It's ground engaging time. Seeds, manure, soil, and everything that goes with them. But that's not all. Cutting and hauling wood, chainsaws and the works!
DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:20 pm
I have one of thoses on the back side of a claw cultivator 2in1 tool I made . Works good but I have a lot to kept weeded and still need to spend time in the shop to make some $$ .
Oh you made it yourself?!
I got some used car suspension springs that I'd love to forge into a tool like that, but at the moment I don't have a good way to heat steel to that point. That is yet another thing I'd like to do, a little forging here and there.
Eugen wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:29 pm
Dave, do you do anything about the weeds on the row, between successive plants?
So I wonder, what do they do in a commercial setting? Doesn't seem like there exists a solution that does not involve human labour. Or is there?
Where are the robots they promise us for a while?!
The area around and to the west of me has a lot of large scale vegetable farming. Peas, beans, cucumbers/pickles, cabbage, peppers, carrots, beats, sweet corn and potatoes are the most popular grown here. They like the sandy soil because they can control everything and being able to get plenty of water for irrigation.
Unfortunately, at their scale, most of the weed control is done with chemicals. when you look at a field there's not a weed to be seen. You do see a little hand hoeing in the pickles and peppers.
DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:20 pm
I have one of thoses on the back side of a claw cultivator 2in1 tool I made . Works good but I have a lot to kept weeded and still need to spend time in the shop to make some $$ .
Oh you made it yourself?!
I got some used car suspension springs that I'd love to forge into a tool like that, but at the moment I don't have a good way to heat steel to that point. That is yet another thing I'd like to do, a little forging here and there.
Na . just modified an old harrow claw by adding a flat hoop blade to the back of it .
Propane torch, with a 20 lb tank on a two wheel dollie or four wheel cart to tow the tank around. Popular method for weed control. Organic farmers use that.
DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:37 pm
I use the same types , and crawling on hands and knees .
I am hoping to fine stuff like those finger wheels they use on tractors to weed beside the plants and pushes the dirt back up the side of the rows , to limit the amount of hand weeding .
Do you mean something like this rotary hoe?2D7F8A67-ECE9-4BF4-8519-ABBA051BD584.jpeg
The one in this picture has 2 sections. If you could find a single section it would be perfect for a garden tractor and would probably fit your row spacing.
If you mean one of these I’ve got one you can have. 6A4FCF39-3235-4346-AB05-6D9EE3135D92.jpeg
I never had much luck using it. I can get rid of more weeds and move more dirt faster with a regular hoe.
We have one of those star wheel thing on a handle , it is good for some stuff . image.png like this but for one row at a time . That won't break the bank
If you had some square tubing and could get a few cultivator sweep and rotary tines I think a variation of that
could be fabricated fairly easily.
Looking at the picture I started getting ideas. What if you set it up to run the tractor between rows instead of straddling a row? That would let you cultivate all season as the plants grew taller.
Please excuse my crappy drawing I quickly sketched in on a piece of paper.
Something like this
So a length of square tube to attach to the tractor as a tool bar, 3 or 4 cultivator sweeps that drop from that, and 2 rotary tines that extend of the back of the tool bar.
Your rows would have to be pretty uniform in width. Or you just build it on one side of the tool bar and run up and down each row.
I don’t know maybe it’s a crazy idea, but I thought it was interesting.
@JSinMO Not crasy at all I was milling around the idea of going between the rows as well pulled by a 2 wheeled tractor after I have tilled the centre . I have some single cylinder engines and a few rider diffs . Or the Toro snow blower with the blown auger drive that they want more than a new machine for the replacement parts to pull it . If I use a rider diff with rims reversed to narrow it up , a third swivel wheel . weight it down and could pack the centre down like a roller at the same time . The big question is how to make the weeder wheels cheaply as right now cant afford the real thing . There has to be a way of using some of my "collection" of us mower parts to build theses on a budget so I don't have to bring it up with my bank manager
I’m not really sure as to how close you want to be to the plants Dave. And were you thinking sorta in between the plants too ? Could you take a few pictures of where your getting to now and where you want to get to.
Ya, some bank managers can be real nasty at times. Hehe.
My weedy sweet corn is tasseling! Seems like it grew over a foot since Sunday. It also seems the weeds have kept pace. Won’t be long now, man I can’t wait. I think it was 65 day corn so we should have ears before the end of July.
JSinMO wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 8:55 pm
My weedy sweet corn is tasseling! Seems like it grew over a foot since Sunday. It also seems the weeds have kept pace. Won’t be long now, man I can’t wait. I think it was 65 day corn so we should have ears before the end of July. E8208E14-65AE-43B0-8F76-E5786A73FC91.jpeg
Have you used any compost or manure to amend the soil?
when you look at a field there's not a weed to be seen. You do see a little hand hoeing in the pickles and peppers.
no more mow it's time to blow 
