Work began in 1980 with a relatively new farming concept called "No-till." In this technique the production field is sown with a cover crop like rye or vetch for erosion control, it is then killed with an herbicide, and vegetable transplants are planted BY HAND without any other disruption (tilling) of the soil. In this project, the feasibility of cabbage production was examined.....it worked! And later, other vegetable crops were planted using "No-till" with similar success. But hand-transplanting was simply not an attractive option if this technique were to be adopted on a commercial scale. The feasibility of using existing mechanical transplanters was examined, but they REQUIRED tilled soils to work properly....unless, and only unless the soil was reasonably moist and loose already. A turning point for the project came in 1990, when Virginia had a very dry spring and the conventional mechanical transplanters wouldn't work in the parched field soils. A new strategy/transplanter was a necessity for the large-scale success of No-till vegetable production and for the industry to adopt it and ultimately lead to soil conservation, which was the original intent of the project.

Dr. Morse enlisted the cooperation of Biological Systems Engineers to design a transplanter that would slice through the soil, even through heavy debris of plant matter on the surface, loosen the soil, and insert the transplant....all in a systematic, mechanical way. The "Subsurface Tiller Transplanter" was born and was designed to complement the entire concept of No-till farming, not just vegetables.

The initial success of this new transplanter sent shockwaves through certain sectors of the farming community and soon tests were being conducted from Georgia to New York, particularly on sloped, erodable, Appalachian sites. As the word spread, support monies also started to roll in to further the research conducted by Dr. Morse and his group; what was particularly ironic was that the same groups that expressed great skepticism initially were now supporting additional research.....this is NOT unusual!