How do you work seeds in with a tiller?

[georgia jeff]

I own a Kubota L2800 HST 4wd tractor that has 23 pto hp and am considering buying a tiller. I think that a 5 ft. unit will work well with my tractor but am also considering a 56' Caroni unit at my local Agri Supply store. I will be using this to plant a 1/4 acre garden plot at my house, and several 1/2 acre sized food plots in the fall.
However, I have never used a tiller to plant food plots. I have always used a disc harrow to break up the soil then I would broadcast the soybeans, wheat, rye, etc. and work them into the soil by lightly discing them into the soil afterwards.

How would you work the seeds into the ground with a tiller? Would you just set it for a very shallow depth and till them in? Would you have to have some type of drag harrow or chain link fence to drag and work them in? What do you tiller owners do?

Also, what are your thoughts on the 56 in. chain driven Caroni tiller (they have them for around $1250). Agri supply also carries a 5ft gear drive "Tillovator" for $1200. Has anyone heard of that brand? All it says on their website is "Tillovator" and the guy on the phone didn't know who made them.

 

[Western]

I think using your tiller to actually place the seed in the soil would be a bad idea.

I use mine in my garden to turn it and soften it up, planting is done by hand.

My food plots I have tilled once. I use my disc then fertilize, seed and drag for small seed, light disc for larger seed.

My plot is only about 1 1/2 acres, doubt if I will till it again. Allot of work on the tiller when I have other tools for that job.

 

[beenthere]

I had good success with food plots by tilling first, spreading the seed (clover, and other very small seeds), and then rolling with a roller to firm. Good germination and growth.

 

[Bird]

I've never heard of using a tiller to work the seeds in; only to prepare the ground before seeding.

 

[radioman]

I've never heard of using a tiller to work the seeds in; only to prepare the ground before seeding.

same here- . getting a tiller virtually eliminates the need to disc, plow the dirt beforehand. What are you planning on planting?

 

[ZDB]

Last year for experimentation I broadcast seeded shelling peas in a 7'wide by 400' long row after tilling with my 72" KK tiller. After seeding I made a light pass with the tiller to mix in the seed.

The pea crop from this plot was high yielding with relatively low weed pressure.
I would estimate that the seed losses due to this are higher than direct seeding but we had alot of pea seed.

We also did this with a couple test plots of oat/pea mix with good results.

 

[Knight9]

I have never used my tiller to "seed" either, but in theory I guess it could be done. You would likely want to till the whole thing properly at normal depth, then broadcast your seed across the plot. If you wanted to use your tiller at that point, I would be inclined to raise it quite high so you are barely skimming the surface (an inch or two perhaps?) and reduce the PTO speed so you are not hacking at the seeds. It would be less manual than a rake, I guess, but I've never done it.

Kevin​

 

[ZDB]

I tilled to max depth, then seeded, and finally passed at about 1.5-2" depth at full 540PTO speed.

With peas it didn't break the seeds up much at all.
A light discing would have done just as well but I was too pressed for time to drop the tiller and hook up the disc and the other tractor was down.

 

[bilrus61]

I had good luck on rye grass seed by just letting the tiller roll over the plot like a cultipacker. It disturbed the soil and I got a good stand of grass.

 

[D7E]

It would work to a point but a rough job, I would increase the seed rate dramatically to account for shallow,deep and damaged seeds. A heavy harrow or light cultivator would be a better way of working them in .

Broadcasting and working in is a very common method of planting small seed such as canola or alfalfa but again we keep the seeds rates up compared to drilling .