XT3 GSX Chisel Plowing
 

Just finished up my wildlife food plot using my chisel plow I just bought. It worked well digging up virgin hard-packed soil. Lots of dead weeds at first to clear from the tines so my wife followed me around helping to clear the weeds. There’s not much top soil so tilling or moldboard plow was out because of the clay. After supper I planted some radish and crimson clover and raked the seeds in.

Australia??

I don't think you understand how a moldboard plow works. Virgin soil, dead weeds, hard..... that's exactly what a plow is good at. A plow will flip clay. Believe me, I've plowed hundreds of acres. (Your XT3 might not pull it, but that's not the plow's fault.) Chisel plow.... yeah, like you found out it's a pain. Plugging up. That's actually not a chisel plow, but whatever. Find you a moldboard and use it next year. You'll have better results. Glad you are happy with what you ended up with, but you can get better results with the right tool.

Looks like a good seed bed, regardless of how you got it. Seen a couple guys buying deer plot seed mix a couple weeks ago while I was picking up Roundup for fallow land.

:biggrin2:

I don't know if I'd go that far. As much clay as is there it will likely not grow much, if anything. Heavy clay usually burns up in the summer.

Can't help what the soil is, still a good looking seed bed. His soil may be a bit sandy, he's not very far from the ocean. Of course, he isn't far from swamps and marshes, little of everything in his neck of the woods, including really nice farm land. They get fairly frequent rains in that area being so near the coast.

I’m very pleased with the seed bed. Everything in sprouting now and looking healthy.

I didn’t want to turn up any clay. The top soil is only about 4” deep and lots of clay in it too. I came real close to buying a plow but I realized I would turn my somewhat poor soil into useless soil. At some point I might get a load of mulch and mix it in. Maybe in few years I’ll get a plow once I build up the soil.

I’d really like to know how to fix my pictures so they are not upside down. Any suggestions?!

Hold the phone the other way.....

The home button needs to be in your right hand when taking pics.

what if he is left handed?

Can we have a better pic of the tool you were using? Really can't tell what it was or how it works.

Chisel plows suck in weeds. Best ones I've used had disk gangs up front to cut the trash, then twisted shanks staggered behind. Still could have issues with heavy plant material. But your gonna need a couple hundred more horsepower to handle one of those, lol.

Picked up a moldboard plow myself about a month ago. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

The phone doesn't care. I'm left handed and can successfully take pics.

Chisel Plow
 

I purchased a Guide Gear 48” chisel plow from amazon. It’s other places too. I might swap out the points for wider ones at a later date such as a 4” danish sweep.

More like a back scratcher, lol. A chisel plow is really similar to a moldboard in that it rolls the soil, just with a much narrower plow. Chisel plows are designed to work at around an 8" depth. What you have has a sort of chisel point, but will only work about 2" max. A tiller can work deeper. Might be good to bust up a thin crust, but it's not a tillage too, or a finish tool. Putting a sweep on that bar won't work. Mount style is wrong, and with no shank to bolt to, you won't get the shovel in the ground. It's a toy really, lol. In all honesty, you could have done the exact same thing with a rigid spike tooth harrow. I'm not being mean, just stating facts. Harrow would work as deep or deeper, and usually is 4' wide.

I've got one of those, but I call it a dethatcher.

:biggrin2:

In all seriousness, the plot looks good. I can relate to the crappy soil. Here in central Alabama, our hunting plots are mostly chirt rocks and clay, so you have to use whatever works. Someone mentioned using a tiller. This will probably be your best bet for what you have, seeing that you don't want to turn over the clay and have a shallow topsoil depth.

Is this meant for working virgin soil? Looks like it would work well loosening up a baseball diamond in the spring before smoothing it out with something finer.

Thanks for the phone/photo tip, it worked.

If you don’t need to go deep, it will loosen up virgin soil, but you’ll need patience and do multiple passes because there is only the weight of 3 cement blocks (max weight). It worked perfect for my needs and I was working up virgin soil. If you need to go deep, get a regular plow.

On a brinly moldboard plow, are they adjustable in depth if I only wanted to turn over 4-5” inches to keep out of the clay?

Yes. They will maintain the depth they are set. :RollEyes2:

This is why I get frustrated trying to help you. You keep arguing a plow isn't what you needed, but you don't know anything about a plow, so how can you say it isn't what you need??

Did he ask for help? I think he was just showing us his work and he said he was happy with the outcome.. Others even said it looked good. Seems like it did what he wanted it to do.

Yes, he did. He had another thread before you started hanging around. I think as a lifelong farmer my opinion is worth something. And I don't mean 60 or 70 acre farm. I mean 1500 or more. No, it's not how I make my living, but it used to be and I still help a family farm. I might know a good seed bed when I see one..... and how to make one. I'm just trying to help the guy out.

And as far as I'm concerned, you aren't one of the admins members, so you need not concern yourself with my comments.

Well Jon, Ill start doing that just as soon as you do ;)

Yep, just showing off my work and the crop is growing. I’m very happy with my results and I made my purchased based on the respected opinions of others and my current needs. As stated earlier, a plow will likely be purchased in a few years if deemed nesessary. They cost about 3 times what I paid for this unit and if a deal comes along for a used one, I’ll get it.

Sounds about right! Job well done:beerchug:

Thanks for your past advice and it was taken into consideration if it matters at all. I hope you’ll continue to offer your 2 cents. :beerchug:

Cheers too! Quite the spirited chat going on here. We’ll see what becomes of this seed bed when I replant in the spring. All views are welcome.

Just looking at it, obviously it isn't going to work deep, but I think if you modified it with 2-3 rows of the little tines like a dethatcher uses it would give you a seed bed without the ridges, although I'm not sure if the spring rate of the dethatcher tines would be stiff enough.

You paid $41.66 for that tractor??

I think he’s talking about the chisel vs a moldboard

Do the same thing wit a brinly cultivator.
Around here they go for around $125
Same for moldboard plows

Interesting thought about using small tines to avoid ridges. I had to make several passes in all directions when I was loosening the soil in an effort to minimize those wide ridges. I think that once I improve the soil with mulching, I could utilized the small tine concept.

Why not keep what you have and get a disc harrow? If the land is tight what you have will get in pretty good and then smooth it with a disc harrow. You can always tow a section harrow of sorts or even a heavy piece of angle/channel iron behind that to smooth it out if need be. You can get an old mule/horse drawn section harrow fairly cheap some times. Keep an eye out for such on CL.
I imagine right about now your food plot is underwater, or at least so muddy you can't walk on it, compliments of Hurricane Florence.

Agri Fab makes what they call a cultivator, but does work as a "chisel" plow. Buddy of mine picked up a used one this year. (The one that I help farm.) He said it works pretty good. Take the POS depth control things off of it, and it will go in the ground. It's not great.... but it's better than the one you got. At least it has two rows, so it can pass more trash, and it will go in the ground deeper. He did break one of the chisels because he caught a root. Things I don't like about it are the chisels have no changeable shovels/points on them. They aren't even drilled for them, so when the wear out, they are done. They also obviously aren't very hard, as he broke one. BUT.... better than the other.

Attachment 95652



Here is what you need.....

Attachment 95653

Another thing you could add, and would be cheap, if not almost free. Find, or buy a chunk of chain link fence. I ran a pipe across the front, and some old chain. You could use that and drag it behind your "digger".
We use this as a finish on our foodplots, to get them smooth. I picked mine out of the scrap yard for nuthin. :beerchug:

Buy a new box spring for yer bed, take the old one out and burn it,
then use the box spring for a leveler in the garden.
Or pick one up @ the curb in the sitty, they are always sitting out because the collection people leave them for the special pick up service .:beerchug:

They work good for thatching the lawn in the fall as well----until all the springs and crap start coming apart!