Fuddy Duddy

Well-known Member
Might be a dumb question. Why would a need a 'Cultivator'?
I'm looking at a couple in my area. one has 6 shanks $250. The other at half the driving distance has 12 shanks $475 (with new paint).
I have a two bottom plow and a pull behind disk. What would a Cultivator do for me?
Untitled URL Link
 
(quoted from post at 05:43:26 11/05/12) Might be a dumb question. Why would a need a 'Cultivator'?
I'm looking at a couple in my area. one has 6 shanks $250. The other at half the driving distance has 12 shanks $475 (with new paint).
I have a two bottom plow and a pull behind disk. What would a Cultivator do for me?
Untitled URL Link
If ya don't know probably nothing :lol: :lol: :lol: :oops:
 
He is probably correct. Hard for me to think that I need a tool that I don't know what it is for. However, now that we are past money burning a hole in your pocket, I have two of them that haven't been used in decades. Back when farming involved a lot of row crops, the cultivator was used for weed eradication between rows of corn, cotton, maze, etc. But row cropping in general & mechanical weed removal is pretty much history now, given way to dense planting practices and chemicals.
 
Duddy-
Back in the day, there were no fertilizers, weed control chemicals, and bug control chemicals. A Cultivator was used to weed between the rows when they were young and not too high to drive the tractor over. Usually set up as a two-row hoeing machine, 11 shanks were the standard spring shank type. Rigid shanks, or Field Cultivators were used to break up previously planted fields that may just need the crust broken up and a plow may be too much. Once you have a garden or food plot that is regularly used every year, you can usually get away with either discing or setting the cultivator up to just break the soil enough to create a seed bed. That saves you from having to plow under the old growth then having to disc then preparing a seed bed with a drag tooth. Another advantage to a cultivator is that it will leave nice, straight little furrows to plant seed. When a farmer bought a new Ford tractor, a plow was usually also purchased and a cultivator was the second most purchased item...

Tim 'PloughNman' Daley(MI)
 
"Another advantage to a cultivator is that it will leave nice, straight little furrows to plant seed"
I guess maybe that is why I asked the question. Once I have finished plowing and disking I have been using a hoe to make the furrows. Thats a lots of work. I know there was something to do that job. I just wasn't sure what. Would this be the best tool for the job. Or is there something else better to make the furrows?
 
If I could have only ONE tool to hook behind my tractor it would be one of those cultivators.
Till up your garden, rake brush into piles, break up the gravel and with a log behind it fill pot holes in your driveway.
My cousin has one that he uses behind his 30 hp John Deere. It's all he uses on his garden every year.
Thay are great tools and that is a good price.
 
very handy
I have a couple of those v-shaped 1 row cultivators and
use it in my garden a lot.
to work the ground, when plowing would be overkill
the open center makes good rows with a slight hill for planting
to cultivate when the plants are young
and since I HATE weeding, I plant my garden with the rows
so far apart that I can drive an N with the cultivator between the
rows to keep the grass away when the plants are mature.
working ground with it, then a drag or a steady hand on a landscape
rack makes a very nice surface

also a very good implement to use to break in an engine and seat the rings
 
All joking aside. The only disadvantage I would see to that is if we are talking about a farm tractor that is a lot of weight running back over your ready to plant ground. I would be concerned about compactin the soil. Just a thought.
 
I have the Fergeson with 11 or 12 shanks. It works good for row cropping when the plants are low growning, like beets. The way I use it, set the wheels on tractor close 48 or 52 inches and put a large sweep behind each rear tire. Also, you space the rows at or close to the width of the tires, so the arrangement of the rows fits the tractor/cultivator.

Now, this only works for plants that fit under the tractor, because it is setup to straddle a row. It works really slick. It is also possible to set the wheels very wide and straddle two rows, using sweeps behind each rear tire and one sweep in the middle. You do the math. Row spacing needs to be precise.

The other setup is for driving between rows, for tomatoes and stuff that you can't straddle with the tractor. There are other uses, like preparing for planting, etc, etc.
 
I use my little one row cultivator a lot.

also have a 2 row i use sometimes, it works the dirt up good and levels the garden.

You can not have too many tools for your tractor.
a88321.jpg

a88322.jpg
 
That cultivator in the pic is what I'd call a true cultivator. It is just for tilling the soil after planting to uproot the weeds. The cultivator I have is often called an all purpose plow. The shanks are spring loaded and I can use it to bust virgin/packed soil or cultivate. It can master red clay a lot better than a disc ever thought of. In any application, it would be a well appreciated tool.
 
Fuddy,

I also have this tool, it is more of a field cultivator, does a great job.

as you can see i have a lot of the older farm tools, but do not have a tractor tiller.

have used one and they do a great job of preparing the soil for planting.
a88512.jpg
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top