Planting equipment- do you use it?

[crazyfarm]

For those that plant rather large gardens do you use planting equipment. If you do what do you swear by? Did you buy it new or used?

[TnAndy]

I use a sweet potato slip planter.

T shaped stick out of 1" square oak stock about 3' long. Top handle screwed to the long part. Ground end has an inverted V notch cut in it. You go along and lay the potato slips on the ground, and come back with the planter, catching the slip in the notch, and shove it in the ground. Can do a couple hundred feet of row pretty quick.

You mean like that ?

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by TnAndy

I use a sweet potato slip planter.

T shaped stick out of 1" square oak stock about 3' long. Top handle screwed to the long part. Ground end has an inverted V notch cut in it. You go along and lay the potato slips on the ground, and come back with the planter, catching the slip in the notch, and shove it in the ground. Can do a couple hundred feet of row pretty quick.

You mean like that ?

Not what I had initially intended but extremely useful information!

[jwal10]

I have a little aluminum garden plate planter like the plastic ones now. It was my Grandparents. I don't use it anymore as I don't work my soil any more. I just poke the seeds in where ever I want them now. I also like to just scatter mixed seeds in the kitchen gardens, thin to cultivate and loosen the soil....James

[TripleD]

I dont know how big of a garden you have but I have a John Deere 71 two row planter. I only plant about an acre and a half and dont use it. Its main use if I plant some dove fields. I got all kinds of planter plates for it.

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by TripleD

I dont know how big of a garden you have but I have a John Deere 71 two row planter. I only plant about an acre and a half and dont use it. Its main use if I plant some dove fields. I got all kinds of planter plates for it.

Just experimenting now but we have a bit over 5 acres we could eventually plant. We have a Kubota tractor.

Did you buy new or used? Was it expensive? Worth it?

[TripleD]

Originally Posted by crazyfarm

Just experimenting now but we have a bit over 5 acres we could eventually plant. We have a Kubota tractor.

Did you buy new or used? Was it expensive? Worth it?

I bought it used at a great price $700. I've been offered a grand for it.Its worth it on 5 acres for sure. I can still buy new planter plates from Lincoln Ag. They sell about any size for your seeds.

[7thswan]

We have one of those earthway(?) planters, Dh likes it for planting our corn garden. The corn garden is away from the rest of my fenced garden and raised beds, it is just a low spot near the cow pasture where all the rain drains. I also plant some vineing crops there. We till it with a frount tine tiller. Sometimes the neighbor does it with his Kabota, he has a tiller attachment. I use a scuffel hoe and a winged weeder for weeding, but I bought an antique wheeled weeder last summer. It works great for sliceing off weeds just under the soil. I also use it to loosed up soil for hilling, tho I do dig a trench for potatoes and use the soil for hilling, I just never seem to have enough. The back of a rake is used for hilling, for me, I just can't get the feel of a regular hoe. There are a mess of tools I keep right in the garden, diffrent shovels, ect. I do sit alot,havest potatoes sitting and use a potatoe fork. Got a short seat with an umbrella attached to sit on while weeding in the sun. Got one of those cooling towels out of the sports section at wallys, it sure helps in the dogs days of summer. And I just heard today that sunscreen does not help preven skin cancer-so we better get used to wearing long sleeved shirts-sure.

Oh ya, dh told me jus recently he has his eye on a Kabota for me, I said Good! aslong as it has all the stuff for me to dig with!Manure! Compost turning! Digging Holes!

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by 7thswan

We have one of those earthway(?) planters, Dh likes it for planting our corn garden. The corn garden is away from the rest of my fenced garden and raised beds, it is just a low spot near the cow pasture where all the rain drains. I also plant some vineing crops there. We till it with a frount tine tiller. Sometimes the neighbor does it with his Kabota, he has a tiller attachment. I use a scuffel hoe and a winged weeder for weeding, but I bought an antique wheeled weeder last summer. It works great for sliceing off weeds just under the soil. I also use it to loosed up soil for hilling, tho I do dig a trench for potatoes and use the soil for hilling, I just never seem to have enough. The back of a rake is used for hilling, for me, I just can't get the feel of a regular hoe. There are a mess of tools I keep right in the garden, diffrent shovels, ect. I do sit alot,havest potatoes sitting and use a potatoe fork. Got a short seat with an umbrella attached to sit on while weeding in the sun. Got one of those cooling towels out of the sports section at wallys, it sure helps in the dogs days of summer. And I just heard today that sunscreen does not help preven skin cancer-so we better get used to wearing long sleeved shirts-sure.

Oh ya, dh told me jus recently he has his eye on a Kabota for me, I said Good! aslong as it has all the stuff for me to dig with!Manure! Compost turning! Digging Holes!

I really like our tractor. It has the bucket and we have 2 attachments to mow and grade the road. I did dig my duck pond with the front bucket. Ideally I'd like to get the Kabota excavator though. I swear I'm always digging holes. I'd die for that tractor. Husband went and looked, 20k, he laughed. Told me good luck. Dare to dream!

We are certainly going to have to look into a tiller attachment. So far I've used the bucket to dig up dirt and the back blade to smooth it out. It's rough but it works.

[rambler]

The affluent folk that plant 5-10 acres of crops to attract deer are both your friend and foe on this - they have made the old John Deere 70/71 corn planter units very popular again. This means parts and plates for many different crops are easily available. But it also means they used to sell for $50 a row back a couple decades ago, and now cost $500 or more a row......

John Deere stopped making these new a while ago, but a company called Yetter bought the rights and continues to make new planters and both JD and Yetter have all the parts available to repair.

international harvest or and Allis Chalmers also made good individual planter units into the 1980s, good machines, and are also good. All of these models had the press wheel behind them driving the planter box, so you didnt need any other wheels or shafts to drive multiple rows.

All of the above are farmer grade, perhaps a little big for a garden setting, and don't handle tiny seed so well.

The little plastic or aluminum push planters you get at the garden supply center is better suited to the tiny garden seed. They are basically the same deal, just a smaller lighter deal.

Paul

[TripleD]

Rambler is right on this . The guy I bought mine from bought a 4 row for $500 and made two 2 row planters.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by crazyfarm

Not what I had initially intended but extremely useful information!

OK, kidding aside, if you plan to plant a lot of bare root stuff, a used tobacco planter can be found around here for nearly nothing, since the heyday of tobacco is gone. You can use them for strawberries, sweet potato, tomato, etc.....any kind of rooted small plant.

They mount on the 3 point hitch on about any tractor, and have a seat for two workers to pull plants out of the trays and insert into the wheel. There is a small plow head underneath that opens a furrow, the wheel between the workers rotates pushing the plant into the furrow ( kinda like my stick ), then the large wheels close up the furrow as the machine moves down the row. The tobacco planters I've used didn't have the rubber tire on this like this one shown in the pic, and did have a water tank so the furrow was watered with a starter fertilizer mix as you planted. If driven slow enough, one person could operate the back.

[crazyfarm]

Awesome looking! I'm in Wyoming though. Probably a lack of tobacco planters here. lol Wheat and cows, that's what we do.

Originally Posted by TnAndy

OK, kidding aside, if you plan to plant a lot of bare root stuff, a used tobacco planter can be found around here for nearly nothing, since the heyday of tobacco is gone. You can use them for strawberries, sweet potato, tomato, etc.....any kind of rooted small plant.

They mount on the 3 point hitch on about any tractor, and have a seat for two workers to pull plants out of the trays and insert into the wheel. There is a small plow head underneath that opens a furrow, the wheel between the workers rotates pushing the plant into the furrow ( kinda like my stick ), then the large wheels close up the furrow as the machine moves down the row. The tobacco planters I've used didn't have the rubber tire on this like this one shown in the pic, and did have a water tank so the furrow was watered with a starter fertilizer mix as you planted. If driven slow enough, one person could operate the back.

[7thswan]

Originally Posted by crazyfarm

I really like our tractor. It has the bucket and we have 2 attachments to mow and grade the road. I did dig my duck pond with the front bucket. Ideally I'd like to get the Kabota excavator though. I swear I'm always digging holes. I'd die for that tractor. Husband went and looked, 20k, he laughed. Told me good luck. Dare to dream!

We are certainly going to have to look into a tiller attachment. So far I've used the bucket to dig up dirt and the back blade to smooth it out. It's rough but it works.

Oh YA! I even watched videos couple years back on how to operate a excavator-the huge kind-for about a week. We have a big dealership real close to here that rents out every kind of machine. We live in an area that has springs everywhere. We have atleast 4 springs on this land that would produce enough water for a pond. We have one dug out for the cows,but they and the silt fill it in, so it has to be redug every couple years.I asked dh about how long he thinks it would take me to learn to operate an EX,he said about 5 min. He's a heavy equitment mechanic with many Patents under his wing from working at Eaton corp. and GM. So, me wishing for a "machine" probably tickels his happy bone.

[K-9]

Here, the Farm Bureau and Soil Conservation Service rent out grain drills for about 6 dollars an acre, a lot cheaper to do that than to buy one the only draw back is availability at certain times of the year you have to book early.

[dsmythe]

I have an Earthway planter, I like it a lot. I bought all of the plates that were available at the time. I can plant almost anything with it. I truly love ford hook lima beans, that is the only seed that I have tried so far that I can't plant with it, may be my lack of ability. Cole makes a great planter. Look them up on the internet. They make a host of configurations. Also ebay has a lot of planters listed. One is a Planet Jr (I think I am correct) It is older but I think they also have a presence on the WWW for an updated version. Covington also makes a good planter, both cole and Covington are made in Albany, GA so you can get replacement parts for them without any trouble. If I were buying a new planter it would be a Cole, I just like them and the design has been pulled by draft animals years ago and used by small farmer/gardeners till today, I have a friend who uses an old one mounted to a small garden tractor, his father used the same planter when they farmed with mules here in GA. If you buy a planter make sure that you can get planter plates and gears to regulate the seed spacings. Also ask around where you live there is bound to be a great group who either have used a particular type or brand of planter that works well in your local soil type. Good Luck finding one that is suitable for you, sometime that is a lot of fun just hunting for something like that.

[Fire-Man]

I have a Earthway planter too, have several of them. I have cole planters to hook behind the tractor too, Love my Earthway. I usually plant between 1 and 2 acres, but not all at one time. I would Not hook up the planter behind the tractor to plant a 50 yard row of beans etc. I can plant them as fast as I can walk down the row with the Earthway. I know some people use a planter behind the tractor, but different seeds need to be planted different depths but adjusting the depth for the planters that go behind the tractor takes time.

I do use the tractor planter to plant my field corn-----Which I usually plant 3 to 5 acres.

All the earthway planters I have now and all the ones I have bought and resold----I bought used--the most I have payed is $25.

[FarmboyBill]

Ive got a 2 row IHC corn planter with all the plates, smalls, mediums, large, popcorn, milo, soybeans.
I had an earthway and didn't like it. It finally got too much sun and got dry rot I guess. I bought, this year, one that has yellow wheels which are larger Idia, which I think I will like better than the EW, as its wheels seemed too small. This one has 2 compartments fixed together for the seed and fert. Other than that, it operates the same as the EW. This one cost $100, which I think is cheaper than the EW. I forget how many plates I have for it.

[Fire-Man]

Originally Posted by FarmboyBill

. It finally got too much sun and got dry rot I guess.

FBB, you ever thought about putting it inside the shed. I still use the first one I bought in the early 80's used---ordered a fertilizer dist for it around that same time----still use it---its made out of plastic too.

[plowhand]

I still use an ole Cole planter...it mounts on a tool bar...plant's everything from cucmbers to soybeans. Got a couple for the mule also.