[AT] Am I crazy?

[Grant Brians]

We are apparently not a modern area as even the most chemical intensive 
farmers generally cultivate their row crops a bit.... Of course most of the 
crops are vegetables and os it is a somewhat different world for us.
        Grant Brians
        Hollister, California
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Hass" <gkhass at avci.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Am I crazy?


> Actually, Charlie, with the weed controllers, you could go up to 50% 
> faster than with a standard cultivator tooth.
> 1. Because they push the dirt instead of rolling it, they thus were less 
> apt to cover the plants.
> 2. Because they went relatively shallow, you avoided the problem of slabs 
> of dirt being brought up from deeper down and covering the plants.
>
> Remember also that those were the days when cultivation was done at speeds 
> of 2-mph or less, and that these were only used for the first one or two 
> cultivations after which you switched to standard teeth.  You are right, 
> however, that they are not suited to 21st century farming.  Nowadays, all 
> the edible beans are sprayed and I only cultivate once (just before they 
> blossom) to take out any late-emerging weeds and to level and slightly 
> hill the ground around the beans for easier harvesting.  I generally 
> travel about 5-mph.  About half the people in our area do not cultivate 
> edible beans at all, but depend completely on sprays.
>
> PS: Sugar beet growers also follow a similar program in our area - depend 
> on the spray early on and cultivate once later to clean out the later 
> weeds.
>
> Greg Hass
> from the tip of Michigan's Thumb
>
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