Top Dressing -

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Is anyone familiar with a small, reasonably priced option fro spreading top dressing (compost)?

It seems to me that most drop spreaders are just too small for the job, even if the material to be spread was fine enough to pass through.

I am scheming of a home made solution built out of a lawn sweeper. A hopper to hold say a half yard of compost with an adjustable slit. This would sit on top of the sweeper which would brush the bottom of the slit to loosen the compost and then throw it.

Anything else out there? Top dressing yearly with good compost should be a good way to build a good lawn, if one can do it without lots of hnd raking.

:)

[persof 14]

Rolf,

Tractor Supply has a tow behind spreader that holds 200 lbs. A 1.5 cu bag of top soil weighs 40lbs. Five bags is 200 lbs and almost a yard???

Thanks

Francis

[Trouty56 567]

Sounds like a good idea. However, 5 bags of topsoil at 1.5 cu/ft is a little more than 1/4 of a yard. A yard is 27 cu/ft.

[Raider 2]

You could look into what golf courses use for ideas.

I had a shredder with a modified outlet that I could run compost through and spread over the garden but it required moving the shredder around a lot to 'aim' the discharge and it was probably not real good for the machine.

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

I am thinking the building something based on a 50 gallon drum would be a good way to go. Still not as much capacity than I would like, but...

I'd cut off the top 1/3 of the drum when lying on it's side. two plywood baffle would protrude from the front and back to slow the drop of the soil and a slit in the bottom would sit above the lawn sweeper brushes.

I need to replace my sweeper first, and then I will use my existing sweeper for this.

I suspect that the greenskeepers use something similar to a manure spreader. Fine for big huge open spaces, but not very maneuverable in a yard.

All pretty much dreams until I get a job. I'll probably use the the trailer to dump piles and then spread it with the dozer blade.

Speaking of the dozer blade, plowed the street today!

thanks folks, keep the ideas coming.

:ychain:

[6wheeler 661]

Rolf, there are several spreaders out there now. The one I am particularly interested in is the Nu-Bilt soreader. It comes in different sizes. It is a ground driven unit. It is basically a big drop spreader. It is infinately adjustable as far as rate of product goes,(or so they say)But I don't know that from experience. It is made of galvanized steel and has few moving parts. Just a wheel driven ajitator to break up product. If you can get a hold of a copy of Hobby Farmer magazine, there is alot of ads in there for spreaders. Most are geared towards people that have horses. Some are rear discharge with an apron and beater bar. I believe these would leave big chunks. Supposedley, the Nu-Bilt should break up material into finer pieces for rapid break down. Again, having not used one, I don't know for sure. I want to use it for my chicken manure. I use alot of straw for bedding, so I would need something to chew it up. I know one thing though, I put 4 skid loader buckets of that manure on one of my gardens(I have 3)and plowed it in. What a HUGE mistake that was. There is so much nitrogen in it that my radishes were 3' tall and had no radishes . Live and learn right? These spreader are fairly expensive though, $1200 and up. Hope this helps a little. Pat

[Nick 13]

Couple videos of spreaders from youtube. First is a drop type spreader and 2nd is a rotation drum. Thought they might give you some ideas on building a spreader.

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Hmmm, that second one might be doable on a small scale.

I do think a jumbo drop spreader is the right concept. My compost gets run through a shredder with a 1" screen before the second final curing. So I don't need to worry about objects blocking it, just need to keep it from getting bound up by too much weight and not enough agitation. I'm still thinking something built on the leaf sweeper foundation might do the trick.

Keep the ideas coming

:ychain: