Alternative to Cultivator

[bwiltse]

For an alternative to using a tractor and cultivator, go the Michigan QDMA website foodplot page at Foodplots (http://members.tripod.com/~mmbqdm/articles/foodplots.htm)


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Boyd

[Yooper]

bwiltste,
Thanks for the info, I had inherited a tractor with inplements but the frost seeding will help in places the tractor can't get to.

[The Nailer]

Bwiltse - Thanks for the info regarding this page. This is the answer to my problems. I've got several spots I want to plant, but can't get a tractor or even a rototiller into. This is what these boards are about, sharing useful information w/ fellow sportsmen. Thanks again for the informative post. The Nailer

[JimL3222]

Glad you asked! Let me tell you my tale of woe, then how I resolved it.

I located a section of land on my 40 acres which is somewhat damp, and was relatively free of brush and trees. This was an old cattle pasture that had become overgrown in the past 20 years. I started out moving any downed and rotten branches. I then rented a brush-hog type mower from H.D., only to have the drive pully cable break 20 minutes after starting to clear the land. Two hours later I'd bypassed the drive cable to the pulley and was cutting again. The brush hog was a Billy Goat unit, which did a great job while it was still operating. The replacement cable broke after a few hours again due to the metal to metal scraping. While I replaced it I realized the drive belt itself was cut completely through everi inch or so right down to the printed backer strip I feared I wouldn't be able to get it back onto the truck, so I returned it to H.D. as is. Grass was down, but not thoroughly pulverized. I sprayed the field with Roundup, then waited two weeks.

Two weeks passed. The grass was dry and mostly dead. I tossed down some 12-12-12 and some lime pellets with the intent to work them in with a rotto-tiller.

I went to a different rental place associated to a local hardware store. They rented me a rottotiller. I've used tillers before and previously never had a problem like I soon experienced. I fired it up, then realized the tines were turning much slower than I've previously experienced. Within 20 feet or so the tines were clogged with grass and were not even scraping the surface. It took an hour to cut the grass free so I could return the rental. The hardware guy said, "we just replaced the motor - it was a much larger one before but we had this 5 HP one that fit, so....."

By now I was too frustrated. I thought of my options. I enlisted the help of a MTD self-propelled lawn mower ($200?) that I kept for cutting the grass in the clearing where we camp. I set the wheels as high as it could go then moved over the field. The sounds it made were awful as it cut through the hidden sticks and "leveled-off" the mounds of dirt, but I really didn't care. Not a job for the squeemish. I wondered what I'd look like with prostetic feet? The mulching blade soon powdered the fallen grass. I then lowered the blade in the back as far as I could, but left the front a notch up with the intent to essentially scalp the ground. Yes, it stalled many times and yes the sounds as it ran over dirt clods and roots were deafening and made me cringe, but the job got done. (I was thinking in the future an MP3 player turned up very loud would improve this job dramatically!) I did two small plots this way. One was about 150 feet x 36 feet. The other smallet plot was about 90 feet x 18 feet.

The method that I used for seeding was basically to scatter the seeds by hand, then drag a 6 ft length of log with rope tied to the ends over the seeds as a crude cultipacker. That was yesterday. Today it's raining. I'll be back up at my land in a week to see if anything has germinated.