Ideas on planter for pumpkins

[DieselPower]

There's a pumpkin grower fairly close to me and I have seen him use one of these Burch planters.

Burch Farm implements, Inc.

 

[gary pate]

Good morning MBoulais: I've read your post and am really depressed. Nothing that you've done but rather my own stupidity. My wife ask me to plant some pumpkins for the grand kids to make jack-o-latterns out of. Well I figured that if you wanted them to be jack-o-latterns then you would surely need to plant them at night. Otherwise they will grow up thinking they were just pumpkins... "Just kidding". A couple of questions poped in my head while reading your post. 1. How are you putting the fertilize out? 2. Do you have help available? I was thinking about taking 2 car rims, 16" probally, weld you a 2 inch pipe cap laying down long ways on one rim on the inside of the rim. mount or weld the two rims on a platform with a pilot bearing on a shaft where the wheels would turn freely, on the front of the platform weld a piece of angle iron at an angle on both sides of the platform weld a bolt or shaft to each piece of angle iron. these will be used to add a disc blade to each side to make the hills.You could hand drop the fertilize just before the disc makes the hill. Then drop the seed in the 2 " pipe cap. When the cap comes in contact with the ground it will make a hole for the seeds to fall into. Then the other rim will roll over the seed and cover and pack the ground. This rim would probally work better weighted a little. Mount you a seat on the platform for your helper to sit on. This could be mounted on the 3 point hitch and could even have wheels at the back to support the weight. Just an idea. Maybe it will be of some help to you.

 

[Luremaker]

I just noticed this thread. I planted between 4000 and 5000 pumpkin seeds this month. Most were planted using a precision planter. It spaces the seeds irregularly. A little thinning is required after the seeds germinate. Here is the link to my post on how I planted my seed.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/102226-creating-1-acre-pumpkin-patch.html

 

[ergoman]

my amish buddy planted 5 acres this year. He sealed all the seed slots on a couple of extra plates for his JD 2 row with an epoxy then dremilled out the right size slot for his seeds. He said it ended up cracking 1/2 way through fut continued to work good enouph.

 

[FULLPULL]

Here in Ky we have thousands of tobbaco setters on the market its a shame .You might make a hydraulic rake to make a hill as the setter is still moving just a thought. We used the to set tomato plants and such years back. You could use papper to wrap the seed in to help the planting.

 

[troweller]

The tobacco setters are the way to go, very versitile you can plant a lot of different crops with one. I just got one, it is the prize in my rusty collection.
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/artifact.aspx?id=tbz

 

[mboulais]

I am now thinking about just buying one and planting in rows.

I found these in an add in hobby farm magazine...

Seeder, seeders

They even have a transplanter for those peatpots.

 

[DMF]

You can usually find JD 71 planters on ebay for around $400 to $500...I'm sure these could be easily adapted to what you want to do.

 

[mboulais]

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...

That link I posted has machines for planting seedlings in peat pots.

I am not familiar with Magic Lantern, I grew Howden Biggie, Conneticut fields, Cinderella, and few others including a small white pumpkin two years ago. I don't recall the name of the white one other than it had moon in the name. This year mostly using seeds collected from harvested fruit, most likely Howden biggie and conneticut fields. I am also growing a few hills of atlanitic dill (for bigger fruit) and some golden hubbard squash, ornamental gourds, and I am trying some Jack O' Lanterns.

 

[mboulais]

You can usually find JD 71 planters on ebay for around $400 to $500...I'm sure these could be easily adapted to what you want to do.

Yeah, I was watching one that went for less than $400 even after shipping. I am waffling on spending money on that. I really want a tiller too, and that may be more important. I am thinking about a narrow tiller and letting the tractor compact the aisles between the rows. A 4 foot tiller behind my 6' wide tractor would leave about 3' of tilled soil between rows and weeds would have a tougher time in the aisles.