Tilling and rocks...technique question...

[adegiulio]

I am building a house in Dutchess County, NY...Our soil is basically clay and rocks. Some of the rocks are volleyball size, some are softball sized, and some are shoebox sized. Basically, I have a lot of rocks. Everytime I try to smooth an area with the FEL, I pull up some more. I would eventually like some gardens and food plots. When tilling, what would people recommend to keep my tiller from disintegrating. I haven't bought a tiller yet, but I assume I am in the market for a gear driven model with a clutch. I am nervous that my first time out I will hit a nice big rock and fry the clutch...

Any help would be appreciated, even models that might hold up well in clay and rocks...

Thanks

 

[RonR]

One approach would be to get a scarifier type implement and run it at 4-6" depth making several passes to pull loose all the rocks. Of course, then you have to pick em up......

That's all I know.
Ron

 

[grandad]

Tillers and rocks don't keep good company and you will want to remove as many of the rocks as possible from any area you will be working with a tiller - particularly if you will be going through it every year.

From your description of your rocks, I'm wondering if you wouldn't be better served working the areas with a 3 pt disc harrow or some other implement at least for a few seasons and until you get the rocks under control somewhat. Unfortunately, rocks are like weeds... there always seems to be a new crop, no matter how many you have already removed!

If you do go ahead with the tiller, you will find you get pretty good at lifting the 3pt and releasing the clutch in one quick, seamless motion every time you snag a rock. You probably won't fry the slip clutch, but those rocks sure give the tiller tines and drive mechanism a beating!

 

[mrcaptainbob]

My wife suggests raised beds for the garden. That may not be practical, however. I dug our garden area with the dirt-digger first to unload any of those gremlins. Then I went across it with the tiller. Still got some potato sized ones. We have planty of sand around here, but it's still a rock farm like yours. I'm in south central Michigan and I'm sure the winters aren't as severe as yours, but it's an interesting phenomenon about those rocks. The frost manages to ease them to the surface. We may have cleaned the top course this year, but there's a new crop on the way!

 

[Egon]

Removing the rear flap on the rotatiller may stop some rocks from rebounding and jamming between the tines and the top of the tiller. Also keep several spare tines on hand.

Try and pick a tiller with as much clearance between tines and body as possible.

Can not advise on brand or type.

Attached is picture of rocks mine has located and I've picked . This picture has been posted before.

Egon

 

[jimg]

The advice about scarifying is very good. Get as many rocks that way as possible. That said, no matter how careful you are the tiller is still going to find some (maybe many). So, go slow and make multiple light passes if possible. Be ready to hit the clutch b/c the tiller will find rocks it cant dig out. In this case it will jump around wildly. Oh, also keep a pry bar and shovel handy in you loader bucket. Going slowly helps alot.

 

[RonR]

I haven't built it yet, but plan to take the scarifiers off my box blade and make a five tooth ripper with them. Plan to have some gage wheels to set a an adjustable depth of 4-8" or so. I figure when I till a lot of unknown property, I'll crisscross it several times with the rippers to get below the tiller depth. Should make the tilling much easier and compensate for the time spent ripping.

My two cents.......

ron

 

[nomad]

Rocks are really big. So, I say rent a rock picker first and then buy any tiller. Small size rocks won't be a problem, but yours are of volleyball sizes.

 

[OkieG]

It the scarifiers bring the rocks pretty much to the surface, you may want to try a landscape rake before picking them up by hand, although I don't know if it would work well with rocks as large as yours. Anyway, it's a thought, and might save some on the manual labor.

And, if the scarifiers don't pull up the big rocks, a middlebuster might bring 'em up the surface.

OkieG

 

[Egon]

How does a rock picker work on 50 year old sod ???

How does my B7100 pull a rockpicker???

Not sharp but can count to ten before I'se gota take my shoes off.

Egon

 

[SPIKER]

I got a few big ricks with myu tiller, If tilling in unknown ground then go very slow, and keep a handy foot on the clutch to stop all action... I pulled up soem really big ones, and not broken a tine, (knock on wood!)

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[fishman]

I had a similar problem and ultimately went with raised beds. I did clear out as many of the rocks at grade level that I could. From your discription it sounds like it would be very rough on a tiller.

 

[mrcaptainbob]

My tiller yanked a few 'boulders'....but I'm a piker compared to what you came up with!

 

[Egon]

I've found the large rocks are less problem than the fist sized ones that jam up and break tines.

Egon

 

[Egon]

For a garden area I am going to raised beds. Just building a screen setup to get rid of the rocks.

The rest I'm just trying to get a good clover crop, deer feed, started.

Egon

 

[jimg]

The good news is that eventually the rocks go away mostly. I have older sections of garden that havent produced a 'significant' rock in a couple yrs. I do nonpermanent raised beds. That is, I till and rake up raised rows. It works really well and can be intensively planted. I can't imagine gardening w/o rocks, mosquitos and black flys though. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[scrinch]

I see the attraction of gardening with mosquitos and black flies, but what do you find so enjoyable about the rocks? They just sit there, don't they? Unfortunately we have none of those in our garden in California. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif But we do have legions of gophers to thin the carrots and keep us from getting too smug about how well the garden is going this year! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[nomad]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I've found the large rocks are less problem than the fist sized ones that jam up and break tines.
)</font>

That's not why you aren't breaking the tines because of the large rocks. Large rocks can be considered as objects at "human scale", a scale human can't consider it "invisible" easily. (human scale here is a my own philosophical term here, btw.) If I am to express what I mean here with simple words;.. you open your eyes big when you see such "non-ignorable" rocks and you get careful and drive your tiller slower. This isn't so with smaller size rocks. You think there is nothing and you make your tractor smoke as much as it can by driving fast. - By the way, the rocks in a farming field aren't always bad. They are utilitarian natural objects in aerating the soil naturally by making the soil a porous medium.

 

[Egon]

Last time I looked at those rocks they didn't show any signs of permeability or porosity.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.

Egon

 

[nomad]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Last time I looked at those rocks they didn't show any signs of permeability or porosity.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.

Egon )</font>

The rocks themselves aren't porous/permeable of course, but their vicinity in the soil is an empty (no soil) medium and due to this configuration of soil+rock mixture, such a field can be considered as porous medium.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.?? Well, the soil isn't a paper and tiller tines aren't a printer tines. Small rock jams won't apply any dangerous force onto the tiller tines. There is spaces between these small rocks jammed and these spaces will make small rock jams less dangerous than large rocks which don't have soft space in it. The only reason you break your tines in a field with small rocks is because you drive fast because you ignore small rocks.