Field cultivator/ chisel plow D17

Depends on the soil type and moisture etc, but as a rule, a field cultivator is going to be somewhere between a scratch and a couple inches as a first pass in the spring. When I use mine for finishing I go about 4 inches but it won’t dig into something undisturbed.

Well, they made a one prong subsoiler for the WD/WD45 back in the day. It went pretty deep, like maybe 10 to 12 inches. I'd suspect a good D-17 (meaning good HP, good rear tire size and tread and enough weight to have traction) should probably pull TWO prongs as a deeper tillage tool. As far as a field cultivator, about the same width as a tandem disc, like 10 or maybe 12 feet. The wider the field cultivator sweeps or the deeper you go, the harder it pulls. How many ACRES are you working on ??

mack has a fair point. vertical tillage with a ripper pulling deep can break up a hard pan. Seems to me when i have that custom done, wet spots seem to disappear . depends on your soil type but all the field cultivator does for me in new york is bring up rocks to pick

truckerfarmer wrote: I have 3 acres of pumpkin ground on rented land. Gates restrict getting large equipment to it. Most years I get it plowed in the fall, but some years, like this one, frost beats me. Only got about half of it plowed. Was planning on spikes, not sweeps. Right now the best I have is a 'green' quack digger. I have done spring tillage with my disc. But, that takes 4-5 passes to get the depth I need. That many passes starts compaction. I was hoping to find a way to eliminate a couple passes. I plant using a waterwheel transplanter, so the ground needs to be fairly loose to a depth of at least 8". I would love to have one of those 3 shank snap coupler subsoilers, but I haven't seen one of those within 500 miles of me.

jvin248 wrote: . Regular plow was 10hp per bottom and chisel was something like15 to 20hp per shank. You can always remove shanks until you can pull it. I've gone no-till Regenerative Agriculture  path so plows are evil. Plant winter rye as your herbicide, plant pumpkins into the green rye and then roll the rye to terminate. Bean guys terminate after beans are at V2, corn after emergence. . .

Won't work with a waterwheel transplanter. Ground has to be loose, like it has been tilled to a depth of 8".

Well, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what you need to do. Actually I think a tiller would be a terrible choice. It would seem great for a year or two, but likely after that compaction would be a problem. But I don’t have knowledge of how your soil responds.

You say vertical tillage, but nothing you mention as on option is vertical tillage in my understanding of the matter. I’m not attacking you or trying to be a jerk, just saying what I think to be the case.

Since you plow this down over and over, perhaps a field cultivator would work, although I have a hunch you’re going to be fighting compaction soon if not already.

Of all the things mentioned, to me I think a chisel plow sounds like the best option. Or a subsoiler every so often used with what you’re doing to fight compaction.

Whatever you choose, good luck I’d be curious to know what works best and why.

I'm going out on a limb here, and guessing that your rows are spaced fairly far apart. Get one strip till unit, make a 3 pt bar to mount it on, and just till up where your pumpkin rows go, and save the fuel and everything of tilling the 99 percent of the ground not used. Just a thought, I'm not there to see your situation, so maybe that's not an option, but just throwing that out there.
Darrel

Could you find a snap coupler row crop cultivator, remove the gangs, find some shanks from a 100 Deere or 55 IH chisel, and do the necessary modifications to attach them to the cultivator frame?  Wouldn't be a factory set up, but just might work.  Could use either spikes or sweeps as necessary.  Just an idea, 

Tbone95 wrote: victoryallis wrote: Tbone95 wrote: Depends on the soil type and moisture etc, but as a rule, a field cultivator is going to be somewhere between a scratch and a couple inches as a first pass in the spring. When I use mine for finishing I go about 4 inches but it won’t dig into something undisturbed. You must run a poor field cultivator.   Both my current field cultivator and the finisher I had before would stay in the ground fine if I dropped them into unworked bean stubble. The trip force on the shanks of a newer FC is fairly stout. Bean stubble ground is usually quite mellow and my FC would likely work pretty good. That’s why I said it depends on many things. That’s also why they make heavier tillage tools. But thanks for jumping on a chance to judge.

How about an old Allis coil shank cultivator, would one of those work?

Yes the rows are spaced far apart. The rows are 15' apart with 15' spacing in the rows. 2 reasons for that. One, is it allows a couple more opportunities to cultivate as they vine out. Reason 2 is about 1/2 of the varieties I plant require a minimum spacing of 8'. One requires 12'. Not giving them enough space reduces yields. I like to plant in a grid so I can cultivate in both directions. If we are really good at keeping things in line, I can cultivate at a 45* angle. Most of them will fill that 15' space within 6 weeks of planting. This last year the pink ones sent vines out 20'. Cultivation is still the most effective and cheapest form of weed control in pumpkins. There are only a handful of chemicals approved for pumpkins. Only a couple for post emergence. Only one doesn't require hoods over the plant, and last time I checked, it was over $300/ pint. Yes, a pint, not a gallon.

I don't plant the cookie cutter 8# pumpkins that Walmart sells. I plant 15-25#, 20-30# and 40-60# pumpkins. If you plant the same as everybody else,then you have to compete with everybody else. We market to the people setting up the displays, not for the kids carving pumpkins. Although a lot of the ones we sell do get carved, because they come to us because we have something different than everyone else.

As far as direct seeding. We did that for 10 years before I built the waterwheel transplanter. To keep the spacing requires planting by hand. 100-150 hills would end up taking 10-12 man-hours. This last year putting approximately 225 seeds in pot took about 2 hrs. With the transplanter 2 of us put 211 pots in the ground in an hour and a half. Another reason direct planting doesn't work for us is wildlife pressure. One year we lost 60% of our plants to wildlife. Our seeds are treated and the coatings are bright colors that look like metal flake paint. Seagulls can wipe out a crop in one day. We gave up trying to grow sweet corn due to pheasants taking all the seeds. They go right down the row digging a hole about as big around as your thumb and take the seed. One year in a 300' row, they took all but 12 seeds. Couple varieties l plant are $.61 a seed. One is $.84 a seed.

DCAC wrote: How about an old Allis coil shank cultivator, would one of those work?

Yes that would probably work. Only downfall would be aren't they mounted not pull type?

Maybe it would help you understand what I am trying to accomplish in soil preparation if you saw how a waterwheel transplanter works. There are several YouTube videos of planting pumpkins with a waterwheel transplanter.

This might be something like you need.  I don't know how deep it goes, but it will make the '45 snort.