Help me justify a TILLER.

[xlr82v2]

This is a pretty good thread.

Never used a tiller much, but they sure look attractive. Was wondering if there is some general rule-of-thumb guidelines for sizing and use --

It probably takes more power to turn according the width, correct? (yeah, I know, MOTO -- Master Of The Obvious). But what are the numbers? Something like maybe 5 hp per foot of width?

And how fast can you cover area? -- again I follow it would be a width and power based calculation. But maybe some guidelines for fallow fields, and/or "planted last year," etc.

And I see folks mentioning multiple passes. What is typical to create a good seed bed? I guess I am comparing in my mind with the traditional mold-board plow - disk - drag - plant -- 4 pass world and trying to do comparisons.

Thanks.

My opinion is, at least with the soil in my area, and in my experience with different tractors and tillers, is that 3.5hp/ft is really about as low as you want to go. Any less hp than that, and you're probably going to be overloading the tractor on a regular basis.

Best speed to till with the tiller at 540rpm on the pto is probably in the neighborhood of .75mph to 2.5mph, depending on soil conditions. The slower speeds for really working the soil, the faster speeds for just breaking up the top crust to help things dry out. So, you can see that it's rather slow going. But, a tiller works the soil up so much better than plow/disk/... So, you will save passes. But, the other methods are faster, so, if you have a lot of area to work, tilling may not be the best option. But for garden work, large or small (not farm fields) I dont' think it can be beat. Our garden is about 100'x100' right now, and we're planning on making it bigger next year. It took me 4 hours with the troy built tiller to make one pass over it, but with the tractor mounted tiller, I did one pass in about 40 minutes, and the tractor tiller did a superior job to the TB. One pass, and it was ready to plant. I plowed everything under last October, and it hasn't been worked since until this spring. I also tried the tiller out on some virgin sod, and after the 2nd pass, the soil was worked up very fine, and the grass was chopped up fairly well. I let that sit for about 2-3 weeks (because of the spring monsoons we've been having, not by choice), then made another pass over it with the tiller, and it was ready to plant as well. All of the grass in it was dead. I don't think you could have sod ready to plant quite as fast with plowing/disking, at least not without a LOT of passes with the disk to get the grass/roots blended up.

 

[mrutkaus]

Yes, like Brian above says...I have just expanded to about a 60x45' garden and used for first time the KK 5' tiller on ck30hst. I bought the tiller cause it was on sale and for a toy, thinking overkill (well, did two plots for neighbors).

BUT. It took me overall a couple hours tilling new rocky rooty soil, slowly. And I more or less could not have done it with anything smaller, which kind of surprised me.

Mike