Guide to Choosing the Best Garden Seeder for Your Needs

Precision Seeders for the Market Garden or Homestead

Shopping for a new seeder usually comes down to finding a design that fits the way you work and balances speed, accuracy and price.

Benefits of Precision Seeders

A good precision seeder can help a grower in several ways:

• Better germination: by placing seed at a consistent, suitable depth with firm soil contact, a seeder helps more seeds come up.
• Less wasted seed: accurate seed drop cuts down on both overseeding and gaps.
• Straight, even rows, which give a uniform stand and make thinning and weeding faster.
• Saved labor: the right tool can cut seeding time dramatically.
• Steadier yields: because a seeder sows at the same rate every pass, results become easier to predict from planting to planting.

Comparing Seeders

EarthWay Precision Garden Seeder

Home gardeners and market growers alike appreciate the EarthWay as a dependable, budget-friendly seeder. It is an especially good fit for sowing long rows of big seeds like peas and beans. Seed is spaced by interchangeable plates, so one tool covers many seed sizes and spacings. Growers who have used one for decades often call it a jack of all trades rather than a specialist, and many who later move up to a Jang notice a much smoother, steadier ride.

Pros:

• Low cost.
• Opens the furrow, drops and spaces seed, then covers and firms the soil, all in one continuous pass.
• A 30" row marker you can adjust marks the next row at your chosen spacing, so rows stay parallel.
• Each full turn of the wheel covers 36", or 3 feet of seeded row.
• Ships with 6 seed plates that cover more than 20 common vegetables, and more plates are sold separately.
• Converts to a fertilizer side-dresser with the optional EarthWay Fertilizer Attachment.

Cons:

• Small seed is not always singulated, so some seed may be wasted and thinning may be needed. Pelleted seed, beets and peas singulate well.
• Performs best with large seeds and a full hopper; small seeds and a low hopper give poorer results.
• The hopper has no lid, so seed is exposed to weather.
• Less heavy-duty than a Jang, though the light build means almost anyone can use it.

Pinpoint Seeders

Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder

Built for densely sown crops like salad and brassica mixes, the Four-Row Pinpoint seeder also works for some others, including spinach and cilantro. It is a favorite for greenhouse beds and other cramped spaces, covering a 30" bed in three passes.

Pros:

• Very light yet durable.
• Handy in confined areas such as small greenhouses.
• Simple design with few moving parts, so upkeep is easy.
• Quick to load and unload.
• Lets you adjust seeding rate, depth and seeder angle.
• Good value for what it does.

Cons:

• Needs a finely prepared seedbed, so expect more bed prep; it struggles where there is a lot of crop residue.
• In-row spacing is fixed at 1"; you can vary the spacing between rows by choosing which hoppers to fill.
• Fairly simple to set and run, though not the most ergonomic. Depth depends on the angle of the handle to the ground, which takes some practice to get right.
• Watch the wheel tines to confirm they turn and drop seed and that the hoppers still have seed. If you notice a skip, it is easy to re-run that stretch.
• The small hoppers work best when full, so they need frequent topping up, and leftover seed is a bit awkward to get out.

One-Row Pinpoint Seeder

The One-Row Pinpoint Seeder shares most of the strengths and limits of the four-row model, in an even lighter, more maneuverable single-row package for growers who want accurate pinpoint seeding in the smallest spaces.

Six-Row Seeder, Second Edition

Made for tightly spaced crops like salad and brassica mixes, this seeder covers a full 30" bed in just two passes, a real labor saver on a market garden.

Pros:

• Offers more adjustment than the Four-Row Seeder.
• A front roller lets it work in a broader range of conditions than the Four-Row Seeder.
• Leftover seed is easier to remove from the hoppers than on the Four-Row Seeder.
• Very dependable when properly calibrated and used on a well-prepared bed.
• Sows a 30" bed in only two passes.

Cons:

• Like the pinpoint models, it needs a fine seedbed and extra bed preparation, and it does not handle heavy residue well.
• Bigger and somewhat harder to maneuver than the Four-Row Seeder.

Jang Seeders

Jang JP-1

Many market growers consider the Jang the benchmark for precision seeding. It singulates and spaces seed with rollers, each drilled with holes of a set number and size, so it can handle very small to medium seeds, pelleted seed and some larger seeds accurately. Rollers swap quickly in the field thanks to the quick-release hopper, and changeable gears set the in-row density.

Pros:

• Highly adaptable, with many seed rollers and plow-shoe choices (including double-row and double-disc openers) plus blanks you can customize.
• Grows with you: hoppers, rollers and plow heads fit the multi-row models too, so you can begin with a JP-1 and later step up to a JP-3, JP-5 or JP-6 while still using the parts you already own, rather than replacing the whole system as your operation expands.
• Less fussy about soil conditions than many seeders and more accurate on rough ground.
• Sturdy, heavy-duty build.

Cons:

• Some users may find it heavy.

Jang JP Three, Five, and Six Row Seeders

Built for small and medium seeds (with some ability to handle larger ones), these models offer a wide choice of in-row spacings and save time by sowing several rows per pass. A flexible, dependable pick for commercial market gardens.

Jang TD-1

Excellent for accurate planting of corn, peas, beans and other big seeds, including large flat ones. Where the JP Series relies on rollers, the TD Series uses seed plates, and sprocket combinations set the in-row spacing across a wide range.

Pros:

• Works well even when the hopper is nearly empty.
• A large (about 7 quart/7 liter) clear hopper with a lid lets you see and protect your seed, and its quick-release funnel shape makes it easy to empty leftover seed and change plates.

Cons:

• Some users may find it heavy.
• Not as adaptable as the JP Series, though it is built for a different job.

Growers & Their Jangs—Some Recommendations & Feedback

To learn how Jang seeders perform in real use, the Hensley's team gathered feedback from a range of growers and gardeners in different parts of the country who had recently bought one, asking about usefulness, value and performance. Here is what we heard.

• A diversified grower in Central Maine

  On a cool, damp spring morning, with fields still a little lumpy, this grower had already shaped long rows of 100-foot raised beds. Loading alternating hoppers on a multi-row Jang, he sowed three rows at once in a matter of minutes, a big help for a fast-growing farmshare delivery business.

• A small diversified vegetable farm in Massachusetts

  This husband-and-wife team has used Jang seeders for years. Their main points: the purchase paid for itself, and by adjusting rollers and gear settings they can sow an exact amount of seed, which saves seed and, best of all, removes the need to thin. For large-seeded crops such as peas and beans, they rely on other methods.

• A small organic farm in Maryland

  This grower and his partner were very pleased with their new Jang. He said there was a learning curve of a few weeks, after which it worked very well. He found the Roller Trial Results / Variety Cross-Reference Charts, spreadsheets showing which Jang roller suits direct seeding of more than 200 crop varieties and seed types, especially helpful, and his advice to anyone considering a Jang was simple: buy one, take time to learn it, and it will do the job.

• An organic CSA farm in Missouri

  This grower supplies CSA shares and a local farmers' market, has a plant-breeding background, and hosts university trials on the farm. Her experience after switching from an EarthWay:

   setup takes longer for each seed type, but once set the Jang is easier to use than the EarthWay, firms the seed in much better, and does a far better job with carrots. Because her old seeder was only so-so, she had avoided direct seeding; with the Jang she expects to direct-seed more and add rollers over time. She saw the Jang as an investment to make once the farm reached a certain financial point, after starting with an EarthWay and then a Six-Row Seeder for baby leaf in the high tunnel. Even after heavy spring rains washed out her first big seeding, she was able to reshape beds and seed again with the Jang. 


A high tunnel in Alabama
Carefully shaped raised beds ready for a three-row Jang push seeder.




• A retired grower in Alabama

  This methodical, mechanically minded grower turned to farming after a military career. He built a high tunnel with grant support, added rainwater catchment and a tidy drip irrigation system, made a soil sifter for fine topsoil so carrots grow straight, and rigged his tiller to form flat-topped beds about 40" wide and 5" tall. For him, designing the system is the most enjoyable part, and the tunnel has been part science lab, part garden, including experiments with composting. So it was no surprise he studied his options closely before choosing a seeder. He watched online videos, asked neighbors who used EarthWay seeders, and talked it over with a sales representative, then picked a three-row Jang over the one- or two-row versions because it gave him the most flexibility.

• A commercial grower in California

  Out West, one grower summed up his experience with the new Jang in two words: he loves it.

Other Types of Seeders

Growers each have their own way of working, so seeders come in many designs for different jobs. Below are a few more types for other seeding tasks.

• Ev-n-Spred Seeder/Spreader
  Made by EarthWay, this tool handles one of farming's oldest jobs, scattering seed by hand over a wide area. It is light and easy to carry, ideal for broadcasting cover crops or grass seed, and can also spread fertilizer and other granular amendments. How wide it throws depends on particle size and density.
• Easy-Plant Jab-Type Seeder
  Also light, portable and used standing up, but unlike the Ev-n-Spred, the Easy-Plant Jab-Type Seeder is made for spot-planting big seeds such as sunflowers, corn, beans, pumpkins and squash. It punches through mulch and is great for filling gaps in a row.

• Seeders for Starting Seeds Indoors
  For crops started as transplants rather than sown in place, several seeder designs make sowing flats and containers easier. If you hand-sow indoors, these are some of the best tools available.
  
  • Hand Seed Sower
  • Vibro Hand Seeder
  • Mini-Wand Seeder
  • Precision Vacuum Seeder
  • Manual Cell Tray Seeder