Chisel, Disc and Harrow????

Very new to tractors and working big soil (been home gardening for years) we just purchased 33 acres on rolling hills, all pasture.

Have a Leyland 270 (75hp), we have about 3,000 garlic cloves that need to get in the ground in about a month (northern Wisconsin).

What is the best way to prep some beds for planting this garlic?

My newbie understanding at this time is that the mowed pasture should be chisel plowed (approx. 8"), then disked (how deep?), and then finally harrowed prior to planting.

The only implement we currently have is a 5' brush hog, so obviously purchasing/ renting equipment is in my very near future - money is very tight right now and have considered paying someone to prep these beds. The concern is getting new (to me) equipment when we don't really have the time for any learning curve - the last thing I want to do is screw up the soil and be doing double work.

Do not know that tractor but if it has a good slow low gear I would get a tiller for it. Ya you can get a plow and plow it up then disk it up. By the way you disk as deep as it will go since you want to cut up all the weeds and grass and roots. But a tiller will do all that in fewer passes

How big a patch of ground to work up are we talking? A tiller is great for a couple acres, tho hard to get real deep in sod. It can make the soil a
little too loose for so e things. But it is a one pass tool.

If we are talking several acres, I'd see if a neighbor would be interested in helping out this year. You would see some of the ropes. Then you
have time to assemble your farm tools for next year. Estate and farm sales can get you a lot of good equipment if you have time, for a lot less
money.

You are correct that you want to do heavy tillage, followed by medium tillage, followed by light tillage.

Plow, chisel plow, heavy digger, ripper, offset disk.... They all do heavy tillage. 7-17 inches, typically 8-11 inches.

Disk or field cultivator for medium tillage, take out the lumps and mellow the soil. Disks will pack clayish soils, a field cultivator is much better.
For hard lumps or cutting cornstalks or in sandier soils a disk works better. Typically 4-5 inches, as you are trying to level out the lumps left from
the rough pass. Most field cultivators and some disks have a couple rows of harrow times behind them to help do some harrowing to fix the soil
smooth in one pass.

Light harrow will kill sprouting weed flush, and finely level off the ground, bust up small lumps, take out a sealed surface after a rain in clay
soils.

There are 'do all' or 'multiweeder' or 'finisher' rigs that combine a field cultivator and a harrow, they were very popular for a while. They are built
a little different than either a field cultivator or a harrow, they often are built low and closely spaced so they do not handle trash (cornstalks, etc.)
very well. You might really like an old small one of these, tho they are not the answer every year.

It's not rocket science, and you need to adapt to your tools, and your soils. Working my clay andeat soils is a lot different than working a sandier
soil, or a loam. But you are pretty tight on time.

Paul

I put in right many truck patches/garden plots no matter whether I disk or use a tiller to finish the ground ready to plant I always either chisel plow or use a ripper to tear up the soil as it makes it a lot easier to work up.Especially to chisel in front of the tiller as it keeps the wear and tear down on the tiller and a tiller will create a pan under the dirt it works up after a few times and chiseling tears the pan up.Also if I can I like to cross chisel plow to really rip up the ground especially in sod.

Thanks for the replies.

We are looking at doing about a 1/2 acre for our garlic. However this is new property to us and someone mentioned that the best course of action is to plow whatever area we will grow in next year - which will be more like 7 acres.

We are scheduled to look at some used equipment and are thinking a mold board plow and then multiple passes with a cultivator should do our land right - should be able to acquire both for under $500.

The frist thing i would do is spray the field with roundup and get a start on the weeds leave about 10 days and then plow or till

(quoted from post at 08:42:39 09/20/15) The frist thing i would do is spray the field with roundup and get a start on the weeds leave about 10 days and then plow or till

Click to expand...

Kent,
I appreciate your reply - I have been told by some locals to do the same as you suggested.

However my ideals fall into the category of being one of those [i:54781419f0]"hippies who ruined this country"[/i:54781419f0] as [b:54781419f0]LAA[/b:54781419f0] mentioned in a different post.

We are organic and more importantly we have no desire to put any money into Monsanto's already fat pockets . . . :twisted:

You planting stiff neck or soft neck garlic? After you get the cloves in the ground mulch heavy 12-18 inches with straw. That will keep most weeds at bay through the growing season.

Majority is stiff neck (we call it hard neck 'round these parts) with a small quantity of the soft neck.

Fortunately we have a large supply of straw that was left in the barn when we bought the property. We will be mulching it heavily.

Pay a local to prep the land and go to school on him. See what equipment he's using. That'll give you a year to shop for the right equipment at the right price. It'll also get your
crop in the ground and when you harvest, get you some cash flow.

It's been my personal experience it's better to pay to have it done right the 1st time. VS me going cheap: bought wrong tools,wrong material,etc. and not getting the results I
wanted. I even read the book! It's not the same as watching someone else who knows what they're doing and learning the right way.

There's probably a reason it's all pasture. Get some soil samples of your preferred garden spot. Get your county ag extension guy involved to help choose your location and
tillage method. Example: don't plow up ground in a drainage only to have your crop wash away the 1st time a hard rain hits.

Having said all that I moldboard plow sod 8", disc4-5", drag, and plant. I use a cultivator for weed control. I don't use any herbicide or pesticides. I'm not "organic" because my
soil still needs some manufactured fertilizers to get any kind of crop at all. I converted ground that had grass hay cut off of it for better than 50 years with no fertilizer, of any
kind, put back on it. Soil sample showed it was badly depleted.

My 1st crop on new ground was pitiful. Too many weeds, not enough nutrients, soil wouldn't work well at all. It was into the 2nd and then 3rd year I actually got a decent crop.

Chisel plowing won't kill the grass and weeds as well as turning it over.