rototiller.....front or rear? and other things...

[chuckwood]

I think the rear tine tillers are easier to control. I could run our TB horse with 2 fingers while standing in the next row over while cultivating until it would hang one of the many baseball size rocks that we have here, and then I am chasing it down a row of snap beans about 3 days until they are ready to pick. It did work real good at laying off rows and digging potatoes with the V plow.

I'm currently restoring a 50's model Simplicity walk behind tractor. Gonna hook a middle buster V plow behind it and try to use it for digging taters. I'm encouraged knowing you have already done this with a TB. The Simplicity model V has the original 5 horse Briggs on it, a big chunk of cast iron with a lot of torque.

 

[diezelsmoke]

Rent a rear tine to till up your area and buy a front tine for tilling it throughout the year, much easier to get around vegetation, etc. Once you have your area tilled up a front tine will be able to re-till year after year. Buy a 3-5hp front tine tiller and not the small 2 stroke.

 

[U&A]

Rent a rear tine to till up your area and buy a front tine for tilling it throughout the year, much easier to get around vegetation, etc. Once you have your area tilled up a front tine will be able to re-till year after year. Buy a 3-5hp front tine tiller and not the small 2 stroke.

Makes sense. What brands of front tine do you recommend?

 

[U&A]

Do you guys pull up your sod befor had or just till it? Iv heard of both.

 

[diezelsmoke]

Till in your sod with the rear tine. Look around for a front tine tiller that is about 10-20 years old the new ones are ok but throwaways imo. When tilling new ground till it in checker board direction.

 

[chuckwood]

Do you guys pull up your sod befor had or just till it? Iv heard of both.

Tilling sod is a huge chore unless you have it done with a big tiller attached to a tractor via three point hitch. It also leaves a mess of roots and grass in the dirt. In my opinion, if you are breaking new ground, it's best to hire somebody to plow it in the fall. Unless you are in a hot locale, repeated freezing and thawing will keep the exposed ridges of soil loose. Then in spring your tilling will go a *lot* easier.

 

[chuckwood]

Till in your sod with the rear tine. Look around for a front tine tiller that is about 10-20 years old the new ones are ok but throwaways imo. When tilling new ground till it in checker board direction.

I tried it once with a rear tine monster tiller I rented. I got the job done, but decided not to do it that way again and just hire a plowman.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

if it was my 'buy decision' and if I liked husky I would get the: http://www.maxtool.com/husqvarna-17-in-205cc-counter-rotation-rear-tine-tiller-briggs-straton? rear tine tiller.

especially, if you could get some financial help with it. the rear tine will do nicer job of tilling the soil. imo, having used both. if you would like an inexpensive way to further consider the rear tine... get the gardening book by D-ick Raymond, The Joy of Gardening. he was a tiller design expert at Troy Bilt and their Gardening Director for many years. you will not need another gardening book ever, imo... I garden according to his guidelines, advice and methods. ' bullet-proof!'

http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Ways-Gardening-****-Raymond/dp/0882663194

also, I would advise not letting anyone use the tiller who has not thoroughly read for a working knowledge the complete Owner's Manual and Operator's Guide! imo: no exceptions. it is easy to get hurt using such equipment or hurt the equipment... if the operator is not fully competent to use. in aviation we like to use the term for the pilot: current and proficient!

in reading the posts to this thread, I would say there is a lot of good advice and experience. sort it out and let us know what you get... of course, pix new tiller in action!!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

This is what I'm slowly doing on my garden plot, which has been in near continuous use since 1892. For a while, soil quality became so poor that something had to be done or I'd have to work up a new plot. I'm real lucky in that not too far away is the city's leaf dump for fall leaf pickups. The dump is owned by a paving company and they compost the stuff for about 5 years or so and then sell it as mulch. It's rich and black and loaded with trace minerals. Since I'm so close by, I get a big three axle dump truck load for $225.00 delivered. I've worked a number of loads into my garden and it's worked very well, much cheaper than mushroom compost. I also get fresh dump truck loads of new leaves from the city for free, and spread leaves between rows before my plants are too big for me to drive over them with a four wheeler pulling a trailer. The fresh leaves keep the ground cool and moist. All my woodheater ashes, and several neighbors woodheater ashes also get mixed in, along with some lime, to keep things from getting too acid.

>which has been in near continuous use since 1892.

omg!

 

[Sagetown]

I can get real close to my garden plants with this rear tine cultivator.
...... and it's fairly economical.

 

[grizz55chev]

That wouldn't work on my soil, we have a lot of clay content. Rear tine is easier on the body.

 

[CentaurG2]

Do you guys pull up your sod befor had or just till it? Iv heard of both.

You can also use a poly tarp to kill the sod. A black one works best but any color will work. Mow the area as close as you can and place the tarp down where you want to create your garden. Weight the tarp down well. The flatter it sits the better the results. Let the hot sun do the rest. The longer you let the tarp sit the better but if the area is getting a lot if sun you should have a tillable area in about a month free of grass and weeds. You can also use this method to “sanitize” an area of an existing garden if you are having trouble with a lot of weed seeds. You can also use it to kill cover crops.

No till garden options do exist. I have never done one but I have given it some thought.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/no-till-farming-zmaz84zloeck.aspx

 

[Greenthorn]

If you can ever run across these old ARIENS RT front tine tillers, they are the cat's azz, they of course arent for busting up sod, but for a master looking garden, they work it, best of all 3 hp only about 50 lbs and the wife loves to drive it.....yehaw.

 

[U&A]

I really appreciate all the help and advice. I will try real hard to get one this year but im not going to get my hopes up. the father in law and I almost always have different opinions on this kind of stuff and he is slow to make decisions. If I have to I will get one myself but would love if we came to an agreement on a good one. he will most likely want to get something inexpensive a LOWS or another big box store. I WILL NOT ever do that so wee will see what happens.

 

[chuckwood]

>which has been in near continuous use since 1892.

omg!

Throughout the years, load after load of compost and leaves have been dumped in the garden. Back when everyone was using horses for transportation, and had backyard chicken houses, natural fertilizer was easily available and everything was recycled. But there were quite a few decades when chemical fertilizers were used on my plot instead of the natural stuff, and the soil quality went downhill. It became hard, compacted, much lighter in color. And yields went down.

 

[chuckwood]

If you can ever run across these old ARIENS RT front tine tillers, they are the cat's azz, they of course arent for busting up sod, but for a master looking garden, they work it, best of all 3 hp only about 50 lbs and the wife loves to drive it.....yehaw.

View attachment 495625

I like this, with no shields in place you can see precisely where you are tilling.

 

[chuckwood]

No till garden options do exist. I have never done one but I have given it some thought.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/no-till-farming-zmaz84zloeck.aspx

One bad thing that tillers do is chop up all the earthworms. Those worms do a lot to improve soil quality.

 

[CentaurG2]

The little 2 stroke mantis type tillers are especially hard on earth worms as they really pulverize the soil instead of just flipping it. Black tarps can be hard on them too. Years ago we used to cover compost piles with black tarps. On a good sunny day you could really smell and feel them cooking. It works great if you want a sterile pile of rich compost, free of weed seeds but it does seem to cook out all the worms, bacteria, fungi etc. Today I keep compost uncovered and just keep flipping piles with the loader. It is red wiggler city. The chickens spend countless hours raking down the piles to find them. Makes for really great yolks.

 

[Philbert]

Back when everyone was using horses for transportation, and had backyard chicken houses, natural fertilizer was easily available and everything was recycled.

We used to be able to pick up free sheep manure from the University Ag campus, which is right in town. It was pretty funny to see all these nice Volvo station wagons and Acuras loading up sheep ____ in matching Rubbermaid totes! Now, they dispose of it through a contractor, and we have to pay for it.

Philbert

 

[Buckshot00]

Troy Bilt front tine. Going on 3 years Cranks on first pull.