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Post by daylilydude on Mar 9, 2018 13:01:29 GMT -5
How do you plow your garden and why do you use what you use?
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Post by spike on Mar 9, 2018 13:34:45 GMT -5
For years and years I used a front time tiller. At first it used to beat the heck out of me and drag me through the garden at will. (Eventually I learned how to better handle it and things ran much more smoothly.) Then I would use the 3 prong cultivator on the rows to smooth them out.
Then one year I had surgery and my husband had to do the tilling for me. I had always done the tilling after he left for work so he had no idea. My City Boy got the tiller out, pulled the cord and I swear to all that is holy that I heard that tiller chuckle evilly. That sucker took my husband for a run for his money. If he wasn't going full tilt through the garden the tiller was trying to dig to China. The swearing was epic. I laughed so hard I tore out stitches.
From that point on hubby insists that our friend come down with his Massey Ferguson tractor with the tiller.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 9, 2018 13:53:21 GMT -5
For years a had a super c. and a drag disk. this worked very well, but My tractor hasn't been cranked in 6 years.
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Post by octave1 on Mar 9, 2018 14:23:54 GMT -5
No tilling, no plowing for me. Cover crops in the fall and never, ever walk on the beds. My soil is totally free from compaction.
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Post by meandtk on Mar 9, 2018 14:30:43 GMT -5
TrActor and also bcs tractor/tiller
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Mar 9, 2018 14:32:08 GMT -5
An old Sears rear tine tiller. 30 years old and it worked fine yesterday.
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Post by tomike on Mar 9, 2018 14:57:21 GMT -5
I use a small tiller that I've had for more than 25 years. Last year, I had problems with it and apparently it was the carb and it was changed. Last fall, I wanted to start it up and I could not get it started. I may have to get a new machine this spring because I don't think that it would be wise putting more money in this tiller. I will however have a close friend look at it and give me advice before deciding what to do..... repair or buy new.......
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 9, 2018 15:58:14 GMT -5
No tilling, no plowing for me. Cover crops in the fall and never, ever walk on the beds. My soil is totally free from compaction. You swing in on a vine to plant and harvest? hahahaa. Just teasing. I know what you meant
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 9, 2018 20:53:19 GMT -5
We have a very old Mary Bilt front tine tiller. It is probably 30-40 years old but hubby replaced the motor about 2 years ago. It works fine but we only till once a year in the Fall so it doesn't exactly get a lot of use.
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whistech
Pro Member
Posts: 300
Joined: April 2013
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Post by whistech on Mar 9, 2018 21:56:29 GMT -5
I garden in five 4'x24' raised beds so I use a Mantis tiller. It does a good job and the trick I learned the hard way is to run the gas tank dry before storing. By doing that it will usually start on the second pull.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 9, 2018 22:08:53 GMT -5
I could easily classified as an equipment nut. Besides farming with big equipment, my gardening is done mostly with garden tractors. In the fall I till in a lot of shredded leaves and then plow the garden with a moldboard plow. Come spring a good layer of composted cow manure is spread and all tilled again.I use a garden tractor to plant the garden. During the summer the garden is cultivated. Root crops are dug using a garden tractor. Being 76 yrs old it makes gardening easy and I have a great time.
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Post by daylilydude on Mar 10, 2018 6:52:28 GMT -5
farmerjack41, I don't know about anyone else, but I would love to see a picture of your garden.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 10, 2018 8:24:32 GMT -5
I have only a couple of pictures left any more. Would be glad to show them, if had the knowledge to do so. Am sure someone will tell me how, but remember you are dealing with an Ole man, who has a hard time figuring how to turn my notebook on!! LOL.
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Post by guruofgardens on Mar 10, 2018 9:18:23 GMT -5
We have a John Deere tiller for the community garden that gets used by 4-5 people that like to till. Not everyone tills in the Fall, but will in th Spring. I like to till in lots of leaves and 'slop' we've collected through the summer. Now it's time for the small home garden and some tilling. That gets done every other year or so, depending on the hardness of the CO clay. It needs lots of leaf mold, compost this year.
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Post by paulf on Mar 10, 2018 10:17:27 GMT -5
My garden used to be tilled fall and spring with my forty year old Sears 5hp front tine tiller. For the past many years the mulch gets tilled in the fall. No till would be nice but my soil needs the organics incorporated. In a few years I will try and let the mulch work itself in during the off season. Maybe even next year.
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Post by september on Mar 10, 2018 13:01:58 GMT -5
No tilling since I went to raised beds. I loosen and weed by foot with a garden fork. I used to have a Mantis Tiller, but even that was overkill and I didn't replace it when it quit working.
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Post by Gianna on Mar 10, 2018 14:08:08 GMT -5
"plow"? ? ? ? ?
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 10, 2018 14:12:05 GMT -5
I gotta man coming Monday to plow mine. Woot woot!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 10, 2018 14:49:02 GMT -5
I don't have any use for plowing here since I garden in containers and a few small raised beds. I actually don't need power tools of any sort in my little garden*, except when I need to trim trees.
*DH uses weed whackers and a mower to handle the grass around the garden, though.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 10, 2018 20:59:55 GMT -5
Gianna: The question marks behind the word plow, do I understand you are not sure what is being talked about? If so, Google: garden tractor plow days, there will be a number of sights show up, to look at. All of us that do things like that have a sickness that can't be cured. LOL. Anyway that is plowing. Basically turning the dirt upside down.
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Post by Gianna on Mar 10, 2018 22:18:55 GMT -5
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 10, 2018 22:27:47 GMT -5
As I recall that picture is from PA. They had something over 50 people show up. They plowed over 80 acres in a afternoon. Anyway, does this answer your ?.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Mar 11, 2018 0:35:32 GMT -5
For years and years I used a front time tiller. At first it used to beat the heck out of me and drag me through the garden at will I had one of those the first 5 years here, and it would put me through a ringer! Still, I'd increase the garden size a little each year, but in '87 I injured my shoulder, and a friend (the same one that now has 2 new knees, and has done a lot for me during this injury!) did it for me in '87 and '88, and I remember him doing half of it each time, and sitting down to rest, saying things like (but I can't really print it here ) "How the heck do you do this???" In '89 I got the rear tine Troy Bilt, and wondered why they even had those front time tillers any more! Each season I would increase the size of my garden considerably, until almost the entire back yard was my garden! lol Only the area under my overhanging neighbor's tree, and that behind the shed , and a little between the deck and the garden got spared. And the 'tiller came with a trench cutter, to make "raised beds", which has worked great, as in very rainy times, the trenches fill, but the rows are never under water, as before. About 5 years ago I got a gas Mantis, which I use for the front bed and the areas under the trellises - things that I used to do by hand, but not any more! lol
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 11, 2018 11:45:37 GMT -5
It takes strong arms and a tight butt to run a front tine tiller or it will beat you to a pulp. The best use for one is as a cultivator, but it will plow also. It does it's best job as a plow if you remove the wheels and adjust the spike.
A rear time does a great job plowing, but it isn't worth a hoot as a cultivator.
I have too many health issues to run either one anymore.
I'm loving my raised bed, but I'd need 40 of them to do what I want to do.
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Post by spacecase0 on Mar 11, 2018 12:14:46 GMT -5
I have a a front tine tiller, it seems to work ok, it had its gas cap break 2 years ago and is now leaking gear oil... but the big issue is that weeds get wrapped around the shaft and it is a total pain to clear them out. so lately I have been using a shovel. it is faster.
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Post by spike on Mar 11, 2018 12:55:11 GMT -5
I have been using a shovel I also have a broadfork that I love how about one of those? link
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Post by spacecase0 on Mar 11, 2018 22:48:58 GMT -5
a broadfork would be nice, but I don't have one. and shovels are about 1/10 the price. as I don't have much money anymore, the broadfork is just out of my price range
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Post by spike on Mar 12, 2018 8:30:49 GMT -5
I wish mine had wheels!! Mine has a small wheel you can pull down to move it with but I found it was easier to turn it on and run like hell behind it to get to where I wanted to be. Mine looks exactly like this except I have a "spike" not a 'fork like thing' in the back. link
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 12, 2018 8:51:33 GMT -5
spike, That's the first one I've seen with a wheel on the front. Very peculiar.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 12, 2018 9:19:53 GMT -5
I have never seen one with a wheel either. Maybe it's just for moving it on a hard surface but anyway it says "no longer available on Lowes.com" so maybe it was not popular.
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