Tilling and rocks...technique question...

SPIKER · May 17, 2004

I got a few big ricks with myu tiller, If tilling in unknown ground then go very slow, and keep a handy foot on the clutch to stop all action... I pulled up soem really big ones, and not broken a tine, (knock on wood!)

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

fishman · May 17, 2004

I had a similar problem and ultimately went with raised beds. I did clear out as many of the rocks at grade level that I could. From your discription it sounds like it would be very rough on a tiller.

mrcaptainbob · May 18, 2004

My tiller yanked a few 'boulders'....but I'm a piker compared to what you came up with!

Egon · May 18, 2004

I've found the large rocks are less problem than the fist sized ones that jam up and break tines.

Egon

Egon · May 18, 2004

For a garden area I am going to raised beds. Just building a screen setup to get rid of the rocks.

The rest I'm just trying to get a good clover crop, deer feed, started.

Egon

jimg · May 18, 2004

The good news is that eventually the rocks go away mostly. I have older sections of garden that havent produced a 'significant' rock in a couple yrs. I do nonpermanent raised beds. That is, I till and rake up raised rows. It works really well and can be intensively planted. I can't imagine gardening w/o rocks, mosquitos and black flys though. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

scrinch · May 18, 2004

I see the attraction of gardening with mosquitos and black flies, but what do you find so enjoyable about the rocks? They just sit there, don't they? Unfortunately we have none of those in our garden in California. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif But we do have legions of gophers to thin the carrots and keep us from getting too smug about how well the garden is going this year! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

nomad · May 18, 2004

( I've found the large rocks are less problem than the fist sized ones that jam up and break tines.
)

That's not why you aren't breaking the tines because of the large rocks. Large rocks can be considered as objects at "human scale", a scale human can't consider it "invisible" easily. (human scale here is a my own philosophical term here, btw.) If I am to express what I mean here with simple words;.. you open your eyes big when you see such "non-ignorable" rocks and you get careful and drive your tiller slower. This isn't so with smaller size rocks. You think there is nothing and you make your tractor smoke as much as it can by driving fast. - By the way, the rocks in a farming field aren't always bad. They are utilitarian natural objects in aerating the soil naturally by making the soil a porous medium.

Egon · May 18, 2004

Last time I looked at those rocks they didn't show any signs of permeability or porosity.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.

Egon

nomad · May 18, 2004

( Last time I looked at those rocks they didn't show any signs of permeability or porosity.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.

Egon )

The rocks themselves aren't porous/permeable of course, but their vicinity in the soil is an empty (no soil) medium and due to this configuration of soil+rock mixture, such a field can be considered as porous medium.

Tines break by being subjected to lateral forces as the small rocks jam.?? Well, the soil isn't a paper and tiller tines aren't a printer tines. Small rock jams won't apply any dangerous force onto the tiller tines. There is spaces between these small rocks jammed and these spaces will make small rock jams less dangerous than large rocks which don't have soft space in it. The only reason you break your tines in a field with small rocks is because you drive fast because you ignore small rocks.