Cultivators

ShawnAgne

ShawnAgne

501 Club
Wife and I finally have gotten the garden up and running and it got me thinking about get the cultivators for my Farmall Cub to help control weeds.
Basically just another way to play with the tractor. Question is how hard are they to find and generally what is the price range?
 
Hey Shawn,

I paid $950.00 in S. Louisiana after bugging people for almost an entire year. I read you're in Ohio so you should be able to find them pretty easy. Look on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace daily. You should be able to find a set pretty easy probably between $400.00 to $600.00 I've seen many sets in your area in the past.

Good luck,
Dennis
 
I would say it depends a little on what type of soil you have. I'm in west Mi. and have sandy loam. They work very well here (we still have to hoe between the plants of coarse). I'm not sure about clay or rocky ground as I have no experience with them. I'm sure others here do and can comment on how well cultivators on them.
 
I'm in Michigan and just picked up a nice set of complete cultivators for $250. The going price around here seems to be $200-500 depending on condition and how motivated the seller is to get rid of them.

I've never used them yet, planning on using them next year when we expand our garden.
 
I use cultivators in clay. They work perfect. You have to stay on the grass early, and also it doesn't get the grass out of the actual row. You can throw dirt over it to slow it some. But you either need to hoe the middles out or hand weed or live with it. It also helps the more you work and then the dirt prior to planting to get as many weed seeds to germinate and disked under as possible.
 
It also depends on the crop. Corn and beans fine. Other stuff not so much. I do not like the Cub shovel and shield set up very well. If you want it to be as built that's ok but I like an aftermarket item but made so many years ago they cannot be found. Cultivation of corn doesn't exist here much so the aftermarket for stuff has kind of dried up. 65 years or so ago there was made a combined sweep/guard made as one piece and fixed to the shank. With the guard nearly straight small corn could be cultivated. As the corn grew the shields were set farther apart and set to run at an angle to the direction of travel. The final cultivation was done with the shield portion running at a 35 to 40 degree angle. I could cultivate full throttle in 4th gear with a Farmall H. This would throw about 5 inches of soil against the corn and bury a lot of weeds. The ground by this time was pretty well shaded and that cuts down on weed germination. The rest of the cultivator had been converted to spring tooth. If you ever see such a sweep/shield buy it. I think you would like it. Main farm sandy loam. Other farm was loam with a bit of clay. Vern
 
I cultivate my field crops with what are called buzzard sweeps and turning hoes/half shovels in my area. I also have a pair of King Cultivators that have 4 "fingers" of varying widths that sort of scratch up next to the plant. I have all the parts to set up multiple feet with standard cultivating shanks, but usually a few runs of the buzzard sweeps and half shovels do the trick for throwing dirt up to the next of the plants. I think the Cub is plenty maneuverable to cultivate with and if you put a wide enough sweep on the rear it does help keep the grass out of the middle of the row, at least until later in the season but by then it doesn't matter much anyway.
 
ShawnAgne":1wttwyy5 said:
Thanks guys, would they work and be some what practical for a garden for weed control?
Click to expand...

I use my '51 to cultivate the garden every year. It sure saves a lot of hoeing, but you've got to start early and stay late to get ahead of the grass and weeds here in the Sunny South. The only hang-up is things that grow up tall, like corn and tomatoes, etc. Once they're up to a certain height you can't go over them without tearing them down. But things like beans and peas, potatoes, onions, and the like can be cultivated almost up to the time of harvest. I would say that if you get a set of cultivators, you ought to invest in a set of hillers and a set of shields. Both are handy things to have when it comes to getting the garden ready.

Mac
 
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