Precision Garden Seeder (1001-B)

Works as it should in well-tilled soil. Go slow with even down force. The handle is a little short for me, I'm 6'2". Takes a little getting the hang of, but seed spacing, especially on the larger seeds, was good. Smaller seeds were hit and miss.

My previous review wasn't harsh but it wasn't very positive. The company reached out to me and offered to refund my money if I wanted to return it, even though, I'm sure, it was way past my return by date. I printed off the return codes and got ready to return it.....I thought. I mulled over it a bit.....looked over it a bit more......and decided to keep it. I think it's going to be a great asset to my garden. I think my previous expectations were a bit too high as I was expecting something much heavier an beefier but as I think through it, I believe the light weight aluminum is a much wiser use of materials for the type use it is made for. It's perfect for small and large gardens, easy to move around and works as it should. YES, I would recommend this to other gardeners. My previous review is below so you can see the difference. The company did everything they could to satisfy me and that is worth so much to me!! Thank you Earthway! I was expecting something a bit sturdier and precise but it still works ok. Not sure the seed cartridges are all that accurate. I planted a few rows of corn with it and it worked well enough. I also planted a few rows of okra and they worked alright as well. It just seems a bit flimsy to me, but maybe I'm being too picky. I think it might be better if I had a really large multi rowed garden......but I don't. I'd recommend it to someone that had pounds and pounds of seed to plant for sure!!

I am very satisfied with the earthway preicision seeder I bought. We have used the seeder to plant 1750 row feet of vegetables and companions this spring already. I have planted Punmkins, squash, gourds, dill, buckwheat, sweet corn, borage, and nasturtiums with the 12 seed plates I purchased. thoughts: This seeder seems to work best with a larger amount of seed in the hopper than you really need. I do not think that dumping one seed packet in the hopper would work very well. This is especially true for tiny seeds like carrots and radishes. Luckily I overbought this year and it was not a problem. If you are buying 1/4lb at a time this seeder is for you. With each different seed I planted it worked the best to set the seeder on a table, install a seed plate, dump some seed in, spin the front drive wheel watching the seed plate, checking to make sure it was picking up a seed or two in each little scoop. Using this method I was able to plant everything from dill to nasturtiums. I did not pay much attention to the names on the seed plates, just test run each seed with a couple different plates to find the best match. I also found that selecting the seed plate that just barely holds one seed works well on the table, but not so good in the field. if the little seed cup on the plate is almost too small, the vibrations of walking and the seeder bouncing over stuff will shake some of the seeds out. Pick the next bigger one, you will be happier with the results. This seeder works the best when planting in freshly tilled earth. My garden is large 55 x 300, so I drug the entire plot with a spike drag a few times to break up clods and debris before planting. This seemed to leave a firm but yielding seed bed that planted nicely. I did try and plant my sweet corn in some minimally worked ground, and found it hard to keep a straight row bouncing off the clods. I plant 25 or more varieties of cucurbits, (pumkins, gourds, and squash). The seeds vary from the very large to very small, all of which are flat seeds. This seeder's plate system seems to pick up seeds that are closer to round the best. My wife and I, along with some advice from the local hardware store guy came up with a solution. I removed the seed plate, and taped together a piece of plastic 3/4" tubing with a funnel on top attached to a copper 45 fitting and a short piece of pipe that I flattened with a hammer so it would fit snugly in the seeder's drop slot. After fitting the funnel/tube/copper elbow contraption on the seeder I just taped it onto the handles with electricians tape. We marked the front wheel with a piece of orange tape to judge spacing, set the correct depth, and pushed the seeder. My wife walked alongside me and plunked the seeds into the funnel when the tape came around. The seeds would plinko through the funnel contraption and through the seeder, drop tube onto the ground and be coverd and packed just as a normal. This mod saved my wife and I lots of time and bending over. a 300 ft row took 10 minutes to plant. All in all The $100 or so bucks I spent to get the seeder and the extra plates has been well worth it. I will enjoy this seeder for many years to come.

Being a miserable , hardnosed mechanic type , i can say too ; you will like it !! NOW 2 small problems need be noted . first ; the soil has to be garden quality . it wont work in trash and clumps well (no planter can). good soil prep , near effortless planting. second ; for some reason certain types of PEAS have nasty tendency to grab, roll and POP out of planter . i polished the hopper surface and walk slower to good results. As for PLACING seeds , it works excellent !! depth easy to adjust , mechanism smooth , marker works , lite weight and strong enough . there are other planters bragging "ALL STEEL" .... now carry it back and forth thru a large garden and brag about your "ALL STEEL" ; no thanx . 2 seazuns now and i am thinking of purchasing a SECOND unit and mounting both on toolbar behind my cub cadet .... OK , other seeds planted ; turnips , lettuce , beans , beets and all planted well . the "Bayou Gardener" has other tips on youtube very helpful. planter does over-plant, HOWEVER , it is GOOD as birds and germination problems are overcome . visibility of planter workings is FANTASTIC . you can watch each and every seed ; no guessing . well worth them $$ ; "buy it , you'll like it !!"

I put off buying a seed planter for years because of all the negative reviews. Finally, I decided I had to do something because my back hurt so much last year from planting, so I decided to take the risk with Amazon due to their return policy. I can't believe how easy this thing is to use and how well it works, so I am perplexed at the negative reviews. It even worked perfect in the rocky parts of the garden where I haven't yet gotten to screen it. But what used to take me hours of back breaking work, I got done in about 20 minutes. And besides that, I used about 1/3 the amount of seeds I used to use because it spaces them so efficiently. Hand planting I wasted so much seed because it just comes out, and then I had to spend more time thinning the plants. The different plates exchange easily for the different size seeds, and since some seeds aren't marked on the plates, you may have to experiment a little bit to see which one picks up the seed you are using best. For a $100 machine, it is well built; it is light enough to be carried to the garden by a 65 year old, but sturdy enough to do its job well. Now, after 2 months, I have to edit my review. There were large areas of rows that the seeds never came up - and I am not sure why this occurred. There was no way to really confirm that the small seeds were coming out, and also whether they were being planted at the correct depth. But much of my small carrot and cabbage seeds never came up, and the string beans were spotty. In my second planting, went over the rows of string beans three times to assure the seeds were being planted, and these rows came up ok. So I would say to go over the row several times to be sure that the seeds are being planted. And my experience is that is not useable for very small seeds.

used for over 2000 ft of rows so far. we garden large. good = Very Very fast planting time. I can put in the row as fast as I can walk plus the time to empty and fill the bin with seed and change the planter disk. I did 500 ft of beets in less than 10 minutes from the time I opened the seed package to the time I put the leftover seeds back. Works great for consistent depth and spacing. leaves a nice straight row if you can walk straight. Lots of seed plates to choose from. Bad = finding the correct seed plate may be challenging. for example I often found myself using the next smaller size plate rather than the plate labeled for the seed I was using. I found that using the "beet plate" for beets was double and triple planting my seed, so I went to the next size smaller plate and it worked just fine. so if not careful this can be a Tremendous seed waster. You will over or under plant... but that is the price of speed. expect to thin the row. The seeds would bind under the plate, especially peas, and pop out of the bin rather than go where they were supposed too. I remedied this by spraying armor all car protectant on all the plates and the bin, it made them slick and the seeds no longer would bind behind the seed plate and the side of the bin. Probably any wax type spray would work also, or possibly light kitchen oil... You need to have more seed than you plan to use... when you get down to a hand full of seed in the bin it will no longer feed into the plate consistently and you will have misses. This is a bulk seed planter buying it to plant one small walmart packet of seed at a time will not work well for this set up. Conclusion = when used correctly, on large rows with lots of seed, waxed seed discs and box, proper depth, and garden is tilled well, light and soft and no thick organic matter- finely chopped will be ok but long grasses in the soil will clog the planter. This machine is a 5 star. Without the proper conditions you will have more difficulty with this.

First time using one of these and it's a must for planting corn. Did a great job and the wife is happy.

Quite a few things wrong with this unit, so here's a list... Soil needs to be perfectly smooth - Rocks, weeds, compost will all collect in front of the seed chute and stop it dead. It's not enough to disc your plot. You need screened topsoil... or sand. Does not cover seeds - the chain device is useless. You have to go back over each row or the birds will get your seed. You have to push down HARD to make the front wheel roll, and it still slips - It really should be made with a big heavy front wheel for momentum. Think of a bicycle wheel. Seeds pop out of the hopper - The motion of the disk in the hopper makes seeds pop out of the top. When this happens, the hopper looks like a pop corn popper. It's so ridiculous that I was SURE I lost the hopper cover somewhere. Surely they would have thought of a hopper cover, right? They didn't. No cover. The row marker is useless. Trying to use it just adds more drag to your already difficult forward momentum. Forget this feature. Sometimes it gets the spacing right, sometimes it doesn't get any seeds, sometimes it gets 3. The only way I can see this working is in a DEEP, well defined furrow and then cover over it manually. That will reduce this thing to just dropping seeds and poorly spaced at that, which I'm sure I can match with a little aim.

Seeds were jumping out. Very limited use and not so effective in wet soil

L'ho pagata molto in confronto ad un altra che avevo visto su un altro sito ma con la beffa che questa non ha il copri vassoio dove si inseriscono i semi quindi rischio di farli cadere cosa che tra l'altro mi è già successa.

Just tried this out for the first time, it was impressive, my wife said after seeing it in action that she wouldn't have minded if it cost 200, it plated 2000 beetroot seeds on a plot, I was very happy, the discs can sometimes be bigger then the seeds so you have to work them out as you good, I'm thinking of buying the additional plates because I think they give you blanks too, well I'm glad I bought it as I stops the back ache I suffer.

My wife loved this gift. We have yet to test it out long term. Well built, simple design that will help up save time and our backs in the garden. It is very light weight, but seems strong. well worth the investment.

Seed plates are a little finicky, sometimes picking up 2 seeds at a time and sometimes not picking up a seed at all. Does save a lot of time and bending over pushing seed in the ground.