Adding pop-up in furrow -also- Which no-till closing wheels?

When I changed my Keeton seed firmers on my JD 7000 last year, I bought the ones with blue liquid tubes in hopes of getting pop-up installed this year.

Now that I am looking at different systems, I'm reading that sometimes a squeeze pump can affect the accuracy of the seed placement.

I read that an electric pump would be much better for a low gal/acre pop-up application. So, what should I be looking for? I see that the local tractor place has small 12 volt pumps with 35 psi for small quad sprayers for around $100. Then, I look at kits with most everything you need, and they are $2000. Which way have you gone? I think I'll just add a 60 gallon tank to the planter, so as not to add too much extra weight. I'm already carrying dry fertilizer with bin extensions on my 6 row.



Since I am going to drag the planter into the shop, I would like to install a no-till system. I did a parts search through my catalogs, and I have a good idea of what I would like as far as a no-till set-up. because of my rocky limestone clay soil, I am not going to use a no-till coulter. Instead, I am changing my openers to the heavy duty ones, with new v-slicers, yetter row cleaners with the aluminum depth wheels, max-emerge 2 style adjustable closing wheel mounts, and drag chains.

As for the closing wheels, I am stuck on what to do. I have rubber closers now, and I am going to buy a set of new ones for when I do conventional tillage. That leaves me with many options for no-till. I have seen planters that have a rubber closer on one side and a 15 inch spike on the other side. I have seen the 13 inch spikes on both side. I have seen heavy cast steel solid closers. Also, a guy around here has some sort of round steel bar finger closers that are basket shaped. I can't find them anywhere for sale. The newest thing I have seen is a set of heavy plastic(UHMW) spiked closers that are supposed to be super slippery, and super heavy like steel. Those are made by copperhead ag.

What I have right now is a single pair of cast steel solid closers and a full set of rubber closers. What I was thinking of doing in the spring is setting up the planter with one set of rubber closers on one row, one cast steel solid set on another, one set of 13 inch spikes on the third, a mixed set of rubber wheel and 15 spike on the fourth, the copperhead ag plastic ones on the fifth, and a set of either 13 spike with the aluminum depth gauges on the sixth, or those round steel bar baskets if I can find out what they are and where to get them. I am thinking I can go out in late april at burn down time, and do a test in burned down sod, and then another test in bean stubble if the ground is warm enough. That should give me about a week to see what the emergence is like, and a week to order the full set of the closers that do the best, before corn goes in, around May 10th. That's my earliest planting date in these steep valleys. We plant any earlier and we get killing frost. The test strips in April would then be at the mercy of the weather.


So, what would you do? What systems have worked best for you? Anyone switching out closing wheels between soil types? Any system that just doesn't work at all?

it's only December 10th and I am already going nutty being stuck inside the house. Time for my winter project!

Contact Exapta Solutions. They can set you up, best closing wheels are there Thompson wheels. They can also help with your fertilizer solution.
Exapta Solutions

I use a small 3 gpm 12v electric 'FloMaster' sprayer
pump for the starter/'popup' fert.Put on 5-7 gpa.
works great.Very consistent.Here are some pics.This
is the 'old' 4 row. the 6 row is similar.The outfit
was made from off the shelf parts. The Blumhart
manifold system was not too bad. I seem to remember
the entire system was under 300 dollars.

I have since 'updated' to 6 row. Have expanded to useing the system to side dress 32% liguid at cultivation at a rate of up to 60 gpa. Had to install a bigger 5.5 gpm pump to handle the extra flow.That is about the upper limit of the system.Hope this bit of info helps.

A piston pump works well, as long as it has a separate drive wheel. When driven off of the planter drive, the "pulsing" will affect seed accuracy.

Nice! That looks a lot like the 13 inch spiked closers, but slightly different. Thanks for the link.

That looks simple enough to do. You have a pressure gauge and what looks like a filter housing? or is that a pressure regulator? Do you have a pressure regulator? are all your tubes equal length? Thanks for all the pictures.

I was thinking of doing something like that.

That's what I was afraid of. I don't like the idea of a pump being mechanically driven, as much as I like the ease of electric. Are there kits to make the mechanical pumps drive from the ground for my planter?

Found the basket closing wheels the neighbor has!


They are called Schlagel...



Makes me hungry for a bagel for some reason...


So many choices...

The 'pressure regulator' is simply a ball valve to
vary/controll the amount of bypass.I have since replaced the ball valve with a gate valve for more 'prisice' pressures.Open/close to get correct pressure.I usually run 25-30 psi.The volume/gpa is
regulated by a certain size orfice in each line
where it hooks to the manifold. Ecch line is a
different length.Got more questions,call me this
evening. (970)874-3973. Steve

Check out a John Blue pump. I would imagine that they have a drive system. We have one on our Great Plains Twin-Row planter, but I think the drive may be GP manufactured. It mounts to the frame, and lifts off the ground when planter is raised. Couldn't be much simpler.

Your original question was about a squeeze pump. I wouldn't think they would pulse as much. The rollers never change direction, whereas the piston pump has a reciprocating design, so the piston changes direction at the end of every stroke. I believe that is where the pulsing comes from.

Are you talking about the big toothed steel wheel that engages the ground? I have seen those at the local GP dealer.

I guess I got confused between squeeze pump, and piston pump. You are talking roller pump? Now I am going to have to do more research... Or maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy the $2000 kit for electric. Choices...

Thanks for the options!

That makes sense. I am looking at webpages now with the manifold set-up and the more I read, the more I understand.

Thanks for the help and the pictures!

We have the 13 in. Yetter spikes. All
so the drag chains. I think you need
the wavy Colter in front to make a
seed bed. Good friend planted for
yrs. Without them. Borrowed our
little planter to replant some. His
new JD planter has colters.

I talked to the precision planting rep last February at a corn planter clinic. He said that in our soil, the coulter, attached to the row unit, would bring the openers out of the soil ahead of a rock, dropping the seed on the ground, then when the openers climbed on the rock, they'd plant that seed too shallow as well, so you get twice as much seed being out of place. He also said that the coulters cut a groove deeper than the openers that doesn't close, and the seed can fall down lower than the depth of the gauge wheels. He strongly recommended everyone run without them.

I was going to try the coulters alone, but after attending the planter clinic, I decided against it. That way, I can blame the guys from precision planting if something goes wrong.

I am really surprised at the number of people who just run no till coulters on a planter, and call it no till. It seems to me that the more I read, the more it seems it is the opposite of what should be done.

I have the Sprayer Specialties 12 volt liquid kit. It is probably
fifteen years old now.

I bought it through the dealer that sold me the liquid fertilizer.
My price was about 1/3 of what was shown in the Sprayer
Specialties book.

You may want to check with some of your fertilizer dealers.

I use a similar system to what Delta Red uses, I have saddle tanks on the tractor w/ a 3.8gpm electric pump that pumps fertilizer back to the planter. From there on, everything is different. I just have a plastic line running back to the rear of each row unit and dribble fertilizer on top on the ground beside the planted row. I picked up the parts from a large farm supply house locally( Eldon C. Stutsman, Hills, Ia). They told me they have many new planters set up this way with no problems. Mine has worked well for 3 years. My planter is a old White 5100, I would like a better closing wheel than what came on it, but it works good enough for a small operation like mine. Chris

That is crazy! Maybe I need to check around and see if anyone local is a dealer for them. That is the exact kit I was looking at. Thanks for the info. Worst case, I call them directly and beg them for a deep discount.

Thanks!

So, you are putting the liquid on a couple inches to the side of the row? I am looking at in furrow pop-up. I'm curious how to see where you are going with the tanks hangin off the tractor. Maybe i'm thinking of it wrong?

What way do you regulate the amount of fertilizer going on. and is it trial-and-mosty error at first?

I have 2 200 gallon saddle tanks, one on each side of the 1850. I mounted the pump on the saddle tank frame, ran a hose up by the right side of operators platform where I can adjust the pressure a see the pressure guage, mounted the switch on the fender by the hydraulic levers. A single hose runs back to the planter into a Red Ball monitor and splits off into 4 hoses that run alongside row units and dribble behind the seed closing wheels. They make different size orifices for the pressure and gallons/acre you need. I had trouble in the wind last spring, so I extended the tubes closer to the soil. My planter is not set up for fertilizer openers, so I drop it about 2" beside the row. It has been trouble free, but I do take a water hose and wash off the press wheel every evening when I stop for the day. I have pictures if I can find them on this %^&*()## computer!! If I remember right, I'm putting on about 10 gal/acre. I can look up more exact info if you want me to. Chris