Help with John Deere 290 corn planter

[Ryanr]

So I have been tinkering with a John Deere 290 corn planter for the past few years now and each year I have mixed results of how it plants I follow the seed plate guide on the package of seed I get and I adjusted the shifter knob to the 4 setting on the larger sprocket to get about 4 to 5 inch seed spacing on a 24 cell plate. Last year I used the exact plate called for on the bag of ambrosia bi color sweet corn and I literally got like about 10% of a 70 ft row of corn that came up. I even went with a larger plate for my late sweat corn and got nothing. This year I went with completely different varietys one of which had no seed plate suggestion on the package so I measured and contacted Lincoln ag products for the right plate. I have better luck but it seems that I have some rows with really good corn coming up and other rows with absolutely nothing but one spot where 3 or 4 stalks are growning all in a little bunch and that is it. I am just looking for some help and some suggestions of how I can get a fuller crop. When I was a kid we use to use an old two row planter converted from horse drawn and we adjusted nothing and had great corn each year. I couldn't even begin to tell you what brand it was and it is now long gone in the scrap pile. Thank you in advance for any tips.

 

[MF165]

only problem that i have had with my 290 was one side getting stuffed up and was only planting one row.....now i make sure to lift the planter up before i stop or turn ,etc..also i wanted to plant some heirloom corn and bought a 16 cell plate instead of a 24 cell......haven't tried that yet..i need to plant this corn about 12" apart...
someone had converted it to a 3'point hitch setup....the row markers , reel for crosschecking,unare all gone...fertilize spreaders don't work...but it still did a decent job..
I have tried to cross the seed plates,but found that conparing the plate and seed, i do a better job of picking the right plate..
the cell should only hold one kernel of corn and not too high...
Good luck...if I can help anymore let me know...

 

[Loosehandle]

Is your seed treated? If not that could be a factor or planting too deep

 

[Ryanr]

The seeds are treated I buy them from seedway I was thinking about just buying up the different sizes of plates off eBay and then I have a better way to find the right plate for the seed instead of going off the label because I know for a fact the ambrosia was marked wrong almost nothing came up

 

[MF165]

(quoted from post at 23:45:53 05/27/17) The seeds are treated I buy them from seedway I was thinking about just buying up the different sizes of plates off eBay and then I have a better way to find the right plate for the seed instead of going off the label because I know for a fact the ambrosia was marked wrong almost nothing came up

buying up seed plates on ebay can get expensive fast...I bought several and most are not the right ones...
the ones that i use for my corn is the BO 24 and BO 16 ...I may have used different ones for beans that i planted one year.....
what you need is a chart that gives the dimensions of the cells and measure your seed....to see which comes the closest....
The seed plate that the bags call for were not even close to the seeds that were in the bags....I bought an owners manual off of ebay and it has a lot of info on the plates and other neat stuff...
If I can be of any more help let me know....

 

[Leroy]

Take the bottom of the seed box apart and clean out and inspect the parts, possibly a broken spring, and reasemble. They get pieces of broken kernels wedged up inside and will not put the seed in the cells correctly. The knocker itself can get too wore out to work but not likely, the little wheel has a lot of wiggle in it even with all new parts. Just a quarter inch bolt to take apart and I usually tried to do that at start of year every year. Usually had different seeds that took different plates and when changing them would check those parts and a lot of time would find a knocker stuck. If would notice a box not emptying like others or as fast as had been would take of the box and the knockers would be jammed.