PlantMax premiere draws attention at Elmia Wood 2025
The saying ‘everyone has heard of it, but no one has seen it’ no longer applies to the PlantMax scarifier and planting machine, as thousands of contractors and forest owners alike witnessed the European premiere at the Elmia Wood 2025 forestry demo show outside Jönköping, Sweden.
PlantMax is a dual soil prep- and planting machine developed by Swedish firm Plantma Forestry AB for mechanized plantation of forestry seedlings.
In one pass, the PlantMax will prepare the ground, compact it, and plant a seedling.
According to the company, under perfect conditions, the machine can plant up to 50 seedlings per minute while also collecting and storing all data from the operation.
European premiere at Elmia Wood
Founded in 2018, the company is part of the Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB, a well-known forestry technology development and consultancy group.
Working more or less under wraps, a prototype underwent trials during 2020 at three Swedish forest industry majors, planting over one million seedlings before been moved to North America and demonstrations in the US South East working its way up to Canada, where it has been planting for a Candian forest industry major in New Brunswick (NB).
The first serial production versions of the PlantMax were delivered during 2022, and the company has units working in Sweden, Brazil, and New Zealand.
It’s inspiring to show a fully functional, efficient solution for mechanical afforestation. I don’t think everyone realises how far we’ve come. PlantMax is spreading rapidly across the world – demand is high, said Magnus Sandström, CEO of Plantma Forestry.
The European premiere at Elmia Wood 2025 has created a real buzz, and the crowds are thick when there is a demo.
So far, our biggest markets have been Brazil and Canada. In recent years, we have grown incredibly there and built up experience that we are now taking with us into Swedish conditions, Magnus Sandström said.
Revolutionising the planting process
The PlantMax comes mounted on an EcoLog 584 forwarder.
According to Christer Larsson, the maximum planting capacity in perfect conditions is 3,000 plants per hour.
In Swedish conditions, “we are between 1,500-2,400 seedlings per hour.”
Without negating the value of the ground preparation part, it is when the planting arms start working that attracts spectator attention.
Each arm works individually, sensing the soil and not planting until it is “happy” that it has found the best planting spot.
The planting process can be integrated with fertiliser application if desired.
PlantMax is operated by two operators, one in the forwarder cab and one in the planting cab. The soil preparation section sends signals about the soil conditions to the planting arms, so it becomes very flexible. The soil preparation unit itself is mounted separately in the centre of the forwarder and can be operated independently to do some soil preparation work before rolling out of the stand, explained Christer Larsson.
Cameras monitor all stages and collect data, and via the PlantMax Live Data function, one can follow the machine’s work remotely in real time.
The machine saves all the data collected, for example, the exact position of each plant, which provides a basis for future interventions in the stand. It can hold up to 24,000 plants, which means a full day’s work without reloading.
I would liken it to when the harvester saw the light of day in the 1970s. We are facing the same revolution here, ended Christer Larsson, alluding to the Elmia Classics and Elmia Wood’s 50th anniversary.
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