TOPIC: Easier Way??

Guys, This past year I tried every method to plant seeds. Rake and scatter, dig a trench and drop seeds, my earthway seeder. I got tired of raking leaves and fighting roots and the hard rocky ground of late September. So I built a seeder myself that has the ability to plant thru leaves and the power to open regardless of rocks and roots. The setup is a hybrid of post hole diggers and bolt cutters. I made it out of extra pieces of 1\" and 3/4\" steel pipe I had around the farm. I used a sawzall,drill press,dremel tool and welder to make it.
This tool has been beneficial to me and if you are handy with tools maybe you can make one yourself. It still doesn't magically get the seeds in the ground by itself but it does make for a nice slow walk in the woods. I found I could plant about 1/2 pound in 4 hours with it without disturbing the ground at all and the rougher the ground and steeper the hill made me appreciate it more. I hope sharing this can help make someones seng growing a bit easier. Everyone has been a great source of info for me and I appreciate it very much.
Redbeard
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Redbeard...

That sure looks like it would open up a hole in just about any soil type.

How do you deliver the seed into the hole ?

I have a rather simple planter that is made up of a sharp shooter shovel with a pvc pipe duck taped on for seed delivery.

I have planted a bunch of seed with it and it works well even thru fairly thick leaf cover.

I basically just shove it into the soil and twist it a bit and it opens up a nice hole (takes some practice to get the depth about right every time)... and then I drop a couple seeds down the pipe.

Here is what it looks like. Easy to make and simple to use.

TNhunter

Here is a close up of seed delivery and showing hole made.

PS.. I have found that I get good germination with planting depths ranging from 1/2\" to 1.5\".

And it's not hard at all to accomplish that with this simple planter.

TNhunter

TNHunter
The seed is delivered down the handle. It falls to the point of the tool. When you pull the handles apart the seed gets covered with dirt falling in from the sides. Out of 3 pounds planted with this thing I could count on my fingers and toes how many I had to kick dirt over a seed. I have built 3 of them and the last one only took about 1 1/2 hours to make.

You guys are awesome. I tried using a home-made PVC pipe attached to a rebar 'poker' but soon gave up on that. I hate to admit it, but I ended up planting most of my seeds by kicking the back of my boot-heel a few inches into the ground at each spot and then bending over to drop a few seeds. My back and hamstrings paid the price the next day.

Those planters are really neat. Nice thinking!

If I was planting amaller patches, I'd probally use them. I stick to the rake and scatter method mostly.

However this year I am going to try a leaf blower next year and see how that might work, to substitute for the \"rake\" part.

The only thing I wonder about a planter like that is how do you compress to soil around the seed?