Tiller Tiller Questions

Alan L. · Mar 6, 2005

I am planning on buying a tiller finally. I had to wait until the prices went up so that I could spend as much for as little as possible......

Anyway, with, say a 56" tiller, how long would it take to till 3 acres about 3-4" deep to get ready for planting bermuda? This is heavy clay not rocks. I read a review on here earlier about it taking 5 hours to till a 40 by 75 garden. According to my calculations it would take 712 hours to till 3 acres! If its that slow, maybe I should just use my disk again?

This is clay that came out of the digging of my pond almost 5 years ago. I have been planting cover crops on it, and it is somewhat improved, but still when I disk it, if conditions aren't perfect I end up with 1" - 2" clods even after several passes. I figured a tiller would chop it up finer.

johndeere2210 · Mar 6, 2005

" I read a review on here earlier about it taking 5 hours to till a 40 by 75 garden. According to my calculations it would take 712 hours to till 3 acres!"

Yeah, I know. I used to have a tractor like that. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Seriously, I tilled 2 1/2 acres of corn stalk ground in about three hours when we planted our fescue. This was done with a 48" tiller. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

JerryG · Mar 6, 2005

Moldboard plow and a disc.

texastomtom · Mar 6, 2005

I have an 84" on a 58hp / 50hp pto 4720
Kinda sandy soil,,,, some clay

I can do about 1 acre in less than an hour. (open area - not my garden )

My Garden area was Probably 100' x 100' last year....
Less than an hour also,,, it has a number of obstacles that slow me down some on that.

I would think a 54" + slightly smaller tractor would not be much more than twice the time...

I go full depth on the tiller which leaves over 6" of tilled soil over the hard pan..... at least in my type soil...

I tried the disc at the first of the year and really couldnt get the kind of penetration and type soil condition I desired....

If you deep broke / busted the soil first then maybe the disc after to smooth out somewhat and break up soil more would be appropriate.

I plan to use the tiller pretty much as it was so stinking expensive for a deere 84" tiller that I will have to use it a lot to seem worth having spent the bucks for it.....

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I have lots of other work to use it on besides the garden though,,, so I am very pleased with it.

rdln · Mar 6, 2005

Mathematically, it would take 3.5 hours to till a 56in x 5.25 miles doing 1.5 mph.
(about the speed I till)

add switching directions and potty breaks and I would say about 9 beers.

12oz ers to be exact.

Alan L. · Mar 6, 2005

Based on these responses, it sounds like I might do the 3 acres in 4.5 to 6 hours. Quite a bit more time than it takes with the disk, but I just haven't got real good luck with the disk in this soil. In better soil on my property the disk does fine, but not this soil. If it takes 6 hours, thats probably worth it.

Thanks for the replies.

kayssupply · Mar 7, 2005

Hoye tractor is in Texas. If he is close, you might look at the Japanese tillers. They can till much faster if you have a multi speed PTO. A used Japanese tiller in good shape usually sells for about half what a new US tiller does. They don't really like hard pan but if it was busted up first they do a great job. They also have gage wheels and that makes holding a set depth pretty easy and adjustment is just the turn of a wheel.

MarkV · Mar 7, 2005

Alan, why not disk first and then till. If the clay has been partly broken up by the disk the tilling will go faster.

MarkV

KiotiJohn · Mar 7, 2005

I think you'll find that you're able to go a little faster with the tiller if this is not virgin soil. Soil that has been turned a good bit in the past is usually not quite so difficult to till and you can keep the tractor speed up a little.
The real challenge is soil that has never been tilled/disked/etc and is very compacted.
I suspect you'll enjoy the seat time regardless. John

Bird · Mar 7, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( 5 hours to till a 40 by 75 garden )</font>

Now that would really be slow. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I just had a 40" tiller with a main garden plot of 83' x 103' and another plot of 83' x 15' and it never took an hour to do both of them.