7 acres, could hobby plant to wheat ?

michaelr

Member
heya,
Have some Farmalls and a Van Brundt drill. Curious what minimum implements I could get away with for putting in winter wheat. Have a neighbor who could harvest. Just the ground preparation, seeding, and fertilizer. Oh, and yeah, I want it to be organic. Not concerned about max yield, just want to play with organic weed control, could spray with some organic herbicide etc. Have seen some sprayers that I think could be pulled by a Farmall letter series, they probably have a pto pump? Thoughts? This is just for play kind of fun. Not for profit. But do not want to go overboard on expenses.
The ground is currently overgrown pasture. Fescue.
 
You need to break up the sod. Big heavy tillage, a molboard plow. A chisel plow can work, but not so well on the first sod, would after that. This takes the most power, or with small implement the most time. Not a big deal on 7 acres.

You need to level the rough ground, kill small weeds. A disk most of the time, in heavy clay soils a field cultivator might be better. Either or. Some folk try to get by without the plow and just a disk. If you have dry sandy soil might work, but you are missing something....

You want to smooth the ground nice and level, smooth in the seed after planting, kill tiny weed sprouts. A harrow, aka a drag.

You need the grain drill to seed.

That?s about it. Plenty of ?old? used stuff out there you can sell if you don?t want need it for what you bought it for.

I would worry more about fertility than weeds on 7 acres in organic wheat. You need to kill the grass with multiple passes of agressive tillage tos tart with, then you need to clean up the perennial broadleaves like Canadian thistle and such, but a hoe/ knife on 7 acres will work for the broadleaves if you are serious about this. Get your fertility right so the wheat grows well and you have solved 3/4 of your weed issues. Skimp on understanding what you need for fertility and weeds will always come back stronger than the wheat.....

Lots of old small sprayers come up for $10-150 on sales, but not sure they fit an organic operation.

Paul
 
Thank you very much Paul. They do sell organic liquid herbicide that I could apply, though as you suggest the best option is to plow, disk, and pass multiple times with field cultivator. I like your reminder that fertilizing the soil is also important factor in keeping weeds at bay when competing with the emerging wheat.
 
Disk the sod first then plow then disk again or chisel plow 3 or 4 ways then on the last pass pull a drag behind wait for the grass to sprout and hit it again don?t leave it bare ground to long or noxious weeds like morning glory will rake over . We used a rotary hoe to help slow the weeds down on organic wheat and barley never killed up could slow em down enough the grain could grow
 

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