Is getting a tiller worth it?

[Grimor]

I have a 02 BX2200 with a loader and mowing deck. Mostly use it to move picnic tables around and clean out burn pits. We are planning on adding to our garden this year with a 24'x70' area, and maybe a small 1/4 acre food plot for some deer the following year. The areas are all currently mowed grass with minimal roots.

Is it worth trying to mess with a 3 point rotary tiller to add to the tractor, or should we be looking at something more like a disc. the BX2200 is on the small side of tractors so not sure if it would run or pull something wider then 4ft. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[mcmxi]

I've never owned or used a tiller but do run an 8ft hydraulic double gang disc, and from what I've seen at Good Works Tractor Co. you want a tiller. Courtney has lots of good videos on his YouTube channel.

Tilling Archives

Shop 3-Point rototillers, subsoilers, plows, cultivators, discs, box blades, rear blades, and bedder-hillers for planting gardens, food plots, and crops.

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48" Rotary Tiller for subcompact tractors Ideal Farm Equipment

A perfect rotary tiller for subcompact tractors, the Ideal 48" tiller rips dirt down to 7" deep! Install food plots, gardens, or do driveway prep with this little tiller.

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[GreensvilleJay]

YES get a tiller !
Unless YOU are getting younger ,the older you get !!

I used to subsoil,plow,disc and till all the veggie gardens (about 3 acres total),but after adding a LOT of compost(organics) for 5-6 years, only really needed to rototill.
Mine's a 5' unit,offset,so I leave left tire track in the ground....it becomes the foorpath, so EASY to hoe from both sides of the tilled soil.
A 4' tiller is a great size,suited to your tractor and since most of your garden is worked, tilling is easy. As for the deer plots, see if a neighbour can plow them N-S, then E-W , once or twice ? leave for 1-2 weeks( to dry up the turds) then rototill, again, N-S,then E-W. do this and the soil remains pretty flat and level.
If can't be plowed, so low and slow !

Build a BIG compost pile,grass,leaves(NO black walnut !!!!!!) kitchen scraps,flowers, MORE is BETTER ! Scraps of new drywall help with toms and peppers ! A LOT of people get great yields 2-3 years then 'sick,yuck,lousy garden ' nonsense. They forget you HAVE to replace what you take !

subsoiler, breaks up the hardpan from notill operations, lets air/water get waay down
plow, folds over sod,allows sun/water to break big sod into smaller chunks
disc, breaks up the chunks into smaller pieces
tiller, pulverisze pieces into nice,fluffy soil

 

[Pepsiboy]

I have a 02 BX2200 with a loader and mowing deck. Mostly use it to move picnic tables around and clean out burn pits. We are planning on adding to our garden this year with a 24'x70' area, and maybe a small 1/4 acre food plot for some deer the following year. The areas are all currently mowed grass with minimal roots.

Is it worth trying to mess with a 3 point rotary tiller to add to the tractor, or should we be looking at something more like a disc. the BX2200 is on the small side of tractors so not sure if it would run or pull something wider then 4ft. Thoughts? Suggestions?
View attachment 147207

Grimor,
I have a BX 2350 with the factory loader, 54" mid mount deck mower, and a 4 foot rear tiller. I got all of this in 2008 to take care of my property in Southwest Missouri. My garden plot (for me and my wife) is about 25 X 50. I used this tiller to break ground for the garden Missouri being mostly red clay and limestone rock it was pretty hard going the first 3 or 4 passes through the new garden. I would till the whole thing, then go pick out the rocks. till again and pick again. Each time I would till, I would raise the shoes on the tiller 1 notch. That first was not too good for production, but we made do.

The next year I took of the shoes from the tiller and let it go as deep as it wanted to go.Got a lot more rocks out of it, but the soil was getting more rich with the composted leaves and fertilizer we added in. By the 4th year, we were doing pretty well for production.

What I now do each year is in the fall when garden is done, I keep the shoes off the tiller and till the whole thing as deep as it will go. When the leaves drop from our maple and oak trees, I shred them and spread over the garden. In the spring I till again at full depth and get ready to plant.

We have been doing it this way since 2009 and have had pretty good success with our garden. Good luck with yours. I think your tractor will work just fine with a 4 foot tiller.

Dave

 

[Grimor]

Well, those were some quick replies. Seems like a 4' tiller is the way to go. Appreciate the feedback

 

[mcmxi]

Well, those were some quick replies. Seems like a 4' tiller is the way to go. Appreciate the feedback

Check out this video around the 4.45 mark. Courtney is running a 25hp tractor with a tiller that looks to be about 48".

And another informative video from GWTC.

 

[jyoutz]

A disc needs to be heavy and have a heavy tractor with enough hp to run it. It’s doubtful that a disc would be very useful on a BX. Get the tiller.

 

[Lencho]

I agree with the 4’ tiller for the work you describe. Another benefit is the counter weight it provides if you have a heavy load in your FEL.

 

[Yotekiller]

I have a 5' tiller for my 2502 and have used the crap out of it. Put in a large garden and several food plots and it has worked very well for me. Great investment!

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Good day.

I have a tiller for each of my tractors. I use them both seasonally spring / fall. My uses are for garden and hobby farm…I don’t plant food plots but the deer do eat what I plant especially the winter wheat and buckwheat which I believe are similar to a food plot…oddly enough they are located near a observation tower.

For the winter wheat and buckwheat, IMO you really don’t need a tiller, but it will prepare the soil just fine. I think a disc would be just fine though the the wheats will grow whether you till or disc or even drag…buckwheat would probably grow on concrete. So tilling those areas is overkill…but that’s what I have and it works great.

As far as the garden, the tiller will prepare a superior seedbed for a garden compared to a disc.

So to your question, is tiller worth it? If I did not have a garden, I would probably rather have a disc or a Firminator (out of my price range). But since I have a garden I will use the tiller for whatever I can including the larger patches where I plant some grains and potatoes.

To me I it comes down to what/how you want to do things in the garden. Both a tiller and the disc can handle the food plot.

Good luck.

 

[cthomas]

I have a LX2610 HSDC(24.8 HP) and run a 58 inch rototiller. Yes it does take a little longer to till but can make the dirt into dust. I do a 100"x60" plot. Also check out the local used implement sites for a tiller as they really don't get used a lot and don't really wear out.

 

[Tractor Gal]

A tiller is worth the investment. For most of my gardening, I had always just used a plow and a disc. In the Fall, I would plow the soil under, allowing the weather to do its work until Spring. As leaves fell, I would shred them and put onto the garden, and along the way, add chicken and horse manure. In the Spring, pull the disc through a couple of times and all was good to go.

For some reason, I decided to get a tiller. What fun! My tractor is a BX23D with MMM, loader and backhoe. Of course the backhoe has to come off to use the tiller so that's always a work in process but the front loader add ballast to the heavy tiller. Even though this is a BX23D, I bought a 5' tiller and this little tractor has no trouble with it. I didn't want tire tracks.

The process now remains the same of putting leaves and manure on the garden over the winter. but when it's time to plant, the tiller is all that is needed.

Once that tiller is on and I see what it does, I wonder why I didn't get one sooner. It makes the soil so wonderful. I purchased a used tiller and had it shipped...sadly, it is green...but was hardly used. Even with shipping, I was financially way ahead of the price of a new one. The tines looked brand new. Because tillers aren't generally used too often, getting a used one at a good price may work for you, too. I did have to shorten the PTO so that was a new experience! But, the sweat equity made the outcome even sweeter. I hope you find your experience as pleasant as the rest of us have.

Tractor Gal

 

[KKBL]

Can you rent a rototiller to see if it is what will work for you before buying one?
Around here the local hardware store has equipment and attachments for rent. I don't know what they charge, but it may be worth looking into.
Just a thought.

 

[forky]

I also think a tiller is worth the money. I run a
58" land pride tiller with the L2501. Going slow is the key to success.
Start shallow with the sod and increase depth one notch at a time.
The only pain is run- in the clutch every spring before use. Not a
huge deal, just prep time.

 

[Flintknapper]

Well, those were some quick replies. Seems like a 4' tiller is the way to go. Appreciate the feedback

My Tractor is only 20 PTO hp and will run a 4' tiller just fine.

This is virgin soil, dry, sandy loam and some clay. A single pass did this much.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Here is how I decided to get a tiller.

I wanted to start gardening and making food plots for deer. So as I was talking about it, my new SIL, proudly volunteered to let me use his "commercial walk behind tiller"

So I borrowed/used my SIL's "Death Trap, POS" walk-behind tiller, for about 1.5 hours.

To this day, I am not sure if he was trying to help, or trying to "knock me off".

OMG, that thing shook me around, jumped and bucked so much that I felt like this guy.

After I found the belt in the grass for the 53'd F'ing time, (It flew off so many times that I actually painted it orange so I could find it easier)

I decided that life is way too short to "hand till" anything.

The next year I bought a tractor and a decided to "throw in" a Tiller as part of the package......

Now my biggest complaint is that I occasionally "spill a little of my drink in my lap" when I hit a big stone.

Night and Day difference.

I think mine is a 5 footer and my 2501 handles it beautifully. (but I still suck at gardening )

 

[Bugzilla46310]

When I was an early teenager 50 some years ago, my dad had me use this to till our 20x40 garden. Wasn’t as nice as the picture but it did work well even though the operator wore out!

 

[johnjk]

Here is how I decided to get a tiller.

I wanted to start gardening and making food plots for deer. So as I was talking about it, my new SIL, proudly volunteered to let me use his "commercial walk behind tiller"

So I borrowed/used my SIL's "Death Trap, POS" walk-behind tiller, for about 1.5 hours.

To this day, I am not sure if he was trying to help, or trying to "knock me off".

OMG, that thing shook me around, jumped and bucked so much that I felt like this guy.

View attachment 147230

After I found the belt in the grass for the 53'd F'ing time, (It flew off so many times that I actually painted it orange so I could find it easier)

I decided that life is way too short to "hand till" anything.

The next year I bought a tractor and a decided to "throw in" a Tiller as part of the package......

Now my biggest complaint is that I occasionally "spill a little of my drink in my lap" when I hit a big stone.

Night and Day difference.

I think mine is a 5 footer and my 2501 handles it beautifully. (but I still suck at gardening )

I used to have a walk behind tiller. If you want to check that every joint in your body moves, it’s for you. I gave it to my son when he bought us first house. They still use it. I bought a 4’ disc from EA a few years back to get my hops started then back issues happened and it went from the delivery truck to a corner in the barn. I may turn some beds this spring and start to put in some veggies. I do have a couple area where I want to put down native wildflower seeds so I’ll disk that too. Now that the snow is gone I may get the brush hog hooked up and get a jump on it.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Funny thing... 'walkbehind' tillers are NOT what you need to use.

Instead use a 'walk BESIDE tiller' !!!

really

WHY do most people walk behind and stomp back down the nice fluffy soil the machine just chewed up ??