3-Point Hitch What implements would you suggest? MF 253

[Duwop]

So my wife was so ecstatic about my most recent tractor addition that she asked if I may sell my Farmall Cub. I thought yeah I might as well sell, do I really need two tractors. She tells a girlfriend who tells her husband who in her words has been whining about needing a tractor for a garden. So he makes arrangements to rush over and tell me he wants to buy my tractor, oh! Ok. ( I was hoping to keep until spring after I get my ground worked and because I can do a winter garden this winter.)

My MF 253 is set up to bush hog. I have no implements for gardening with this tractor, I'm not sure I would or could garden with it. It's current configuration is set to wide stance and works great for hogging on the hills on my land. Let me be clear, I am no farmer just an ole guy who wanted to move to the country as I had fond memories of country life as a youngster. I enjoy growing a garden and putting up food for winter or the hard times and taking care my family. I am no dummy either, I bought and restored my 1956 Farmall Cub tractor and rebuilt the hydraulics. I remember a great deal of what I was taught as a kid growing up in the country.

So my question is what attachment would you recommend for a basic garden with this MF253? Can I garden with it set to wide stance or should I consider not selling the cub and keep it for the garden?

 

[jeff9366]

A PTO powered tiller and a one row cultivator would be the two basic tractor implements for a home garden. Note the center furrowing point available on the ETA cultivator. A PTO tiller will pretty much prepare soil for planting with one pass.

Your MF 235 is about the size of my Kubota L3560; I would consider it perfect in size and wide stance is fine, if tires will run down your garden rows.

LINKS:

Tillers For Gardening

Everything Attachments Field/Garden Cultivator with Option for Furrowing and Bedding Attachments

 

[Duwop]

Ok thanks, over the last 8 years or so I've been building my soil with organic waste and have refrained from tilling the soils. I just turn with plow and disc until workable and I have had good yields but more weeds than I would like. My neighbor has one of those tillers you described and his garden is just beautiful he does cultivate between rows more than I would too. I saw or read somewhere that tilling kills worms and we want to keep them in the garden. I also don't use fertilizer well just very a small amount. If I get a tiller, would I not need a plow? Or just the the tiller and one row cultivator just to get going with a garden.

I must say I'm am disabled and need to do as few steps as possible to achieve the results. Truth be told I should just give up the garden but life I think would just stink. Thanks for your help and I will post what do as I go along.

 

[boggen]

tiller is kinda of one tool unit.

on the other hand for larger setups....
bottom plow (mold board plow / turn over plow), discs, cultivators, drag harrows, etc.. end up getting used...
www.everythingattachment.com has videos / good amount of text that covers everything you will most likely want.

youch just caught specs on the MF 253
TractorData.com Massey Ferguson 253 tractor information
57 HP *arghs*

you can use cat 1 "category 1" implements with a bushing for the 3pt hitch. but if you hit something hard, or try to take a quick turn while implement is down in the ground, you will most likely mangle and bend the cat 1 3pt hitch implement / attachment pretty quickly.

just googling "1956 farmall cub tractor" looks like a nice little 15 to 20HP machine guessing. i say keep it if you got the implements for it.
allis chalmers ca 1950 ish for myself with bottom plow, disc, drag harrow, belly mower, sickle mower. and not sure if i would want to ever trade it in for something. it has enough power for small little garden without making to much of a mess, and can turn it around fairly quickly for next pass. though guessing it doesn't have power steering?? farmall looks like you have good eye sight clearance from seat vs the MF larger tractor.

===========
EDIT make life easier for you with one of the tractors, and hooking up 3pt hitch stuff....
3pt hitch telescoping lower lift arms.
pats easy hitch (see attachment forum on TBN here)
3pt hitch quick attach (may need to modify 3pt implements/attachments to work with quick attach) as in pins for lower links, and notch area for upper link of the 3pt hitch connections.

 

[jeff9366]

I just turn with plow and disc until workable and I have had good yields but more weeds than I would like. Or just the the tiller and one row cultivator just to get going with a garden.

A Disc Harrow and a PTO powered tiller are both tillers. One will not kill more/less worms than the other. Both are adjustable.

With a PTO powered tiller you will only have to cover the ground once, decreasing soil compaction.

You state your ground is in good tilth, no, you will not have to plow.

Connecting a PTO powered implement to the PTO output on a tractor is always a struggle for me.

A garden cultivator will deal with the weeds until the crop grows up as tall as the bottom of your tractor.

If you are happy with your plow and Disc Harrow now, stay with them. Add a single row cultivator, which is not too much money, to deal with the weeds. Single row cultivators are available sized for the Farmall Cub too.

 

[boggen]

i see i got myself into trouble with a pto tiller as a one tool unit...

a PTO tiller, can sink further into the ground, vs a disc, and a PTO tiller, can chop up the ground into a much finer chunks per say. pending on soils, you can chop the dirt up to much and break down the soil. and this more likely with a PTO tiller. but a pto tiller, you may still need to do more than one pass. even with a PTO tiller you may still want to bottom plow to remove the hard pan layer that can and does happen. it may not be every year, but ever couple years or more.

a disc can leave some bigger chunks, and leave clumps of roots / weeds, a disc may not completely break down through the ground. more so on hard dried out soil (drought years)
a bottom plow, can help break up and remove hard panning lower down in the soil to make things easier to disc, and a drag harrow, or like can help drag out clumps that a disc may leave behind to flatten things out. a cultivator can be used in substitution of a bottom plow. to help break up the hard crusted surface dirt, to make it easier for a disc to sink down into the dirt.

a tiller you can line up to edge of a garden drop and go, and only have a foot or so of messy edge, a bottom plow, disc, drag harrow, you tend to have extra garbage at the edges, that really don't get hit. for large open areas like actual farm fields. being able to take a trip down the edge of the field to clean them up is no big deal. smaller gardens, with possibly trees, house, sheds, bushes, regular lawn/yard you may not have actual room to turn around to clean up edges of the garden. granted if you don't mind tearing up the yard a little bit, plow, disc, drag harrow can work.

 

[Duwop]

Thanks to all, I'm glad I asked the ?s as your comments will be considered. So today as I rushed around to get my ground worked before letting this guy buy my Cub tractor. I could not get the plow to dig under the soil it just wanted to ride up and flat on the soil. Why? This has not happened before, I checked adjustment to see if everything was as of last time I plowed in the spring.

 

[Duwop]

tiller is kinda of one tool unit.

on the other hand for larger setups....
bottom plow (mold board plow / turn over plow), discs, cultivators, drag harrows, etc.. end up getting used...
www.everythingattachment.com has videos / good amount of text that covers everything you will most likely want.

youch just caught specs on the MF 253
TractorData.com Massey Ferguson 253 tractor information
57 HP *arghs*

you can use cat 1 "category 1" implements with a bushing for the 3pt hitch. but if you hit something hard, or try to take a quick turn while implement is down in the ground, you will most likely mangle and bend the cat 1 3pt hitch implement / attachment pretty quickly.

just googling "1956 farmall cub tractor" looks like a nice little 15 to 20HP machine guessing. i say keep it if you got the implements for it.
allis chalmers ca 1950 ish for myself with bottom plow, disc, drag harrow, belly mower, sickle mower. and not sure if i would want to ever trade it in for something. it has enough power for small little garden without making to much of a mess, and can turn it around fairly quickly for next pass. though guessing it doesn't have power steering?? farmall looks like you have good eye sight clearance from seat vs the MF larger tractor.

===========
EDIT make life easier for you with one of the tractors, and hooking up 3pt hitch stuff....
3pt hitch telescoping lower lift arms.
pats easy hitch (see attachment forum on TBN here)
3pt hitch quick attach (may need to modify 3pt implements/attachments to work with quick attach) as in pins for lower links, and notch area for upper link of the 3pt hitch connections.

Yes gardening with the Cub has been easier with the " cultivision" idea . I have cultivators for the cub with different size sweeps and bits. The Hp comes to 11hp for engine and reduces to 8 hp at PTO on the cub.
The history of my Farmall Cub is the man who built my house around 1944 bought it new in 56 and used it for his truck garden. At the time of his death his two sons who built their homes across the road bought his Cub at the estate auction. They continued to use it for their gardens until I purchased it from them. I had watched them do a garden for several years and told my wife I could do a bigger garden if I had one of those tractors. I got the chance to purchase the tractor back in 09, I remember telling the brothers they had to sell it to me as it belonged on my farm as it did when their dad bought it as I now own their Dads home. They liked the idea that my interest in the history of the machine and it's owners and sold it to me.
I also bought one of the sons 57 Chevy 3800 one ton dually and have been trying to get it road worthy. Which he sold to me just before his death. He had wanted me to restore it as I had restored his fathers Cub tractor.
As Paul Harvey would say" now you know the rest of the story"

 

[jeff9366]

Today I could not get the plow to dig under the soil it just wanted to ride up and flat on the soil.

Adjusting a plow is complex. You have not described what type of plow you had. Most likely the Top Link needs adjustment. A small Top Link adjustment can make a considerable difference in how a plow "sucks".


LINK TO PLOW WISDOM:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...oard-plow-wisdom-farmwithjunk.html?highlight=

 

[downslope]

Duwop,
You don't say how big your "garden" is, but I generally agree with boggen on this one. If it's a typical home garden or even up to 1+ acre you're making a BIG mistake to get rid of the Cub that you already have with the cultivators.

You've got the MF set up wide so you would need a "tiller" at least as wide as the tires to prep a garden. Let's say the MF is set up at 68" centers for example; if the rear tires on the 253 are let's say 15" wide (a guess), you'd need a 7 foot tiller to cover the tire tracks. The 253 might not even want to pull a 7 ft tiller, especially if it's not geared slow enough. How wide are the tires spaced now?

Ideally you should keep both tractors if you want to both brush hog and do a garden. To use only the 253 for a garden I would say you'd want to look for a 3-bottom moldboard plow (a 2-bottom won't work right with tires set wide), and a 3-pt disk harrow that's wider than the wheels. Then you'd need a 3-pt cultivator which is nowhere near as nice as what you have on the Cub but will do the job. You could plant one row of large vegetables (tomato, squash, etc) or 2 rows of smaller veggies per bed.

How are you prepping the garden now? You say you have a plow on the Cub, which is good for turning under the organic materials you're adding.

As far as the plow not going in the ground this time of the year, but it worked OK in the Spring and you have it set up exactly the same, it can only be one of two things (or both): 1. The soil is very dry or 2. the plow share(s) are dull/worn out.

I can't emphasize enough if you're serious about a garden, DON'T GET RID OF THE CUB. If you're able to keep both, take your time and look around for a used plow that is suitable to use on the 253 and practice with it. If the garden plot is small you could plow it "one-way" and not end up with dead furrows. Then you could look for a disk and these two would take all the primary tillage load off of the Cub. At that point you could look for a cultivator and make the decision if you want to sell the Cub. If you sell it now you will be making a mistake as far as the gardening goes.

 

[Duwop]

Duwop,
You don't say how big your "garden" is, but I generally agree with boggen on this one. If it's a typical home garden or even up to 1+ acre you're making a BIG mistake to get rid of the Cub that you already have with the cultivators.

You've got the MF set up wide so you would need a "tiller" at least as wide as the tires to prep a garden. Let's say the MF is set up at 68" centers for example; if the rear tires on the 253 are let's say 15" wide (a guess), you'd need a 7 foot tiller to cover the tire tracks. The 253 might not even want to pull a 7 ft tiller, especially if it's not geared slow enough. How wide are the tires spaced now?

Ideally you should keep both tractors if you want to both brush hog and do a garden. To use only the 253 for a garden I would say you'd want to look for a 3-bottom moldboard plow (a 2-bottom won't work right with tires set wide), and a 3-pt disk harrow that's wider than the wheels. Then you'd need a 3-pt cultivator which is nowhere near as nice as what you have on the Cub but will do the job. You could plant one row of large vegetables (tomato, squash, etc) or 2 rows of smaller veggies per bed.

How are you prepping the garden now? You say you have a plow on the Cub, which is good for turning under the organic materials you're adding.

As far as the plow not going in the ground this time of the year, but it worked OK in the Spring and you have it set up exactly the same, it can only be one of two things (or both): 1. The soil is very dry or 2. the plow share(s) are dull/worn out.

I can't emphasize enough if you're serious about a garden, DON'T GET RID OF THE CUB. If you're able to keep both, take your time and look around for a used plow that is suitable to use on the 253 and practice with it. If the garden plot is small you could plow it "one-way" and not end up with dead furrows. Then you could look for a disk and these two would take all the primary tillage load off of the Cub. At that point you could look for a cultivator and make the decision if you want to sell the Cub. If you sell it now you will be making a mistake as far as the gardening goes.

I will try to address all of your questions but I'm leaning to calling the guy back and telling him I've changed my mind. First, size this year 30x60 previous years it's been as big as 1/2 acre. I'm now disabled and want to continue to grow my own food. Either it gets easier with different equipment or smaller in size. So this year I scaled back on size but I purchased the 253 recently and was trying to see if with different implements for it I could still have a good size garden. Putting on cultivators can be a real challenge for me now.

My thought of a tiller for the 253 is that instead of row gardening maybe I'd do bed gardening. I have plenty of land to do mutable bed patches.

Prepping now consists of mold board plow to turn ground in fall, disc in spring. Sometimes I till with a pull behind agrifab pull tiller it has it's own motor for turning tines. It can be pulled behind my 23 hp craftsman garden tractor/ lawn mower.

My research indicates that the plow share needs to be sharpened and we need some rains and the plow will suck in just as it should. Serious about a garden, I will grow something until I can no longer get out of the house, but my disability is slowing me down a lot faster than I want. I grew up in the country, born in NW Indiana in corn country we raised a garden all of my young life. My adult life took me to larger cities where work was plentiful and my neighbors could hear and smell my gas. I was fortunate enough to return to country life with my second young family and have been loving every minute of my life. My family has grown and moved on my disability has been kicking my but the last 3 years. Thanks to all who are helping me with this decision.

 

[HEC]

I have a little bit bigger garden than you and same size tractor as your 253 with a 57 hp kubota . I use a spring tooth harrow and disc harrow on prepared soil in the spring . I have a 3 bottom plow for new ground which I use very little . I also now have a 26 hp kubota for cultivating . The larger tractor will compact the ground quite alot. Like some of the others I would suggest keeping your cub , you may find a use for both as I do , if not you can always sell it at a later date . You may also find you can keep a certain implement on one tractor so you don't have to keep changing implements as often which would be a great help for you .

Good Luck,

 

[Duwop]

I've been researching cultivator/ tillers at Everything Attachments. I like the idea of working the ground with the non-PTO tillers. I would like to hear from people who may use these, when using these to rip soil and grass/weeds. What happens to the grasses or weeds unlike tilling where they are buried into the soil. It seems today most people go the PTO tiller route. Gardening in the old days before PTO tillers they had used cultivator/ tillers to break ground and then one or two row cultivator to work rows until plants got high enough to shade. Please share your thoughts I'm just trying to learn.

 

[boggen]

if area was recently a yard / lawn, i drop bottom plow to cut and roll the grass and roots over,
then grab a hold of the disc, to cut everything up.
then... run a drag harrow
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/141574-drag-harrow-conversion-3-pt.html (i only have a single section vs what they are showing 2 sections)

i like being able to adjust the teeth/tines on it at different angles. i have taken some sheets of plywood and laid over top and then tossed some concrete blocks on top of that. for additional weight. the extra weight lets it sink in a little further (more so in dry drought years) and i can use it like a "hand held metal garden rake" to basically rake all the grass and roots up and out. creating a big old pile of crud that ends up getting caught up on the tines/teeth. crud being some dirt, dust, grass, roots. for the most part no major problem of grass growing back, granted there are still some roots here and there that end up surviving, but overall clears it up so not constantly dealing with the grass for the rest of the year as the garden grows.

drag harrow, is one of many implements out there that can act like a hand held metal garden rake if prepping a fresh spot in the yard/lawn.

chain link fence, style drag chain harrows, to yorke rakes, to culivatiers/rippers, even a box blade to some extent.

if ya going to grow potatoes, till things up (with what ever stuff ya have), and then a hiller, is basically just 2 discs on on each side, that ya drag through the tilled dirt, to form a hill.

if ya got a box blade, cultivator, other words something you can just drop one or two shanks/teeth/rippers down at a time. you can make a V into the ground if you want to hand plant, say onions, corn, peas, etc..., and then adjust the 2 disc on a hiller closer in and run back over each row, to bring dirt back on top of the seeds. other words a make shift planter, but without the automatic dropping of the seeds of a planter. it means extra pass in the garden, but less hand held metal garden rake or use of a hand held hoe to pull dirt back on to the seeds.

a cultivator were you can space the rippers at different widths apart from each other and remove or add them. can make it easier to deal with weeds between just planting to till plants get larger to point they don't fit under the tractor any more.

alot of above means getting wrenches out and jacking around getting things lined up. on small gardens it may not be worth it. on larger gardens it may be worth it. tons of ways to go about things, work with what ya got !

 

[Piston]

No way on god's green earth would I ever sell that cub if I were in your situation.

By the way, cool stories about the history. Don't let that cub leave its birthplace!

And...please post a picture

 

[downslope]

Duwop, I admire your gardening perseverance in face of the physical limitations you're encountering.

You already said it's getting difficult to install/remove cultivators on the Cub. If you could get the MF set up to do the tillage maybe you could leave the cultivators on the CUB year-round. If you can get the wheels on the MF in to about 60" centers or less you could use a 2-bottom 3-pt plow and a small 3-pt disk for basic tillage. You don't say how wide that pull behind self-powered tiller is but if its not too wide you could use it to "cultivate" between large plants like tomatoes if you space the rows right, especially when the plants are small. For small seeded crops like greens, lettuce, turnips, etc I've seen Planet JR knives adapted to a Cub for close cultivating when the plants are tiny.

Tell us what tasks you're having difficulty with and maybe some of the posters here can give a few suggestions on how to make things easier for you, especially if you have both tractors to use.

 

[Duwop]

Plow rides on top because it is wore out needs new share to cut and possibly point share too. Now if I can find a source for plowshare parts.
I think I will keep the cub. I'm familiar with how to garden with it. If I sold it I wouldn't get enough to buy what I would need to set up the MF253 for gardening. I'm not guaranteed to be able to garden tomorrow, so I'm not going to invest anymore than I have already. Got to go before I begin to rant about the ills of being disabled.

I know some asked for pics and I will get one of Cub and pull behind tiller tomorrow.

Add one more row for me. Spirit

 

[Piston]

I think I will keep the cub.

:drink:

 

[motownbrowne]

Good lord, I wouldn't dream of selling the cub. If you have a system that works in your garden keep it. No need to reinvent the wheel. If you sold the cub and bought a tiller you'd only be ahead a couple grand at most. Is it worth that to totally change the way you've been doing something? Plus, you know the history of the cub and how it relates to your property. It's a piece of history. Keep them both!

 

[cartod]

So glad you aren't selling the cub.