JD 2 row Planter Value

Believe me the thought has crossed my mind.  Only thing stopping me now is I haven't the room.  Once relocated that will be a different story.  

It's your money so I say go for it!

Are you buying from the guy in Augusta that always has ads on craigslist?

To my knowledge seed isn't "graded" any more for size and shape....because the new equipment doesn't care/require it.   In the old days the manual would tell you to use a certain plate for "small, rounds" or "large, flats" or the like for corn seed.   Now there may be places that still sell graded corn seed....but I get my seed from ag suppliers and they would just laugh at me if I asked for graded seed around here.

So your plate planter may struggle depending on which plate you have (a "small, round" plate is going to struggle with running the larger flat shaped seed).   I have a 5 gallon bucket full of plates for mine that covers both corn and beans so I can cover just about anything for corn and beans in my planter.

So to test your set-up....
Put some seed to cover the plate in your hopper.
Lift the planter off the ground and brace it.
Put a container to catch the seed as it falls out the seed tube
Then slowly turn the drive wheel by hand...or have a buddy or a kid do it....slowly.
You want one seed to fall at a very consistent rate.  Long pauses means the seed is jaming in the plate or is too large to fall into the opening.    You will need to go to a larger opening plate - my opinion this is worst case.   If you get a lot of times when 2 seed fall out at once you need to go to a plate with smaller openings - this isn't bad but you will get a lot of doubles and they can struggle.    You want 1 seed dropping every 4 to 6 inches or so.
My planter has a "knocker" that "clicks" every time it's to drop a seed so you can hear it working and see the seed fall.    I still spend a lot of time twisted around watching my planter drop seed into the furrow before it's covered....because empty rows SUCK!   I would use that as my excuse for my shitty rows...but I just can't drive in a straight line I guess.   I would be a terrible farmer!

For beans the plates are more based on planting population and not so much seed size (as it's all round and all about the same size).   My planter is on 30" centers and I simply split the rows when planting beans to get roughly 15" centers which is fine.

If you have issues with your plates you can either get different ones....or modify the ones you have.   Some plates are cast metal while others are plastic.   In most cases you can find manuals on line to see settings and how to adjust them to adjust planting populations as well.    This becomes important in an effort to grow as much food in your plot as possible.   I think I plant corn at a density of 32 to 36 thousand seeds an acre.....on 30" row which is a common rate for corn here.    I can't remember what I plant beans at....I would have to look....I want to say it's in the 150,000 range.

I have never used anything other than freebie or cheapo seed from MDHA or NWTF or whereever has it. I use B16 plates and dont bother caring. as Jbird said, its easy to test the drop rate with the seed you have. Easy enough to try a different plate if required. I just go with B16 and whatever happens happens...... I dont recall the gears I have in the planter, because that is a factor as well as to how fast the plates spin.

I think I use B0-16

lincolnagproducts.com/product-category/corn-plates/jd-corn-plates/jd-round-corn-plates/jd-16-cell-round-corn-plates/

Boy did the price of plates go up on this site in the last few years!!!!! they used to be about 10 bucks if I recall....