Patent ID: 7228807

Claim:
In a seed planter having a metering unit having a housing retaining a circular rotatable seed disk, said seed disk having a center, a first surface, a second opposing surface, and a plurality of transverse spaced vacuum holes extending from said first surface to said second surface, wherein seeds are introduced into a first cavity in said housing defined by said first surface and a vacuum is drawn into a second cavity in said housing defined by an inner wall of said housing and by said second surface, such that seeds are retained against said vacuum holes until they are released from said vacuum and dropped through a seed chute and into a seed tube, said seeds follow a predetermined path as they fall away from said seed disk and into said seed tube, the improvement comprising said seed tube having generally parallel side walls, a leading wall and a trailing wall, said side walls spaced apart from each other by a distance significantly greater than a diameter of one of said seeds, said leading wall and said trailing wall spaced from each other by a distance significantly greater than said diameter of one of said seeds, a deflector on said inner wall, said deflector deflecting said path toward a vertical centerline between said leading and trailing walls wherein said seeds will free fall between said leading and trailing walls for a portion of a length of said seed tube.