Soil conditioner

[Flyer1716]

I have an older B1750 with a loader that I used to use for mowing and general lawn maintenance. I have a ZD326 that I now use for mowing and have removed all of the mower attachment arms on the B1750 and now only use it for pulling a trailer around the property and using the bucket. I recently had a driveway replaced and now need to condition and seed a large area. I have six acres and would like to find an attachment to use for the 3 point rear hitch to break up and seed much of the six acres. I've been looking at a 60" soil pulverizer but not sure that will give me the results I'm looking for. I'm wondering if anyone has had luck putting something like this on one of these smaller tractors. I have very hard clay soil which at the moment is dry and hard as a rock.

 

[Foxrunfarms]

Working at a tree and lawn care company we use a power rake on the front of a skidloader for large areas with great success......I beleive they make a 3pt version. For smaller lawns we use a tractor tiller, then a bunker rake/ball Dimond groomer. We broad cast the grass seed down and go over it with the drag of the bunker rake and never not have grass grow.

I planted my 2 acre pasture and larger grass areas the same way. Tilled, broad casted, then dragged.

 

[D2Cat]

I have a soil pulverizer that is 6' with two rollers on the rear. It's heavy, of course a 5 footer will weigh less but depending on moisture and soil conditions and if it is a single or double rear roller will make your tractor work!

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Don't have clay, so have to ask, just how well does grass grow in clay ?

I suspect you really should add a lot of 'compost' aka organics to get grass to seed as well as grow well.
I know 6 acres is a lot of land to add to, so maybe concentrate the compost in the 'viewing area' ?

FWIW , I just did 1/2 ac for neighbour using my 5' rototiller,set skids to 'minimum depth'.2"+- ,he was thrilled.

 

[jaxs]

I also have clay that dries hard as concrete that can be challenging to do anything with. I have larger tractors to deal with it but I also have a B1750 I use after soil has been broken up. If you own,can borrow or can make use of a box blade for maintaining driveway, it will do the job for overseeding. Tilt box as far forward as possible then drop as many rippers as your tractor can pull at max depth. After one trip over ground you can drop additional rippers and go crosswise or diagonal. If you want to amend with compost, distribute compost then tilt box backward until it just skims ground before making second pass ripping. At this point your soil is ready for seed and you can wait until rain is in the forecast to broadcast seed and make a third trip in a diagonal third orientation to first two. On this final trip drop all rippers to a depth tractor can easily handle at a faster ground speed. Set blade to skim ground picking up clodds,rolling and breaking them up to cover seed. At this point you need to consider if soil is pulverized enough to make good seed contact or if a roller needs to be used to pack soil around seed. If it rained 1" or more on my clay after first or secound rip,clodds would shatter as they dry thereby further pulverizing soil. Rain or irrigation following seeding would effectively melt/pack soil around seed. This is one way doing it with an inexpensive piece of equipment you get more use out of in the future.