CP42 Pollinator mix Drill settings by chance?

[Brokenbear]

I will be ready in the next few days to plant 3AC of CP42 pollinator mix ..Welter Seed mixed 10 lbs per AC w/5 lbs of live seed and 5 lbs dried rice hulls pre-mixed ..calling for 1/4" planting depth and surprisingly out of the large hopper
43 varieties of flowering plants ..summer long blooming I wonder ??
Any way in trying to save my shoulders from having to calibrate ..has anyone fired this thru a Great Plains and if so your settings maybe written down ? ..

Man I know I'm dreaming here but .......

Bear

 

[somich]

I will be ready in the next few days to plant 3AC of CP42 pollinator mix ..Welter Seed mixed 10 lbs per AC w/5 lbs of live seed and 5 lbs dried rice hulls pre-mixed ..calling for 1/4" planting depth and surprisingly out of the large hopper
43 varieties of flowering plants ..summer long blooming I wonder ??
Any way in trying to save my shoulders from having to calibrate ..has anyone fired this thru a Great Plains and if so your settings maybe written down ? ..

Man I know I'm dreaming here but .......

Bear

Can't help with a setting but, I'm thinking I'll run some of my CP42 seed through the planter, the rest will have to be hand spread. There is such a difference in size I can't bring myself to thinking I can use a mix.

We're doing 47 acres.

 

[Brokenbear]

Well I opened the 30 lb bag today of the CP42 and was shocked ....
It has 43 varieties (if I counted correctly) and seed size ranged from switch grass sized to tubers ..miniature onion shaped about .35/.40 caliber
On my Great Plains 3P606NT using the large box I started with the seed gates at 2, the feed lever on 25 and the gear box on 2, press wheel Tee handles set at 3 holes from the back and the drive wheel axle 2nd hole from the bottom ..WOULD NOT FEED CONSISTENTLY
Next step ..left everything the same except but opened the feed lever to 40 ..
Long story short the 40 setting did not feed enough but kept measuring seed "throw" jumping 15 on each test and arrived at the feed handle setting of 70 giving me 10.1 lb/AC

So the Pollinator plot is in ...and rain tonight ...

Bear

 

[somich]

Well I opened the 30 lb bag today of the CP42 and was shocked ....
It has 43 varieties (if I counted correctly) and seed size ranged from switch grass sized to tubers ..miniature onion shaped about .35/.40 caliber
On my Great Plains 3P606NT using the large box I started with the seed gates at 2, the feed lever on 25 and the gear box on 2, press wheel Tee handles set at 3 holes from the back and the drive wheel axle 2nd hole from the bottom ..WOULD NOT FEED CONSISTENTLY
Next step ..left everything the same except but opened the feed lever to 40 ..
Long story short the 40 setting did not feed enough but kept measuring seed "throw" jumping 15 on each test and arrived at the feed handle setting of 70 giving me 10.1 lb/AC

So the Pollinator plot is in ...and rain tonight ...View attachment 64016View attachment 64015

Bear

Do you think it was a pretty even distribution of your really tiny seeds?

 

[Brokenbear]

Well an honest answer is it is very hard to tell ..my personal method is from time to time when I am coming across some bare ground I will raise my drill without powering down then go look for the end of the press wheel tracks then locate the seed trail in front of the press wheels ..they all seem to have like seed spacing and even when/where it has kicked out a big seed there do not appear to be a "burst" of small seeds accompanying the large seed
I did go back over a few places where I started setting up the drill because my first few passes were way too light
I cannot for the life of me envision a spreader being feasible as the gate opening has to be big enough for the biggest seed also .. not to mention the huge weight/size differences in a pollinator mix ..

Good luck
Bear

 

[Brian662]

I think a pollinator mix is something you would normally want to go through the "native seed box" and not the large box. Glad it worked out for you, maybe the rice hulls helped? Hope everything comes up with the timely rain!

 

[FarmerDan]

Do you think it was a pretty even distribution of your really tiny seeds?

I don't think the bees care about the distribution of plants by type. And, anyhow, I did a couple acres like this a couple years ago. Whatever plant comes from those tiny hard seeds, well, be prepared to wait to see them germinate and flower. Don't give up! For the first two or three years I saw something new all the time.