# Can anyone recommend a good manual seed drill?



## Habitant (Jul 21, 2010)

I have a 1 acre plot that will be a future market garden, divided into 9 equal sized paddocks that I rotate my pigs through. This year I want to grow lots of fodder beets, oil seed radish, clover, hairy vetch and turnips on a scale that planting seeds by hand is impractical. I'd like to buy a manual walk behind seed drill. Can anyone recommend any that they have used?

25 pigs are overwintered in one paddock that doubles as my own veg garden in the summer.

The plan is to grow as much of the pigs feed as possible while increasing the fertility of the soil. I will also be planting Jerusalem artichoke. The soil is not too bad now but if I can keep doing that for the next 16 years, 7 months and 25 days until I can retire (but who is counting) I will have pretty rich soil!


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Take a look at Johnnyseeds.com for their section on tools and supplies(or catalog starting at page181). They show several that may fill your needs. Frankly, though, I think you could just get a spinner/broadcaster, or learn to broadcast by hand, then cover the seeding with a leaf rake. The seeds you mention generally are planted about 1/4 inch deep, so broadcasting and then covering might be more efficient.

geo


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## rockhound (Sep 25, 2009)

Yeah I vote for broadcasting those kinds of seeds.


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## Habitant (Jul 21, 2010)

OK. Thanks. They do have a nice one @ JohnnySeeds. But your both right broadcasting by hand is cheaper. I tried it once and seeded too heavily. I'm probably better off with a spinner/broadcaster. The nice thing about a drill seeder is you can weed between the rows .


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## idigbeets (Sep 3, 2011)

The earthway spinner is really nice to use, throws seed 15+ feet and well made compared to other spinners I've seen in big box stores. For $30 it saves a lot of time.


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