Kschwennsen
Silver Member
I have a 6' tiller that will chew up a 75'x25' garden in the matter of minutes. the only problem I have is I can't seem to tame the weeds. My soil is rather sandy but I've broken fresh ground with little time lost.
Plows versus tillers?
- Thread starter SmallChange
- Start date
Yamezz
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2007
- Messages
- 87
- Location
- South Australia
- Tractor
- JD 3720 cab, JD X495, JD L100, JD D105
What tips do you have for preserving soil health as much as possible, while still getting an effective till?
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
Best tip for that is, don't try to get max tillage in one pass. Take gardens for example, on my own soil, I till one slower pass in the fall after everything is harvested, I then till one pass in the EARLY spring, and again one pass, more than a month later just before planting. I keep my ground speed up a bit on the last pass, so the soil isn't ground up.
Don't crawl along grinding your soil up, don't till your ground when it's bone dry and don't till it when it's very wet. Don't think that all the little clods in your garden have to be ground up because it looks better! I like to till a day or two after a moderate or light rain.
It does take a little experience to get it all tuned in and right, but the above should get you started.
I have an hour minimum, I've shown up for a job and tilled a garden for a customer, then have them tell me, "that only took 30 minutes keep going until you use up the hour I'm paying for". So, I don't argue with them, I just shake my head and grind the soil up!
On bigger jobs, I ask the customer what he wants his soil to look like when I'm done, that gives me some clues on how to set up my tiller for his job. Most jobs require a ground speed of close to 3 mph, depends on the soil and what's going to be planted in it.
Hope that answered your question,
SR
Yamezz
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2007
- Messages
- 87
- Location
- South Australia
- Tractor
- JD 3720 cab, JD X495, JD L100, JD D105
Thanks Rob.
LD1
Epic Contributor
I think that is the problem of EVERY garedner.
The problem is, most people get busy and dont keep up with the garden. You let ONE weed mature and go to seed it will spread hundreds if not thousands of seeds in your soil to populate next years weed crop.
One thing we do that helps.....if you have a lawnsweeper or a bagger for your mower....is to blanket the garden with ~3"-4" of grass clippings after its been tilled/weeded and your crops are up. It retains moisture and keeps most of the weeds from coming up.
Thats how I garden. I only grow corn, tomatoes and cucumbers in my garden. Once the corn is about 6" high, run a walk behind tiller down the rows, pull weeds the tiller dont get, and blanket it with grass clippings. Same around tomatoes and cukes.
After harvest, I moldboard plow to turn under the grass clippings. They will break down over to provide nutrients for next years crop. Till with the tractor tiller in the spring before planting