About four years ago David was working in the backyard picking out weeds and rocks, preparing the planters for summer flowers. Hands covered in potting soil, he thought how much easier this would be with an appropriate tool. Since he wasn’t an experienced gardener, David didn’t know what was out on the market but as a regular at our neighborhood Ace hardware, he knew he hadn’t seen it.
Heading down to the basement, he threw some chicken wire over his hand cultivator and went out to give it a try. It worked! With a simple motion he was able to agitate the soil, sift it and dump out the weeds and rocks – without getting his hands dirty.
While the first prototype worked, it definitely wasn’t something that could hold up to multiple uses. So with the help of a friend and his welder, he made prototype number two. We hate to say it but it was pretty ugly…
After comprehensive research, we began the patent process and started thinking about what the tool should look like.
It takes a village… We had a great opportunity to work with a friend on creating an initial design concept. His artistic insight and experience turned our very utilitarian design into a work of art. He incorporated a leaf pattern into the soil sifting screen and a soft touch handle that could be made in a variety of bright colors. While our friend moved on to work with other projects, we continued with our market research on our prototype. It definitely needed some tweaking.
The only way to really test this type of tool was to have a prototype made. We utilized 3D printing technology to produce functional prototypes to make sure we got the size, shape and screen perforations exactly right.
It was a game of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – the first one was too big, the second one was too small and the last one – just right.
The Cultisifter will be made of steel with an ergonomically designed handle and a depth gauge that helps you plant seeds at the proper depth. The Cultisifter will be 12″ long and 4″ wide with digging tines measuring 2.25 “.
We will have two color options for the soft touch handle, fuchsia and green.
It’s the ULTIMATE tool for the Urban Gardener.
In November of 2012 our industrial designers submitted a full set of engineering drawings to a number of manufacturers both domestically and in China and we now have our production costs established.
The Chinese manufacturer we selected to make the Cultisifter has experience fabricating hand tools and is comfortable fabricating our novel and complex design. In addition, our industrial designers have successfully engaged them on past projects. They will also have the benefit of having our plastic prototype in hand for reference purposes.
Our manufacturer requires approximately 90 days lead time from placing our initial order to completion of the run of 2500 Cultisifters. The majority of that time is spent on fabricating the tooling and dies and we hope to have that timeline shortened once we they have a purchase order in hand. It will take an additional 4 weeks for ocean transit from China plus consolidation time, which can be up to 2-3 weeks. Once the Cultisifters have landed and cleared customs in Seattle, we will immediately begin fulfilling orders to all of our supporters. The additional gifts (garden kneeling pads and garden totes) will be shipped at the same time as the Cultisifters. Our anticipated shipping date is mid-August.
Thank you for viewing our project. We hope you’re as excited about it as we are. If you like it please buy one for yourself (and one for mom) and spread the word by sharing our project with your friends.
