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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Seeder

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Willie McKemie <mf AT austinfarm.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Seeder
  • Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 09:50:14 -0600

On Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 10:03:43AM -0500, Allan Balliett wrote:
>
> Willie - Where are you growing? Texas?

Yes, central Texas. We can pretty much grow coles, spinach, mustard,
etc through the winter. A few days ago, we got to the middle 20s and
got quite a bit of burn. More mid to low 20s forecast around Christmas.

> How does this planter work? Does it have a 'hopper,' or does it plant
> individual seeds? Does it 'jam' on you? Is the seed outlet adjustable
> so you can double seed, etc?

It has a small seed hopper, holds maybe a pint. On pressing the stick
into the ground, a notched aluminum rod rises from the bottom of the
hopper with a seed in the notch. At the bottom of the stroke, the seed
falls into a hollow column to the planting position. On the next
stroke, the seed is forcefully placed at the bottom of the hole. There
are three aluminum rods with three notch sizes; you select the one that
best matches your seed size. If you wanted to double seed, you might
get the desired results by using the largest notch.

If all works well, there is a seed in the pipeline; on the first stroke
of an empty device, no seed is planted. On the second stroke, the
first seed is planted and the next seed put in position to be planted
on the third stroke. At the "business end", there is a steel flap that
keeps dirt from being jammed up into the seed passage; a plunger
pushes the seed past the flap at the bottom of the stroke. If all
works well, you just push it into the ground, pull it up, and repeat
until the hopper needs to be re-filled. With green peas planted 4-6"
in two lines, a hopper plants 100-150' of row.

There is an adjustable ground plate to fix planting depth.

So far, it seems to be a great way to get large seed planted in trashy
beds.

--
Willie, ONWARD! Through the fog!
Good Health: the slowest way to die
Linux system uptime 174 days 22 hours 36 minutes




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