Customer Reviews

Earthway 1001-B Precision Garden Seeder with 6 Seed Plates

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

While this is a good tool on the whole -- and not too expensive either -- it still isn't for every gardener nor for every purpose in the garden. To remove all doubt, perhaps it should not go without saying that this is not a tool for making hills for melons, squash, or zukes. It will not help you with transplants such as tomatoes, nor will it handle seed potatoes. No, this seeder is for rows of things like beans and corn, and in these cases it shines. I still think, however, that you have to be planting a pretty big garden to make it worth your time to set-up the Earthway seeder, learn to use it, store it, and maintain it.

On the pro side, for instance, I used my new Earthway seeder to plant more than 700 row-feet of popcorn. Wow! The Earthway seeder practically paid for itself that day, since it allowed me to plant the entire plot in less than 45 minutes and with no bending over! I also used it to plant plots of field corn, beans, and beets.

Here are my notes, for what they're worth:

1.) Have freshly tilled, fine, debris-free soil. It is difficult to push the seeder through crusted soil or anything with too many lumps in it, and you won't get those perfectly straight rows if you're struggling just to move forward. Also, too much surface trash will be a problem for the little chain that drags behind and covers the seed. Hint: do "dry runs" with the seeder at the proper depth, but without seed in the bin. This will give you a sense of how well it's going to work before you commit your seed, and it helps to mark your rows in advance too.

2.) Have enough seed, and watch the seed plate closely as it turns. If the seed bin gets low, the pockets in the seed plates will often fail to scoop up the seeds in a regular fashion. You'll end up with a lot of skips. Of course, if you're not buying your seed at least ¼ pound at a time, I'm not sure why you'd want this tool anyhow.

3.) Select your seed plate carefully, and if needed test it with the seed before use. (Attach a plastic bag under the seeder or something.) For example, I had a limited quantity of small soup beans. I popped in the bean plate and made two rows. Before the end of the second row, however, I was out of seed, which should not have been the case. I didn't figure this out till after the seeds sprouted: that seed plate scooped up those small beans two at a time and double-planted the first row, leaving insufficient seed for the second row.

4.) If you are considering the Fert-A-Ply attachment for the seeder, re-think that. I did not realize till the attachment arrived that I could not use it at the same time as I planted -- meaning that it took re-configuring the seeder and another full set of passes to apply an amendment to my rows. Also, the construction and the few moving parts of the attachment are extremely chintzy. I could not get mine adjusted well and used quite a bit more expensive material than I intended.

5.) The assumption for the Earthway seeder is that your seed is dry. If you like to soak your seeds before planting, or if you want to wet-innoculate things like green beans before planting, I don't think this is the tool for those cases.

6.) I have not tried the seeder with pelleted seeds of any kind, but I bet it would work well for that. Again, pick your seed plate carefully.

7.) Of course, straight rows are an advantage for mechanized cultivation equipment in your garden or even for zipping through the rows with a wheel hoe or high-wheel cultivator. Even if you're not obsessive about straight rows, however, this seeder still can be a time- and back-saver.

I hope this helps you to make a more informed choice.

First of all, I'm a gardener from way back. I helped my mom weed her flowers when I was still in the womb. I love garden gadgets and all things bliss-enhancing. When I was a teenager my grandfather bought the first incarnation of the Earthway Precision Garden Seeder and it was love at first shove. Not only does it plow the furrow, it plants the seeds at a precise depth and covers them up, it also marks the next row for you so that your garden doesn't sprout into a psychadelic homage to 1970's acid waves. I love, love, love this little jigger! It clogs from time to time, but if you're watching every perfect little seed get tucked away neatly into it's new earthly bed, you'll catch it before you have to re-plant the entire garden. What took my father and me 2 hours last year to do by hand, we did in under 15 mintues using this little gem. An entire garden planted in 15 minutes! And not only that, but we hand-sowed a 1/4 acre plot of corn in under 25 mintues, stopping to pass off and admire the absolute fantastical spectacle of it all as it was happening. LOVE this thing!

I have a fairly big garden, so I decided to make my life a little easier next spring, and thus I bought this seeder. However, so far, it's not what I thought I would be getting as far as a truly precision planter is concerned. The seeds dropped irratically and/or popped out of the bin because the plates would bind up then suddenly spring loose. I used different sized plates trying to find that exact match with the same results. I contacted the factory by email (their response was very quick) and was told to use bee's wax and soap to make it work correctly. For the price of the unit, I expected something with less "after-market engineering" required by me to make it funtion as advertised. I refuse to admit defeat, so I'm keeping it and will continue to practice with it until spring. If it or I don't get better, I know where you can get a used one cheap next summer!

I'm extremely pleased with this product. 10 minutes to assemble - handlebar to machine, put on a wheel, and put on the marker.
The difference between walking upright in the garden, spacing seeds in a logical way vs. the sprinkle while stooped over and knowing they will need to be thinned and there will be gaps.
This thing even puts them at the depth you set and covers them for you. It took less than a 1\4 of the time I'm used to and my back didn't hurt afterward.

My friend has one of these and I bought it on his suggestion. It works pretty well. I have a garden that is over an acre. 77 rows, most of which are 200 ft. long. If the ground is loose, it is wonderful. My problem is that a lot of my garden is mostly clay and makes rather large clods. The seeder is hard to manage over rough dirt, but still easier than sowing by hand. I consider it to be a time saver and worth the money.

This is an excellent product and it makes short work of planting your garden. The planter is very efficient and makes super straight rows once you get started. I planted six rows of sweet corn and three rows of beans in less than 5 minutes.

A wonderful tool for the home vegetable gardner. The seed plates that come with the seeder will cover most gardeners' needs, and you can purchase optional seed plates with your planter that should cover most any other application. The only negative I have found is that if you plant in freshly tilled, plowed, loose soil your seeds will wind up being planted much deeper than the setting you choose. A solution would be to lightly pack the soil before planting. All in all a real handy, well designed, and effective addition to a gardners' arsenal. (and it will save many a backache)

This product greatly reduces the time and effort to plant seeds. However, the suggested wheel selections for each seed type isn't correct. For example, I use the wheel for beets to plant beans. I did not use the beet wheel for planting beets as it would deposit way too many seeds (each beet seed is really 4 seeds). The workmanship on the wheels was lacking. There was way too much mold flash so that some slots would not scoop up seeds. The drag chain, that is suppose to close the furrow, is too light and doesn't close it in heavier soils.
This product is in need of further engineering.
I suggest that, before taking this to the garden, test runs with the desired seed and wheel be done to see how that wheel works with the seed and that the seed spacing is as desired.
All in all, this still beats the hoe and rake method of planting

Very Poor recommenadtion:

Don't be fooled into buying the Earthway Precision Garden Seeder, thinking that it is a quality piece of machinery. Cheap, cheap, plastic TV trays are made of better stuff. The hopper and wheels are made of cheap black plastic, the rest is made of very flimsy and thin aluminum. The whole thing does not weigh enough to make the wheels turn under its own weight when you push it. You have to bear down on it to make it roll.
It will not stand the test of time in your garden.
It will just be another broken do-dad laying around with weeds growing up in it in your yard.
If all that is not bad enough, the seed plate for corn picks up anywhere from two, to four, pieces of sweet corn seed in every seed cup, leaving you with four, to sixteen, seeds of corn planted every 9 inches.

I was dis-mayed at the poor quality of this product and dis-heartened at the poor planting results.

I am currently using a home-made planter consisting of a funnel attached to a three foot length of 1" PVC water pipe via hot glue gun and I am very satisfied with the results, and the precision at which the seeds are placed as I drop them one by one into the funnel and down the length of PVC pipe. The funnel cost $1.00 at Dollar Tree. The PVC water pipe cost .35 cents per foot. Total price = $2.05 + TAX.

I received mine a few days ago, planted some feed corn this evening. I had finely tilled soil, but lots of weed root "trash". It worked well, I cleaned the trash at the end of each 35 ft row. The filling chain did not do a complete job, but dragging a garden rake over the row finished the job. The entire process took about 15 minutes and my back didn't suffer from bending over. When I plant sweet corn, I think I will open the ground with a hoe and use the seeder to drop the seeds and mark the next row. Covering the seeds is perhaps the easiest part of planting. This tool takes the painful part of planting away...bending over to place the seeds at the correct distance. I saw no recommendation for feed corn, used the sweet corn plate and watched it scoop and drop seeds. Oh yes, it is plastic and aluminum construction, light weight, but I would not like to push more weight, anything heavier would have to be powered. Having retired from engineering, I can see a lot of engineering time in the seed pickup plate/dropping mechanism. This puppy is good bang for the buck, waiting to plant my radishes (pain in back!!). I tested seed selection/dropping with the front wheel on the stand, turning the wheel by hand. I saw it drop individual seeds, was satisfied that I had the correct plate. I will do the same with all other seeds. A new user will need to do a dry run with no seeds to get the feel of the machine. The front wheel requires contact with the ground and at the same time there is drag from the row marker. The row marker worked very well for me, made a well discernable furrow in the ground. Happy with this purchase? My back says YES!