What Tractor Equipment Creates the Best Gardens

Posted by | Posted on 12:46 AM

By George Smith

Back in the time before the invention of tractors, growing a crop was seriously hard work. Tremendous amounts of laborers and farm animals were needed to maintain a field or garden. Fast forward to today! Farm implements combined with a tractors 3 point hitch will allow you to produce the same results while cutting the cost of manpower. In the age of the Internet, you can research, watch demos, and even order these attachments directly online and have them delivered without getting out of your chair.

What makes a tractor so useful are the PTO and the 3 point hitch. This nifty invention has created the need for an array of compact tractor implements, each with it's own purpose in your garden. Some implements need to be powered by the tractor in order to work properly so it is a good idea to have some horsepower in your PTO capability. Attachments can also be added to the front end of a tractor if you have a tractor front end loader installed. These Tractor Loader Attachments will ensure that you get the most out of your tractor.

Garden tractors can greatly benefit from having a front end loader installed. Most tractor owners use this to attach a bucket to their tractor, but this is only one of many farm implements that can be used if you have a universal quick attach hitch on your loader. Many farmers not only have crops, but livestock as well that need hay carried to and from pastures and fields. 4 in 1 buckets for front end loaders are a good example of how to utilize your loader for more uses.

As a rule of thumb, there are certain tractor implements that should be considered as standard equipment when using your tractor for producing a garden. Farm Plows are one on these must have attachments. A plow will make is easy to flip over the topsoil to create a good environment for your crops to grow in abundance. Plowing your garden is one step that cannot be skipped, and there are many different garden plows to fit any size tractor.

The second step to planting a great garden is simple. You need to bust up the large chunks of dirt known to farmers everywhere as "Clods". There are two different farm tractor attachments that are made to accomplish this task. The first is a Disc Harrow, and these are non-PTO powered farm tractor implements. They come in many sizes to accomodate the needs for compact tractor implements as well as very large versions to suit the large farm tractors as well. Basically these run over the clods and bust them into smaller ones. After several passes with a disc harrow, the soil will reach a good consistency for planting your crops in.

Using a rototiller instead of a disc harrow is sure to save you time when getting your fields ready to plant. You can adjust the rear gate open or closed to fine tune to coarseness of your gardens soil. If you set it open, then you will have larger pieces of dirt that will not be broken up. If you close the rear gate, the tiller literally chops up the ground, then busts the remaining clods against the gate producing very loose soil for planting. One pass with a tractor tiller over your garden and you are ready for the next step in creating a beautiful garden your plants will love.

Now that the soil ready to plant, the next step is to create a raised garden bed to plant your crop in. A great tool for this is known as a garden hiller or garden bedders. You can find a 3 in 1 tool that will allow you to complete the next couple steps with a single farm tractor attachment. Everything Attachments offers a garden cultivator with a bolt on bedder, furrowing attachment, and cultivator all in one. Once you have created you raised beds, many garden farmers tend to make a pass over each row with a furrowing attachment to make a small V into each row. This creates a place for the gardener to place their seed and easily cover it up with the soil on either side.

Now comes the not so fun part of a garden . . . taking care of the weeds that can strangle your crop. You basically have two choices in this area, hoe your garden (don't recommend it if you have a large garden and enjoy standing upright) or you can attach a garden cultivator to your tractor. While your garden plants are young and still fighting against any unwanted competitors for sunlight, water, and minerals you will want to get rid of the competition. The premise is to stradle your plants with your tractor, and the cultivator will pull up the weeds growing in your garden. Be careful not to get your cultivator shanks too close to your crop so you do not disturb the roots, but get close enough to pull out your weeds. Once your crop is big enough to shade the area on either side of your row, you are pretty much in the clear.


About the Author:

Comments (0)