Looking to buy a sweet corn planter.
 

Looking to buy a sweet corn planter and I was wondering what others used. I"M most familiar with IH/CaseIH planters and have a good relationship with 2 dealers. I prefer only one row. Don't want to spend a ton of money, but want something that works well and would pay for quality.

https://rdhoutdoors.com/international-planters

I have considered RDH 185 and 800 models at the above link. Painted up well and ready to go. The deere 7000 series would be plateless finger planters. That would probably work better. Just kind of hurts my soul to get a green implement.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/a...266228518.html
Have also considered this. It should mount right up to my Hoe-trac tractor.

Just looking for options and Ideas. What are your thoughts.

We planted garden (lots of it) with a 4 row Deere planter from the 60's. We had plates for Silver Queen, butterbeans, and snaps. I would think any single row unit that drives from the press wheel would be adequate for gardening. IH and Deere seem to be the most common and available for parts and plates. Craigslist this time of year has lots of them, but imagine you would have to make your own tool bar to run on a Cadet.

One option that has been popular in the Southeast for 30+ years is the old horse drawn Cole planters. We had an abundance of offset Farmalls from tobacco farms that later became garden tractors. Lot of folks made a hitch to put these on those tractors, you should be able to mount it on a Cadet as well, I don't think they are too heavy.

I'll toss this out there. Guy somewhere on the net was raising vegetables using those push behind plastic and aluminum garden seeders. He planted several rows side by side and rigged up a big gang hitch under a small farm tractor. He had smooth rock free soil and it was working really well for him.

Thanks for the feedback.

I have been looking at several older used planter options from Deere and IH. I may have a line on a IH 56 series planter that I can get a row unit off of from a friend of mine. Knowing him he purchased at an auction for almost nothing. He's a Deere guy, if he bought an IH I doubt he paid much for it.


Any opinions on the Earthway and Jeng style planters. Or other options in the 100 to 200USD range?? I found a 4 row Deere 7000 locally, but not looking to pay almost 2,000$

I once built a sleeve hitch for an old IH row unit for a friend. He pulled it with a Cub 100. I’m not sure what model of planter it was from but it had a round fiberglass hopper.

You don't happen to have a photo of that per chance??

I don’t, sorry. If I remember correctly, it was simply a C shaped piece cut from a piece of 4”x1/4” wall square tubing and a couple pieces of angle iron welded to the C that bolted to the planter.

Found this.

https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...ad.php?t=10349

I have a Cole 12MX that I use both behind my 244 Compact and my John Deere 332. Plates are readily available and the planters are still available new.

Bill

I have look at those online as well. How good is the placement? How well does it handle other seed? Right now for this year i'm just focused on sweet corn, but would like the ability to handle other seed as well.

The 12MX has a variety of plates for different seeds. I have about six or eight different plates just for sweet corn. I also have plates for beans, peas, sorghum and squash to name a few. There is no "magic" single plate. You have to match the the seed to a plate. Seed spacing is determined by changing out gears. I have all the gears. There is a chart that lists seed spacing based upon the number of cells in the plate matched to a specific gear. Planting depth is set by adjusting the amount the "foot" extends below the skid plate. The 12MX allows you to apply starter fertilizer while you plant. The fertilizer is placed in the ground below and to the right of the seed.

I also have a Brinly planter, designed specifically for garden tractors. The Brinly was made by Cole. A note of caution on buying Cole planter plates. There are at least three different types of Cole planter plates. The 12MX uses a larger 8" diameter than the dual hopper or Brinly planters. The dual hoppers and Brinly's use a smaller OR/OL marked plate. There is also an older Cole plate style.

Bill

I have a user's manual for the 12MX, plus a plate utilization chart and a seed spacing chart if you want to look at how the planter works. Mine I received free, without a 3pt hitch or fertilizer hopper. I am looking for another one or two. They are fairly popular here in the South. I live in southern Alabama, 90 miles north of Panama City, Florida. I grew up in Eastern Iowa on a Family Farm raising corn, soybeans, milking cows, and raising hogs.

Bill

Bill

Thanks for the information. I guess what i meant by spacing was what about skips or deviation from the intended spacing. I"M probability making too big a deal out of it. I"m just so familiar with air and vacuum planters, I need to keep good enough in mind. Not perfect.

Well I found a planter only 18 miles away and it came with a bonus Cat0 brinley plow with the top link, witch I needed. Not quite the proper red, but it will do. It's a Massey Ferguson model 70 planter.

Got the rotten ferti box and insecticide removed today. Got the seed meter transmission all freed up and spinning smoothly. Probably went through 1/2 can of wd40 already.

The main tool bar is 2 1/4 inch solid square steel, not tube steel. It's a bit heaver than I first thought. I'll have to use my dad's tractor.

Planter looks way different now. So far all I have done is to remove the items that I don't want for now. Right now my goal is to get one row working this spring. The rest can be a summer project. I think it may be a bit too heavy for my cub cadet. I'll probably end up pulling it with the Farmall 756. That will handle the weight a bit better.

Also got my seed ordered. I got

1/2 pound of Honey Select Sweet corn
1/4 pound of Japanese hullless popcorn
1/4 pound of blue hopi corn
1/4 pound of sugar snap peas.

I ordered from Albert Lea seed house. I requested a mailed brochure though the website. The brochure arrived quickly via US mail and is of very high print quality. I ordered through my local coop creamery.

forgot to attach the photo.

Pics look great, might want to offset the planters so they do not ride in your tire tracks

Finely some forward progress. Spent over two weeks getting the main toolbar bolts out. Ended up having to take it to a welder. Now the reassembly process can proceed. Brand new bolts holding it together. Row unit this weekend.

Got it assembled and functional now. Yeah..

My seed came in as well. Need to go and pick it up. They didn't have Honey Select so I ended up with Temptress.

1/2 pound of Temptress Sweet corn
1/4 pound of Japanese hullless popcorn
1/4 pound of blue hopi corn
1/4 pound of sugar snap peas.

The way it's setup right now I can drive down and back in the same track and I will have a 20inch row. Then I can off set 40 and pull the next two rows. Or I can start on the right and offset 40 inches each row. Either way.

Now I have to work out the population setting. Gotta start counting gear teeth and measuring press wheel circumference. Not exactly a lot of documentation for a Massey Ferguson model 70 corn planter that I can find.

That is pretty darn cool Mark. Nice work. I have planted a lot of crop over the
years with a walk behind planter and it sure beats crawling.
What will you do with all the corn. Around here we have to be quick about
getting it off before the Coons find it.

Ken

Thanks. It got too big and heavy to pull with my Cub Cadet. My Dad has better options to pull it with. I still have the other row unit as well. The other seed hopper had more significant damage. Maybe I'll get it repaired for next season.

Coon are a real problem here as well. I"m going to have to set up an electric fence. A number of years ago my father was attacked in the day time right in our yard. He got away without being touched, but it got within feet of him. Good thing, it had to of been rabid or something.

A lot of the corn will be given away to family and my cub scout familys. I'll probably give a fair amount to my pack. For the popcorn we can setup a small propane stove at some of the local events and pop it for a fund raiser or similar.

Ken, I see you are from Montana. That's a nice area. I have been to big sky. Stayed there for a few nights and drove around a bit and south into the park.

The bone pile of unused parts, and a 1 bottom plow. I should make a copy of that MF logo and place on the seed hopper.

You can see the assortment of seed plates I have available. I'm concerned that I don't have the proper size. Peaty easy to get two seeds in each cell. You can see the bright red sweet corn seed, the white popcorn and the blue hopi seed still in the bag.

Ideas or thoughts???

Have never used a pull behind seeder like your using. I have however
planted lots of miles of vegetables including corn with a walk behind
seeder. Has the same concept as yours. Different plates for different
size seed with spacing controlled with different gear configurations.
I have learned to live with the doubles especially with corn. It is a bit
of a pain but usually walk the rows after germination and pull the
doubles or cut em off with scissors. I would rather have doubles then
skips. Hand seeding empty spots drives me nuts.
All of that probably has little value in answering your question but
it gave me a chance to ramble.:biggrin2:

Ken

No problem, I do my fair share of rambling from time to time as well. And your comments did help. I ran some sweet corn through and a lot of doubles and some triples. Did a bit more research and most folks running a planter like this are using a Deere or IHC planter.

https://lincolnagproducts.com/support/

The above site is the most helpful I have found. They sell some MF seed disks and lots of general information about selecting the proper disk. I have some disks with a square hole. I think I need to try those.

Got my first planting in. Ended up pulling the planter with the 756 Gasoline. I have room for 4 or 5 more plantings. Everything in the upside of the hill is my dad's field corn.

I figured I would wait a week or two before planting the popcorn. Freeze warning tonight.

I have always planted 3 seeds per hill placed in 24" to 30" rows about 12" between hills.
.
Never been an issue in our garden.
Garden has ben in the same plot now for over 100 years.

Excellent pictures Mark. Thanks for sending them. Now one just has
to way for everything to germinate and see how the planting went.
Did your planter work the way you were hoping it would?

Ken

the planter itself worked as good as it could. Had some problems with the hitch. 756 has a 2pt fast hitch with the IH slide in adapter. Getting the planter to sit into the 3pt arms was a bit problematic. Things were worn and the planter was moving around too much. Found some bushing and shims and got it to work. Still haven't made a second planting yet. It's been busy the last few weeks.

I really want an IH/CaseIH early riser row unit. Preferably from a model 1200 planter. I found some but they were further away than i wanted to drive.

This is the row unit I would like. They are just starting to get old enough that they are becoming available. I found some just wasn't willing to take a day to drive and get them.

Freeze warnings again tonight. All my neighbors have blankets over their bushes. Should have planted last weekend. Better do a double planting this weekend.

everything is growing well. You can see the field corn in the background. 1st planting of sweet corn tasseling. All of my second planting and the tomato plant.

Photo that should have been in the last post.