Need plowing advice

[jcline]

Hello,I am still fairly new to this site but have so far found it to be super helpful with anything I have ran across as a first time tractor owner.This time I have a question that some may think is the stupidest thing they have ever heard but I am asking because I dont know! I have started working a one acre peice of land hoping to get it ready to plant next spring with a vegetable garden,I have a compact 20 horse tractor so limited to smaller implements.I have worked this soil with a box blade with scraper points,and a tiller trying to cut it up and get out all the roots but of course it dont work real well with the tiller because all it does is wind up roots and bog after a pass.what I am wondering is whether or not my best bet may be either cutting disc or a one bottom plow to do this plowing.I started to buy a one bottom plow just to see what kind of job it done but didnt want to spend the money just to have another peice of equipment in the barn that I could not use.any advice would be appreciated.

 

[kwolfe]

I would think that using a plow would simply make a real lumpy mess. I am doing to same thing you are only with about 1/3 acre. I put the rippers down and ripped up all of the vegetation. I then pushed it into piles and used the FEL to dump it in the back pile. What was left was a nice dirt surface to work with.

The other option is to spray a brush killer, wait a couple of weeks and then do it again. This should kill everything on the service. Then till it once it is dry.

 

[randy41]

a plow would work real good but you would need a disk to follow with to break up the soil...then you could till. it would take you quite a while to plow up an acre with a single 12" plow though.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't have a bottom plow, so I can't address what it would do. I do have a 35hp CUT and a 5 foot disk with red clay for soil. I've found that the disk will do an amazing job of working the soil into a fine powder if you stick with it.

At first, it doesn nothing but scratch the surface, but then after some time, it starts to break up the ground and realy cut it up. For an acre sized food plot, I spent a full day disking it. I put a pillow on my seat to save my butt and a pair of headphones to save my sanity. Then it's just a matter of sticking with it until it's done.

Some roots will get cut up, but most will just come to the surface. I have a rake that does great for cleaning up a big mess, but on small stuff like roots and small twigs, it's not very practical. I can pick those out by hand faster than trying to drag them with the rake.

Once I get it disked real nice, I like to drag a log with soem cycone fence wraped around it behind my tractor. It really smoothes it out real nice.

Before I bought my disk, I tried the teeth on my box blade with very poor results. After a few passes, they would break up the ground, but they never did anything to break up the large dirt clods that they made. The dirt clods would just go between the teeth every time I tried to get them. It didn't matter which direction I was going, they just wouldn't break up.

The disk was faster and better, but it's still a long process if you have hard clay to work with.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Egon]

Go for a rotatiller.

 

[wushaw]

I do as Eddie does... I use a disk and the small roots get cut,(It won't touch anything over 1/2" dia. it just rolls over them.
Can you use your BB rippers to just dragg the roots out of the plot and go back to using the tiller?

 

[Mike120]

Considering that you will likely only need to disk it once, you should probably try to find someone to do it for you with a notched disk to chop up the roots. Your tractor won't pull a heavy disk, and that will be cheaper than buying one. After it's been disked, you could run a cheap subsoiler through it to bring the roots up. After you get it cleaned out, your tiller should be all you need.

 

[Slamfire]

I'm assumin' the ground has lain fallow for several years. I like to use a moldboard plow on ground like that just once, to teach it to be worked. After the initial plowing a disc will do a fine job for subseqent years. Look around and see if you can find a used one, but even then sticker shock will set in. A 20 hp tractor will pull a pair of bottoms, my Dad's Ford 8N did it every year on 40 acres. Tillin' powders up the soil around here until it is too fine, theres no air in it, and come a rain, it turns to concrete.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I'm assumin' the ground has lain fallow for several years. I like to use a moldboard plow on ground like that just once, to teach it to be worked. After the initial plowing a disc will do a fine job for subseqent years. Look around and see if you can find a used one, but even then sticker shock will set in. A 20 hp tractor will pull a pair of bottoms, my Dad's Ford 8N did it every year on 40 acres. Tillin' powders up the soil around here until it is too fine, theres no air in it, and come a rain, it turns to concrete.

I agree 100% with everything EXCEPT the 20hp compact pulling a 2-bottom plow. That would be a real load at best. Too much more'n likely. Older utility tractors (like the Ford N) had more built in weight, draft control, and plows that were built specifically for that model tractor. Most 20hp compacts don't have draft control. If it was mentioned what sort of tractor the original poster has, I missed it. An important part of making a plow work right is speed. It's better to go small on a plow and be able to maintain good ground speed when plowing. Most plows made in the last 50 or 60 years need 3-1/2mph MINIMUM and work BEST at around 5mph.

 

[jcline]

Thanks, after reading all of your replys on this I think I will just go ahead and get myself a plow and a set of disc because I am sure this is not the only acre I will be doing,the ground is very soft and fertile just full of roots and it has never been worked as far as I know.my tractor is only a 20 H.P. so I definately have to stick with the smaller implements.thanks for all your help and I will let you know how it goes.