Chapin 8701B Garden Push Seeder Planter with 6 Seed Plates for up to 20 Varieties of Seeds, Zinc Plow Blade, Row Marker, Powder Coated Steel Frame, Red/Black

Quality seems really good and assembly was just as the instructions had laid out. It's extremely easy to use and beats doing it all by hand. My old method was placing each seed in the ground by hand which took hours and was brutal on the back and legs. This took me maybe an hour to do 1000 feet worth of pea rows which included troubleshooting and experimentation. The only negative thing I will say is that the seed plate designations are a bit off. I planted purple hull peas which classify as a medium pea to me (largest plate available on this unit) but that plate dropped 4-5 peas in every hole which was entirely too much. I dropped down to small pea which was the next one and I was still placing 3-4 to a hole which is still too many. I ended up using the okra plate which was perfect. Consistently 1 pea with the occasional double pea. But that concerns me because okra seeds are tiny compared to a pea seed. Overall, the functionality was great and I've got a good stand of peas now(a REALLY thick stand for the 20ish feet that I used the medium plate). Only time will tell on how long the little drive belt will last, but it didn't show any signs of wear after planting my garden. Definitely recommend storing it in a shed that keeps it sheltered from the elements though. And will also experiment with adding some weight to the rear of the unit next year to help the rear covering wheel make better contact in the areas where a good bit of grass was still under the soil

They say you get what you pay for. So when I paid very little for this seeder, I honestly did not expect much. But after a very easy assembly, I put it to the test and planted 1/4 acre corn at 1.5" depth into clayey loam. The front wheel is adequately tracked and the adjustable drive belt stays tight! The spring loaded furrow burier is suprisingly more efficient at covering than the standard drag chain of other brands. I love the extra-wide rear wheel that gently compacts the row leaving a perfect rut to track your row straightness plus a low spot for rain accumulation. The adjustable side arm row marker disc also is way better than the drag marker you get with other brands. The disc keeps up with you with no resistance! Best, the comfort grips are a huge advantage when doing large gardens. Only downside is the limited seed options you have in the seed plates provided, but I found that you can find the right size one and tape over excess openings to get the spacing you need. Great product. Probably the best in the $100 class.

I used this seeder the other day when planting my cover crop of field peas. It worked very well and I spent minutes using this planter versus hours doing it by hand. At times it was difficult pushing through the soil, which I had worked up thoroughly. The handle is at an angle that when the soil is soft it pushes the planter down instead of forward. I believe it would be an improvement to have an option of adjusting the handle. Having said that it was still a vast improvement over seeding a large plot by hand. It’s a work in progress on my part. I do recommend this seeder. Money well spent.

Easy to handle. Plus the seeds was spread out nicely.

NOTE: Some the most common complaints I noticed had to to with failure to plant or clogging the seed chute....Soil preparation and condition are paramount...the soil must be loose and free of debris and not too wet so that that the furrow opener and furrow closer can function smoothly .....improperly tilled soil with a lot of loose grass will prevent planting and germination and growth by poor seed depth and lack of firm soil to seed contact. Quality is the bare minimum needed to function, probably best for a beginner or experienced gardener who wants a seeder without breaking the bank....Most all others within this price range $120-$180 are virtually identical ....the next level higher in quality is probably The 'Hoss' brand which is $500-$600. The worst aspects of the seeder is that it uses thin flat metal and the left side of the upright to the handle was bent toward the hopper in shipping ...the slight bend caused it to be too close the plastic hopper and the one of the bolts need to be inserted such that the threaded end would not rub on the plastic hopper and cause damage...even if bent back to the proper position the flat rail was by design too close as you can tell by the sleeve spacer located on the equivalent handle bolts on the right side....even with the bolt reversed it would be wise to insert some sort of protective cushion between the bolt hex head and the plastic hopper. There is some advantage that parts of it are made of plastic as it won't rust. I think the seed plate should have a better means of attachment...it seems like it is prone to coming loose especially if seeds build up behind the face of the plate and push the plate away from the housing. For the most part it should work ok for you if you use it with care, clean and store after planting and use a bit of finesse or as my Grandpa used to say ".....hold you mouth right....."

Well....seemed like a good purchase for the price point. I originally bought this to plant sunflowers. Box came pretty beat up so that made me pretty concerned that the parts inside were broken or missing. HOWEVER when I was trying to install the row attachment, I noticed the chute that goes from the hopper to the cutter where the seed is inserted to the ground wasn't even in the hole in the base of the frame. Could this have been from the rough shipping???? maybe but there are two bolts on both sides of the base plate and this thing was stuck on one of the bolt heads. This was probably due to manufacturing (China) and very poor-quality control. I was ready to just to send back but I needed to get this field planted so I decided to take the chute apart and see if I could move it over into the hole. Had to take 6-8 screws out and remove the bolt on the bottom to move the chut into the hole. All this to say it did work and I was able to get this back to together and get my sunflower field planted. It worked well and was easy to use. See if it holds up. Only tested with sunflower seeds. NOTE: have your soil prepared or this will not work correctly, and you don't want debris (grass, weeds etc) in the dirt because this stuff will clog the cutter and part that pulls dirt back over the seed and you will have to keep stopping. I would rake that stuff out before planting. Crappy assembly and poor-quality control is the reason for my low rating!

I've tried a couple of seeders to seed soybeans into well-tilled northern Michigan light soil with pre-made rows (I have irrigation for this place which is neccessary to grow anything in this soil), and this seeder was best as it seemed to do what I wanted it to do. I'll know more in a couple of weeks when the soybeans come up. I ended up using the disc that said beets, okra, and swiss chard, that had smaller holes than the disc that said beans and small peas, that would hold two soybean seeds at a time. Neither one of these discs were depicted in the user manual, so I hope that you get the beets and okra disc if you're doing soybeans. I found that some of the seeds hopped out of the hopper which I fixed quite well and easily by affixing a plastic top to the hopper with gorrilla waterproof tape, which is strong, sticky, flexible, and well suited for the job, probably more functional than anything they could have produced in the factory. You can see this set-up in the accompanying video.

Soil condition is a huge factor in how this will perform. I have rocky clay, the plot in the photo is three years in removing rocks and adding manure and mulch. Any sizeable rocks will stop the seeder, also root clumps from cover crops the tiller didn't break up, that being said I put alot of effort into removing these, I hit some but overall went very smoothly. I planted 1 lbs peaches and cream sweet corn using the corn plate, the first few rows have high density while the last few are sparse and I will likely remove them and replant in a few weeks.

Broke on first use

Muy buena compra la recomiendo atodos si

Excellent item. All parts included

Planting discs and hardware missing from box , unusable , returned for refund .

Plantation