How To Furrow, Plant and Hill with a 144 Cultivator
Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:24 am
A while back we were talking on here about disk hillers, furrowing attachments, and so forth and how to make rows for planting. Today I got the Super A out and made a couple of rows for early garden stuff. I thought I would take some pictures of how we have done rows for a long time. The advantage of this method is it works without a fertilizer attachment--though you have to manually spread fertilizer! Hopefully someone will find this helpful.
As I said, this is on a Super A. You would set it up identically for a Cub. Please excuse the rusty, worn-totally-out universal mounting frames on the nice restored tractor!
The alignment of the hillers isn't exactly right, due to the wear, but they run true once they are in the ground.
This is step one. You angle the disk hillers so they throw "out." The result is not a row but a furrow, depending on the soil type you'll get a little "ridge" in the center, similar to what a single-action disk harrow leaves. Again since the hillers are in the raised position, they are further apart due to universal mounting frame wear. They will work side by side in the ground.
Here is the result. I have "run out" two rows here.
I planted some taters in one row. This is one reason I like this method. I put my seed potatoes on one side of the "ridge" in the furrow, and fertilizer on the other side. I was using 0-0-60 fertilizer because that is what I had on hand. I will probably side dress a little 16-0-0 later, normally I would have just used 10-10-10. We have also been known to used rotted poultry litter or other livestock manure along with the fertilizer. At any rate, doing it this way tends to keep the "hot" fertilizer away from the potatoes to prevent burn.
Ok, now time to "throw the row up." I have put my fertilizer in the furrows by hand. Now I turn the hillers back around in the usual configuration. If I want an extra-high row, I will make two trips over them. You can also vary row width by sliding the standards in and out to make it wider or narrower between the hillers. You can also adjust their angle to "throw" more or less agressively.
You will notice I did not run any back sweeps to take out the row middles. We have found over the years that it makes it easier to walk between the rows for planting, etc. to leave the middles flat, and "split" them with the back sweeps at the first cultivating trip.
Later on, when we use the potato hillers (tobacco plows as we called them around here, AKA "buzzard wings" or "layby plows") I'll try to get some more pics of that setup, if anyone's interested. Will also try to get my rolling cultivators set up at some point.
You will notice I have a LOT more land prepared than I actually plan to plant! My folks have a bigger garden, and they share with my wife and I. We just wanted a couple rows of "odds and ends" that you can dig/pick real quick, wash off, and cook. I was disking with our JD 4255 and 15' disk and I had to cut this much just to have room to turn and keep everything level!
Finally, a shot of my "pride & joy"
This is her first time out all winter, and she needs a bath BAD!
As I said, this is on a Super A. You would set it up identically for a Cub. Please excuse the rusty, worn-totally-out universal mounting frames on the nice restored tractor!
The alignment of the hillers isn't exactly right, due to the wear, but they run true once they are in the ground.This is step one. You angle the disk hillers so they throw "out." The result is not a row but a furrow, depending on the soil type you'll get a little "ridge" in the center, similar to what a single-action disk harrow leaves. Again since the hillers are in the raised position, they are further apart due to universal mounting frame wear. They will work side by side in the ground.
Here is the result. I have "run out" two rows here.
I planted some taters in one row. This is one reason I like this method. I put my seed potatoes on one side of the "ridge" in the furrow, and fertilizer on the other side. I was using 0-0-60 fertilizer because that is what I had on hand. I will probably side dress a little 16-0-0 later, normally I would have just used 10-10-10. We have also been known to used rotted poultry litter or other livestock manure along with the fertilizer. At any rate, doing it this way tends to keep the "hot" fertilizer away from the potatoes to prevent burn.
Ok, now time to "throw the row up." I have put my fertilizer in the furrows by hand. Now I turn the hillers back around in the usual configuration. If I want an extra-high row, I will make two trips over them. You can also vary row width by sliding the standards in and out to make it wider or narrower between the hillers. You can also adjust their angle to "throw" more or less agressively.
You will notice I did not run any back sweeps to take out the row middles. We have found over the years that it makes it easier to walk between the rows for planting, etc. to leave the middles flat, and "split" them with the back sweeps at the first cultivating trip.
Later on, when we use the potato hillers (tobacco plows as we called them around here, AKA "buzzard wings" or "layby plows") I'll try to get some more pics of that setup, if anyone's interested. Will also try to get my rolling cultivators set up at some point.
You will notice I have a LOT more land prepared than I actually plan to plant! My folks have a bigger garden, and they share with my wife and I. We just wanted a couple rows of "odds and ends" that you can dig/pick real quick, wash off, and cook. I was disking with our JD 4255 and 15' disk and I had to cut this much just to have room to turn and keep everything level!
Finally, a shot of my "pride & joy"
This is her first time out all winter, and she needs a bath BAD!