One-Row Planter Pefect For Small Pumpkin Patch

One-Row Planter Pefect For Small Pumpkin Patch PLANTERS Terry Dunlap’s one-row pumpkin planter is ideal for planting the wide variety of pumpkins he and his partner Sam Patterson need for the farm stand they run each fall They plant small areas every few days depending on variety and time needed to mature and to spread out the harvest season “We start planting about the 10th of June and go through the 10th of July planting 10 to 14 acres depending on conditions ” says Dunlap Large pumpkin farmers have commercial scale planters Smaller operators like Dunlap and Patterson often plant by hand That’s what they used to do using a disc blade to dig a shallow trench to drop seeds into To make the planter Dunlap modified a single row Allis Chalmers no-till planter unit He welded 3-pt hitch connections to a length of 4-in steel tubing to make a mini-toolbar A wavy coulter was attached to run beneath the toolbar Gauge wheels were attached to each end Different varieties of pumpkins require different spacing The simplest solution was to have an operator seated ahead of the planter unit dropping seed as needed A foot-long piece of channel iron mounts perpendicular to the top of the toolbar It provides a base for the operator’s seat Two pegs on the planter serve as foot rests Making room for the operator’s seat required pushing the planter unit another foot or so back from the toolbar Dunlap bolted two lengths of channel iron to the toolbar A short piece of 4-in steel tubing welded at the other end of the channel iron provided a “toolbar” to mount the planter unit Dunlap replaced the seed box with a tray to hold seeds to be dropped A funnel set in the center of the tray connects to the seed tube The operator rests a bucket of fertilizer on the planter frame between his legs “Once the seeds are dropped down the funnel a scoop of starter fertilizer follows ” explains Dunlap “We also broadcast fertilizer according to a soil test but the starter gets the plants up and growing ” The planter unit’s press wheel which rotates every 8 ft has a red mark at 4 ft and a white one at 8 ft The marks help the operator place the seed at the correct spacing which can vary from 4 ft to 12 ft The no-till unit lets Dunlap and Patterson plant pumpkins into the previous year’s orchard grass hay or a cover crop of rye They roll the field in the opposite direction they intend to plant That creates mulch that keeps down weeds and protects the pumpkins from wet dirt “The coulter cuts through the straw nicely and the mulch reduces problems with fungus ” says Dunlap The final touch to the planter was an umbrella Dunlap mounted on it When the pumpkins start to ripen the partners set up 30 picnic tables around the farmyard and load them with pumpkins Customers select pumpkins from the different varieties as well as Indian corn supplied by a neighbor and bundles of field corn stalks “We sell about a thousand bundles of stalks a year ” says Dunlap They use a 1940’s vintage pto-powered corn binder that gathers 9 to 11 stalks per bundle The binder was half buried in an old barn The partners dug it out and took it to a car wash where they blasted away the dirt They soaked all the joints with kerosene and penetrating oil and discovered it worked fine Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Terry Dunlap 7155 Basil Western Rd N W Canal Winchester Ohio 43110 ph 614 837-5444; tdunlaps@insight rr com

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