Tiller Tiller Or Disc

[Maurice]

Looking for help with a tillage dilemma.

I will be preparing a small garden site annually ~ 60' x 50 '. It is currently a garden and very easy to work. I will also be converting a feeder lot into pasture/grass lot. Also, the lot does have old twine and bale wrap buried though out.

Will also probably redo my current yard, which is an acre give or take a couple of feet.

Over the course of 2 or three years I'll probably redo 10 -15 acres of ground into grass.

My thinking is that I can get a decent, oh say 6 - 7' disc and a 1 or 2 row cultivator(both 3pt) for the less than an equivalent large tiller (6') and accomplish the same task(s).

Suggestions on the clearing of the lot would be appreciated. I'm thinking maybe a boxblade with the scarifiers down to root out the twine and junk.

I am wanting to take care of the garden with out an additional motor to care for. I have had horrible luck with small hand tillers. Thus the cultivator.

Oh the tractor will be in the 30 - 45 hp range. I'm trying to figure out most of my implement needs and wants up front to get a better package price.


Any and all comments welcome /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks to all in advance

 

[Alan L.]

I have a 6.5 foot disk and it works pretty well although won't go very deep and requires multiple passes. For small areas an acre or less the tiller would be much better, as the disk can't do any good unless its moving, and needs room to move, you need room to turn around and go at it again and again.

I'm still planning to get a tiller, but will use the disk on the big stuff because its faster while not doing as good a job.

 

[kensfarm]

I agree w/ Alan.. a tiller for the garden.. disks for the big stuff. I've been looking at disks sets too.. but I can run the tiller shallow.. to chop weeds and bust up the surface layer.. the disks would still be faster.

Alan.. have you tried putting weights on your disk set.. it'll help make the disks cut deeper. I remember a disk set my dad used.. had a platform on the top that he'd put blocks on for weight.

There's another thread talking about cultivating on small gardens.. looks like the popular method is making the space between rows wide enougth to run a hand tiller.. that's my method too.. but I also use a hoe.. and pull weeds by hand.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

For garden size similar to yours, I'm using moto-tiller. Same machine I'm using for tilling vineyard (about 1/4 ac), two-three times a year.

Open fields we disking with our 70 HPtractor , even with too small disk harrows (but very fast /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

 

[Slamfire]

If you want to convert pasture to garden I'd get a moldboard plow and disk. I've tried the cultivator, disk method but it doesn't work very well. Tillers shouldn't be used in hard ground like clay, I broke the shaft on the one that came with my tractor. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[diggerjim]

I agree with using the disk for larger areas and the tiller for smaller areas. Although I have tilled a 6 acre patch in creeper gear (didn't think I'd ever get done)! Box blade with rippers down should get most of the surface junk. I added railroad ties for weight to our old disk to make it cut better in the tough stuff. Works good.
Happy tractoring.
Jim

 

[grandad]

I concur with others who point out that you need some ground speed to get effective use out of a disk, so it's less useful in a 50x60 garden. We just opened a 40x150 garden from grass. First with a disk, then 2 passes with a 6ft tiller. Tiller makes really fine seedbed, and we find you can get into soil that is still too wet to work with the disk, but you sure have to watch out for rocks! Any twine, etc. that's not 'biodegradable' will tangle in a tiller, of course. Boxblade would be a good choice for clearing the junk.

Other drawback to a big tiller is it can't be used for cultivating, so you still need something else after you've planted for weed control.

I went with a big tiller for my needs, but it sounds like the disk/cultivator/small tiller combination might work best for your needs.