Corn School: Seed Meters

[@KrazyKajun602]

Great Information:Shawn, I am looking to buy a 2 row planter JD 7100 with mechanical finger meters. I am ignorant on these type of planters. Can these planters be used for all seeds(corn, sunflower, vegetable(green beans, okra, peas, etc))?

[@msseedlady2587]

@KrazyKajun602 I cannot answer about okra and peas, but corn and sunflowers can be planted with a finger meter system. Sunflowers have a separate finger. Oil sunflowers are sold in size 2, 3 and 4 seed, where size 2 are the largest and size 4 are the smallest. You can use a corn finger to plant size 2 sunflowers, but size 2 are hard to come by. Sunflower fingers work best for size 3 and size 4 seed. Biggest difference is the sunflower finger has a shorter "flag" than the corn finger. Hope that helps

[@trentalbritton6387]

Could you give me any info on precision meter 343034 will this work for #4 clearfeild sunflowers. And could you break down what these number mean?

[@lukestrawwalker]

Finger meters are intended for corn, sunflowers, and pumpkins, basically planted at fairly low populations and having a teardrop shaped seed, which basically even corn is sort of a teardrop shaped seed, though less than sunflowers or pumpkin seed. They *might* be able to plant other seeds of roughly the same size/shape, but probably not very well... might do an "acceptable" job or not, depending on what you consider "acceptable". Smaller seeds its more likely that it'll drop multiple seeds at one time and not "singulate" the seeds, so the population may be erratic. It's also possible it might not be able to hold onto the seed as it moves over the dips and bump in the backing plate (designed to dislodge multiple seeds when planting corn or sunflowers and allow the extra seed to fall back) or under the brush (which does the same thing as a "last resort"). Large round seeds like soybeans or oblong rounded seeds like green beans or string beans, or large oval seeds like pinto beans, dry beans, or lima beans, may be problematic as well. The best advice I can give you is "try it and find out". Population is another issue, as finger meters aren't designed to drop extremely high numbers of seed... they can handle corn up to about 50,000 plants/acre, but the higher the population the faster the meter has to turn, as there's only 12 fingers, which is basically similar to a 12 cell plate in a plate planter, or 12 cell disk on a vacuum/air planter. Typically for "high rate" seeding like typically used for soybeans and such, where populations over 100,000 plants/acre are very typical (and usually in the 120,000-140,000 plants/acre is normal) you'd have anywhere from 36-48 cell plates or disks to handle that much seed, to keep the meter speed (rpm's of the meter wheel) down to acceptable speeds. Finger meters, the faster they turn, the less seed they put out past a certain point, the "sweet spot" of the meter. You can partially offset this by reducing ground speed, planting slower to allow the meter more time to do its job and keep it down in the 'sweet spot' of meter speed. BUT that only gets you so far, particularly trying to plant seeds the meter was never intended to plant. After all, if the finger meter could plant those seeds "acceptably" then there would be charts and recommended settings in the planter manual for those crops and seed types. Kinze makes a fine brush meter that is a DIRECT replacement for the finger meter for planting seeds other than corn. It's SO good in fact that other manufacturers have copied it and made their own versions, like the Deere brush meter. A brush meter uses a vertical seed disk somewhat like a vacuum or air planter, but there are no holes in the disk to allow air or vacuum to suck or blow seeds up against the disk and hold them in the seed cells or pockets... the seed disks for brush meters typically have some "agitation grooves" that assist in getting seeds moving down and into the cells around the periphery (outer edge) of the seed disk, where they drop into the pockets. A large broad "cutoff brush sweeps excess seed out of these grooves as the grooves turn and pass under the brush, and another brush extending around the periphery of the meter housing then holds the single seed in each seed pocket as the seed disk turns... any excess seeds are swept away as the disk turns by the brush holding the single seed in each pocket. They then fall back to the seed pool at the bottom of the meter coming down from the hopper above. The seed disk turns past the top and where the brush ends, directly over the seed tube. When the seed pocket passes the end of the brush, pressure of the bristles holding the seed in the pocket/cell ends, and the seed simply falls out of the disk and down the seed tube. They basically do the exact same thing a vacuum meter does, but mechanically using a brush rather than complicated vacuum or air setups that require adjustment and hydraulically driven fans or blowers to maintain vacuum... and unlike a vacuum or air pressure planter, which will lose vacuum or air pressure if there's a disruption in the hydraulic flow, which can be common with older tractors, and when the airflow or vacuum is interrupted ALL the seeds fall off the disk, and the disk has to complete most of a revolution before it will start planting again, leaving a huge long blank area where no seeds are being dropped, a brush meter is impervious to this sort of thing, as the bristles will hold seeds in the pockets regardless, even overnight or until the planter is used again. Seed disks for many different types and kinds of crop seeds are available, and many are multi-use for different crops. There are disks with up to 80 cells for high rate planted crops like soybeans and grain sorghum and such, all the way down to low-rate or 'hill drop" planted seeds. The only thing that brush meters don't plant well is corn (and sunflowers and pumpkins), which is why finger meters are still sold to plant those crops. Brush meters can pretty much handle anything else, and almost as well as vac/air planters.... Before brush meters came about, Deere used to sell "soybean cup meters" that fit in place of the finger meters for planting soybeans and other crops than corn. Basically these were a simple agitator wheel type meter similar to a "double run" grain drill meter, which is basically a 'controlled spill' and not true singulation of seeds, thus the accuracy is pretty low, but for high-rate planted seeds like soybeans it's not much of an issue. Of course before the vertical finger meters came about, the standard was the 'plate meter" which used a horizontal flat seed plate on the bottom of the hopper, which had multiple cells around the edge of the plate that seeds would drop into as it revolved. It would revolve past a 'cutoff', a spring-loaded 'pawl" of sorts that would hold back multiple seeds from riding on top of the plate (and supposedly allowing only a single seed to ride under it in the cell, though it was common for multiple smaller seeds to manage to drop into a cell and ride through, which is why the cutoff pawl was spring loaded, to pop up over larger seeds that might be sticking up out of the cell. The cell would then rotate over a hole in the bottom of the meter bottom plate, which would allow the seed to fall down the seed tube, usually helped along by a "seed knocker", a small spring-loaded wheel on an arm that rode directly over the hole and would drop down into the hole partway to push out any seeds that might have wedged in the cell, to ensure the cell didn't stay 'plugged up' with a wedged seed and create constant skips of that cell. Plates didn't singulate seeds very well; the seed had to be carefully sized and graded for shape (rounds and flats in corn) and the seed cells of the plate carefully matched to the seed size/shape to singulate well, particularly in corn. Seeds could be cracked, broken, or scuffed by the cutoff or seed knocker wheel as it rotated through the meter and plate cell, and cracked or damaged seed might not germinate at all. WHICH is why finger meters and brush meters were eventually invented, to do a better job. My advice would be to pick up a pair of brush meters and the appropriate seed disks for what you want to plant. Use the finger meters for corn, sunflowers, pumpkins, watermelon, or other such seeds and crops planted at low rates with 'teardrop' shaped seeds, and use the brush meters with the appropriate disks for everything else. We planted cotton, grain sorghum, and soybeans with brush meters for years and, properly maintained, they'd plant as good as a vacuum planter IMHO. Brush meters and finger meters both attach to the bottom of the hopper identically, they can be swapped out in less than a minute per row