Using a PTO spreader to overseed/seed

[Bloemie]

I have seeded cover crops, hay fields, pastures, erosion control waterways, spread fertilizer and spread sand on parcels of 1 acre to 20 acres on hillsides and flat as a pancake terrain with a pto seed spreader. IF overseeding I would do it while the ground has some moisture and before a rain, preferably a lighter rain and not a gully washer.

Never hurts to scratch the dirt a little before seeding and after to cover seed in a little. I have overseeded many time and find its better to increase your seed amount 20% over what you would on drilling or working on tilled dirt.

And it spread ok and not dump large chunks and miss others? Did you "buffer" the seed with sand or anything to help get the spread right?

 

[Birdhunter1]

And it spread ok and not dump large chunks and miss others? Did you "buffer" the seed with sand or anything to help get the spread right?

Seed won't be dumped out in large chunks, the gate is only opened so much before it falls onto the spreader and really isn't able to dump a large chunk. The only time that could happen is if you had the gate open and spreader not running and then you would have your spreader full of seed and it would sling out a large swatch of seed.

If spreading lime you could have problems with it being wet and clumping but most have some sort of agitator in the hopper. Which really you could get the same issue with seed but with an agitator I've never had it happen.

 

[Bloemie]

direct drilling into existing pature is getting popular here, google regenerative pasture practices, the seeds are more likely to germinate when drilled into furrows rather than broadcasted, disc seeders do a good job of drilling seeds with minimal disruption to the existing coverage, we just had 8 hectares sown in this method recently and other than the light green lines where the new seed is coming up its difficult to see where the drill went.

last season i harrowed , broadcasted then harrowed again and the strike rate was pretty poor hence why we did it different this year.

I would love a drill, but the reality is that even if I get 33% germination, it take me 20 years to pay for the drill vs using the broadcast spreader. Since I am not cash cropping, the precision of the drill and price just cant be justified. Its just cover crops and over seeding so as long as I get a relatively good spread and 33% germination, I would consider this a success. Just looking for any success stories and lessons learnt doing it the "wrong" way

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

My mother just broadcast some seeds in the back yard by hand. Grass came up just as good as with all that tractor work. Run a 14' disc over it lightly, seed roller. So now we just spread seeds. Comes up just fine.

 

[koshari]

I would love a drill, but the reality is that even if I get 33% germination, it take me 20 years to pay for the drill vs using the broadcast spreader. Since I am not cash cropping, the precision of the drill and price just cant be justified. Its just cover crops and over seeding so as long as I get a relatively good spread and 33% germination, I would consider this a success. Just looking for any success stories and lessons learnt doing it the "wrong" way

i understand the financial restraints and fact is it was these that led to our decision, pasture seed is $250 a bag here and i wasted time , diesel and 1000 on 4 bags last year, can you get a contractor to sow rather than buying a drill? ours charged $100/hectare to sow.

 

[Farmer495]

Grass seed is $175CDN for 25kg bag, over double from two years ago, too expensive to waste.

I never had any luck broadcasting by hand or even running the drill over sod to over seed. I just turn the land and start fresh.

I have a grass seed insert for my 3pt Vicon but never used it, I spent $200 on usable drill with grass seed box at auction.

 

[mo1]

Has anyone here used a PTO spreader to seed cover crops and over seed into existing pasture. I am looking to "introduce" some new seeds into an older pasture and dont want to rip up the old grass and considering using it for a small cover crop spreader as well on plowed soil. I dont spread much ferts so buying it for ferts alone is not worth it.

Yes, that is done frequently here and works well as long as you are seeding something that will reliably germinate if broadcast, like most grasses and clover. You can broadcast some of the small grains like wheat for a cover crop and it will work too. Going over the field after seeding with a heavy chain drag flipped over to the "smooth" side, or a heavy roller, can help with germination.

Fertilizer in any quantity is usually spread with a fertilizer buggy the co-op lends you when you buy fertilizer from them, or with a fertilizer truck. A 3 point spreader doesn't hold very much fertilizer.

 

[DJ54]

Frost seeding works best for me on pastures. I use a regular seed spreader called "Seed Easy". made for grass seed, up to Cereal Rye sized seed. It holds around 25 lb. of seed. You can do an image search, and I'm sure numerous pictures will show up. It can be used on any tractor with a PTO shaft, just bolts to the drawbar. You use a piece of straight radiator hose for a PTO shaft. I'd have posted a picture, but when I tried, it said the file was too large.

Frost seeding is done in the early Spring, last 2 weeks of Feb., first 2 weeks of March when the ground is going through the freeze/thaw cycles. The ground honeycombs when it freezes, then mellows down when it thaws, and pulls the seed in covering it. You're basically mimicking Mother Nature. Do a search for Frost Seeding, you should get many hits for it. It's a really simple procedure, just need to figure out what time of year is right for you.

It works well in the hayfield too, but you have to plan several months ahead. I run the disk over it in Nov. during a dry spell to open the surface a bit. Then come Feb./Mar. I seed it. Works very well if it gets cold enough to honeycomb the dirt.

For cover cropping, disk it up, spread seed, then disk with the disc set to a minimal cut to cover seed in early Fall, or for Summer cover crop whenever is right for your location. I also pull a cultipacker behind the disk to press the seed in.

You may want to experiment with the setting on that spreader, it doesn't have to be very wide of an opening for the seed to come out. With the price of seed, hate to see you make one pass across the field, look back, and the spreader is empty. Tried to explain that to an ex-GF 20 years some ago, but she knew what she was doing. And hour later she called sobbing that she'd spread that 50 lb. bag of expensive grass seed in about 100 feet. Gotta' admit, it was a pretty healthy stand of grass.

 

[koshari]

Grass seed is $175CDN for 25kg bag, over double from two years ago, too expensive to waste.

I never had any luck broadcasting by hand or even running the drill over sod to over seed. I just turn the land and start fresh.

I have a grass seed insert for my 3pt Vicon but never used it, I spent $200 on usable drill with grass seed box at auction.

pretty much same boat here, we bought an old connor shea disc drill that needed work ( rodents had ruined the seed cups and they needed replacing) we use that for small sowing ( under 3 hectares) , for large jobs we still get the contractor to do it,

this is 6 weeks in, you can just see the oversewn grass coming through,

 

[koshari]

Has anyone here used a PTO spreader to seed cover crops and over seed into existing pasture. I am looking to "introduce" some new seeds into an older pasture and dont want to rip up the old grass and considering using it for a small cover crop spreader as well on plowed soil. I dont spread much ferts so buying it for ferts alone is not worth it.

see above post for example of oversowing from on existing pasture, you can faintly make out the new seed on the lighter green lines coming through.