Overseeder Options

[Anonymous Poster]

I have about six acres of good turf on my property and operate a BX2200. I've always used a piece of.... well, light weight Brinly 40" spiker aerator/drop spreader combo to overseed thin spots and poke holes in my yard each fall. I'm going to be buying a plug aerator this summer and am looking for options for an economy 3PH overseeder or seeder for estate use. I will probably overseed a few yards to help offset the costs but I'm not going top get into the landscape business.

At this point, my First Choice aerator will run about $600 and high-quality drop spreader (Gandy, etc.) would cost about the same or a little more. I wouldn't mind spending around $1,000 to $1,500 bucks but I don't know if such an overseeder exists. Keep in mind this is a BX and the 3PH can't handle all of the medium-large 3PH overseeders out there.

All leads will be rewarded by the personal satisfaction you gain from helping a frustrated tractor owner, and perhaps in the form of good Karma and a fulfilling afterlife or reincarnation.

Andy

 

[pieterv]

Under your cicumstances, I believe I would try to use a low cost Spin Spreader in combination with your intended First Choice Aerator. Those units are avaialble form First Choice as well. They wil work fine on your BX, versus a drop spreader. There are no drawbacks, and the cost is likely half or less. Drop sreaders lost out against spin units about 25 years ago because of working capacity and the overlap problem with drop spreaders: you will have to drive perfect to avoid skips or too much overlap versus a gradual tapered-down pattern on spin spreaders. It would be ideal if could use a drag harrow to increase the seed-soil-contact after seeding. A good shower right after seeding is great as well.

Alternative: rent an Overseeder from a local dealer or rental place. Your BX is likely very marginal for the smallest ones offered.

 

[Soundguy]

Ok, I'll bite on this one, I need all of the good karma I can get.... trying to stave off the flames in the here-after ya' know what i mean.

If you are looking for a broadcast spreader, for the 3pt, but are concerned with weight ( I assume you are, if you are using a drop spreader ), I got one at TSC, it has a 4sided pyramid shaped hopper, with a small agitater at the bottom. Comes with an adjustable lever setup so that you can control the spreader from the tractor seat ( small and medium tractors ). The spreader only weighs like.. ohh 50 pounds ( they make a similar model that is electric for atv's) empty, and is setup for cat 1, but uses the shorter 18" distance between the lower lift arms like that of cat0. The best part is that is has a flexible 'universal' pto shaft. The shaft has a flexible rotating inner core, and a fixed outer shell like that of a hyd hose. The pto end isn't even splined, it is smooth, with a couple of set screws to hold it on.. so if you have some weird pto, etc.. it works fine.

I originally got this to replace my drop spreader that i pulled behind my little yanmar 1700, ( weight on the 3pt issues ).
I've seeded and fertalized my 3 and 10 acre farm, and it works great. Costs about $260.00 or so. Holds about 2 50lbs bags of bahai seed and a couple 33lbs bags of fertalizer. Not sure if you have a TSC in your area, but if you don't, perhaps some of your farm supply stores may have something similar.

I much prefer a broadcast spreader to distribute material, over a drop spreader. I overseed my pasture with rye before it gets cold every year to try to prevent the livestock from de-grassing the area.

Soundguy

<font color=blue>"All leads will be rewarded by the personal satisfaction you gain from helping a frustrated tractor owner, and perhaps in the form of good Karma and a fulfilling afterlife or reincarnation."

 

[AndyInPA]

Thanks for the lead, Soundguy. I can't guarantee the Karma return on your time investment, but your future actions will certainly accrue to counterweigh your past actions and I, too, am hoping that all of my upcoming life actions reconcile my overdrawn Karma account--overdsrawn as a result of a questionable misspent youth.

As to the TSC seeder option, I checked out their catalogue, which I keep at the ready. The description calls the 3 bushel seeder a "Worksaver Seeder" but the picture of the unit shows a label that says something like "Farmstar Equipment." Can you tell me offhand which brand it is? I'd like to find out a little more about the structure and dimensions of the hitch, as well. You mention that its size is a Cat 0 by dimension, but fits the Cat 1. Does it come with Cat 1 pins and a toplink mast? Again, the picure was incomplete.

Perhaps your further assitance might give cause for your afterlife to contain a few supermodels or at least a bit of an erotic tone.

Andy

 

[TresCrows]

Despite exhaustive attempts on my part I have never found such a thing as you want--a small seed drill for overseeding. In fact the average tractor on this board is to small to operate the vast majority of overseeders. No rental place I have ever been to has diddly much less diddly for a BX. I finally gave up and bought a drag harrow and a Heard M-96 PTO spreader. This works well for seeding but a true seed drill in a small tractor size would be a vast improvement.
I drag up the ground, then I spread seed, then I drag a second time to work the seed in. This works best on sparse or bare ground, getting seed into an existing lawn it may not work so well.
Why something powered by the PTO, about 4 feet wide with rtotating blades like the push type you rent at garden centers does not exist is a mystery to me. J

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I am looking for a way to seed about 7 acres of dry land pasture up here in Montana. So far I haven't found a used overseeder or even a place to rent one to use with my TC35. I found a link for Green-Rite overseeders: http://www.wikco.com/Green-Rite.htmlIt appears that the unit can also be used for tilling which would help justify the price. Any opinions or experience with this unit or any other Green-Rite equipment?Dave

 

[AndyInPA]

J: Frustrating that such a useful, and perhaps marketable implement has yet to be offered. Lot's of CUT users out there who might give up $2K cash for something like this. For Heaven's sake, we've got "teens" of thousands wrapped up in our tractors and we want full utility (to use the double entendre). For a property my size, I may be putting down > $300-$400 of seed every year, or two. The capital outlay is justifiable in my case, especially if I pull in a few hundred bucks a year seeding for neighbors and friends.

Make it durable, greasable, and under 600 lbs. and word of mouth on this board alone would create at least a cult demand.

Anyway, the perfect mousetrap might only be 3 1/2 feet wide to keep the weight down. Seeding is a deliberate, typically annual, activity not to be rushed like mowing or fertilizing, so the added time-on-task with a 42-incher wouldn't be an issue with me. I know the pros need to watch time scales, but I don't mind spending a few hours or half-day on a crisp September Saturday sowing fescue or bluegrass.

I'm persistent, if nothing else, so I'll post any findings. I've been told that pulling or pushing a tine de-thatcher after broacasting seed is a reasonably effective way of getting the kernels to the soil. I may end up with Herd or Garber combined with a 5-6 feet-wide de-thatcher if nothing else pans out.

Later,
Andy

 

[AndyInPA]

BTW, I figured out that Worksaver makes and labels some equipment for Farm Star. The TSC unit might be either brand but the same unit. Just under $300. The Herd looks to be a better engineered unit which I'm sure means a better engineered price.

Andy

 

[AndyInPA]

J: Here's a 48" overseeder rated for 18 PTO hp and over but I wouldn't want to pay for this one unless I knew I could recoup the outlay through commercial use. Gandy quality demands the big bucks:

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.gandy.net/deth_ovseed.html>http://www.gandy.net/deth_ovseed.html</A>

Andy

 

[AndyInPA]

Here's a distributor's pricing. Note the separate pricing for the dethatcher deck and overseeder hopper /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wikco.com/Gandyseed.html>http://www.wikco.com/Gandyseed.html</A>