TOPIC: Anyone have a good idea for a \"standing up\" single seed planter?

Are you having trouble keeping your planting depth right?

I don't think you would have much trouble getting the planting depth right with the sharp shooter shovel.

Really anywhere from 1/2 to 1\" is good (I had excellent germination with both last year).

I have seen others (Ozark Mtn best I remember) actually recommend 2\" deep - so I expect even a little deeper would be Ok.

No doubt that will depend on soil type (heavy clay vs sandy-loam) for example.

Ozark may have mostly sandy loam in their planting areas.

I just put the blade on the sharp shoote shovel to the ground and wiggled it and pressed down on the handle a bit until I got a hole about 3/4 inch deep.

You can sort of push the blade back a bit then drop the seed down the pvc pipe into the hole. The hole is wide enough that you could plant 2 if you want.

Then cover it with your boot, step on it, and move on to do another.

Not fancy at all, but worked, and sure beat the heck out of bending over and planting them by hand.

After work today, or perhaps tomorrow will try to get a pic or two, or perhaps a vid done.

TNhunter

I got out this morning and planted a little over 1/2 pound of seed.

I was planting some very steep hillsides and some thick places that really just would not work for rake and scatter.

I used the sharpshooter shovel contraption with pvc pipe for delivering the seed and it worked well enough.

It took me right at 4 hours to plant 1/2 pound of seed on these locations, but now it was difficult getting around on it and not easy going at all.

But the reason I was planting there is there is good wild ginseng growing there already - no doubt the location is good.

Here is what it looked like - nothing fancy at all.

Just a sharpshooter shovel, length of pvc pipe (I had a piece of 3/4 so just used that) and duck taped it in place.

TNhunter

Here is a close up of the blade end showing how the pvc pipe ended there.

It put the seed right where the blade went in the ground.

What I found that worked fairly well was this.

I turned the blade so the pvc pipe side was down towards the ground.

Then inserted the blade in the ground at an angle (about 45 degree to the ground) then once the blade was in about a inch or so I turned it up straight 90 degrees.

That way the back of the shovel blade sort of lifted up the dirt and pushed it back, making a nice hole for the seed.

I could usually just slide it right thru the leaves (down low) then lift it up to reveal a nice slot type hole for the seed.

Here is what it looked like when you did that.

Next I dropped (usually) 2 and sometimes 3 seeds.

Looked like this after they dropped.

Sometimes they landed right beside each other, but more often than not they would end up a inch or more apart.

Next just lift the blade out and let the dirt fall back on the seeds.

I used my size 11 snake boots to push a little leaves on and pack the dirt down.

Below is a pic of one of the hillsides I planted. There are several wild plants there already but next spring there will be a few thousand more

Just a little way from that waterfall bank, there is another hollow with another waterfall and nice bank that has some wild on it.

I found a couple wild ones still hanging on.

These are the only wild ones still hanging around for miles of my house. The only reason they are still living is they are on that steep bank, below the falls and it is always cool and moist there.

That hillside is quite steep to and I planted seed all over it today.

Planting 1/2 pound of seed in 4 hours I guess was not too bad considering the location. If you had hillsides that were not so steep you might be able to do a little better on speed. I would say that I worked about as hard (perhaps a little harder) than a 50 year old should work today - but hey - got it done.

TNhunter

That vally sure looks good, even better in the summer I'll bet.
You gotta put picture of this next summer.!

guy

Guy,

That hillside there beside that waterfall is just full of trillium and wildflowers in the spring and has some maidenhair fern on it too.

It is absolutely bueatiful then !

Billy sent me a 2 oz root that had a 5 prong top on it this year and I planted it on that steep hillside and will be posting some pics of it next spring (Good Lord willing !)

He wanted to see if it would come back a 5 prong next year and knew I had never found a 5 so wanted me to see one if it does.

I am sure looking forward to that and you can bet I will be checking that hillside out several times a week next spring as the tops start emerging.

This spring I looked that hillside over good for morels and did not find any but did find a few nice young 3 prongs there. Next spring there should be about 1000 3 leafers on that hill and hopefully a nice 5 pronger too !

TNhunter