Newbie with a quick disk question

[daniull]

Hi All, totally new to the forums but you guys seem to know whats going on....so... here's a ?

I have a John Deere 2210 (23 HP Diesel 4x4) with turf tires. Now I am debating between a tiller and a disc harrow. what sizes should I be looking at mainly for the harrow.. I know 48" is about the biggest I can do for the tiller...but I am unsure about the size of what I can drag in terms of a harrow.. I do understand that the turf tires are not the best for pulling....but I use this machine alot to mow about 3 acres and i don't want to take them off..

I am mainly using this for a 3/4 acre garden...

any comments would be appreciated....

daniel

 

[Stimw]

Go with a 4' tiller. Most that I have seen turn the tines forward throwing the dirt to the rear which will push the tractor making them easy to pull.

 

[randy41]

a tiller will give you a better seed bed. get the tiller.

 

[daniull]

yes but the main issue is that the tiller (as nice gear driven one) runs about 2K and the disk harrow runs about 4-600 bucks...

 

[RedMahindra]

By the way.....Welcome to TractorByNet!!!

 

[tessiers]

The only way to get a good seed bed with a disk harrow is to harrow first, then plow, then harrow again. This is time consuming and very in efficient for a small plot. It has more to do with the weight of the tractor than HP but I would think a 4' 2 gang harrow would be a good start, along with a single bottom plow. If your soil is sany and or real loose you may be able to use a 6' harrow and 2 bottom plow. Good used plows and harrows are available usually pretty cheap and are generally better than cheap new equipment. If you asked an expert they would tell you tillers are very rough on soil and you will get a better job with plow and harrow, what they won't tell you is that it will take you 3 times as long to get an equivelent seed bed. I plow and harrow if I'm doing a large enough area to make it worthwhile but I till small areas, mostly to save time.

 

[daniull]

thanks for the warm welcome guys....

yes I have heard the ever lasting debate about tilling vs plow/harrow...and the issues with hard pan and all that ...but after it's all said and done, if money was no issue, i think for me... I would go NO TILL FARMING....but the problem with that is that its just not realistic for a small farmette. For my situation, in my limited opinion as of today, the best way is to plow then till... I have seen the seed beds from both disks and tillers and I would agree that nothing prepares a bed like a tiller. My main issue like I said is cost. Instead of dropping 2k on the tiller, I might as well buy a 1000sf greenhouse, so why should I even bother ok, I might be exaggerating a bit here...but am I?

 

[Barneyhunts]

Are you in an area where you could have someone plow the garden for you and then you could harrow and plant?
I have a 40" tiller I use on my 22 Hp Kubota and it works well in my garden as long as I pick out the rocks.
I plant about 3 acres of food plots and I plow and disc using a 30 Hp 4x4 Kubota with loaded ag. type tires. I pull a 2 bottom 12" plow ( 1 bottom in heavy sod) and a 5 1/2' King Kutter heavy duty (box frame) disc.
If it weren't for the rocks I would prefer to use the tiller for everything.

 

[daniull]

my soil is pretty good...meaning no rocks... but it is not porous/sandy....it gets a bit compacted... i probably should add some peat or something...

 

[randy41]

With a limited budget you'd be best off paying someone to plow and disk for you and then go rent a walk behind tiller for a day.