Need help with mt 494A Planter

[bosty2]

Hello all...Im new here, I have been reading on here for a while an finally joined..thanks to all in advance for all of the help and information I have gotten off of here in the past! AWESOME website...I have a question I hope I can get help on, I just recently purchaced an older JD 494A planter to plant my sweet corn patch with, it came with plates sized for older round seed corn, Im not sure of the plate number...I can get that in a few days...But when I go to plant my sweet corn it seems to douple drop every now and then...the Sweet corn seed seems smaller and flater than the seed corn that I took out of the pots that was left in it when I purchased it...can anybody help me here or does anybody know what plates I need for the sweet corn seed?

Thanks again!

Matt

 

[GeneMO]

Most of the old time farm supplys had a big board in the back room with plastic "loaner" plates for the popular planters. The seed corn sack listed suggested plated numbers to use for the particular seed.

We generally would take a plate size on each side of the suggested one. Lay the plate on the concrete floor and just try the fit of the plate.

My cousin manages the local coop and gave me their entire set of plastic plates.

I would check with your local farm supplys.

I doubt if you could still buy the plates from Deere, and if they had them they would be expensive.

But a double now and then isn't going to hurt you, unless it is wasting too much seed.

Goodluck, Gene

 

[John B.]

Lincoln Ag Products will be able to help you with your plates. I would give them a call.

Being that sweet corn is much smaller than seed corn I wouldn't worry about dropping 2-3 kernels in one hill.

I have a little one row push planter and it drops 2-4 seeds for every hill every 8 inches.

I hope the website helps you out.
Corn Plates plus others

 

[John B.]

If you look at their Gallery section they have pictures of the seed plates.

 

[DeltaRed]

Sweet corn is 'varigated'.It does not really plant
well/accuratly with a plate.I use a med rd plate for
sweet.Yes, I get few boubles,once in a while a
skip.But in the end a decent/adequet stand is
acheved.Sweet corn is a major crop here('Olathe
Sweet'),all the commertial growers use plateless
planters for that "perfect" stand...

 

[Jim/IN]

On plate type planters with many, many acres on them, sometime there is a groove worn into the floor plate, which effectively makes the cells in the plates deeper, sometimes causing doubles. The only cost effective solution is to find a better set of floor plates from another planter.

 

[bosty2]

Thanks ALL! I will take this advice and RUN! I guess what I should do first is see how the plot comes up this year and then decide if I need new plates or not...I did not know that a double very now and then was not a big deal...just trying to be too perfect I guess...THANKS AGAIN!