Cultivators

What is a Cultivator?  Lets start off by explaining what a cultivator is and why you would want to use one. Cultivators are basically a device that loosens up soil in preparation of planting seeds. While cultivators may come in a few different forms such as a walk-behind or a pull-behind and for this article we’ll stick with the attachment kind that you pull behind a tractor. When preparing land for a garden you want to make sure the soil is loose and easy to manage. By loosening up the soil you allow more air, water, and nutrients to reach deeper in the ground which is perfect for seed growth. Digging up weeds that take away soil nutrients from crops is another benefit of using cultivators.

Cultivators are simple yet effective as there’s not much to them and they are easy to use. Most cultivator designs are similar and sort of a V-shape pattern with C-shaped tines. You can also find some with a straight bar design as well. If you have hard compact soil the V-shaped might offer a little more stability and strength however the tines are just as important.  As you can see on Everything Attachments Single Row Cultivator they use Steel Spring c-tines with high carbon points. The Steel Spring c-tines allows the tines more flexibility and helps to prevent breaks and bending.

Garden Bedders

What is a Garden Bedder also known as Garden Hiller? Now that we got an idea of what cultivators are lets take a look at Garden Bedders. The main purpose of a garden bedder is to create seed beds for planting seeds. Like the Cultivators the Garden betters have a simple design consisting of a steel beam welded onto a 3 point hitch as you can see on the GB50 by Everything Attachment. The steel beam which can come in a few different sizes ranging from 48″ to 69″ in width each with multiple sets of attachment holes. The attachment holes can be used to adjust the spacing of the discs and tines to create the desired hill/seedbed.

The two angled 14 inch discs create perfect seed hills while the two outside c-tines with shovel points help dig up old roots and weeds.  Heat treated blades that are bolt-on for easy replacement. The dics or hillers use heavy duty ball bearings, a 3/4″ arbor bolt, and have two sealed bearings to keep the dirt out.

Cultivators VS Garden Bedders

Okay so now we know a little bit about both the cultivators and the garden bedders why choose one over the other? While they both work well together if you had to choose one I would think it would be the garden bedder. Technically the garden bedder is a cultivator too and has an advantage over other cultivators as it can cultivate and make seedbeds at the same time. Yes you should really cultivate before using a garden bedder but if you strapped for time and cash then a garden bedder would be a better choice. With that being said if your ground is hard and solid you really need to use a cultivator first or risk damaging your garden bedder. If money isn’t holding you back then you could also consider a Rotary Tiller which would do a better tilling job than both the cultivator and garden bedder. Just remember after tilling you would still want to use the bedder to make those seedbeds!

What are your thoughts? Which do you consider to be more valuable or the go-to attachment?

It appears John Deere has 2 new attachments they introduced last month, the 2230 Field Cultivator and the 2330 Mulch Finisher. The goal of these two new implements is to help speed up the preparation process for seedbeds. These are next gen secondary tillage attachments designed to work smarter  and more effective with excessive amounts of leftover crops at a speed up to 10 miles per hour! To meet producers needs John Deere extended the working widths and operating speeds along with a number of finishing attachments for those that like that perfect look.

The 2330 Mulch Finisher comes in 9 different sizes to a max of 56.25 feet. With that much width and speed completing those large fields will take no time.

As for the John Deere 2230 Field Cultivator they redesigned the frame with special tires that are stubble resistant and no maintenance points. With 6 inch split in the middle shank spacing and 200 pounds of trip force the John Deere 2230 Cultivator give an even and consistent ground mixture and residue flow.  Choose between a three section or five section configuration in a good number of sizes that start at 23.5 feet and max out at 60.5 feet in width if you have easy rolling or level ground. However for more hilly type environment they have options ranging from 25.5 feet to 69.5. Thanks to the width, speed, and power of this utility producers can cover an area up to 217 more acres in a 10 hour day compared to previous models.

A few other features that both of these new attachments are equipped with is the John Deere ProFinish Leveling System and 6 rear harrow options. For that easy operation of raising and lowering of the baskets there is the Hydraulically adjustable flat bar or round bar rolling baskets. The exclusive TruSet Tillage technology that allows for more precise depth and down pressure control. With all these new features the driver never needs to leave the cab till the job is done.

For more information on these attachments please check out John Deere’s site.