Rotating ride-on seedling planting machine - GIF

[Jon]

Rotating ride-on seedling planting machine.




Previously:

Footstep seed planting technique - GIF
Paperpot chain-fed rapid planter - GIF, video, photos
Potato planter GIF
Rice planting machine GIF
Plant trellis stringing tool - GIF

[mklotz]

Yet another job for social ecology graduates.

[Frank S]

that soil sure looks dry

[ranald]

that soil sure looks dry

Pumping them in, & so dry that it looks a bit like talc & even possibly hydrophobic: but they wouldn't be planting without experience in that soil with the costs of plants & labour of 6 plus overheads.

[Frank S]

Pumping them in, & so dry that it looks a bit like talc & even possibly hydrophobic: but they wouldn't be planting without experience in that soil with the costs of plants & labour of 6 plus overheads.

Yep, I know the feeling. last year the soil in my garden was so dry when it came time to plant that I poured water on it for 2 days before it began to wet up. this year is just the polar opposite we were a bit late in planting due to late morning freezes but some of my corn is nearly chest high. There is an old saying about corn being knee high by the 4th of July At the rate it is growing it should stalk and tassel out by then and begin to ear. But it has rained so much the cotton farmers still haven't been able to plant. Last year they had to take the insurance due to being so dry this year they may have to take the insurance due to being too wet to plant. Mean while I have already had to harvest off all of the radishes and I have fist sized onions just waiting to be eaten. my peppers are not turning out as hot as they should because of too much watering but can't have everything there are a lot of them though.

[ranald]

Yep, I know the feeling. last year the soil in my garden was so dry when it came time to plant that I poured water on it for 2 days before it began to wet up. this year is just the polar opposite we were a bit late in planting due to late morning freezes but some of my corn is nearly chest high. There is an old saying about corn being knee high by the 4th of July At the rate it is growing it should stalk and tassel out by then and begin to ear. But it has rained so much the cotton farmers still haven't been able to plant. Last year they had to take the insurance due to being so dry this year they may have to take the insurance due to being too wet to plant. Mean while I have already had to harvest off all of the radishes and I have fist sized onions just waiting to be eaten. my peppers are not turning out as hot as they should because of too much watering but can't have everything there are a lot of them though.

My dad always reminded me of tide waits for no man. Similarly MOTHER NATURE cares for no man or beast. We can just try to harness her but its interesting how many animals/birds know so long beforehand, except for fire.

[Frank S]

My dad always reminded me of tide waits for no man. Similarly MOTHER NATURE cares for no man or beast. We can just try to harness her but its interesting how many animals/birds know so long beforehand, except for fire.

My Grandpa always said it will only rain where and when nature needs it to rain. there is never any rain during a drought and all droughts end with a flood and sometimes a flood will be a signal that there is going to be a drought.

[ranald]

My Grandpa always said it will only rain where and when nature needs it to rain. there is never any rain during a drought and all droughts end with a flood and sometimes a flood will be a signal that there is going to be a drought.

The older generations knew so much more and tried to & did pass the knowledge on to some who understood/listened. That was before we started the chemical/drug thing to "fix" everything ( not saying that that isn't appropriate at times). I have seen Drought ravaged land with a very green patch/plot where someone has used better practices to manage their farm: example of part of the practice being trees along riparian areas as well as scattered clumps preventing erosion & salinity raising its ugly head.

I used lots of our native Lomandra when regenerating my little plot: these grass like plants hang on like billeo during floods, even when only a couple of months old, preventing erosion. "Water Watch" were amazed that my creek water was much cleaner than the stuff upstream from the road culvert (water only seeps around/under unless reasonable rain occurs which is fairly often here in the coastal hinterland. Also a couple of neighbours with contiguous land have done some regen + farm forrestry helping biodiversity: grazing is less than before & some stock is excluded from the small creek .



Pic shows a very narrow creek part with small one about 4 mths old in foreground.
To right is one about a year old.
The clumps reach about 2 metres high when mature & spread to over a metre dia.
I've seen freshly planted ones almost pulled out but hanging on by a couple of roots.

Most of us are aware of successful projects like Yellowstone, and I must say I get a grin when I think of the chap who monitors rare & endangered species in the Appalacian trail name is A. Weed. In Australia we have a coal company, Adani, which has breached laws a couple of times before even receiving the "official" go ahead to start mining. Secret hand shakes?
Unfortunately we have some terrible laws against whistle blowers of wrongful practices like that of our ATO.
Thankfully many worldwide governments & organisations & individuals are taking serouusly that we need to change to more positive practices.Some good heart warming there.

[Frank S]

Due to my having used several wheel barrow loads of droppings and soil from my chicken coop the grass grows greener in the vegetable garden than in the yard. since it hadn't fully composted over the winter. My combat to this is to simply pull the weeds then with a flat spade I am gradually removing some of the grass between the rows then using it as sod plugs for bare spots in the yard so far I am having good results the grass gradually becoming removed from the garden and the yard becoming covered in places where there never was any grass. It's a lot of work doing it this way rather than just tilling and cultivating between the rows but what the heck I have a built in sod farm why not take advantage of it. We've fortunately had enough rain fall this spring that the grass is not sucking all of the moisture out of the ground from the planted crops. There is an old saying up north in the corn belt that your corn should be knee high by the 4th of July most of mine is knee high and some is chest high. I expect some of it will be tasseled and begin to ear by the 4th of July.
My wife asked my why I didn't do like everyone else and spray round up of some other chemical to kill of the grass but I like my way better. Regardless of how much produce we get we have already had more come out of it than last year and this fall I plan on doing the same as last winter then I will cover the area with landscape screen after tilling it several times the screen will allow rain to go through and the screen will prevent the wind from eroding then next spring the ground will already be ready

[ranald]

Due to my having used several wheel barrow loads of droppings and soil from my chicken coop the grass grows greener in the vegetable garden than in the yard. since it hadn't fully composted over the winter. My combat to this is to simply pull the weeds then with a flat spade I am gradually removing some of the grass between the rows then using it as sod plugs for bare spots in the yard so far I am having good results the grass gradually becoming removed from the garden and the yard becoming covered in places where there never was any grass. It's a lot of work doing it this way rather than just tilling and cultivating between the rows but what the heck I have a built in sod farm why not take advantage of it. We've fortunately had enough rain fall this spring that the grass is not sucking all of the moisture out of the ground from the planted crops. There is an old saying up north in the corn belt that your corn should be knee high by the 4th of July most of mine is knee high and some is chest high. I expect some of it will be tasseled and begin to ear by the 4th of July.
My wife asked my why I didn't do like everyone else and spray round up of some other chemical to kill of the grass but I like my way better. Regardless of how much produce we get we have already had more come out of it than last year and this fall I plan on doing the same as last winter then I will cover the area with landscape screen after tilling it several times the screen will allow rain to go through and the screen will prevent the wind from eroding then next spring the ground will already be ready

Great stuff Frank. Your produce should be very tasty. Manual control of weeds/grass is always more physical and time consuming than mechanical & chemical. Fruit & veg always has more flavour when no sprays are used=esp corn=yum, straight off the cob. Salivating just thinking about it: who needs pavlov? Some & most veg & fruit at our local supermarket have very little or no odour and no taste due to irridation or spraying.

During the last couple of hours, my neighbour was puttering around our boundary with spray, despite strong breezes of about 10 knots & gusts double that: she stopped when I went out and called our dogs. I didn't smell the spray so was probably round up/glyphosate and not something stronger like Amacide. Strangely she had moved her precious horses to another paddock but had moved the cows into that one. (My car was borrowed/lent so I guess she thought no one was home.) Now it is raining as predicted. So the earth will have most of the residual runoff. The whole boundary will open up its seed bank of mostly weeds. Old farmers truth=one year of seeding & 7 years of weeding.