IslandTractor
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2005
- Messages
- 17,101
- Location
- Prudence Island, RI
- Tractor
- 2007 Kioti DK40se HST, Woods BH
I have a question regarding tilling in Spring or Fall. Background info: I don't have much experience with tilling having just purchased one (6ft KKII) in April and have used it only in May/June and then again today (Oct). I should point out that I am tilling an old field which was once overgrown with wild grape and has not been tilled or plowed, just mowed, for the past 10-20 years.
This Spring was wet and I waited until late May/early June to till a plot to be used for corn. As noted there are old dead (presumably) wild grape roots in the field. A lot of them. During my Spring tilling I had to stop to remove the roots wrapped around the tiller every few minutes or after about 250ft of tilling, even on second passes through the area. Major PITA. Took hours to till a quarter acre plot. I tilled again today in an area directly adjacent to the corn field and was able to till to my hearts delight without ever needing to stop to remove grape roots.
I imagine that the reason was that the roots were wet and flexible in the Spring and therefore did not fracture when hit by the tiller but instead were sucked like pasta into the tiller creating a mess. At the end of the summer (fairly dry but hardly a drought year) the grape roots appear to be more brittle and the tiller seems to just split them into 3 inch pieces rather than wind them up. Maybe it is not the grape roots that are more brittle but that the ground is dry vs quite wet in the spring and that the dry ground holds the roots so the tiller can cut them while in the wet ground the roots can just be sucked out of the soil whole.
Two questions: Has anyone else noted this phenomenon? If I till in the Fall should I retill the same area in the Spring before planting (more corn)?
This Spring was wet and I waited until late May/early June to till a plot to be used for corn. As noted there are old dead (presumably) wild grape roots in the field. A lot of them. During my Spring tilling I had to stop to remove the roots wrapped around the tiller every few minutes or after about 250ft of tilling, even on second passes through the area. Major PITA. Took hours to till a quarter acre plot. I tilled again today in an area directly adjacent to the corn field and was able to till to my hearts delight without ever needing to stop to remove grape roots.
I imagine that the reason was that the roots were wet and flexible in the Spring and therefore did not fracture when hit by the tiller but instead were sucked like pasta into the tiller creating a mess. At the end of the summer (fairly dry but hardly a drought year) the grape roots appear to be more brittle and the tiller seems to just split them into 3 inch pieces rather than wind them up. Maybe it is not the grape roots that are more brittle but that the ground is dry vs quite wet in the spring and that the dry ground holds the roots so the tiller can cut them while in the wet ground the roots can just be sucked out of the soil whole.
Two questions: Has anyone else noted this phenomenon? If I till in the Fall should I retill the same area in the Spring before planting (more corn)?