Garden #1 - Plowed today.

[BrianR]

Finished with Garden #1 today. It is just about 1/2 acre in size. Plowed it down with a Howse 14" 1 bottom plow and my Dad's new Kubota B2920. I usually use my BX2200 for this task, but Dad wanted to see how the 2920 would do. It was very nice, except that the soil here is rock hard from a drought this summer/fall. It turned nice, but sometimes massive chunks of clay would come up and then crumble off the moldboard.

Average plow depth was about 10".

 

[Duffster]

:thumbsup:

 

[BrianR]

I have some "Tillage Radish" seed ordered for my other garden. Ran the chisel plow through it, will broadcast the seed, then disc lightly.

Tillage Radish - The Soil Quality Advantage

Hope seed ships soon.....running out of good weather for the radish seed to put on a lot of growth before killing temps.

 

[sweettractors]

Looks good Brian. I like the way you trimmed out the end of your furrows. When I think of clay, I think of something Red, I don't see any of that? Ken Sweet

 

[Toolguy]

Looks good. Very straight and even looking furrows. Nice headlands, too. How did the B do compared to the BX?

 

[BrianR]

Thanks Ken....I am somewhat **** about how my gardens look!! Can't stand to leave the edges a mess or uneven. In fact, all summer long, I keep it trimmed out with Round-Up and Prowl herbicides to keep em straight!

The clay we have here is a yellow clay. This garden has been here since I was about 5 years old, so the soil is mostly composed of high organic soil on top with clay down at 10" and deeper.

It is slightly larger now than it was when I was growing up, but we used to use an old front tine tiller and also hoe'd the rows by hand initially. Then we started using a 4 bottom Allis Chalmers slatted-moldboard plow and 15 foot disc to work it up.

Now I use a John Deere Flex-71 1 row planter, 1 row cultivator, 50" disc, and 14" plow to maintain my gardens. It took about an hour to plow this today.

I'd love to find a 1 row 12" slatted moldboard plow to adapt to my BX2200.

 

[BrianR]

Looks good. Very straight and even looking furrows. Nice headlands, too. How did the B do compared to the BX?

Thanks! I can still plow after all of those years of not farming (quit when I was 13 I think).

Surprisingly they both pull the plow about the same. The issue with both machines is that in tough, heavy soils, neither machine has enough weight. A 12" moldboard would be better suited.

Where the B accels is in the area of ground clearance. The front axle on the BX will ride on the edge of the furrow if you go to deep. The B seemed to have plenty of clearance. Also the B didn't have that "feels like it might roll over" feeling in those deep furrows.

I also like the 1/4 inching valve on the 3 point hitch on the B over the BX 3 point hitch. The B would have been perfect if it had draft control on the 3 point.

 

[BrianR]

Used to plow 20 acres with a 4 bottom version of this plow:

 

[Grateful11]

Wife just finished drilling 34 acres of Oats, took her 2 days. She needs a bigger drill.

 

[bp fick]

Looks good Brian. I like the way you trimmed out the end of your furrows. When I think of clay, I think of something Red, I don't see any of that? Ken Sweet

For Ken and all the guys that think clay is red, they ought to spend some time on blue clay. All clay is fun, whatever the color, but blue is something to be experienced.

Thanks! I can still plow after all of those years of not farming (quit when I was 13 I think).

Surprisingly they both pull the plow about the same. The issue with both machines is that in tough, heavy soils, neither machine has enough weight. A 12" moldboard would be better suited.

Where the B accels is in the area of ground clearance. The front axle on the BX will ride on the edge of the furrow if you go to deep. The B seemed to have plenty of clearance. Also the B didn't have that "feels like it might roll over" feeling in those deep furrows.

I also like the 1/4 inching valve on the 3 point hitch on the B over the BX 3 point hitch. The B would have been perfect if it had draft control on the 3 point.

My experience precisely. B/BX power isn't an issue. But, the BX will bottom out doing such work. Not just the front axle, but the rear trans housing as well. Love the B ground clearance for gardening.

Also agree the 1/4 inching works better on the B.

Love your garden!!! I can smell the good earth right from your photos!

 

[funwithahoe]

Finished with Garden #1 today. It is just about 1/2 acre in size. Plowed it down with a Howse 14" 1 bottom plow and my Dad's new Kubota B2920. I usually use my BX2200 for this task, but Dad wanted to see how the 2920 would do. It was very nice, except that the soil here is rock hard from a drought this summer/fall. It turned nice, but sometimes massive chunks of clay would come up and then crumble off the moldboard.

Average plow depth was about 10".

Nice plot. I am so jealous of people who don't need a fence that the deer will jump and the bears will rip apart.

Did you plow with the mower on? I have actually found my mower to be less intrusive than I thought it would be.

 

[BrianR]

Nice plot. I am so jealous of people who don't need a fence that the deer will jump and the bears will rip apart.]

Thanks!

Did you plow with the mower on? I have actually found my mower to be less intrusive than I thought it would be.

Well.....don't be too jealous! While deere do sometimes get in that garden, mostly it is raccoons that do the most damage to my sweet corn.

I'll use the planter, and chisel plow with the mower deck installed, but I remove it when plowing. When the plow runs deeper than 6", the mower deck will tend to pile up the dirt on the plowed side when the tires are in the furrow.

 

[BigD23]

Very nice, and thanks for sharing the pics.

Don