help on picking soil breaking implement

[leechlake]

I have a 450cc ATV and I want to know what type of ground breaking implement I can get. Our soil is relatively sandy and I'm prepared to soil test and prepare things right, but I'm wondering if any of the disc's for atv's really do work. Two farmers friends of mine said they doubted it and I just talked to my local farm implement guy and he said "not a chance." With all of the gear out there I'm thinking something must work, I'd rather spend more and have the thing work than spend less and have the disc not break ground adequetly. I searched here and didn't see anything on types of atv implements anyone uses, thanks. I really want to do this myself rather than get a local farmer do the work, I need a new hobby...

[Ole1855]

Leech,

My brother bought a disc at L&M that is the model that flips over to run on tires and then flip back over to disc, it needs to have quite a bit of weight added to get it to cut through the soil but it does work fairly well. DO NOT buy the "toy" model disc's that they sell to use with a garden tractor or ATV.

Ole

[mechanictim]

A disc is not really meant to break soil, they are used to bust up dirt clumps and cover up plant residue. If the area you are going to plant hasn't been farmed recently you will need to plow or chisel the top soil before discing. There are some chisel type cultivators available for use with an ATV. The depth they dig at can be adjusted or you can remove tines to match the power of your machine. A google search for either plotmaster or quadivator will show you a couple of all in one systems that could meet your requirements. Both are or were available from NorthernTool.

[Ole1855]

mechanictim,

We've had pretty good luck running the disc over an area that we want to plant, we disc it over and over, then plant the seed and drag with a chunk of chainlink fence to cover the seed.

We first created several food plots on our hunting land after a tornado went through, we had it logged off, all the stumps removed and had a farmer come in with a big reartine tiller and till the areas. After a couple of years, we have experimented with tilling up small areas with a walk behind reartine tiller and also just discing up the soil and planting. We really don't see much difference in yield between the two different ways of prep.

Ole

[BigDaddy]

Post this in the ATV forum for more ideas.

[Beeber]

It seems to me that I have seen a pull behind tiller for ATV's or small tractors. It has it's on power source kinda like a DR trimmer. I would think that would be the ticket but I bet it is expensive and you would want to watch for rocks!!

[PerchJerker]

I've got the same disc Ole referred to, and have the same experience. Have to add weight until the ground gets broken up, have to make lots of passes. Sod, old logging roads, and hard or dry ground are that much harder to break up but it can be done. I've been using my disc for 5 years. After the plots have been worked a couple times the disc works great in them, even without any weight. I'm only tilling the top 4 inches or so of soil.

[fivebucks]

On a slightly side note, our land is in the LOW area and sandy also. Do you need to worry about turning the top inch or two of "topsoil" and mixing it up with the sand beneith it? That worry has kept us from chiseling up some of our land. We are afraid we will bury the nutrients and then nothing will grow. Input? Thanks.

[Mark Christianson]

I'm no agronomist, but I can't believe turning the soil is gonna be a problem. There are a lot of farms up there, and they are turning the soil much deeper than that.

I could be way off base though.

[Beeber]

I would not worry about it as you are going to have to fertilize regardless. When you soil test make sure to take cores at least 6" deep and in multiple locations in your plot. Then mix the samples together to get a representative sample before you have it tested.

Good luck

[jlm]

Beeber is right on with this. I would not worry about the topsoil, it will become mixed no matter how hard you try to avoid it. If you are breaking sod, you will most likely add more organic material from the deterioration of the sod anyway. If you fertilize, you will be fine! Be sure to take deep core samples as Beeber suggested and take them from different areas of the food plot! Good luck!

[fivebucks]

Thanks for the replies. It's time to get going on this one pretty fast.

[BIGSCHLAG]

The disk by Monroe Tuffline sold thru Bass Pro shops works just fine on sandy soil. It weighs enough ti dig into the sandy soil. It works much better if you have killed all the sod by using roundup herbicide first. Buy the heavier model of the 2 they have. It is a really heavy duty made piece of equipment. Granted it doesn't work as well as a tractor disk, but if you had a tractor disk you wouldn't have asked the question if=n the first place! I bought mine because my tractor is up north and I wanted to plant the few acreas behind my house and it works just fine. Actually I will now bring it up north next week to get way back in the woods were I can't get my Tractor. You will not be dissappointed by it.