I have a L3010HST. I would like to get a tiller for it. My question is would a 6’ tiller be better or a 7’? My rear tires are 66” wide outside to outside so to cover that I would need a 7’ but everything I have read a 7’ tiller requires 30 PTO horsepower and my machine is rated for 25 PTO horsepower which would make the 6’ tiller be the best but then I’m not covering my tires.
Tiller
- Thread starter DTD350
- Start date
GreensvilleJay
Well-known member
Equipment
BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
I'm kinda confused but old skool math 6' is 72" and wider than 66", so a 6' tiller IS the choice. A 7' tiller is 84" and way too much for your tractor.
My tiller is 145sillymeteres, so 5' ( 60" ) +- and it'll consumed all of my 35HP when tilling hard/stiff soil.
How you till depends on what you're tilling. For me , market gardens, I 'offset' till 5' and LEAVE the left tire tread . THAT becomes the walkway between the 5' deep rows,so veggies are EASY to weed and harvest. That tread mark compact THAT soil, so less weeds too. It's also a 'marker'.
If you want it all fluffed up simply drive so that right tires go on top of the previous left tread depressions.
I can't see any '30HP' tractor running more than a 5' tiller, at least not the full 8-10" deep. Maybe in very sandy(loose) soil, something previously tilled several times.
It takes a LOT of HP,fuel and TIME to churn hard sod into fluffy garden soil !!!
My tiller is 145sillymeteres, so 5' ( 60" ) +- and it'll consumed all of my 35HP when tilling hard/stiff soil.
How you till depends on what you're tilling. For me , market gardens, I 'offset' till 5' and LEAVE the left tire tread . THAT becomes the walkway between the 5' deep rows,so veggies are EASY to weed and harvest. That tread mark compact THAT soil, so less weeds too. It's also a 'marker'.
If you want it all fluffed up simply drive so that right tires go on top of the previous left tread depressions.
I can't see any '30HP' tractor running more than a 5' tiller, at least not the full 8-10" deep. Maybe in very sandy(loose) soil, something previously tilled several times.
It takes a LOT of HP,fuel and TIME to churn hard sod into fluffy garden soil !!!
Yes you are correct I don’t know what I miscalculated that! And thank you for your advice. I am also market gardening with mine as well so really appreciate your take on the tiller. I was thinking about doing 9’ row spacing center to center. I know it’s not the most efficient use of space but I would like to be able to till between my rows for weed control and do heavy straw mulch within my 30” beds. Do you think that would be a good idea, or should I go with a spring tooth cultivator between my rows? If I do that then I think I could get away with an 8’ row spacing center to center. Currently I am doing 4’ row spacing center to center with woodchip walkways and landscape fabric row coverings but weeds continue to plague me big time. Any advice you might have would be beneficial. Right now I am only farming .25 acres of my 2.5 acre ability to market garden so land isn’t an issue for me.
GreensvilleJay
Well-known member
Equipment
BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
arrrrgh 'woodchips' in the garden....... I'd love to meet the guy who started the rumour that 'wood chips in veggie garden is a great thing to do' !! He's NEVER had a veggie garden !
Wood chips require huge amounts of nitrogen in order to decompose, HUGE. Guess where they get it from ? The same garden soil that YOU planted your veggies in. Hmm, anyone see a problem here ???
'wood chips'. OK, ANY black walnut in the 'wood chips' pile ? If so, say goodby to tomatoes,peppers and a long list of veggies.There's a poison (jugalone sp?) that will damage or kill off a lot of veggies. Took out 80+ of my toms one year. Poison is in the whole tree,roots,bark,limbs and leaves. Every time it rained, neighbour's tree dropped poison onto my garden,grrrrrr. Once in soil can take 3-5 YEARS to so away...
neighbour's 1 acre patch is terrible,gone from ok to bad to disaster, yet she CONTINUES to ADD more woodchips,as her son (whose NEVER had a garden ) insists she MUST do it......
You may have guessed by now ,I'm not a fan of 'woodchips' in the garden.
As for garden 'layout', mine was about 60' by 300',so 10 rows, 300' long,6' spacing. The paths were the compressed left tire tread . Minimal weeds in the pathways. Used straw and grass clippings as mulch where needed. Only weeded one row per day. Every fall I'd plow,disc,till then plant 'winter rye'. Overseeded ,probably x8 -x10 what a farmer would sow. Pretty sure rye chokes out the weeds as I didn't have a problem, well, until bindweed came along. THAT is a nightmare to get rid of once it get established.
I found making trellises for beans worked best for me. Had 600' of bush beans wiped out one year.sigh. A-frames allow 2 rows to grow up, form a 'tunnel you can walk through, OUT of the sun,beans stay dry and you cool. Trellies collapse for winter storage.Couple are 20 years old now.
Never did the rotate crops as I always heavily added 'compost' every spring. 'Compost' consisted of pony poop (stable sweepings), neighbours grass clippings, yard waste ( NO black walnuts ! ),kitchen scraps, chicken coop sweepings,etc. Compost 'pile' was really a 50' row,that I used to mix and turn every 2 weeks or so,even in winter,as required.More is better. I'd add 3-4 tandem loads of compost,every year. My top soil was almost 3' deep and could grow 1600# giant pumpkins.
The key to a great garden is giving back what you take. All to often ,people have a great garden for 2-3 years, then yields dwindle, then 'it's no good'. I always get the same answer to 'did you add any compost ? No.
Wood chips require huge amounts of nitrogen in order to decompose, HUGE. Guess where they get it from ? The same garden soil that YOU planted your veggies in. Hmm, anyone see a problem here ???
'wood chips'. OK, ANY black walnut in the 'wood chips' pile ? If so, say goodby to tomatoes,peppers and a long list of veggies.There's a poison (jugalone sp?) that will damage or kill off a lot of veggies. Took out 80+ of my toms one year. Poison is in the whole tree,roots,bark,limbs and leaves. Every time it rained, neighbour's tree dropped poison onto my garden,grrrrrr. Once in soil can take 3-5 YEARS to so away...
neighbour's 1 acre patch is terrible,gone from ok to bad to disaster, yet she CONTINUES to ADD more woodchips,as her son (whose NEVER had a garden ) insists she MUST do it......
You may have guessed by now ,I'm not a fan of 'woodchips' in the garden.
As for garden 'layout', mine was about 60' by 300',so 10 rows, 300' long,6' spacing. The paths were the compressed left tire tread . Minimal weeds in the pathways. Used straw and grass clippings as mulch where needed. Only weeded one row per day. Every fall I'd plow,disc,till then plant 'winter rye'. Overseeded ,probably x8 -x10 what a farmer would sow. Pretty sure rye chokes out the weeds as I didn't have a problem, well, until bindweed came along. THAT is a nightmare to get rid of once it get established.
I found making trellises for beans worked best for me. Had 600' of bush beans wiped out one year.sigh. A-frames allow 2 rows to grow up, form a 'tunnel you can walk through, OUT of the sun,beans stay dry and you cool. Trellies collapse for winter storage.Couple are 20 years old now.
Never did the rotate crops as I always heavily added 'compost' every spring. 'Compost' consisted of pony poop (stable sweepings), neighbours grass clippings, yard waste ( NO black walnuts ! ),kitchen scraps, chicken coop sweepings,etc. Compost 'pile' was really a 50' row,that I used to mix and turn every 2 weeks or so,even in winter,as required.More is better. I'd add 3-4 tandem loads of compost,every year. My top soil was almost 3' deep and could grow 1600# giant pumpkins.
The key to a great garden is giving back what you take. All to often ,people have a great garden for 2-3 years, then yields dwindle, then 'it's no good'. I always get the same answer to 'did you add any compost ? No.
Other than minor differences with regard to wood chips,I conure with GreenJay. Even a 5' tiller is more than a hand full for 25 hp. A 4' offset tiller allows tilling without tracks but unless it can swing over behind tractor you'll need to make two overlapping passes between rows after plants are growing. If you have never used a rear tine tiller I recommend renting one to see how you like it. You might decide to use one instead of a tractor powered or even in addition to for getting in tight spots and landscape beds.
In anticipation of physical limitations as I aged, I built hugelkultur mounds and beds for vegetables several years ago. They are so productive I grow annual flowers in a couple most years. While it's true process of composting consumes nitrogen, wood deteriorates much slower than hay,grass and leaves which means less nitrogen required. Walnut wood and leaves should be avoided like a plague anywhere near plants. I steer clear of Juniper,Bois D Arc, Locust,cypress and other slow to rot unless used for paths in the forest. Chips under plants save irrigation and eventually improve soil. Chips used to mulch plants year 1 are between rows and tilled under year 2. By year 3 when plants are in same row as year 1,chips will be well along in composting. I'm also a fan of cover crops to suppress weeds and enrich soil. Nitrogen fixing plants like clover and vetch will go a long way in feeding crops following season.
In the old days row- crop farmers used bedders/middle busters where clay content made soil clumpy when plowed. In Fall after crops were harvested high beds were thrown up so that rain-dry cycles during Winter pulverized clumps. As planting time neared the beds were busted into middles and allowed to again rest until planting. Fertilizer placed in middles before busting beds prevented nitrogen lose to atmosphere and placed it in root zone as plants grew.
In anticipation of physical limitations as I aged, I built hugelkultur mounds and beds for vegetables several years ago. They are so productive I grow annual flowers in a couple most years. While it's true process of composting consumes nitrogen, wood deteriorates much slower than hay,grass and leaves which means less nitrogen required. Walnut wood and leaves should be avoided like a plague anywhere near plants. I steer clear of Juniper,Bois D Arc, Locust,cypress and other slow to rot unless used for paths in the forest. Chips under plants save irrigation and eventually improve soil. Chips used to mulch plants year 1 are between rows and tilled under year 2. By year 3 when plants are in same row as year 1,chips will be well along in composting. I'm also a fan of cover crops to suppress weeds and enrich soil. Nitrogen fixing plants like clover and vetch will go a long way in feeding crops following season.
In the old days row- crop farmers used bedders/middle busters where clay content made soil clumpy when plowed. In Fall after crops were harvested high beds were thrown up so that rain-dry cycles during Winter pulverized clumps. As planting time neared the beds were busted into middles and allowed to again rest until planting. Fertilizer placed in middles before busting beds prevented nitrogen lose to atmosphere and placed it in root zone as plants grew.
A 5' tiller is working well for my gardening. It attaches to my BX23D with no problems. My garden produce is for eating, canning, friends and neighbors...none to sell so that makes a difference. But there's usually enough for everybody.
Weeds? Ha! I always give in to weeds by mid-July. I wish I could do better but it gets too hot and the soil gets too hard.
After soil preparation in the early Spring (with pto tiller) and after the plants have germinated, I use a Troy Horse tiller (original Troy) between the rows which are only about 3' apart. After tilling with that a couple of times, there is not much to weed until late in the growing season. By that time, I'm happy, the garden is happy, and we all rest! Fertilizer, manure (horse and chicken both) plus 10-10-10 and lime are plowed in for the winter. Then, when it's gardening time...back to the tiller.
Reading what some of you do, I feel really lazy!
The only problem...the tiller is green! :-(
Tractor Gal
Weeds? Ha! I always give in to weeds by mid-July. I wish I could do better but it gets too hot and the soil gets too hard.
After soil preparation in the early Spring (with pto tiller) and after the plants have germinated, I use a Troy Horse tiller (original Troy) between the rows which are only about 3' apart. After tilling with that a couple of times, there is not much to weed until late in the growing season. By that time, I'm happy, the garden is happy, and we all rest! Fertilizer, manure (horse and chicken both) plus 10-10-10 and lime are plowed in for the winter. Then, when it's gardening time...back to the tiller.
Reading what some of you do, I feel really lazy!
The only problem...the tiller is green! :-(
Tractor Gal
GreensvilleJay
Well-known member
Equipment
BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
That must be a lightweight tiller there TG ! Ain't no way my BX23S could spin my 5' tiller and might not lift it up ! First I'd have to remove BH, then install the BNIB 3PH kit....then add 4-600# weight up front....
For comparison purposes, I picked up a used RTA1550 this spring for use with my BX2680. I tilled from sod to previously worked soil this year. No issues at all under any condition, didn't sense the engine under excessive load at any time. I think the BX2680 could drive a 5 footer, it would be a weight and front ballast question mostly.