Cultivator general question
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tc55da
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Yes works great. Plant size and tractor speed are important.
To fast and you will cover plants. Sometimes I will go both directions on a row.
prof fate
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sounds like a market garden size garden. I've always gardened small - raised beds, 'square foot' , etc. Plants are placed closely so they shade the weeds (in theory). Hand weeding on 1000 sf is feasible.
this past year went bigger and mostly used the same concept..now it was the wettest year on record, so weeds went wild. Hard to keep up. Planted close together so no easy/feasible way to mechaincally/automated weed/cultivate. Got a 'scuttle hoe' - best thing ever. Probably had 4000sf or so and could weed the whole thing in less than 1/2 hour.
This year may double the land used mostly to increase row spacing - so more mechanized cultivation can be done. Still pondering that.
I have a walk behind tiller (front and rear tine models), a weed whacker type tiller for cultivting (most likely choise). A walk behind tractor is tempting to get/try. A 35hp loader equipped tractor is a big large...IMO at this point anyway, to be driving between plants.
now what you plant is a factor too - potatoes? Sure. corn? nope, no way to get a tractor over the plants after a few weeks.
for planting I got a walk behind seeder ($120 at stores/online) and used it a bit last year - it's best if you put a POUND of seed in it, not the wee little packets from burpees. But you're not gonna want to do an acre of planting with it either. But it is a whole lot better than planting seeds all bent over or on your knees.
DJ54
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You may want to consider a small walk behind tractor, with a set of cultivators. I'm partial to the David Bradley's, once sold by Sears, but, most do a great job. I prefer the Bradley's because of the taller tires, and ground distance, so you're able to cultivate taller plants. I'm not much of a tiller person, for a couple reasons.#1 is it can destroy the soil structure. #2 a tractor and cultivator can run through the same space in I would guess 1/10th the time, and do a better job. With a cultivating tractor, I just work the top 2" of soil, battling the weed seeds in that layer. Using a tiller, many run deep, and that just bring up more weed seed to deal with. And, multiple tilling's, makes for a hard crust to deal with. Cultivating leaves to earth more friable, when it comes to hoeing also.
The last 3 I bought at auctions, were $100, or less, and all came with an attachment, and all ran, or did with a tuneup, and cleaning of the fuel system. If the engine is beyond repair, they can be re-powered with a 3 hp engine. Many use the Harbor Freight engines, I prefer to buy a gas powered edger that's in good shape, with a 3 hp Briggs on it, and rob the engine from it, and scrap the rest. I've bought 4 of those in the last year for $40, or less. One is a nearly new Craftsman, with a 4 hp. Tecumseh, that starts on the first pull. Not my favorite engine, but, that's cheap horsepower...
You can also plant more, in a smaller area. Most patches I've seen using the sub compact tractors, you're pretty much limited to a 48" row width. That's a lot of wasted space, when concerning certain vegetables, and a lot of weeds to contend with. With the 2-wheel tractors, I plant most at 30".
There are a couple garden for market pages on Facebook. I don't market many of my surplus veggies, but do donate many to a local food pantry. I was invited to join, because of a couple cultivating attachments I've built. There are quite a few guy's on there that have built their own cultivators, to fit their needs. With people wanting more vegetables grown organically, or using organic grower techniques, many are going back to cultivating, to deal with weed suppression.
For hand weeding, I use a Corona brand scuffle hoe. I pretty well looked them over for quality, and this one seemed to fill the bill. It's 5 years old now, and just love it. Wish I would have had one, when I was a kid..!!
I'm still gardening the same plot, that's been our family garden, since '53. It's downsized now from what was 1/2 acre, to now 9000 sq. ft. I fenced off part of it for horse pasture. I've harvested more off that 9000 sq, ft. than a buddy of mine doing market gardening on 2 acres, simply because it is more manageable. He would plant large plots of a certain vegetable, but keeping up with the weeds was his downfall. It's taken me 10 years, to make him realize he can grow more, on less space. One particular market garden page on FB, pretty much showed him what I was doing, and works even on a larger scale. There are several of those folks working 2 to 3 acres, and one, up to 5 acres with a small 2 wheel tractor. But, that is what they do, 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week.
I can run through all of mine, in approx. 1 hour, or less, depending on plant height. I pretty much creep along when plants are just peeking through the surface. The taller they are, the faster you can go. I even have a one wheeler that I use, to go between rows, when plants get to tall for the Bradley to straddle, but I still need weed control. A few more passes, but better than the hoe.
With getting a little older, and my knee's not being what they used to be, last year I finally got around to building a transplanter for setting plants. I normally set 12-14 dozen tomato plants, and 8 dozen various pepper plants. I built the transplanter utilizing one of the DB chassis I've had around for parts. I bought a cheap home made wood splitter for the power unit, hyd. pump, control valve, and oil tank for the tractor unit. It drives a hydraulic motor, and I have a flow valve in between to control the speed, plus I can use engine rpm's to control speed too. The planting unit is pretty much from scratch, using a few boughten components. I also used a set of depth gauge wheel off of a set of DB cultivators, for setting depth,and tramming from the storage shed, to the garden. For the first time out of the chute, it worked pretty well. A few bugs to work out, but I'll get to those this Spring. I'm attaching a short video of just how slow it goes. The one planting didn't turn out so well, hope to get a better one this Spring. But, this one does show the speed. Last year, I planted 14 dozen tomato plants in roughly 30-35 minutes. And 14 dozen pepper plants the next evening in the same amount of time. Sure beats crawling on your knees, setting plants. MOV02152 - YouTube
The only problem I see, would be getting a 2-wheeler that far down the road. If you have a small trailer, it shouldn't be a problem. The key to keeping up with the weeds, is to get them when they are small. Like when they look like small button heads, dotting the soil. The smaller you take them out, the easier it is to control them. Normally, after a rain, weeds will get that size in approx. 3 days, just about the time it gets dry enough here to cultivate, in this sandy loam clay. That was tough to do this year with all of the rain we had though. More than several times I cultivated when it was too wet, but with rain coming in the next day, I ran through it. I was basically slowing their growth, not killing most. Just kept stirring them until it dried enough to kill them.
I also mulch around my set plants with leaves as a weed barrier, but, that's a whole different story...
The last 3 I bought at auctions, were $100, or less, and all came with an attachment, and all ran, or did with a tuneup, and cleaning of the fuel system. If the engine is beyond repair, they can be re-powered with a 3 hp engine. Many use the Harbor Freight engines, I prefer to buy a gas powered edger that's in good shape, with a 3 hp Briggs on it, and rob the engine from it, and scrap the rest. I've bought 4 of those in the last year for $40, or less. One is a nearly new Craftsman, with a 4 hp. Tecumseh, that starts on the first pull. Not my favorite engine, but, that's cheap horsepower...
You can also plant more, in a smaller area. Most patches I've seen using the sub compact tractors, you're pretty much limited to a 48" row width. That's a lot of wasted space, when concerning certain vegetables, and a lot of weeds to contend with. With the 2-wheel tractors, I plant most at 30".
There are a couple garden for market pages on Facebook. I don't market many of my surplus veggies, but do donate many to a local food pantry. I was invited to join, because of a couple cultivating attachments I've built. There are quite a few guy's on there that have built their own cultivators, to fit their needs. With people wanting more vegetables grown organically, or using organic grower techniques, many are going back to cultivating, to deal with weed suppression.
For hand weeding, I use a Corona brand scuffle hoe. I pretty well looked them over for quality, and this one seemed to fill the bill. It's 5 years old now, and just love it. Wish I would have had one, when I was a kid..!!
I'm still gardening the same plot, that's been our family garden, since '53. It's downsized now from what was 1/2 acre, to now 9000 sq. ft. I fenced off part of it for horse pasture. I've harvested more off that 9000 sq, ft. than a buddy of mine doing market gardening on 2 acres, simply because it is more manageable. He would plant large plots of a certain vegetable, but keeping up with the weeds was his downfall. It's taken me 10 years, to make him realize he can grow more, on less space. One particular market garden page on FB, pretty much showed him what I was doing, and works even on a larger scale. There are several of those folks working 2 to 3 acres, and one, up to 5 acres with a small 2 wheel tractor. But, that is what they do, 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week.
I can run through all of mine, in approx. 1 hour, or less, depending on plant height. I pretty much creep along when plants are just peeking through the surface. The taller they are, the faster you can go. I even have a one wheeler that I use, to go between rows, when plants get to tall for the Bradley to straddle, but I still need weed control. A few more passes, but better than the hoe.
With getting a little older, and my knee's not being what they used to be, last year I finally got around to building a transplanter for setting plants. I normally set 12-14 dozen tomato plants, and 8 dozen various pepper plants. I built the transplanter utilizing one of the DB chassis I've had around for parts. I bought a cheap home made wood splitter for the power unit, hyd. pump, control valve, and oil tank for the tractor unit. It drives a hydraulic motor, and I have a flow valve in between to control the speed, plus I can use engine rpm's to control speed too. The planting unit is pretty much from scratch, using a few boughten components. I also used a set of depth gauge wheel off of a set of DB cultivators, for setting depth,and tramming from the storage shed, to the garden. For the first time out of the chute, it worked pretty well. A few bugs to work out, but I'll get to those this Spring. I'm attaching a short video of just how slow it goes. The one planting didn't turn out so well, hope to get a better one this Spring. But, this one does show the speed. Last year, I planted 14 dozen tomato plants in roughly 30-35 minutes. And 14 dozen pepper plants the next evening in the same amount of time. Sure beats crawling on your knees, setting plants. MOV02152 - YouTube
The only problem I see, would be getting a 2-wheeler that far down the road. If you have a small trailer, it shouldn't be a problem. The key to keeping up with the weeds, is to get them when they are small. Like when they look like small button heads, dotting the soil. The smaller you take them out, the easier it is to control them. Normally, after a rain, weeds will get that size in approx. 3 days, just about the time it gets dry enough here to cultivate, in this sandy loam clay. That was tough to do this year with all of the rain we had though. More than several times I cultivated when it was too wet, but with rain coming in the next day, I ran through it. I was basically slowing their growth, not killing most. Just kept stirring them until it dried enough to kill them.
I also mulch around my set plants with leaves as a weed barrier, but, that's a whole different story...
