New Toy....I mean necessary piece of equipment

HUCKthe1 · Sep 7, 2007

Thats a nice attachment. I have wanted one myself and as you have not seen any 3ph units. I have been watching auctions for an old used one to modify for my needs.

Good luck working with it and good luck keeping it hidden from the wife. Mine is ready to chop my head off for the new box blade i just got last week.

Luremaker · Sep 8, 2007

TNhobbyfarmer said:
... A cultipacker is an ideal attachment to prepare a seedbed for small seeds...

Do you run the cultipacker before and after or just after spreading your seed? Would a regular roller not work as well?

Steve

TNhobbyfarmer · Sep 8, 2007

Luremaker said:
Do you run the cultipacker before and after or just after spreading your seed? Would a regular roller not work as well?

Steve

It can be done either way; however, a food plot specialist in the agriculture dept. at the University of Tennessee recommends culitpacking, sowing the seed and then going over it again with the cultipacker. I assume that is the best scenario. Some people bypass the step of cultipacking prior to seed sowing, and I'm confident that would work well also.

I think a regular roller would work fine, but I also think a specialized piece of equipment like a cultipacker is the best possible way of doing it.

Oleozz · Sep 8, 2007

Don't a lot of small planters have the cultipackers on the front of the machine?
Jerry, what do you use to plant your seeds?

TNhobbyfarmer · Sep 8, 2007

Oleozz said:
Don't a lot of small planters have the cultipackers on the front of the machine?
Jerry, what do you use to plant your seeds?

Some of the small ATV type planters have a built in cultipacker. I don't have any experience with any of those pieces of equipment, but I have my doubts about them. I think anything small enough to be pulled by an ATV is too small to do to much; however, I think there are many sold. There have been threads on TBN discussing the ATV stuff.

I actually plant most of the small seed using hand seeders. I have a cyclone type seeder for larger seeds like oats and wheat, but the small seeds are just too small use in those type spreaders. Also, I have a JD 71 two row planter for corn, soybeans and sunflowers.

Grrrr · Sep 8, 2007

I have a very similar implement to your mounted cutilpacker except mine is towed like a lawn roller.

I think they are more commonly know as cambridge rolls in the UK.

We use ours just before we reseed a grass field. We plow, then roll with a normal roller to level things back out, then power harrow and then go over with the cambridge rolls.

They leave lots of grooves in the field that the seed falls into.

We then seed the field with a broadcast spreader and then go over with a flat roller to press all the ridges back down again.

This leaves the seed about 1/2 an inch under the surface.

I have tried using the cambridge rolls (cultipacker) after seding but found that the seeds all grew in lines where the rolls had contacted the ground because these seeds had had more contact with the ground.

Z-Michigan · Sep 8, 2007

In my area the farmers planting corn this year were pulling a cultipacker behind their offset disks and then pulling it again behind their seed drill. None of them planted grass or alfalfa this year so I didn't get a chance to see how they would approach those seeds.

mark.r · Sep 8, 2007

Two questions, anyone have contact infor for purchasing a unit like the one posted?

Second, how would flipping a chaing harrow upside down and pulling bury the seed any deeper than a cultipacker?

john_bud · Sep 8, 2007

It's not a question of deeper. It's a question of tight ground contact. The cultiPACKER packs the soil down tight so the seeds can get moist, stay moist and germinate at the highest rate. Loose ground is great, but many seedlings will dry out and die.

jb