ProPlugger 5-in-1 Planting Tool - Sod Plugger, Bulb and Flower Planter

Fixing spots in your yard? This is your tool. Planting bulbs, gotta have this. So easy to use, love that the plugs stay in the handle so you can knock out several before dumping them out

I was hesitant to write this review since I have not had a chance to actually use the ProPlugger. However, upon unpacking it, I noticed how well constructed it is. The actual tube that collects the plugs is once solid piece of steel (no screw needed to attach any parts). It’s appears to be extremely well made and should last a lifetime. The coating on the steel is also very nice. About the only thing I can imagine that might damage it is rust, but only if the coating were to wear off with heavy use and it was left in a damp/wet condition. I think that could easily be prevented by rinsing it off when dirty and wiping with a dry cloth…then just running a rod with a cloth attached to it down the tube a few times. Can’t wait to use it, just need some heavy rain so that my red clay soil softens up. As some may know, that red clay is almost like concrete when dry, LOL! Will give an update after using it. UPDATE (May 3,2025): Finally got to use my Pro Plugger…I LOVE this thing. Had a good rain last night which softened up the red clay soil in my yard. It worked just as advertised. My only suggestion is if your soil is a “hard” type like red clay, you may have to simply press down on the handles and twist the Pro Plugger a few times to start the cutting/pentration, then stand on it and push with your body weight downwards. Even though it rained the night before, my soil was not ideally as soft as I needed it to be. But it still worked great. As I’m writing this review, it’s pouring outside, so soil should be perfect for removing plugs tomorrow. Will continue and finish up what I’ve been wanting to do for yrs. Do yourself a favor and buy the original Pro Plugger. I would strongly suggest NOT to purchase a knock off product that you have to assemble with a screw. I guarantee you it will not last and end up falling apart. This thing is heavy duty (read my previous review) as it should be. And best of all it’s made in the USA, Thank you Pro Plugger. You saved me a lot of money, did not have to spend a lot of money purchasing Empire Zoysia. I can simply use what I already have in my yard:)

I liked the planter being very sturdy easy to use. I have a flower gardener under some trees and this planter cuts through the web of roots in the bed. It will NOT cut through any root over 3/8". I weigh 250# and the weight helps me drive the planter as deep as I need The rings that adjust for 2" and 4" depth are sturdy and do a good job . If you use the ring for 15 or more holes, you will need to tap the rings to get them off the tube. The reason the ground comes out of the main tube is that the end that goes into the ground is a little bit smaller in diameter than the main tube body. I would highly recommend this planter to every one who plants bulbs. One last comment is that the planter is well balanced and relatively light.

I'll start by saying that it is a good tool. It works and it does its job well when it does its job well. However, if you hit a dry spot, I cannot stress how important it is to stop and clear the tool. Do not try and force dry plugs up into it. Water the area and proceed or move to a less dry area. If you jam this tool, you will not get anything back out of it without the use of heavy machinery and hydraulics. Follow the instructions. Don't do what I did and ignore that small part. The dryness matters. I heard a little grinding on the last two plugs in the tube and decided to put a third in there. I should have stopped but it was late, and I wanted it done. Major mistake. As I said, you will not clear compressed soil out of this with the use of heavy machinery or hydraulics. The build quality is okay. The metal is thin and will deform if you tap out the plugs on even the most loose of gravel. I recommend tapping, if needed, on something plastic or even a bucket. I find that flipping the tool quickly and using my thumb to help eject that last plug in the tube really helps shoot the plugs out the inverted top. There is a subtle suction at play, and like water, the plugs are pulled along by the ones before them. Keep the movement smooth and consistent, and all the plugs will clear out of the tube without any fuss. Me and my boy managed to get about two-hundred and fifty plugs in the ground in little over an hour. Once you get the hang of the organization aspect of using this tool, the work just flies along. Our setup was me sourcing the plugs from our nursery lawn and my boy organizing them into our tractor bucket. That way, I drive to the location to be plugged and after making a few holes and placing the soil plugs to discard into a five-gallon bucket, he was able to just walk back and forth plugging the holes I had created. I honestly can't wait to use it tomorrow after the rain. It's a game changer.

Fast delivery and arrived in a well packaged undamaged box. The ProPlugger works great and I would recommend it to others. Family members that were watching me use the tool were amazed at how well it worked. It is a durable tool that I would expect to last for years and years. There is nothing really to break on it. If something did fail it would be from rust secondary to leaving wet soil on the tool after use or by leaving it outside laying on the ground. It appears to be covered with a durable powder coating. The coating covers all of the exterior surfaces and just a portion of the inside of the tube on the top and bottom. My soil has lots of clay in it. I worried about the plugs sticking inside the tube, but it does not. The lower portion of the tube, below the foot pegs, has a tapper that makes it smaller diameter hole. Since the upper portion is a larger diameter, the plugs slide easily out of the top. My soil is pretty moist right now and slightly muddy on top. It has been raining on and off for a couple weeks. I've only used the 6" depth setting. I prefer to get a deeper set of roots. I’ve done about 50 plugs so far. I weight 165 lbs. and a bounce on the foot pegs would bury the tool up to the foot pegs in my moist soil. Once the desired depth is obtained, a quarter turn of the tool allows the plug to easily come out of the ground. I'm using it to transplant Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass roots could be seen at the bottom of the 6" plug. I found the tool to be a good length for ease of use. I wouldn’t want to run the tool all day long, but it isn’t too labor intensive to transplant 20 or so plugs at a time. I give this a 5 star because it works great and as advertised. I would probably prefer a slightly larger diameter hole, but it works fine the way it is. I wouldn't say a full tube of 6 plugs is heavy, but increasing the hole diameter would increase the weight of the tool and the weight of the plugs. As mentioned, my soil is very sticky. The bottom side of the foot pegs got caked up with soil. If the bottom of the foot pegs were closed up with metal instead of being open, it would help prevent this packing of soil in the underside of the foot peg. Ideally the tool wouldn’t be buried to where the pegs are touching the soil. Slightly above the soil would be better. This would prevent the soil from packing into the pegs. It would also prevent the pegs from tearing up the soil in bare dirt when the tool is rotated. The caked up soil was hard to clean out of the pegs. I used a stick and a water hose. You can see from the last picture that there is still some soil in the tight spots between the pegs and the tube. In the bare dirt where I was transplanting to, a couple plugs out of 6 tended to break in half when removing them from the tube. Ideally the plugs wouldn’t break in half, but I can't blame the tool for that. It was easy enough to push the broken parts of the plug into the hole.

This makes planting bulbs SO easy!! The brass ring depth guages are surprisingly useful. No more hand strain. (If you have arthritis or thumb problems..you know). No more constant / sustained bending over. When you want to fill the holes, just turn the tool upside down. This is my current favorite tool. Excellent purchase!!!

This pro plugger is a gem! I am here to tell you it does work on St. Augustine Grass and I am living proof that it does. Two years ago I transferred approximately 80 plugs from one part of my yard to another. It took some time, but it did work! I have Raleigh and Palmetto St. Augustine Grass sections in my yard. The only mistake I made was I used the 2 inch depth for plug transfer at that time, so it took longer to establish. BUT, it did work! I now have a full section of Raleigh St. Augustine grass in that new section. In addition, this week I transferred 400 Raleigh St. Augustine Plugs to a new section again. This time I used the 4 inch depth and much better for root transfer. You have to wet the areas first, both to and from transplant to the plugs can be slightly sticky and stay a plug. As a caveat, my soil is mostly clay with a little bit of sand and silt. If a person has mostly sand, then I could see where that could be a little more painful. I live in southeast North Carolina close to the southeast coast, YES, we have St. Augustine up here...cold tolerant varieties. I just want to let people know that you can use this amazing plugger to transfer St. Augustine plugs in your own yard. The establishment process is a little longer than buying pre-established plugs that have a good root base already and screaming to get out and grow. So compared to pre-established plugs, give these St. Augustine Pro Plugger transfers another 2 to 3 weeks longer. Who cares! It's already in your yard, just put the labor in and get it done. Sprinkle some balanced fertilizer in those holes, shove those plugs in, and water, water, water, daily. If you buy plugs or sod from the big box stores or big farms, you still have to put the labor in anyway and you still have to water, water, water, anyway! The only reason their website may not recommend for St. Augustine plug transfers is because it takes a few weeks longer for them to establish. I notice they say they don't "recommend", they never said "do NOT use for." I am here to tell you it works and the possible reason they say don't recommend is for the extra time it takes. I'll add more to this post later as I'll have some updated photos to verify. E.G., 30, 60, 90 day etc., plug growth. If you're on the fence about using it, don't ever let some one tell you what you can't do!!! Ok Folks, here are the photos to show what is possible. This is my own experience. I cannot speak for others. The photos of the dying rye grass patch are a checkered pattern of St. Augustine plugs I transferred this week in a new area. They are hard to see, but if you look close enough you can see the plugs in a checkered pattern spaced about 6 inches apart from each other. And the other photos are of what the area I plugged two years ago look like now. I just added 5 new photos of a 31 day update on Raleigh St. Augustine plugs I transferred using the Pro Plugger. Looks to me like ALL of them took; roots and all! You can clearly see the runners (stolons) are starting to take off. You can clearly see the 6 inch pattern between each originally plugged. These pro plugger St Aug plugs appear to me they are extremely ready to spread and take off with aggression. And I took all of these from another area in my own yard. I have read that the pro plugger doesn't work on St Aug grass. Hmm? Unless I need to be medicated, what I'm seeing is this whole area will be completely filled in before summer's end. Don't always believe what people are negating and don't ever let some one tell you what is not possible and don't ever let some one tell you what you can't do! Try it for yourself and see what is possible.

There were many choices when I went to purchase a plugger. I am so glad that I purchased this model. This has worked out so so well. I have a beautiful yard but every once in a while I get a patch of bad grass growing, so I kill it. I have used this to take plugs from elsewhere in the yard and fill in the areas that I have killed. It works so well. First I go to a spot in the grass that is really good. I make five or six or seven plugs, one right after the other. They fill up inside the tube. Then I go to where I want to place those and I turn it upside down. The plugs come out beautiful and separate. Then I take plugs of the dead area. I generally do this one at a time and take that plug of dirt to the hole from the good plug and fill in the hole. The holes grow right back and the plugs that I plant in the dead area, grow in quickly and beautifully. I cannot say how pleased I am. It works so well. It works 100 times better and 100 times easier than I thought it would. Tonight I went out and quickly put in 20 plugs. This really means I made 40 plugs because I made 20 plugs of good grass and then made 20 plugs in the dirt, swapping each pair of plugs. I usually take so many pictures. I’ll try to remember to add pictures to this review.