Cultivation with cover crop or organic mulch is recognized as one of the effective conservation agricultural methods. A tillage tool called “shaft tillage tool” was designed for planting vegetables onto the bed covered with organic mulch. In this study rooting of the Chinese cabbage seedlings and energy efficiency of the two types of the tool, one is for a paper pot seedling and another is for a plug seedling, were examined. These tools were driven by a hand drill driver, and bored vertical short-cylinder shaped to place seedlings and a deep narrow shaft shaped hole for rooting. The Chinese cabbage seedlings were grown in a paper pot and as plug seedlings before the transplant and were placed without covered with soil or tramped. Chemical fertilizer was broadcasted on the surface (solid fertilizer) and placed on a tip of the shaft (solid and paste). Non-fertilized seedlings were also examined as acomparison. Rooting of the Chinese cabbage were successfully confirmed without any damaging by fertilizer. On the comparison with application methods of the fertilizer, the effect was appeared rapidly under the broadcasted and paste fertilizer.
The power requirements of tillage were 230-300J/seedling at paper pot and 300 tillage operations were done in one charge of a 2Ah-capacity battery.