Ideas on planter for pumpkins

[mboulais]

I am mulling over how to build a device to plant pumpkins. This year I will only have 80 hills, but I want to get up to 150 - 200 hills next year and up to 400 hills in a couple years. We hand planted over 600 hills in 2005 with about 5 people and I don't want to do it that way again.

These are my requirements:

3 - 5 seeds / hill
1 hill every 6 ft
seeds buried approx. 1.5" deep
3pt attachment
low cost
adjustable to also do 12 or 18" hill spacing for corn.

 

[RonR]

Well, I don't much about planting pumpkins, but here goes.

I'm assuming you have worked all the soil up, so it is ready to plant, by using a tiller/disc/harrow/plow/etc.

If you have something that builds the rows (hills) up, do that next. If not, first addition to your tool bar is something that moves the soil to form a hill or ridge.

Behind this, construct a metal wheel with a 6' circumference. At one point in the wheel, weld a 2" diameter tube on the outside about 2" long. This will be where you put the seeds.

Weld an old tractor seat on so a person can sit and reach the seed hole to drop the seeds in. They would either need to hand pack the dirt around the seed or you'd need a small drag or roller to pack the seeds a little.

This could be a two row model, so the operator could drop two rows at once.

Hope this makes sense. If you build it and it works, send pics! (grin)

ron

 

[bdeboer]

I have seen one made from an old Allis Chalmers ground driven corn planter with 2 of every 3 holes on the planter disk caulked shut. I am thinking they drilled the holes out larger for the pumpkin seeds or not. The 3 pt. connection was homemade. Here is a link to something similar on Ebay.

eBay: John Deere 71 One Row Corn Planter, Deer Food Plots (item 270127309466 end time Jun-14-07 14:30:34 PDT)

 

[mboulais]

I am thinking of building on of these keulavators to create hilled rows.

Catalog: Current Buyer's Guide from Agri Supply® - Where we have Something for Everyone for your Farm Shop & Home

And building a planter like the one on Ebay. I can open up the row with a furrower, then deposit the seeds with the as yet to be designed metering device, then close the row with one furrower on each side and a wheel to pack it lightly.

Product Listing -

 

[DMF]

We plant 800 to 1000 by hand now but when we used to do more we (and all the other local farms) used a modified corn planter like bdeboer mentioned with some of the holes caulked shut... Not sure if it's worth it for 80 hills.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I am thinking of building on of these keulavators to create hilled rows.

Catalog: Current Buyer's Guide from Agri Supply® - Where we have Something for Everyone for your Farm Shop & Home

And building a planter like the one on Ebay. I can open up the row with a furrower, then deposit the seeds with the as yet to be designed metering device, then close the row with one furrower on each side and a wheel to pack it lightly.

Product Listing -

I usually plant 2-3000 pumpkin seed each year (different sizes). I plant in hilled rows and usually shotren my top link to raise the front of my 6' disc off the ground. Only the back row of disc are cutting. This creates a hilled row as the back row of disc throws the soil towards the middle. I usually go fast and hit the same row twice and have a nice hilled row to plant in.

My only problem is I plant by hand too. So I am in the market for a planter also.

 

[mboulais]

I usually plant 2-3000 pumpkin seed each year (different sizes). I plant in hilled rows and usually shotren my top link to raise the front of my 6' disc off the ground. Only the back row of disc are cutting. This creates a hilled row as the back row of disc throws the soil towards the middle. I usually go fast and hit the same row twice and have a nice hilled row to plant in.

My only problem is I plant by hand too. So I am in the market for a planter also.

When I come up with something I will share the design. Growing up, I was taught to plant 4 seeds to a hill, with a hill every 6'. Is that how you are planting?

 

[mboulais]

We plant 800 to 1000 by hand now but when we used to do more we (and all the other local farms) used a modified corn planter like bdeboer mentioned with some of the holes caulked shut... Not sure if it's worth it for 80 hills.

It might be worth it when I get back up to 400 hills. Did you have to drill out the holes for the larger seeds? You were evenly spacing the seeds right? not 4 to a hill with 6' hill spacing, or did you find a way to drop 3-5 seeds at a time on that interval?

 

[hunterridgefarm]

"[Growing up, I was taught to plant 4 seeds to a hill, with a hill every 6'. Is that how you are planting?)"



I was also taught to plant in hills. But read a lot on planting pumpkins and most of the articals I read said plant in rows. I found it easier to plant and would be easier to find a planter for rows than hills. Just a standard planter with a seed plate for pumpkins.

If I need to thin them out it is much easier with thinning rows than hills. And even though I planted by hand, one droping seed one covering it went fast. My last planting I had 95% +/- germination rate. Planted 6 different verities from the baby pumpkins that you can hold in the palm of your hand to the larger 30-40 pounders, all in rows. Planted both vine type and semi-bush type pumpkins. I planted the seed 1-2' apart and rows 6-8' apart. The rows also made it easy to culitvate, until runners started.

This is the first year in a long time that I have not planted. Decided since we are building a house on this property and will most likely be moving in when harvest time is here that we should wait and plant next year.

 

[DMF]

It might be worth it when I get back up to 400 hills. Did you have to drill out the holes for the larger seeds? You were evenly spacing the seeds right? not 4 to a hill with 6' hill spacing, or did you find a way to drop 3-5 seeds at a time on that interval?

I used to plant in hills 3 to 5 seeds but that took a long time. With the planter the seeds are dropped in rows, maybe 2' apart +/-?

The way we do it now (you gotta love pumkins for all this work...) is to start them in those little expandable peat cups. The reason we do this is to start seeds in the 115 day time frame we need to have them ready by end of September. Our field does not drain well (working on that problem) and I'm always rushing to get the field plowed, disked, etc. in time; all of this coincides with the timing of our first hay cutting as well. This is a part-time job for us so it's hard to get things done on time. Anyway, starting them in these peat things gives us a week or two extra to let the field drain, warm up, prepared, etc. Then we string a line for the row and plant the seedlings along it. We space seeds and rows based on the info Harris seeds supplies. We grow:
Magic Lantern, 2' apart in 8' spaced rows
Aladdin, 3' apart in 10' spaced rows
Howden Biggie, 40" apart in 12' spaced rows

Takes a good day to plant but it seems to work well this way for us. All the big producers in the area use modified corn planters. I don't think I could do that here unless I get my soil in better condition...my field would never be ready on time...