Does anyone plant Soybeans without a drill via just dragging the plot? If so, how are your results? I do not own a drill and have no interest in buying/renting 1. My thought is to plant a 3/4 acre of roundup ready soybeans. If they get eaten to the ground, so be it--at least the deer will be utilizing them and i would just overseed brassicas come late July. Any thoughts/recommendations on this?
We have done the broadcast and drag before and it does work. For us we just planned on using way more seed than we intended on to make sure plenty got covered while the one's on top get picked up by turkey and birds. A friend of mine the other day recommended that we get a cultipacker to roll over broadcasted beans. Said that's what they did for many years before getting a drill and they got way better results. Would be cheaper anyways.
Every seed has an effective planting depth. It is why most seeds that don't grow well, when i go look at a field, it's almost always about improper planting depth. Soybeans need to be in the ground and firmly packed. They need to be 1" deep or more, bu no don't put them in 3" deep unless you want to hope for an act of god. You need to really work the ground up if not drilled and you best use a cultipacker and or roller. This is why i'd rather have people move towards iron/clay cowpeas, red ripper cow peas or seed like that , thats a tad smaller and that doesn't need to go as deep as forage soybeans. Then if you have a lot of sandhill cranes like in my area, you best mix the soybeans with avipel to keep them from gobbling down the seed before it even has a chance to germinate.
You'll be find broadcasting. Just like everyone else says, be sure to cover the seed by using a drag. 1/2"-1" is all that's needed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Broadcasting is where you just throw the seed out on the soil surface. Can be done by hand or via a broadcast seeder. Beans will generally come up if they are barely covered with soil in spite of claims they need to be an inch plus deep. They need adequate moisture to germinate but generally are better off shallow and waiting on a rain if soil moisture is low to start with. Beans planted too deep are screwed especially this time of year as hot barely moist soil will rot the seed.
Last year I hand broadcasted RR Soy Beans, drove over the top of them with my truck to get them in the ground a little bit and had fantastic results. But I think you've got to protect beans in a plot anything less than an acre. I use Plot Saver, a scarecrow and milorganite fertilizer. All of this will help keep the deer off your beans and allow them to establish prior to heavy grazing.
Plow up the plot, throw the seeds on the ground, lightly drag and pack if possible. The rest is up to the rain. We did 10 lbs of buckwheat and 15 of soybeans on a 1/4 acre plot and it came up great. The deer even left it alone for quite awhile but now are plucking the beans.
Soybeans do just fine if you broadcast them. If you are broadcasting, you will want to have a very well prepared seed bed though. It will need to be disked up or even better yet, tilled up. I plant 3 bags of soybeans on approx 3.5 acres. They do just fine. Really the only draw back to broadcasting, aside from working your butt off broadcasting, is that there are no rows which makes spaying them a little more damaging. These plot were all done similarly. I tilled the soil to a very fine consistency. I used a bag seeder to broadcast the seed out. The first year, I used a homemade drag that consisted of a piece of ladder stand, log chains and tires to drag the plot. The second and third season I used a pull behind cultipacker. All three years had similar results, but the cultipacker was much simpler and quicker. The point is you can do it with the most basic tools available and still get a great stand of soybeans. 2012 plot 2013 plot 2014 plot
http://www.ruralking.com/earthway-p...6&cadevice=c&gclid=CLGT-9mN8r8CFSpp7Aodcx4ALw Check this hand planter out. My cousin bought one and we planted a half acre of beans with it. I liked it so much I went out and bought my own and planted a 1/4 acre of beans on my farm. It isn't as fast as a tractor (obviously) or a broadcaster...but it cuts the ground and will put the seed at any depth you want and then it covers it back up. It has several attachments to go with it that can plant a variety of seeds. I recommend it Needs a well prepped seed bed. Tilled, makes planting with this a heck of a lot easier.
I plant beans each year without the use of a drill. Here is my procedure. First, I disc everything under in a plot that has been burned down using gly. Then, I drag the plot smooth with a homemade tire drag. I then straighten my disc until it will only scratch grooves in the ground. Disc the plot again. I broadcast the beans with a three-point " cyclone " spreader. I then drag the beans with a chain link type drag from Tractor Supply. Then, I roll them with my home made roller. It works well for me.
Before you plant them next year please consider this. Wait until the farmers are done planting and see if you know any farmers at all, heck farmers that know farmers and see if they have any RR beans left. They will give them to you for free - they often have 50 lb bags left. If I were you for a few reasons I wouldn't plant until July or early August (depending on your region). Should help keep the weeds down and if you get a little lucky with the weather come early October the beans will pod. Just my thoughts. Got my beans in this past weekend, 60% and 90% rain the next 2 days feeling good about it and no drill!'
