4-Row Cultivator Questions...

[Big_Cajun]

A co-worker of mine has offered me a JD 4-row cultivator. He'll be bringing me the books on the unit tomorrow hopefully, but I have questions to ask you all.

What is a cultivator used for exactly? I don't want to sound stupid, but I know that since the advent of the rotary hoe, cultivators aren't as popular (especially 4-row models, beings everyone went to larger units). On what applications would I use it? It doesn't seem to me that I could use it to side dress row crops and such...the picture I have in my head is that of a rudementary plow that I commonly refer to as a root rake.

Please help!

BC

 

[randy41]

http://www.dmtool.com/equip_imgs/1379.jpg

 

[schmism]

from my understanding they are used a couple of times within the first month to mechincally keep weeds down (as oopposed to spraying). after that the crop shadows the weeds and keeps them down....

 

[JC-jetro]

In line with question that Big Cajun had,can a four row cultivator be used in lieu of a tiller or other tillage equipment if one is planning to start small garden say around 5000 Sq.Ft. Would it be okay to weigh the cultivator down for more penetration in the soil and pass several times. How close would that be to actually using a rotary tiller like King Kutter. I hope Big Cajun would not mind me jumping in his thread. Thanks.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

A cultivator is designed to work with loose soil. It is not a primary tillage tool to break ground with as it mainly disturbs the soil so that weeds can't get a good foothold in the ground.

 

[randy41]

a cultivator will not prepare a seed bed like a tiller will. a disk would be better than a cultivator for that. schmism has the right idea i think. i've used a smaller cultivator on sweet corn and it does a pretty good job of eliminating the weeds in the row. better plant in very straight lines.

 

[Gizmo36]

If it is the old one like when on an old John Deere MT .They are not good for any thing the way they are . But you can do some welding on them and make a three point hitch and put them on back of a tractor and they work good that way.

 

[Big_Cajun]

Thanks for the replys, and I have no problem with anyone jumping in this thread.

BC

 

[NHTC30]

You should be able to use the cultivator to side dress a row, each of the rows will have two gangs of plows (three plows for each side of the row, and one plow that will run exactly half way between the rows to give you a "middle furrow". You may want to get some "fenders" which are designed to keep the dirt from being pushed up over small plants. If you use a planter to plant your crops, you will want to go with a 4 row or 8 row there as well.

My dad used a two row front mount cultivator to plow about 90 acres of cotton and soybeans. When he wanted to plow the garden he locked up one side and just plowed with one row, because usually, planting one row at a time you had places between the rows that were farther apart or closer together, and if you were trying to plow two rows at once, you would plow up some of the crop on one of the rows.

Dad also used the cultivator after preparing the garden by using a disk and tumbling harrow, to lay out his seed beds. If you can take the plows off that would run closest to the plants, and replace the second plow from the plants with a "disk hiller" you can use it to raise a seed bed to plant your rows on after you use your tiller to work up the garden.

 

[JC-jetro]

Thank you all for your responses. I know how to garden in suburbia using a gas powered front tine tiller. I am going to do it on my land by trial and errors and learning from good folks here. Keeping deer and the critters at bay along with the dumb cows will be a tall order.