Australian Jump Starts Drops By Adding Water

Australian jump starts crops by adding water CROPS New Techniques 15-3-25 An Australian farmer who didn't want to take a chance on germination built a water injection system for his 8-row Kinze planter. Glen Hamblin, who raises corn, cotton and wheat near Pilliga in New South Wales, uses the system to apply a minimum of about 50 gal. of water per acre whenever he's not sure if the soil contains enough moisture to germinate the seed. Sometimes he adds fertilzer to the water. The trick with water injection is to get water in direct contact with the seed. Hamblin built a distribution system that releases a continuous trickle immediately behind the end of the seeding tube. "Seeds planted into moisture get started much faster," he says. Hamblin mounts two 250-gal. saddle tanks on his Deere 4850 tractor. Water is pumped from the tanks through a filter and into a manifold on top of the planter that splits the flow eight ways, a tube going to each row unit. The nozzles that control the flow are located at the manifold, releasing a gentle trickle of water down a low pressure tube and into the seed furrow. Having the jets on top makes it easy to clear them if they get blocked. Hamblin also uses water injection to apply low rates of starter fertilizer and minerals. Hamblin says he can get by with his low application rate of 50 gal. per acre because he drops the water directly onto the seed. Last spring he used the water injection system on about one-third of his crop acre-age. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Glen Hamblin, "Riverway", Pilliga, N.S.W. 2389 (ph 067-964301). Story and photos reprinted with permission from The Land Magazine.

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