Questions for anyone who has grown vegetables in plastic

[jsconner1]

Hey everybody!

I have spent the last 3 years or so trying different things with growing vegetables in plastic to see what works and doesn't work. I have some ideas for next year, but thought I would put them out there to see if they did/didn't work for anyone else.

1. I learned that if you don't use a tiller on the soil (at least in the clay of Indiana) then you end up with lots of lumps and your plastic doesn't lay smooth. That being said I am looking to try raising the beds with a new plastic layer next year and I am wondering how wide of a swath I need to till to form the bed and lay the plastic. I.E. If I have 3' plastic (that ends up giving a 2' wide bed by the time I bury it on either side) would a 4' tiller give me enough loose dirt?

I imagine that a 3' tiller would not leave me enough margin, but I haven't tried it.

2. I'm looking for a tractor to run my water wheel transplanter. My AC 185 doesn't go slow enough. Throttled all the way down it is just a bit over 1 mile an hour. We mostly set hot peppers and I do 16-18" spacing. I have seen a lot of people say they have had success with either a MF 180 or 245. Unfortunately those are almost impossible to find where I am at. Has anyone tried it with a D17? There are plenty of those around and I have lots of experience with Allises. My dad had a 185, a C, and a D19.

I also have a line on a MF 175. I would assume it would be in the same speed range as a 180, but tractor data doesn't show any speed data for it. Anyone have any idea?

Ideally, I want something that will get down around 0.75 miles an hour, but anything under 1 mph should be workable.

Thanks for the help.

 

[la870]

Lsconnner1
To plant vegs on plastic I would suggest that you disk/till ground flat and smooth with whatever size tiller you have. Next I would broadcast any fertilize that you would use. Then take a hipper disk to make about 2 ft wide rows. Run blade of hipper disk in last furrow thus making about 18" middle. This will throw all fertilize to top of row. The plastic layer machine has a bed former to make about 2 ft wide by 6" high bed/row. You will need
4 ft wide plastic. Also most plastic layer machines have a spool to put drip line/tape
Under plastic at the same time you lay plastic. Hope this helps. m

 

[TnAndy]

You growing commercially, or for personal use ?


Nolt's Supply in PA sells a lot of row stuff at great prices (I buy my greenhouse plastic there....he beats most places by 30-40%). He sells a nice raised bed, mulching, drip tape machine:

Home

Online presence is kinda clunky, you have to down load the catalog in PDF format, but his prices make it worth the effort.