When spring arrives we are all excited about planting the garden. We plan. We prepare the space. We sow seeds. Larger seeds like beans and peas are super easy to sow and even smaller ones like radishes or onion are doable. Then there are the sand grain size seeds like carrots or the tiny round ones like turnips requiring relentless and continuous thinning. We can actually eat those thinning. But early on it’s a real pain. The same thing happens with the beets, turnips, radishes and all those other small seeds.
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| Planter |
We try everything to keep from thinning those plants but usually to no avail. We have all tried the shaker method, mixing the seeds with sand, and then there is the tedious task of making seed tape if we choose. Making seed tape seems to be the only reliable method but it takes almost as long as thinning the crop. Is there a better way?
I have discovered a better way. Now let it be said that my vegetable garden is bigger than most in the Anchorage area (9000+ sq. ft.) with the longest rows about 75 feet. Until I purchased a really cool planter I had the same thinning problems that everyone else does unless of course you are very, very careful. I have not thinned my turnips this year. The plants are about two inches apart and that is the way the seeds went into the ground. My beets and carrots are not quite as precise but I have yet to thin either crop. I will have to thin the carrots some but I can probably wait until the end of July. My second and third planting of radishes are two inches apart. No thinning required there. And next year I hope I won’t have to thin the carrots either.
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| Planter with Seed Hopper |
How did I do this? The planter, a Jung JP-1, was purchased last October. It’s not cheap. The planting wheels cost $20+ each. The machine itself is $400+. This thing is worth every penny. My garden looks better than ever. One of the reasons is all that time I spent thinning in the past is now spent weeding and I am nearly keeping up with that. The time savings is phenomenal. Now the preparation of the soil takes most of the time before weeding starts. After prepping the soil for the third radish planting it took two minutes to sow. Most of that time was checking to make sure I had the correct wheel in the seeder and making sure the “trencher” was at the proper depth. The machine creates a trench at the proper depth, drops seeds at the spacing you set, covers them, and presses the soil down around the seeds. When you get to the end of the row you pick up the seeder and move to the next row or put it back in the garden shed. It’s certainly not for everyone but if you have a 1000 sq. ft. vegetable garden or more you might consider getting one. This is an amazing tool. In the long run you will save a huge amount of time and quite a lot of seed as well. Buy less seed, spend less time thinning, save money, and enjoy gardening even more, if that is possible.
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| Gears |
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| Extra gears |
With this machine it’s possible to sow seeds as close together as an eighth of an inch or as far apart as 12 inches. This is done with a system of gears that make the seed wheel turn at specific speeds allowing the machine to drop seed more or less frequently depending on your selected spacing. The number of “holes” in the seeding wheel also effects the sowing rate. Your rate of walking or running for that matter has no effect on the spacing. The gears are easy to change. You don’t have to worry about losing the gear combinations for spacing. The gear chart combinations are on the seeder. You look at the spacing desired and the chart will tell you what gear to put on the front and back sprockets. After one changes gears a couple of times it’s really easy. Like any other tool there is a learning curve. The more you use it the more accurate the setting will be. This is a case where practice does indeed make perfect. I didn’t purchase this machine initially because I thought it too expensive. But I would say it has paid for itself in time savings alone. I highly recommend it.
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| Seed Wheel |
Three years ago I bought an Earthway seeder ($100) that did fine with big seeds like green beans but not so well with little or tiny ones. It would be great for corn if you want to give that a try. For carrots, radishes, turnips, and beets it’s about the same as the shake method but faster. Certainly the same amount of thinning is required as with the shake method. I still use it for green beans as it does a great job. I also planted fava beans this year but planted those by hand. I continue to sow peas by hand since they’re planted along the fence.
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| Spacing Chart |
I did save some shipping expense by having the Jung seeder shipped to my brother’s in the lower 48. When I visited him in October last year I brought it home as baggage. Since I’m a member of Alaska Airlines Club 49 I get two bags free so I didn’t open the box and called it a bag. The Earthway I purchased from Amazon and since I’m a Prime member the shipping was free.
