2026 Spring Garden

[Travis_R]

My girlfriend and I decided to make a Spring garden this year.

I don’t have a PTO tiller or a set of discs for my Yanmar YM2500 tractor, so a friend came and filled up the spot for me with his John Deere 1023R tractor. I’m hoping to get a 4’ tiller next year.

I ended up having 10 rows, each about 100’ long. I rowed it up with my YM2500 and my John Deere single row hippers. I rebuilt the discs at the end of last year, but would like to paint them either black or John Deere green with a few rattle cans. I installed all new disc blades, new axle shafts & nuts, and a couple new spacers. Bearings were good. The fittings just needed to be greased. I ordered all the parts online from Agri Supply.

After I rowed it up, I used my LMC (Lowery Manufacturing) Middlebuster to make a small furrow on top of each row. I then applied 13-13-13 fertilizer in each furrow. It took a 50 lb. sack of fertilizer to do all 10 rows. I then used my EarthWay model 1001-B walk behind garden seeder to plant 9 rows of G90 Sweet Corn (THE BEST!). We also planted Dasher 2 Cucumbers, Yellow Straight Neck Squash, Cowhorn Okra, and Green Onions.

I also need a single row cultivator with sweeps. Not sure if that’ll happen soon or not. Good used ones are difficult to find around here.

I’ll be adding updates and pictures as the garden grows.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Just harvested some of our Vidora onions. THese were grown in a raised bed. Biggest is about 3" across. Letting them dry out some before cutting the tops off and putting them in long term storage.

 

[Travis_R]

Just harvested some of our Vidora onions. THese were grown in a raised bed. Biggest is about 3" across. Letting them dry out some before cutting the tops off and putting them in long term storage.

I tried growing bulb onions here a couple times years ago, but they didn’t produce. Maybe I did something wrong, I don’t know. Yours look great!

 

[HawkinsHollow]

There is already a Spring 2026 garden thread (this is actually the third one started) Maybe we should merge them.

 

[Travis_R]

04/25/26 Saturday! Got a good stand of G90 Sweet Corn this morning!
I do my planting on rows, in a furrow. This is the way I’ve always done it and it works for me.
Difficult to tell from the pics but it’s coming up after a week of planting and watering 3 times with a sprinkler. I bought a sprinkler from my local Tractor Supply. We got a good rain over night last night so the sprinkler won’t be turned on for at least a couple days.

 

[Travis_R]

The Good Lord blessed me yesterday, (04-29-2026 Wednesday)! I drove to my closest Co-Op (about an hour away) and picked up a new King Kutter 3 pt. One Row Cultivator! It’s not the best cultivator on the market, but it will suit my needs well for what I’ll be doing. I gave $395 + tax, for a total of $436.50.
It was the only one they had on the lot at this price. I was going to buy a Tarter/CountyLine cultivator from Tractor Supply Co. for $500 + tax, but found the King Kutter at a much better price and they’re basically built the same. Plus King Kutter has been around for 48 years.
I also ordered (6) Nichols Ultra Wing Row Crop Sweeps for it from Agri Supply online. (2) 10” sweeps, (2) 8” sweeps, and (2) 6” sweeps. They will bolt directly up to the cultivator, using the existing mounting hardware that came with the cultivator (12) 7/16” plow bolts.

 

[Travis_R]

The Nichols Ultra Wing Row Crop Sweeps that I ordered from Agri Supply online:

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

I tried growing bulb onions here a couple times years ago, but they didn’t produce. Maybe I did something wrong, I don’t know. Yours look great!

Check your zone when ordering onions. I am in the intermediate zone but these onions are Vidor and are rated for the short day zone. I ordered mine from Hoss tool and after watching a few different youtubes think I have learned a few requirements. When to fertilize, when to water, when to harvest were among the most useful.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

The Good Lord blessed me yesterday, (04-29-2026 Wednesday)! I drove to my closest Co-Op (about an hour away) and picked up a new King Kutter 3 pt. One Row Cultivator! It’s not the best cultivator on the market, but it will suit my needs well for what I’ll be doing. I gave $395 + tax, for a total of $436.50.
It was the only one they had on the lot at this price. I was going to buy a Tarter/CountyLine cultivator from Tractor Supply Co. for $500 + tax, but found the King Kutter at a much better price and they’re basically built the same. Plus King Kutter has been around for 48 years.
I also ordered (6) Nichols Ultra Wing Row Crop Sweeps for it from Agri Supply online. (2) 10” sweeps, (2) 8” sweeps, and (2) 6” sweeps. They will bolt directly up to the cultivator, using the existing mounting hardware that came with the cultivator (12) 7/16” plow bolts.

Congrats on the culti. THey sure do come in handy to keep the weeds down. I use something similar to make rows and hill up my taters/maters.

 

[Travis_R]

The Nichols Ultra Wing Sweeps arrived yesterday evening from Agri Supply. I got them installed on the cultivator. (2) 10”, (2) 8”, and (2) 6” sweeps. Heavy duty made! I cut the inner half off of the 2 inner 6” sweeps because I didn’t want to take a chance on being too close to the plants.