Precision Garden Seeder

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I just inherited an Earthway Precision Garden Seeder. It looks like a pretty useful tool, but I have no experience with it. Does anyone use one of these? Can you give any advice, hints, tips, etc.? Thanks

-- Marv (mcheim@lewiston.com), March 05, 2002

Answers

I have one that we use for planting cut flower seed,like Zinnia and even Sunflower seed.The only problem with it is that the seed bed must really be worked up good.It is not at all user friendly in damp or soil with large clumps.However in the right conditions it will work slick,with a little tinkering it will plant a large number of different seeds,both flower&vegetable.I use mine for early season sweet corn also,in which case the fertilizer hopper is handy to have.

-- Steve in Ohio (stevenb@ohiohills.com), March 05, 2002.

Marv,

I've had my Earthway seeder for about 5 years now. I love it. It is one of the best garden tools I've ever purchased. It makes the job of planting so much quicker and easier. For an example, I just checked my garden journal for last year and found that I planted almost 900 row feet of sweet corn in about 10 minutes. Did yours come with a full set of seed plates? I have the extra seed plate set and am glad I bought it. With the full set of plates you will be all set to plant anything from small seeds like carrots all the way to lima beans on the other end of the scale. If you need new plates, several seed catalogs list the seeders and extra plate sets. If you contact Earthway they will even make up custom seed plates for specific seed sizes or special spacing.

One of the above posters was right, the soil does have to be workes up fairly well. Anything that's been tilled fairly recently should work ok. When I plant the very small seeds, I do run the tiller down through where I'm going to be planting a row to work up the soil better. Hope this helps.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), March 05, 2002.


Marv, I do what Murray does, til then plant with the seeder. Can see where the row marker marked much better also! It is amazing how fast you can plant a row zippity quick in no time! Should have the seed depth adjustment on bottom. Once your first row is planted straight, the marker is adjusted to the width between rows you would like. Successive rows go much quicker, you just change seed depth or plates with each variety of seed. The chain covers the seed, but I always walk over and cover also. Enjoy your new tool....

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), March 06, 2002.

Marv,

They are great little tools and quite robust for their price and weight.

We plant our garden with one and we plant some of our truck crops with two that I modified and attached to a tool bar and mount behind one of the tractors. I have replaced the plastic drive and packer wheels with metal wheels and the shafts and pulleys with metal cogs, bronze bushed steel shafts and chain on those tractor units but I am sure that Earthway didn't intend for them to plant 5 or more acres a year. We also use a set of John deere planter units behind another tractor. Those are real heavy duty but they were just shy of $500 per unit, so that planter has over 1500 dollars in it.

Oscar

-- Oscar (owill@mail.whittier.edu), March 06, 2002.


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