The easiest way to plant seeds in fields and forests

[ogfor]

Planting seeds in groups of 2 to 50 or more (like for melons or corn) is a very old method that humans probably learned from observing what's happens to the fruits that large animals like bears or horses eat. Horses eat apples, bears too but they also eat a lot of cherries sometimes. The apples and cherries seeds will go through winter protected by the horse or bear manure and will grow in clumps in the spring. There can be from 10 to 50 little cherry or apple seedlings emerging close together. Grazing animals like deer, winter, heat and over-shading will reduce that number to the strongest and more lucky one. Many giants fruits and nut trees have been grown in that way. You can use cow manure instead of the bear manure, maybe other manures works too, the Mayan used human manure...
We plant fruits and nut trees seeds in small group of 3 to 20 or more because this allows for selection by thinning which is a very efficient method not only for trees but also for vegetables like tomatoes and melons, medicinal plants like ginseng, and many others. It also allow for losses from climate, animals, insects, diseases, overfeeding and other accidents that seedling will endure during their life.

[sylvain picker]

100 years ago seeds where made from open pollinated genetic and easily produced in immense quantities very cheaply. Peoples where used to sow large amount of seeds, sometimes very closely spaced. They either thinned the seedlings manually or by letting natural selection happen. Natural selection was used by many growers, it is a method that works very efficiently with some vegetables. Selecting your seedlings by thinning them is a time proven and very efficient method of growing very vigorous plants in all cases.
A rake is a tool of choice when you want to plant bunches of 5 to 25 seeds in 1 foot circle spots spaced 3 to 10 feet apart. It can be used to sow curcubits and corn in the field or ginseng in the woods. All you have to do is to scrape a 1 foot diameter circle with the rake, throw a handful of seeds mixed with some compost, lightly cover the seeds with a pulling action of the rake and go to the next planting spot (for ginseng and corn it is recommended that you lightly tramp the planting spot with your foot to firm the soil over the seeds).
The speed of an experienced person at planting seeds this way can be very fast, and we are doing at least two things at the same time: in this case seeding and fertilizing, with the option of adding pesticides if needed.
The ordinary garden or forestry rakes are tools that can be very efficient when planting seeds (with or without fertilizer). Rakes where widely used by market gardeners of Québec to plant pumpkins, squashes and melon.

[ogfor]

Pressing the seed in the soil by walking on it or pushing it in the soil with a stick or a roller is on of those very old tricks that seem to work with beets, peas, wheat, pop-corn, buckwheat and many other seeds. You plant by pushing them in the soil with the heel of your feet. Use very dry seeds if you want to try this method. For Natural Farming just cut a weed patch with a scythe and instead of broadcasting Seedballs use seeds that you place on the surface of the soil either in rows or broadcast. For larger surface you can use a heavy garden roller for pressing the seeds in the soil.

Frost seeding is another ancient method used mostly to rejuvenate old fields and damaged lawns that can help you make your life easier when gardening or farming. It is done only with small seeds like clover, poppy, chicory, lettuce, radish, cabbage, mustard, flowers... Small seeds are able to dig themselves in the muddy soil that is prevalent in spring and fall weather. When the soil is muddy, tractor drawn planters cannot make it into the fields but weeds are germinating and growing vigorously. A very easy way to outcompete or at least smoother the early season weeds is to frost seed useful vegetables, herbs or green manures like clover or Lucerne. The usual time to do frost seeding is either very late in the fall or very early in the spring. By using plants that like to grow in cooler temperatures you gain a competitive edge with the perennial weeds that also love to grow in cool soil conditions. By frost-seeding clover, poppy and many other cool weather fast growing plants, even quackgrass and many other troublesome weeds can be controled efficiently. This method can also be used to broadcast many small seeded garden plants varieties. All you have to remember is that frost seeding only works reliably with small sized seeds that camouflage themselves easily and will get buried at the first rain or by frost heaving of the soil. Any big seeds like pea, corn or beans very rarely grow when planted by broadcasting them at the surface of the soil. You can also broadcast small seeded summer vegetables that prefer warm soil just before a rain, but this is less reliable than frost seeding.