Bottom plow in rocky soil

super55 · Oct 29, 2015

Chisel plows are great for soil that has been worked up before but in your situation I think the 3pt triple bottom plow is your best bet. You have more than enough tractor to handle it. For heavy sod your best bet is to roll it over for weed control now. Plus if you run the plow deep you should expose all the major that you will ever face since a plow runs deeper than a tiller or disc ever will.

You got the right idea on plowing it under right now. The freeze/thaw cycles up in your neck of the woods will help break up the clumps. I have a plow and I barely ever use it anymore but when I have to turn fallow ground that has been worked the plow is the first tool I grab. After it's been worked once than the chisel plow is my go to item.

jeff9366 · Oct 29, 2015

sqdqo said:
We a have a 14' double row disc w/18" pans but it is not heavy enough to cut the sod on its own, I tried it.

No surprise. A Box Frame Disc Harrow with 18" pans has 35 pounds to 40 pounds pressure bearing on each pan. You need 50 pounds to 60 pounds pressure bearing on each pan to chop sod. Chopped sod is enough for food plots. Ground does not have to be tilled, like a field, to get pretty good food plot mix germination the first year, better germination the second year.

Spacing between pans on your disc is probably 7", increasing float. Good post-plow field smoother, not a cutter.

How sloped is land for potential food plot(s)?

Moldboard plowing now, then Harrowing in early Spring, would be ideal if you can manage it and erosion will not be a problem.

jeff9366 · Oct 29, 2015

sixdogs said:
I lived in heavy rock gravely glacial till soil for decades and tried it all. The moldboard plow worked, sure, but I had to pick rocks and disc, etc. What a nightmare and the ground was never fully flat. A chisel plow just pulls up rocks that you have to pick up. And we picked, year after year, ground that had been picked for 150 or more years. Rocks were my best crop.

What finally worked was a heavy duty Howard rototiller. I didn't go real deep and it did a perfect job while burying most of the rocks that showed up. The ground was flatter and no rocks to pick up. It worked for me and I would never disturb rocky ground. Just skim the surface. It worked perfect for my hayfields.

When SIXDOGS posts, heed the words.

sixdogs · Oct 29, 2015

Ed of all trades said:
A 10 lb rock will beat the ____ out of a rototiller. What would a 100 lb rock do. I would either plan on picking a lot of rock or leave it alone. Ed

You don't till 8" deep at 540 RPM and don't hit rocks 100% of the time. The tiller bounces off the rocks if you don't go too deep and take it easy. It leaves the ground fairly smooth and a nice seedbed from the get-go. I did maybe 500 acres this way and it worked the best. We picked untold tons of rocks and I spent hours disking and leveling and smoothing. What a waste of time when the tiller works.

The plow and disc method in sod will require multiple passes, leave chunks of sod and holes here and there. It will need to be picked of rocks, disked and picked again and then smoothed and picked again. The tiller saved me enormous time and effort

That's my two cents from doing it and maintaining hayfields.

EDIT--on the tiller and rocks, I once moved my 500 ft driveway by rototilling it (yup, I did) and bucketing the gravel to the new driveway. I had to till a couple times because there were some pretty big rocks in it. I put the dirt where the gravel was and a day later you would never know what I did.

Even these days I do heavy duty tiller work and till all kinds of obstacles from smaller stumps and bricks to rocks and drain tiles. I don't seek this stuff out and I take it easy but I don't get off the tractor. I have had fields of rocks that people wanted to spend days picking for lawn prep and I rototilled it, packed and seeded before it rained and you can't find a rock. The tiller buries them after you figure out speed, depth and technique. I do it all the time.

I love the moldboard plow but it's use is really limited.

bigtiller · Oct 29, 2015

I like sixdogs tiller suggestion. I've tilled a few construction sites full of buried debris, slow, shallow and about one third throttle.

Also, if you have access to a disc-plow, that is pretty much what they were made for.