Cultivator general question

[Stancoll]

I've been in the shopping market for a one row category one cultivator. I've seen lots of opinions about various brands, like and dislikes. I was talking to my Mahindra service manager about cultivators and he made the statement that the big farmers don't cultivate anymore, generally only small farmers or small gardeners. Is that a true statement? I'm just curious.

 

[jeff9366]

Big corn farmers do not cultivate. The corn is planted so densely and hybrids are so vigorous that weeds cannot compete.

Big farmers seldom plow the land today. Roundup/Glycophosphate is used to kill fall/winter grass and weeds, then a Disc Harrow may be used to scratch the surface, then seed is sown.

 

[Stancoll]

Wow,,, do they drill the seed in?

 

[prof fate]

they spray- crops are modified to survive roundup, weeds don't.

and i think the no-till style of farming has fewer weeeds as you're not turning the ground.

What size garden are you wanting to cultivate?

 

[mred2]

True no-till is no till at all. When a farmer plants true no-till, they drill the seed in. Cover crops are used at times to better the soil. In areas of compaction, they may have to subsoil to start with, but the cover crops are designed to keep the soil in better condition. They want to go over the ground as little as possible.
In days of past, the ground was broken up, plowed, disced, planted, cultivated, harvested. This not only compacted the ground, but also destroyed the ground structure. So they started using more fertilizer, sub soiling, sprays, to keep the harvest up, etc. By going to no-till, you are able to use less fertilizer and sprays.
This most likely will not help you, as it is hard to have a no till garden.

 

[Stancoll]

they spray- crops are modified to survive roundup, weeds don't.

and i think the no-till style of farming has fewer weeeds as you're not turning the ground.

What size garden are you wanting to cultivate?

Small, less than 1/2 acre, just a weekend thing. It's been along time since I grew up on a small farm. We cultivated then, so much has changed. I use Roundup but with all the stuff with it, I'm somewhat shy of it.

 

[Stancoll]

Thanks, the spot That I'm going to use belongs to another gentleman just down the road and I have his permisision. He told me that years ago the area we now live in was pristine farming ground. It had (volunteer) pines on it about a couple of years ago, but he had them removed. I went in with a TSC subsoiler and cut iyt pretty deep. Dug out a lot of roots to say the least. Went back and crisscrossed harrowed it and dragged a light pole over it to level it out. Right now with all the rain we've had it so sopping wet that you'd bog up to the axles. Hoping that by Feb it will have dried out enough that I could put in a few potato rows and hopefully harvest some of the small fry taters. Fresh taters, yum , yum. maybe after Easter plant some tomatos, peas, cumbers, and some crooked neck squash.

 

[tc55da]

I've been in the shopping market for a one row category one cultivator. I've seen lots of opinions about various brands, like and dislikes. I was talking to my Mahindra service manager about cultivators and he made the statement that the big farmers don't cultivate anymore, generally only small farmers or small gardeners. Is that a true statement? I'm just curious.

i use both a 1 row and 2 row cultivator in my produce patches. the 2 row is mainly for sweet corn. the 1 row for just about everything else that needs it. your dealer is pretty close to being right about the big farmers not doing it anymore. my 1 row is like the ones you see at TSC. i see them for sale on CL and facebook market place from time to time.
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[300UGUY]

Big corn farmers do not cultivate. The corn is planted so densely and hybrids are so vigorous that weeds cannot compete.

Big farmers seldom plow the land today. Roundup/Glycophosphate is used to kill fall/winter grass and weeds, then a Disc Harrow may be used to scratch the surface, then seed is sown.

Farmers around here do plow. With our winters, and the water we get, they open up the ground, and turn in the trash, ( cornstalks or whatever) . Everything freezes up here, so it doesn’t rot down as much as farther south. They seldom use moldboard plows, mostly large disk gangs, and harrows. I see more ground tiled around here every year. We’ve had years where the fields look like rice paddy’s. Roundup and other chemicals are used, for weeds and bugs.

 

[300UGUY]

Big corn farmers do not cultivate. The corn is planted so densely and hybrids are so vigorous that weeds cannot compete.

Big farmers seldom plow the land today. Roundup/Glycophosphate is used to kill fall/winter grass and weeds, then a Disc Harrow may be used to scratch the surface, then seed is sown.

Sorry didn’t read the whole post the 1st time. I just repeated what you said, in more words....��