older jd 7000 sunflower plates..

first time post here but..
i have an older jd 7000 8 row narrow plate planter
a few questions
1. if i dint have the money to buy the b020-24 sunflower plates what plates would provide me with a fair comparison of the b0-20-24 plus the bfr-2 planter plates.
i hear its not a huge deal if you use another plate.
2. what transmission settings would one use with the recommended plates if i had them?

3 with the replacement plates that you recommend i know someone has the info for what settings i use on transmission to plant a good population of sunflowers.

... i have been to Lincoln ag products and Harris seeds but do not have the money to buy those plates and filler plates. i will be planting clearfield #2 size seeds.
i am not a farmer but have always wanted and loved being a part of farming. Now at age 41 i can finally buy old junky implements and enjoy how the old timers did it.

thanks

What planting rate does one want for sunflowers?

Corn in the old days planted 18,000 seeds per acre, now plant 30,000 some get near 40,000.

Would have to do the math and convert the number of holes to a corn chart I guess.

I have only ever seen one JD 7000 planter with plates, up here the finger version was the only way to go. I understand a few more of the plate version were sold in the
south. Buy finger was much more popular. Folks might not be so familiar with the plate version.

Forplate corn planting, you put some seed, a dozen or so kernels, and see that they fit in the hole, but only one, fills the hole nicely in width, depth, length.

I would imagine you would need to do the same with a sunflower? Would be a really small flat corn plate?

Paul

You're running into one little catch of using a relatively large plate planter for hobby farming
use - setting up 8 rows with the correct plates can get expensive, especially if filler plates
are required. If you live in an area where plate planters were popular you might check used used
farm equipment yards to find plates. In my home area of Colorado the used equipment seller I
like to visit has racks of used plates for $1 each. Also ask around to older farmers in your
area. A farmer friend of mine gave me a whole box of plates that had been setting in the back
corner of his shed for years.

Other than a combine there is probably no other piece of farm equipment where having an
operator's manual is more important than with a planter. It will have charts relating the seed
spacing to the transmission ratio and plate cell count. Use this as a starting point, do a trial
run with the planter out of the ground, check the actual rate, and then adjust accordingly. For
example, if you're getting multiple drops per cell and have no other suitable plates you'll need
to gear it down a bit to keep the desired population.

Planter plates aren't necessarily specific to the seed they are labeled for - consider that more
of a starting suggestion. For example, I plant zinnia flowers with a sunflower plate and garden
peas with a corn plate and it works fine. It is a matter of taking your seed and finding a plate
to match its size and shape. To get good singulation, however, it is necessary to gauge it
pretty closely.

Unlike in the corn belt the plate version of the 7000 is all you'll find here in central Kansas.
T don't think I've ever seen a finger-pickup planter in this area which makes sense because by
the time corn starting being grown here the pneumatic meters were available.

I use the same finger pickup for corn to plant sunflower. same population works for me