A BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award winner, this well-designed tool is easy to use and helps you plant without ever having to bend or kneel down. It's just the thing for anyone with back trouble or for naturalising and repetitive planting and comes with a generous 25 year warranty.
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Best Buy review video - the Fiskars Xact standing planter
In this in-depth video review Kay Maguire explains why the Fiskars Xact standing planter was awarded BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Best Buy status.
What’s the Fiskars Xact Standing Planter like?
Constructed from aluminium and fibre composite the planter consists of a long, 105cm hollow, pointed tube with a large handle at the top and a pedal at the base. This opens the bottom of the tube when it hits the ground and a button on the pedal then allows you to close the tube again with your foot.
What’s the Fiskars Xact Standing Planter like to use?
This planting tool has been designed to remove bending or kneeling from the planting job entirely and it helps you completes the job in three easy steps. Firstly, the tube is inserted into the ground in an upright position and the pointed end and wide sturdy handle make this easy. To create the planting hole the tube is then brought back towards the user at an angle and when the pedal touches the ground the tube springs open, making a hole. A bulb or small plant can then be dropped through the tube into the hole and the planter is lifted up and away. Finally, soil can simply be trodden back over the bulb or firmed around a plant with the foot. The planter's reasonably light, but it's a large tool and can feel slightly unwieldy. The only drawback with the planter is that it doesn’t have depth markings or any way of gauging planting depth other than by eye. It’s therefore better suited to bigger bulbs as the planting tube at the base is roughly the right depth for planting tulips or daffodils rather than crocus, for example.
Who’s the Fiskars Xact Standing Planter most useful for?
This planter is ideal for anyone who suffers from back trouble or has flexibility or mobility issues as you can literally plant without ever having to bend down or kneel. It’s great for naturalising and the repetitive planting of bulbs but can also be used for planting small hedging saplings, even plug plants.
Is the Fiskars Xact Standing Planter good value for money?
This is an expensive piece of kit, and particularly so as it's such a specialist tool. However, unlike the other bulb planters in our test it offers some versatility and has a specific aim - to enable gardeners who struggle with key jobs to complete them with ease. We therefore think it's good value for money.
This review was last updated in September 2021. Unfortunately, prices change and things go out of stock so we apologise if anything has changed.
