Hand Held Skip Planter

Hand held skip planter PLANTERS Planters 17-1-9 "This is not a high-tech piece of equipment but it gets the job done and saves me a lot of bending over," says Robert White, Mackinaw, Ill., about his hand-held"skip" planter. "It consists of an old flat file welded to a 3 1/2-ft. long piece of 1/2-in. conduit with a pipe reducer welded to the top to act as a funnel. A piece of scrap sheet metal, with a 1/2-in. hole drilled in it, is welded to the bottom of the conduit for depth control The file extends about 2 in. past the bottom of the conduit and below the depth control plate. I sharpened the bottom end of the file. "I carry seed in an old nail apron and walk through the field looking for skips. When I plant a spot, I stab the tool into the ground with the file side away from me. I then push the top of the tool forward about 2 ft. and put my foot on the depth control plate before pulling the tool back toward me. The file opens up about a 1 1/ 2-in. deep hole. I then drop two or three seeds into the top of the conduit and it falls to the bottom of the hole. As I walk forward, I step on the spot 1 just planted to cover the seed. "I've tried it in no-till corn and didn't have any trouble getting seed down through trash." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert White, Farmit, 15245 Gresham Rd., Mackinaw, Ill. 61755 (ph 309 359-8480).

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