Cultipacker needed?

[schiker]

Last year I used a worn out pulverizer to loosen some red clay. Next I chain harrowed and spread seed. Lastly turned over my chain drag to cover the seed but it pulled all the soft stuff off of the high spots and clumped the grass some too. My chain drag's teeth are short and I wish I would have left it feet down but then might have covered the seed up too much ???? If you use a fence don't go too heavy and depends on soil and how deep the soft is. I think in my case a cultipacker would have been better and not moved the little bit of scratching I did.

 

[LHS Inc]

I agree that a cultipacker is the best way to set the seed in a well prepared plot.

Anyone ever use a crowsfoot packer? It's more for breaking up clumps of dirt behind a disc but I've used it in the place of a cpacker and it worked good. I guess you could call it the cpakers first cousin.

Yeah those cpackers are outrageously priced so until I can get a good deal on one I'll stick with the crow.

Waiting on delivery of a KK II 60" Rototiller for my foodplotting, looking forward to a nice seed bed.

 

[Agrantina]

Not much else can be said for a cultipacker-but I agree-- I used drags and disc and BY far the cultipacker works great. For larger seed- I till and cultipack them in the softer dirt. For small seeds (clover) cultipack dirt first- seed and then cultipack again. I have found that it really makes a difference. When planting white clover at $100+ for 50lbs bag I want the stuff to grow right... I bought some older wheels and made this one.

AndyG

 

[foggy1111]

Yankee ingenuity packer on the cheap?

I've often wondered about a simple 4 wheeler packer design. If a person took a pair of wide 4 wheeler tires and mounted them close together (side by side) on an axel.....and filled the tires 80% full with water or ww wiper juice......and pulled them dead center behind your 4 wheeler. Would you not have a good 4' packer on the cheap?

I suppose you could add more tires / wheels....kinda like the asphalt pavers use....no?

 

[Agrantina]

foggy, I made a single roller (below) and it did o.k- but the problem is that a single roller can hit high spots in the dirt and not press the seed down on the edges of the roller. A cheap multi tire one would do the same thing I bet? The packer I made has a single axle that is on bearings BUT the wheels also can spin on the axle. The wheels can also float up and down 1/2 inch or so on the axle allowing them to move up and down to conform to the field as you pull it.- I ended up buying enough wheels to make 2 packers and selling one to offset my cost on the 3pt one I kept. I might regret selling the ATV pull one?: