Poor man's garden hiller

[jinman]

I have an old Dearborn cultivator tool bar that I use with the traditional plow sweeps to lay out rows. As a kid, I've plowed acres and acres of vegetable crops, but I prefer to use this cultivator to lay out rows and then use my little Mantis-style tiller to do the cultivating after my veggies start growing.

What I've wished for is a simple way to throw up hills so that I'm planting on raised beds. My tiller does a great job of preparing the soil, but I really like raised beds. I recently saw hilling discs in the Agri-supply catalog and ordered a pair for my cultivator.

When I got the discs, the shafts are just a bit too small in diameter for my sweep mounting feet. I couldn't tighten down on the shaft. I decided to split a 3PH cat 1/2 bushing lengthwise and use half around each shaft as a filler so I cold tighten down on the shafts. I had to spread the bushing halves a bit after cutting them, but I was able to easily tap them down around the shaft and tighten the clamp down.

Below are some pictures of my cultivator set up to throw up planting hills. I left one sweep in the middle of the hill to knock down the ridge and give me a small valley to run my planter in. All-in-all, I think my $60 plus shipping was money well spent to make nice planting hills.

 

[Coolnorth]

Hi Jinman,

Thanks for posting this! I have been looking around the forum and this is what I needed to see! I want to mechanize in some way, the hilling process. I had drawn up a plan for a type of fixed hiller that would have required the purchase of a much larger tractor. One row at a time is all I need, even once I open up the next piece of land.

What are the cultivator tines on either end of your cultivator tool bar used for (if this is the case) when you are hilling?

Good work on the tooling!

Graham

 

[jinman]

What are the cultivator tines on either end of your cultivator tool bar used for (if this is the case) when you are hilling?

Graham, those sweeps are raised and not doing anything. I normally us a 5-sweep setup for plowing and then pull off the center sweep and move in two small sweeps on each side of the row for plowing/weeding young veggies. I was just too lazy to remove the outer sweeps for the hilling operation. I raised them so I'd have tire tracks between rows to make a good walking path. I normally use my tiller twice during the off season to turn under vegetation and aerate the soil. I then use this old cultivator once to lay out rows and then it sits the rest of year unused. This year, I'm using it for hilling and then I'll lay it up for the season and rely on my little Mantis-style tiller to to keep my garden weed free and aerated as needed.

 

[Baby Grand]

Nice work. Now I've got to make a 3ph tool bar.

 

[LRTX1]

Jinman,

Instead of the sweep in the middle consider using a board. I took an old shaft and welded a peice of plate steel, 6" tall by 18" wide, to the shaft. It makes for a wide flat bed. The down side of this for you would be making a second pass with the board after you made your hill .

I use a Farmall 140 that has front and rear hydraulics, I board off the front at the same time I plant off the rear.

 

[JC-jetro]

I have an old Dearborn cultivator tool bar that I use with the traditional plow sweeps to lay out rows. As a kid, I've plowed acres and acres of vegetable crops, but I prefer to use this cultivator to lay out rows and then use my little Mantis-style tiller to do the cultivating after my veggies start growing.

What I've wished for is a simple way to throw up hills so that I'm planting on raised beds. My tiller does a great job of preparing the soil, but I really like raised beds. I recently saw hilling discs in the Agri-supply catalog and ordered a pair for my cultivator.

When I got the discs, the shafts are just a bit too small in diameter for my sweep mounting feet. I couldn't tighten down on the shaft. I decided to split a 3PH cat 1/2 bushing lengthwise and use half around each shaft as a filler so I cold tighten down on the shafts. I had to spread the bushing halves a bit after cutting them, but I was able to easily tap them down around the shaft and tighten the clamp down.

Below are some pictures of my cultivator set up to throw up planting hills. I left one sweep in the middle of the hill to knock down the ridge and give me a small valley to run my planter in. All-in-all, I think my $60 plus shipping was money well spent to make nice planting hills.

Good looking hiller Jim,

I kind of the same idea to use my cultivator as a structural base. The only source for a disk same as you have was agri supply. The local Orschlyn Sp? and TSC don't have one in stock for me to eye ball before I buy them. Where did you yours? I also taught I might use a flat piece of metal welded to a rod acting line a hiller, sort of like having two potatoes side to side angled toward each other.

JC,



16 DISC HILLER WITH 16SHANK - Agri Supply

 

[Coolnorth]

Hi Jim,

I see on closer inspection of the photo that those are sweeps - the angle of photo shows them nearly edge-on. Again, simple, clean and smart. I like it!

Graham

 

[Coolnorth]

--" I also taught I might use a flat piece of metal welded to a rod acting line a hiller, sort of like having two potatoes side to side angled toward each other."--



JC, This is where I was in my drawings, but I had extravagant amounts of plate welded across the top, sides, etc. Almost like a chute that cut at the bottom and sides, pushing the soil to the middle as the chute would be narrow at the rear, creating the hill.

Graham

 

[Luremaker]

Jim, Thanks for posting the photos. Last summer I planted a few rows of potatoes and hilled them by hand. Lot's of work!! Last August I purchased a potato plow at TSC when I was in Buffalo, NY. Now planting will be much easier but I'll still have to hill them.

Graham, It's been a while.... hope all is well. Will you be planting corn this summer? I am looking forward to seeing your hiller.

Steve

 

[JC-jetro]

--"
JC, This is where I was in my drawings, but I had extravagant amounts of plate welded across the top, sides, etc. Almost like a chute that cut at the bottom and sides, pushing the soil to the middle as the chute would be narrow at the rear, creating the hill.

Graham

Hi Graham,

What drawings are you talking about? Did I miss it?

JC,

 

[Coolnorth]

JC,

Sorry, I did not mean to mislead, I referred to my "planning and drawing" in the first reply to Jim, when I was trying to figure out a way to make a hiller. I'll find the drawing and post it if you want.

Hey Steve,

I will be putting the greenhouse together in the next few weeks (after Easter) and getting things ready, including some corn. I am trying to get a fellow in with his forestry harvesting equipment in to clear about 5 acres for 2011. There's over 100 LARGE poplar trees (est. 30 - 50 cords) that are marketable. He's trying to figure out how to scale down and do the job.

Graham

 

[JC-jetro]

JC,

Sorry, I did not mean to mislead, I referred to my "planning and drawing" in the first reply to Jim, when I was trying to figure out a way to make a hiller. I'll find the drawing and post it if you want.

Hey Steve,

I will be putting the greenhouse together in the next few weeks (after Easter) and getting things ready, including some corn. I am trying to get a fellow in with his forestry harvesting equipment in to clear about 5 acres for 2011. There's over 100 LARGE poplar trees (est. 30 - 50 cords) that are marketable. He's trying to figure out how to scale down and do the job.

Graham

Hey Graham,

Thanks for the offer, I get the picture.. I just thought I miss something.


JC,

 

[jinman]

Good looking hiller Jim,

I kind of the same idea to use my cultivator as a structural base. The only source for a disk same as you have was agri supply.

16 DISC HILLER WITH 16SHANK - Agri Supply

JC, Agri-supply is where I bought my disc hillers. I bought the 14" discs and probably should have bought the 16" discs. With the 16s, I could throw up a slightly taller hill. I really like the discs over any kind of fixed plate because the rolling discs seem to need very little effort from the tractor and just roll over any small stones. After several attempts, I think I've found the best depth, angles, and speed for my little garden.

Steve, I could sure easily plant potatoes in these hills. I probably won't this year, but I may do just that next year. I probably don't need hills this wide for potatoes though. Remember that I did say I tilled the ground first with my rototiller. That made the soil really soft and fluffy for an easy job for the hillers.

Graham, I look forward to seeing your illustration if you get a chance to post it. For me, since I don't weld much, it was so easy to buy these discs mounted on shafts that spending time welding something up just didn't make sense, especially since I have the cultivator just sitting around not being used for anything else.

 

[Baby Grand]

JC, This is where I was in my drawings, but I had extravagant amounts of plate welded across the top, sides, etc. Almost like a chute that cut at the bottom and sides, pushing the soil to the middle as the chute would be narrow at the rear, creating the hill.

IIRC, someone on TBN built a similar device a few years ago. He attached it to the back end of his tiller. His photos showed almost perfectly formed, raised, flat topped beds, all done in one pass. I really liked that idea. I suppose you could do similar with a toolbar type of device with disc hillers, etc. Gears meshing ...

-Jim

 

[Coolnorth]

Hey Graham,

Thanks for the offer, I get the picture.. I just thought I miss something.


JC,

JC, Jinman, This is what I was thinking about a while ago. I will be working on a disc type hiller starting tonight. I think I have all my materials and will try to do photos as it goes together.

Graham

 

[Gale Hawkins]

A 100 years ago they were known as "disc" cultivators in these parts so that name may help in a search.

They were reversed to "bar" off tobacco to make it easy to "chop" out then the reversed again to "hill" it back up.

 

[Coolnorth]

Ah! This is the place where informed people sure help out a lot. Thanks for the additional info! What was the reason for "barring out" the tobacco? Is this a method of thinning or harvesting?

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Ah! This is the place where informed people sure help out a lot. Thanks for the additional info! What was the reason for "barring out" the tobacco? Is this a method of thinning or harvesting?

It is the inverse of what you see in the above pictures by pulling the dirt back when the tobacco was maybe only 6-9" tall. There were no chemicals so you had to scrap grass and weeds with a hoe by hand. If only a 12" strip of soil was left there was less to scrap the gound clean and the the 5-6" furrow on either side if the remaining strip of soil was a good place to deposit the over growth of vegetation that would occur in a wet spring.

After you had it all cleaned out and the earth was dryer then you would reverse the disc blades and \do the operation like jinman pictured. This was done for corn also but the concept was not to hoe the corn as as to just kill the grass in the row by dumping fresh dirt on top of the grass and weeds. Corn ridges was more or less the by product of grass and weed control during that generation of farming which lasted for 100's of years. All farming was "organic" farming until about 100 years ago.

Advanced science has given us given us a chemical solution for every problem faced by man today with NO ill side effects.

 

[nobull1]

I have just busted one of my disc on my cub and am trying to upgrade a little as the cub hillers are pretty well beat. I saw this post and was checking out agri-supply disc hillers and found there are two types the Blanton and King types. I wonder if anyone knows about the different types and which might be better?

 

[jinman]

I have just busted one of my disc on my cub and am trying to upgrade a little as the cub hillers are pretty well beat. I saw this post and was checking out agri-supply disc hillers and found there are two types the Blanton and King types. I wonder if anyone knows about the different types and which might be better?

The King types seem to be a bit more expensive and have a 6-bolt bearing ring that attaches to the disc. I guess if you use them a lot, the quality might be an issue, but the Blanton type I have seem very sturdy and work well for my once-per-year application. I don't think I'll ever wear them out.

BTW: Agri-Supply carries repair/replacement parts for both types.