Tree Planter (not digging in)

[Canada_CT230]

I have a Detco 101 tree planter. I do already have a call into the them but since it is the weekend I am trying to rack my brains to figure this out.

I tilled my field the other day to the max of the tiller (5"). The tree planter's coulter and shank does not penetrate the soil very far. It is only going in a few inches. No where near enough to plant trees. It is designed to penetrate 8 - 10" from the manufacturers specs.

I have tried to adjust the coulter depth, shank angle (using the hydraulic top link) and I even had the wife drive the tractor while I sat in the planter boxes adding (200 lbs) to the weight of the planter. No dice.

There are no adjustments on the shank and the coulter is currently set slighty below the depth of the shank. It is not even opening a nice furrow because of the depth. You can see previous wear marks on the planter furrow opener so I know it was riding way deeper.

I dug a test hole with the FEL and smooth bucket down to 2 feet below the surface. The soil structure goes as follows: 0 to 5" tilled, 5" to 12" is harder pack but not rock hard and fairly moist. Below 12" turns to sandy/soil mixture.

If I could dig a hole with my 68" wide smooth bucket without too much trouble I would say that a single coulter and shank should have no problem entering that soil type.

I tried it also in an area where the soil is pretty much undisturbed in a grassy area hoping that would maybe pull it in further. No dice.

The coulter has a fairly sharp edge on it and the shank has a pretty good bevel on it.

I dismounted the tree planter and mounted my sub-soiler and made a few passes on a test section to test if the soil is too compacted. I will have to remount the planter to test that section. My concerns are that if I have to break up the soil that much then that is a ton of work to prep the planting beds. That also kind of makes the planters coulter and shank kind of useless.

Any ideas???

I'm stumped.

The picture is the planter but not my tractor.

 

[jmc]

This sounds like a problem some guys have with their subsoilers. As you lower the cutting edge, the orientation of the chisel rotates as well such that the cutting edge is no longer the lowest part of the chisel. (so now it becomes a ski). Try digging a hole deeper than your target depth, back the tractor up to it and drop the chisel into the hole to see its orientation at working depth.

 

[sweettractors]

Add 500+ lbs to the weight box and shorten your top link just a little. Ken Sweet

 

[Canada_CT230]

I was thinking and scratching my head some more...I thought that maybe the coulter was riding on that harder layer keeping the shank from digging in. Take off the coulter! I dropped the 3pt lever and the tree planter dug in so fast and right up to the foot rests. I had to adjust the 3pt depth and shank angle with the HTL and all was good.

I guess in my application (tilled dirt field) there is no need for a coulter???

I thought about weights but there is no place to mount them and get the required weight and still have a nursery stock box.

I'm sure all is good now but will still follow up with the manufacturer.