[Northern Grits]

Have a Deere 3032E and over next several years plan to grow food for our family. Not for business or deer. So maybe an acre (?) to till.
There is a gently used Land Pride RT 1550 for $1,500 nearby (Wisc) and is front spinning. Is worth to get one with the rear spinning tiller? Don't need top of the line but at same time see new ones similar size that are same price which leads me to believe less quality.

 

[prof.fate]

IMO/IME you're better off with a disk for your tractor and a used walk behind reverse rotation tiller.

Spring, first time - grass into garden. Best if you start now, turn twice or three times to compost the grass, then plant. Expect weeds for 3-5 years, then they slow down a lot.
Disk a few times then till.

For planting - tilling can work. You can do 1/4 acre an hour with a walk behind and never sweat. I got a sears used for $150. Rarely are they over 400, and in june often half that. Reverse rotation is a lot easier to 'manhandle' than a front roation that wants to run away with you.

Fall- you need to turn all the dead stuff under..this will clog a tiller and be frustrating as **** - disks work wonders for this purpose.

I got used set of disks for $300.

So I have 450 into my tools...vs what, 1500ish for a new 5' 3pt tiller, 1k for a used one? And it can take more space to store than a walk behind tiller.

As a young un we used tillers on cub cadets and similar and and I've used ye olde front tine walk behinds.

If you read up on gardening too much tilling is bad for the soil. Disking or the like is what's 'the thing' now.

 

[Northern Grits]

Thanks. Spoke to many locals and decided on a King Kutter which was on sale.

 

[Obscured_by_Clouds]

For planting - tilling can work. You can do 1/4 acre an hour with a walk behind and never sweat.

Maybe if you're 18 and a Marathon Runner.


I can't hardly walk across the yard on a 40 degree day without breaking a sweat.


I opted for a 48" Taylor Pittsburgh behind my 25HP SCUT and still broke a sweat tilling a few hundred feet for a neighbor, even though it only took less than an hour.

 

[Bmaverick]

Thanks. Spoke to many locals and decided on a King Kutter which was on sale.

Good choice. I was afraid you were going with the front end unit and have the tires re-pack it down.

As for a walk behind tiller, I got a top of the line Cub Cadet / Poland Pro with the 1100 engine. It's a self driver, BUT, after 30mins of use, my arms had been shaken so hard, they feel line jello. I would have to take 2 weekends and breaks to even do a 1/4 acre.

Wish I could sell it and use the money for a tractor PTO tiller.

FYI, King Kutter stuff is 'alright'. The yellow paint is very CHEAP and I've not seen any primer under it on the 3 attachments I have.

 

[KHodges]

Have a Deere 3032E and over next several years plan to grow food for our family. Not for business or deer. So maybe an acre (?) to till.
There is a gently used Land Pride RT 1550 for $1,500 nearby (Wisc) and is front spinning. Is worth to get one with the rear spinning tiller? Don't need top of the line but at same time see new ones similar size that are same price which leads me to believe less quality.

Thanks. Spoke to many locals and decided on a King Kutter which was on sale.

The Land Pride would have been a great tiller, but you will like the KK just as well, I imagine. I've had two Land pride tillers, a forward till (RT1250) and a reverse rotation till, which I still have (RTR0550). I like the reverse till better, but it's a matter of choice, really. The 50 inch will be perfect behind the 3032, it will just cover your tracks. I used my RTR0550 behind my X748 and it was wider than the tractor by half a foot, but it is the exact width of my rear tires on the 2520. LP's quality is really good, I also had a 60" 3-point finish mower by them.

How large a garden do you plan to have? You might want to get a 12" single bottom plow now that you have the tiller. You can clean up the old vegetation two ways, use a landscape rake and drag it off, then till, or just turn it under at the end of the season, which is what I prefer. I also dump my leaves, grass clippings, and stall cleanings (horse crap and coarse sawdust) I spread it around and let the garden lie fallow until before first freeze, then plow it under, and leave it until spring thaw. By then most of the vegetation and sawdust is decomposed. I'll spread 750-1000 pounds of lime and then plow again to mix it, then till before I plant. If I overlap the till, the skids will lay out my rows for me. My garden area is 95 x 85 feet. I have a Troybilt Pony forward till walk behind to till between the rows once things are growing.

 

[wally2q]

i'm doing the exact same thing, but on a smaller scale. About 200sq ft garden.
Use a tiller behind my 2305. By far better than discs (tried them). I can turn the soil 12-16" deep, and have no problem tilling in piles of leaves, dead grass (from sweeper), and a few yards of manure every year. Basically loading it up with organic matter. I do 3 slow passes over the whole area, and that really works wonders.
Now I wouldn't do that on 20 acres - thats where discs and plows come in.. but for a small garden - tiller all the way!

My biggest problem is weeds... they come in every year (been doing this for 10yrs now), and since the soil is rich, the weeds grow 4-6 feet high if I don't stay on top of them. I dont want to use chemicals - and I am not sure how they sprout since I dont let them go to seed. Is it possible that I am turning up seeds from deep under the soil from decades ago?....

Using a walk-behind tiller for an acre?... are you kidding me???? we have diesel tractors that have seats... why would we walk??????

 

[DKvince]

Using a walk-behind tiller for an acre?... are you kidding me???? we have diesel tractors that have seats... why would we walk??????

+1
I use my walk behind for tilling between rows only on a small garden. (And its a pain in the *** for that)
No way would I till a 1 acre garden with one.
My 6' tractor mounted 3 point tiller makes tilling easy.

 

[wally2q]

i'm doing the exact same thing, but on a smaller scale. About 200sq ft garden.
Use a tiller behind my 2305. By far better than discs (tried them). I can turn the soil 12-16" deep, and have no problem tilling in piles of leaves, dead grass (from sweeper), and a few yards of manure every year. Basically loading it up with organic matter. I do 3 slow passes over the whole area, and that really works wonders.
Now I wouldn't do that on 20 acres - thats where discs and plows come in.. but for a small garden - tiller all the way!

My biggest problem is weeds... they come in every year (been doing this for 10yrs now), and since the soil is rich, the weeds grow 4-6 feet high if I don't stay on top of them. I dont want to use chemicals - and I am not sure how they sprout since I dont let them go to seed. Is it possible that I am turning up seeds from deep under the soil from decades ago?....

Using a walk-behind tiller for an acre?... are you kidding me???? we have diesel tractors that have seats... why would we walk??????

I should correct myself... 2000sq ft garden. Still small compared to an acre, but definitely beyond walk-behind size....

 

[Bmaverick]

i'm doing the exact same thing, but on a smaller scale. About 200sq ft garden.
Use a tiller behind my 2305. By far better than discs (tried them). I can turn the soil 12-16" deep, and have no problem tilling in piles of leaves, dead grass (from sweeper), and a few yards of manure every year. Basically loading it up with organic matter. I do 3 slow passes over the whole area, and that really works wonders.
Now I wouldn't do that on 20 acres - thats where discs and plows come in.. but for a small garden - tiller all the way!

My biggest problem is weeds... they come in every year (been doing this for 10yrs now), and since the soil is rich, the weeds grow 4-6 feet high if I don't stay on top of them. I dont want to use chemicals - and I am not sure how they sprout since I dont let them go to seed. Is it possible that I am turning up seeds from deep under the soil from decades ago?....

Using a walk-behind tiller for an acre?... are you kidding me???? we have diesel tractors that have seats... why would we walk??????

I'm still tilling with a walk-behind for almost 24,000sqft. Not all at once. 5 plots of 24x200. :tango_face_sad:

Just doing 1 plot my legs and arms get numb due to the vibration and shaking of the Polulan Pro/Club Cadet machine. It's a great machine, but still small for what I'm putting this higher end walk behind tiller thru.

Now, with that said, I have found a SIMPLE way to control weeds. Plant your rows 3ft apart! Then use the mower between the rows. If your mower has a wider deck, so would your rows be. :tango_face_grin:

This year, I did a test plot. I only tilled where the rows would be one the 5th plot. Yes, it saved my body from abuse and gave the same results as a regular overall tilled garden.

At the pick your own organic blueberry farm, their rows are 10ft apart for the zero-turn to make 2 passes. Great weed control.

 

[wally2q]

I'm still tilling with a walk-behind for almost 24,000sqft. Not all at once. 5 plots of 24x200. :tango_face_sad:

Just doing 1 plot my legs and arms get numb due to the vibration and shaking of the Polulan Pro/Club Cadet machine. It's a great machine, but still small for what I'm putting this higher end walk behind tiller thru.

Now, with that said, I have found a SIMPLE way to control weeds. Plant your rows 3ft apart! Then use the mower between the rows. If your mower has a wider deck, so would your rows be. :tango_face_grin:

This year, I did a test plot. I only tilled where the rows would be one the 5th plot. Yes, it saved my body from abuse and gave the same results as a regular overall tilled garden.

At the pick your own organic blueberry farm, their rows are 10ft apart for the zero-turn to make 2 passes. Great weed control.

Yea - i would go in there with a weed whacker... but it's still a PITA, because I cant get close enough to get it all without the risk of hurting the plant I want to keep.
I am thinking for next year, of a weed-block sheet. for 2000sq ft, it's not impossible. I have it in 200ft rolls, that are 4 ft wide.... so need 3 rolls total...