To till or not to till on small vegetable farm?

   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #1  

cornisland99

New member
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
Messages
8
Location
jackson ms
Tractor
mahindra 4025
So I hear all of these row crop farmers preaching about the no till way of farming. Its cheaper and better for soil. I am not even sure what no till is considering in my area not sure how that would even be possible with our weeds. Can someone tell me if or how it could be beneficial to a small 20 acre vegetable farm in central Mississippi area? I am open just can't seem to figure out how to grow veg crops without tilling. Thanks
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #2  
I know there is some hybrids of Roundup Ready Sweet Corn, but, that's about it.

I don't know if you dabble any on Facebook, but there are a couple great groups on there, of market gardeners. A couple are farming nearly as much as you do, using conventional tillage with larger equipment, but fighting the weed problem with small two wheel garden tractors, from the 40's, and 50's. They are using finger weeder type, modified cultivators, to virtually eliminating hoeing around plants. And other set ups with sweeps & various shovels to clean up between rows. Many vegetables are grown in a little as 15" row spacing, and saw someone experimenting with 12" rows last week. I got invited to join the group by one of the moderators, because I built several different modified cultivators for my tractors. But, we've been using David Bradley two wheel tractors in large gardens since the 50's, and my grandfather even before that. Most of the group use the Planet Jr. tractors, because of the easy modification of the cultivators, or building your own. And there are others using the David Bradley's, and other brands too.

Like I said, I don't know if you do Facebook, but I think you would find the "Gardening for Market", and "Planet Jr. Farming" pages interesting, if not entertaining. There are a few that use the Farmall Super A, and Allis G's, modified with finger weeder wheels, and basket weeders but do use the two wheel tractors in other crops. There are getting to be some pretty wild set ups with multiple row Planet Jr. planters, for seeding, and one fellow up in New York State has an onion set transplanter. It's pretty cool seeing these old seeders, tractor and such, brought back into the industry, as a way to cut labor costs. If you get a chance, C'mon over, and check it out. You'd fit right in..!!
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks I will find and join the groups.
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #4  
No Till may be best for established agricultural fields in drier areas and involve grain type crops. .??
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #6  
One of the fellows in the group, built a mini version to go behind one of the larger H series Planet Jr. 2-wheelers. Works great..!!
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #7  
Too bad so much old iron disappeared in the scrapping craze.
Jim
 
   / To till or not to till on small vegetable farm? #8  
I try not to till deep unless I'm tilling in some crop residue, weeds or mulch. To just cultivate I try to keep the tiller at the max of 3 inches deep. I've gardened that way for years and all the damage I read about hasn't happened and in fact my soil is better and richer than ever. I think some folks just till too much too deep without adding anything to the soil. My Kuhn tiller is great and tills right around ten inches deep and that is how deep my topsoil is. Under that it is still good soil and no hardpan that I can find. I plant rye grass each fall and turn it under deep in the spring. If you can get some fall leaves in the garden too. This year was a bumper crop of everything.....been gardening these spots for 20 years.
 
 

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