Anyone use a disc harrow?

[jcraftenworth]

I think those silage tarps are pretty heavy duty. Blocking the light is pretty effective, put it down in the early spring and by the time you want to work it, it's probably ready to go.

Mow it close to the ground before you drop the tarp on it, that should weaken the plant and make the tarp go down tight. Block light and moisture and airflow! It's deadly to plants.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Here's one I rigged up. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/2-wheeled-tractors/340570-disk-harrow-sulky.html?highlight=

I wanted to expand the garden and had some really heavy sod to chop up. (The tiller wasn't going through that sod.) So I needed a lot of weight. It worked pretty good but I had to go back and forth over it a number of times. And I repeated that a couple/few days in a row. It got the job done. I also use it for working manure into the soil and killing weeds. I've had that same experience of weeds spooling around the tiller tines to the point where it took me almost an hour to get them off and had to disassemble part of the tiller cover. Bad mistake.

If you use the disc harrow a few times, it will knock the weeds back enough so that they don't clog the tiller. Maybe three times over a period of a week. I did end up buying a rotary plow but the disc did work pretty well and as I say, I still use it for weed control and manure in the spring.

Last year I did no till for the first time. I put manure down in the spring and disced it a few times until the weeds were getting tired and starting to get chopped up. Then I just used the tiller with my transport wheel to till about an inch or two deep to just cultivate the surface. It worked out well. I grew a lot of food. I did deep till where I planted carrots and parsnips though.