[Market-farming] pinpoint seeder
Beth Spaugh
lists at rhomestead.com
Thu Feb 5 19:21:12 EST 2009
I don't like mine. Johnny's offered for me to send it back for them to work
on but I haven't rounded up a large enough sturdy box yet. Apparently they
have made some adjustments since I got mine 3 years ago. I was going to take
it to the NOFA conference for them to take back, but ended up not going, so.
The technical issues - 1) the soil tends to build up behind the roller and
the seeds don't come out. It may work well in a perfect soil at a perfect
moisture level. I have sandy soil in my hoophouse and it doesn't not work
well unless quite wet.
2) The belts pop off and aren't real noticeable, so you don't realize you
are not sowing seeds.
3) it is bulky and quite heavy. Not horribly heavy, but I had borrowed a
friend's old style pinpoint seeder before purchasing the newer version. The
old one is very lightweight - rides easily on the shoulder. The new one is
awkward to carry distances.
The personal issues - this is not a set the dial and go seeder. You take out
hex wrenches and set a base hole size. Then you have to adjust the brushes
on each feedbin. There are no "marks" to adjust to, you have to figure out
and mark it yourself. It might work well for me for one crop, but lettuce is
different from arugula, is different from mizuna, etc.
I wish I had saved my bucks. I am not patient enough.
Also, I have the greens harvester and have reverted to a knife. It just
pushed my salad mix down rather than cut it (yes, it was sharp, though it is
rusty now) and I had trouble emptying the salad into a container without
spilling it. Call me uncoordinated.
Again, I think they may have solved the technical issues. My main problem is
probably personality.
Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com <http://rhomestead.com/>
Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and
geese
"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." -
Wendell Berry
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances
Moore Lappe
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/attachments/20090205/d0907582/attachment.htm
More information about the Market-farming
mailing list