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Subject: Market Farming
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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] Harvesting equipment
- Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:01:38 -0500
I did a fairly detailed write up about my
European push seeder on this list back sometime in the summer. You should
be able to dig it out of the archives. It's not a perfect tool but with a
few adjustments I can get along with it.
The best thing I like about it is the more sturdy
construction and stability when working in my stoney and cloddy soil. The
seed plates, when needing to be changed, are no more difficult to do than those
on an Earthway and if you are only changing to a slightly larger or smaller seed
you may only need to spin the externally mounted plate to a larger or smaller
hole, much easier. And you don't have the aggravation of plastic plates
flexing and jamming seed under the plate and then popping them to who knows
where. Sometimes seed size variations in radish, spinach, or some bean
varieties can make life difficult for using the Earthway. This
is easily handled in the European by adjusting hole size. I have
sowed small seeded things like lettuce, carrots, and kale successfully but
I was dissappointed that it wouldn't do a decent job on sweet corn, and I'm
still not sure about swiss chard and beets. My impressions are that it
does best with smooth evenly rounded seeds like peas and okra and worst with
irregular shaped and surfaced seeds like corn and beets. These things tend
to clump together as the rotating brushes move them up the sloping side of the
hopper towards the discharge hole and then release irregularly. I think a
redesign of the machine with the discharge hole closer to the bottom of the seed
hopper would improve on this problem.
Another thing I found to be essential for using
the European seeder is to have a cordless rechargeable hand vacuum to take along
to the field to use for sucking remaining seed out of the seed hopper when you
are changing seed types or varieties. Mine works well but it is another
$35-$50 dollar investment.
Hope this is helpful.
Marlin Burkholder
-
[Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Susan Houghton, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Fellenz, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Allan Balliett, 12/17/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment, Glen Eco Farm, 12/18/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Allan Balliett, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Fellenz, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Allan Balliett, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Sharon and Steve, 12/17/2007
- [Market-farming] European Seeder-good investment?, Glen Eco Farm, 12/19/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Sharon and Steve, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Allan Balliett, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Fellenz, 12/17/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Allan Balliett, 12/17/2007
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment, Jason Jones, 12/18/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment, cjmaness AT juno.com, 12/18/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Harvesting equipment,
Fellenz, 12/17/2007
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