Any home built mid-mounted weeders out there?

[spurlocktool]

I'm toying with the idea of building a weeder to slice off weeds just below the surface for minimal soil disturbance in a no-till orchard. I have a Kubota BX sub compact, and am thinking that a frame using the mid-mounted mower mounts would have best depth control on uneven surfaces compared to a rear mounted implement. And thin 60 degree swept back angled blades would shed weeds well. Blades could be straight thin flat pieces mounted in a V arrangement like this custom wheel hoe (scroll down to second photo):
Physical Weeding - Four Wheel Hoe

Or else they could be flat crown "joyce pattern" sweeps like these:
http://www.norwest-mfg.com/catalog/TIL100.pdf

Has anyone built or seen something like this on a small tractor?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[6011Artist]

Your little 'bota has a pretty good size floorboard on it, you can't see what you are doing underneath it. I see a whole bunch of good plants getting cut down. Might want to go behind like most guys do so they can see where/what their sweeps or weeders are doing. Also, your 'bota isn't high enough to do a lot of cultivating after your plants get up some size. I have the same problems with my Yanmar.

It can be done but is a lot of work and time consuming to put on or take off. You basically want front cultivators.

 

[spurlocktool]

Lack of visibility is not a problem since I'm needing to stop all growth across the whole width of orchard alleys. This would be after one pass with a flail mower to cut very short. THis is unirrigated orchard, so now I have to mow repeatedly until the ground is so dry that weeds stop growing. If I could slice them off below the crown without turning the soil I'd be left with the original cover crop mulch more intact instead of mowed to tiny bits. That's the hope anyway, but maybe not realistic.

 

[6011Artist]

ahhh, I overlooked the orchard part and had basically cultivating plants in mind. And I do have knowledge about not cutting your feed roots off in an orchard by plowing/discing.

My only thoughts would be to get a set of front cultivators and modify them to fit your kabota and build the skimming blades to fit your cultivator.

I did an auction for a family that was selling out everything at an old peach orchard. In the weeds, grown up and forgotten, was a disc looking thing that was rear mounted and it had a set of 5-6 thin but big (30" or so) disc harrow blades on it layed out on a 45 angle, but layed sideways to not dig deep but skim the top off. It would cover the width of the tractor. I've always wondered what it was used for but after reading your post I'll bet they used that to do what you are looking to do but did it from the rear.

If I remember right it was built by Ferguson. They had 2 Ferguson tractors and it looked as if they had a pretty good set of Ferguson implements to go with them.

This goes to show we're never to old to learn.

 

[Luremaker]

How about using a sod cutter with gauge wheels to control depth. A sod cutter should not be too difficult to make and mount on your tractor.

 

[spurlocktool]

Yeah, that is the type of result I'm looking for. But sod cutters have that fore and aft oscillating action so the blade doesn't get clogged with the sod, not sure how easy that would be to make. That's why I'm thinking steeply swept back blades would probalby work well.

 

[Luremaker]

Take a look at this home made sod cutter with a straight blade and gauge wheels. This is not my idea but I like it. The wheels come off an old lawn mower. I am sure it can be scaled to the width of your tractor.

 

[CliffordK]

What are you growing in the orchard?
I would think grass would be just find for most fruit orchards, although filbert orchards around here often have bare dirt under the trees.

A couple of thoughts. Some weeds such as dandelions & related are quite content to come back up from the roots. It may take several passes to establish your dominance over the weeds.

It may be difficult to skim 1/4" to 1/2" from the top without either floating up, or digging deeper. I might consider some kind of a rotary device such as a "reel mower", although you would dull the blades pretty quickly if rubbing in in the ground. Another option would be large string trimmer, although your cut speed may be suboptimal.

Near harvest season, you probably would want to follow the device with a roller.

 

[CliffordK]

Actually,
Thinking about this.

I'd probably take a rototiller.
Set the tines at 100% horizontal.
Then either do it mid-mounted as you suggest, or rear mounted with 4 guide wheels for precise height adjustment.

 

[spurlocktool]

I grow a legume cover crop of bell beans, vetch and field peas. I flail mow which leaves a nice mulch, but grasses continue to come back until the ground is completely dry in late spring. I used to disc, then later went to rototilling. But being on a hillside any extensive cultivation really leads to erosion when rains return in the Fall. So I've gone completely no-till for the past 8 years. Soil fewrtility and organic matter content have improved tremendously as a result. Now I'm just trying to find ways of slowing late Spring grass growth so I don't have to repeat mow multiple times, which obliterates my nice mulch. Lacking irrigation I need as much intact soil cover as possible.

 

[spurlocktool]

Thanks for those pictures. That design was my first thought, and it would be fairly simple to rig up a test model. Stilll thinking that swept back wings blades would shed weeds best though.

 

[6011Artist]

spur, why couldn't you build a rig that had depth control wheels and use a series of regular cultivating sweeps instead of the straight blade? I also think the multiple sweeps would shed the buildup as it worked better than 1 straight blade.

 

[spurlocktool]

Agree about the sweeps versus straight blade. And am thinking that if it was mid-mounted as on my short wheelbase Kubota BX, the tractor tires would work as depth control wheels and the blades would also handle turns well..

 

[6011Artist]

That would probably work well on that short of a wheelbase. How do you plan to rig it on hydraulics? Not real familiar with the Kubota, what options do you have to get power to a small cylinder?

 

[spurlocktool]

The BX tractors already have hydraulic operated linkage for mid-mount mowing decks. A knob with notched cam sets the depth in 1/2" increments. The hydraulic is for lift only - there is no down force, only gravity. So weight might be required to get the sweeps to bite in.

 

[6011Artist]

spurl, you're not thinking of building it with bedrail angle I don't think. In order for it to last you need to use atleast 1/4 in thick material. The sweeps will cut in and naturally pull themselves into the ground so weight won't be a problem I don't think.

Since you have the mid mount mower deck linkage already in place, building a rectangle shaped frame that matches up to your linkage wont be hard to do and mount your sweeps on it staggered, a row in the front and the back row filling in or cutting out the gaps. Doesn't sound hard to me at all.

Another thought, in an orchard you shouldn't have a problem of stumps or any other obstacles, you'll just be skimming off the top of the ground. So therefore your deck linkage should be strong enough to handle what you want to build.

Do you have a farm supply store close by or a farm equipment salvage yard? If so, I'd go check out what is available as far as cultivator parts and dream up something that I could build out of what I could get my hands on. If you could find an old cultivator to get the adjustable shanks off of then you could adjust the angle of the sweeps. You'd want to run the sweeps almost level so it won't cut so deep that you were also cutting the feed roots to your trees.

You could build it rectangle with two rows of sweeps or build it in a V shape if you use wide thin blade sweeps. And as far as shanks, cut them out of 1" round or square solid stock and heat them to bend them at the right angle. Not like you'll be adjusting them later for different jobs. If you build the V, you'll need to start by cutting two bars or rails to fit to your mower linkage and then build the right size V, hang your bars on the linkage and lay the V on the shop floor under it (blocked up to the right height) and cut heavy thick flat bar to match up the two together however it seems to want to fit.

Can you visualize what I'm trying to describe?

 

[6011Artist]

More thoughts.....

Have you ever seen the V shaped cultivators that work behind a small garden tractor? They are basically made of a piece of flat bar bent into a V and attached to the hitch on the tractor. The down shanks are made of round stock and they use clamps so you can slide the cultivators close or wide. What I'm trying to describe is basically an overgrown or bigger, heavy duty rig like that.

After you get the V or rectangle built, draw two straight lines on your shop floor to designate the width of your tractor and without the tractor in the way you can decide your spacing pattern and how many sweeps you need to cover the area being weeded, allowing the proper overlap of the sweeps to not leave any gaps.

I got it figured out in my mind and hope you're catching my thought in yours. Simple build if you think of it one step at a time.

 

[spurlocktool]

Thanks Artist, that is basically the construciton I've been thinking about. I won't have time to do it for a while, just casting around to see if someone has already done something similar.

 

[6011Artist]

When I want to build something, as I think about it, I also get on the prowl and collect parts. Sometimes my ideas change with what I can get at a reasonable price. I've got the parts to build a nice rolling cultivator, hillers, rakes...one day I'll get the time to put them together.

Good luck on your build. We can't always buy what we think will work best, we have to build it.