John Deere B Grain Drill

dieselscout80 · Jan 30, 2012

Can a John Deere B Grain Drill seed/drill fescue without having a separate grass seeder box?

dieselscout80 · Jan 30, 2012

dieselscout80 said:
Can a John Deere B Grain Drill seed/drill fescue without having a separate grass seeder box?

Can someone move this to the attachement forum I oops'd.

flusher · Jan 31, 2012

dieselscout80 said:
Can a John Deere B Grain Drill seed/drill fescue without having a separate grass seeder box?

Grass seed is pretty difficult to seed through the fertilizer box since the seed is so tiny. You can try to cover the input to the seed cups with some sort of cover with a hole or slit and see if it works. Of course, the fescue will be dropped in rows along the direction of travel instead of in a solid line side to side unless you rig up some type of seed chute to spread the seed in a line.

I restored an old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers) a few years ago. Use it to plant oats.

I used the two JD grass seeder boxes that came with the drill to make a drop seeder that I use to seed the hayfield with cover crop (lana vetch-ryegrass mix).

I welded up a frame to attach to the 3pt hitch on my 2008 Mahindra 5525. Added the grass boxes, drive wheels/chain/axles, and a pair of two-bounce seed chutes to spread the seed uniformly in a lateral line about 10-ft wide.

Good luck

mlauk · Jan 31, 2012

Flusher, nice job on both. How much did you spend on the drop seeder versus buying a 3 point spreader?

dieselscout80 · Jan 31, 2012

flusher said:
Grass seed is pretty difficult to seed through the fertilizer box since the seed is so tiny. You can try to cover the input to the seed cups with some sort of cover with a hole or slit and see if it works. Of course, the fescue will be dropped in rows along the direction of travel instead of in a solid line side to side unless you rig up some type of seed chute to spread the seed in a line.

I restored an old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers) a few years ago. Use it to plant oats.

View attachment 249079 View attachment 249080 View attachment 249081 View attachment 249082

I used the two JD grass seeder boxes that came with the drill to make a drop seeder that I use to seed the hayfield with cover crop (lana vetch-ryegrass mix).

View attachment 249083 View attachment 249084 View attachment 249085

I welded up a frame to attach to the 3pt hitch on my 2008 Mahindra 5525. Added the grass boxes, drive wheels/chain/axles, and a pair of two-bounce seed chutes to spread the seed uniformly in a lateral line about 10-ft wide.

Good luck

How are you getting good ground to seed contact? Are you dragging after spreading the seed?

I always thought there was a seperate box for fertilizer.

My understanding is a drill will have a seed box, a fertilizer box and a seperate grass seed box (and maybe even a 4th box for small seeds ie clover).

flusher · Feb 1, 2012

dieselscout80 said:
How are you getting good ground to seed contact? Are you dragging after spreading the seed?

I always thought there was a seperate box for fertilizer.

My understanding is a drill will have a seed box, a fertilizer box and a seperate grass seed box (and maybe even a 4th box for small seeds ie clover).

Use a 10 ft wide cultipacker to press the seed into the soil.

My old 10 ft wide Minneapolis Moline P3-6 drill has two large boxes (5 ft wide) for fertilizer, large size seed or a mix of both and two small 5 ft wide grass seed boxes. Modern grain drills come with more boxes and a more advanced design for spreading seed and fertilizer.