Will a tiller pull rocks up out of soil?

[jim_wilson]

Wondering if somebody can answer this question for me.....

I've got a piece of my property where I am raising the grade by 2-3 feet. It's New England, so the soil - both the subsoil and the topsoil, can be pretty rocky. I've laid down 1-2 feet of the subsoil ( diggings from another part of the property) - and next I'm going to bring it up to the grade I'm looking for by laying down 18 inches or so of topsoil.

The area I'm bringing up to grade is approximately 100ft x 100ft , I've pulled a ton of rocks from the subsoil as I see them surface when I dig and dump.

What I'd like to do is get as many of the rocks from the topsoil as I can - and I'm wondering if I ran a tiller thru it - if that would "pull" them from the soil - by depositing them behind or something like that as I made a pass with the tiller.

I've never used a tiller before - but I thought I remembered seeing a few videos showing the rocks nicely being left behind after making a pass with a tiller.

 

[s219]

Chances are, you'll jam the tiller and break a lot of shear pins (and worse) but I am extrapolating from my experience with other debris -- haven't tried tilling rocky soil myself. Small stuff passes through, big stuff will make the tiller vibrate and jump, and medium stuff can get stuck in the tines.

If it was me, I might try a box blade with the rippers down but cutting edge up (so shorten the top link as much as possible). That probably won't go down more than about 6" though -- maybe less -- so you'd need to do something else if you want to go after rocks deeper than that.

Growing up in CT, I remember putting a few hundred feet of fencing in with my dad, and we got enough rocks to build a small stone wall.... I don't think we dug a single post hole that didn't have at least 2-3 rocks in it. Remarkable soil up there.

 

[jim_wilson]

Yes - there's a lot of rocks. I've already got a rock pile that is currently about 4 feet high by 10 foot wide and 20 feet long. And I've actually used a lot of the rocks I've pulled out for backfill on a retaining wall and as base fill under a stone wall I started building.

All of this is out of 1/2 acre lot.

The larger rocks are not the ones I'm worried about - they will fall out of the soil as I dig it from the pile with the tractor bucket and when I dump it, it's the smaller ones ( up to say 5" in diameter) - that I'm wondering about.

 

[jim_wilson]

Maybe a better way to phrase the question is: assuming that the rocks are small enough to pass thru the tiller - what does it do with them? Does bury them or chuck them to the surface ? And is the behavior different between the forward and reverse tillers?

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

As a fellow New Englander I can relate to this topic in a big way. I've found the tiller will pull round rocks to the surface for picking but shale tends to get stuck. I would use a tiller with a slip clutch over shear pins any day. Here's a few pics of a plot I tilled last weekend, this was virgin grounds and I began by using a scarifier to break up the ground before tilling. As you see there's a few piles of rocks. There were also a few larger ones that the scarifiers pulled up.
It took roughly three passes in opposite direction to get these results. I was running a Befco 50" offset tiller and had the slip clutch smoking a few times.
It will pull the rocks to the surface.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It seems rocks do get pulled up near the surface but they are sometimes still covered with soil or about the same color so they get missed when picking them up. I always have a bunch showing after a rain even though I scour the ground for them. Every time I till, I turn up more. I did the box blade scarifier thing, then bought a subsoiler (basically a box blade scarifer without the box and blade) and it can go at least 12" deep so it turned up a lot more rocks. I even used my backhoe and digging down about 2-3 feet to remove all the rocks from the garden but still missed some when I tilled again. They appear to be like the "Star Trek Tribbles" as they multiply very fast.

I suppose if you put enough top soil on them to get below the freeze line they would stay put, at least for a few years. Short of pulling a rock picker thru at 2-3 feet deep and I don't even know if this would be possible even with a 150 HP tractor, I don't know how one would get them all.
I just tried to get at least the larger stuff that bounced my tiller off the ground. Smaller stuff I can pick up as they show up after rains or cultivation.

 

[Sysop]

You're never going to take the rocks out efficiently once the dirt is down. You need to sift the rocks out as you bring it in. Get something you can use to screen the topsoil from the rocks.

 

[super55]

A tiller will definitely bring the rocks up. Personally I've never had an issue with rocks getting jammed between the tines and the housing but I am sure it is a possibility.

I had a few food plots that were really rocky after I tilled. What I ended up doing was using my York rake to rake them all out after tilling. The trick is to leave about 1 tine for every 4 in the rake to open up the spacing so the dirt doesn't pile up. Works great for pulling rocks and sod out of a garden while still leaving the dirt. It was by far the best thing I ever did to a pretty much useless tool to me previously.

 

[nybirdman]

I tell you what;my property (Northern NY) has been farmed since the 1850's and I am still pulling rocks.There are rock fences and piles everywhere.
The tiller will pull them up for sure;maybe a rock bucket after that.Good luck.

 

[countrybumpkin]

You're never going to take the rocks out efficiently once the dirt is down. You need to sift the rocks out as you bring it in. Get something you can use to screen the topsoil from the rocks.

This would be the best way to do it if your bringing in the dirt from another location, you tube has several videos of home built screens.

 

[jenkinsph]

While tilling will bring rocks to the surface (and I pick up what I see) it won't get a high percentage of them. Screening the topsoil as mentioned above will yield much better results. Screening can be time and labor intensive but is the best way to be rock free. You may not have the time to screen all of the material but having the top 6 inches clean will help get it under control. Probably will still have to pick up what rises to the surface each year regardless.

 

[jenkinsph]

This would be the best way to do it if your bringing in the dirt from another location, you tube has several videos of home built screens.

Should add that some rental companies have these screens available too so you don't have to build one for a single project.

 

[pohorsky]

If you are loading the dirt in a bucket, you could get or fabricate a grate that you could attach to the front of the bucket. It also might work to disc first and then rake.
If you are real serious about it, you could get something like this.

 

[powerscol]

If you handy with a welder, build yourself a Grissley and screen the topsoil your placing. You can make one out of rebar and make the openings as big or small as you want.

However if you can get or rent a heavy duty tiller, yes it will bring the rocks to the surface. Then you can run a rock bucket through and screen them out

 

[bigtiller]

A forward rotation tiller will jump over big rocks or/and spit the smaller ones out the back and usually cover them up. A reverse rotation tiller will spit them out the front to be hit again and again until they are removed by hand. And the big stuff will make a heck of a racket until the PTO stops spinning.

This rock story just happened to me friday.

2 weeks ago a 60x60 garden was tilled with a forward rotation tiller and the owner was told that two big rocks were hit but the rest of the garden was fine. But it rained before it was planted and the owner wanted it tilled again and called me. I have a reverse rotation tiller. The owner walked along beside me and picked up everything bigger than a softball. We found the two the previous guy hit and another 50 or so. What a nightmare, I'm glad he was there to help.

 

[Piston]

Could you rent a power rake that would fit your tractor? I think there is a large rental outfit in your area that I know rents out PTO versions. I contacted them a couple hrs ago to rent one but I ended up buying instead.

i would think that would be your best bet, and on top of that, you'd have a perfectly prepped seedbed for grass. Not to mention not having to go around and pick up the rocks, since they all be windowed or piled for you to scoop up with your bucket.

 

[coobie]

I would use a 5 shank ripper/cultivator to get the rocks to the surface then york rake them into a pile.I also live where there are a ton of rocks and it beats the bejesus out of my 6ft tiller.I bought a 7 shank ripper/cultivator for virgin ground and finish with my york rake.

 

[Egon]

Take out the rocks after you dump the bucket. Leave the bucket edge a few inches high as you spread the load. That should collect the larger rocks.

 

[jim_wilson]

This would be the best way to do it if your bringing in the dirt from another location, you tube has several videos of home built screens.

This is part of the reason I'm asking the question. The soil I'm using is all coming off my property. I had done some construction (built a barn and a longer driveway) and when I did that - I scraped all the topsoil and piled it into one corner of the lot. At the time I did this - I picked any larger sized rocks that were easy to grab out of the soil. Now I've finally reached the point where I'm trying to finish off the landscaping - so that whole dirt pile - along with the 18 inches or so off topsoil that were in that corner of the lot - has all been scraped up and moved to another larger pile.

Then I brought in a bunch of subsoil that I had piled in another corner - brought the grade up a foot and a half or so, and now I'm at the point where I'm going to lay the topsoil back down. I know there are rocks in there - and I'd like to get them all out - but I also would like to do it in the most efficient way. I currently already have Virnig rock bucket - so I could sift the soil first using that to get out all of the bigger rocks. That would leave behind stuff that is 3" and below. I've actually looked at the Desite soil sifter products:

But I don't know if it's worth the money to get a sifter for just this one small job. I could probably make something for a lot cheaper - but then I'm going to have a sifter sitting around that I won't need after this one relatively small job. I've thought I could probably rent the thing out afterwards and even make the money back over time, but in the end I've either got to buy or build it - and it's unlikely to be the most cost efficient way to do this.

I figure if the tiller will spit the rocks up to the surface - I can pick the biggest ones out with the rock bucket either when I'm digging the pile - or right after I've moved it - then I can run a tiller thru to hopefully spit as many of the smaller ones to surface as possible.

After that - I can just call it good enough.

 

[jim_wilson]

If you handy with a welder, build yourself a Grissley and screen the topsoil your placing. You can make one out of rebar and make the openings as big or small as you want.

However if you can get or rent a heavy duty tiller, yes it will bring the rocks to the surface. Then you can run a rock bucket through and screen them out

I've actually got a Virnig 54" rock bucket now - but it only really removes the larger sized rocks. Anything that is 3-4" and under still falls thru.

One idea I did have - was to pick up a 54" or 60" skid steer type bucket - because the bottom is wide - and then cut the bottom out and weld in something like a 1" screen. Then I could do what you're suggesting - just run the bucket thru the dirt I've placed and pull out any rocks.

I've seen a number of places selling skid steer type buckets in the 54" to 60" range for not too bad pricing ($600 or so) - and I've got a welder. I've even searched around for suitable screen - but haven't found exactly what I'm looking for (for the screen that is).