I am surprised you had problems with your Earthway. We were the New Zealand importers for 30 plus years, in the early days we would get 3 to 4, 20 foot containers crammed with them, each year.
They ended up with about 15 to 18 different seed plates, including a blank that you could shape to your requirements.
[experimenting planting potatoes was one]
The trick of blanking every second hole was also well known, but the difference between row length when planted by hand compaired to by Earthway was also very large, maybe we have generous fingers,
I have seen in Holland a home made set of 10 to 12 seeders set up in a frame to plant I think onion seed behind a tractor.
There was a fertilizer attachment that hung on the handles and spewed feritilizer on top of the seeds before the chain covered them up as well.
The Weeder/cultivator they had in the early days to combat the Planet Jnr wasn't strong enough and never made much progress down here.
There was also a tractor pulled seeder for a while, again to combat the Planet Jnr, it went the same way as the weeder.
The soil in this region trends toward gravel and clay. Rocks grow better than corn.
We even had a 'rock picker" to help the gardeners, it dug abut 18 inches deep, dug everything up, the dirt fell through a barred web back to where it came from, the rocks, up 30 to 36 inches, carried on to a side conveyor into a truck.
Worked perfectly, just come back ever third or fourth year to get the next crop of stones.
Stones grow better that weeds, and are harder to get rid off.
Ha ha! It's probably just me @len.george! I do get that thing out every year and make use of it, and it is definitely a good piece of equipment to have around. I'm just a bit of a goof sometimes! lol!
The Dutch are so ingenious! I have seen people using the seeders attached together to plant multiple rows at once, wonder how that goes for them when they hit a rock or dirt clump😜.
Maybe my problem is that I have tiny hands and less generous fingers. That is some good to know information right there, and speaking to information, I am so glad you are on Steemit, seriously, I could read what you write all day! Thank you so much for your comment, I always enjoy them and get a kick out of everything that you have seen, done, and experienced 😊. Hope you have an amazing day!!!
thank you for your reply. It is good to know somebody is reading my BS.
The ganged planters are used in rotary hoed, use year after year fields,
altho we have used them on the headland [where a tractor turns around to start the next row] of wheat fields to grow corn very sucsesfully, that was anything but smooth, kiwi inginuity, tape a plastic bag over the top of the seed hopper, nothing falls out, and you can see when it needs more seed.
That is awesome! Baling twine, plastic bags, and tape! A veritable trifecta of to-do ingenuity! I wish you had pictures of some of this seeding that you speak of, kiwi ingenuity in action, especially of someone peering through the plastic bag to see if they were out of seed. I am all for the simplest solution for getting something to work so I can get to work. You have definitely seen things for sure!
New Zealand was my husband's uncle's favorite country, and the man tromped all around the world as a Marine from the late 30's through the late 60's. It sounds beautiful!
And if you mean "Bodacious Scrawling" when referring to your posts, then I totally agree😉
definitely scrawling, poor Trevor has to read and point out my errors before I am allowed to post. Due to long time use there is a lot of abbreviations in the first attempts. Still why have a son if you can't use him.
I was referring to the product of our nearby town. Bulls.
Heh. Yes, I shall tell my son that tomorrow when we proceed to build our outdoor oven project! That is great though that you have Trevor as a proof reader and editor. I do that for my dear father too. Actually he just talks and I write it down, but close enough.
Ah, I figured that bovine fecal matter was your descriptive intent, but I still think that your posts are far from that, and as my Papa had a hundred head of cows I would like to think that I am somewhat well versed in the identification of said substance!