Old question probably - Tiller, disk or plow???

[widmn]

Need to tear up a field with hay/weeds in it now to plant a blueberry and rasberry patch. MAybe a row of corn or two and some beans, etc. What is the best tools for this??
Plow, tiller, disks?? Please explain the purpose of each to me.
Do I have to use more than one implement? I am totally new to this.
4410 JD
Thanks,Rich

 

[Wesdor]

I have a pretty nice raspberry patch, but don't have any blueberries. However, if I were going to plant them on ground covered with hay and weeds I would want to get rid of the vegetation first. At this time of year you might still be able to burn off the weeds. Mowing really low might get rid of the hay on top of the ground, but the roots go rather deep.

If I were going to do it, I would plow the field first to turn everything under. Then I would disc it to break up the big clods. After that it would be good to use a tiller on your 4410 and work up the soil so it can really grow your crops.

That may sound like a lot of work, and if your soil isn't too heavy, perhaps you could try the tiller on your tractor and hope it works. The only problem with that is if you are renting the tiller and it doesn't do a good job. You will know that within the first couple of passes, but if you need to plow and disc then you have the rental wasted for the time you use it.

Not sure how big a patch you are talking about - I'm guessing it is less than an acre. If not, then you might want to really think of plowing and discing first.

At least that is my opinion.

 

[California]

I have pretty much the same beginner's questions -

My tractor came with a 6 ft disk. The seller, probably as inexperienced as me, said it would not get very deep so he had a lot of junk on it for ballast that brought it up to maybe 1000 lbs.

I also have a rotary mower and scraper box.

Here's what am considering to do if I ever get around to a family garden. I would appreciate any advice on whether this is the right way to go.

1) Mow, and wait a couple of weeks for the grasses to decompose.

2) Rip with the scraper box rippers set shallow, then deep. I don't know if this will just get snarled up with grass root clumps.

3) Disk. Probably several passes to cut up the weeds and weed roots, and to get down to sufficient depth.

Or should I just get a tiller. It sems that many of the import dealers have Yanmar tillers under $600 but I have read those need longer 3 pt arms, or an extension to move the tiller's 3 pt pins forward, before they will fit. Also the 'rice' tillers have lighter tines than a US tiller. Is that a problem?

Any comments welcome!

 

[tillboy2001]

If you can, mow/rotary cut it off so there aren't any really tall weeds/grass, I'd do that first. Then plow everything under. If the soil isn't too damp, then I'd till it about 3 times. That's how we do our garden (plow, then use tiller attachment for tractor). I went over ours 3 times with the tiller after it was plowed and it turns the soil into a nice fine bed great for planting. If you don't have a tiller attachment, use a disk and run over it until you get it as smooth/fine as you want.

Oh by the way, you could use the fork in your kitchen drawer to turn the soil in your garden, but of course that would take awhile /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif My point is, there's more than one way to 'skin a cat'. No one way is perfect or the absolute correct way. It really depends on what you're after and what your soil conditions are (heavy clay, sandy, nice loam, etc). I could have a really nice garden tilled up and ready to plant with nothing more than a tractor mounted tiller. Sure it would take a few more passes, but it pretty much gives the same results as plowing and then tilling. It's much easier to plow everything under and then till though. You can usually get a little deeper with plowing and then tilling also.

As far as the tines being smaller on a lesser brand tiller, that's ok as long as you're not being rough on it. For example, I've already hit several nice rocks and roots with our John Deere 655 tiller. But the tines on it are big and tough so it just spits out the rocks like nothing and I can't see any visible damage. Not something I like doing though. Just use some common sense. If you have a really rough area and you intend to only use a tiller without plowing or you have rocks, etc...go easy on it.

 

[Egon]

If you have a disc why not try it. If it doesn't work think tiller.

Grass sod takes awhile keeping it black to get rid of the grass and dormant seeds just awaitin to sprout.

Plow and disc should work fine. Probably will not need the tiller if you have the traction to pull a disc.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[beenthere]

Answer is plow, disc, and then tiller, in that order, IMO. Or at least the first two in order.

 

[tillboy2001]

Before we got a tractor mounted tiller, we always plowed and then used the disks. I just think it's easier to use the tiller. Easier to get it the way you want it. For our situation anyway.

 

[RalphVa]

For your blueberries and raspberries, they're better put in rows about 2' wide with a grass strip in between about the width of your bush hog or mower. So, you really only need to mow, then till a 2' wide strip for their rows. I'd be inclined to mow low, Roundup the grass strips 2' wide, then rent a rototiller to turn the grass under about 2-3 weeks later. Could turn under w/o the Roundup if you have a skinny plow (like the Gravely I used) or a real hefty rototiller (usually can rent these). Plant the blueberries in lots of peat moss and maybe even add some sulfur. Might want to do a soil test for pH first. They like 4.5 or so. Raspberries want 6ish pH though.

Then plow a section for your corn and beans. The usual thing is plow with big disc or moldboard type plow, then gang disc to smooth it out, possibly with a harrow behind for further smoothing.

I did my 2' wide plowing and the garden area with my Gravely rotary plow. It's great for new ground plowing. Don't recommend you go buy one for it though.

Ralph

 

[edski]

I put in a couple of acres of raspberries (~1,000 plants) and a tiller worked well. The plantings were in rows on contour with enough room in between to run a brush hog (~10 ft). Only the rows were tilled. I should have killed with round-up first, and then tilled.
Have had little luck with blueberries. The soil is too heavy here.
edski

 

[Slamfire]

If I was puttin' fallow land back into production I'd sure plow it first. Then run over it with a spike harrow to level it out. After a couple of weeks when the grass was sprouting real good, I'd run it over with a disc or tiller. You'll need to do that about 3 times to get the bulk of the dormant seeds. I really don't care much for tillers they break the soil into powder, and it loses it ability to hold air.
As a general rule new land needs to be worked up in the fall, so you can put in your crop in the spring. Zone building might just work best for berry crops.