Best implement - dirt roads and food plots

Coyote · Sep 23, 2003

I'm running a 24 HP YM 2WD. I have hunting land that has red clay logging roads with ruts, and want to put food plots in the woods. I have cut the trees and bushhogged open areas in the pines for the food plots. Trying to do it all with one implement, I'm thinking about getting a box scrape. I know I could disk or till up the bush hogged plots, but my question is wouldn't a box scrape tilted forward with teeth down rip the ground enough for clover planting? Can I rip the ruts in the clay road and smooth them with the BB too? Anyone with similar experience out there?

GaryM · Sep 23, 2003

You can rip the ruts in the road and smooth them out with the box blade. Be sure to rip down to the bottom of the ruts, not just the high spots. From what I have read on this discussion board you need to get down to the bottom of the damaged area.

Can't comment on the food plot though.

BillyP · Sep 23, 2003

Red clay is some wonderful stuff but if left for water to stand, you can't do much but smooth it out (time after time). What kind of ruts are we talking about here? Low areas where when it rains, water stands? If so, your best bet would drag a drainage ditch. Either that or build it up so water will run off.

For the food plot thing. Do you know anyone who has a disk that you can borrow? The box scraper will work but a disk would be so much better.

BB_TX · Sep 24, 2003

If you are really intent on doing both with one implement, that is the only one I can think of that you could do both with. You can do the food plot as you describe but with only 4 or 5 teeth on the box it will take a lot of passes to get the soil really cut up good. You will probably have to go front to back, side to side, and maybe criss-cross to get good coverage.

fishman · Sep 24, 2003

You can do it with the box blade. I use mine to "till" my garden. It takes me 4 or 5 passes to make it look decent, but my garden is so small, no big deal.

For a food plot, I'd expect 3 passes should do alright, but it will depend on soil type and moisture level. The box rippers don't break up the soil very well if it's too wet. Also, you will want to shorten your toplink (if the rippers are on the front of the boxblade, most are). This will maximize the ripping depth and the blade won't interfere . . . works great.

My boxblade cost less than $300 new, so that's considerably less than a tiller. And you can grade your road. I think you are on the right track.

bebster · Sep 24, 2003

That's really interesting that you can actually till with a box blade. I'm putting in a large vegetable garden (about 3 rows 4 feet wide and 50 feet long). Was hesitating putting down $$ for a tiller. I'd rather spend more times running over with the box blade IF it will do the job. My soil is pretty loose and sandy (no clay for sure).

Just about to order a box blade (either Frontier BB1060 or 65) for about $700 delivered. They are described on this web page .

I wanted to get at least a 5' wide blade, so that I can do grading, but that's too wide for a garden row. I guess I could just raise the outside tines or scarifiers on the blade so it digs a narrower width. What do you think? Any advice would be really welcome.

normde2001 · Sep 24, 2003

I have the same tractor as you, with a 5' boxblade. It will do all you need, just takes a little time. Dont worry about digging out the ruts in your clay road, just fill them in. The secret is getting the road high enough or crowning it so water will run off. Angling the blade will do that for you. Digging the rut out is only necessary for rock or gravel that needs to interweave with itself. Keep your scarifiers at minimum depth and experiment with your toplink setting. Too much depth and you will just spin your tires. Be careful of getting your scarifiers caught in roots. Trying to lift the blade when caught on a root will give you a wheelie in a heartbeat, (back up). I've done it several times even with 200# on the front.

Bowhunter · Sep 25, 2003

The box blade may do everything you want, but I don't think you'll be satisfied with the results on the food plot. It will be great for the roads.

How big are your food plots? It may work ok for very small plots, but for larger areas I'd borrow or rent a disk or tiller. For clover and alfalfa food plots you want a fine seed bed. It is recommended that after you have your seed bed worked up fine, you lightly pack it with a cultipacker or drag it with a chain link fence drag. You then sow the seed and pack or drag again to cover the seed with no more than 1/4" of soil.

I don't think you'll be able to get the seed bed fine enough with just a box blade. I planted an acre of Alfarack 2 weeks ago. I had sprayed the area 3 times to get a satisfactory burndown, and still had to disk it 3 times before I was satisfied with how fine it was. I would still have rather used a tiller, and may break down and buy one some day. A cultipacker is also on my wish list. My 3 acres of clover will need replanted in 2 or 3 more years.

Good luck with your plots! And don't forgot to get a soil sample.

normde2001 · Sep 25, 2003

I don't know anything about clover, but I assume you sow seeds kind of like grass seeds. I keep a 5# bag of grass seed on hand for everytime I do any landscape work with the boxblade. Just scatter the seed over the fresh worked dirt, drive over it, drag the blade over it, walk over it, whatever, it comes up just fine. It ain't rocket science.

fishman · Sep 25, 2003

Bebster,

You might be able to work around rows of new plants by removing a ripper or two, but I doubt it. The reason is that the back of the box blade usually rides on or near the surface of the soil, which wouldn't work if your plants were any size at all. I use mine to break up the soil first thing in the spring, but that's it. It takes several passes, as I said, and it comes out o.k., but not as fine as a tiller. For small seeds, I often go over the area with a small 2-cycle tiller I've had for a while. I also use this small tiller around the new plants as well. When things start getting along just fine I mulch my entire garden with straw and call it good.

If you're planting tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, watermelons, or any other large plants, tubers, or seeds, a box blade will get it fine enough as long as the soil moisture is right. Usually it is too wet rather than too dry.

Again, obviously the box blade won't till as deep or as fine as a tiller. But it works well enough for me.

If you need a box blade anyway (and who doesn't) I'd give it a try before buying a tiller. What have you got to lose?

RonR · Sep 25, 2003

Build new tool using ripper blades--

I needed to bury some electrical cable, and rather than buy a ridge buster, I built a 3PT hitch frame with a 4x4 box beam as the base for multiple tools.

To this I welded one main bracket to handle two ripper teeth together to make a wider trench. My plan is to add brackets to this implement so I can also add
four other ripper teeth spaced a foot apart and have a five foot chisel plow of sorts. This will allow the rippers to go deeper without worrying about the blade hitting the soil.

I've already built a harrow attachment for it; it's 3 rows of 3/8" x 2 strap six inches long welded on 9 inch spacing. Makes a great harrow to create rows to plant in. My new backyard grass looks great now--will be mowing it tonight for the first time.

My next implement will be an aerator or rotary hoe arrangement which will mount to this same beam.

This takes less money / time to build stuff, and it makes storage easier.

I know, I know, Pictures.... I've got to learn to do that. Maybe next month.

Best wishes,
Ron

Bowhunter · Sep 25, 2003

Re: Build new tool using ripper blades--

Ron, I like your idea. I have a similar setup on my atv. I have a receiver system on it, and have fabricated a few different things to use with it. Very handy.

RonR · Sep 25, 2003

Re: Build new tool using ripper blades--

Thanks.

I'd built this before I came across the receiver hitch idea on this site. But I like what I have since it can handle stuff 5 ft wide. An implement with a receiver hitch at that width might be cumbersome and twisty (sorry for using technical talk (grin), unless you used a hitch at each end.

Best wishes,
Ron

R_squared · Sep 25, 2003

Coyote,

If you will be planting your food plots on a regular basis, a 3-point tiller is the only way to go. A box blade is a good way to dredge up those buried treasures in a new plot, but the soil will have softball sized clumps. Box blading will save the tillers clutch and tines. There are dealers that have cheap reconditioned Yanmar tillers for sale. Other options would be to rent or borrow. My neighbor tilled a plot with a walk-behind and the clumps were smaller than box blading. At that time he needed both knees replaced (since then he had the surgery) and needed more tilling, but was not up to it. I helped him out by finishing the rest of his plots with a 3-point tiller. It was effortless and the 3-point tiller powdered the soil. We were both impressed with the results. Another plus for the 3-point tiller is that you can mix sand, straw and compose into your clay soil. Use the FEL to dump it on the top and till it in. A tiller is also good for leveling humps and weed control.

RonR · Sep 25, 2003

Lesson learned: Tiller

When I got my tiller, the skid shoes were set for max depth (maybe 4"). I put in our hard dry clay and it banged and clattered and vibrated--but it did do it's job. After the first tilling though, the tiller was digging about 8 inches deep as the skid shoes were sinking in. The ground was turning to fluf with no base--I just kept sinking in.

So on round 3 of getting ready to plant, I set the skid shoes at 2". This time, the tiller idled right through the stuff. And it left it smoother and finer. Much less effort.

I don't plan to ever change this depth setting!

Best wishes,
Ron

John_Mc · Sep 25, 2003

( I'm running a 24 HP YM 2WD. I have hunting land that has red clay logging roads with ruts, and want to put food plots in the woods... Trying to do it all with one implement)

My local NH / Kubota dealer is just about to start carrying just the thing you need. Check out:
PlotMaster an all-in-one implement designed to do exactly what you are talking about. Comes in 4, 6 or 8 ft widths. I'd GUESS you would want the 4 footer, with a 24 HP, 2WD tractor, but I may be wrong.

John Mc

GaryM · Sep 25, 2003

I've seen these units in the Cabela's catalog. At least the smaller unit.

Bowhunter · Sep 26, 2003

Not downplaying it's usefulness, but from what I've seen, a person could buy a box blade, a tiller, a bush hog, and a sprayer for what the Plotmaster costs.

Slamfire · Sep 27, 2003

Heck if a body didn't mind an antique he'd be able to get a tractor for the price of a Plotmaster. I did.

John_Mc · Sep 27, 2003

( Not downplaying it's usefulness, but from what I've seen, a person could buy a box blade, a tiller, a bush hog, and a sprayer for what the Plotmaster costs. )

I still haven't seen a price on these. I didn't ask my dealer, and never got an answer when I emailed the PlotMaster folks. I'm not really in the market for one anyway, but keep my eyes open for some folks I know who are always looking for something.

One advantage I could see for the plotmaster over individual implements is time. You can do it in one pass. Also, you can get into remote small plots more easily than with some dedicated implements on a large tractor (one trip in with the tractor, vs several trips back and forth to get the next implement). For me, I'd take the time and save the money (I own a boxblade, my neighbor owns a rake and a tiller).

John Mc