Had the planter in the field today ...

... didn't have any seed in it, but you know, minor details.   I've never been satisfied with how our planter closes the seed slot in less than ideal conditions, especially on the more clay soils. The slot doesn't close, the sidewall smears, all kinds of not beneficial things happening.

There is a good solution.  I just don't want to spend more for a planter than I gave for all the ground I own.  So I found this a pallet of various planter closing wheels on a dealer's lot that a customer wanted his to sell.  We looked at it.  Actually we looked at it several times.  Figured what it would cost to buy all that stuff new.  Some of it had never been installed.  I bought it to play with experiment a little.

We had to make a few bushings, downloaded some instructions, made some guesses.  But we got a bunch of stuff on Wednesday and took it to the field.  Now, we only have about an acre that we can do this with. The hill at mom's is a sandbar.  But we got it out and played a bit.  I took a few photos and we put it away.

I posted some photos on AgTalk ( http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=155299&posts=28#M1114825 ) and some of the guys have been discussing what we were trying and what had worked or not worked for them.  We've gotten some new ideas to try.  Found a couple things we did wrong.  Got an answer we were looking for.  Here are a few of the photos

We have since learned the Martin wheels we have are to be used as pairs.  If they are used a singles with the John Deere closing wheel they need to be 15" instead of 13".  And we have learned the early riser imitation is made by J.S.Ag Innovations.  We are pretty sure we're going to use them on the rows that will be male corn.  That way it is quickly evident you re on the right row when planting male. Also it leaves a nice 4" wide flat area to plant into.