-
If you are posting pictures, and they aren't posting in the correct orientation, please flush your browser cache and try again.
Edge
Safari/iOS
Chrome
Frost Seeding Medium Alternatives
- Thread starter farmlegend
- Start date
marlin
5 year old buck +
Interesting. I was told by the Bee & Butterfly Habitat fund that the reason they use rice hulls is because their cup shaped and it makes it difficult for the seed to separate. I have a place by me that sells 50 pound bags of compressed rice hulls for $30. I use rice hulls for all small seeds.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Mix them with feed oats. Use feed oats as a nurse crop many times. Cant say much about weeds, but never seen a bad breakout of anything. Some weeds are just a part of doing things.
double tree drill bit size? I use a solo 421 spreader. It has a prouble opening window. 3/64 - 1/8th would be my guess. IF I can find a replacement wndow opener, I would just drill a hole in the window. Use lime or fertilizer it won't matter if its there or not. Drive over a blacktop driveway, a big tarp or snow while spreading seed at a reasonable speed and known pto rpm. Get how wide the spread is.
Now park the spreader or a certain opening in one spot, catch all the seed with a tarp. Either put a known amount in and time it, or run some for a few minutes and then weight.
5mph * 5280ft/mile / 60 minutes in an hour = 440 ft per minute. Assuming a 16ft wide path. 16 * 440 / 43500 ft^2 an acre = .16 acres per minute
IT take 7 minutes to dump out 20 lbs. 20 / 7 = 2.86 lbs / minute. 2.86 lbs per minute / .16 acre minute = 17.8 pounds per acre.
Keep in mind your rate control is often at the operator end of the cable. Open and close it, the opening can vary from time to time. Small changes in the opening can hange alot of straight clover flow.
Get the opening right where you want it, leave it alone. Use a piece of plastic to cover the opening, tie a string to it. Yank it out when ready.
Clover is a tough one to do by itself, even with ideal styles of spreaders. Your getting a ball park figure. Expect to use more. Leftover clover stored well will be fine next year. Very often bacteria coat is really not needed. Seed itself will be about the same quality on year 2.
What works for one clover seed will be different with another. medium red is bigger than whte clover seeds. crimson is even bigger than medium red. The amount of coating varies too.
Spring clover and oats are awesome. Oats dont frost seed though.
commercial or larger retail nurseries use seeds hulls for mulching. I have heard of sand being used. Fertilizer mixed with clover comes out just fine too.
I had a broabcaster pto spreader, I would probably do 2-3 parts lime, 2 part 6-24-24 or just potash 0-0-56 and clover, then tune as above with clover. Clvoer and oats just eat up the potassium. A little borax soap like 4lbs / acre will add some boron int here too. turnips and clovers love that stuff
double tree drill bit size? I use a solo 421 spreader. It has a prouble opening window. 3/64 - 1/8th would be my guess. IF I can find a replacement wndow opener, I would just drill a hole in the window. Use lime or fertilizer it won't matter if its there or not. Drive over a blacktop driveway, a big tarp or snow while spreading seed at a reasonable speed and known pto rpm. Get how wide the spread is.
Now park the spreader or a certain opening in one spot, catch all the seed with a tarp. Either put a known amount in and time it, or run some for a few minutes and then weight.
5mph * 5280ft/mile / 60 minutes in an hour = 440 ft per minute. Assuming a 16ft wide path. 16 * 440 / 43500 ft^2 an acre = .16 acres per minute
IT take 7 minutes to dump out 20 lbs. 20 / 7 = 2.86 lbs / minute. 2.86 lbs per minute / .16 acre minute = 17.8 pounds per acre.
Keep in mind your rate control is often at the operator end of the cable. Open and close it, the opening can vary from time to time. Small changes in the opening can hange alot of straight clover flow.
Get the opening right where you want it, leave it alone. Use a piece of plastic to cover the opening, tie a string to it. Yank it out when ready.
Clover is a tough one to do by itself, even with ideal styles of spreaders. Your getting a ball park figure. Expect to use more. Leftover clover stored well will be fine next year. Very often bacteria coat is really not needed. Seed itself will be about the same quality on year 2.
What works for one clover seed will be different with another. medium red is bigger than whte clover seeds. crimson is even bigger than medium red. The amount of coating varies too.
Spring clover and oats are awesome. Oats dont frost seed though.
commercial or larger retail nurseries use seeds hulls for mulching. I have heard of sand being used. Fertilizer mixed with clover comes out just fine too.
I had a broabcaster pto spreader, I would probably do 2-3 parts lime, 2 part 6-24-24 or just potash 0-0-56 and clover, then tune as above with clover. Clvoer and oats just eat up the potassium. A little borax soap like 4lbs / acre will add some boron int here too. turnips and clovers love that stuff
I tried the time method you talked about for calibrating switch grass. Did not work because the shake, bounce of seeder causes more seed to come out than just sitting there. Also I built a gate with precision holes thinking would never need to calibrate again. The variable I did not account for was seed size varies enough every year to make a difference. Weather seed coatings or growing season rain Iv come to conclusion that I must fine tune gate opening every year.
What do they sell rice hulls for, just seeding fine seed?
marlin
5 year old buck +
The company bags soil mixes like you buy at Lowe’s. The rice hulls are mixed in some soils for multiple reasons. PH neutral, aeration, moisture retention amongst other things. You can also buy rice hulls at places that sell home brewing supplies.