Rockbadchild
Veteran Member
IMO a tiller is a must for gardens, you are not going to break the ground properly with a disk... before the winter plow it, next year till it make rows and plant.
Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2
- Thread starter HawkinsHollow
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oldnslo
Super Member
A disc will work up sod but it takes a lot of passes in different directions.
If wanting no till how are you planning on controlling weeds?
If planting rows do you want to work area between rows or keep them native and mow them?
If wanting no till how are you planning on controlling weeds?
If planting rows do you want to work area between rows or keep them native and mow them?
jeff9366
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Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog - Garden Series Page 01
Buckeye Tractor Garden Series Equipment Introduction Page
www.buctraco.com
jeff9366
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5,000 square feet = 0.1147842 acre
Soy Beans, a nitrogen fixing legume, are a good warm weather green manure if you can keep hungry deer out.
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paulsharvey
Elite Member
Oh, maybe it was another post talking about 1+ acre garden. 50x100, one issue is, it's going take a min of 10 ft on the ends to turn tractor around, so now we have an 50x80. Try the disc, and see how it attacks the sod layer, but if you can track down a single bottom turn plow, that's probably the best way.
I dont know your soil, or your area, but tillers are fine, but also not necessary, and very expensive. You can do a lot with a single bottom plow, a disc, and a single row cultivator or hiller (depending on whether you want to plan in hills or just rows).
The reason I say plow in next couple months, you know the weeds/grasses will be a problem and burying them now, will allow them to start decaying. It won't be a finished seed bed, so you will need to disc probably atleast 3 passes in spring.
Any thought how you want to plant? 50x80, you can easily do that by hoe and hand, or a push seeder.
Weed control; a small tiller, hoe, cultivator, plastic, or heavy mulch layer will be needed if you want to minimize chemical treatment.
I dont know your soil, or your area, but tillers are fine, but also not necessary, and very expensive. You can do a lot with a single bottom plow, a disc, and a single row cultivator or hiller (depending on whether you want to plan in hills or just rows).
The reason I say plow in next couple months, you know the weeds/grasses will be a problem and burying them now, will allow them to start decaying. It won't be a finished seed bed, so you will need to disc probably atleast 3 passes in spring.
Any thought how you want to plant? 50x80, you can easily do that by hoe and hand, or a push seeder.
Weed control; a small tiller, hoe, cultivator, plastic, or heavy mulch layer will be needed if you want to minimize chemical treatment.
MF243RedTop
Gold Member
Needs to be turned over good and deep to go herbicide free...
Rockbadchild
Veteran Member
Around here in clay a disk won't break ground for a garden ... it scratch it and that about it... if you plow it before, it will break it but the grassy layer will stay in chuck... so around here a tiller would be a must.
CH4Ohio
Platinum Member
I use both tillage and herbicides and still can't keep up with the weeds.
PandDLong
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The first break up of the pasture is the tough part and is purely mechanical (killing the top with herbicides doesn't really help).
I used a PTO driven tiller for this task a few times but it took a real beating to do the work (55" tiller with my old JD 25HP tractor and now with my Kubota 35 HP). Perhaps the tiller was too light but it would bounce and buck around trying to cut through the top layer of turf and needed several passes. This is probably a factor in it needing new bearings and seals ...
A farmer neighbour of mine took an old agricultural cultivator and cut it down to about a 4 foot width and some of the shanks can be raised if needed. Those shanks are probably 12-18" long.
I found if I drag that cultivator through the area trying to keep it at about 6" deep it did a good job to break up the sod layer into chunks and strips. Sometimes I would just have 2 or 3 shanks down to make it manageable - particularly when i was using my little 25HP JD. I did that in a crisscross fashion and then the tiller would get through that with no problem and churn it to a nice tilth. I would expect disks would be effective at that point as well. I wanted to avoid using a plow as my topsoil depth varies and I wanted to keep my soil layers as-is rather than doing a turn-over.
I think a subsoiler or middle buster would have the same effect if you keep it just working the top 6" or so. However with just one shank it would require more passes.
Works for me; may not for others.
Michael
I used a PTO driven tiller for this task a few times but it took a real beating to do the work (55" tiller with my old JD 25HP tractor and now with my Kubota 35 HP). Perhaps the tiller was too light but it would bounce and buck around trying to cut through the top layer of turf and needed several passes. This is probably a factor in it needing new bearings and seals ...
A farmer neighbour of mine took an old agricultural cultivator and cut it down to about a 4 foot width and some of the shanks can be raised if needed. Those shanks are probably 12-18" long.
I found if I drag that cultivator through the area trying to keep it at about 6" deep it did a good job to break up the sod layer into chunks and strips. Sometimes I would just have 2 or 3 shanks down to make it manageable - particularly when i was using my little 25HP JD. I did that in a crisscross fashion and then the tiller would get through that with no problem and churn it to a nice tilth. I would expect disks would be effective at that point as well. I wanted to avoid using a plow as my topsoil depth varies and I wanted to keep my soil layers as-is rather than doing a turn-over.
I think a subsoiler or middle buster would have the same effect if you keep it just working the top 6" or so. However with just one shank it would require more passes.
Works for me; may not for others.
Michael
Yander
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You haven't mentioned whether this is a serious venture to provide veggies to sell or just adventure to provide veggies for your home.
The difference in how you answer that question makes it difference in how I would tell you to do this.
If just for your home you're overthinking it. You don't need to cover crop. There are so many ways you could address this depends on your equipment and desire to do work.
Sound like the ground has layed fallow for a few years.
Get yourself a walk behind tiller. Plant everything wide enough to get between the rows with the walk behind.
Unless you're using a fabric or a barrier you're going to have weeds just prepare on how you're going to deal with them.
I cultivate a couple times a summer with a tiller. I use an electric plug in but you may opt for gas. A little Mantis tiller can be bought used for about a hundred bucks.
You will have more of the crops you listed then you can eat and give away.
So all you need is a 3-point tiller for the kubota and a small gas or electric tiller to go between rows. All in $1800.
Buy a bag of 45 urea nitrogen for the corn. Don't try to grow corn without it
The difference in how you answer that question makes it difference in how I would tell you to do this.
If just for your home you're overthinking it. You don't need to cover crop. There are so many ways you could address this depends on your equipment and desire to do work.
Sound like the ground has layed fallow for a few years.
Get yourself a walk behind tiller. Plant everything wide enough to get between the rows with the walk behind.
Unless you're using a fabric or a barrier you're going to have weeds just prepare on how you're going to deal with them.
I cultivate a couple times a summer with a tiller. I use an electric plug in but you may opt for gas. A little Mantis tiller can be bought used for about a hundred bucks.
You will have more of the crops you listed then you can eat and give away.
So all you need is a 3-point tiller for the kubota and a small gas or electric tiller to go between rows. All in $1800.
Buy a bag of 45 urea nitrogen for the corn. Don't try to grow corn without it