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Farm Machine, Plant, Reviews
Top 7 Best Garden Seeder Reviews (2022 Updated)
No tools can compare to a garden seeder when it comes to broadcasting seeds in the ground. The best garden seeder, whether human-operated or battery-powered, helps reduce your backbreaking labor.
A high-quality seeder on hand can put seeds evenly and deep enough to grow. It can be used to spread fertilizer or de-ice a sidewalk or driveway in summer.
An abundance of choices leads to confusion. How can you know which plan seeder is the best for your demand? In this article, I will go through what you need to know about this low-tech gadget, along with some top-rated garden seeders on the market.
*This post may have affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions if you choose to purchase through links I provide (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclaimer for additional details.
Top 7 Best Garden Seeder 2022
In-depth 7 Top Rated Garden Seeder Reviews
#1 EarthWay Precision Garden Seeder – Best Push Garden Seeder
Specs
- Seed spacing: 1 to 12 inches
- Seeding size: small to large
- Seed types: 38 types with 7 seed plates
EarthWay Precision Garden Seeder is the best garden seeder for serious gardeners. This device delivers straight rows of seed with a consistent row spacing from 1 to 12 inches. It can replace your hoe, tape measure, and rake.
With this garden seeder, you get 7 seed plates for planting 38 types of small and large seeds. Use it to plan hemp, sweet corn, beets, peas, etc. The large seed hopper can hold seeds for a garden of ½ acre, so you can save your time for refilling seeds.
Since it is a hand push garden seeder, you don’t need a tractor to pull it. Just roll it forward to speed up your planting process with a little effort. This gadget can handle hills and round terrains without any issues.
This seeder is made of aircraft-grade aluminum, making it last for years under harsh weather conditions with no rust and no damages.
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#2 ZLY Adjustable Hand Held Garden Seeder – Best Hand Garden Seeder
Specs:
- Number of tools: 5
- Diameter: 6.5cm
This ZLY small garden hand seeder kit is designed for starters who are planting flowers and veggies from seeds. Featuring 5 tools in a single pack, this valuable seedling pack ensures to bring you an excellent planting experience.
The seed dropper in this ZLY kit can sow with all seed sizes, even the smallest seeds. For example, it works best when you want to put only 2 to 3 seeds per pot or pick seeds that are smaller than squash. You can also use it to move seedlings from a mass bed to a small pot.
By using this kit, you can control the flow of seed. You can also use it to save your gardening budget by reducing the waste of seed or seed spills. However, this seeder kit is not suitable for garden landscaping and well-developed annuals.
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#3 Varomorus Metal Precision Manual Seeder
Specs:
- Row: 5 rows
- Seed spacing: adjustable
- Spreading width: 14,6 inches
If you have a big garden and don’t want to spend hours sowing seeds, the Varomorus 5-Row Seeder could be the best spreader for you. You can use it to plant any vegetables and fruits in greenhouses or open ground.
What I love most about this Varomorus seeder is the adjustable row distance which allows me to change the density width. Along with the device, you will get 20 custom drums for seed dispensing (5 installed in the seeder and the remaining 15 in the set).
This seeder is made of 100% heavy-duty metal, making it durable under all harsh outdoor climates. You can use it even on hot summer days or rainy seasons. However, since there is no hopper cover, I’m afraid it can’t be used on rainy days.
Another great point of this farm tool is that it has simple assembly and is easy to use even though there is no handle.
The 5-row is the most valuable model of this seeder. With this option, you can spread 5 rows at a time or switch it to the 1, 2, 3, 4-row option. You can seed fewer rows in smaller areas or install all 5 hoppers to shorten your time while working on big plots.
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#4 Scotts Wizz Hand-Held Spreader
Specs:
- Type: Broadcast
- Hopper capacity: 8 pounds
- Up to 2,500 square feet
Scotts Wizz is a hand held garden seeder for caring for your lawn all year long. This battery-powered gadget can be used for spreading seeds, fertilizing, or preventing the development of weed for a small area of up to 2,500 square feet. Some of my friends love to use this versatile gadget to spread grass seeds. They said that it spreads seeds more evenly and quickly than manual spreading.
A common concern of professional gardeners while feeding fertilizer or any materials is that they don’t want it to spread to another area accidentally. Turn on the EdgeGuard, and the materials will be released in a fixed area.
This garden broadcaster can cover an area of 5 feet per walk. You can spend a few rounds of walking, and your lawn will get even coverage.
This garden seeder comes with 4 standard AA batteries. If you use this spreader a lot, you should switch to rechargeable batteries. Otherwise, you will have to spend an extra budget on replacing them.
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#5 EarthWay 25lb Nylon Bag Seeder
Specs:
- Hopper capacity: 20 pounds
- Up to ½ acre plots
Start lessening your seed spreading effort with this spacy EarthWay Seeder! It can hold up a maximum of 20 pounds of seed at once, much more than the above Scott Wizz (8 pounds). Besides seed spreading, this garden hand seeder can also act as a fertilizer spreader for your plants.
The hopper of the EarthWay 2750 can hold seeds in a closed zipper container. The container consists of 100% 600 Denier polyester, allowing your seeds to be protected from moisture and dirt.
Thanks to the ergonomic shoulder strap, you can carry seeds with ease. Another unique point of this strap is that your hand can control the sowing direction while your shoulder does the heavy lifting work.
Thanks to its simple design, you have complete control of the spreader. You can change seed spacing by changing the crank rate from 8 to 12 inches.
In terms of seed types, you can uniformly spread nearly all kinds of seeds without skipping or missing seeds. From tiny grass seeds to fall deer pellet or fertilizer, you can always customize the appropriate settings for each type of them.
This garden seeder operates manually and requires no battery or electricity. You can focus on your tasks without worrying that the gadget is out of energy or spend a few bucks to purchase extra batteries.
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#6 Agri-Fab 45-0543 100 lb. Tow Seeder – Best Market Garden Seeder
Specs:
- Type: tow-behind
- Hopper capacity: 100 pounds
- Up to 40,000 square feet in one fill
- Spread width: 32 inches
Nothing can beat Agri-Fab 45-0543 when it comes to the best commercial garden seeder. More than a garden seeder, this is a multipurpose machine that you can use to break and aerate the soil, spread vegetable/grass seeds, or spread insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizer.
Depending on the spreading speed and type of seed, this market garden seeder can cover a lawn of 40,000 square feet in one fill.
Its long working width of 32 inches and a big hopper capacity of 100 pounds help professional farmers or homeowners cover large surfers easier with little effort. You can combine it with all lawn tractors, mowers, and even ATVs.
Another thing that I love in this tow-behind seeder is that the stiff spike roll allows you to aerate and spread seeds in a single walk. In other words, it can save up to 50% of your time for these repetitive gardening tasks!
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#7 SFD Row Planter Garden Push Seeder
Specs:
- Dimension: 100x20x40cm
- Seeding size: within 4mm
SFD Push Seeder is the first choice for organic farmers, thanks to its planting flexibility. This semi-auto device best fits small to medium-sized gardens. You can use it to sow various seed types with a maximum diameter of 4 mm.
This SFD Seeder has a similar design to the famous Jang seeder. It has a transparent hopper with a cover, which lets them know when to reload the seeds.
Besides, this device features non-porous wheels with holes to spread the seeds evenly on the soil. If the default holes don’t fit your plots, you can drill your holes to plant the appropriate seed sizes.
The rugged design of this push seeder makes it capable of handling rocky or uneven soil. However, with approximately 15.4 pounds, the machine is heavier than the Earthway seeder, which might require you a bit of effort to push.
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Benefits of a Garden Seeder
It’s completely possible to manually plant seeds in your garden. However, mechanized garden seeders aren’t popular without a reason. Some of these benefits may even drive you to invest in one!
Improve Your Posture
From the very first day of maintaining a garden or a farm, you’d know that it is (quite literally) back-breaking work. The achy back is an industry-wide problem. That’s one of the things that a walk-behind garden seeder can fix. Its design allows you to keep yourself upright and improve your posture.
When you no longer have to bend down to plant seeds, you would be able to work for longer and more comfortably. Over the long-term, your health would be significantly improved, as well.
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Better, More Even Spacing
It’s difficult to manually plant seeds so that they’re spaced evenly. It wastes a lot of time, too: when you manually plant, you have to come back around and spend time clearing up excess seeds.
A seeder has a special design to lay seeds evenly. As such, there’s no need to turn around and re-check the seeds.
Flexible Usage
Different kinds of seeds will come in different sizes. All mechanized seeders come with seed plates that you can use to fit the seeds and space them out.
So, with a single seeder, you can plant everything ranging from carrot to corn seeds.
Time-Saving
Planting each seed manually is definitely going to take a lot more time than using a mechanized garden seeder. You can plant long, neat rows of seeds at a fraction of the time it would take to get down on your hands and knees to dig up and burrow each seed.
How to Choose the Best Seeder for Garden?
Size of Your Garden
Depending on the size of your garden, you can take your pick accordingly.
If you only have a small space to seed up, take a multi-purpose seeder or a hand seeder. They are lighter, more compact, and more affordable. Bonus point, also, if your garden is located on a rocky hill or is a small, narrow space. Such gardens are the perfect place for a hand seeder to work its magic.
Other than the size of the garden, you should also take into consideration the size of the garage or your toolshed. You don’t want to buy a seeder that’s so big, you ended up without the right space to store it.
Size of Seed Container (Hopper Capacity)
Despite the hopper capacity being a very important aspect, many companies don’t fully disclose the exact number.
If you have a large garden, having a best-rated seeder with a large hopper will be more convenient. It’s annoying and time-consuming to have to pause and load in more seeds as you work.
On the other hand, if you have a modest garden, it’s just as important to pick a seeder with a hopper in the right size. Many seeders will refuse to work if the hopper isn’t nearly full. That means even if you only have to plant one or two rows of seeds, you’d still have to fill up the seeder to capacity. The result is a lot of wasted seeds and money.
Furthermore, models with smaller hoppers tend to be cheaper, too. This can be the area for you to cut costs.
Soil Condition
All seeders work better on properly-tilled soils. Nevertheless, there are many specialized models on the market with hardened designs that can deal with rocky, tough soil. As such, it’s important to survey the soil condition in your garden before you buy.
Seed Varieties
Ask yourself how many kinds of seeds you would plant. As we mentioned earlier, different types of seeds have different sizes as well as spacing and depth requirements.
When you switch out one kind of seed for another in a seeder, you have to change the seed plates. This switching operation is more difficult in some models than others. As a matter of fact, changing out the seed plates can take so much time and effort that small-scale gardeners would be better off planting the seeds manually.
That’s yet to mention how many manufacturers require you to buy extra seed plates as add-ons. This can add a substantial amount to the final price of the seeder.
Adjustable Seed Depth
Other than spacing, depth is important, too. Every seed has a different depth requirement.
Generally speaking, you need to plant each seed at a depth roughly two times its width. For example, if you want to plant a seed that measures 1/16-inch thick, you need to dig and seat it at ⅛-inch into the ground. This is the case for beans and sweet corn seeds – you absolutely must cover them in soil and place them at proper depths.
That’s not all, though: some seeds don’t like to be buried and need a lot of light to germinate. Lettuce seeds, for example, only need to be placed against the ground for them to sprout.
Back to our seeders, you should ensure that the model you purchase has a depth adjustment feature. They can be of massive help when you want to plant different seed varieties in your garden.
Construction
Construction quality is hugely important, especially if you plan on using your seeder for a long time. If you buy a cheap, badly-made seeder, not only could it break in a matter of months, the seeder could end up messing with the yield of your garden. It’s not uncommon for a bad seeder to plant seeds unevenly or improperly.
Find models with solid, rust-proof construction. A good indicator for good build quality is a strong frame made from chromium-plated stainless steel. It can withstand high impact as well as the weather and rust.
Pay close attention to your seeder and take care of any hints of rust that form on its body. Rust can negatively affect the seeds.
Budget
Small-scale seeders can be as cheap as $100 to as high as $500.
Lower-end models are going to have lower efficiency. Particularly, they tend to be inflexible. The spacing between each seed spot and the row’s width will have already been locked in by the company. You won’t be able to change anything.
Higher-end models will offer you more flexibility, allowing you to change the spacing and the row’s width at will.
If you decide to go for the high-end models, they would surely give you the bangs for your bucks. However, do keep in mind that there’s a good chance that a $500 garden seeder is going to be overkill. We found that a mid-range model around $250-$300 is already good enough for most small-scale growers.
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FAQs about Garden Seeder
1. What is a garden seeder used for?
Garden seeders are used for planting every single seed into the soil while the users can stand upright. There are many kinds of garden seeders with different usages and strengths. Each kind of seeder decides the planting depth and how many seeds will be planted into each hole.
2. What is the difference between a planter and a seeder?
The major distinction between planters and seeders is that seeders sow seeds at specific depths and rates in rows. They can’t store seeds in check rows or hills. Seed drill machines are more suitable to sow small and medium-sized seeds.
Planter machines can plant seeds in rows and hills at predetermined rates. When compared to seeders, planter machines improve productivity by 15 – 25%. Also, besides small and medium-sized seeds, planter machines are ideal for planting large-sized seeds at a high speed.
3. How do you use a precision garden seeder?
Here are the steps you can follow when using a precision garden seeder, particularly for the first one – EarthWay 1001-B.
- Choose and install a precision seed plate that best suits the crop you want to grow.
- Adjust the planting holes’ depth on the ground.
- Set the desired width with a 30-inch long row marker.
- Put the seeds into the seed hopper.
- Power up your precision garden seeder and let it operate on well-tiled soil.
4. Where is Earthway seeder made?
Earthway seeders are made in Bristol, Indiana, USA. Earthway uses the finest materials and talent completely in America to build its reputation and products quality.
5. How do you assemble an EarthWay seeder?
In case you have trouble assembling your Earthway seeder, we will instruct you to assemble it on your own with ease.
Rear wheels
- Lower the kickstand at the front to hold the seeder upright.
- Remove the axle, bolt, and nut from the frame.
- Place the axle through the rear wheel, between the frame, then line up with the holes at the frame’s end.
- Reinstall the nut and bolt, then tighten them.
Handle
- Remove the bolts and nuts from the Plastic Bag. You should use a wrench to remove as well as install them.
- Bolt the handle in place using nuts and bolts.
- Place the Row Maker Retainer Clip from ahead to the rear of the handle and push it into place.
Row Maker
- Place the shaft in the row maker bracket’s front, then line up the holes.
- Insert the clevis pin through the row maker shaft and bracket, then insert a hairpin clip through the clevis pin.
- A cord might be fastened on the row maker shaft and the Handle Bracket Clip for raising or lowering the row maker.
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My Top Pick
A spreader is a must-have tool to keep your lawn in tip-top shape without too much labor effort. After carefully considering these top 7 items, I highly recommend the EarthWay Precision Garden Seeder as the best garden seeder.
This 3-in-1 device can help you make uniform seed rows, and it fits various common seed types. And most importantly, it doesn’t need a tractor, so you don’t have to spend extra money to purchase a tractor.
