My Biggest Issue: Planting Depth

GloryDaysDesign

5 year old buck +
Considering that most weekend QDM warriors do not own large farming equipment, how can I figure out how to accurately plant my seed at the correct depth. I feel as if I put so much work into getting my soil ready, only to bury my seed or not bury it enough. How can the Food Plotter with an ATV, Harrow, ATV Disc (ground hog maxx) accurately plant their seed?
 
What kind of seed are you trying to plant? Big seeds like corn and soybeans need to be covered by an inch or two of soil, so spread them and then run over them with your disc to cover them. you will have some seeds planted too shallow, so run the plot over with a cultipacker if you have one or just back and forth with the ATV tires. That will help get good seed to soil contact with the shallow seeds and with a little rain they will sprout too.

For small seeds like clover, disk the ground up, run a drag over it and then cultipack or run over with ATV tires. Then spread the small seed on top of the soil and run over again with a cultipacker or ATV tires. Small seeds can be buried too deep fairly easily, so pack the soil before planting. Big seeds are pretty forgiving, so just do your best to put some dirt on them and they'll likely be fine.
 
I plant with only using both of those implements. This is how I do it, I work the dirt with the disk, spread my fert/lime if needed, then I drag the plot to smooth it out. It can get really uneven with the groundhog max. Then if I am planting small seeds like clover and brassicas, I seed with a shoulder spreader. As long as the soil isn't sandy... that's all I do. I try to time it before a rain. The soil should be loose enough that rain pushes the seed down. If I am planting cereal grains then after broadcasting the seed I just drag it and cover the seed after broadcast. Same with soybeans unless the soil is hard to cover... then I will set the disk high and disk the beans in. I have had really good luck with these methods. Occasionally if I feel like there is potential for the seed to wash way in a rain or turkeys have the chance to eat it before it grows, I will run over the plot with my atv tires to cultipack the seed into the ground.
 
Considering that most weekend QDM warriors do not own large farming equipment, how can I figure out how to accurately plant my seed at the correct depth. I feel as if I put so much work into getting my soil ready, only to bury my seed or not bury it enough. How can the Food Plotter with an ATV, Harrow, ATV Disc (ground hog maxx) accurately plant their seed?

You don't worry about it. Planting depth affects germination rates. Therefore, farmers with precise equipment use lower seeding rates per acre to achieve the same plant density. Most food plotters simply broadcast seed. We just use the higher seeding rates recommended for broadcasting. Most of the seeds we plant don't require depth. Cereal, clovers, brassica, and many more of the seeds we use require very little depth. In fact, one technique that folks often use is to surface broadcast cover crops into standing soybeans once they yellow. In a case like this, the planting depth is zero. Seed germinates on top of the soil. In many cases, rain pounding on the seed and splashing it is enough to get good germination.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I plant my bigger seeds (all grains, soybeans and corn) by discing deeply, broadcasting seed, dragging to insure good seed to soil contact and cultipacking (either with a cultipacker or run an ATV over the entire plot). With smaller seed (brassicas and clovers), I disc, cultipack really well, broadcast the seed and cultipack again. Small seed only need seed to soil contact to germinate. Most plots fail for one main reason, planting seed to deep. As Jack said, most seed that we plant will be productive by broadcasting on the ground and allowing the rain to do the rest.
 
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