This Machine Will Change Our Flower Business
Hey guys welcome back to Woods Tree Farm I'm Phil and today I'm going to share With you something new that is going to Absolutely change how we do our seasonal Flower business here at the farm stick Around so I just got back from a 300 Plus mile trip uh actually it was 600 Round trip and I picked up a piece of Equipment with our little trailer here And unloading that piece of equipment Was a chore I didn't film any of that But I will tell you it was a little Tricky getting this thing off of the Trailer but got it done and it is now Hooked up to the Tractor so let me share With you what we've got that's going to Change the flower business this my Friends is the Tar River no-till drill This is the Saya 505 model it's the Smaller model drill that they have Available and like I said this is going To completely change how we do our Seasonal flower business because this is Going to give us the opportunity to Increase production and plant a much Larger Flower Patch than we've ever done Before So if you're not familiar with no-till Drills I you know really can't tell you All that much but uh the the premise Behind it is it has these Coulter Wheels On the front and you can basically go Into any uncultivated uh place you know Out in the pasture field grassy area
Whatever and you don't need to till you Don't need to plow you don't need to do Anything else the cultures should cut Through the sod and then it will drop The seed in the uh in the opening that It cuts and you can also I'll show you In a minute you can put fertilizer in Here at the same time and it can drop Fertilizer and then down around the back There is a wheel on the back that helps Close everything up and actually it's One of the adjustments I need to make Before we can use this thing is that Black thing that's on the back that kind Of looks like a rake needs to get tilted Down before we start using it so I've Got a little setup a little fine tuning To do on this thing still we're going to Take care of that first I've got the Manual over here so I can understand Exactly how it works there are a lot of Different settings on this thing because It can be used on all sorts of different Kinds of seeds Um you know so the seed depth can change Or the planting depth can change the Size of the seed can vary as you go from Grasses into different kinds of flowers Or grains or whatever So there are all sorts of different Settings that I need to get familiar With before I can really use this thing Well but today I've got in the buckets There some buckwheat seed and we're just
Going to do buckwheat on our little Third of an acre Flower Patch from last Year just to try this thing out it's a Little bit early for us to get buckwheat But our 10-day forecast looks like it's Going to warm up a bit for us so I bet It will germinate just fine but like I Said more than anything I just want to Try to use this thing get familiar with All of its settings and you know that Way when it comes time to planting our Big sunflower patch which won't be long Now we will want to use this thing and I Don't want to be tinkering around with It or learning as I go with the Sunflower patch when I could be doing a Cover crop now to work all the bugs out So anyway let's get to it So before we go try this thing out in The field let me show you a couple of The features of this drill at least These are the things that I know of I'll Probably discover some more as we start To use it some more but it does have the Two Hoppers inside like I mentioned and We're going to try fertilizer in the Rear and the buckwheat seed in the front And you can adjust the application rate For either of the Hoppers independently Using these handles right here and There's a little gauge over on this side That will This is just a locking lever here but as We adjust
Handle We can see that indicator move so That'll give us an idea of what we're Doing I'm just going to do this on two today Eat any of these seed cups can be closed Off by using these little tabs here That'll be important later when we go to Do sunflowers and we want them spaced Out a little bit more so we'll probably Do every other when we do sunflowers Today for buckwheat we're going to leave Them all open [Music] We've got the same thing on the back With the um you know any of the cups can Be closed off right now these are closed So I need to go and open all of those so We can use this for fertilizer And I'm going to apply this onto here as Well And then we've got these adjustments Here for the pressure on the planting Discs and then we've got adjustments Back here for the height of the roller Which basically will set the depth of The whole machine so I've got it down Just a little bit and we'll see how it Cuts once we start using it [Music] Foreign I had to stop after that first pass so We need to make some adjustments and let Me show you why
So we can see down here in the lines I Think the cutter Wheels on the front are Doing their job the actual planting Wheels aren't doing much at all so we Need to get the machine deeper but it is Dropping It's dropping seed we can see seed it Actually looks like quite a bit so I Need to think about trying to maybe Reduce the seed rate because we don't Want it coming out you see all these Buckwheat seeds right there we don't Want that many plants coming out Together we want them spread out so this Seed rate can definitely be reduced for That uh for the buckwheat the fertilizer Is probably okay we can see it's the Fertilizer is a little bit more Scattered through here Thank you Foreign Now we can see where this starts to look A little bit different this soil is more Disturbed because it was cut open and Then that wheel at the back you know Knocked the soil back down so I don't See any of my seed I mean maybe I see a Little bit but uh I think this is Actually working more like it's supposed To now I think we can probably get it Just a little bit deeper and we'll be in Even better shape Foreign [Applause]
Guys so I just went through again and Um we're still not getting our seed Completely covered which I kind of Expected we would part of it I think is The ground's really hard and this Machine is just not penetrating the soil Like I hope it would there is a spot on The front of the machine for some Weights I don't have any extra cinder Blocks or anything here today I might Pick up a couple bags of concrete and Make a couple little dedicated boxes for It weight boxes that we can put up there That might help but I did adjust on the Spring tension with these knobs right Here hopefully that puts a little bit More downward pressure on those planting Wheels I also set these knobs at the Back for this roller to go to allow the Cutters to go a little bit deeper so Make another couple passes and compare And see what it looks like So over here we can see on these most Recent passes is doing what we want it's Cut it open and there's no visible seed Here or very little right on top of the Soil so I think we did exactly what we Wanted on the previous passes over here We could see where we just got a cut From the Coulter wheels and their seed Kind of scattered all about on top of The soil so we are getting closer to Being dialed in here Put a little bit more pressure on these
All right flip it unlocked [Music] Foreign All right guys we have this little patch Here all seated up and we'll just have To wait and see how it works buckwheat Is pretty forgiving I have found in the Past you can just generally broadcast it Out wherever and as long as it has soil Contact and a little the right amount of Moisture it will germinate so I'm sure Within a couple weeks this is going to Be completely covered in buckwheat now We didn't spray any of the grass or Weeds that were here so it's going to be Buckwheat and grass and weeds and if you Recall a few weeks ago we actually Distributed annual rye grass seed over This whole thing and that rye grass is Coming up as well so that uh combination Of rye grass buckwheat and then whatever Other grass and weeds are in here that's Going to be our spring cover crop and We're going to plow that in when it Comes time to doing our Flower Patch Here but I should have done the seed Application rate check on the on the No-tail drill first and the way you do That is you calculate out a certain Amount of square footage let's say it Was 300 feet across this field here and We know that the cedar is about five Feet wide and then we know that that Would be whatever 1500 square feet so we
Could take off one of the tubes from the Seed cups and catch that like in a bag Or something and then we can weigh that Seed after we do this stretch of you Know one pass here 300 feet or something And then we could determine what the Application rate is and from that we Could dial in that seed drop with a Handle on the the adjustment on the seed Drill I calculated about 15 or no it was 18 pounds of seed in the bucket when I Started and I was just looking to Distribute that entire bucket I actually Had to go back over this field with Multiple passes in order to empty out The seed Hopper on the drill so Next time I do this I'll save some time I'll save some diesel by not driving Over it multiple times and I'll figure Out what the appropriate seed Distribution rate is first but for this Cover crop here it's not really going to Matter and like I said I was just trying To work with the drill and understand Its settings and get it to to work for Us so I'm going to wrap this up I'll Have more videos in the future with that Seadrill as um as you know the spring Approaches and as we get warmer weather And as the soil warms up so if you guys Have any questions about the sea drill You can ask me and I might know more About it later than I do right now but I'm pretty happy to have it and
Hopefully it works out well for us I'll Keep you guys posted on future videos Thanks for watching today guys I'll see You on the next one bye
