My old butt ain’t wrestling a walk behind tiller when I have a perfectly good 3 point hitch tiller to use!
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Bobby, I think you have sandy soil from what I remember from other posts in the past... Get that 3 pt. tiller and set it so it tills as deep as it can. Run in low gear and go slow. Till that ground one direction, then till it cross wise. Do it as soon as you can. Then before you plant, till it again and put the tiller on the higher speed (usually 580 RPM) and run your tractor slow to get a fine till. From that point on, you can use a walk behind, but with the soil you have, you can get you a Hoss Tools double wheel hoe and make your rows, plant then turn your furrowing plows around and they will cover the row for you... If you don't have a lot of tree roots in the ground (you said the trees were gone), then you'll be ready to plant... If you have roots, till as much as you can to chop them up as best you can and pull out the roots and any rocks and such... In the past, I used a bedder to make my rows and that works great, but now I have all but one of my plots amended so that it is good enough I can use the wheel hoe to make my rows... I use drip tape irrigation and make a furrow and bury the drip tape in it, then I plant on top of the drip tape... I water and fertilize directly to the roots of the plants... It works great and once set up is WAY easier than trying to work above ground with the plants!
FYI, here's what my tilled ground looks like after I run the bedder over it. It's ready to plant...
To get to this point, I do it all with the tractor... Once everything is planted, I use a FRONT tine tiller to weed between the rows. Use a push-pull hoe between the plants... I have a Troy-Bilt front tine tiller that is specifically intended for weeding. It has discs on the outboard sides of the tines that keeps plants pushed away from the tine blades so you can get right up next to the plants without damaging them. That makes weeding minimal with the hoe... I have a cultivator that I use to hill the potatoes and corn and also weed control when the plants are small (about 18" and less). Once they get big, only use the tiller...
One thing you can do in the Fall for next year that will greatly help you with weed control is get silage tarps and after you take out your garden, till it up good, make your soil amendments for next year, compost, etc. till that all in, them cover the plot with the silage tarp. They're black, and what happens is seeds in the garden plot will germinate because the black tarp helps heat the soil, but being black, there's no light that gets to the seeds so they germinate, sprout and die... The next season, you start with almost no weeds, then you must practice things that helps you keep the "seed bank" low in your garden plots... do things that help prevent seeds from entering the plot... like not mowing where the cuttings can blow into the garden, use clean compost and mulch if you mulch... stuff that has no seeds in it... That's what we did this year. I'm having to let the plots dry out some because of all the rain, but there are zero weeds in any of the plots I had covered...
Our ground gets a little better each year...
Last year of course because of all the rain early, we did a bag garden and that's what we are doing this year too... Only things we are planting in the ground are corn, peas, some okra and some beans... most everything else will be in bags...Comment
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Good info. Not much budget for implements and drip irrigation this year. Mainly experiment with our soil, mushroom mulch. And rabbit poop.
I'll still have my self wicking tubs and hydroponic barrels for some stuff.
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I have spent way more hours tilling than I care to admit. 22hp 3pt PTO tiller, 8 hp self propelled rear tine, 5hp front tine, and the little Stihl front tine with a weedeater motor on it.
The best results came from using a chisel/spring harrow behind the tractor (wheelie machine) to break up the crust and subsoil, then doing it on a 45 degree angle, then tilling in peat moss. You likely don't have the black concrete soil that we do, so you could probably start with the tiller.
The rear tine was a fine machine, and you could reach the same end result as the PTO tiller, it just took longer, took a lot more manhandling, and wasn't nearly as fun.
Front tine 5hp tiller should have been taken apart and used to power an ice cream freezer, or rotisserie for a whole beef cooker. Most worthless POS ever invented.
The little weekeater motored tiller with wheels is a wicked little dude for tight spots, and flower beds. I think you'd really like it for weeding purposes.Comment
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Dale, looks like a BOT trying to pedal his wares has resurrected Chew's old thread... But your assessment is spot on... Except I have a front tine Troy Bilt that was designed specifically for weeding the middles of my rows and it's perfect for that. (and that only)! It has flat discs on the outermost ends of the rotor tines that pushes the plants back so they don't get grabbed by the tines. I can get right up next to the plants and root our weeds n grass.
However my latest toy is THE garden tool to have. It's a Grillo 2-wheel tractor and implements... That sucker will break ground into powder on a single pass just like my 72" tiller on my John Deere. It just does it 30" at a time... I'll only be using my tractor now for breaking larger plots initially. The rest will be done with this Grillo!! Wish I'd got this thing day one!!
I have a tiller, cultivator tool bar with various plows and tines, a PTO trencher, and there's even a trailer for it so I an sit my lazy arse on the trailer and drag it around with the tractor!!Comment
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If I'm doing it I'm using the tractor, if she is doing it and wants a tiller then I'd get the tiller.
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It wasn’t Dale, Charlie. LeeKhan joined today and resurrected this old thread..Comment
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Stupid bots!Comment
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do YOU want to do work.....or do you want the tractor to do work...Comment
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For the first time tilling use the 3 point. After the soil has some compost it will be lose enough you can use a rear tine after that.Comment
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Good thread though...Comment
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Charlie, it sounds like you know more about gardening than any of us, you need to just make a little trip down there and fix up Bobby’s garden next year. You could swing by my place on the way back !
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Me n Bobby goes WAY back…
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