Alternative to rototiller?

[RichZ]

Is there an implement that can be used as an alternative to a rototiller? Perhaps some kind of plow or disc? I have a 75' by 25' foot garden that I intend to greatly expand. The soil has alot of clay. I need something to turn over the soil, and mix manure and compost into it. Perfect for a rototiller, except the cheapest I have been able to find a used one for is $1400, and I can't afford that right now. I know I can hire someone to till the garden, but I like to be independent, and what fun is it to have a tractor if you have to hire someone to do the fun stuff!!/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I figure that one of you guys will have a good idea!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thanks!!

Rich

 

[cowboydoc]

Rich,
With that small of an area it's going to be hard to break up and get smooth without a rototiller. You could use one of those middle busters that will somewhat turn the ground and they are cheap, less than $100. If you could find a one bottom plow that would work too. On the cheap side if you could find an old 4' disc that would work to get the ground broken up after you plow it. New they are 400-500, I see them at farm sales for 100-300. Then if you could run a harrow section over it you could get it pretty good. Not nearly what a rototiller would do but you could get it decent.

If you have teeth on your bucket or a boxblade with scarifers you could also break up the ground this way. In my round pen I use the teeth on the skidsteer bucket to work up the ground. I can get it pretty smooth with very little bumps down to about 4". I would think you could do the same thing with a tooth bar on your loader.

 

[RPM]

Rich,

What do you mean by 'greatly expand'? I've always thought that to justify a tractor-tiller I'd need to be looking at least at an acre under cultivation. Otherwise you're looking at some very expensive vegetables.

Any less than that and I'd just use the Round-Up / ripper / walk behind tiller approach. The walk behind works great between rows during the season too.

When I'm rich and famous I'd like both of course!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Patrick

 

[RichZ]

Patrick, you're right. I use my tractor for lots of other things, pasture maintenance, lawn mowing, driveway maintenance, hauling, etc. But with a small garden, I'm looking for a cheap alternative to a rototiller. Eventually, I'd like to garden an acre or more, but that will take a few years at least.

Rich

 

[fishman]

Richz,

Tractor Supply has the KingKutter line of tillers. A new 5' is about $999. There was a thread a while back in
"attachments" that discussed this model, and it was pretty positive. For that price, it looks very competitive with a plow/disc setup, particularly since it will do a much better job.

 

[JerryG]

RichZ,
I have always done our garden (about an acre) the old way. I turn it, then use a spring tooth cultivator. Good moldboard plows go real cheap at farm auctions. I bought a MF 66, three bottom for $135, this summer. Most moldboard plows are modular, so that you can take off the bottoms that you don’t need. You than have spare parts form the bottoms that you took off. The field cultivators have been going for $375-$450. I was still too cheap to buy a field cultivator. What I did was buy a used one-row cultivator for $60 and then put a flat bar where the plant gap is. On the flat bar, I put another spring tooth. Instant field cultivator for about $80-$90.

 

[gws]

Find another dealer for your tiller. TSC has wallace tillers for around a grand, Check the used piles should be able to find one under $600.

MY mom named me Gary.

 

[JonLeonard]

What about a used rototiller? There is a dealer that I know of, who imports gray market tractors. Most of them come with tillers attached, but the dealers usually detach them and sell them as add-ons.

You can usually pick one up for $500 or less.

 

[Alan L.]

The the reason I haven't bought a tiller yet is becuase I rented one and found it to be very slow work. If you have 2 or 3 acres to do your talking about many hours. It probably takes 3 or 4 hours to till one acre.

I think the tiller is great for a garden, but for larger areas I plan to use something else or have it done by an ag tractor. What that something else is, I'm not sure, but I plan to get a 5' disk and see what kind of damage I can do with that. I might have to rough it up with something else first, but you can make multiple passes in the time it takes to use the tiller.

Alan L., TX

 

[spd163]

For what it's worth, I have about a 2 acre pen I keep the horses in when I need them off the pastures; this spring I wanted to re-plant everything because it had gotten too many 'native' grasses/weeds in it. Anyway, the first time I did it I shortened the top link so the box blade was tilted way forward (kept the blades off the grond), then I put all 6 scarifier teeth all the way down, dropped the 3pt to the bottom and made laps around the pen...back and forth like tilling a garden. Then I went back and did the same thing except perpendicular to the original passes...this broke the ground up really nice. Then, I waited a couple of days (it rained, and I had to let it dry) and went after it with a chisel plow. Not sure what other names this thing has, but it is basically a cross between a cultivator, sub-soiler, and scarifier from a box blade; except, at the top of each shank, there are two large springs. The tines on this thing will dig (about 18 inches if you let it) deep and they springs let them bounce back and forth -- It really pulverizes the ground. Finally, a few passes with the disc and it was nice and broken up, the weeds were gone, and the it was nice and level again -- no ruts from putting out hay in the winter when the ground is so soft.
I have done this same area with a tiller and I think the grass is much better now than it has been in the past. I don't know if it's becaue the ground was worked deeper or if the soil is just better now from an additional year of fertilizer and seed. With the tiller it takes about the same amount of time as if I use the box blade, chisel plow, and disc. But, it seems to take F O R E V E R with the tiller b/c you're moving so slow. With the other attachments you can move much faster. I have to use this same method in the fall on 18 acres...I definitely would not want to use a tiller for that.