Using Common Drills... Cleaning/Maintaining

Cleaning and Maintaining the Planter (page 8 of 9)
Some operators will not put fertilizer in the drill's grain box. Others, after trying this technique, state they would never plant seed-fertilizer combinations any other way.

The major key to equipment longevity is cleaning and protecting the machinery after use. Be fanatical about emptying the drill or planter each day. Clean it thoroughly at the close of the job as follows: (1) wash it thoroughly inside and outside with a pressurized water hose and lots of water and let it dry; (2) rerinse all parts with a 10 to 30 percent household ammonia solution in water to help neutralize fertilizer acid residue (use a compressed air [pump-up] hand sprayer and let the unit dry); and (3) coat all fertilizer-contaminated parts with diesel, kerosene, a mixture of one part oil and three parts diesel, or spray-can oil, covering all joints and seams.

Almost any type of seed, with some variation of the basic technique, can be planted as described (figure 11).

Figure 11. Stand of a native grass mixture achieved by mixing the extremely fluffy seed with dry fertilizer and planting the mix through a fluted-feed common grain drill