TOPIC: Wild or Wild Simulated?

TNhunter

I watched that Mantis video and I am impressed with the size and how well it chewed up the plywood.

I have some areas that I have stayed away from planting because there are too many roots. I wonder if rocks hitting the blades would damage them.

Perhaps down the road when I run out of better planting areas, the Mantis maybe just the ticket to take care the areas with lots of roots.

Thanks for sharing that.

classicfur

It sounds like there are several viable methods of planting throughout the region. I guess the bottome line is, however you put your seeds in the ground, as long as you are pleased with the results, then that's the \"right\" method to use.

I'm somewhat of a \"Type A\" person. I like to make lists, and am very methodical in a lot of things I do. I'm approaching my stratified seeds planting somewhat scientificaly. I have numbered my plots/patches and am making a spreadsheet of where I got the seed from, when it was planted, the conditions the year it was planted, how it got planted, and any other information I think is valuable. I should have some good information at some point in the future.

Whatever method you use, I hope everyone gets some wicked patches going next year!

Classicfur and TNhunter, I'll chime in quickly about the Mantis Tiller. I have one and it's sitting in the pole barn rusting. We have some hard clay here in Central Indiana, and that little dude just wouldn't cut it. For my ginseng growing, the only thing I could do with a Mantis is beat someone I found in my patch to a pulp with it.

Jacquo

Once you find a method that works well for you, stick with it and make necessary changes to that method if you feel it would make it better yet.

As far as keeping notes. I keep a log book of every thing I do to the beds with dates of when it was done. I also make a map showing the year planted and also showing what the estimated germination rate was in the spring and an estimate of of how many plants are still standing in each bed at the end of each year. It's amazing how much my mind forgets things as the years go by. So a log book is a great idea. I could actually give you an estimate of how many plants I have in each bed.

Good luck and have fun doing it

classicfur

Classicfur,

At the end of that mantis tiller vid it did mention that the blades are covered with lifetime warranty.

Jayco,

I have some areas with heavy clay soils too, but they do all seem to have a inch or so of decent top soil (that lose leaf mulch/composted area). I am not really interested in something like the mantis for deep tilling, but more for something to just loosen up the top 1-2\" so I can plant some seng seed.

In my garden I might use it for weeding around my corn and stuff you know between the rows, just to wipe out the young weed sprouts that are appearing. Looks like it might work well enough for that.

It also looks like you could run it with only one blade on (normally has a blade on the left and another on the right). If you removed one blade and only used one, that would focus the digging power in a smaller more narrow area and you might get more depth done that way - again all I want is 1-2 inches.

Also as a comparison - the tool that Classicfur is using is a garden weasel type tool - a hand took with cris/cross type blades. I bought one a couple weeks ago (image below) and have used it on some smaller areas (like 4' x 10\") and it worked well enough, but did take quite a bit of time to get that entire area worked up to a depth of about 1\". Then I had to poke the seeds by hand down in the dirt to get them down where I really wanted them.

Anyway - compared to the garden weasel type device, how would you rate the mantis tiller type tool ?

Thanks

TNhunter

Full tool below:

PS - I got this one at Lowes.

AS far as the Hand cultivator goes. It's a great tool to break the surface of the soil like what Scott describes in his book. I have used it a little more vigorously and worked the soil down atleast an inch deep with little effort. I might add that my soil is compacted soil.

But as Scotts book suggests to just scratch the surface of the soil and then plant your seeds, not working the soil 1\" deep.

After using this tool for the last three years. Im convinced it's the way to go. Its helped me plant over 38,000 seeds in the past three years.

It helps me plant 1lb of seed in about 10-12 hrs.

As far as the mantis. It may work, but it's just too spendy.
I work hard just to pay the bills and really could'nt afford someting like that.

Anyway you want to look at it. Planting seng is hard work! If your looking for a way that it does'nt produce sweat? Goodluck.

It works for me and the price was right.

classicfur

this tiller has two settings , till or cultivate. Till is more aggressive and diggs deeper maybe three inches. Cultivate is perfect, and one tankful does about 5 hours of continual use

guy