Maybe I Don't Need a Plow

[SouthernX]

I've made several posts asking questions about plows in the last day or so as I'm thinking of getting a Leinbach moldboard plow. But after more thought maybe what I need isn't a plow at all. Or, at least maybe not a moldboard plow. What I am wanting to do is break up (virgin) ground to be followed by passes with a rototiller. I want to "plow" before rototilling so I can pull-up as much rock and junk to the surface as possible and then rock-rake or hand pick the rocks and junk. So, would a moldboard plow be good for what I am wanting or should I be thinking about something else? Chisel plow? Middlebuster?

I don't want to just stick the rototiller to the ground and start "tilling". I live in Arkansas and we have an incredible amount of rock in the ground. I've put a tiller to "virgin" ground here before and it just hammers the rototiller.

 

[TORQUIN]

Been there, done that. Just go with the tiller, but SLOW. In my area I hire myself out to till gardens, and I never know what's under the ground when I go out, especially when when it is a new garden. My method, to not break tines, is to go very slowly through for the first two passes. My PTO speed is about 275-285. If I do it this way I find the rocks or whatever, and while the tiller makes a heck of a noise and jumps around, I do not break tines. I was tilling a new section two days ago for a customer and found rocks 2/3 the size of a bowling ball in the dirt, but no broken tines.
Once you have reasonably found the rocks and picked them out, you can speed up, otherwise, just make more passes at slow speed and you'll end up with the same result.
In my own garden I tried tilling it and then pulling a rake through it. Just didn't work. The dirt was gathered too much by the rake so if there were rocks in there I couldn't even tell, then I had to grade out the graden because of all the dirt I had pulled to the end. It was easier to just till it slow. It is also helpful if you have a helper who can follow you and pick out that rock when they see the tiller jump. I call it rock duty.

Chris

 

[Reg]

I have same/similar thoughts and wants/needs.
I already have a 6ft tiller and have tilled a few unknown garden spots for neighbors.
Yes, very slowly works and it doesn't break tines.
It is probably faster overall than plowing and then tilling.
Big enough rocks that come up and around jam the tiller and stall the tractor at low revs.
A 4ft 2 by 4 frees the jam when used as a lever to turn the tine drum back.

I have commented in other threads that a reversible plow would be a nice_to_have to avoid weird plowing patterns.
Even then the whole top 6 to 8 inches of the field gets moved a foot or so uphill, or outwards from the center.

Something else I have done is to allow the tiller to more easily follow the ground that it is on instead of trying to make it follow the ground that the tractor's rear wheels are on, i.e. I have replaced the side lift links with chains.
This seems (subjectively) to allow one side of the tiller to kick up when it hits rocks instead of making the whole tiller kick up parallel to the tractor's rear axle.

 

[flusher]

I've made several posts asking questions about plows in the last day or so as I'm thinking of getting a Leinbach moldboard plow. But after more thought maybe what I need isn't a plow at all. Or, at least maybe not a moldboard plow. What I am wanting to do is break up (virgin) ground to be followed by passes with a rototiller. I want to "plow" before rototilling so I can pull-up as much rock and junk to the surface as possible and then rock-rake or hand pick the rocks and junk. So, would a moldboard plow be good for what I am wanting or should I be thinking about something else? Chisel plow? Middlebuster?

I don't want to just stick the rototiller to the ground and start "tilling". I live in Arkansas and we have an incredible amount of rock in the ground. I've put a tiller to "virgin" ground here before and it just hammers the rototiller.

A properly adjusted moldboard plow runs 6-8" deep and turns the soil over (what was the surface is now buried). So if you first clean the rocks off the ground by hand or with a landscape rake and then use the moldboard, you definitely will be pulling rocks to the surface.

I've used a middle buster before rototilling my fairly gravely soil. Here's what it looks like.

 

[SouthernX]

A properly adjusted moldboard plow runs 6-8" deep and turns the soil over (what was the surface is now buried). So if you first clean the rocks off the ground by hand or with a landscape rake and then use the moldboard, you definitely will be pulling rocks to the surface.

I've used a middle buster before rototilling my fairly gravely soil. Here's what it looks like.

Wow, that's one funky looking rototiller you got there. What kind is it? Never seen a tiller with a steering wheel.

 

[SouthernX]

A properly adjusted moldboard plow runs 6-8" deep and turns the soil over (what was the surface is now buried). So if you first clean the rocks off the ground by hand or with a landscape rake and then use the moldboard, you definitely will be pulling rocks to the surface.

I've used a middle buster before rototilling my fairly gravely soil. Here's what it looks like.

BTW, how did that middle-buster work for pulling up the rocks and stuff? How deep did you run the middle-buster? How did it compare to using a plow?

 

[LBrown59]

I've used a middle buster before rototilling my fairly gravely soil. Here's what it looks like.

Wow, that's one funky looking rototiller you got there. What kind is it? Never seen a tiller with a steering wheel.

What does it do?

 

[wushaw]

The steering wheel does what a top link does since these tillers were built for two point attachment origionally.
He now has the ability to change the angle of the tiller with two different methods.

 

[JoeinTX]

You appear to have a "six in one hand, half a dozen in the other" situation, SX.


Moldboarding first would seriously loosen the soil and bring some debris to the surface all right but it won't catch everything. As mentioned above, doing it either way (plow then till vs. just a slow till) will probably take about the same amount of time so I guess the determining factor here is how well tilled and debris-free do you want the ground to be once done?

Me, I'd probably just do a good inspection of the particular piece of ground for obvious rocks/junk and then get comfortable in the tractor seat for a long, slow till fully expecting to bang into a few things before the job was finished.

 

[Egon]

tiller makes a heck of a noise and jumps around, I do not break tines.

When that happens all is usually OK for me. It means nothing has jammed up.

I find raising the back flap also keeps the smaller rocks from bouncing back into the tines and jamming. The worst tines for breaking were the outside row getting jammed by small rocks so I removed the outside row of tines. Seeing as I only had minimal horsepower this saved tines and made things easier on the tractor.

Also, as stated, allowing the tiller plenty of sway room seems to help when the big rocks are found.

If one is real serious about getting rid of rocks before tilling use the front forks to spade the garden. Brings all kinds of good stuff up!