Seed drill enquiry

Gemlou

Member
Hi, we know we are a few weeks late in the year, however we have a small holding and need to know what type of seed drill we need to sow pumpkins. The farmer across the road has helped prep the land but he has not done pumpkins before so couldn’t advise us. Any advice greatly appreciated it is our first year trying this and we are hoping to open a pick your own pumpkins event later in the year. Thanks in advance
 

cquick

Member
BASE UK Member
It's not too late in the season yet but you'll want them in the ground sooner rather than later.
I direct drill the seed using a slightly modified OSR subsoiler drill into a standing cover crop, see the link in the post above
There are EAMUs for clomazone, Isoxaben and Propyzamide which should cover all bases weed wise.
I then go on with weekly sulphur through flowering, and a dose of Signum to finish. Shut the gate after that until cutting the handles off a week before the punters arrive.
 

Gemlou

Member
It's not too late in the season yet but you'll want them in the ground sooner rather than later.
I direct drill the seed using a slightly modified OSR subsoiler drill into a standing cover crop, see the link in the post above
There are EAMUs for clomazone, Isoxaben and Propyzamide which should cover all bases weed wise.
I then go on with weekly sulphur through flowering, and a dose of Signum to finish. Shut the gate after that until cutting the handles off a week before the punters arrive.


Thanks for this, it’s really helpful 👍
 

Gemlou

Member
Do you know if they do any suitable attachments for a compact tractor...or do we need to upgrade our tractor!! Apologies we are complete newby’s, been restoring the farmhouse now doing something with the land apart from maintaining so learning as we go. with a little help from from local farmer and forums like this!
 

cquick

Member
BASE UK Member
I think you're best off finding a contractor for the grunt work, and getting yourself a small sprayer to fit your tractor.
If the ground is already loose then you could try and get someone with a maize drill to give it a go. You'll probably get by just using maize singulator discs, the seed is lighter than maize and would suck down well onto the holes. You're looking for approx 1 plant per square meter, not sure if the maize drill would do that extreme spacing. Perhaps shut off 2 out of every 3 rows, with closer spacing in the row, and then grow vine types instead of bush types to fill the gaps better.
 
Transplants for a novice especially this late in the season.

Google plant raisers/propgators & see if any left.

Up to 10,000 plants you can plant by hand with a trowel if land is prepared by contractor

Agree with above comments you need a sprayer & training how to use it. I'm not a pumpkin expert but 36 inch by 36 inch will give you big pumpkins
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
Growing pumpkins is a popular past time for some here. Grown some at the farm here a couple of times. First year biggest was 616 lbs second year 746 lbs. was thinking I was a big shot with the size but a friend from over the border I to the states regularly has ones in the 1100. - 1500 lbs range. He’s won some serious money at pumpkin festivals.
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks

The person in the above link might be worth contacting, he imports drills suitable for pumpkin drilling
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Neighbours used to do about an acre planted by hand. They then used to trailer muck on and spread it by fork off the back covering the whole area except for 4” around where the plant was, this saved doing any weeding or spraying 🤷🏻‍♂️

@CPF ‘s lot have got pumpkins in, he might know how they planted them?
 

Hesstondriver

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Huntingdon
It's not too late in the season yet but you'll want them in the ground sooner rather than later.
I direct drill the seed using a slightly modified OSR subsoiler drill into a standing cover crop, see the link in the post above
There are EAMUs for clomazone, Isoxaben and Propyzamide which should cover all bases weed wise.
I then go on with weekly sulphur through flowering, and a dose of Signum to finish. Shut the gate after that until cutting the handles off a week before the punters arrive.
what does cutting the handle do ? or is it just to stop the public ripping them off the plant ?
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
It's not too late in the season yet but you'll want them in the ground sooner rather than later.
I direct drill the seed using a slightly modified OSR subsoiler drill into a standing cover crop, see the link in the post above
There are EAMUs for clomazone, Isoxaben and Propyzamide which should cover all bases weed wise.
I then go on with weekly sulphur through flowering, and a dose of Signum to finish. Shut the gate after that until cutting the handles off a week before the punters arrive.
It might not be to late in Somerset but planting seed in Lancashire now is being very optimistic. Would help if we new where in the World the op is.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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