andrewj
Platinum Member
hi folks. I sort of stumbled on to this, and I am guessing many of you will say, you already knew this, but this is for new guys (like me) that don't have a lot of $ to spend on planting tools. here goes.
I bought 60 acres of "cutover." cutover normally looks horrible, with stumps, slash, and volunteer trees coming up so fast you can't control it all.
My plan was to block it off and turn it to pasture one piece at at time, in my spare time. that is working pretty well.
problem is, I don't have a grain drill for planting grass/wheat. so here's what I did.
first, i got the land in a state where it could be plowed (that is a long story itself.) then, I took a 6 foot landscape rake, and took off two tines, left one, took off two, left one, so I ended up with a tine every 6 or 7 inches. I then used this modified rake to make 7 inch slits in the ground, basicall as deep as the rake will make (which is NOT deep at all since the rake don't penetrate like a chisel plow or cultivator will)
I then just broadcast the seed with a 3 pt spreader. Waht happens is the first rain that comes floats the seed down into those 7 inch spaced trenches, and washes dirt down over top of it. all the seed gets covered, nice germination. people ask me if I had a grain drill put it in. works for wheat, buckwheat, and clover too. hope this helps someone.
also, if you just broadcast, you'll get pretty good germination, but birds will eat a large percentage and the sun will bake out the rest before the roots can find water.
I bought 60 acres of "cutover." cutover normally looks horrible, with stumps, slash, and volunteer trees coming up so fast you can't control it all.
My plan was to block it off and turn it to pasture one piece at at time, in my spare time. that is working pretty well.
problem is, I don't have a grain drill for planting grass/wheat. so here's what I did.
first, i got the land in a state where it could be plowed (that is a long story itself.) then, I took a 6 foot landscape rake, and took off two tines, left one, took off two, left one, so I ended up with a tine every 6 or 7 inches. I then used this modified rake to make 7 inch slits in the ground, basicall as deep as the rake will make (which is NOT deep at all since the rake don't penetrate like a chisel plow or cultivator will)
I then just broadcast the seed with a 3 pt spreader. Waht happens is the first rain that comes floats the seed down into those 7 inch spaced trenches, and washes dirt down over top of it. all the seed gets covered, nice germination. people ask me if I had a grain drill put it in. works for wheat, buckwheat, and clover too. hope this helps someone.
also, if you just broadcast, you'll get pretty good germination, but birds will eat a large percentage and the sun will bake out the rest before the roots can find water.