Tilling Tips & Techniques
Tilling Depth
WARNING!
Before tilling, contact your telephone or
utilities company and inquire if underground equipment
or lines are used on your property. Do not till near buried
electric cables, telephone lines, pipes or hoses.
•
This is a CRT (counter-rotating tine) tiller. As the wheels
pull forward, the tines rotate backward. This creates an
"uppercut" tine action which digs deeply, uprooting soil
and weeds. Don't overload the engine, but dig as deeply as
possible on each pass. On later passes, the wheels may tend
to spin in the soft dirt. Help them along by lifting up slightly
on the handlebar (one hand, palm up, works most easily).
•
Avoid the temptation to push down on the handlebars in an
attempt to force the tiller to dig deeper. Doing so takes the
weight off the powered wheels, causing them to lose traction.
Without the wheels to hold the tiller back, the tines will
attempt to propel the tiller backward, towards the operator.
•
When cultivating (breaking up surface soil around plants to
destroy weeds, see Figure 5-4), Adjust the tines to dig only 1"
to 2" deep. Using shallow tilling depths helps prevent injury
to the plants whose roots often grow close to the surface.
If needed, lift up on the handlebars slightly to prevent the
tines from digging too deeply. (Cultivating on a regular basis
not only eliminates weeds, it also loosens and aerates the
soil for better moisture absorption and faster plant growth.)
Watering the garden area a few days prior to tilling will make
tilling easier, as will letting the newly worked soil set for a
day or two before making a final, deep tilling pass.
Figure 5-4
Suggested Tilling Patterns
•
When preparing a seedbed, go over the same path twice in
the first row, then overlap one-half the tiller width on the
rest of the passes. See Figure 5-5.
Figure 5-5
•
When finished in one direction, make a second pass at a
right angle, as shown in Figure 5-6. Overlap each pass for
best results (in very hard ground, it may take three or four
passes to thoroughly pulverize the soil.)
Figure 5-6
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