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 | bcripe
Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 22 Montana 
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2005-05-09 110885
Hey Guys, I have 14 acres of somewhat wet soil (there is probably a 2 acre pond on the property) without rocks that is grass. I guess the soil could be described as glacial till. Its pretty bumpy in places. I would like to work it to smooth it out and then replant grass. I have a Kubota L3130 and a disk and box scraper. I was thinking a plough would be best to turn over the old sod, then disk and then drag? That would help level it somewhat. Then reseed and roll? What do you guys think? Would a tiller be better for me? There arent any hills on my property. How big of a roller do I need?
Thanks,
BC
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 | BrendonN
Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 89 Central Kansas
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2005-05-10 110894
There are a few pros and cons to each. Although I would usually lean towards the plow for soil preparation, they do leave the ground somewhat uneven with a number of ridges and furrows. Several diskings and harrowings will minimize this, but the uneveness will still be noticable. (This brings up the point that the moldboard plow is never used by itself; it must be followed by an implement to break down the clumps like a disk or tiller run shallowly.) A person could probably use a box scraper to level the gound out but that would be a lot of work and would cause compaction in your new seedbed.
Tillers do not leave the ground uneven but they do have the tendency to leave the soil too loose and broken down. This causes it to dry out rapidly and also the crust over worse after a hard rain.
Another tillage option would be to break up the ground with a chisel, disk it well, then harrow it smooth for planting. A chisel plow could be assembled for low cost with a toolbar with any number of shanks on it. Here again the job will require multiple implements (but all reasonably priced) and passes over the field.
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| trbomax
Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 133 Starvation Lake, Mi
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2005-05-12 110996
My experience has been to till as deeply as possible, at 90 and 45 deg.several times.This will break up anything and actually leave it quite level.Then run over it in two directions with a roller pulled by an ATV,not a tractor ,the tractor would be too heavy for the loose soil.This produces a very good bed with only minimal rakeing. ....
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| brokenarrow
Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1288 Wisconsin 
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2005-05-12 110999
If you dont have a rock problem, I can give you my advice and IMO there would be NO other "best way". Rent or buy a sprayer. Go buy yourself a 41% glysophate with a sufficant already in it (Basically a generic round up) Dont buy roundup by NAME, the patten ran out on it and generics are half the price but exactly the same. Spray your fields. I can not tell you enough about the importance about this. Get this done asap. wait about 2 weeks and get out there and cut the field. This will chop up most of the standing weeds. wait about a week or two (now we are in Late June) Look over the field and see if you have any new growth or un killed areas. you probably will!!! Spray again!!! This can not be deleated! It will play an important role when you do plant. Wait two more weeks.
IMO TILL! Dont waist your time with the plow and the disk and drag, way too much work for what you are trying to accomplish. With deminished or NO vegitaion on the surface you will end up with a fine seed bed with one pass!!! Here is my newest secret tip: wait 2 to 3 more weeks (You will now be in LATE July early Aug.) When you disturb the soil with tilling or plowing you will bring new weed seeds that were way under the ground, UP to the surface. They were previously dormant because of a lack of light and being too far under the surface to germinate. SPRAY again!!! This may sound like over kill but I gaurentee you that you will be very happy you did. Now wait atleast ONE week. You are now in PRIME grass planting time in some areas of the country (dont know where you are?) END of Aug!. Get out there and spread you seed (PS back track a bit! pull a soil sample right now in MAY and find out what your ground needs added to it for your grasses, spread half the amount of fertilizer it called for and then till like talked about before)
OK back to Late AUG. broadcast your seed and the other half of the fertilizer. Drag the field with a drag or an old bed spring or VERY lightly disk VERY LIGHTLY!!!!. a bed spring behind a wheeler goes real fast. Pray for light rain!!!
What you would of just accomplished is as weed free a seed bed as you could possibly have. It will give you the best chance for a great plot of grasses and you field will NOT be choked out by weeds!!!! IMHO, Do ALL the steps listed. I would NOT rush this. Too many folks put the horse before the cart and end up unhappy with the reulst because of weeds. If you DO NOT plan on weed control before you plant IMO Dont waist your time money and fuel. The little bit of time it takes and money to spray will be repaid to you a hundred times! over the years.
What I just posted may differ with others here. Did not mean to come off as a pro or know it all. This is what I would do and DO DO (LOL) every year. (especially since I just bought a tiller, no more renting or borrowing a skid steer tiller). IMO I just laid out a plan to get you a great plot. Now go do it!
Good luck ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada 
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2005-05-13 111014
That pretty much covers it.
The only point I would add is to check the depth of the topsoil before you start and constantly while tilling.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is tilling deeper than the topsoil layer. All this does is bring up sub-soil and blend it into the existing topsoil thus diluting it.
Best of luck. ....
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| bcripe
Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 22 Montana
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2005-05-13 111032
Thanks guys, Let me give you some other info. I am in NW Montana on the Yaak River. This is a pretty wet area. There are no rocks. Its all grass and only very very few thistles. Last summer we went to work on a bumpy and brushy area with the tractor and box scraper. It was alot of work and put 250 hours on my tractor. There was alot of alders and some of the bumps were 5-6 feet tall. I could not really tell a difference in topsoil to soil 5 feet down. All of the old sod we buried in the depressions. Hopefully this picture will show how it turned out. ....
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| bcripe
Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 22 Montana
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2005-05-13 111033
We then planted $1000 worth of seed but didnt roll it as you can see from the picture in the link. Also over the winter it was settled quite a bit and really needs to be redone as well. So this type of thing is basically what I want to do in some other areas. By just tilling I cant really get through much more than the sod. I borrowed one last summer and although it was small it didnt work all that great. I wonder how much better a big one would work? But really I need to get the sod up so moving the dirt to fill in low spots is easier. I probbaly am just using the wrong machine for the job but its all that I have.
The picture here shows the property from a hillside across the adjacent highway.
Thanks again,
BC ....
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| trbomax
Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 133 Starvation Lake, Mi
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2005-05-13 111039
I dont know what kind of tiller your useing, but the 72" KK I use will pulverize sod in two passes.You have a hard time finding any of it. ....
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 | tw-20ford
Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 20 yankton
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2005-06-02 111876
i think a tiller would work better because it brings new soil up and mixes it with the old. the only bad thing is grass might get tangled in it but it saves 2 steps.good luck. ....
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