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Garland Maine | For many years we have been using a worn out JD 290 to plant sweet corn for our farmstand. Of course this antique requires nearly perfect planting conditions to open and cover a furrow, so timing for good emergence and a steady supply of sweet corn over the season has been quite challenging. Also the planting depth is quite inconsistent, which leads to variation in ripening along the row.
So with our growth we are looking at doing 5 acres of sweet corn this year in 10 plots of a half acre or so each. We also plant peas and string beans with the 290 which is simple to change plates on.
I am fairly mechanically inclined and don't mind tinkering or fabricating some things. I have considered looking for just row units and building from there. I also live in Maine, so shipping from the corn belt could get pricey. I am also on a shoestring budget here and am trying to get by without spending $5 for every $1 of product I sell.
So what do I look for? I don't know which models of which brands would do what I want for a reasonable value. It is hard to shop for something when I don't really know what I am looking for. Any advice or opinions are welcome. |
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new prague mn | get 185 or 195 ih each row drives |
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| I would try to find John Deere 71 units. They have a little better opener and still use the plates. If you were looking for a little better unit than that there are a few people making 2 row 7000 planters. |
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Russellville, KY | White planters are plate planters that can usually be bought CHEAP! I'm not very mechanically inclined, and even I can work on it. They are forced air, but mine is a 5100 series that is older than I am and we plant between 150-200 acres a year with it. There was a vegetable guy here who planted about 100 acres of different cucurbits with a 3 row setup. |
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Hillsboro, OH | Get two IH 800 or 900 plate units. These are the Early Riser row units and they are among the best ever made for seed placement and consistency. You can find them either individually driven off the press wheel or common drive off a carrying wheel. The latter are much cheaper. At that they are not the cheapest, but they are an excellent choice if not the very best. Here is one I put together last year.
Edited by combinedmf 2/15/2018 16:24
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North central North Dakota | If you can find a John Deere 71 planter you may make out OK. I got an 8 row and ended up selling toolbar and 4 row units. I kept the best 4 units and made a planter as you see in photos.
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Nebraska, The land of corn and cattle | Too bad you werent closer to NE, theres a 2 row 3pt mounted Buffalo planter for sale on CL. IIRC they used JD plates but are a pretty heavy duty unit. |
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| Use the last series of A/C air champ units. Unit drive with 12 volt fan, unit drive, even hooked a flashing light monitor. The only issue with any of them is that without gauge wheels one the bar, a positive depth stop on the bar is needed, and the top link needs to be consistent. You should be able to find units and would only need to rig up the bar. |
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Indiana | What is your budget? We use a Cyclo 800 4R. for sweet corn. Very simple design, plenty of parts available. I pull it with a 45hp when it was new in the 70's JD1530. I bought the planter for 1500 with a 1000 pto blower. I think that "1000" pto was the downturn to the hobby lawyer farmers. I run it direct through the remote with a return into the case. Not perfect, but you wouldn't know from my stand. |
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N Central IA | Here’s what I use it’s not really a low budget sweet corn planter, but gets the job done. Every year I think I should build something like your talking about, but never get it done so I guess I’m stuck using this. I usually just put seed in 4 rows plant a pass then move over plant another pass keep doing this till I’m done, the small seed boxes actually do wrk pretty good for this.
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Eastern ND | Find a JD 7000- 7100 FINGER unit planter. They will work excellent. Problem with 71 flex and the 7000 PLATE planters is they are very pickey with seed size and plate size. Usually end up being a 2 row seed grinder. Add in the poor depth control, poor seed trench closure, and they are not worth using.
With the price of sweet corn seed, a cheap planter usually costs alot.
At 25,000 cobs per acre, X $1? per dozen, If You would spend $2,000 for a good 2 row 7100 finger planter, You may easily see %20 better stands.
You can also get bean cups for it to seed the peas.
For $2,000 You could completely rebuild 2 rows, buy a bar, buy NEW finger meters and a couple cans of paint!! And at 5- 15 acres per year You would NEVER wear it out. Best way to do this is buy a 4-6-8 row and build Yours, then build another and sell it. They are in demand. |
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Central iowa | I agree tileplow i dont get all the hype about needing another planter or special planter to plant sweet corn waste of time and money in my opinion we can plant ours with our white 16row thats already hooked up in a few minutes in one pass |
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Budget sweet corn planter - Educate me please.
