Chapin 8701B Garden Push Seeder Planter with 6 Seed Plates for up to 20 Varieties of Seeds, Zinc Plow Blade, Row Marker, Powder Coated Steel Frame, Red/Black

I plant about a quarter acre of sunflowers and other flowers for my bees. The sunflowers haven't flowered yet but those rows of sunflowers were planted using this seeder. THE DIRT HAS TO BE TILLED and once the dirt is prepared it works so well. There is a learning curve on how fast you push ratio to how close the seeds are. This little machine saved me hours and my back, it is lightweight. I am a late 60s shorter woman and no problems using it. It was not hard to assemble and I really love it.

This product worked like a charm! I'm a new-to-farming-Gen-X "oldster" and needed a foolproof way of planting my flower seeds...sunflower, dahlias, zinnias, peonies and wildflowers. Each seed comes in so many different sizes so the easy to switch out discs were a breeze to use. I'm not even joking when it comes to using this thing. I'm about 5'7 and out-of-shape and pushing the Chapin Seed Planter was easy, the occasional rock or two in the soil might slow down progress but most rocks the wheel just ran right on over and kept on going. I wasn't strained, nor did I ever have to fight with this Planter, I thought it was a bit flimsy out of the box but really it's a magnificent device designed to save your back and your soul. Who knew? I had help from my 13 year old assembling the handle, which helps with two people but one person could do it alone. I think overall for the value, the time saved by not having to bend over and move row to row is truly what makes this nifty little seed planter so great. Can't imagine I'd be able to walk if I had to do it all by hand. Save your back and some money.

I used this seeder the other day when planting my cover crop of field peas. It worked very well and I spent minutes using this planter versus hours doing it by hand. At times it was difficult pushing through the soil, which I had worked up thoroughly. The handle is at an angle that when the soil is soft it pushes the planter down instead of forward. I believe it would be an improvement to have an option of adjusting the handle. Having said that it was still a vast improvement over seeding a large plot by hand. It’s a work in progress on my part. I do recommend this seeder. Money well spent.

NOTE: Some the most common complaints I noticed had to to with failure to plant or clogging the seed chute....Soil preparation and condition are paramount...the soil must be loose and free of debris and not too wet so that that the furrow opener and furrow closer can function smoothly .....improperly tilled soil with a lot of loose grass will prevent planting and germination and growth by poor seed depth and lack of firm soil to seed contact. Quality is the bare minimum needed to function, probably best for a beginner or experienced gardener who wants a seeder without breaking the bank....Most all others within this price range $120-$180 are virtually identical ....the next level higher in quality is probably The 'Hoss' brand which is $500-$600. The worst aspects of the seeder is that it uses thin flat metal and the left side of the upright to the handle was bent toward the hopper in shipping ...the slight bend caused it to be too close the plastic hopper and the one of the bolts need to be inserted such that the threaded end would not rub on the plastic hopper and cause damage...even if bent back to the proper position the flat rail was by design too close as you can tell by the sleeve spacer located on the equivalent handle bolts on the right side....even with the bolt reversed it would be wise to insert some sort of protective cushion between the bolt hex head and the plastic hopper. There is some advantage that parts of it are made of plastic as it won't rust. I think the seed plate should have a better means of attachment...it seems like it is prone to coming loose especially if seeds build up behind the face of the plate and push the plate away from the housing. For the most part it should work ok for you if you use it with care, clean and store after planting and use a bit of finesse or as my Grandpa used to say ".....hold you mouth right....."

Soil condition is a huge factor in how this will perform. I have rocky clay, the plot in the photo is three years in removing rocks and adding manure and mulch. Any sizeable rocks will stop the seeder, also root clumps from cover crops the tiller didn't break up, that being said I put alot of effort into removing these, I hit some but overall went very smoothly. I planted 1 lbs peaches and cream sweet corn using the corn plate, the first few rows have high density while the last few are sparse and I will likely remove them and replant in a few weeks.

Well....seemed like a good purchase for the price point. I originally bought this to plant sunflowers. Box came pretty beat up so that made me pretty concerned that the parts inside were broken or missing. HOWEVER when I was trying to install the row attachment, I noticed the chute that goes from the hopper to the cutter where the seed is inserted to the ground wasn't even in the hole in the base of the frame. Could this have been from the rough shipping???? maybe but there are two bolts on both sides of the base plate and this thing was stuck on one of the bolt heads. This was probably due to manufacturing (China) and very poor-quality control. I was ready to just to send back but I needed to get this field planted so I decided to take the chute apart and see if I could move it over into the hole. Had to take 6-8 screws out and remove the bolt on the bottom to move the chut into the hole. All this to say it did work and I was able to get this back to together and get my sunflower field planted. It worked well and was easy to use. See if it holds up. Only tested with sunflower seeds. NOTE: have your soil prepared or this will not work correctly, and you don't want debris (grass, weeds etc) in the dirt because this stuff will clog the cutter and part that pulls dirt back over the seed and you will have to keep stopping. I would rake that stuff out before planting. Crappy assembly and poor-quality control is the reason for my low rating!

Good

Broke on first use

Muy buena compra la recomiendo atodos si

Excellent item. All parts included

Planting discs and hardware missing from box , unusable , returned for refund .

Plantation