Garden Seeder – Earthway and Precision Garden Seeders Reviewed

For the gardener that has a lot of inground planting to do, one of the backbreaking chores associated with the garden is planting the seeds in a long row. Especially for older gardeners who may have some problems with a lot of bending and stooping, a garden seeder can make the job of planting the seeds a lot less work. Here is a look at a couple of the more popular models of garden seeders, the Earthway and Precison models of garden seeders.

The basic idea of the seeders is similar. They both have a pair of wheels and a seed hopper. The Precision seeder has 2 equal sized wheels, the Earthway has a larger wheel in front and a smaller in the rear. Both have fairly wide wheels to avoid creating ruts in the fresh soil. You push the seeder down the row that you’ve marked out for the plants you are seeding, and the seeder creates a furrow, drops the seeds in the furrow, can covers it. You set the seed depth so that it can handle all sorts of seed sizes. The Earthway has about 6 seed plates that allow it to handle large seeds like popcorn or green beans, and smaller seeds like carrot or radishes.

The wheels actually help with the planting process, as they firm up the soil covering of the plants. Of course this works best with freshly tilled soil, it will be tough going if you just attack the garden in the spring without preparing the soil.

These both have row markers, which is an attachment that sticks out to the side and leave a row in the soil that’s parallel to the row that you are currently planting.

Make sure your seed is dry (no presoaking of seeds for better germination). SImilarly the use of pelletted seeds may cause issues with the seed plate for the size of seed that you choose.

The Earthway has a fertilizer attachment that is supposed to evenly distribute fertilizer along the row, but note that it can’t be used at the same time as the seeder, so it takes another pass to use it. It would be a lot more convenient if the two could be used at the same time.

One of the biggest problems is that seeds can get getting up and not dropping exacerbated by static electricity buildup. Keeping the seed hopper clean and free of debris is critical to avoiding problems with seed distribution. Cleaning the seed hopper on a regular basis is a good idea.

A garden seeder is not for every gardener. If you are using intensive gardening techniques like raised beds or lasagna gardening, you may not have much use for one of these feeders. The same can be said for raising crops that are in hills like cucumbers and melons. But for those gardeners with a traditional garden with long rows or beans or peas this can save a lot of stooping and bending.