jenkinsph
Super Star Member
I have noticed that lots of people assume that tilling the ground in a garden want to pulverize the soil thinking it will be easier for them to work with long term. I have not found this to be the case, if it is pulverized and then wet down it packs down very hard during the growing season. Better to leave some clumps and retain more of the soil structure which will make the ground easier to work with garden tools.
I had a 60" Howard tiller HR4 that I bought for my prior Deere 820 (31 pto hp.) and hooked it up to my x749 mower/garden tractor. It could lift the tiller and operate it but not at a fast enough travel speed to till properly. I tried it a couple of times in some tight spaces but quit using it because I was pulverizing the soil.
On hard ground that has not been worked in many years I make a first pass with a tiller at about 1 mph. A second pass perpendicular to the first at !.5 to 1.8 mph that will usually get me down to about 7 or 8 inches with my 72" tiller and 60 hp. tractor. On larger jobs I run an S tine cultivator first then use the tiller at the 1.5 to 2 mph travel speeds. If I could keep the tiller in the ground I would travel faster maybe 2.5 mph.
The point being that crawling along at low travel speeds does not give good results and can damage the soil structure. Easily done with a small tractor and too large of a tiller.
I had a 60" Howard tiller HR4 that I bought for my prior Deere 820 (31 pto hp.) and hooked it up to my x749 mower/garden tractor. It could lift the tiller and operate it but not at a fast enough travel speed to till properly. I tried it a couple of times in some tight spaces but quit using it because I was pulverizing the soil.
On hard ground that has not been worked in many years I make a first pass with a tiller at about 1 mph. A second pass perpendicular to the first at !.5 to 1.8 mph that will usually get me down to about 7 or 8 inches with my 72" tiller and 60 hp. tractor. On larger jobs I run an S tine cultivator first then use the tiller at the 1.5 to 2 mph travel speeds. If I could keep the tiller in the ground I would travel faster maybe 2.5 mph.
The point being that crawling along at low travel speeds does not give good results and can damage the soil structure. Easily done with a small tractor and too large of a tiller.