In 2010, MESA host Soil Born Farms and Peruvian steward Armando Huaroto completed collaboration on a vacuum seeder for brassicas. Armando provided this description of the project: “The vacuum seeder will reduce time spent seeding trays. This will be a piece of equipment that should last the farm many seasons and be able to be used most often in spring and fall when there is a lot of seeding to do. So the economic effects in the future will be reflected in the amount of time saved seeding trays by hand, which is the biggest value of the project. We estimate a time savings of 10-15 minutes per tray for brassicas. We often seeded at least 20 trays of brassicas for each succession, which would result in a time savings of about 3.5 hours.”

…and about Armando’s personal observations and how he may introduce this project at home:
“It was a really good experience, especially working with Sean and Jared trying to figure out how to make the vacuum seeder, looking for the appropriates materials and working with new electric tools. I have learned how to work with precision using new electric tools and other materials. I have practiced the creativity trying to figure out how to make the small holes in the flashing roof and in the correct place, making the little door which makes easy to dump the extra seeds. I’m sure something similar to this vacuum seeder would be very useful for my community, even if we don’t have the same 192 trays, because now I realize that I can make vacuum seeders for different kinds of trays, following the same method, and making more than one hole if needed to seed more than one seed per cell.”

Armando’s closing SPRIG sentiment:  “Thank you for encouraging Hosts and Stewards to work together to improve the farm with the SPRIG project!”