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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Tool reviews European Planter

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  • From: "Glen Eco Farm" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tool reviews European Planter
  • Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 23:47:24 -0400




We purchased the European Seeder from Johnny's this spring. After using
an Earthway one time my husband was convinced that he would only have a
"real" seeder for the tractor. After one pass with the European, he was
planting more spring peas.

I'm glad to see someone writing in about this relatively new tool from Johnneys. I remember someone posting an enquiry earlier this spring and as best as I can recall nobody responded.

I lost my Earthway in the fire and as I had had enough negative experience with it in the past, I couldn't see shelling out $100 for another one. One of my biggest beefs with it was that I couldn't get it to plant sweet corn right. It would drop a half dozen seeds in a pile and skip 3 - 4 feet before dropping more seed. I never could get it to plant beets, chard or spinach satisfactorily. Some kinds of beans planted fairly well and others didn't, with seeds often wedging behind the flexible plastic seed plates, causing jams, poping and seed throwing. It was a little better than sowing seed by hand but not much better.
So I bit my lip and dug down til I could get the $269 for the European seeder from Johnneys.

I was initially impressed by the the sturdier all steel construction, the easily adjustable external seed plates, and the rotating brushes on the inside that move the seeds to the hole leading to the drop chute. This thing looked like it should work well for all kinds of seeds. The heavier weight looked like it would work better in my stoney cloddy soil.

It worked well for planting peas if I went over the same row at least 3 or 4 times. The same also seems to hold true for planting most beans. No big deal if I end up with a satisfactory stand of peas or beans. It did OK for beets and chard. Due to the wide choice of hole sizes I see no reason why it won't work for spinach and radishes though I haven't yet used it for those things. (The Earthway would plant radishes but not spinach due to a slight difference in seed size.) My biggest disappointment with the European Seeder came with trying to plant sweet corn. It did no better than the Earthway! There is something about the irregular shape and rough surface of sweet corn seed that causes it to clump up over the discharge hole and release either nothing or all in a pile. So I ended up trying to throw down over a quarter acre of sweet corn by hand. No fun! I then grudgingly finished the patch with the seeder going over the same rows several times. I anticipate a lot of thinning a few weeks down the season. This is not something I should have to do with something as expensive as sweet corn seed.

One of the more positive things about the Earthway Seeder is the ease of getting unused seed out of the planter when you have planted the alloted space or want to change varieties. Just pick up the whole machine, turn it upside down and dump the seed out the top corner of the seed hopper into any receptacle as small as an opened seed packet. The European Seeder is way too heavy and cumbersome for such action. I solved that problem by investing another $35 in a cordless hand held vacuum cleaner. It works well for sucking all sizes of seed from the hopper and has an easily removeable front part that can then be easily dumped into your seed storage container. Just make sure the dear wife hasn't used it in the house since you last used it for sucking seed. Figure on buying her one for the house. Oops you are out another $70 just to solve the problem of getting leftover seed out of your European seeder. Ouch!

One other thing! There is a nice paste on label on the inside of the top cover of the seed hopper that lists the appropriate hole sizes with the different seeds you will be planting. I find this information to be fairly useless. You pretty much have to wing it to find the right hole size to match the seed you are planting. There are several obvious typos on that list. One was a hole size of 1.3 to plant beans. I ended up using a 10 or 11 and still had to go over the patch several times to get the desired density. Hole sizes go up to 15 but that drops the seed too clumpy. Hole size of 13 for soybeans dropped way too much seed and I had go back to a 8 - 10 to get the right density. As I play with this thing I generally find that you want to select a hole size that is at least twice the diameter of the seed to get close to the right planting rate. Generally speaking, round seeds with a smooth hard surface work best and irregular surfaced or oblong seeds are more prone to be problematic.

Over all I think I am going to be happy with my European seeder. I'm still learning how to use it though. It's like about everything else you buy. It has it's pros and cons. Meanwhile if there is anyone out there you has come up with an easy way to sow sweet corn seed that comes between the technique of placing the seed by hand and using a three point hitch tractor mounted planter, I'm listening. Right now at my scale of growing sweet corn, neither extreme is really an option.

Marlin B from VA




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