what do you think of mantis tillers?

featheremma · #1 02/10/05, 02:17 AM

i am needing a tiller for a very small veggie garden...does anyone have information about mantis tillers?...i am in north carolina and will be adding compost to the clay soil...thanks for any help you can give me...thought the mantis might be easy to use..

mammabooh · #2 02/10/05, 03:24 AM

I have a Mantis and a big Honda tiller. The mantis is great for weeding, digging holes, churning up compost, and for tilling small areas. It's not so great at turning lawn into growing space, but I suppose it could be done if you were determined. It all depends on your soil. It's sort of a pain because you have to pull the tiller towards you instead of walking it along like you do with other tillers.

My husband mounted a five-pound weight plate onto mine to give it a bit more weight to allow it to dig better. He did the same thing for our neighbor and she thinks it improved the performance also.

Medic24 · #3 02/10/05, 03:29 AM

Agree with above, kinda light for larger chores, but then again it is not built or marketed for larger chores. Actually this month's Consumer report's has an article about these tillers, and Mantis and Honda rank very high!

homebirtha · #4 02/10/05, 07:22 AM

Once the area is dug up the first time, the Mantis is great. It's pretty easy to use, fairly light weight and easy to handle. It won't pull you all over the yard, and it breaks the soil matter up very very fine, so it makes nice beds.

BUT, it's really tough to break up sod and hard packed clay. You may even want to use a pitchfork to prep the area first (if it's never been a garden before.) Then use the Mantis for everything else.

brosil · #5 02/10/05, 08:17 AM

I'm on my third Mantis. I tried a Troybuilt to break up my sod and it bounced off. The Mantis takes awhile but it works great.
I'd like to get one of the electric ones for breaking up the sheep manure before I shovel. There wouldn't be so many gas fumes.

HilltopDaisy · #6 02/10/05, 08:30 AM

Something I always wondered about; what do the Mantis tillers cost?

jkillen · #7 02/10/05, 08:33 AM

We got a Mantis last year and it is great. My wife uses it to till up land to
lay grass and I use it to till up the garden and dig holes. As everyone else
has said it takes a while to till a large area but we just keep at it, I guess
we just hard headed. I think it digs holes great. I till up a little spot then
just screw it into the ground then dig out the loose dirt and screw some
more.

We're in NC too and the only problem I have had is big rocks getting
stuck between the tines but a quick wack with the shovel fixes that
right up.

Shygal · #8 02/10/05, 01:00 PM

I wanted a mantis last year, I ended up buying the...other one

I cant even think of the name!
It has a 4 cycle engine, no mixing gas and oil , and I LOVE it. It starts right up first pull, it chops through everything, Ive tilled new garden beds with it through sod.

Vortine? I honestly cant think of the name of it and Im too lazy to go out and look! :haha:

MoCrafter · #9 02/10/05, 01:55 PM

We bought a Mantis 6 years ago. It works great in my flower beds, or small areas. I'm not too crazy about having to walk backwards, so I just use it in small areas. We paid $400 when we bought ours, but like I said, that was 6 years ago. We had really wanted a small Troy, but settled for the Mantis. The very next year, we bought an 8H Troy and paid almost $2000 for it. Both of these tillers have been worth their weight in gold.

Winona

BCR · #10 02/10/05, 03:34 PM

If it is a small garden, why not consider lasagna-style deep mulch? We left tilling behind years ago and haven't missed it at all--but we don't market garden. We have clay soil and started by layering right on top of the sod. This method gets a new bed going with much less work than any other method we have used and it is very effective on our beds (largest is about 30 feet long and under 5 feet wide, others are roughly 6 x 10 feet or 12 x 12). There have been some great discussions on no-till gardening on this site.

I never knew you had to walk backwards with a mantis. That is different.

mammabooh · #11 02/10/05, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HilltopDaisy

Something I always wondered about; what do the Mantis tillers cost?

Ours was right around $300.00

Mutti · #12 02/10/05, 06:43 PM

I love my Mantis once it is started but it can sure be a booger to start...irks me when I have to get my DH to get it running. Love the way it kicks these Missouri rocks right out and great for raised beds. Know our Troybilt Horse is too much for me to handle which is why we went to raised beds. DEE

oneditto · #13 02/10/05, 06:49 PM

Go check out rental stores for their used tool sales...I work in a rental yard and they are seldom used and sell for about 30-40% off

featheremma · #14 02/10/05, 07:05 PM

thanks so much for all the input about mantis tillers...guess i will go ahead and get one...the past two years my neighbor has tilled for me, so from all of your input, the area should now be ok to use the mantis on...about 30 years ago in florida i had a front tine tiller that wore me out when i used it...couldn't handle that at my age now...haha...didn't know i had to walk backwards with the mantis...that should be fun to do since i have enough trouble walking straight!!!...good thing i won't be tilling on a hill!!!!!...i could probably just double dig the garden and not even worry about getting a tiller, but i have really poor soil around my cabin now since all the good stuff got dug up when they built and now i think a tiller would help with improving the soil with compost and leaf mulch...never knew i should have told them to scrape off the top dirt and put it off to the side...am learning how to work with this north carolina soil...sure is different from florida!!!...appreciate all the input...

lonelyfarmgirl · #15 02/10/05, 10:05 PM

I borrowed my dads mantis once-never agin. He is an immaculate man, so of course it was in perfect condition. Hesaid it was a pain to start. Boy he was right. It is so lightweight, it bounces right off the dirt. And if the dirt is wet, forget it. It sucked so bad, I wanted to smash it. I'll buy ahundred garden weasels before I would ever buy a mantis.

bob vadnais · #16 02/10/05, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by featheremma

i am needing a tiller for a very small veggie garden...does anyone have information about mantis tillers?...i am in north carolina and will be adding compost to the clay soil...thanks for any help you can give me...thought the mantis might be easy to use..

The mantis tiller is a very good choice my wife and i have one and wouldn't trade it for the world

bob vadnais · #17 02/10/05, 10:37 PM

My wife and our family moved from Upper Michigan to Alaska for work its a long story but were going to move to Maine when school is out she is the guidenace councler there we would like information on homesteading there we have homestead for over 10 years so were not new. We think were going to the northen part at lease we hope to. If any one is thinking Alaska e-mail us

sancraft · #18 02/10/05, 11:18 PM

I have a Mantis. I love it. Mine isn't hard to start at all, but I do have to take apart and clean the carburator every spring even though I run it until empty each winter. I live in GA, the red clay capital and it will bounce around when you first start, but once it make a couple scratches and has something to hold on to, it digs right in. I have Rheumatoid asthritis and Fibromyalgia, so the vibration does get to my hands after an hour or so of using it. I paid about $300. for mine in 2000.

Jackpine Savage · #19 02/11/05, 09:37 AM

Mrs. Jackpine Savage here-
I have had a Mantis tiller for many years and love it. I think I paid around $300 for it about 10 years ago. I gardened in Florida until this year and the Mantis did a great job in the sandy soil there. It was a great tool for me because I am a small woman and could not handle the larger tiller.

However, as much as I loved the Mantis, I wound up using chicken tractors to build up new garden beds- I would leave the tractors in one place for several weeks, adding fresh bedding, grass clippings, and other organic matter every day or two. The chickens would scratch up the ground, then mix the bedding and manure in as it was added. Once the bedding was about 14 inches deep I moved the tractors and the new beds were ready for planting (I used the square-foot gardening method and would just add some potting soil/compost with the seed or around the roots of transplants- by the time the roots grew out of the potting soil/compost into the surrounding bedding the bedding had composted enough so that the nutrients were available for the plants' use). I had great beds- hardly had to fertilize, saved on watering, and rarely had weeds.

I rarely had any problems starting mine, even after it sat for awhle. Another reason why I like it is that I could use it at rental properties for edging the grass along driveways and sidewalks, not that this would be of use to most homesteaders, lol!

mammabooh · #20 02/11/05, 11:39 AM

I just wanted to add that you don't HAVE to walk backwards with the Mantis, but it doesn't do all that much digging if you just walk along with it like you do with a regular tiller. It just sort of runs along the top of the dirt (maybe that's just MY dirt, I don't know).