Vertical Tine Tillers

[dionstep]

Is anyone familiar with the new Cub Cadet and Troy Built vertical tine tillers on the market? Are they better or worse for soil health than rear tine tillers? I have a small market farm and do most of my soil prep with a tractor, discs, and a chisel plow. However, during the season I often need to work on a single bed turning a cover crop over to prepare for planting. For single bed preparation I need a smaller tiller of some kind. I would appreciate any insight. Thanks.

[FarmboyBill]

Got a pic??

[po boy]

neat

YouTube

troy

YouTube

[Darren]

Reminds me of the Gravely setup. Best implement for incorporating a standing crop and not destroying soil structure is a spader.



If you tried this with a tiller, you'd spend most of your time cutting stuff off that wrapped around the tines. A spader buries/incorporates the cover crop.

[FarmboyBill]

That looks like the old Gravely setup

[Marcia in MT]

I see clumps of grass that are going to need to be raked out.

[Callieslamb]

What would those do if they hit rocks? I have a regular walk-behind cub cadet to do my heavy tilling. It will break up lawn and pasture grass just fine in my sandy-ish soil. I can run it with one hand. Mine costf almost $800. How much are these new tillers?

[farmerDale]

Tillage of any kind is not kind to the soil. Soil does not need to be reconstituted.

I am biased, because I believe in no tillage practices, and heavy duty MULCHING. Low labor and good for the soil...

Sorry, ETA. I would go with a vertical tine tiller if I had to use tillage.

[Callieslamb]

By the way- Welcome to the forum! Great question for your first post.

[FarmboyBill]

Callie, they said they turn opposite of each other. Likely same thing happen to them as to a regular tiller.

[billinwv]

Cover sod with 4" of composted manure and then 6" of straw. After a few weeks you can rake this aside and plant. When plants are large enough put mulch back around them. If weeds come up throw a flake of straw over them. Most of the time the soil will be loose enough to plant with little work. Reduces weeding time to nill and conserves water.

[geo in mi]

Interesting. Now if Troy-Bilt would just make it adaptable to the same power unit as I have already on my Horse, I would think about it. But not buy another whole unit....

geo

[Johnny Dolittle]

You are still breaking up soil structure like any roto tiller does.

I like the way they demonstrate in rock free soil .................

[Johnny Dolittle]

The conventional tiller will bounce over rocks

The counter rotation tiller will jam if a rock is to big to pass through.

[hippygirl]

Originally Posted by Johnny Dolittle

The conventional tiller will bounce over rocks

The counter rotation tiller will jam if a rock is to big to pass through.

I was thinking the same thing.

I think it would work great on ground that has already been worked and cleared, but new ground?

For my garden, we cut down all trees, dug/pulled the stumps we could, ground down the rest as deep as we could, and them BIL went over it MANY times with a King Kutter tiller. What was left behind was a blue million pieces of ROOTS up to the size of a baseball bat that I'm quite sure would have stopped one of those vertical tillers dead in their tracks.

[mnn2501]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

Tillage of any kind is not kind to the soil. Soil does not need to be reconstituted.

I am biased, because I believe in no tillage practices, and heavy duty MULCHING. Low labor and good for the soil...

Some people are biased against tilling of any kind. Me - I've tilled for 40+ years and my dad and Grandpa before me, never had a problem. I usually till in leaves, compost, manure, etc

[Bellyman]

In the plot I gardened in last year, which was 5 stones to 1 dirt, I'd have been jamming that thing up every couple of inches.

I have a standard rear tine tiller. I kinda like it as a quick pass over just before I'm ready to plant but it's very easy to over do it.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by FarmboyBill

Callie, they said they turn opposite of each other. Likely same thing happen to them as to a regular tiller.

Sorry Bill but no.
Those counter rotating tines are pulling everything into them
I asked the question about rocks on the YouTube site for the Cub Cadet tiller.
I really want to see what they say.

[FarmboyBill]

yep, your right rusty. Guess theres shear pins built in it

[Johnny Dolittle]

Also ... the example is rock free sod and the grass has been mowed and removed.

I would like to see how tangle free it is when used to till in a mature cover crop.

... otherwise vertical tillage is mostly a good idea if crop residue is left on top