BX and KK 48" Tiller

[AMR]

I finally got a chance to get my new King Kutter 48" tiller on my BX23 this weekend. I filled all the fluids, greased the fittings and put her on. It was a bear to get it on the machine, I have the tiller on two dollies and of course one slid out while I was sliding the opposite link on. I smartened up and attached the dollies together with a long piece of plywood, that problem is solved. After wrestling with it for about 15 minutes to get it on I checked the shaft length and gave it a pretty good trimming, raised fully I have about an inch clearance and all the way down I have about 5" engaged, a little out of spec by the manual but it looks pretty safe.

Now I was concerned that it may be a little too much tiller for my BX, there is absolutely no issue at all. The machine raised it just fine and ground clearance was OK, 6" or so. Just as I got it ready to go my wife came out to tell my that my 22 month old was up from his nap, I just needed to run it though. So I took about a half hour and I couldn't believe the results. I tilled an area about 100 by 50 in that time, simply awesome.

It was a pretty rough ride when I tilled up and over two basketball sized rocks but not as bad as I thought. The machine lurched a little and rode up over them. There were a number of stumps left from brush up to 2" in dia., no issue there either.

There is so much going on back there that the bolts that hold the chain that holds the back door up on the tiller rattled loose and fell off and one of the pins on my 3 PT rattled and fell off, so I limped back to the garage with a screw driver replacing one of the pins, off to the store today.

I had a lot of grass on the ground when I tilled, I now have nice loose soil but with a lot of grass mixed in. Any thoughts, will this still work for my carots and stuff like that?

Photos to follow.

 

[proudestmonkey]

I had a lot of grass on the ground when I tilled, I now have nice loose soil but with a lot of grass mixed in. Any thoughts, will this still work for my carots and stuff like that?

Photos to follow.

Your post gives me the itch to tell my gardening story for the weekend.

First, to answer your question about grass: it is better to remove the sod first before tilling. Otherwise, you end up having to pull weeds (grass) as you grow your veggies. I used my FEL this weekend to strip sod off the place our new veggie garden is going.

I wish I'd had a BH, though, because when I started to go deeper to mix the soil with the FEL (can't afford or justify a tiller, though, it would be nice), the FEL kept "bouncing" up off the ground. I got off the tractor (BX 2230) poked around with a spade, and started to find broken up pieces of patio block. The previous owner had decided that this location behind the house to backfill his rather extensive patio project waste of broken up 24" inch patio blocks, and then cover it with topsoil so nobody (including us, the new owners) would know. Because the blocks were buried in more or less horizontal positions, and were right up against one another, the FEL couldn't "break" through them. I ended up having to dig them out by hand (took me about three hours to get them all out, and I ended up with enought to fill the bucket).

 

[Stackwood]

Thanks for the tiller story. We're set to buy a 5' model this week, first to help regrade a poorly draining yard, second to till the garden, third for ongoing experiments at renovating our system of tiny pasture paddocks. These firsthand accounts of real world use offer a wealth of information, and it is appreciated.

 

[charlz]

A lot of the grass that is buried should just decompose, some of it will live on for you to have to weed later.

You didn't say how many passes you made, you want to make a few and alternate the direction, north to south one time and east-west the next.

Root vegetables like carrots like a good deep soil, 12" or so. Deeper than you can get with a tiller alone. Best if you can make some raised beds for these crops.


50x100 is a lot of carrots I hope you have a big list of things to plant! If you can't use all the space I would look at growing a green manure crop to till in this fall.

Charles

 

[AMR]

Thanks for the advice. I only made one pass with the tiller so far in the highest position, I am going to lower it and make another. As I noted I lost a couple pins that rattled out of the 3 PT, once I replace those I will be ready to go. I think I am limited to one direction tilling as I have a pretty good cross slope 90 degrees to it. I gave the grass a closer look last night. I think another deeper pass will help turn it in and cut it up better.

Regarding planting, I hope to establish a wildlife food plot using some type of Biologic or something like that for the deer and turkeys, Chickory, Sorgum? Stuff I have never seen but looks like the deer eat it, on TV anyway. I will leave only a small area for anything else.

I have 6 apple trees around 3" caliper that I want to get in the ground before I finish tilling.

Working and learning, and having fun on my tractor too, what could be better.

 

[Buster57]

The only problem I had with the BX1850 and a 50" 'tiller was that it was a very rough and loud ride. I had to make two or three passes.
You really do not want to over till or till too deeply. It can hurt your soil.
I don't worry about the grass in the dirt. As mentioned in an earlier post most will turn into compost and no matter what you do you will have some weeding.
Have fun!