Eradicating rocks before tilling

[ctgoldwing]

A couple of years ago I put in a new 3/4 acre lawn. The land hadn't been touched in 30 years and the original landscaper didn't put a lot of time in 'derocking'.
Because the prices I received for putting in a new lawn were so friggin high I decided to do it myself and purchased a really nice Phoenix 66" reverse rotation tiller from EA. I used my box blade's scarifiers to dig up the rocks first and then the tiller. I just didn't want to beat the crap out of the tiller with the rocks. It worked out fine!

 

[Yander]

Right at the limit of what my IH 584 could pull,,

I got it through the gate without tearing down any fence,,

A small one that my loader could pick up,,

This one had a nice flat side,,

It became my entrance marker,,

Ok, I think you win the "my rock is bigger than your rock", contest today!

 

[mo1]

First off, I want to apologize if this post is not in the correct section. I have a farm that I recently purchased and will be looking to do about an acre of food plots on for deer this coming season. To my knowledge, this ground has never been worked and after examining it, I’ve noticed a lot of rock. I have a 25hp tractor to work with, my question is what would be the best way to find and get rid of rocks prior to running a tiller through.

Plow it with a single-bottom conventional moldboard plow and pick up any rocks you see that are larger than about billiard ball sized. Let the plowed ground sit for at least a month to kill the grass you plowed under, then disc and drag or use a rototiller to work up the plowed ground into a seedbed. You will never pick up all of the rocks smaller than about a billiard ball no matter how many times you pick rocks, but you will get nearly all of the baseball sized and larger ones that make a heck of a racket and dent the shroud of the tiller when the tiller hits them, the 6" diameter ones that can jam up a tiller, or the larger ones that the tiller noisily bounces over.

You have a 25 HP tractor, so if you jam up a tiller with a rock, it will probably kill the tractor engine immediately. If the tractor was 40+ HP it would probably slip the tiller's slip clutch. If you hit a big rock with your plow, it will stop the tractor.

 

[CobyRupert]

Do you have frost? New rocks will grow every spring. You will find them by tilling. Pick them by hand. Next spring a new crop will grow.

I was always told that’s because you only picked the big ones and left some little ones behind that grew.

 

[Jstpssng]

I was always told that’s because you only picked the big ones and left behind some little ones behind that grew.

I hadn't thought of that, yet it seems to be true.

 

[MROlson86]

Planting food plots for deer isn’t allowed where I live. CWD is a real problem that is not improving and feeding and baiting of deer is a big problem. Our forests are threatened because there are too many deer, they browse young tree seedlings and kill them, no more natural regeneration for them. I guess my opinion is we would be better off with less deer.

 

[scootr]

I remember a joke I saw posted about baiting deer. A sizeable pile of corn was shown with a sign posted in it which read something like this :
This corn pile is the property of the land owner. It is for the explicit use of the squirrels and chipmunks only in this area. It is not for the feeding of any deer or pigs. Any deer or pigs seen stealing any of this corn will be shot on sight.

 

[Maxmorter]

I'd agree use a small plow to unearth most my 1950 18 hp will pull a 2 bottom so you should have no problem. Alternatively but similar as planting a lot of food plot stuff won't require much depth just use rippers on a box blade if you have access to that instead already to do a similar procedure remove the rocks you can a couple times and it'll only need a light till just an idea

 

[UncleSam]

Nice thing abt rocks is you can build rock walls or sell them to people for landscaping their own rock walls. I love building rock walls.

 

[scootr]

More power to ya buddy. Be careful.
My back hurts just thinking about that