I have an oldMF two-row corn planter I bought on the cheap... the guy I bought it from had only one set of disksthat work fine for corn. I've also planted sunflowers for the past two years, and it will drop ~3-6 seeds in the one hole, too many plants, imo. I was thinking of mixing in some vermiculite into the hoppers to reduce the number of seeds that it was dropping. Any advice? Anyone out there with MF disks?
-fsh

If your planter is mounted, it is probably a MF 39. They were great little planters, but not as popular as International or John Deere. Anyway, your problem is that you need plates for sunflower seeds. I suggest that you find a MF dealer and look at his planter plate list. Get the number for sunflower plates, and keep an eye on ebay. There are usually some MF plates there, but sunflower plates are rather rare. Or, you can check on the availability of new plates, but have hold of something solid when he tells you the price.

keyshunter
- yes, it is an MF39 planter. When I bought it two years ago, I did google around trying to find plates for a while, but had no success there or on ebay. I'll look fora MF dealer as you suggest.
- I also posed the same query on the QDMA forum, and got asuggestion to try an antiquetractor forum (www.ytmag.com).

-fsh

Vermiculite may be too light, but it wouldn't hurt to try. You might have to get a hoe and chop cotton....

fshafly
Yes the YT forum is probably a good idea. Each of the brand forums has at least 1 guru for finding used partsof his favorite brand. Try the MF forum, and also the implement forum. Sunflower seeds (I presume you are planting black oil) because of their shape, are a pain to plant in a plate planter. They do great in most plateless planters, however, should you decide to go into serious production.

Itmight be easier to disc, broadcast sunflower seeds and lightly disc again...I have gotton some beautiful stands of wheat doing this...

I agree that vermiculite could be too light to mix with the sunflower seeds to "dilute" them. What do you all think oftakingblack oil sunflower seeds for birds (~$15/40#) and roasting them at 160F for an hour or so (?- is this hot enough to kill the seedsand any accompanying weed seeds?); then mixing them with my good sunflower seeds (50-50)?The mix should dilute the viable seeds and itcould be a cheap way to go.
-fsh

Thats a good idea to heat them up. Also might suggest Soybeans. dont use corn - it will compete too much with the sunflowers.


FH