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Harrow Theory

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 677 central Maine
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2004-01-29          75407

I bought an old double disc harrow. 54" wide, one set of notched cutters and one smooth. They both angle left or right.
I have never used a set of these and hope to smooth up some rough ground without buying a lot of loam.
Wondering if someone could explain the best way to use these
and which end do I build the hitch on, rough or smooth?
The 3pth is missing.


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harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY
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2004-01-29          75409

Grinder you'll probably get the best results if you hook on the rough end. The rough or ripple cutters were designed to cut up sod soil and the ripple acts as traction to keep the cutters turning.

if you are on virgin ground, not plowed, you will have to add lots of weight to get some action. But start light and add as necessary to get as deep as you need to then you'll have to start taking some off as the ground loosens.

BTW these are calls disks, harrows have spring teeth and you drag them around.

Good luck Harvey ....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-01-30          75441

Harvey
What about the angle ?in or out, does it make a difference?
they must be at least 350-400lbs. greasable bearings, pretty
heavy duty. ....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 677 central Maine
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2004-01-30          75442

Harvey
What about the angle ?in or out, does it make a difference?
they must be at least 350-400lbs. greasable bearings, pretty
heavy duty. ....

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TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002
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2004-01-30          75445

Harvey likely will have a better answer. Far as I know the angle adjusts the amount of cut as well as how much the soil is worked. With little angle the disks just slice through the ground without moving it around. An angle lets the disks cut a layer and furrow it a bit. I think a fairly common practice is to angle it one way for the front or rough cut and back the other way with the other set of disks.

The amount of hp and traction needed increases as the angle is increased and in general disking is considered heavy draft work. Some experience will indicate if the angles are limited by your tractor's hp and traction. If it's new ground there might not be enough power to set any angle on the front discs for the first pass.

I think as Harvey said the main control of depth is how much weight they carry. If the ground has softer areas holding position control might help to keep the depth more constant, although too much position control and the disc may be pulled up when cresting any hills. If position control is used it might be an actual use for the adjustable stop on the quadrant lever. Setting the stop allows the same position to be set if the disc is lifted to turn around at the end of rows. ....

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kubotaguy
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 360 Shepherdstown, WV
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2004-01-30          75446

I used a disc similar to this when I was grooming a lot I used to own. I used the top link to angle the front in the ground to cut in better.
Just a couple of things I learned while doing this. When you get to the end of the lot, pick up the disc and then turn the tractor. Do not try to make a circle with the disc in the ground either turning the wheel or using the brakes, this will cause a lot of undue stress on the lower arms and possibly bend them. Also you can over disc the ground, I did. It will make the ground so fine that when you go to drag it, it becomes a mess and especially if it rains. ....

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plots1
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 563 mo
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2004-01-30          75448

I don't think over disking would be a problem, the finer the dirt the easier it is to work if trying to level area's up. and if your planting something, the finer the better. ....

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yooperpete
Join Date: Jan 2004
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2004-01-30          75484

A farmer will tell you the less you drive over it the better. I.E. more trips over the same piece of dirt actually compacts the soil beneath the top layer that you are working. Go over it only as frequently as necessary. It you have clay and work it while it is wet, you will get big lumps of dirt that will not break up. If you are trying to grow crops or a garden, their roots will have trouble penetrating through the compaction particularly when clay is present. The more you work the soil, the more moisture that you will take out of it. You generally need as much moisture as possible for seeds to germinate and for later during summer dryspells.

Sometime next summer, take a crop tour. About mid summer try to find a dry bean or soy bean field. You can actually see the difference in crop height where the tractor wheels have gone through. The beans are generally shorter. With dry beans, just as they rippen, the field will yellow and the rows adjacent to the tire tracks will be greener and slightly behind.

As far as the discing, the previous posts are correct. Usually you will angle the front forward and the rear backward. The notched discs in the front will cut up foilage/vegetation like last years cornstalks.

I would generally recommend to plow virgin grassland and then disc it afterward. Fall plowing, spring discing is best. ....

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plots1
Join Date: Jul 2003
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2004-01-30          75492

I guess it all depends on what your planting , clovers and alpha's reccomend to coltapac before spreadind sead and that is actually firmind and packing the dirt. bye the way Yooperpete what kind of plots do you sew for your kritters? ....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-01-30          75506

I'm going to attempt to smooth out some area's between some
maple tree's who's roots are close to the surface . I thought the disks would roll over any that I might hit.
I'll add loam where needed and drag it out and seed it.(grass) Just want to be able to mow it.
Thanks for the imput!
....

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harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000
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2004-01-30          75509

I'm not sure what you are asking angles in or out. Uusally one set turns out and one set turns in.

I would not run these, disks, over tree roots unless you want to damage the roots. The surface roots have a lot of holding power to keep tree up right.

Yup you will get some soil compaction but you will probably be cutting below what your tractor will compact. the big field tractors use duals and triple tires to spread out the weight. But these tractors weigh 20+ tons.

Your light compact is not going to be a concern. If you are just going to break up the surface to plant grass seed one pass should do fine. Plant your seed and rubber tire roll it with your tractor. ....

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acerguy
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 69 Wisconsin
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2005-02-14          106068

One note of caution....be careful not to smother the roots of the maple with too much soil. Not if you want to keep the tree. Those ARE the roots that are feeding the tree after all. Years ago when I worked for a municipal forestry department we would frequently plant parkway trees and leave a nice bare soil "basin" around the tree. We would occationally come back in fall and find a dead tree that someone had placed sod right up to the trunk because they didn't like that "bare" dirt around the tree. The result was that the tree roots didn't get the moisture they needed and the tree died. Maple are particularly suseptable to this. ....

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
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2005-02-14          106092

Grinder: You may want to avoid the tree roots for another reason: depending on the age (older the more brittle the steel becomes), quality and thickness (new versus old, rusty, worn down) of the disk plates themselves a snagged root could easily break a disk plate, as could a subsurface rock or debris.

Might want to rethink putting a lot of weight on the disk...speaking of which...We used to put (4) 12" cement blocks on our disk. When my sister and I were kids in the '70's we used to stand on the drawbar of our '45 Farmall when mom was disking (I don't recall why). Not a good idea. She hit a good-size rock, tractor bounced, and 6-year-old sis fell off face down and went under the disk. Lucky for her the soil was all composted leafmold--light and fluffy--so she was forced down into the soil. The only injury she got was scratch over her eye from a glass shard in the soil. When I was 14 I got my hand wrapped around the PTO shaft (guard was missing). DOH!! Ahh the memories! ....

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brokenarrow
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1288 Wisconsin
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2005-02-15          106184

Building up soil around the tree trunk can be as deadly as girdling a tree. I think grinder is talking about the roots growing up and on top of the soil if this is the case he will be fine just dont come up the bark on the tree more than a few inches if that.
In my opinion I think your going to do very little to the packed ground under the trees with the disk. Unless the ground is semi loose to begin with most light duty disks are not heavy enough to really dig in deep on hard packed soil. Around 100# per disk would be needed and this is not feasable with the smaller disks. Of course throw all that out if your soil is light or sandy then it may work just fine. If you have a box scraper with scarifers you could break up some of that hard packed ground with just the scarifers (that is Plots1 little trick I used last year) It sure helped my disk 880# in soil that was tilled just the year before. With out doing this it barely scratched the surface with any vegitation at all on it. Start hauling in the top soil bud! LOL you will save yourself alot of work in the long run and probably have a nicer yard in the end.
PS Dont rototill it unkess you plan to pack it before seeding. The darn yard will settle really uneven. I learned that one the hard way years ago.
See my pics 13 and 15. ....

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