4-Row Cultivator Questions...

[Big_Cajun]

A co-worker of mine has offered me a JD 4-row cultivator. He'll be bringing me the books on the unit tomorrow hopefully, but I have questions to ask you all.

What is a cultivator used for exactly? I don't want to sound stupid, but I know that since the advent of the rotary hoe, cultivators aren't as popular (especially 4-row models, beings everyone went to larger units). On what applications would I use it? It doesn't seem to me that I could use it to side dress row crops and such...the picture I have in my head is that of a rudementary plow that I commonly refer to as a root rake.

Please help!

BC

 

[randy41]

http://www.dmtool.com/equip_imgs/1379.jpg

 

[schmism]

from my understanding they are used a couple of times within the first month to mechincally keep weeds down (as oopposed to spraying). after that the crop shadows the weeds and keeps them down....

 

[JC-jetro]

In line with question that Big Cajun had,can a four row cultivator be used in lieu of a tiller or other tillage equipment if one is planning to start small garden say around 5000 Sq.Ft. Would it be okay to weigh the cultivator down for more penetration in the soil and pass several times. How close would that be to actually using a rotary tiller like King Kutter. I hope Big Cajun would not mind me jumping in his thread. Thanks.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

A cultivator is designed to work with loose soil. It is not a primary tillage tool to break ground with as it mainly disturbs the soil so that weeds can't get a good foothold in the ground.

 

[randy41]

a cultivator will not prepare a seed bed like a tiller will. a disk would be better than a cultivator for that. schmism has the right idea i think. i've used a smaller cultivator on sweet corn and it does a pretty good job of eliminating the weeds in the row. better plant in very straight lines.

 

[Gizmo36]

If it is the old one like when on an old John Deere MT .They are not good for any thing the way they are . But you can do some welding on them and make a three point hitch and put them on back of a tractor and they work good that way.

 

[Big_Cajun]

Thanks for the replys, and I have no problem with anyone jumping in this thread.

BC

 

[NHTC30]

You should be able to use the cultivator to side dress a row, each of the rows will have two gangs of plows (three plows for each side of the row, and one plow that will run exactly half way between the rows to give you a "middle furrow". You may want to get some "fenders" which are designed to keep the dirt from being pushed up over small plants. If you use a planter to plant your crops, you will want to go with a 4 row or 8 row there as well.

My dad used a two row front mount cultivator to plow about 90 acres of cotton and soybeans. When he wanted to plow the garden he locked up one side and just plowed with one row, because usually, planting one row at a time you had places between the rows that were farther apart or closer together, and if you were trying to plow two rows at once, you would plow up some of the crop on one of the rows.

Dad also used the cultivator after preparing the garden by using a disk and tumbling harrow, to lay out his seed beds. If you can take the plows off that would run closest to the plants, and replace the second plow from the plants with a "disk hiller" you can use it to raise a seed bed to plant your rows on after you use your tiller to work up the garden.

 

[JC-jetro]

Thank you all for your responses. I know how to garden in suburbia using a gas powered front tine tiller. I am going to do it on my land by trial and errors and learning from good folks here. Keeping deer and the critters at bay along with the dumb cows will be a tall order.

 

[NHTC30]

What will you be pulling the cultivator with? If it's the tractor pictured under your name, I don't think it will even pick up a rear mounted 4 row cultivator, they are pretty heavy. You might be able to use the tool bar for the cultivator, and take the plow gangs for the outside rows off and be able to handle it, but you may even have to go down to one row. I know that the WD Allis we farmed with could pull one, they used to pull them all the time with WD's and WD 45's, but anything smaller they either used two row front mounts or even one row front mount cultivators. I believe that the old 2N through 8n Fords came with a back mount two row cultivator. You are probably going to need 40 horses or more for a 4 row.

 

[JC-jetro]

What will you be pulling the cultivator with?

let me have a stab at it with the chance of embarrassing myself Hopefully I'm not way out in the left field.

I have a Ford 1700 with about 25 pto and maybe 27 hp at the draw bar. have a very few implement such as a rotary cutter, a home made boom, a KK carry all and a KK bottom buster. I got a chisel point for my BB to be able to break the soil and sod. I have been able to loosen up soil down to depth of 9 to 12 inches easily. I have enough hp to pull a one row cultivator shown below. see the pics below.





I was hoping after going back and forth be able to loosen up stuff in a row that is 3 to 4 feet wide and up to 150 feet long. I then wanted to use a KK cultivator pictured below to fluff things up if all goes well then I intend to use the furrower and mound me a hill that is 8" tall and may be 24" wide and however long.






I then was planning to lay earth fabric (same as weed block) on the mound and every so often cut an opening and plant tomato plants. I would provide some water source and would fence this narrow long strip twice as wide as my tractor with some rudimentary gate at both ends. I would not have to turn around with my tractor in this corridor. Now that's my plan.


Is there any hope?

ps. Folks laugh all you want. I sure can take it. This is when a city folk decides to play farmer John.


My plan 'B" is to buy a 4 or 5 foot KK rotary tiller ( chi-ching) if all fails

 

[Farmwithjunk]

What will you be pulling the cultivator with? If it's the tractor pictured under your name, I don't think it will even pick up a rear mounted 4 row cultivator, they are pretty heavy. You might be able to use the tool bar for the cultivator, and take the plow gangs for the outside rows off and be able to handle it, but you may even have to go down to one row. I know that the WD Allis we farmed with could pull one, they used to pull them all the time with WD's and WD 45's, but anything smaller they either used two row front mounts or even one row front mount cultivators. I believe that the old 2N through 8n Fords came with a back mount two row cultivator. You are probably going to need 40 horses or more for a 4 row.

HP won't be the issue. LIFTING capacity of the 3-point hitch might be though. Growing up, I spent a LOT of time on a 32 hp (gas) MF50 with a 4 row rear mounted cultivator on it. It would crawl along @ 1000 rpm with no effort. Probably produced less than 25 hp at that rpm.

Also, a lower profile compact tractor might have trouble, even if it can raise the weight, getting the cultivator far enough off the ground to clear plant rows on turns.