The invention discloses a planting arm of a rice pot seedling planting machine. A planting arm shell and a planting arm cover are fixed together to form an installing chamber; a pushing rod, a shifting fork and a radial cam are arranged in the installing chamber, the stretching end of the pushing rod is fixedly provided with a hole digger, and the radial cam is installed in the planting arm shell through a rotation shaft; a left axial cam and a right axial cam are fixed to the rotation shaft and arranged on the two sides of the radial cam; the planting arm cover is rotatably provided with a left swing arm and a right swing arm, the corresponding swing arms are matched with the cam surfaces of the corresponding axial cams in the installing chamber, and the corresponding swing arms are fixedly connected with corresponding seedling taking clamps outside the installing chamber. When power is input into the rotation shaft, the pushing rod returns back at the seedling taking point, and the seedling taking clamps grab seedlings from a pot tray from an opened state to a closed state; at seedling planting points, the hole digger stretches out to dig holes in soil and then returns back, at the moment, the seedling taking clamps loosen, the seedlings are planted in the holes, therefore, the seedlings cannot be damaged in the whole seedling planting process, and the planting arm can be widely applied to the rice pot seedling planting machine.