beet thinner

kenbob

Well-known Member
I grow about 1/2 acre of table beets. Does anybody know of a device for thinning plants, either tool bar mounted or small push type? I would grow even more beets if I could find a way to make them less tedious. Thanks, all
 
If you like beet greens that would thin then as you eat the greens. Otherwise we just let them grow and pull a few where they are thicker to eat the smaller beets. I suppose you could just pull a rod through the row to thin them.
 
Just set planter for less plants and save seed you are killing. I have raised red beets in garden and just plant only as close together on seed as needed
 
Mechanical beet thinners were used to a lesser extent in the 80's and 90's by sugarbeet growers. If they were set correctly they did a pretty good job. However, weeds, corn stalks, dirt clumps, etc. could be read by the electronic eye and be read as a beet plant. Thinners died away as growers went to plant to stand. The best place to look for one would be in the red river valley area of ND and MN.
 
That is why I said set your planter for only the spacing you want and not throw away your money by over planting and then killing more plants than you want to keep. Setting planter correctly you can plant 3 acres for same cost as planting one the way you are talking about. I don't know how mich seed cost is but I do know it cannot be cheap.
 
Trouble is, germination can sometimes be an issue, so you plant hoping for the stand you want without total germination.
 
Several issues at play. I have too many feet of row to hand seed. My gardenway seeder has a beet plate but it usually drops too much seed. I have tried modified plates
without much luck. THen each beet seed makes 3 plants. WHen you are planting 3lbs of seed, that is a lot of thinning. I had thought of going crosswise across my field
with a harrow, but didn't think the beets would stand it. The video shows someone doing the very same, but sugar beets might be a bit tougher. Thanks for everybody's
comments.
 
Yea thats a tough size.

When I was a kid I heard a lot about the beet thinning crews, lots of migrant work crews did 1000s of acres by hand NW of me.

Now a days a half acre is a lot to do by hand, I know. At my age I agree!

Paul
 
I cannot think of the brand name mut units were made just for that kind of work but were mounted on tractors, I have seen 4 row setups on G Allis tractors, Also on Farmall Cub tractors. Think they made a single row setup just for garden tractors and that is what you should be looking foe instead of that Garden Way, They are good foe sweet corn and green beans but not for the small seeds. Someone on here should be able to tell you where to find one of those planters. I remember they had a square cast seed box. Try garden tractor section. You need something like a Cub Cadet with that planter that was sold with them. And ride not walk.
 
Even a Hoss seeder would do a good job and not waste much seed. Very similar to the tool bar planters. I can by a whole lot of seed for what it costs to buy into a Hoss or better.
 
But there was a Co. Fargo based, that did make a thinner, it had a electric eye, when it seen two plants close together, it would cut the one off,what the company was or brand i dont know,i am sure there is some setting in the corner of the machine shed's in the Red River Valley, from Whapeton ND to the Canadian Line, this was used in the middle 60's!!!
 
I solved most of my problem by buying a Planet JR, no 2 seeder. It is old but it works. The holes have an infinite adjustment for seed size up to as big as sweet corn. I plant about 6 different sizes of beets so it can be adjusted down so little extra seed is deposited, meaning less thinning later.
 

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