Tiller Tiller Setup

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>...This turns the green manures again to distribute them some more.</font color=blue>

Terry, sorry to be dumb about this.. but by green manures are you referring to the composting grass and weeds? I never heard that term before.

 

[TerryinMD]

Yes, green manures are typically plantings of different cover crops that get turned under in the spring (can be used other times too). We've used barley, winter rye, and oats. The key is to get them tilled or turned under before they go to seed. There are many other cover crops which can be purchased from catalogs or local seed suppliers. They're purpose is two fold. First, cover crops prevent soil runoff during the winter. Two, provide nutrients and humus to your soil once decomposed. There is a wealth of information available on the web. Use you favortie search engine and use either "green manure" or "cover crop" as the key words.

Terry

 

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>...Yes, green manures are typically plantings of different cover crops that get turned under in the spring (can be used other times too). We've used barley, winter rye, and oats.</font color=blue>

Thanks, Terry! I've heard of doing this, and in fact planned to do it. Just never heard it called that before. We'll have two gardens, which we rotate every year. One will be the working garden, the other will be planted and tilled as you describe.

At least that's the plan at the moment.. subject to change as I learn what the heck I'm doing. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[TerryinMD]

Bob,

By using cover crops, you can use BOTH each year. Instead of rotating beds, you rotate the crops. We try NEVER to plant the same crop in the same area. We have 4 crop beds. The first has been increased to around 5000 sq ft, two are around 500 sq ft, and the last is about 1500 sq ft.

The reason you move your crops around is to minimize the possibility of plant disease reoccuring and to keep the insect population somewhat in check.

Go to a used book store and get some organic crop publications or get them from you library. There is a lot of information available to help you in growing good healthy crops. We hardly use any insecticides in our garden. The same goes with herbicides or chemical fertilizers. The only time we resort to using any of those products is if the problem is persistant and impossible to control.

Hope this helps....

Terry

 

[theboman]

The spot tilled was an old garden but the past 2 years mowed like the rest of the yard. I did find out that the grass there was mostly some fesque that my brother had spead over the area.

It had rained tons the days prior to the tilling, and either this evening or later in the week I'm tilling again.

 

[Chuck52]

About the only complaint I have so far with my KK tiller is the depth adjustment. There's an adjustment bolt, with five positions, and a pivot bolt, on each skid shoe. The nuts are not all that easy to get hold of, and the pivot bolts were both painted/rusted to the frame so that I had to break them loose to get the shoes to pivot. After I got the pivot freed up, I thought about replacing the adjustment bolt with a short hitch pin and keeper. However, the fit of the shoe to the frame is a bit loose and the bolt is required to pull the two together. I even have to use my big old C clamp to pull them together on one side to make putting the bolt in easier. Besides, I bet I'd lose those pins pretty often. So, I guess I'll use it as designed and just get better at working the bolts...and keep my clamp handy.

Chuck

 

[blurrybill]

Chuck,

In spite of the problem, do you think the KK tiller was a good value compared with LandPride or others? There is a dealer in my town and I'm thinking of going in that direction. Others with opinions, please chime in.

Bill

 

[fractal]

I don't claim to be an expert in this but I don't think I would like to try to adjust the feet on my tiller either. I bought mine used and I don't think anyone has ever adjusted them. The guy I bought it from put a coat of paint over the rust that locked them up good and tight. I "think" the feet on the tillers are adjustable for people who want to use them as cultivators (shallow tilling just to kill weeds) as opposed to ground turning implements. I too just went slow when the ground was broken and even slower when the ground was not. Just set the tach to 2500 and feather the hydro. I can see how a pass with the rippers on the box at max depth (or a middle buster if I had one) would have made the initial till a LOT easier, but they say it would have brought up even more of those long dormant weed seeds..

I did a green manuer crop last year. It was semi sucessful. Put a bunch of bio matter back in the soil so I guess it did its job. Soil test came back good this year in everything except for the ph being a bit high so guess I did something right.

 

[Bird]

I'm a bit puzzled by this. My Bush Hog tiller also has the 5 hole adjustment (have to take that bolt out), then there's a "pivot" bolt on the front of each skid, and another "pivot" bolt at the rear of the skid or shoe. I just have to loosen those two. The brochure I have for the King Kutter "looks" almost the same, and it would appear that you just have to remove one bolt, loosen the other two, then after the bolt that was removed is put back in the desired hole, tighten all three. What am I missing here?

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

Each foot of my KK tiller has two bolts. One is in the rear, and is the adjusting bolt, with five holes. The other one is towards the front and is the pivot bolt. So, to adjust the depth using these skid shoes or feet, I have to remove the two rear bolts, pivot up or down on the front bolts, and then put the rear bolts back in the selected holes. Are the feet/shoes on your tiller tied together so you only have one adjusting bolt?

This adjustment really isn't all that difficult, though a single central adjustment would probably be easier. I got the pivot bolts loosened up without too much trouble, and if I prop up the flap on the back of the tiller I can reach the adjusting bolt nuts fairly easily. I can see that if you didn't adjust these things every year and just tilled with them always at the maximum depth they'd probably get rusted solid. And as others have said, you could probably do that, especially if you are only tilling an existing garden spot. The tiller came with the bolts in the middle position of five, and that seems to be a good setting for breaking new sod, at least on my place.

I have no way to compare this tiller with other brands. The only other tiller I've ever used was a TroyBilt walk behind. That thing nearly ended my interest in gardening last year when I used it to break up freshly plowed ground in the garden. I felt like the tail of a happy dog as I was flung around behind that thing. My KK tiller lets me till the garden in minutes; has reduced lots of deep ruts to smooth surfaces; tilled up a 5x200 foot strip of new sod so I could put in a road screen of hazelnut shrubs in about five passes. And I plan to use it to smooth out the new lawn area around some additions to the house if these guys ever finish up and leave. So, it's been worth the $1,100 I paid for it to me. Sure seems solid. Aside from easier depth adjustment, I don't know what else I could ask for. I've seen a number of comments in other threads about how heavy it is and how it might be too much tiller for this or that tractor. I can lift it and use it with my L210, regardless of whatever the rated hp is.

Chuck