10 Things to Consider When Buying 6 Row Seeder

Introduction

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This is part three of our four-part series comparing the top-used direct seeders on the market! In the previous article of this series, we provided an in-depth review of the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder. The next step up in quality and performance is the Six-Row Seeder! Like the Four-Row, the Six-Row Seeder specializes in singulating medium to small seeds for densely sown crops like baby salad mixes and carrots.

However, instead of requiring three passes to create 12 evenly spaced rows on a 30&#; bed like the Four-Point, the Six-Row Seeder gets the job done in just two passes.

The Conception of the Six-Row Seeder

The Six-Row Seeder was developed in partnership with Eliot Coleman, a well-known pioneering organic farmer and author who has spent over 50 years researching and developing sustainable agriculture practices. Eliot Coleman was a big fan of the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder and used it for many years. However, he wanted to improve it. He liked the 2¼-inch between-row spacing but wanted six rows instead of four. He had the idea to include small cage rollers, one in front and one behind the hoppers. The front cage roller would tamp the soil, while the rear roller would fill in the furrows and level the bed.

After working with engineers at Johnny&#;s Selected Seeds in Maine, his design became a reality. In addition to adding the two roller cages and six seed hoppers, they also engineered three different drive pulleys, with a drive belt to allow for three different in-row seed spacing options: 1&#;, 2&#;, or 4&#;.

Not only that, but they also included a seed depth adjustment into the front roller design, allowing it to be set with a screw knob. They also included a clear seed hopper lid, protecting seeds from water in the event of rain, or dripping condensation in greenhouses. 

Upgrades From the Four-Row to the Six-Row Seeder

In review, these are the upgraded features that set apart Eliot Coleman&#;s Six-Row Seeder from the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder:

• Six rows instead of four, allowing 12 rows to be seeded in just two passes on a 30&#; bed
• A roller cage on the front to tamp the soil, and a roller cage on the back to fill in the furrows and level the bed
• Three different drive pulleys, with a drive belt to allow for three different in-row seed spacing options: 1&#;, 2&#;, or 4&#;
• A clear acrylic seed hopper lid, protecting seeds from water in the event of rain, or dripping condensation in the greenhouse

How to Use the Six-Row Seeder

Bed Preparation

The careful bed preparation requirements for the Six-Row Seeder are the same as they are for the Four-Row. The soil must be a smooth consistency, typically requiring some kind of mechanized preparation by either a tiller, power harrow or a drill-powered tilther. It must be free from any rocks, previous crop residue, or any other debris. The soil should also be level, as any irregularities will cause uneven contact with the 15&#; wide cage rollers and six mini plows on the underside of the seeder. 

The moisture level in the soil also plays an important role in the performance of the Six-Row Seeder. A dry and powdery soil can make it challenging to get enough traction for the cage rollers to rotate, which power the pulleys and cause the seed to drop consistently. Too much moisture can gum up in the plows and block the seed from dropping the way it&#;s supposed to. 

For really dry soil, it&#;s recommended to lightly irrigate prior to operating the precision seeder. A pass with the 30&#; Seed Roller (made by Johnny&#;s) to tamp the soil can also increase the traction and performance of the Six-Row Seeder. While it does have its own mini cage rollers, they don&#;t do quite the same job as the full-size 30&#; cage roller from Johnny&#;s, which also allows you to add weights for more efficient tamping and leveling of the soil.

Seed Sizes

The Six-Row Seeder offers four hole sizes on the seed shaft to accommodate medium to small seeds.

• Hole A

  • Hole length: 3.5mm

  • Hole Width: 3.5mm

  • Hole Depth: 1mm

  • Number of Holes on Shaft: 6

  • Recommended Crops: Arugula, Claytonia

• Hole B

  • Hole length: 6mm

  • Hole Width: 5mm

  • Hole Depth: 2mm

  • Number of Holes on Shaft: 6

  • Recommended Crops: Carrot (raw), Hakurei Salad Turnip, Lettuce, Mustard

• Hole C

  • Hole length: 8mm

  • Hole Width: 6mm

  • Hole Depth: 3mm

  • Number of Holes on Shaft: 6

  • Recommended Crops: Brassicas, Bunching Onions, Tokyo Bakana

• Hole D

  • Hole length: 10mm

  • Hole Width: 8mm

  • Hole Depth: 4mm

  • Number of Holes on Shaft: 6

  • Recommended Crops: Radish, Spinach

Johnny&#;s also makes an Extended Seed Shaft for the Six-Row Seeder. It offers two smaller hole sizes, and two larger hole sizes, allowing for an extended range of seeds that this seeder can accommodate. 

Seeding

When preparing for seeding, slide the seed shaft into the seeder body to where the desired hole size for your seed is centered under each of the six hoppers. There is a set screw that can be tightened to hold the shaft in position, with machined notches for each hole size option. This is a nice feature that the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder doesn&#;t have. 

Next, fill each of the six seed hoppers with equal amounts of seed, and then install the lid.

Push the seeder slowly over your prepared bed, with the outer edge of the cage rollers following the outer edge of the bed. On the return pass, repeat the process for an evenly spaced 12 rows on a 30&#; bed. 

Adjusting the Six-Row Seeder

Seeding Depth

There are two black knobs on either side of the frame that allows for adjusting the position of the front roller cage. Loosening the knobs allows you to rotate the arms on the side of the roller cage, to raise or lower it. Lowering the roller cage brings up the mini plows for shallower seeding, whereas raising the roller cage (to where the front and rear cage are at the same level) allows the seeder to sit flush with the soil level, putting the mini plows at their maximum depth. 

Seed Brushes

Very similar to the Four-Row, the Six-Row Seeder has adjustable seed brushes designed to move away excess seed from the seed hole as it&#;s rotated and directed to the drop point. As with other seeders, raising the brush will accommodate larger or odd-sized seeds, or allow for more seeds to pass through if denser plantings are desired. 

In-Row Spacing

Adjustable in-row spacing is another significant upgrade from the Four-Row to the Six-Row Seeder. Where the Four-Row was fixed at 1&#; in-row spacing, the Six-Row is equipped with a pulley system to offer a much wider range of options. 

The pulley system has a small, medium, and large diameter pulley mounted on one end of the axle on the rear wheel/cage roller, and then another set of three pulleys mounted to the seed shaft on the front. They are connected with a simple black rubber drive band. Here are the different configurations to achieve the different in-row spacings:

• 4&#; In-Row Spacing

  • Front: small diameter pulley

  • Rear: large diameter pulley

    Contact us to discuss your requirements of 6 Row Seeder. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

• 2&#; In-Row Spacing

  • Front: medium diameter pulley

  • Rear: medium diameter pulley

• 1&#; In-Row Spacing

  • Front: large diameter pulley

  • Rear: small diameter pulley

Between-Row Spacing

The between-row spacing on the Six-Row Seeder is fixed at 2.5&#;. This is very similar to the Four-Row Seeder which is fixed at 2.25&#;. Like the Four-Row, you have the option to leave some hoppers empty to increase the space between rows. For example, filling just the first, third, and sixth hoppers would achieve 5&#; between row spacing.

Six-Row Seeder, Second Edition

Based on customer feedback and extensive field trials, Johnny&#;s Seeds recently developed a second edition Six-Row Seeder with some new and improved features! The 2.0 version includes the following upgrades:

1. Powder-coated steel frame
2. Tabs on the rear drive wheel for improved traction
3. Open wheel ends for easily cleaning out the cages
4. Seed funnel for collecting unused seed
5. Adjustable offset handle

Powder-Coated Steel Frame

The powder-coated frame adds a nice aesthetic and adds an extra layer of protection from the elements for many years of use.

Tabs On Drive Wheel

Extra traction on the drive wheel (the rear cage roller) is definitely a nice addition. If the soil is on the loose side and you aren&#;t applying enough pressure on the drive wheel, it is often prone to not consistently spinning, which stalls the seed from dropping. The tabs or &#;teeth&#; that have been added should help solve that.

Open Wheel Ends

With the previous model having closed ends on the cage rollers, compost, and other soil debris would often get trapped inside, causing an annoying rattling while operating the seeder. Open ends allow the grower to pour out material that may get occasionally trapped in the roller cages.

Seed Funnel

A seed funnel for removing the excess seed from the hoppers after seeding is also another really nice addition. In the original model, one would have to turn the seeder on its side or upside down over a large enough container to catch the seed. This would often result in clumps of soil stuck to the seeder also falling out with the seed, requiring sifting. 

Adjustable Offset Handle

The adjustable offset handle allows a grower to comfortably walk in a pathway beside the bed without leaning in or hyperextending their back while operating the Six-Row Seeder.

Conclusion

The Six-Row Seeder is essentially an upgraded/more evolved iteration of the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder. The Four-Row retails for $279, while the Six-Row sells for $650. Do the upgraded features warrant over twice the price? If this is your farm&#;s go-to seeder for daily operations, then I would say they do. 

With that said, it&#;s important to note that even with the added features, they still both require the same degree of extensive soil and bed preparation and the recommended additional step of tamping the bed with another large and awkward tool, the Seed Roller. They also both require optimal moisture levels in the soil for best performance.

What if there was a direct seeder that didn&#;t require this extensive bed preparation, and could operate smoothly even in soil that would ordinarily be deemed too dry, or too wet? What if&#;

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Read the Growers Notes

Relevant Links

Jang JP_5 Seeder vs. Six-Row Seeder | The Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder | The Jang Seeder vs. The Earthway Seeder

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Courtesy of Zaro Bates, Farmer-in-Residence at Urby&#;Staten Island, and Asher Landes, Head of Agriculture at Empress Green, Inc, Staten Island, New York City, New York.
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• Designed for small- to medium-size seeds (some functionality with larger sizes).
• Very versatile, with a multitude of seed rollers and plow-shoe options (double-row double-disc openers), as well as customizable blanks.
• Conserves seed by virtue of the selection of rollers and brush adjustments.
• Can plant at spacings that range from 0.5" to 20", depending on roller and sprocket selection.
• Reliable and repeatable.
  
  What is repeatability? Again, we asked Matt Neves, our former Tools Trial Technician and current Greenhouse Tech.
  
  

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  Let's say you use the JP-1 to seed beets, and you know that you've got a roller that works well with beets, and the brushes set at a specific dimension work great every time (whereas with the EarthWay, you may get more spottiness, and more irregularly shaped rows &#; sometimes requiring two passes to seed to maximal potential yield). Most farmers prefer not to spend time thinning, and consider it wasted time. With the Jang dialed in, you can achieve beet rows with very close to the desired seeding rate. This potentially cuts out hours and hours of thinning later on in the season. You can be confident that you're going to get the desired effect out of the seeder.
  
  

  &#; 

  The entire Jang line is reliable and repeatable &#; the EarthWay&#; not so much &#; you'll still get a great stand of beets, but potentially you're going to have to thin &#; for home gardeners, this may not be problematic. And depending on soil conditions, this may sometimes be achievable with a Six-Row Seeder, or the Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder.
  
  

  &#; 

  These other designs offer an inexpensive way to complete most jobs at least adequately, for some people &#;  different designs work for different people and purposes &#; for example, the home gardener who really doesn't want to spend a lot of money on a seeder and doesn't mind some inefficiency.

   &#;

The One-Hour Farmer Program at Feedback Organic Recovery engages local community members.

Courtesy of Dave Sivyer, Feedback Organic Recovery, Newcastle, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.

Feedback Organic Recovery collects and converts organic waste from local cafés and restaurants, and uses the nutrient-rich compost on urban farms to grow and supply produce directly back to the restaurants they collect from &#; a closed loop of urban food production!

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• So, the Jang JP Series could be regarded as expensive &#; but on the basis of its abilities and performance, the cost may be justifiable for you.
• Widely used.

  &#;

  In my opinion, this is a must-have for farmers with market-size operations.

  &#;

  &#; Matt Neves
• Scalable: Options include hoppers, rollers, and plow heads, all compatible with multi-row versions. You can start with just the JP-1 and eventually upgrade to JP-3 or JP-6, and still be able to use the parts originally purchased. There is no need to buy an entire new system (for some people at least), as the scale of the operation grows &#; all the way up to tractor-mount units. Tractor-mount versions (JPH-U) use the same hoppers and rollers.
• The Jang JP Seeder is not as particular about soil conditions as some seeders; able to more precisely handle rougher terrain than other seeders.
• Rugged construction, though it may be on the heavy side for some people.

Growers & Their Jangs &#; Some Recommendations & Feedback

Having recently expanded our line of Jang Seeders, we wanted to follow up with our customers and find out how well the equipment was working out for them. We checked in with a diversity of growers and gardeners around the country who had recently purchased a Jang Seeder from Johnny's, and asked for feedback about utility, value, and performance.

Kevin Leavitt &#; Farmer Kev's Organics, West Gardiner, Maine

We met up with Kevin one morning in late April, when the fields were still somewhat cloddy and damp. Kevin had prepped row after row of 100-foot-long raised beds, despite an exceptionally cool, wet spring, and we were eager to see if the fields were dry enough to plant. Kevin loaded three alternating hoppers of his new Jang JP-6W, and as you can see in the video clip below, was able to sow three rows concurrently in just a few minutes. We hope the Jang JP-6W proves invaluable in his rapidly expanding farmshare delivery business here in Central Maine.

Brittany & Kevin Overshiner &#; Upswing Farm, Hopkinton, Massachusetts

Upswing Farm is a small, diversified vegetable farm on the border of Ashland and Holliston, Massachusetts, run by Brittany and Kevin Overshiner. Brittany shared the following about her Jang Seeders with Ken Fine, her Territory Sales Rep (retired). &#;Bought the first one in &#; Worth every penny&#; With the various rollers and by modifying the gear settings you can use a precise amount of seed&#; This conserves seed and, more importantly, results in NO THINNING.&#; Brittany and Kevin use use other methods at Upswing for large-seed crops such as peas and beans.

Brandon Dodge &#; Rastafarm, Reisterstown, Maryland

Rastafarmi is a small organic farm in Reisterstown (Boring), Maryland run by Brandon and his partner Megan. When his Territory Sales Rep, Paul Gallione (retired), asked Brandon for feedback about his new Jang, Brandon reported that he was very happy. &#;It took a few weeks to get used to it,&#; he added, but then it was great. Brandon and Paul reviewed the Johnny's Roller Trial Results / Variety Cross-Reference Charts, a set of spreadsheets that list which Jang Roller works best for direct-sowing over 200 varieties/seed types of crops. Brandon said he thought Johnny's product-support information was excellent, and gave the following recommendation to prospective Jang customers: &#;Buy it&#; Learn it&#; It WILL work!&#;

Liz Graznak &#; Happy Hollow Farm, Jamestown, Missouri

Happy Hollow Farm is an organic operation nestled in the foothills of the Missouri River, where Liz Graznak grows produce to supply CSA shares and sell at the Columbia farmer's market. Liz has a background in plant breeding and also does trials with Missouri State University on her farm. Her Territory Sales Rep at the time, Randy Cummings, talked with Liz talked about the Jang Seeder she recently purchased.

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It takes more time to set up for the seed you want to use, but once it is set up it is easier to use than the EarthWay. It does a good job tamping the seed, much better than the EarthWay. It does a much better job seeding carrots&#; In the past, I've shied away from doing direct-seeding because the EarthWay isn't that fabulous, but I think I'll be doing more direct-seeding because of the Jang&#; I plan on picking up more rollers for it in the future. I definitely like it&#; I heard about the Jang at the MOSES conference years ago from another vendor, but when I was ready I found it was easier to buy it from Johnny's. The Jang Seeder for me is one of those purchases for which I felt I needed to reach a certain point financially, as I had been using the EarthWay up until this time. I bought the EarthWay, then the Six-Row Seeder for all my babyleaf in the high tunnel, and this year decided it was time to buy the Jang.&#; Four weeks ago was my first big seeding, but we struggled with 11 inches of rain, which washed everything out. Just this last week I was able to get back out to work the ground again, reshaping beds, and used the Jang again to seed.

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Jeff Scott's High Tunnel, Vino, Alabama

Jeff's perfectly-formed raised beds await seeding with his Jang JP-3 Three-Row Push Seeder.

Jeff Scott &#; Vino, Alabama

Jeff is a methodical, mechanically-oriented individual who after retiring from the US Army, decided to apply his ingenuity to growing crops. First he built himself a high tunnel with help from a NRSC grant, then installed rain-water catchment as well as an elegant drip irrigation system. Next he designed a dirt sifter to prepare superfine topsoil so he could grow straight carrots. He also devised an attachment for his tractor tiller to spit out 40"-wide, 5"-tall, perfectly flat-surfaced beds in his tunnel. &#;Design is the biggest part of fun,&#; according to Jeff. &#;It's been as much of a science lab as a growing exercise.&#; He's also &#;exploring the finer options of composting.&#; It thus comes as no surprise that when he was ready to buy a seeder, he researched his options carefully. &#;I watched some YouTube videos, and talked to some of my neighbors. They have the EarthWay Seeder. I listened to what they had to say, then talked to Rod [Heyerdahl],&#; his regional Territory Sales Representative (now retired). &#;I elected to get a Jang, and the next question was whether to get the single-, two- or three-row version. I went with the three-row because it was more versatile &#; more options. I'm all about options, and the more options I've got, the better I like it.&#;

Alex Nielsen &#; Ukiah, California

Finally we heard from the West Coast, where commercial grower Alex Nielsen had simply this to say about how his new Jang was working out for him: &#;Love it!&#;

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