Performance Evaluation of a Walking-Type Rice Transplanter under Different Seedling Media Thicknesses in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The performance of a walking-type rice transplanter is strongly affected by seedling quality, particularly the thickness of seedling media used in dapog nursery systems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of seedling media thickness on field capacity, planting efficiency, and planting quality of a walking-type rice transplanter in accordance with SNI 7607:2020. Three levels of seedling media thickness were tested, namely 1.0 cm, 1.5 cm, and 2.0 cm. Field performance tests were conducted with three replications, while planting quality was assessed through field sampling based on standard quality parameters. The results showed that effective field capacities for seedling media thicknesses of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 cm were 0.17, 0.18, and 0.17 ha h⁻¹, respectively, while theoretical field capacities were 0.24, 0.22, and 0.21 ha h⁻¹. Planting efficiency increased with media thickness, reaching 72.42%, 81.82%, and 82.11%, whereas time-based efficiency values were 58.98%, 67.80%, and 67.28% for the respective treatments. Analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in efficiency parameters among treatments (p > 0.05). All treatments satisfied the planting quality requirements specified in SNI 7607:2020, including spacing uniformity, planting depth, number of seedlings per hill, and number of planting holes per meter. The lowest percentage of missing hills (1.16%) and lodged plants (12.54%) was observed at a seedling media thickness of 2.0 cm. A scoring analysis confirmed that 2.0 cm provided the best overall performance. These results indicate that optimizing seedling media thickness can improve the performance and planting quality of walking-type rice transplanters under field conditions.