HELP....I hate t0 hoe!

   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #1  

crewguy

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Sep 7, 2008
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I need advise on buying a tiller w/attachments. I planted a garden this year, for the first time. I used a Merry tiller w/ plow to set the rows. I made them too close together and really don't have time to hoe the garden. On top of that the Merry tiller motor gave up the ghost. Needless to say grass has taken over most of the garden.

I want to buy a tiller w/ attachments that I can use, instead of a hoe, to work the garden. A front tine tiller will beat you to death if the ground is hard. Can you buy a rear tine tiller that has attachments (plows)? Which attachments do I need?

Building rows is important also. How do most people " lay the rows off"? I have a Ford 3000 but no planters.

If I bought a 2-row planter:
Would the width be suitable for tiller use?
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #2  
At least some of the Troy bilt rear tine tillers have an optional plow/furrower attachment. I use one to lay off my rows and to make raised rows.

Can't say if other brands have this or not.
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #3  
This may be of some interest to you, perhaps not. If not, just disregard.:laughing:

I market garden. I plow with a middle buster. I drag it with my KK field cultivator. It works very well as a spring tooth drag, as well as a one row cultivator. Frankly, the soil is good for most plants, but if I want to pulverize, I run my old trusty front tine walk behind tiller up the row. It's easy, because the ground is well worked.

I cultivate with the Kubota and KK field cultivator, but those rows have to be 42" spaced. If I put in a few narrower rows, I just walk the front tine down those rows to clean them up.

I do my rows the old fashioned way, stakes and masons or brick-layer's string. Straight as an arrow. Hope that give you some ideas. There is no single way to skin the cat. Lot's of choices.
 
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   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #4  
Since you have a tractor, you could get a cultivator frame and add hilling discs to it like post 14 in this thread: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/135965-planting-taters-2.html

I posted a picture of a homemade furrower/hiller than OldMech made later in the same thread.

Or a middle buster/potato plow will lay off rows, but won't create hills.

If your tiller uses a horizontal shaft engine, the HF catalog has their 6.5 HP lifan engine in it for $99 right now.

Straw mulch is great for keeping weeds down and not having to till anything.
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #5  
I cultivate with the Kubota and KK field cultivator

I used to use a cultivator from TSC just like the one in your last picture. But I bought 6" sweeps and replaced the points with them.
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #6  
I used to use a cultivator from TSC just like the one in your last picture. But I bought 6" sweeps and replaced the points with them.

Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #7  
Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.

What exactly does a cultivator do?
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #8  
What exactly does a cultivator do?

Well, it weeds, that is it cleans up the rows. Usually I can get at least two passes in before the plant is too tall to pass over it.

You can work compost or fertilizer in, if you dress when the plants are 6" tall, for example. While I don't plant corn anymore, in the old days we grew a lot of it. You cannot put down enough fertilizer before planting to make corn. You must follow up at 10" tall with additional side dressing of N.

If you have soil compaction problems, the cultivation allows for the soils to breathe again. Very important. Weed, Feed, Breathe= Cultivator.
 
   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #9  
Bird, I have contemplated that. Saw them at a Rural King or FleetFarm for very affordable, $7??? I thought I might try some V type and a half V. Thought the half V might help from throwing dirt on smaller plants.

As a matter of fact, I did use the half Vs on the two inside springs for the very reason you stated. I guess the only picture I have of it was from too far off and with it turned the wrong way and other stuff in the way.:laughing: And I got them, too, from TSC.
 

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   / HELP....I hate t0 hoe! #10  
Bird, nice shop!!!

Well, this "modern" rear cultivation doesn't hold a candle to the old days when you drove a Farmall or Massey Pony and just looked down at your feet. Now THAT was great. I miss that and wish someone would come up with a similar cultivator for a B model Kubota. I would flat out jump at that!!!!!
 
 
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