TOPIC: Found a seed drill that can work with ginseng seeds

If you're like me, growing your sang in the woods on a hillside, and have grown weary of mashing individual seeds in the ground with a finger, I found a seed drill that will do the trick.

It's the SeedStick, from johnnyseeds.com. I ordered one a week ago, it showed up today, and with just a bit of modification, it reliably drops one sang seed per push. It's a seed hopper on a long stick with a punch on the end to make a hole, drop a seed, and then drive the seed into the hole. You just walk along and poke it in the ground, and you can set the depth of the hole it makes.

The change is to fill the cup in slightly on the smallest cup they send with the stick. As it was, it tended to drop two seeds with the unmodified cup. Works well in the soft untilled earth one tends to find on hardwood forest hillsides. Doesn't work so well on hard ground, but you probably shouldn't be wasting expensive seed on hard ground anyway.

Just passing this along in case anyone else had seen that device, and was wondering about it. I was planning on putting out 10 pounds of seed next fall, but with this I think I can get 20 pounds in the ground.

I also got one of their precision garden seeders, the asparagus wheel is just about right for sang seed. Plan on using that on a shaded spot that I'm going to till up and bed some seeds next fall. In general, the quality of the johnnyseeds gear is good, and the design is ingenious.

Hey johno, i went to johnnyssed.com and saw that they have two planters. just to make sure, you're talking about the stick and not the jabber? is that right?

I'd be curious to know what modifications you made to it. What do you mean you \"filled the cup in\"? I have a couple and they work somewhat but, sometimes the seed size varies enough that it wants to plant more then one or the seed doesn't travel into the shoot. I also have found the spring steel flap on the bottom will clog with dirt and debris and result in a pile up of seeds at the bottom of the shoot. They will work but you have to keep an eye on everything.
I would be willing to give mine another try if I could figure out just how to tweak it to work smoother. Thanks for the post.

Interesting guys I will look at this also and I am curious to know the modification also.

Does it work through leaves? Or do you have to clear a spot before using it?

I used mine right through the leaf litter. You can set the depth of the planting to be into the soil under the leaves. Leaves, small stones and dirt would all get stuck in the spring steel flapper at the bottom though and cause jamming. You just have to keep an eye on it.

hey johno Im going to check out this device thank you. I tried to plant 15 pounds last year and only got about 9 in. It gets pretty depressing after about 8 hours of raking and you have only dropped 3 lbs. what method were you using previously
breaks

Say twbreaks, I don't think the seed stick will get you planted faster then raking and scattering. You would be several weeks if not months full time planting 15 pounds with the seed stick (even using one in each hand). 15 pounds is a lot to plant in one season unless you can use a broadcast spreader or something.
Maybe someone here has used one with faster results then I have.