Middle Buster

[Eric McCarthy]

Every so often I come across a job where someone would like me to tear up some dirt and build a garden bed to plant veggies and such in. Owning a landscape business on the side I cant afford to pass up on a chance to make money but on the other hand I get asked to till up a garden every so often. I wanted to know how well a middle buster would work on an area thats never been tilled before. I dont really see the need to invest in a 3pt tiller, so I was curious to know how well a middle buster or some other inexpensive means of tilling would work?

 

[Bulldog]

Eric, my neighbor had one of those a while back. He came up and pulled it thru my mom's garden to show me how it worked. It was so ruff and chunky afterwards that I had to run it 4wd (B7100) and just hit the high spots with my tiller trying to get the dirt to go in the low places. Ended up having to till it 3 times all over and 4 times in spots to get it busted up and level again. It had chunks in there after he plowed it that were as big as my rear tires. Maybe I just had a bad experience but I hated the thing.

 

[Hook]

Plowed many a garden for the public using a spring tooth harrow (all-purpose plow) and then finished with a Howard Rotovator (tiller). I use the same process on my wife's garden. The tiller makes the job faster and easier. The gardener can then easily use their hoe to lay off rows and plant seeds. Like Bulldog said the clods are a problem, particularly if the gardener is armed nothing but a hoe. You can do it with just the harrow but it takes several passes to break down the clods with the tractor tires and plow. If the ground isn't dry enough the clods are even worse.

 

[les525]

it will work ok for deeper tillage in softer sandier soils. the deeper the better but if your looking to make a nicely worked seed bed you will need a rototiller or use a disc and make numerous passes. i think a 1 bottom 3pt plow will have more benifit to the seed bed by turning up fresh soil.

 

[gktilton]

If trying to get a bed ready for planting you can't skip the tiller, unless your willing to do practically all the work by hand.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Yeah all the responces are exactly the one's I thought I'd hear. I didnt think it would be any more beneficial then what I've been doing in the past. So far I've just been droping the teeth on the grading box and useing that to break up the ground. But that method has about the same results as what the middle buster would. I may be able to get it a little finer but still alot of clums and nasty mess. I've searched around to see if I could rent a tractor mount tiller with no luck. Oh well back to the drawing board!

 

[Kubota Newbie]

Hey Guys,
I'm actually in the soil conservation biz, almost 30 years now. The one thing about tillers and disk's is that they are GREAT soil compaction tools, and used repeatedly will create a pretty significant compaction layer immediately below their working depth. Especially if the soil conditions are a little on the damp side. Don't get me wrong, I have both, and use them with great regularity. But, I can pretty easily create a hard layer just under where they work if I get ahead of the soil conditions. The tell tale sign of a compacted soil??? Big honkin' chunky slabs of soil like those described by Bulldog following a sub-soiling operation. Soil conditioning is not always so much about the tool you use, but when you do the work.
For row crops,wheat and alfalfa, no-till is the way to go, but most home gardeners (including my wife) aren't up to that level of management. Hence, in a couple weeks I'd better be getting my tiller mounted!
RC (aka Newbie)

 

[Hook]

Newbie is right about the soil compaction. That is why I always plow the garden thoroughly with the all purpose plow before tilling. I also have a sub soil plow that I use some years. In this part of the country we have a lot of red clay in the soil and as I said the ground needs to be dry before plowing. If not you are just making more work for yourself and compacting the soil even more. The challenge in our area is to prepare the soil so it will drain water. I get it in good shape when it's time to plant. By late summer it is hard as a rock.

 

[Kubota Newbie]

Back home in eastern Ohio we had some of that red stuff. An Upshur Clay Loam (more emphasis on the clay part). If you plowed it damp at all and it dried out it was like disking bricks, you'd go over and over and over it before getting anything that even resembled a seed bed.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

I'm just building a small vegetable garden in the back yard of a residental home. Limited on room to move and work with. I've rented small walk behind tillers before but they are a nightmare to use on new soil thats never been tilled before.