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Tiller/Cultivator
Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was
heavy clay. Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. (It's in the Auvergne). If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. Many thanks. Judith |
Tiller/Cultivator
judith.lea says...
Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. (It's in the Auvergne). If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. Many thanks. Judith I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use. I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is a pain dragging the mains cable around while working. One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and it is a pain cleaning them. -- David in Normandy |
Tiller/Cultivator
On Jan 21, 2:46*pm, David in Normandy wrote:
judith.lea says... Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. *Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. *(It's in the Auvergne). *If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. *This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. *Many thanks. Judith I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use. I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is a pain dragging the mains cable around while working. One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and it is a pain cleaning them. -- David in Normandy David, thank you for this, I am going to print it out for Edward. Also thanks for the tips, very helpful. Is there any small rotarvator, that will not clog up and can be used between rows? Judith |
Tiller/Cultivator
judith.lea says...
On Jan 21, 2:46*pm, David in Normandy wrote: judith.lea says... Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. *Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. *(It's in the Auvergne). *If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. *This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. *Many thanks. Judith I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use. I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is a pain dragging the mains cable around while working. One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and it is a pain cleaning them. -- David in Normandy David, thank you for this, I am going to print it out for Edward. Also thanks for the tips, very helpful. Is there any small rotarvator, that will not clog up and can be used between rows? Judith It depends how wide you keep your rows. It is possible to remove a pair of rotors from each side of the Briggs and Stratton but it becomes a bit wobbly to keep upright unless you are fairly strong. It does come with a couple of row shielding disks at the outside the rotors which are intended to stop soil landing on adjacent rows but I tend to work without these on. All rotovators will clog on wet ground. As a rule of thumb if mud sticks to your boots then it will stick to rotors also. Also some vegetation will twirl around the rotors and clog them up e.g. brambles. Best to keep some sort of hook handy to pull off any debris or mud. Home made garden compost can also clog the rotors if it is very fibrous. As for weeding between the rows I think I own every variety of manual hoe in existence! Of these the Dutch hoe still beats the others hands down. The problem is weeding really close up to plants. Weeds tend to be more of a problem to get when they are 1 cm away from the plant and no rotovator can get this close with any precision. It is best to view a rotovator not as a weeder but a means of doing a really good dig and creating nice crumbly soil without getting an aching back. They are really quick too. Best thing since sliced bread :-) -- David in Normandy |
Tiller/Cultivator
On Jan 21, 3:21*pm, David in Normandy wrote:
judith.lea says... On Jan 21, 2:46*pm, David in Normandy wrote: judith.lea says... Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. *Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. *(It's in the Auvergne). *If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. *This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. *Many thanks. Judith I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use. I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is a pain dragging the mains cable around while working. One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and it is a pain cleaning them. -- David in Normandy David, thank you for this, I am going to print it out for Edward. Also thanks for the tips, very helpful. *Is there any small rotarvator, that will not clog up and can be used between rows? Judith It depends how wide you keep your rows. It is possible to remove a pair of rotors from each side of the Briggs and Stratton but it becomes a bit wobbly to keep upright unless you are fairly strong. It does come with a couple of row shielding disks at the outside the rotors which are intended to stop soil landing on adjacent rows but I tend to work without these on. All rotovators will clog on wet ground. As a rule of thumb if mud sticks to your boots then it will stick to rotors also. Also some vegetation will twirl around the rotors and clog them up e.g. brambles. Best to keep some sort of hook handy to pull off any debris or mud. Home made garden compost can also clog the rotors if it is very fibrous. As for weeding between the rows I think I own every variety of manual hoe in existence! Of these the Dutch hoe still beats the others hands down. The problem is weeding really close up to plants. Weeds tend to be more of a problem to get when they are 1 cm away from the plant and no rotovator can get this close with any precision. It is best to view a rotovator not as a weeder but a means of doing a really good dig and creating nice crumbly soil without getting an aching back. They are really quick too. Best thing since sliced bread :-) -- David in Normandy- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Brilliant, thanks again David for very useful information. I will let you know when it's purchased. Judith |
Tiller/Cultivator
On Jan 21, 3:46*pm, Martin wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:44:35 -0800 (PST), "judith.lea" wrote: On Jan 21, 3:21*pm, David in Normandy wrote: judith.lea says... On Jan 21, 2:46*pm, David in Normandy wrote: judith.lea says... Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. *Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. *(It's in the Auvergne). *If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. *This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. *Many thanks. Judith I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use. I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is a pain dragging the mains cable around while working. One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and it is a pain cleaning them. -- David in Normandy David, thank you for this, I am going to print it out for Edward. Also thanks for the tips, very helpful. *Is there any small rotarvator, that will not clog up and can be used between rows? Judith It depends how wide you keep your rows. It is possible to remove a pair of rotors from each side of the Briggs and Stratton but it becomes a bit wobbly to keep upright unless you are fairly strong. It does come with a couple of row shielding disks at the outside the rotors which are intended to stop soil landing on adjacent rows but I tend to work without these on. All rotovators will clog on wet ground. As a rule of thumb if mud sticks to your boots then it will stick to rotors also. Also some vegetation will twirl around the rotors and clog them up e.g. brambles. Best to keep some sort of hook handy to pull off any debris or mud. Home made garden compost can also clog the rotors if it is very fibrous. As for weeding between the rows I think I own every variety of manual hoe in existence! Of these the Dutch hoe still beats the others hands down. The problem is weeding really close up to plants. Weeds tend to be more of a problem to get when they are 1 cm away from the plant and no rotovator can get this close with any precision. It is best to view a rotovator not as a weeder but a means of doing a really good dig and creating nice crumbly soil without getting an aching back. They are really quick too. Best thing since sliced bread :-) -- David in Normandy- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Brilliant, thanks again David for very useful information. *I will let you know when it's purchased. Don't forget to buy a hoe too! -- Martin- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Nah, I'm going to wait for you to come and visit here and then you can do the hoeing, don't forget to bring the hoe with you :-) Judith |
Tiller/Cultivator
"judith.lea" wrote ... Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was heavy clay. Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice friable earth in other places. (It's in the Auvergne). If you have soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you consider best for that type of soil. This is for the vegetable garden only which is approx 100 metres sq. Many thanks. Personally I'd go for a Honda, they have a complete range, not cheap but you get what you pay for, spares are easily available, and they go on for ever. -- Regards Bob Hobden |
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