Ok, forget the last three items in the title and focus on the first one...I got you to look, anyhow!

For several years now I've considered getting one of the wheeled garden planters like the Earthway 1001-B or the Chapin 8701-B. The only thing I would use it for would be planting beans and cow peas. I plan on 250' of beans and peas. I've been planting by either spreading two fingers wide and punching holes in the soil or either by dragging the corner of a hoe or a 1-by carved into the shape of a plow-point to make a furrow. Then dropping seeds in by hand. The body isn't getting any younger and getting up and down and staying bent over for extended amounts of time just doesn't seem to be my favorite things to do these days. So, in that regards, if the seeder would save my back (and other body parts) the aches of bending over so much I would be willing to invest in one of them.

My concern is, though, as to whether do they plant dependably. How do you know that a seed was planted and covered? In other words, if you end up with a lot of skips is it due to medicore/bad seed or did the planter skip?

Anybody got any thoughts about these planters? Great planters? Stick with my...stick?

Thanks for any feedback!
Ed

PS...I don't want to hear about pedicures.

If you are planting quantity, They a great job of once over planting. Most models a vertical plate planters Which will skip when the hopper is close to empty. This is an old Esmay, from 1970. In the past I have planted 5 lbs of butter beans 5 lbs od bush beans, 10 lbs of cowpeas, 3 lbs of English peas and 5 lbs of corn. I have on occasion used to plant rutabagas (ounce at the time) .I would not recommend for packet amounts. Seed plates are available for just about every crop but just not worth it for small amounts, I have cut way back in my old age, but I still use it, Does a better job than opening a furrow with a wheel hoe, dropping seed, and then covering with the wheel hoe. Uniform depth and spacing.

Good to hear from you Dillard, thanks for the feedback.

I'm thinking one of these planters would be overkill for my little garden. I can only see me using it for beans and peas and that comes up to around 250' of rows. That takes a while with a hoe and hand dropping, but it's doable.

What you said about running the hopper low causing problems is a biggie. I don't ever see planting more than a pound or so of peas or beans at one time. Running only that much in the hopper would most likely cause skips, though. I would need to overload the hopper by a pound or so to get the seed peas to feed properly. That isn't impossible and peas can be stuck in the freezer and used the next year. But, it isn't optimal for sure. I probably need to just stick with what I'm using now...at least I'll know seeds are positively where I go through the actions of placing them. If I was planting a half-dozen or so 100' rows I'd probably go for it but I'll only be planting 100' at a time at the maximum.

I appreciate that bit of knowledge about the low-hopper/skip situation. Again, information like that only comes from experience!

Ed

Ed, the hopper only holds a lb of beans or corn at the time. It is good down to about a quarter cup of seeds. I don't know if I would buy one for 250 ft of row but they are handy and do as well as the old horse drawn single row planters.
Now as to the pedicure. After a day in the dirt, I pull out the old Barlow and scrape the dirt out from under my nails. Both hand and toenails.

Well, holding only a pound of beans is interesting. I wonder if the Earthway or Chapin versions hold the roughly the same amount. The hoppers on those two seeders look larger than a pound but all I can see are pictures here. You got me back thinking again. But, like you said...it's only 250'. Afterwards my knees and back can take a couple of days off.

And after the pedicure you prop your feet up and peel yourself a nice, sweet apple....

Please consider sanitation!

Be sure to wipe the knife on your jeans leg before apple cutting.

Yeah, I'm crazy. I'm now the proud (possibly temporary) owner of two (that's TWO - 2!!!!!) Earthway seeders!

I broke down and ordered one off of Amazon the other day. My knees are just not doing well and I don't think I could hang in there to poke a couple of hundred feet of cow pea seeds in the ground this year. Anyhow, that's my rationalization for purchasing it. I had looked for a second-hand one but only found some on eBay that I was a bit suspicious about and they were still up around $100.

Well, today FedEx was scheduled to deliver the seeder when I decided to look back on Craig's List for some reason and there it was...an Earthway seeder with an extra set of plates and the fertilizer dispenser (extra $70) for the whopping grand total of.....$50. $50. I emailed the got and he still had it for sale so I told him I wanted it. What puzzles me is that seeder had been listed for three weeks and I had searched earlier...odd.

About 10 minutes later Fedex delivered the new one that I had ordered.

Well, it was about an hour's drive and I passed through lots of areas I used to deliver tires to. It was fun to see some of the old places. Anyhow I got to the guys place and the extra seed plates ended up being duplicates of the originals. The fellow thought they hadn't included the cucumber plate so he ordered another set of plates only to find out the cucumber plate was already installed in the seeder...that's the story he told me, anyhow. He bought it in 2019 and used it one season...he said he *thought* he wanted to garden. I had to take a little drive to get it, but I couldn't resist it. Now I've got to figure out what to do. I can use the fertilizer dispenser see if I like it or not and I guess the extra plates can be spares (not sure I'll ever need them). If I find the need to modify a plate the extra ones will leave me one unadulterated. I'm just not really sure about the assembly of the seeder but I can tinker with it. The guy was nice, it was really big house with a couple of BMW's sitting there and a few other nice toys. I think he wasn't really worried about the $50, he just wanted to get the seeder out of his way. Oh well, I was happy to get it.

Now to go see what's involved with returning one from Amazon. It was "sold" and "shipped" by Earthway Products, Inc. but in the final shipping notice and what pulls up when I look at the invoice that has changed to read VX Express. I inquired with them why they were shipping it to me and they said they were a third-party seller. Weird that it didn't have their name associated with the item until *after* the sale was completed. So, I'm hoping this third-party whatever doesn't give me much grief on returning the new seeder. If I've gotta pay shipping or something I'll just keep the new one and gift the used one to my gardening buddy...it'll give him something he can aggravate himself with.<grin.

Weird...been trying to decide whether to get this seeder for a couple of years now and suddenly I have two of 'em!!! Dang sure wish I'd seen the Craig's List one sooner! Oh well, off to Amazon and see what the return entails...

I got the return of the Amazon seeder OK'd!

Hurray! Celebrate and have two apples!

that's great Ed!
The situation is sort of like --you throw something out that's been sitting around for decades-- next week, find a use you could have made with it.
Calling it my Unified Theory of Things.

pirl said:Hurray! Celebrate and have two apples!

Apples for Arthur!!!!!!!!!!!!

sallyg said:that's great Ed!
The situation is sort of like --you throw something out that's been sitting around for decades-- next week, find a use you could have made with it.
Calling it my Unified Theory of Things.

It's amazing how this worked out. It really is. I got the seeder and fertilizer attachment for less than the price of the attachment! I'm not sure I'll be using the attachment, though, but I'll tinker with it...it might be useful.

I've read varying reviews about the seeder. Most have been good reviews but you always have the squeaky wheel that isn't happy...and some of those have valid issues. I'm just hoping it works out well and keeps me from having to get down on my knees for that long of a haul (rows of cow peas). They talk about it planting as fast as you can walk...well, I'm not in *that* big of a hurry...I'll be taking my time. Remember, I'm a tad OCD about things.

I think you will be happy with it Ed. Been using mine for 50 years and it still works fine. Of course I have used it mostly for beans, peas ( both English and cowpeas), and corn and usually at most about 8 -10 lbs per year.

That sounds good, Dillard! My little garden seems like overkill for such a planter, but with these knees its the get down and get up that I'm trying to avoid. If I plant as fast as I can walk, well, I'll have my cow peas planted in about two minutes...thus my mention of going a bit slower. Plus, learning how it works I'll want the experience to last a wee bit longer. Planting on my knees literally takes hours...and those bony knees just scream and shout about that!!!

I figure I'll be planting a couple of pounds of cow peas each year and, just getting into planting snap beans, maybe a pound of beans.

I just can't see how it handles the tiny seeds, though...carrots?....tomatoes?....etc.,. I mean, even an amount of carrot seeds for a 100' row would just be a very small volume in the bottom of the hopper. Have you tried it with some smaller seeds?

I have used for turnip, mustard and rutabaga planting an ounce at a time. I still prefer to broadcast and light till them in tho. Still plant carrots by hand. I hate thinning more than planting. I only plant a packet or so of carrots. There are a lot of carrots in a tiny pack of seeds. Got about 3 bushels from this pkt.

Ok, that gives me an idea of seed size that might work.

Those carrots look GREAT!!!

The seeder finally tasted the dirt around here. Last Wednesday i used it to plant 60' of Contender beans. I had a little problem to start with but after adjusting what's between my ears I got it working pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of stand I get. What I planted is two 30' rows that are maybe 12" apart. I went down one side of the row and back up the other side of it. I know the first 4-5 feet are going to be unevenly planted but after that I managed to get it fairly consistent...I think. A little bit of a learning curve to it for me. I wanted some experience with the beans before I plant the zipper cream cow peas. We'll get there.

Adjusting the settings between the ears hahsha

The beans have been sprouting over the last few days and the stand and spacing is looking good. There are some skips in it but there's time for those seed beans to still come up. The seeds were some I bought last year from Willhite Seed. Even the first few feet of beans where I had trouble with the seeder look pretty good. The jury's still out on this first planting but I'm warming up to the little seeder. I am thinking that the round zipper cream cow peas will work even better in the seeder than the long curved beans and should make the larger planting of the zippers *much* more enjoyable than it has been in the past years...and will save my knees, too!!!

I'm probably going to limit myself to planting beans and peas with the seeder. Smaller seeds and their spacing I think (for me) will work better hand planting. Also, no longer of a row than I plant of okra I'll probably just hand plant it, too...but I reserve the option to "experiment" with the okra.

As it stands now, I'm very happy with the Earthway seeder. Even if the beans end up requiring some replanting of skips, which I usually have to do anyhow, it appears that with some attention the seeder will do a good job even in the hands of a rookie like me!

I think the real test/proof will be the long rows of cow peas!

@farmerdill and all others that have used the different variations of this type of seeders/planters...

I'm planting cowpeas today. The row has been fertilized, tilled, and built up a tad to give more depth. Due to the cool weather we've had over the last month or so planting has been delayed. Naturally the soil has settled down some and weeds have grown well over the row. I cleared the row yesterday evening with my scuffle hoe and will rake it out today before planting...giving the weed roots some time to dry out. But, I'm wondering about how the Earthway seeder will work in this more firm ground. The scuffle hoe did loosen the surface up good and raking today should soften it up even more. I'm wondering, though, whether I should do a "dry run" with the seeder to test how well the plow will open the furrow up....before loading with pea seeds.

I could go ahead and load it with seed...I had to test it out a bit when I planted the snap beans several weeks ago and it only took 5-6 feet for me to figure out what all was going on.

I think it'll work well, but...always that little bit of the unknown, I guess.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks!