First time plowing

[FrankNOhio]

JC, I'm right with you on the 'organic' route. Locals think I'm nuts. Anyway, I haven't studied so hard since high school. :confused2:

Starting with a self sufficient kitchen garden, then expanding to the berries and vineyard in hopes of little extra walkin' money.

On the weed control, an old tymer I visited a while back had gone around to various carpet stores and asked to have all their scraped carpeting (odds and ends from carpet orders). He put all those scraps down around the base of his grapevines and rasberries to keep the weeds down. Water apparently was able to seep through enough to keep the vines happy. His vineyard looked like a big quilt sewn together by drunkards, but he made some fine wine.

This same old guy used gravel as his mulch around all his fruit trees, 2 feet deep in a 5 foot diameter circle around the base of each tree.

Many things still to learn...

 

[Ultradog MN]

One thing you might do is download and read the Ferguson/Sherman Plow book.
It is available online at the link below.
Lots of good info on setting up a 3 point plow plus general info on plowing a field.

Manuals Forum Search

 

[FrankNOhio]

UltraDog, thanks! I'd found an old International Harvester's version of this plow guide (called 'Plowing at It's Best), but this Ferguson is much better and simpler to follow. Will add it to my studies.

 

[Looking4new]

Plowing is easy. Avoiding the rocks and hidden objects is a different story.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Plowing is easy. Avoiding the rocks and hidden objects is a different story.

+1
Always fun to have a plow point catch under the edge of at odd shaped rock jerking the tractor to a stop and trying to throw you against the steering wheel. Or have the rock start to pull up out of the ground and wedge between the land slides then standing up in its hole three feet high jacking the tractor up with daylight under both rear tires. It helps to have the loader on to help push yourself back off such rocks. You can roll some of the rocks into the bucket on the next pass if you have time to stop and carry them to the edge of the field as you go. Saves clattering the harrows over them later.

 

[JC-jetro]

JC, I'm right with you on the 'organic' route. Locals think I'm nuts. Anyway, I haven't studied so hard since high school. :confused2:


On the weed control, an old tymer I visited a while back had gone around to various carpet stores and asked to have all their scraped carpeting (odds and ends from carpet orders). He put all those scraps down around the base of his grapevines and rasberries to keep the weeds down. Water apparently was able to seep through enough to keep the vines happy. His vineyard looked like a big quilt sewn together by drunkards, but he made some fine wine.

This same old guy used gravel as his mulch around all his fruit trees, 2 feet deep in a 5 foot diameter circle around the base of each tree.

Many things still to learn...

I have used all kind of mulches and have heard about carpet as mulch. They do have formaldehyde and other chemical that off gas and also get absorbed by the soil and eventually the fruit. That kind of beats the purpose of going organic although you end up not using chemical. what I do as the picture below suggests is totally pain the rear end but it works. What you see below is two 1500 lb hay bails that I layer by layer by taking them apart by hand and mulched around my tomatoes at least 12 to 18" deep. There is a ton of seed in the hay but don't get to germinate and it is totally chemical free, but a huge holy pain.

JC,

h

 

[FrankNOhio]

Well, after days and days of rain, finally got a few days dry enough to firm up the soil, so I took the plow out and gave it a shot.

Neven plowed in my life before, but I gotta say, I like it! Splitting the ground is like announcing your good intentions to mother nature.

Of course, despite of all my studying and the great tips here, I still must've made pretty much every mistake in the book. But I bumbled though it and no one got hurt, so all's well.

The first patch was bound to be bungled... The wife wanted her kitchen garden on a gentle slope, and 'arced' around on the contour of this slope. In other words, a constant curved furrow. It just SOUNDED like a bad idea.

Needless to say, between the special request and my lack of experience, it looked like I was turning soil using artillery rounds! I had intended to share images of my first plowing, but the result of that 'arced' plowing is obscenely embarrassing. I stood back and took in the fiasco and just had to smile... But at least I got the 'feel' of the plow.

Next small plot was for the lavender and it was simpler (straight), but had an issue with the plowed earth not flipping all the way over. I stood back afterwards and realized a couple things: 1. I wasn't letting gravity help as I plowed 'up' on the slope instead of letting the plowed soil flip downhill; 2. Must not have had the plow angled enough. Had it level on the first plow, but didn't angle enough on the next with tire in the furrow.

Finally, I took all 2 hours of experience and did one final area for the blueberries and managed to plow a fairly respectable few rows.

I do have some questions though:

1. How to maintain depth on the plow if not using a guide wheel? On the artillery range, the plow kept digging down in deep. I'd end up raising and lowering the plow just to get through a row. Then, I'd adjust the top link a bit, but seemed to keep happening.

2. What is a good speed? The soil was actually pretty 'buttery' soft when the plow was cutting well. I had the gear in 3/1 with very little throttle and it seemed good, but slow. I upped the gear to 3/4 and that is when all the digging in occurred.

3. When some soil doesn't 'flip' over, is it just a matter of getting off the tractor and flipping it by hand/manually so the furrow is clear for the next pass, or is there some nifty tip to get that soil turned. I found on the last patch, as you can see in the image below, for the most part, the soil turned over, but one or two spots had the plowed soil flip back down in place so when I drove the next pass, the tractor rode up on those spots, resulting in the plow once again digging in.

Here are some images for chuckles... first one was where I was plowing 'uphill' so the soil would not 'flip'. The other was the last try of the day.

 

[vtsnowedin]

:laughing::laughing: It takes a man with strong character to admit his short comings publicly. It seems your progressing nicely. You'll soon get the knack of it. They didn't graduate you out of high school after just one day after all so don't expect this task that involves physics, mechanical engineering, biology and a bit of philosophy to come in a single lesson.
As to some of your new questions. Depth control? Depends on the tractor. Some old ones are either all the way up or all the way down on the three point hitch and your stuck with getting the plows to ride right with all their weight in the dirt at the angles you set with the top link. These will tend to plow through level as the tire in the dead furrow comes up over a fall back but you still end up with a sod sandwich. Next you get 3PHs that will hold at any depth you set the lever at but are manually controlled. As you go along you can raise or lower the depth of cut by adjusting the lever at your side. When you come to a fallback you can lower the lever as the tire rides up then raise it as you fall back into the furrow to keep the plow points in the ground and with practice you can get good at this and better at having fewer fall-backs to deal with. Next on most large tractors and quite a few smaller ones you have draft control where once a depth his set the tractor senses the changes in the ground and follows it without you moving the lever. How that works is above my pay grade.
As to the grass showing? As long as the sod is at least up on edge some manes of long grass will show and not be a bother. Just chop it up with your harrows or tiller later. If any long sections fall back down they really should be flipped back over either by hand or with a loader bucket or by replowing after the sod has dried out so it is breaking up on the moldboards.
If you show us some pics of your tractor with the plows attached perhaps we can see how you have it adjusted and pick up something there. I suspect that they aren't riding level when at depth.

 

[FrankNOhio]

VTSnow, thanks for the encouragement and additional tips/reminders.

I'm going back out today to plow the first row for the vineyard, so I'll send pics of the plow set up and resulting soil.

About the next step, after plowing, I read most people take the disc harrows to the plowed soil. And a few take the tiller to it. I don't have a harrow, but I do have a tiller. Is there advantages/disadvantages one way or another? And how soon after plowing is the soil ready to till or disc? Does it need to weather dry and 'crumble' before the next step?

 

[vtsnowedin]

VTSnow, thanks for the encouragement and additional tips/reminders.

I'm going back out today to plow the first row for the vineyard, so I'll send pics of the plow set up and resulting soil.

About the next step, after plowing, I read most people take the disc harrows to the plowed soil. And a few take the tiller to it. I don't have a harrow, but I do have a tiller. Is there advantages/disadvantages one way or another? And how soon after plowing is the soil ready to till or disc? Does it need to weather dry and 'crumble' before the next step?

Harrowing is the most efficient and is used almost exclusively for large fields. Rotary tilling is slower and more expensive but works really well for relatively small areas like yours and will blend in all your learning variations. Many would have just tilled it to begin with but in sod ground tilling chops the sod into a million pieces all ready to re-sprout into weeds. Plowing first lets you leave the grass upside down and you can till to break up the soil above it to bury any grass that is peaking through.
Both tilling and harrowing are best done when the soil has dried out enough so it breaks up into loose soil but not so dry that it becomes wind blown dust. With the tree screens you have I doubt that would be a problem for you. As you have a tiller in hand (3ph I hope) use that.