What size plow for small garden?

[sarahnbj]

I'm planning to put in 100x100 garden, but not sure which implements will work best. I just pulled a 2 btm plow out of the weeds greased it got everything working, but I can buy a 5 btm semi mount for 350 and sell the 2 btm. My options for a disk are either a 7ft 3 point for $500 or a 13ft pull for $650. These shouldn't be a problem pulling with the 4020. It comes down to convenience, time, fuel and best investment. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[jon dirt]

I would roll the soil over with the bottom plow and use a tiller for the second pass.

 

[sweettractors]

I'm planning to put in 100x100 garden, but not sure which implements will work best. I just pulled a 2 btm plow out of the weeds greased it got everything working, but I can buy a 5 btm semi mount for 350 and sell the 2 btm. My options for a disk are either a 7ft 3 point for $500 or a 13ft pull for $650. These shouldn't be a problem pulling with the 4020. It comes down to convenience, time, fuel and best investment. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Because of compaction problems, the 4020 Deere should not be in the garden. You might squeak by if you do a lot of subsoiling. Ken Sweet

 

[flusher]

I'm planning to put in 100x100 garden, but not sure which implements will work best. I just pulled a 2 btm plow out of the weeds greased it got everything working, but I can buy a 5 btm semi mount for 350 and sell the 2 btm. My options for a disk are either a 7ft 3 point for $500 or a 13ft pull for $650. These shouldn't be a problem pulling with the 4020. It comes down to convenience, time, fuel and best investment. Thanks in advance for any advice.

My 86-year old neighbor plants a large veggie garden (100 x 200 ft) using his old JD 2640 "Field of Dreams" tractor and an 7-ft wide Massey Ferguson offset disc (3pt type) to clear the stubble off the garden. The 2640 is a 70-hp tractor, somewhat smaller than your 90-hp 4020. He uses an old Allis Chalmers 718 riding mower (hydrostatic tranny) with a 36" wide rototiller to work a lot of worm casings into the soil each year. He feeds the neighborhood with corn, squash, etc each year.

 

[spruce Deere]

Pull'n a two bottom plow with a 4020 seems as odd as using a 4020 for work'n the garden just my :2cents:

I know a few farmers around here swear by there 4020s'..... cult like following to be exact. And It probably, na..... it would be frowned upon NOT to consider using such a beast for 'gardening'

I would get that 5 bottom plow and the 7 foot disk, plow under the garden spot and then disc in a criss-cross pattern till it was a nice garden tilth

What'cha need is a tiller... and for the 4020, a MANLY tiller at that sweettractors could help with that:thumbsup:

 

[nspec]

A 5 bottom plow and 13 foot disc is waaayyyy overkill for a 100x100 garden. So is the 4020. I'm a huge 4020 fan. We used one to plow hundreds of acres. You need a much smaller tractor. That'll barely turn around in that little garden. As was mentioned before, you'll compact the living daylights out of the place. Something in the neighborhood of 40hp and the 2 bottom will be just right. That would work fine with a 7 foot disc also.

 

[sarahnbj]

I know 4020 is large for gardening, but I already own it and use it for feeding. It doesn't make sense to me to buy another tractor just to plow the garden.

 

[Carykong]

100 x 200 garden--a antique farmall or case VAC tricycle,for example, would serve ya better for the garden you describe. Variable wheel base,agile,for small row crop garden that you describe. Instead of a big plow and disc, you could buy a compete Case VAC with two bottom plow and disc for low dollars.
Those old tractors can get back in the garden in ths summer for cultivating. Tires are narrow.

 

[leonz]

I'm planning to put in 100x100 garden, but not sure which implements will work best. I just pulled a 2 btm plow out of the weeds greased it got everything working, but I can buy a 5 btm semi mount for 350 and sell the 2 btm. My options for a disk are either a 7ft 3 point for $500 or a 13ft pull for $650. These shouldn't be a problem pulling with the 4020. It comes down to convenience, time, fuel and best investment. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hello Sarah,

There is no reason you cannot use the 4020 for the garden. Here is the secret only for your ears buy the five bottom plow and change the shares out with 5 sets of www. weisecorp.com minimoldboard conservation tillage plow shares and you will have no compaction and you may want to plow with it as the Weise conservation tillage plowshare sucks down to 14 inches deeep and creates little drag as the share is very small and they roll over the dirt with barely a wimper and the national corn grower champions cant be wrong about them for sure.

 

[oldnslo]

How many of us older retired farmers used our farm tractors for gardening and everything else that needed doing? If you have the space on the ends to turn around use what you have. Unless your soil is heavy clay driving across it twice a year isn't going to do enough compaction to amount to one less hill of beans...

As far as plowing deeper. Unless the laws of physics have changed burying residue more than 6 - 7 inches reduces how fast it decays and blocks nutrients, moisture, etc from getting into the soil.

Roy