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Garden Tools For Serious Gardeners
If you raise produce to sell or simply have a really big garden, you may want to consider some of the new tools from Johnny's Selected Seeds. Some aren't cheap, like the $325 6-row seeder, the $348 powered tilther, or the $198 greens harvester, but for a serious bed gardener, they may be just what are needed. "Those tools fit the market grower who plants fairly intensely in beds," says Jon Hill, Johnny's tool and accessory manager. "The tilther and the 6-row seeder are designed for one trip down and one back on 30-in. beds."
The tilther is powered by a rechargeable or corded drill (not included in the price). It tills the top 2 in. of a garden bed, mixing in compost and fertilizer while chopping up the roots of the previous crop.
The 15-in. wide, 6-row seeder consists of two expanded metal rollers and a seeding shaft with 6 hoppers and 6 rollers in between them. The first roller adjusts seeding depth and consists of a wire grid that firms and preps the soil surface for seeding. The rear roller closes the furrow and also serves as the drive roller for the seeding shaft. Seed mechanism can handle seeds as small as lettuce and as large as spinach.
"Hoppers and shoes are set up to plant in 2 1/4-in. or 4 1/2-in. widths, if using every other unit," says Hill. "The shaft has 3 different gear ratios, and can drop seed at 1-in, 2 1/2-in. and 4-in. increments in the row."
Market gardeners with dense plantings will go for the greens harvester, a hand held alternative to using a knife. The device works like a bow saw with a cloth basket to catch greens without bruising as they fall.
The new soil monitoring test kit from Johnny's checks soil samples for biological life. While the importance of microscopic life present in the soil has long been understood, there has been no simple way to measure it. This kit, developed by the Woods End Research Lab, measures carbon dioxide released by the soil to estimate how biologically active the soil is.
If you like flowers produced by bulbs, the $22.90 bulb auger will let you plant lots of bulbs fast, regardless of soil type.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Johnny's Selected Seeds, 955 Benton Ave., Winslow, Maine 04901 (ph 207 861-3999 or 877 564-6697; website: www. Johnnyseeds.com).


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2005 - Volume #29, Issue #3