On each side of the seeder, use the cover as a straightedge to check that the furrowers are at the correct depth and that the knob is tight.
Check that the belt drive is set to seed at the correct spacing (we almost never use anything other than 1").
Check that the drive bar has the correct hole centered in the hoppers. If the holes are numbered 1-4 from smallest to largest, we use hole #2 for carrots, baby mustard greens, baby lettuce, radishes, and Hakurei turnips, and hole #3 for spinach.
Ensure that the setcollar is secure. If you're just tightening it by hand it's easy to get it slightly off center on the flat part and then it will work loose as you go and the bark can slip out. So use one hand to grab the drive pulley and turn the drive shaft forward and back while using the other hand to to twist the setscrew to get it tightened that last little bit. The drive pulley has indents for the setscrew at each position so it doesn't have this problem.
Check the furrowers for spiderwebs -- the little tiny spiders love to build webs across right below where the seed drops out. I use a ballpoint pen, since I always have one on me and it's a good shape to get into the front of the furrowers. I just stick it up in there and then run the tip back along the front edge of the furrower.
I measure out the beds and lay out the packets for the different varieties, and then go down the bed and seed them all. I take a stick or a fiberglass fence post or whatever and draw a line across the bed. Note the placement of the seed packets -- ones I haven't used yet are in the bed, ones which have already been seeded are in the path. Since you have two packets together when you're switching varieties, this makes it less likely that you'll pour the seed back into the wrong packet.
For each variety, you set the brushes to the correct height. When you're loosening (lowering, closing) them they can get caught on a seed or dirt or whatever. So loosen it a little farther than you need and then tighten it up again. If there's something jammed in there, lifting it up and letting the spring snap it back a couple of times usually clears it.
For baby salad greens, the brushes get adjusted for each variety. These are fractions of a turn of the thumbscrews, added to the base settings for each hopper:
- Green Lettuce
- Black-seeded Simpson (Fedco) – 0
- Crisp Mint (Wild Garden Seed) – +1/4
- Salad Bowl (Johnny's Seeds) – 0 or -1/8
- Lettony (Snow Seed Co) – -1/8
- Red Lettuce
- Bixby (Snow Seed Co) – -1/8
- Red Sails (Fedco) – +3/8 or +1/2
- Red Salad Bowl (Johnny's Seeds) – 0 or -1/8
- Spock (Johnny's Seeds) – -1/8
- Mustard Greens
- Golden Frill (Johnny's) – 0
- Green Wave (Johnny's) – +1/8 or +1/4
- Red Giant (Fedco) – -1/8
- Ruby Streaks (Johnny's) – -1/8
For the first pass the edge of the roller goes right along the marker string. You don't want to run over the string because it can get caught in the pulley under the crimped-over edges of the diamond mesh.
For the second pass the edge of the roller runs approximately along the last furrow from the previous pass. Our sandy loam dries out pretty quickly on top, so you can usually see where this is, as the furrowers disturb the soil more than the basket rollers.
To empty the hoppers, take off the cover, grab the seeder right at the base of the handle, and pick it up, resting the end of the handle on the ground to take most of the weight. Shake the seeds out of the hoppers, down the catch tray, and back into the packet.
