with the
seedling and has the risk of the spilling soil. The
holder arm helps the user to hold the soil just like
the position in the pot before transferring the
seedling to the plantation ground.

The holder arm consists of four main parts:

the handle, widen arm, sliding lock, and the cone
door. Each part has special feature, here is the
Figure 11. Holder Arm
specific function from the tool:

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No Name Illustration Function

User holds this part as the

basic control and as a
guidance in digging the
1 Handle
hole. Part no. 2 is attached
to this part using cross pan
head bolt.

This part works as a

grabber for soil and
seedling. The design
2 Widen Arm
prevents the soil scattered.
This part is controlled by
part no. 3.

User holds this part using

another hand to move it
3 Sliding Lock upwards or downwards.
This part locks the width
length of the widen arm.

This part works as a door

for the seedling. The sharp
cone edge is meant to push
the ground easily. Cone
4 Cone Door
door has a hinge to the
sliding lock and it will be
opened when the slide lock
is upwards.
Table 1. Holder Arm detailed function

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After knowing the detailed function, here is the steps to use the holder arm:

Figure 12. Step by step to transfer the seedling using the holder arm.

Transfer the seedling using the holder arm

1. Grab the sliding lock (pink) upwards in order to open the cone door (grey)
and allow the widen arm (yellow) to spread.
2. After the widen arm is ready, push down the layers from the top by giving
some force by the handle (brown) and the layers will slide down afterwards.
3. Since the layers are already down and the seedling is open, the widen arm
will hold them. To take the seedling inside the arm and lock them inside,
grab the sliding lock downwards. After that, the cone door will also close
the arm.

11 | ALPHA CONCEPT
 Figure 13. Step by step to transfer the seedling from the holder arm to the plantation ground.

Transfer the seedling from the holder arm to the plantation ground
1. Hold the arm in the straight position of the ground.
2. Push the arm with a rotary movement to dig a hole. Don’t forget to hold the
slide lock to prevent it slides.
3. Since the hole is ready, slide upwards the slide lock in order to spread the
widen arm and allow the seedling to drop into the hole.
4. Flatten the seedling and the ground without the arm.

12 | ALPHA CONCEPT
PRODUCT SPECIFICATION

Name : ALPHA, Adjustable Leveling Pot with Holder Arm

Materials : Mostly Aluminum (Al)

Composition : Tray, Two Sized Pot, and Holder Arm (optional use)

Size Table :

Tray
Small Pot (mm) Large Pot (mm) Holder Arm
(without handle)
20 x 420 x 660 mm Basic: Ø25 x 30 Basic: Ø60 x 60 Diameter 135mm
63 pot holes (S) Level 1: Ø 28 x 45 Level 1: Ø 70 x 88 & Total Height
20 x 420 x 660 mm Level 2: Ø 34 x 60 Level 2: Ø 85 x 120 (Closed Position)
12 pot holes (L) Level 3: Ø 40 x 75 Level 3: Ø100x160 ±780mm
Table 2. Size of the products.

Estimated price :

Adjustable Leveling Pot Set (+Tray)

Polypropylene
Small Pot Small Tray Large Pot Large Tray
Plastic
Volume 0.05 liter 1 liter 0.2 liter 1 liter
Tools &
Rp 50.000.000 Rp50.000.000 Rp 50.000.000 Rp 50.000.000
Manufacturing
Raw Material
Rp 236.250.000 Rp75.000.000 Rp 225.000.000 Rp 75.000.000
Price
Total Cost Rp 286.250.000 Rp125.000.000 Rp 275.000.000 Rp 125.000.000
Production Pcs 5.000 5.000 5.000 5.000
Price/Product Rp 57.250 Rp25.000 Rp 55.000 Rp 25.000
Price/Set Rp 82.250 Rp. 80.000
Table 3. Price for Small Pot using PP plastic.

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 ST37 Steel Small Pot Small Tray Large Pot Large Tray
Mass 2,457 kg 1kg 1,17 kg 1kg
Tools & Rp40.000.000 Rp40.000.000 Rp40.000.000 Rp40.000.000
Manufacturing
Raw Material Rp368.550.000 Rp150.000.000 Rp175.500.000 Rp150.000.000
Price
Total Cost Rp408.550.000 Rp190.000.000 Rp215.500.000 Rp190.000.000
Production Pcs 5000 5000 5000 5000
Price/Product Rp81.710 Rp38.000 Rp43.100 Rp38.000
Price/Set Rp 119.710 Rp 81.100
Table 4. Price for Pot and Tray using ST37 Steel.

Holder Arm
Widen Arm and Cone Door
Tools & Manufacturing Rp 30.000.000
Raw Material Price Rp 530.550.000
Total Cost Rp560.550.000
Production Pcs 5000
Price/Product Rp112.110
Table 5. Price for steel parts from Holder Arm

Holder Arm
Parts Quantity Material Price Product Price
Handle 2m Rp 60.000 / 4 m Rp 30.000
Pipe for Sliding Lock 1/5m Rp 215.000 / 4 m Rp 10.750
Engsel 2 Pcs Rp 15.000 Rp 30.000
baut 5pcs pcs Rp 5.280 Rp 26.400
Pelubang dan Pencekam 1 Pack Rp 112.110 Rp 112.110
U Steel 1 pcs Rp 10.000 Rp 10.000
Total Price Rp 219.260
Table 6. Price for Holder Arm

Durability : Strength

Wear ability : Unlimited until the tools are broken

14 | ALPHA CONCEPT
 CONCLUSION

ALPHA, which stands for Adjustable Leveling Pot with Holder Arm, is a
container to help farmers in seedling bed process and improving steps to transfer
the seedling into the ground. This well-designed pot is expected to meet the
requirements to replace polybags and tray pots completely and as a respond to the
world’s plastic problem, also the holder arm to improving the farmer’s productivity
in planting the seedling. There are several options materials for the tools and have
their own pros and cons. For steel materials there will be some adjustment to adjust
the weight. The estimated price for the adjustable leveling small pot set with tray
ranges about Rp 83.000-120.000. The estimated price for the adjustable leveling
large pot set with tray ranges about Rp 80.000-82.0000. The estimated price for the
holder arm is about Rp 220.000. ALPHA offers two sizes of pot which is adjustable
to several diameters of pots that makes this tool is worth to consider. Not only the
pot, but the holder arm also beneficial because it helps the farmer to do their job
quickly and efficient.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arinda Dwi Yonida. (2015, Mei 6). Jenis-Jenis Tanah untuk Pertanian.
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pertanian/

David Redstone. ( not available). 5 Surprising Secrets of Biodegradable

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plastic-bags

Duladi. (2010, December 14).Mengapa Perlu Pembibitan?. Retrieved

December 23, 2017, from http://duladi-duladi.blogspot.co.id/2010/12/mengapa-
perlu-pembibitan.html

Jurnal Asia. (2016, March 16). Keuntungan dan Kekurangan Polybag

Sebagai Wadah Tanam. Retrieved December 23,2017 ,
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sebagai-wadah-tanam/

Katharine Mieszkowski. (2007, October 8). Plastic bags are killing us.
Retrieved December 29, 2017,
from https://www.salon.com/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/

Lim Coorporation. (2013, June 19). Pengertian dan Fungsi Polybag.

Retrieved December 23,2017 ,
from http://www.polybag99.com/2013/06/pengertian-dan-fungsi-polybag.html