working seed into the soil with harley rake by non farmer?

[inairam]

I have a non-cub-related planting project by non-farmer.

We lost a stand of Ash trees to the emerald ash borer. This is at my house in development not the family property where I keep the tractors.

The "woods" we have in the back is about 1/2 acre which is separated from the front by a small stream with no bridge. In the back, I have 3 neighbors but none of that land is good for moving equipment except in the dead of summer or the dead of winter so most work I have to do by hand NO TRACTORS!!!!!

2 years ago we had the trees taken out. Last year we planted about 30 native to PA/ east coast trees and bushes on about a 1/4 of an acre that suffered the most loss. This year I am planting a pollinator/ bird mix between the trees. I cut the weeds from last year with my hand mower and bagged most of it. I hand-raked the surface debris. I rented a walk-behind Harley rake that I was able to get over the creek. I ran the Power rake at its deepest setting 4 times going in different directions which worked up a lot of semi-buried rocks and sticks and smoothed out the surface

I think the soil is ready to plant. The mix I have uses 10 pounds of a cover crop of oats with 3 pounds of the pollinator/ bird mix to cover a 1/4 acre.

My question is can I use the Harley rake at its highest setting to work the seeds into the soil as instructed to insure good contact with the soil? I really do not want to hand-rake the 1/4 acre. I was also going the run the rake with the drum off to compact the seeds in.

Is this a good idea to use the power rake?

 

[Jim Becker]

What depth are the seeds supposed to be planted at? The best option may be to just use the drum as a non-powered roller, no tilling involved.

 

[inairam]

1/8 to 1/4 in

thre are studs / bits on the roller. i have to play with the height setting to see if i can get it compress with without making ferrows

 

[Bob McCarty]

I've use a piece of chain link fence to drag over the spread seeds. Seemed to work okay. Why not bring one of your Cubs home for a season to make it easier to do?

 

[Jim Becker]

I'm not familiar with the details of the harley rake. I would be afraid that even in its most shallow setting it may bury a lot of seed too deep. I would also be concerned about stripping all the seed off one area and bunching it up in another. I think you would do better dragging something light over it as Bob suggests and/or rolling it. Most effective would probably be a light dragging followed by rolling.

 

[Don McCombs]

I agree with Jim. Just roll it. That technique has worked well for us in doing wildlife food plots. You might want to think about creating a ford in the stream for future planting and maintenance.

 

[inairam]

i have some chicken wire fence that i could use as a drag with maybe a small log on it. i will use the rake without the drum engauged as an roller.

ill post some photos

 

[ScottyD'sdad]

If done earlier, you could have "frost seeded", just spread the seed and freezing and thawing cracks the soil, and "plants" the seeds. I've used it in the past for seeding pastures.

Ed

 

[inairam]

Ed i thought about the frost seeding.

I got the seeds from https://www.ernstseed.com/ They were recommended by several municipalities in the area that did some similar native plant projects. They are not cheap so I want to shoot for the highest germination rate I can get.

The instructions on the website and that I got with the seed want a light rake and roll/ compaction

 

[Don McCombs]

You could also do a light mulch with straw to improve germination. Might seem like a lot of work, but it could be done over the course of several days.

 

[inairam]

So i could not work out how to rake the seed in. My wife did not like my chicken wire idea with a board on it. I do have a large landscape rake and I just walked with it behind me.

I was much happier with the roller idea. I did remember I had a mott mower in pieces. I put a rope on the roller and dragged it around. It worked. It could see the rolled areas vs the non-rolled areas when I turned to make a new pass. I have to work out how to attach this to my drag harrow.

The last step was putting down mulch. Instead, of staw I used a product called Penn Mulch. It is pellets that swell when watered. A few landscapers I know strongly recommend it. It is a recycled paper with a light starter fertilizer.

The power rake or harley rake was a game changer. It was more productive than a box and rake in removing roots and rocks and leaving a smooth grade. It only goes in 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in but it turns up the roots and rocks. If you look at the photos the rock piles on the stumps were 1/3 as high before the power rake. They do rent them to skid steer and loaders.

Now it is water and wait.

Doing this by hand makes you really appreciate the 9hp of the cub.

Thank you to everyone for the farming advice.

 

[SamsFarm]

I've cleared land, worked up the soil, then walked away to let it do its thing.
Learned there is a thing called the soil seed bank!

Now I bale hay there!

There are billions of seeds deposited in the soil seed bank each year, just waiting for the right opportunity for a withdrawal (germination and growth).

I hope your project turns out great!

 

[Don McCombs]

I've cleared land, worked up the soil, then walked away to let it do its thing.
Learned there is a thing called the soil seed bank!

Now I bale hay there!

There are billions of seeds deposited in the soil seed bank each year, just waiting for the right opportunity for a withdrawal (germination and growth).

I hope your project turns out great!

Agreed. But, unfortunately, most of the currency in that bank is foreign. AKA, invasive exotics.

 

[inairam]

I've cleared land, worked up the soil, then walked away to let it do its thing.
Learned there is a thing called the soil seed bank!

Now I bale hay there!

There are billions of seeds deposited in the soil seed bank each year, just waiting for the right opportunity for a withdrawal (germination and growth).

I hope your project turns out great!

Agreed. But, unfortunately, most of the currency in that bank is foreign. AKA, invasive exotics.

We tried the seed bank last year and we got Japanese honeysuckle, some kind of thorny rose-like thing that goes as a single stalk out of the ground but grows in clusters and really nasty thorns, some grasses which I did not go out of my way to remove. I was very unpleasant when we went to check on the trees. Plus we wanted to add some food for pollinators. When we identified the plants with the phone apps they were mostly non-natives and listed as invasive.

I did do a seed bank at the family property. I just stopped cutting all of the grass. I cut a perimeter and some paths to the interesting parts but the fields centers I just did not cut. it was nice. Not a lot of food for pollinators but it did attract a lot of other animals

 

[SamsFarm]

Agreed. But, unfortunately, most of the currency in that bank is foreign. AKA, invasive exotics.

Well, I dont know if it is foreign, invasive, or what.
But after brush hogging every year after, and up until the time I bought my baler it turned out wonderful for me.

The best part is it was free seed!

Sure some black berry bushes, multi flora rose and maybe some seedling trees pops up here and there (and who knows what else), but the sickle bar mower, rake and baler dont mind they are there!

Those black berry and flora rose vines make for some exciting times once in a while come winter when flaking the hay apart!

I'll take all the red and white clover, trefoil, timothy, fescue, dandy lions, and a bunch of other grasses I have not yet learned to identify that grow freely (that the animals love) I can get!

If it is in the soil seed bank and you make conditions right, they are gonna grow anyhow!