Tillers vs. Discs

Plows I guess are used to break up heavy soil or deeply rooted plants. They go deeper than tillers or discs do. They turn the soil over but do not leave it smooth. A disc or tiller would probably follow up a plow to prepare the soil for planting.

I've seen some very large discs which can spread out behind a tractor well beyond the width of the tractor. So far I've only seen tillers about the width of the tractor so I'm guessing discs are the better choice for large areas.

Those are my guesses but I could be all wrong. I want to make sure I understand the usage of each implement before I go off and buy anything. I've been looking for used discs and I'm not having any success. New 9' discs are looking to run $850 to $1500. I don't want to spend that kind of money until I'm sure that's what I want.

So any help on defining the usage of discs and tillers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bob

It will pulverize garden soil in far fewer passes than a disk or other "pulled" cultivation tool...

But, as you noted, due to the horsepower involved, they are commonly made up to about 5' wide... so they are best used on smaller areas... for clutivating anything over about 5 acres I'd hook up to the disks.

In summary:
Tiller: Faster, finely pulverizes soil, close coupled to tractor... can be backed up close to a fence, good for smaller areas, takes horsepower..

Plows/disk/harrow... takes more passes (depending on how fine you need the soil)... more economical for large areas... less manouverable.

If you're thinking includes the word 'garden' the tiller is probably the way to go.. for things like 'cornfield' think disk

bbott

What are you wanting to do??

More information on what you want to use equipment for would make it easier to answer some of your questions or explain why you need one over the other. AD

What are you wanting to do??

More information on what you want to use equipment for would make it easier to answer some of your questions or explain why you need one over the other. ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -
Sorry I did not provide more details. I have a John Deere 730 tractor. It has a rear wheel width of about 8'6". The horsepower is something like 56-58.

I have a 2 acre field that I want to plant in corn and vegetables. Over time I may plant some of it in hay. I have other fields I will be putting fruit trees in.

The purpose of a disc or tiller is to prepare the soil for corn, fruit trees, and vegetables. The field is currently growing alfalfa although it hasn't been sown for years and the alfalfa is only growing on about 50% of the field.

I've been advised to have someone plow the field first to help tear up the alfalfa which has deep roots. After that I'm planning to disc or till myself. I have a box scraper I'll use to keep weeds down between the fruit trees.

So the question is, for 2 - 3 acres of corn, hay, and vegetables would I be better off getting a disc or a tiller?

Thanks for everyone's help!

Bob

I've pulled a heavy 6' disk with my MF-135 successfully in plowed ground. But I get a better seed bed pulling a larger disk faster with my 4020. I make the first pass at 5.5 mph with the disk going in about 8", then the second pass at about 8 mph and the disk going in about 4". With a couple rows of spring teeth on the back of the disk I make a decent corn, bean, and alfalfa seed bed that looks fine enough mostly for vegetables too. Without the spring teeth it took three passes.

Gerald J.

I pulled a 12' disk with 40-50 hp tractors in the clay soils of southern Minnesota, you can handle a 10-14' disk no problem. If you are serious about farming, get a JD or IH wheel disk with hydraulic lift. About every third farm auction here has one on it, and they go for $100 - $400. Please don't spend $1500 for a new one.

If you will only do this once or twice & want to save money, you can sometimes find an old one without wheels or lift for the price of scrap metal. Works fine for your small use. Hard to get home tho. :)

Either type may have adjustments to change the angle of the gangs, more agressive & throw more dirt, or less agressive & slices more. This is handy, and allows some adjustment for soil types & hp of tractor. Plowed alfalfa you would want to start out with a slicing pass to chop up the roots, followed with a more agressive pass to throw some dirt around & level it.

Again, I am a farmer & biased against tillers, that is not normally used on farm fields. But I would not want to run one through 2 acres of freshly plowed alfalfa roots! Yish!

--->Paul