row crop cultivator

flying belgian

Well-known Member
I still cultivate my corn and beans as much as time allows. I have the s-tine shanks on Nobles cultivator and since I use a pre-emerge the weeds are very small when I tear through it as fast as I can without covering the crop. So besides the other benefits I feel I get, it is also very effective in weed control. So much so that many times I do not have to apply a post emerge. For the past three years I have been doing some custom organic farming for a guy. Those weeds get quite big sometimes and those s-tines flex around the weeds damaging them but not really killing them. Anyone ever use a Buffalo style cultivator? Do they work on large weeds? Or should I just go to a rigid shank cultivator? I know a rigid shank will kill big weeds as that is what I used up until about 15 yrs. ago. Trouble is you have to drive so slow with rigid shank and I can't hardly get done the way it is. Please don't turn this into a debate on organic verses conventional. Just curious on effectiveness of different style cultivators.
Thanks.
 
Use both. The S-tine when the crop is small.Them when big(er) use the rigid shank one to throw some dirt.Use irrigation furrowers to really hill up around your crop.
 
You can put sweeps/duckfoot on an S tine...even next to the row...might want to torch off one side a bit if you can"t find offsets.
 
I still like the rolling cultivator. You can move as little or as much dirt as you want. Most of the time just by adjusting your speed.
 
Already use 4" sweep but the problem with big weeds or even corn stubbles is they will push the tine side to side as much as it will flex forward and back there by missing weeds.
 
From what I've read the late Dick Thompson had good luck with his buffalo/hinniker type cultivator . He was on ridge till though. You might google him. He lived in Boone ,iowa . He wrote quite a few articles on it and his successes and failures with his heavy cultivator and also his rotary hoe. With my wet clay soil trying to get in a crop is tricky and thinking if the $$ shows up might try something my self along those line.
 
Ever tried a disk hiller next to the corn?It'll cut up weeds and throw dirt into the row to cover up weeds you normally can't get to with a regular cultivator.You can then use solid shanks with wide sweeps for the rest of the row.
 
I plant about 1/2 acre of sweet corn and various beans. Just a garden. I really like the solid shanks with 4" sweeps. I have enough shanks to overlap the cut. I use no herbicides at all. Weeds are minimal as I cultivate several times until the crop canapies out.
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Could you get in earlier when the weeds are smaller?

I am trying to learn the art of cultivating too and all the vegetable guys are telling me the time to cultivate weed is before it looks like you need to.
 
I have a IH 133 6x30 that has the same shanks as a field cultivator (spring shank) with gauge wheels with rolling shields that does a great job. I ran 3 hi or 4 low on my 1550 Oliver and it did a really good job taking out small and big weeds. Once you use one you don't want any other kind. Bandit
 
here is some work I did last year in one of my truck patches with my hiller/bar out tool

allows you to move that small grass away from the row, let it die in the sun, then come back and pull dirt into the row.

rows on the left side have been bared out.

later can used this old Hamill two row cultivator with fenders for plowing the middles.

old school, but it gives me and the little Fergy 35 something to do.
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