People and rototillers

J.ReinkeFarms · May 26, 2010

In my section of road there are only 5 houses and no trees. So you can basically see and hear everything the neighbors do. The guy across the street from me has a garden that is about an acre in size. He has used his rototiller on it every night last week, and so far this week. He goes over it twice a night, once each direction. I think tonight was the last big trip because they are planting, then if it's like last summer he will rototill it every night and water it every night. Last year they watered it so much with the hard water in this area the soil that wasn't rototilled was orange. Made for some neat looking stripes. Maybe I'm just not thinking on the right side of my brain but the 98 acres around my house only gets worked every 3-4 years, every night just seems excessive. But then again, I've never been much of a gardener.

Anyone else have someone like this in their "neighborhood?"

old · May 26, 2010

Sounds like he doesn't like weeds. Years ago my dad would put in a big garden and till it to keep the weeds down but not that much

Kenny_T · May 26, 2010

That is so destructive to the soil life, all that tilling and watering. Why not let the worms do the tilling instead of spending all that money on fuel to smash them to a pulp and burn up all the humus in the soil.
I till under cover crops with a disc and then cultivate before planting I find that's all that's necessary for my plot. A good sharp hoe and a walk down the rows everyday keeps the weeds under control. I don't mind having some weeds, as long as they don't go to seed or crowd out crops to compete for water and sunlight.
Oh well, there are as many ways to garden as there are gardeners.

Shetland Sheepdog · May 27, 2010

Sounds like a bad case of "rototiller addiction", or he's just trying to stay out of SWMBO's way!

randallk · May 27, 2010

So the guy likes to play with his toys..........don"t we all.

sammydwm · May 28, 2010

He must be related to our neighbor.
He's rototilled 3 times with his rider once with his walk behind. Put the plow on his rider and plowed it twice since the tilling.
Hasn't got anything planted yet.......

Anonymous-0 · May 29, 2010

Many folks over-till ground. They turn it into talcum powder. That doesn't make for a very good seedbed. Still others till when the ground is too wet. Then they end up with a zillion hard dirt clods. Then they spend the rest of the summer trying to pound all those clods into submission.

Too many wannabe gardeners judge their success by how many gallons of gas they squeeze through the tiller in a summer.

camju · May 30, 2010

if he tills then waters he gets the weeds to grow again. make work project

Matt from CT · May 31, 2010

The question becomes is he using the rototiller to till or cultivate.

Nightly is still excessive.

But keeping the tiller on the highest setting so it just skims the soils upending young weeds isn't going to destroy the soil tilth.

J.ReinkeFarms · Jun 3, 2010

Every time he goes across his garden he has that rototiller buried as deep as he can set it. Has it on back of a little Bolens diesel tractor and it makes that thing bark. I don't know how much is left in the muffler on it. Gives me some entertainment if nothing else. Too bad there has been so much rain lately.

On a side note, while I was planting soybeans a little while back there was a guy with an AC 5050 rototilling 4 acres for horses. That sure was a funny sounding little unit. Kind of neat though as it looks like the 6000 and 7000 series tractors.

People and rototillers

J.ReinkeFarms

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old

Well-known Member

Kenny_T

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Shetland Sheepdog

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randallk

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sammydwm

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Anonymous-0

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camju

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Matt from CT

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J.ReinkeFarms

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