Need your advice on tillers!

[kubota4me]

I have a country garden approximately 140'x110'. I have a Kubota L4400. I also have an old (1988 vintage) Troybilt Horse tiller. I want to garden by tilling the whole garden, putting newspaper down in the rows planted with straw on top of that to keep weeds down. Then, use a tiller to go up between rows and cultivate, keeping weeds to a minimum between the planted rows. My 4 tiller scenarios are as follows:


1) purchase a tiller for the Kubota to till the whole garden and put money into the Troybilt to use to cultivate between rows.

2) not purchase a tiller for the Kubota and instead purchase an expensive BCS walk behind tractor/tiller to till the whole garden and use to cultivate in addition.

3) purchase a tiller for the Kubota to till entire garden and purchase a new (inferior to the old Troys) Troybilt Big Red tiller to cultivate between rows.

4) purchase a Troybilt Big Red tiller and use it to till the entire garden and cultivate.

I'm leaning towards 1). I'm turning 60 in September and would like to work smarter and not harder. I get enough hard work wrestling trees with my Stihl chainsaw. I also plan on purchased a sub soiler which I believe will be worth it's weight in gold to break up any hard pan resulting from use of a tiller over time. Thanks very much for your comments.

 

[dusty3030]

I use a 6' landpride to till it all. A middle buster to break up hard pan and pull up rows. A compact Honda little 4 stroke lightweight tiller to cultivate between rows. Works good for us.
100' x 30' garden.

 

[sixdogs]

I do the same thing and use option #1. The only issue you will encounter is that a tiller will create a hardpan in the soil that, unless broken with a chisel or ripper, will cause water problems and growth issues for the plants. you have to break the pan with cultivations.

Not sure about the newspaper thing but after the plants have started we sprinkle "Preen" around the plant and also spray generic Roundup to control weeds. Then we till down the center of the rows and plant on a 30" to 36" row center so we have enough room to get the Troybilt in. I rarely have a weed and all the neighbors marvel at our garden so I would say go with option one of a big tractor tiller coupled with an old Troybilt. Works for me.

 

[HEC]

The bcs is one fine machine which you can do other chores with also if needed . I have even seen a small hay bailer being used on one . I use a disc harrow and a spring tooth harrow , a rig to dig up potatoes which the potato farmers use to cultivate between potato rows during their growing period with the B2650 on my garden , which is just a little smaller than yours now . I also have a small mantis tiller for cultivating around some of the plants . The troy bilts are a good machine but in no way compare to the bcs as I have had both in the past . I am getting older now so I try and make things as easy as possible .

 

[Daver1963]

We have a 50 X 110 garden and there is no way I'd use a walk behind tiller trying to get it ready. I use a King Kutter tiller to get it ready then a walk behind to go between the rows. It would kill my back to try and do all that with a walk behind.

 

[Ed of all trades]

We have 3 gardens equal to a 20 by 160 and we till with a 5' KK and don't till again. We plant the pea rows 6" apart and pull a few weeds when we pick, we plant the green beans about 8" apart and do the same. The weeds are shaded out by the plants and they do well. A couple years ago we picked 26 5 gal. buckets from a 20 x 50 patch and we got tired of picking and I tilled in a lot of peas that were ready to pick. We put up almost 300 qt of green beans off of a 20 x 40 pach with just a few of the 300 coming off another patch that the frost got. We wide row everything else and mulch. We have a very good rear tine tiller in the barn that I have not started in 2 years. It works for us. Ed

 

[kubota4me]

Daver1963, that is exactly how I intend on gardening. Life is to short to end up in the post-surgery ward. I've already experienced back surgery once. Don't want to go there again, especially with some vertebrae herniated now. I need to work smarter instead of harder. A guy that is efficient goes by the name of webcajun on YouTube or on the web as The Bayou Gardener.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Plenty of good advice. I just want to point out that a new TroyBilt Big Red at $2500 is not less expensive than a comparable Grillo or BCS.