Plows

[tortoise]

Uff, thats rocky! What crops grow well?

 

[CrealCritter]

Glacial till as well. I pick out anything bigger than a fist. Clay about 2 feet down so I have to be careful. Marshy in winter.

View attachment 16833

Looks like river bed rocks all smooth. Do you have a metal detector? Find any nuggets? Looks like prime hunting ground to me.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Mini Horses]

I have dirt, no rocks. and grass!!!!!!!! Lot of grasses.

Considering. Wanting. 5' tiller for my tractor. I already have a 3' pull tiller that riding mower can pull but, PIA at end of row to get off, pull lever to lift, etc. Wish I'd gone with more costly DR brand that has auto lift. Fine in brand new, nothing planted area, to just circle and circle, no concern with other rows. Then my smaller tiller, typical walk behind, for between rows during growing is nice.

Figure I can use one on tractor for pasture rework, also. Just not wanting to spend and then hate it. Keep watching for good used one. Hard to find. Plus, not much less than new when you do. Have a disc for tractor, just doesn't end up fine enough, like a tiller.

@Okiepan do you walk these or use an animal to pull the plow?

 

[Hinotori]

Uff, thats rocky! What crops grow well?

Squash. Squash love it here.

Tomatoes depends on weather that year. Cool and rainy causes late blight.

Sweet corn does ok. Not so much field corn.

Berries do very well. Plum trees.

 

[Hinotori]

Looks like river bed rocks all smooth. Do you have a metal detector? Find any nuggets? Looks like prime hunting ground to me.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

Glacial rounded. I find junk quite often when I go out with the detector. I'm always picking up broken pottery and glass.

 

[Okiepan]

I have dirt, no rocks. and grass!!!!!!!! Lot of grasses.

Considering. Wanting. 5' tiller for my tractor. I already have a 3' pull tiller that riding mower can pull but, PIA at end of row to get off, pull lever to lift, etc. Wish I'd gone with more costly DR brand that has auto lift. Fine in brand new, nothing planted area, to just circle and circle, no concern with other rows. Then my smaller tiller, typical walk behind, for between rows during growing is nice.

Figure I can use one on tractor for pasture rework, also. Just not wanting to spend and then hate it. Keep watching for good used one. Hard to find. Plus, not much less than new when you do. Have a disc for tractor, just doesn't end up fine enough, like a tiller.

@Okiepan do you walk these or use an animal to pull the plow?

I actually walk and have 1 horse that pulls it , , my other horse is JD Green,
The tiller I purchased was a terraforce 5' and I could not be more happier with it very well built.

 

[Mini Horses]

@Okiepan ... Aha, horse power of both types!

The Terraforce for the JD? Not familiar with the brand but I do want the ability to lift, back, drop, move about -- all from my seated position. The pull one I have does a fantastic till job but, manuevering is an issue if space restrictions....once planted. It doesn't back easily with riding mower. Plus, I'm not into pulling that rope to start anymore. although it starts easier than a mower I have! I could use for just the couple times a year for a full till.

I can leave turn room for the pull unit but that lever to lift it needs a bull elephant to move it from the dirt. The tractor disc cuts well after a couple passes and I may try that, then follow with a rake to smooth, then decide, before spending a couple grand. Might be ok. Especially with walk behind tiller to use for season after initial prep.

So many decisions!

 

[Okiepan]

@Okiepan ... Aha, horse power of both types!

The Terraforce for the JD? Not familiar with the brand but I do want the ability to lift, back, drop, move about -- all from my seated position. The pull one I have does a fantastic till job but, manuevering is an issue if space restrictions....once planted. It doesn't back easily with riding mower. Plus, I'm not into pulling that rope to start anymore. although it starts easier than a mower I have! I could use for just the couple times a year for a full till.

I can leave turn room for the pull unit but that lever to lift it needs a bull elephant to move it from the dirt. The tractor disc cuts well after a couple passes and I may try that, then follow with a rake to smooth, then decide, before spending a couple grand. Might be ok. Especially with walk behind tiller to use for season after initial prep.

So many decisions!

Have you considered a harrow ?

 

[flowerbug]

As the title says How do you work your ground up to be fertile growing soil ?
Do you use a walking plow , single bottom , etc Tiller ?
I use a walking plow , A single bottom plow , followed by discing , A cultivator follows, every once and a while I use a tiller .
So how do you do it ???

mostly low-till to no till now. it saves such a huge amount of work. a stirrup hoe scraping the surface doesn't till it just slices off weeds so the only stuff i'm digging is to either reshape a garden (to get it above flash flood stage) or to bury debris and organic materials or to mix in some amendments (like wood ashes).

almost all gardens are put up at the end of the season by digging trenches and burying the garden debris. rarely this goes over 5-10% of a garden space. each year i put those trenches in different locations so that there is a kind of rotation in disturbance.

i would greatly like to have cover crops but the management (aka Mom ) does not like mulches left on the surface and doesn't like cover crops so bare dirt is what she considers tidy looking. it greatly sets me back on soil quality and improvement but that is what she wants so it is what she mostly gets.

when a garden gets overrun with weeds to the point where i can't keep it up then i will dig holes and skim the surface and bury it all. this is more of a disturbance than i'd like but at least it recycles all the nutrients and debris and weeds. sometimes i remove only the weed seeds and certain plants which go to the weed pile where the animals can pick though it and eat what they want and the rest settles out and breaks down eventually. as of yet after 20+ years that weed pile isn't big enough to recover the dirt from (and any remaining undigested weed seeds) so it gets to sit there a while longer until i really need to raid it for some dirt. it would actually probably be better for me to bring in a few yards of topsoil if i really do need it since those weed seeds in there are going to be pretty persistent... we'll see...

we keep about an acre of various gardens and decorations and mow only a little bit that is remained that has not been turned into gardens or decorations. the largest area we mow is actually the neighbor's property.

the stirrup hoe allows for keeping a lot of space to be kept relatively weed free, but it must be used often enough for that to work. it goes pretty quick in the more controlled garden spaces. the others with less control of the edges often take a lot more work. i'd be quite happy to get rid of the rest of the grassy areas we mow. i can probably keep all of them more weed free in less time than it takes for me to mow and all those edges wouldn't be a source of so many weeds any longer... oh well... it keeps me moving.

 

[Mini Horses]

A disc harrow? That's what I use. Several rows of rolling discs. But, you still have a good amount of unlevel terrain... Can't easily row or bed until smoothed. Have no compactor follow, so the rake will both smooth and collect roots, etc to remove. The soil is good, pliable. So much so that the disc can easily pile it. The area is fenced, so some maneuvering of all equipment use. Just faster to use most anything other than walk behind tiller for initial work. May need to just be slower.

This is after raking