The Best Bulb Planters
Most bulb planters are plastic, and most plastic bulb planters crack after two seasons in cold soil. The correct bulb planter is a cylinder of heavy-gauge steel or cast iron with a sharpened bottom edge, a depth-marked shaft, and a handle that transfers your body weight into the soil instead of vibrating up into your wrist. You plant a hundred bulbs in an afternoon with the right tool. You plant about forty before something breaks with the wrong one.
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How to Choose
Hand bulb planters are pushed and twisted while kneeling; long-handled models are used standing. The cutting edge must be sharp: a dull edge compacts the soil around the hole rather than cutting through it, which prevents root development. Stainless steel stays sharp longer than painted carbon steel. The soil plug release mechanism matters: some models retain the plug inside the cylinder and require a push to eject it; others have an open top that allows the plug to fall out naturally.
Radius Garden 8421 Root Slayer Bulb Planter
If you only buy one, make it this one. Read the full guide below for alternatives at every price point.
Find on Amazon arrow_forwardThe Picks
Radius Garden 8421 Root Slayer Bulb Planter
The Radius Garden bulb planter has a 12-inch stainless steel cylinder with a saw-tooth cutting edge and a long D-handle for standing use. The depth gauge marks are embossed on the cylinder at 2-inch intervals. The saw-tooth edge cuts through clay, gravel, and root-impeded soil that a smooth cylinder cannot. The foot step platform on the head allows body weight to do the work.
The saw-tooth cutting edge addresses the failure mode of standard bulb planters: compacted or clay soil that a smooth edge cannot penetrate.
Find on Amazon arrow_forwardDeWit Hand Bulb Planter
DeWit's forged steel hand bulb planter has a 5-inch cylinder with depth markings and a comfortable T-handle. The cutting edge is sharpened at the factory and can be resharpened with a file. The plug release is an open-top cylinder -- the plug falls out without requiring a secondary ejector action. For planting a hundred bulbs in a bed, this is the kneeling planter that lets you work quickly and consistently.
The open-top cylinder is a better design than a push-eject mechanism: one less step per hole when you are planting a hundred of them.
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