Substrate block seedling has the advantages of root and seedling protection, short seedling delay period, and high survival rate. However, the market of substrate block seedling is relatively small, mainly limited by inadequate matrix block molding processing equipment. Therefore, a vegetable seedling substrate block molding machine was designed in this paper, which could realize the functions of automatic soil laying, block pressing, block throwing, and conveying. The structure of the whole machine, the transmission system, the bowl plate mechanism, the pressing block, and the throwing block mechanism were designed successively. Three factors affecting molding quality were tested by an orthogonal test with earthworm manure to clay soil. The test results showed that the optimal parameter combination was obtained as mixing ratio of 1∶3, the compression ratio of 0.65, and the moisture content of 10%. In this condition, the dimensional stability was 98.96%, the antibreaking pressure was 246.86 N, and the dispersion rate was 4.15%, which could meet the substrate block seedling transplanting requirements to provide theoretical reference for the research and development of substrate block forming processing line.

Mechanized transplanting is the key link to realize the large-scale and standardized production of vegetables. In order to better understand the vegetable mechanization status, the current situation of mechanized transplanting operations in typical vegetable bases in major vegetable planting areas was investigated, and the mechanized transplanting operation level of each base was calculated according to the industry standard of the agricultural mechanization level of the planting industry. The results showed a large gap between the mechanized transplanting operation level of open field vegetables in various regions, with a value of only 24.4%. This paper analyzed the problems of low return on investment in machinery and equipment in the transplanting process and unmatched operation equipment in the front and rear links. Combined with the current status of China's mechanized vegetable transplanting operations, specific suggestions were made, including increasing the research and development of fully automatic transplanting, improving socialization service intensity, perfecting facilities and personnel support, and perfecting standardized operation specifications.