What to use instead of a tiller?

[Larro Darro]

If you get a good stand of chufa you will have to beat the turkeys off with a stick. They love that stuff. And if you are saving your seeds, you need to put back twice as much as you need. If you are like me, you can't stop eating the nuts.

And there is plenty of videos on You Tube that will show you all you need to know about plowing. When you get your plow adjusted right, and find out what the best speed is, you will do a better job of turning the soil. You get that done right, and the discing or tilling won't be as much of a job.

Larro

 

[Daver1963]

Some info on plowing. Its old, but still relevant.
Plowing Procedures (6 pages)
Opening Lands (4 pages)
Difficulties and Corrections (2 pages)

 

[kevin37b]

Get to the local tavern where the farmers hang . Talk to the boys and get a 30 pack on ice . Rip it and pick up the really obnoxious rocks . You should be able to maintain after that . This will be hard to do with little tractors .

 

[longrangelarry]

Ain't no taverns in Lyon County Ky! They just went wet this very year. There must be farmers, though, cause I see corn. Can't be many. The soil is so poor & rocky, I can't imagine anybody making a living that way. Maybe to pay the taxes on the land or something modest like that.

As for chufa, I planted some this spring but I think my seed was too old. Or was set too deep. I got little or no germination. I am using a drag tooth harrow to cover it, and sometimes the teeth decide to pop down and pull up too much dirt over the seed. Larro, if you have an idea how long seed lasts, let me know. I still have plenty and need to know whether to try again or buy new. It's been stored in an airtight bucket. I have a bad habit of over-buying everything and trying to use it the next year. With wheat or turnips it works OK, but it's not a good habit, I assume.

As for plowing, with the single bottom I was just trying to scratch out something to make subsequent tilling easier. But if we are going to use the 2 bottom and a cultivator or disc on new ground, and skip tilling for awhile, I will need to learn this tuff. Not as simple as it looks, is it? Using long narrow strips will make it simpler but I will have to remember to mark and skip over the fallow strips so as to stay on pattern. That way I can go up one strip and down the next consistently, and not have to back up so much.

What size rake and cultivator can I pull with about 20 HP? As for a ripper I assume we will need to use the larger tractor for just about any size. I will always use my Yanmar on my established plots cause they are too small to turn the JD, so I'll size the rake ands possibly cultivator for it.

 

[jeff9366]

What size rake and cultivator can I pull with about 20 HP? I will always use my Yanmar on my established plots cause they are too small to turn the JD, so I'll size the rake ands possibly cultivator for it.

Five foot Landscape Rake, four foot Cultivator.

 

[longrangelarry]

4 feet? Really? Yikes! That's just one of those triangular jobs. So, if I keep tilling my small plots with the 8HP 2 pt tiller, and reserve the cultivator for the larger fields and larger tractor, I guess that 7 footer I had my eye on is about as big as I can go, right?

Glad I asked...

 

[jeff9366]

Your Yanmar had 21-HP when new, but it is not new now. You probably have 16-HP now. On the positive side, it is a relatively heavy tractor for its horsepower, and weight is eternal.

Your tractor is about 48" wide at the tires. A five foot Landscape Rake will protrude 6" at each side, when pulled straight. However, most of the time, you will use it on an angle, to move dirt across its face. On an angle, it will just cover your tire tracks. This is the correct size rake.

((When angled best results will be achieved if the trailing end of the rake is higher off the ground than the leading one. This allows the end of the rake closest to the tractor to rake heavier than the end farthest from the tractor, creating a better screening action as the material moves across the front of the rake.) The vibrating action of the Rake Teeth breaks up sod and mulches the soil. (User tip: The faster you can go the better the vibrating action will be.) Pulverized soil passes between the teeth, while large stones and debris are gathered into a row. This screening action produces an ideal finished surface, ready for seeding or sod.))

In terms of the cultivator, you know your tractor and soil best, not I. A four foot Cultivator will have five tines in the dirt. That is quite a lot of draft, the jargon we use for soil resistance to your tractor's pull. That is considerable resistance for the 16-HP in the Yanmar to overcome. Also, you do not want to stress your twenty-five year old three point hitch to the point of breaking something. How is the tread on your tires? Does your 4-WD engage?

Have you determined if your Yanmar three point hitch is Category '0' or Category '1' ? You need to be sure before shopping for implements. The Operator's Manual or a few simple measurements will tell you.

http://www.tractordata.com/articles/technical/threepoint.html

It is impossible to give you worthwhile advice on implements for the John Deere without knowing its stats.

I am a unsure about using a "Cultivator: on ground that has not been worked for years. "Cultivator" is a very elastic description here on T-B-N. Generally speaking, Cultivators are light implements.....and you have rocky soil. A "Cultivator" may work, or you may bend/break its components.