Jump to content

Unofficial Home of Old Simplicity & Allis-Chalmers Garden Tractors

Sod Buster #4


JordB110

Recommended Posts

herb: use a tiller after they get to tall to use a tractor. herb bottom picture looks like a spike tooth harrow and the top 2 look like a culivator to me.agco918 chad e shafer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I need some more farming help. The wife said her garden needs “cultivating,” and told me to make sure it gets done. She gave me a hoe and a midget rake. Yeah, right……. like I’m going to put on a straw hat and work in the hot sun getting blisters on my hands. I decided to use my tractor. Simplicity walkers use a nice adjustable cultivator with wheels. Tractors use something similar. I have neither. So, I went to the scrap heap and pulled out 3 implements I thought might work. The first 2 look like cultivators (shovels), but not adjustable like Simplicity, and are missing parts. The bottom photo is what I used to loosen the dirt between the plants. It has “spikes” instead of “shovels”. What is it..? Cultivator, harrow, other..? http://home.att.net/~herb.niewender/cult-seq.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd categorize the bottom one as a harrow, since it doesn't have removable "shovels" and it appears wider. I have no idea if that's an accurate categorization though. Number three would serve ths same general purpose as the other two -- it just doesn't have the ground clearance and may not "till" as much dirt up.... Because of their wide shovels, one and two would do a better job of "hilling up" the dirt around the plants, helping to cover any weeds between the plants, and thereby reducing the amount of manual hoeing or weeding needed. Each probably was designed for a specialized use, though all look like they're supposed to till up the entire space between two rows with just one pass. It also appears that all three may have been originally intended to have an adjustable width, by adjusting the cross-bar that connects the three main shafts. My guesses -- and they're that for sure. I envy you your "scrap heap" -- you certainly gather up the raw materials of lots of projects from it... Kent
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kent, Okay, I'm starting to understand. A cultivator "mounds" the dirt on both sides of the plant as it loosens the soil and removes weeds. That spike thing I used was narrower. After I loosened the rusted hardware, I adjusted it to the width of the tractor. What do you do when the plants are too high to straddle..? Are they tough enough by then not to need cultivating..?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The tractors designed specifically for this kind of work, like the Allis model "G" are often called "row crop" pr "high crop" tractors. They have high ground clearance, which allows them to cultivate taller plants... You can cultivate corn that is slightly taller than the clearance of your tractor or cultivator -- it will bend a little and recover. But, if it bends too much it will snap. Other plants, like beans or peas with runners on the their vines must clear the crossbars or other low points... Notice how high the crossbars are on the one pictured mounted on the tractor... Without being able to tell how wide or how high they are, the ones you scrounged up look more like they were either for a walking tractor or used behind a horse/mule and didn't straddle the row of plants -- instead you drove once down between each row.... Without knowing how big they are (both height and width), you might be able to pass a row of plants between the outside two shovels on each side.... Once you can't straddle them, you're done (as far as mechanical assistance goes), unless the tractor or tiller can go between the rows. That's what I like about my little Troybilt Pony -- 16" wide, and you can get within a couple inches of the plants while controlling the depth.... Basically you're trying to give the vegetables a head start over the weeds and grass. Once the vegetables are large enough, they will tend to crowd out weeds and the shade that they produce will help keep them down also... http://www.simpletractors.com/images/GII/side_dresser_sm.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...