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

 

[JasperFrank]

Unclesam, after 30 years of moving rocks, I am of the other opinion, and I hate them. It was undeveloped land that I bought, and i had no idea what was ahead, for the next 30 years, just to get to a point that it was something that resembled a lawn. The land was cheap, but it was cheap because of all the rocks. The seller knew this, but I did not. It was a slow discovery of just what I was up against. I'm a slow learner. 20 years in, I was too committed to doing it on my own. Looking back, I should have hired out someone with bigger equipment to take all these out, put them in a pile and sell them, and then add normal soil. I have no regrets of all the time I have removed rocks with my little 14 HP tractor with FEL. But in hindsight, I think of all those days doing nothing but removing rocks, that maybe I could have been doing something else. The property is finally okay, to run a garden tractor mower over and make it look good, ...park like. This took 30 years. We've put the rocks in every way we could; revetment walls for terracing, and rings around all the trees and even built a road and retention wall for a pond, using them as fill. Last year I cleared another 1/8 acre, I wanted to be mowable for fire control. This generated yet another huge pile of large rocks. They will be used, as yet another revetment wall, for another terrace. I see the end to it now, but if I had known what I do now, I'd have had professionals involved earlier in the landscaping process.

 

[Millwood]

When I retired I bought a Kubota tractor to open up 1/2 acre for food crop. Ground is ancient riverbed with lots of rocks. First laid out the boundaries, then rented a middle buster plow. Rocks that came up were mostly the size of a large microwave with a couple the size of clothes dryer. Went slow in 4 wd, then used FEL to load in truck bed and hauled away to construction site that wanted fill. Next I rock raked over the next two weeks and once again hauled rocks away. Took about a month but now the field is clear of any rocks over 2 inches in diameter and crops grow well in the well draining soil.

 

[tonynz]

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.

Ferguson made an implement called a potato digger. Basically it was a middle buster plow but with fingers so that the soil could drop through leaving rocks and potatoes on the surface. Would be a long drawn out task though. I am pretty sure there are companies offering a rock clearing service, maybe that is the best option.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

My uncle was was digging near Shreveport of all places. Found a 15' rock. They put it beside the pond, it had a flat side on it. Rocks can show up anywhere.

 

[Jstpssng]

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.

I spent my adolescent years picking rocks. Imagine my surprise when I went to work for a landscaper and found myself putting the durned things INTO gardens... and people were paying big bucks for the privilege. My current property has piles of stones from when it was a field decades ago... mostly red granite. People up this way don't have the money to buy that kind of thing, however.

 

[OzzyDaveO]

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.

25HP does not have the weight or power to effectively dig out the rocks (which will be an ongoing issue).
You will need something 60HP and 3T or more unless you want to be working the area continuously in narrow rows.
Plough it with discs or stump jump plough loaded with a lot of weight - penetration. That will dislodge some rock / stone. Rake them off with an stone rake (like a hay rake but on steroids - some are PTO powered & others non powered). Non powered rakes have a an angled row of tynes.
Plough again - either disks or rotary if the rock / stone count is low. Rake
The use a 2 or 3 or 4 tyne ripper down to the depth you want to clear, plus a few more inches. 25HP is not going to pull a single tine ripper 2 foot into the ground in anything but the lightest previously worked soil. 60HP is going to have its work cut out with a 3 tyne ripper.
Repeat & rinse until you are happy.

In loamy ground with limited stone here, we deep rip & plough, then use a stone pickup machine. Stone pickup machine come in 3PL and towed configurations. Youll need 60HP here & weight to get traction as you will be processing the full depth of soil.

Once the stone is on the surface its easy to handle.

Maybe you can pay a neighbour with a bigger machine to do some of the work?

 

[Williy]

Sure glad I don't have any rocks big or small in
our garden just finished tilling for the 4th time to
kill weeds, grass. I just breezed threw it as the
dirt is fine and I had to raise the tiller because it
sinks over 8 inches in the soil it so soft. Now to
get the seeds ready to plant in starter trays

willy

 

[kenhar]

Deer don't mind the rocks. I wouldn't want my tiller in a bunch of rocks big or small. I would use a small pick up type disc or small chisel plow to scratch the surface and plant your plot. Drag a small cedar tree or something to lightly cover the seed and go clean your gun.

 

[masseyrider]

I spent my adolescent years picking rocks. Imagine my surprise when I went to work for a landscaper and found myself putting the durned things INTO gardens... and people were paying big bucks for the privilege. My current property has piles of stones from when it was a field decades ago... mostly red granite. People up this way don't have the money to buy that kind of thing, however.

Over the years I dug up some dandies on the parents property.
A couple friends wanted rocks for their gardens.
I still don't know how I got some of them there without big equipment.
Then a few years later they asked me to remove them.
NO!

 

[Fordfixer]

Have a Case DX33 apart right now that was used to do a lot of tilling without plowing,harrowing and picking rocks first. About $3000 in parts will fix the mangled gears in the PTO , plus labour. Don't till without prepping the ground first.