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| I drilled corn on 35" rows once. While setting up the JD FBB drill I calibrated it by jacking up the drive wheel, putting it in gear, and put a paper sack under the seed tube where I had a pile of seed. Moderately small flats. About 2% were crushed when I counted about 100 seed from multiple turns of the wheel. Apparently they got caught between the ridges of the fluted measuring wheel and the hopper bottom. I did have corn to harvest, I don't recall the yield. I've done worse, I've done a lot better with a planter. That drill covered with drag chains, no press wheels.
The biggest problems with most drills is in getting seed to soil contact and consistent depth for even emergence. But with the pivot and water to spend you could make that less critical by watering the seed in the day after distributing it with the drill. You'd probably still want to work hard with the drill to get the corn seed deeper than small grain seed so it develops brace roots that get to the ground.
If the ground tends to crust from that watering in you might want to be sure to water again as the beans begin to emerge to weaken that crust or else if you get the ground dry about then, a rotary hoe can crack the crust for the beans, but it won't work with a damp crust. And the typical bean population for 20" rows has what I think has too few per foot to break a crust without crushing seedlings trying.
Gerald J. | |
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Precision planting corn vs just drilling it %yield loss
