Trying Your Hand at Check-Row Planting?

Lower the openers, as well as the marker toward the unplanted side, and drive back across the field, keeping the planter tongue directly over the furrow made by the marker on the previous trip. This procedure is repeated, back and forth, until the field is completed.

If there is an obstruction such as a tree in the middle of the field, plant to the tree, then walk to the far end of the field and pull the stake to slacken the wire. Walk back to the planter, disconnect the wire, pull the two ends to the opposite side of the tree and rejoin the wire. Walk back to the end of the field, reset the stake (in the same hole) and adjust the tension. Drive the team around the tree, put the wire back into the trip forks and resume planting.

Most planters can take up the wire on the reel as the last rows are planted. After all the checked rows have been planted, and the wire is taken up, the planter is set for drilling, and four rows, two each way, are planted across each headland to finish up the field. FC

For more about check-row planting, read “Check-Row Planting: By the Book.”

Sam Moore grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania. He now lives in Salem, Ohio, and collects antique tractors, implements and related items. Contact Sam by e-mail at letstalkrustyiron@att.net.