Help! The rocks are breeding

[Roy]

Djwalker;

I like the 'sterile rock' concept. I'll have to talk to some of my friends in bio-tech engineering to see how that one is progressing. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Seriously, I don't have a solution. (Been collecting them for 10 years in my garden area by rake and hand. Grow better than my vegetables). Just want to let you know that the collection process will have to be repeated. Most rocks literally float in the soil. That is, they are eventually pushed to the surface as the ground freezes and thaws. So, expect to do it ad infinitum (or is that ad nausium?)

 

[gordon]

A rake will work great but what alot of people overlook is the wheel kit for them. A set of two wheels that mount behind the rake to control the depth of cut also you can adjust your top link to give more or less angle to the tines with the wheel kit and not have to worry about cutting to deep.
Something else that might help is a piece of chain link fence with rods run across the fence to help keep it taught and a couple of tires or blocks to help hold it down while you drag it behind the tractor this will break loose the rocks and also break up dirt clods. If you want to get real fancy mount a couple pieces of angle iron across the fence. The angle will catch alot of rocks. This works well in my area a number of horse tracks use the same set up for grading and loosening up thier training tracks. I use both and have had good results without spending a grand to do it.

 

[Djwalker]

I was wondering about that. I can't even tell which sex is which. The guy who sold me them told me that they were really cute and that the girl rocks found them irresistable. Something about buns that were as hard as a rock. I couldn't tell but took his word for it. Must have been another scam.

Dave

 

[Djwalker]

I have a chain harrow that breaks up dirt clods and brings the rocks to the top but it leaves them scattered all over the surface. I think that a rake will at least make piles that I can scoop up.

 

[gordon]

Your right--- First run through and loosen them up then pile them with the rake. If you mount a couple of pieces of angle iron on the harrow at a 45 degree angle it will roll them off into more of a row makes raking quicker just don't forget the wheels for the rake thats the key to it all.

 

[MChalkley]

Don't feel bad - a lot of people have been taken by that one. It's been going around. Rocks have a long gestation period and a lot of folks are now looking for ways to pawn offspring of orphaned rocks from the pet rock craze. (Of course, most of the folks that have been taken were stoned. One case I heard of went to court but nothing came of it. The judge never even called the court to order - something about not being able to find his gravel. I think if all the people who had problems with this got together in aggregate, a civil suit might be doable, though it would still be rocky going. You'd have to be careful to get a lawyer that would take nothing for granite.)

 

[gordon]

I have to say that one can't be topped I'm impressed.

 

[Djwalker]

Argh!! The pun-o-meter just went off scale and caught fire. Truly a first.

Rock on,
Dave

 

[MChalkley]

Oh, I don't know: Some of the more jaded pebble on this board might say I reached the bottom of the pile or imbibed a few quartz of brew or lost my marble.

(Thanks!)

 

[Djwalker]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.