A harrowing decision

[looch]

I know, I know - what a stinker/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif. I just couldn't resist.

I searched previous posts for 'disc harrow' and didn't find the information I was looking for, so I'm posting this.

I have a B7500 and a single bottom plow. I have about 2.5 acres of land that hasn't been touched for at least 20 years. I can pull the plow with no problem, even with my turf tires. Now I need something that will bust everything up. I tried my tiller, but that didn't work very well (jammed with weeds and small roots). I was thinking about a small disc harrow. A few things come to mind:

How large of a unit will my tractor handle?
Do they make them that small?
Can I buy an old, second hand disc harrow and remove some of the discs (thereby narrowing it)?

Another thought occured to me - what about a box blade? Anyone ever use one to break up the sod after plowing (tines all the way down and tilted way forward)? I don't own one of these and in the long run I think I would get more use out of it than a disc harrow.

Please don't tell me how well my tiller should work for doing this - believe me, I've tried.

Perhaps a short run down of my soil conditions:
-As I mentioned, fallow.
-Notoriously sticky* St-Lawrence River Valley clay (*when wet - hard as rock when dry)
-No rocks to speak of.

Thanks,

 

[ronjhall]

Paul
If you had purchased a Reverse Rotation Tiller it might have chopped up the roots and weeds./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Seriously, the size and weight of a disk that you can put on your 3 PH may limit your ability to cut up the sod and roots. A search for "disk" will bring up a lot information that was recently discussed about them. I had an old pull behind Disk that I used for many years. Gave it to my neighbor. He is still using it. I think it does a better job than my 6' 3 PH King Kutter.

 

[Egon]

Chances are renting a rotatiller would be you best bet.
Egon

 

[cowboydoc]

Paul,
You need a good heavy disc to smooth that ground out. Probably be too big for your tractor to pull one that would do alot of good. There have been a few discussions on this if you do a search. If you have any farmers around there I would ask them to do it for you the first time.

 

[RobS]

Do you know anyone with a disc you could borrow Paul? That would let you give it a shot without much investment (maybe a couple of beers /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif). If you use a typical farm store lightweight model, you may have to add quite a bit of weight (concrete blocks, iron?) to get it to cut well. Like anything else with our compacts, you can probably get it done, it just may take a while. The moisture content of your soil will be a big factor. I borrowed a disc and the first time I tried it the soil was very dry. The blades just bounced along the surface. After some rain, I got a nice, deep cut. Worked very well for me though my soil is quite sandy.

If you can't swing a disc you might be best off hiring a local farmer as Richard recommended. Good luck /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[looch]

Thanks for the info, guys.

Most of the people I have queried recommend having a farmer do it for me. Two things bug me about doing that:

1) I want to do it myself (my wife will kill me if I start subbing out work after buying this tractor!). Time isn't an issue, it's only 2.5 acres. If it takes me 2 weekends, so be it.

2) My property has many small trees (white oak saplings) that I want to keep. I really don't want to ask a farmer not only to take time from his schedule to disk my property, but also "Please don't take out any trees, be careful near the fence and don't do that area over there, etc., etc."

I think if I plow before winter, then let the old heave-ho action of the frost take its course, disking in the spring won't be that big of a deal. Anyhow, I'll do a search using "disk" like Ron H. suggested and see if that answers some of my questions.

Thanks again,

 

[bgott]

You forgot 3). Not wanting to deal with the smirks and cracks about how you should have bought a real tractor!

 

[DDT]

Paul,
If you plow this fall and let it lay till spring a disc should work very well if moisture content is about right. I have a 5' IH disc that I readjusted for more angle, this made a big difference in depth, it will suck itself into the ground. In hard ground it still requires two trips.
DDT

 

[fishman]

Pbenven,

I used my 5' box blade just the way you mentioned it to break up my garden yesterday. Not the most ideal tool, but it does work fairly well. Previously I had used it in some soft alluvial soil that had 3' cockleburs all over it. After about 4 passes it looked pretty good. If plowed beforehand, probably 3 passes would get it.

It would probably have problems accumulating roots and long stems on the ripper teeth, whereas a disk would not.

I don't have a very fancy box blade, just a $288 wonder, but it is very useful. You ought to get you one anyway.

 

[TerryinMD]

Paul,

Question - Did you till immediately after you plowed?

If you did, that was probably a bit of a mistake. IMHO, it would have been better to let the turned soil sit for a few weeks prior to tilling. This would allow for the grass and weeds to compost a bit prior to tilling.

Second question - Did you cut the weeds/grass prior to plowing?

That would have made the immediate tilling a little easier.

Terry