need advice on vegetable seeders

This is a John Deere #71 flex planter. These units were part of a 16 row planter at one point. They mount on any toolbar. I have about 25 different seed plates for this one. I plant corn, sweet corn, soybeans, sunflowers, milo, green beans, peas, and a few other "garden crops" or food plot crops with this one. It is equipped with the BIGGEST seed hoppers that Deere offered.

The veggie seedhoppers are a lot smaller, and ssit at an forward angle compared to the regular ones. They are designed for small seed like lettuce and such. I have a set on the way. Be prepared to pay more than $500 per row for them.

The #71 is a very accurate, UN-complicated, well designed planter. They have a minimum of moving parts. You can do no better than these in my opinion.

I see individual #71 units on sale every so often, for $150 per row unit. Well worth the investment.

The precision secret is simple. The hopper is mounted in a slanted position with the brush cutout and seed tube on the high side. A baffle plate holds seed above the seed plate. An opening on the low sideof the baffle allows seed to be picked up by the seed plate as needed. This means that the seed plate cells can pick up seeds one at a time. Gravity pulls excess seed away and the brush pushes individual seeds out of the cells into the seed tube.

OK....That sounds complicated, and confusing, but they work. VERY accurately. Their claim to fame is extremely accurate planting that doesn"t require thinning, nor does it have many "skips" when planting. They handle lettuce, radish, and simular small seeds. They were designed from the ground up to deal with small seeds. They are not an adaptation of a big seed planter.

There are hoppers available for the #71 that will allow it to do a reasonably good job with the same seeds, but nothing like the #33 Good luck!

JD still makes depth bands to set the seed depth and they still have all the sprockets to adjust the rate that the seed plate turns per foot of row. Lincoln Ag has seed plates that will work for lots of small seeds. JD still has a few of the vegetable hoppers, etc. for the 70s/71s, they were ~$500 each when I checked.

I have had to cut back on the number of rows of greens and radishes that I have been planting with the planet jrs. The spacing and depth with the 70s were more accurate and produced better stands.

JD 70 and 71 were used for planting sugar beets and are reasonably common in Minn. I paid about $150 a piece for mine. Stanhays are nice, but I think that they will be a little more. Doing it again, I would look for 71s.

IMHO, you will still need to thin carrots and beets.

Greg

Coming from the east coast we tended to get a lot of European planters, Stanhay being the dominant and a few lesser known models for small seeds. About the only thing we ever saw from Deere or IH were straight Corn-Bean machines.

I think that the new Yetter 71s are about $500 per row. If you take the hopper off and add a $500 vegetable hopper, The Stanhays look pretty good. The only trouble with them is that the belts are about $30 as compared to a $10 seed plate.

I'm just using the beet hoppers with thin, small hole, seed plates. I never worry too much about getting every seed placed exactly just so. The 70s get used on 10" rows of greens and radishes that get planted every week. Seed is fairly cheap and my crew seems to thin out their share with the hoes.

Between the flex aspect, the depth bands, and the adjustability in the drives, the 70s produce a much better stand than the Planet Jrs. Last year I sold as much as ever and had to cut back on the number of rows by about half.

There are some nice tools coming out of Europe.

Greg

The floor plate is different between the beet planter and one used for corn. I have not tried using corn plates in the 70 hoppers. I just put on a set of hoppers from an old 290.

Lettuce will be difficult to seed accurately. I do all of mine with transplants. If you are not afraid of getting your knees dirty, you can set about 500 plants an hour. More than 90% will make it.

I think that David might have a Stanhay. I have to email him about pepper seeds anyway, I'll ask him.

Greg

You're welcome. There aren't many of us left. Thousands of acres around here have been 'developed' for houses. Seems like it used to be a good idea to grow food close to cities.

It turns out David was up north snowshoeing. He does have a Stanhay. He uses it for everything except corn, beans, and peas. He thought that the belts and bottom plate might be too thin to handle big seeds. A Dwarf Gray Sugar seed might be small enough to work. Beets work fine.

Pelleted carrots make perfect rows- good germination, a uniform stand, and no thinning. The thing that he likes the best about it can plant bands (i.e 2 rows 2" apart) in addition to a single row. Weeds in between the two can be a problem if the crop does not canopy right away. David said that everyone that he talked to is only using their Stanhay for carrots. It does have a hard time with any oblong seed, but pelleted works fine.

The cost was about $1000 for the unit and the plain belts are $30, Punched belts (if you tell them the size and spacing) are $40, and if you send them the seed, have them punch the belts and test them, they are about $60.

I think that the 71s would do pelleted lettuce to corn, but you would need different hoppers or at least different hopper bottoms. I am thinking about setting up two units on a tool bar for corn and beans. Then I'll park my 290 and Planet Jrs for good. FYI if I remember correctly I paid $650 for a 9 row unit. It was about the same price to buy the whole thing than just 4 planters.

With a 9 tooth drive sprocket, a 22 tooth driven sprocket and a 36 cell plate you would get a seed spacing of 8 1/2". Lincoln Ag has blank, 36, and 72 cell plates in various thicknesses. The cut off in the hopper will literally cut off any seed sticking out above the plate.

If you would like, I can post a picture of the sprocket / seed spacing chart. The 71 manual is JD part number OM-A41062-C0. I think I found mine on eBay.

Greg