School me on PTO tiller use and depth adjustment

[CH4Ohio]

You don't need to remove the shoes. You had it right in your post above when you observed that the shoes were riding on the unbroken ground.

Your tiller was riding on the shoes on the untilled ground on both sides ON THE FIRST PASS.

Now move over about 4' and make another pass. The shoe on the already tilled side will drop into the soft tilled soil and you'll go much deeper. On the untilled side, it will still ride high.

After you've broken the crust across the entire area you plan to till, the tiller tines will drop as low as your three-point hitch will allow it to drop. No need to remove shoes. They'll drop into the fine tilled soil as long as the ground is adequately dry and conditions are right.

I've never adjusted the shoes on my tiller. They ride on the crust on the first pass. After that, they just drop into the tilled soil.

After I've made a couple passes with my KK tiller, I can push my hand into the soil past my wrist. It just turns it to a perfect seedbed as long as you do it when it's dry enough. Your feet will sink into it several inches when you walk across it. No need to remove or adjust the shoes.

 

[CH4Ohio]

I'm assuming you already did this, but will check anyway.

Tractor in 4WD.
Wide open throttle.
Low range.
Just crawl along using lowest gear or Hydro.

What you tilled up looks good. As soon as you break the top crust all the way across, your tractor tires will be sinking into that fluffy stuff 4 or 5 inches and your tiller tines will drop as far as the hitch will allow.

Enjoy. Nothing like watching a good tiller turn rough weedy areas into a seedbed.

 

[masseyrider]

To prep I plow first to turn over the soil.
Then I disk it to level it.
Finally I go in with my Kuhn tiller probably a good 6".
It breaks up any clods, finds some rocks , and leaves behind a very nice seed bed.
As someone said earlier the tiller is a finishing implement and not a primary cultivator.

 

[wawajake]

I agree with what many have stated, I would be thrilled if my first passes looked like that. Leave the shoes on and overlap any way that works for ya. Besides those shoes might help prevent some rock damage if you have any hidden rocks.

 

[Williy]

can you tilt your tiller at an angle so the tines dig deeper?
Mine works that way but I think most are set for 6 inch????

willy

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Make a couple passes, and the shoes will continue to sink in the soft soil… you’ll get 8” deep likely. For this reason I don’t set my shoes very deep. I like to make a couple passes anyway.

 

[bigtiller]

I've got a John Deere 550 tiller. I have thought about taking the skids totally off... I imagine it would be fine for a while.

You might get away with taking the right side shoe off, but you could develop a bearing problem if the grease zerk gets knocked off and dirt packed into the bearing from the extra depth.

Taking the left side shoe off is just asking for trouble. It won't take long to wear a hole in the chain guard.

But if all you're doing is a 50x50 garden once a year, it might last a decade or more.

 

[jyoutz]

Ok, gotcha! I was expecting better performance . But I now know what to expect and how to squeeze a bit more depth out of it. Thanks!

I’ve never been able to get more than 6-7” of depth with a tiller, even with the skid shoes off. Think about the purpose. For deep root development that’s where a plow or subsoiler is used to open the ground deep. The tiller is just to fluff up the upper seedbed to allow seed germination and small plant development. Once a plant grows and starts to sink down deeper roots, it’s large enough to move into the deeper soil that was broken by the plow. I always plow first, then till. Then plow again in the fall to allow deep moisture penetration and frost heaving to churn the soil.

 

[oosik]

I used a Troy Bilt tiller when we had a garden. Six inched deep on the first pass would have been great.

I always spread mulch over the garden site prior to tilling. Mixing the mulch with the top six inches was more than adequate for our garden. Going deeper was just a waste. None of our veggies go much deeper than six inches.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I agree with what many have stated, I would be thrilled if my first passes looked like that. Leave the shoes on and overlap any way that works for ya. Besides those shoes might help prevent some rock damage if you have any hidden rocks.

Well that was 3 passes I think, but yeah it looks pretty good! I am sure it will pack down a little bit.

I’ve never been able to get more than 6-7” of depth with a tiller, even with the skid shoes off. Think about the purpose. For deep root development that’s where a plow or subsoiler is used to open the ground deep. The tiller is just to fluff up the upper seedbed to allow seed germination and small plant development. Once a plant grows and starts to sink down deeper roots, it’s large enough to move into the deeper soil that was broken by the plow. I always plow first, then till. Then plow again in the fall to allow deep moisture penetration and frost heaving to churn the soil.

We did use a ripper down about 9 inches before we tilled so I am sure that will help!

Thanks for all the replies. I feel better about our performance now.