HELP....I hate t0 hoe!

[crewguy]

I need advise on buying a tiller w/attachments. I planted a garden this year, for the first time. I used a Merry tiller w/ plow to set the rows. I made them too close together and really don't have time to hoe the garden. On top of that the Merry tiller motor gave up the ghost. Needless to say grass has taken over most of the garden.

I want to buy a tiller w/ attachments that I can use, instead of a hoe, to work the garden. A front tine tiller will beat you to death if the ground is hard. Can you buy a rear tine tiller that has attachments (plows)? Which attachments do I need?

Building rows is important also. How do most people " lay the rows off"? I have a Ford 3000 but no planters.

If I bought a 2-row planter:
Would the width be suitable for tiller use?

 

[2manyrocks]

At least some of the Troy bilt rear tine tillers have an optional plow/furrower attachment. I use one to lay off my rows and to make raised rows.

Can't say if other brands have this or not.

 

[bp fick]

This may be of some interest to you, perhaps not. If not, just disregard.:laughing:

I market garden. I plow with a middle buster. I drag it with my KK field cultivator. It works very well as a spring tooth drag, as well as a one row cultivator. Frankly, the soil is good for most plants, but if I want to pulverize, I run my old trusty front tine walk behind tiller up the row. It's easy, because the ground is well worked.

I cultivate with the Kubota and KK field cultivator, but those rows have to be 42" spaced. If I put in a few narrower rows, I just walk the front tine down those rows to clean them up.

I do my rows the old fashioned way, stakes and masons or brick-layer's string. Straight as an arrow. Hope that give you some ideas. There is no single way to skin the cat. Lot's of choices.

 

[2manyrocks]

Since you have a tractor, you could get a cultivator frame and add hilling discs to it like post 14 in this thread: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/135965-planting-taters-2.html

I posted a picture of a homemade furrower/hiller than OldMech made later in the same thread.

Or a middle buster/potato plow will lay off rows, but won't create hills.

If your tiller uses a horizontal shaft engine, the HF catalog has their 6.5 HP lifan engine in it for $99 right now.

Straw mulch is great for keeping weeds down and not having to till anything.

 

[Bird]

I cultivate with the Kubota and KK field cultivator

I used to use a cultivator from TSC just like the one in your last picture. But I bought 6" sweeps and replaced the points with them.

 

[bp fick]

I used to use a cultivator from TSC just like the one in your last picture. But I bought 6" sweeps and replaced the points with them.

Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.

 

[dcyrilc]

Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.

What exactly does a cultivator do?

 

[bp fick]

What exactly does a cultivator do?

Well, it weeds, that is it cleans up the rows. Usually I can get at least two passes in before the plant is too tall to pass over it.

You can work compost or fertilizer in, if you dress when the plants are 6" tall, for example. While I don't plant corn anymore, in the old days we grew a lot of it. You cannot put down enough fertilizer before planting to make corn. You must follow up at 10" tall with additional side dressing of N.

If you have soil compaction problems, the cultivation allows for the soils to breathe again. Very important. Weed, Feed, Breathe= Cultivator.

 

[Bird]

Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.

As a matter of fact, I did use the half Vs on the two inside springs for the very reason you stated. I guess the only picture I have of it was from too far off and with it turned the wrong way and other stuff in the way.:laughing: And I got them, too, from TSC.

 

[bp fick]

Bird, nice shop!!!

Well, this "modern" rear cultivation doesn't hold a candle to the old days when you drove a Farmall or Massey Pony and just looked down at your feet. Now THAT was great. I miss that and wish someone would come up with a similar cultivator for a B model Kubota. I would flat out jump at that!!!!!

 

[crusty 1]

Bird, nice shop!!!

Well, this "modern" rear cultivation doesn't hold a candle to the old days when you drove a Farmall or Massey Pony and just looked down at your feet. Now THAT was great. I miss that and wish someone would come up with a similar cultivator for a B model Kubota. I would flat out jump at that!!!!!

I agree nice shop!seems a shame to mess it up with dirt etc.Think I,d just go to the farmers market for my produce and sit on a chair in that great looking shop.The floor looks to be clean enough to eat off of without the 3 second rule:laughingave

 

[2manyrocks]

Then what's the point in having a tractor if you're gonna buy produce at the farmer's market?

Now the tractor in that picture looks freshly washed and waxed. Where's all that dust from plowing? Where's the mud from the tire cleats? Where's all the junk that you're supposed to have in your shed?

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

Straw mulch is great for keeping weeds down and not having to till anything.

I tried that one year and now I have thisles so bad they are like a cancer. I mulch with grass clippings now. Good thing I mow almost 3 acres. Bad thing is have to do it with the White GT instead of the Scag!

 

[bp fick]

I tried that one year and now I have thisles so bad they are like a cancer. I mulch with grass clippings now. Good thing I mow almost 3 acres. Bad thing is have to do it with the White GT instead of the Scag!

Oh my!! Glad it works for you. We don't have lawns, we have yards, and those clippings would be full of nasty weeds.
I am picky about where I get my straw. You are right. It is necessary to be picky about straw one uses for this purpose.

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

Oh my!! Glad it works for you. We don't have lawns, we have yards, and those clippings would be full of nasty weeds.
I am picky about where I get my straw. You are right. It is necessary to be picky about straw one uses for this purpose.

I didn't say I didn't mow weeds:laughing: they just don't seem to cause nearly as much trouble as those stupid thisles.:thumbsup:

Need to look into a bagger for the Scag or the 2305 or both

 

[bp fick]

Well, with the number of folks feeding thistle seed to birds, I don't think the world is going to run out of them anytime soon.

Sure'd like to see a thistle farm that produces all that bird seed.

 

[dcyrilc]

I tried that one year and now I have thisles so bad they are like a cancer. I mulch with grass clippings now. Good thing I mow almost 3 acres. Bad thing is have to do it with the White GT instead of the Scag!

We tried mulching with straw last year and I came to the conclusion that it doesn't work well here. With all the rain, the seed heads fall off and start growing. Within a few weeks, the garden is all straw grass reaching skyward fast.:laughing: I swear that stuff grows faster than cornstalks.:confused2:

 

[2manyrocks]

Now the other way of weeding is to use one of those manual push cultivators--seems like one brand name is the Planet Jr.

I've got a push cultivator that came from a yard sale that actually does very well once you get the ground all tilled up to start with. After that, it's pretty easy to keep the weeds knocked down.

Grass clippings from the yard will work as mulch.

Cardboard will also work as mulch if you put something on it to hold it down. By the end of the season, it will be rotted enough to turn under.