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NW Iowa | I have a 1 acre patch on 10 foot square spacing. This way I can till and spray from both directions. I have been planting the hills by hand for the last 4 years. Sometimes at the end I use a earthway push seeder, but the residue makes it hard--previous crop is corn. Always concerned about rodents eating the seed out of the ground. Some years I cover the hills with a plastic 1ft square made out of 2X2 lumber.
I think I would like to stay with the hills, is there some type of hand seeder to place seed at the proper depth? Just looking for something faster.
I usually plant about 15 different types in the 1 acre patch--limits the helpfulness of a tractor mounted row unit--would be switching seed all the time.
Thanks in advance.
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NM | I plant about the same amount each year. I use my corn planter ( 13/ 22" ) and use every other row. I took some corn disks and plugged with epoxy 3 holes and left one. Then I put different verieties in the boxes. Works good for me |
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NW Washington | Sounds like you need to find an old hand corn planter, the kind you stab into the ground and then open or close the handles to get the seed to drop. They use a little plate type device to pick up a seed from the hopper.
A dibble with a depth stop on it would give you a hole for the seed at a regular depth. A dibble is just a pointed stick usually made of steel or aluminum for making a planting hole. Lehman Bros hardware might have some old time stuff. http://www.lehmans.com/store/Tools_Farm___Farming?Args=&view_all=&s...
Any Amish folks in your area? They might have some ideas. |
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NW Iowa | I found this in one of my seed magazines, looks interesting, anybody use this?
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6427-seed-stick-planter.aspx
Thanks
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NW Iowa-Lyon | You live in Iowa. You can make more money planting that one acre patch into corn or soybeans and save yourself a lot of time and labor. One other option is to have about 15 kids and put them to work out in your pumpkin patch to teach them good values. I'm looking forward to getting some of those interesting pumpkins again this year. |
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| Old corn jobber ?
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| It's common for guys around here to use modified finger pickup meters. They cut some of the fingers off and use rows 2 and 5 on six row planters.
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Southwest Michigan | nkrules - 1/25/2011 08:46
I found this in one of my seed magazines, looks interesting, anybody use this?
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6427-seed-stick-planter.aspx
I use this for planting pumpkins. Last year I did 5 acres in about 10 hours all by hand. I plant oats in the spring and cut about a week before planting pumpkins. I remove all the tines from my 6 foot rototiller but the middle ones. I then cut my pumpkin rows and use the hand jabber to plant my pumpkins. Have ag services company come in and spray roundup to kill oats, and sandea and strategy for weed control. I use drip irrigation as my soil is very sandy. I am small, just have 60 acres, 6 in hay, 30 tillable, rest is pastures, woodland, home etc... Run a pumpkin patch in the fall. Have had very good success with this method.
Barry |
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Southwest Michigan | IA Jackrabbit - 1/25/2011 08:46
You live in Iowa. You can make more money planting that one acre patch into corn or soybeans and save yourself a lot of time and labor. One other option is to have about 15 kids and put them to work out in your pumpkin patch to teach them good values. I'm looking forward to getting some of those interesting pumpkins again this year.
Not if you retail the pumpkins. |
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SW Ohio | Wow you must have better corn in Iowa than I think,,, punkins CAN (not always) give you net per acre of $4000-8000 retail. |
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nw pa | I think if I was going to plant many I would get and old three pt hitch corn planter. Put hill drop plates in it or make your own. . That way it will drop three or four seeds per turn . Every ten foot pick it up and drop it down leave it down for a foot and pick it back up. Either mark it out ahead of time or mark the wheel. Could also buy a measuring wheel to put on planter. Get real handy put a heavier wheel with a gear that only kicks on every ten foot.The possibilities are endless. Start making them and selling them to other pumpkin growers.. There are many out there doing it by hand. |
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Southwest Michigan | sri - 1/25/2011 17:41
I think if I was going to plant many I would get and old three pt hitch corn planter. Put hill drop plates in it or make your own. . That way it will drop three or four seeds per turn . Every ten foot pick it up and drop it down leave it down for a foot and pick it back up. Either mark it out ahead of time or mark the wheel. Could also buy a measuring wheel to put on planter. Get real handy put a heavier wheel with a gear that only kicks on every ten foot.The possibilities are endless. Start making them and selling them to other pumpkin growers.. There are many out there doing it by hand.
I plant a lot of different types of gourds squash and pumpkins, with a wide range in seed size. If I were planting 5 acres of the same pumpkin I would agree with you. I don't think I would save time changing out seed plates etc... I do have a 1950ish AC two row corn planter that I plant a couple of acres of Indian Corn with. Works great.
Barry |
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NW Iowa | do you need to firm the seed after it is planted with the stick planter with your foot or packer?
Thanks
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Southwest Michigan | Firm with your foot as you walk by. After a short distance this becomes part of your "step" and does not slow you down. After I jab the seed into the ground I am taking my step to firm the soil and grabbing the next seeds our of my carpenters pouch all in the same motions.
Barry |
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Looking for a better way to plant pumpkins
