Planting fluffy seed

[cowboy43]

Bluestem grass seed is a fluffy seed and it takes a special seeder to plant them. I have found a dealer that manufactures a ATV broadcast sling seeder that will plant fluffy seed. It has a special attachment and the seed is mixed with dry oil to give it more volume. I have never heard of mixing seed with dry oil , he said the seed is mixed with 50# of dry oil to 8 acres of seed , have any of you used this method.

 

[dun]

Rent a drill with a WSG setup, sooooooooooo much eaiser and more uniform

 

[cowboy43]

Dun
Down here in Tex where I am there is no where that rents farm machinery sure wish it was , it would make things a lot easier. You can hire a commercial planter but they charge $30 to $50 an acre depending on how many acres they do. I can buy this seeder for less than it would cost to have it done and I will have it for future use.

 

[1982vett]

Most county Soil Conservation Districts own drills that can be rented.

How many acres are you wanting to plant? Which bluestem, their are only about a hundred of them.

Never heard of dry oil... Is it like a fine sandblasting sand with a fancy name? We have planted bermuda seed by mixing it with blasting sand and slinging out with a 3-point spreader. I'm sure you could do the same with any bluestem but you will need a calm day so the seed doesn't blow to your neighbors.

 

[cowboy43]

Caldwell county does not have a rental program with Conservation Service , no help coming that way. I had never heard of dry oil either, it is the oil absorbant that mechanics put on their floors to absorb the oil, comes in 50# bags. I was e-mailed this information by David Herd of Herd Seeder Co. which has been in business since 1948. The grass I am checking on planting is www dahl bluestem.

 

[1982vett]

Ok, never would have thought of that stuff. Same basic theory as the blasting sand. Gives the seed volume. Only trickey thing is calibrating your seeding rate. You would do it much the same way as calibrating a spray rig. X amout of seed mixed in X amout of sand, Figure how many sq ft X amout of sand covers while driving a given rate of speed.

Should work. Choose a very calm day so the seed doesn't drift and use a packer roller to make good seed to ground contact.

Probably been 8-9 years already, but this is a small patch a friend of mine planted. He just took the seed and tossed it on the breeze then rolled it in with his tractor. Wasn't but an acre or so. I had intended to cut it this fall just before the seed shatter, bale it up then spread it on some pasture. Window of opporutity was rained out.

 

[puma]

We have planted many acres of the Old World Bluestems with a traditional fertilizer spreader. We set the spreader on half rate (if we are putting out 200 pounds of fertilizer with the seed, we set the spreader to put out 100 pounds) and drive on 20 foot centers. Has worked really good for us. The main thing for us getting a stand is to run a packer across the ground before you broadcast the seed. Some folks run the packer again after they broadcast but we don't.

 

[jedstivers]

We have planted many acres of the Old World Bluestems with a traditional fertilizer spreader. We set the spreader on half rate (if we are putting out 200 pounds of fertilizer with the seed, we set the spreader to put out 100 pounds) and drive on 20 foot centers. Has worked really good for us. The main thing for us getting a stand is to run a packer across the ground before you broadcast the seed. Some folks run the packer again after they broadcast but we don't.

Do you run anything after you seed?

 

[novatech]

These people can sell you seed already coated.
http://silvercreekfrm.com/
If you use a no til it has to have a chaffy seed box. If you mix with other ingredients such as sand or fertilizer the the spacing should be set for band with of seed not the other substance. Sand and fertilizer is heavier than the bluestem so it will not be thrown out as far.

 

[novatech]

Bluestem grass seed is a fluffy seed and it takes a special seeder to plant them. I have found a dealer that manufactures a ATV broadcast sling seeder that will plant fluffy seed. It has a special attachment and the seed is mixed with dry oil to give it more volume. I have never heard of mixing seed with dry oil , he said the seed is mixed with 50# of dry oil to 8 acres of seed , have any of you used this method.

Do you have a web site for the atv seeder you mentioned? Maybe just the brand name? Or the oil coating?
I would be interested in checking this out.

 

[dun]

We attempted mixing the seed with other material and broadcasting it. Ended up with a hopper full of fluffy seed and the other stuff all spread. Tried a broadcaster with a "special" agitator so it could spread fluffy seed. ended up grinding a lot of very expensive seed with no germination. Tried it through my old drill with material mixed in, same results pretty much as the broadcasting. Bought a used No-till drill with the WSG deal in it. Sold the old drill. The new drill works with fluffy seed on down to timothy, and upto WW, beans and sunflowers. Also has fertilizer hopper to top dress with while drilling.

 

[cowboy43]

Novatech if you will search Herd Seeder it will bring up their web page the GT-77 is the one Mr Herd said will work with a special adapter. The dry oil is the absorbment that is bought at parts stores by mechanics to absorb the oil of their floors. Their is a contact page on their web page and Mr Herd will respond to your questions promply.

 

[cowboy43]

Dun
What brand of spreader did you use with an agitator ? The brand I am checking on is a Herd , it comes with a vibrating agitator for normal seed and fertilizer. To plant fluffy seed a $26 kit is added to make an opening wide enough to handle the fluffy seed. The seed is mixed at the rate of 50# of oil dry to 8 acres of seed, this keeps the seed from seperating, pulls the seed through the larger opening and will carry the seed to a wider spread. This is how Mr Herd explained it works.

 

[dun]

Don;t recall the brand and it's now a rusted hulk of metal. Oil dry is a little bit different but not much from generic kittylitter. It;s very absorbent clay.

 

[novatech]

I ordered my B Dahl seed this morning. The man said he found that an old E Z Flow works the best.

 

[novatech]

Most county Soil Conservation Districts own drills that can be rented.

How many acres are you wanting to plant? Which bluestem, their are only about a hundred of them.

Never heard of dry oil... Is it like a fine sandblasting sand with a fancy name? We have planted bermuda seed by mixing it with blasting sand and slinging out with a 3-point spreader. I'm sure you could do the same with any bluestem but you will need a calm day so the seed doesn't blow to your neighbors.

Coufal-Prater in Bryan, Temple, Navasota, and Cameron has a no-til they rent by the acre. It has the chaffy seed box for the bluestem.
I just ordered 40 pls from a guy south of San Angelo for $10 a pls. I found out something. I knew B-Dahl was drought hardy but what make it better is that it is so water efficient. He said he made 6000 lbs to the acre with 15 in. rain for the year. I,m trying it on 20 acres. I know it cannot be any worse than what we had this past year. He gets 12% protein with 1 appl. of 60lbs N per year. 14% with 70lbs.

 

[bonniebrosig]

We have planted many, many acres with ww.bdahl grass seed using an "easy flow" spreader. They are old equipment that you can refurbish and cost almost nothing if you can find them. They a large agitator which is required when planting a fluffy grass seed such as ww.bdahl. We have been in this business (planting grass) for many years and had great success planting grass with this method.

 

[Brute 23]

When we planted the B-Dahl some of the seed was fluffy also. They mixed millet in with the fluffy seed to help it sling I believe.