Sowing grass/very small seeds with a Claydon

[Brisel]

Who does this? Do you think the row spacing is too wide?

I'm looking at blowing the seed on behind the drill using the main metering unit and distributor outlets mounted on the rear batter boards/harrow toolbar. I have a lot of nectar flower strips to resow this summer too, so seed depth must be shallow or on the surface.

 

[Andrew K]

I would use a twin tine kit if available, or do as you say and broadcast from the rear harrow.

 

[Brisel]

What is the row spacing on a twin tine kit? The normal 7" A share leaves around 26 cm between the rows.

 

[Tractor Boy]

I used to do all mine with the 7inch share but do them twice. It's obviously more time consuming but quite easy to just use the middle row of the first drilling and just run with it 6 inches off the centre point of the bonnet.

 

[Brisel]

What depths did you find your seed going to after the second pass?

 

[Tractor Boy]

What depths did you find your seed going to after the second pass?

The A shares on the first pass were really only just brushing the surface so most of the disturbance was by the leading tine. As this is only narrow the second pass in the middle of each row was more or less still on undos turned land. Mine, however, is a V drill with two fairly wide depth wheels that don't sink in.

 

[Brisel]

What is the row spacing on your V Drill? My Hybrid has 19 outlets on 6 metres, so 316 mm spacing with spreading according to whichever coulter option you fit.

 

[Tractor Boy]

What is the row spacing on your V Drill? My Hybrid has 19 outlets on 6 metres, so 316 mm spacing with spreading according to whichever coulter option you fit.

13 coulters on 4m. So around 308mm.

 

[bald on top]

I've drilled grass seed with claydon hybrid, a shallow past to create tilth, removed front tines, raised 7in A share's 4 to 6in off ground and blew seed on top and used rear harrow lightly, (batter boards out off work). Grass grew lovely with no gaps!

 

[Devon James]

Grass seed into maize stubble. Two passes at an angle as others have mentioned. Plenty of air on the fan. Was lucky the maize came off really well so a good tilth to sow into rather than smeared soil.

 

[Brisel]

View attachment 463488

Grass seed into maize stubble. Two passes at an angle as others have mentioned. Plenty of air on the fan. Was lucky the maize came off really well so a good tilth to sow into rather than smeared soil.

That looks tidy

Please may you tell us how you set the machine up?

 

[Andrew K]

What is the row spacing on a twin tine kit? The normal 7" A share leaves around 26 cm between the rows.

Its about 6" centre to centre, would most likely give you about 5" gaps.
Think BOT,s idea would also work ok if you really want seed on the surface? Would chem residues be a risk or are you pre cultivating?

 

[Devon James]

That looks tidy

Please may you tell us how you set the machine up?

Yeah no problem. A shares were set just a few cm deep. Shallower on second pass. I have the double rear tines on our drill. These were set aggressively to mix seed with the tilth. And crossed my fingers!

 

[rob1]

When I drilled grass seed I lifted the front tines out of the way and crossed at 30 degrees but if a narrow strip I would just do a second pass between the first as has been said.The pics were sown about mid april and the photo taken mid june

 

[parker]

I had great results drilling grass seeds and flower margins with my 3 m hybrid, it was one of the first hybrids so used the sulky metering unit, which gave me a lot of spear outlets to be able to fix an extra pipe between each a share, I would run the a shares above the ground so the front tyne was the only soil disturbance and thus broadcast the full width of the drill.

 

[parker]

I would also run the straw harrow across the field before drilling and sometimes after drilling