Planting garlic with our Cubs

[CapeCodCubs]

I have thought about four furrows or "V grooves" in the past, I did make an attempt at it. Really didn't work out. Punching the holes is the way I would like to plant. The dowels are tapered at the ends and really don't punch the hole but split the soil at a uniform depth and at the depth I want to plant. I choose 1 1/8" dowels on purpose. To create a perfect hole for planting the clove the right side up which is very crucial.

We choose 4 row beds on purpose also. Once the bed is prepped, NO ONE walks on it. The tractor straddles the rows and the holes get punched. Even if the soil falls back into the hole it is so loose from being disked that pushing the clove into a dirt filled hole is very easy.
We have been planting by hand which goes fairly quickly by putting seeds in two rows from one side at a time and planting the entire two rows from one side. Then do the other two rows from the other side. Never stepping on the bed. Then we go back and cover the holes.

Last year we did 12 row beds and it was very difficult to weed and harvest. The 4 row system is ideal for how we are planning on harvesting. We just picked up an A-33-Cub bean harvester and that may just work out extremely well for harvesting. Here are some pictures of it. The way it is shown in the pictures is not how it is set up. The blades under cut the garlic, slicing the roots and the plants are windrowed (windrows are shown in the pictures) The unit attaches to the universal frame.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220248665021948&set=p.10220248665021948&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220248658261779&set=p.10220248658261779&type=3

We'll put some thought into a faster way of planting that feels right. The PVC tube idea has merits, so does having grab and drop like mechanical transplanters do.

Ideas have been great, thanks

[Scrivet]

Am I the only one who thinks that all this stop, drop, lift, inch forward, repeat is going to eat a TOB?

I think I would want a continuous motion being a wheel/lawn roller as mentioned but I think that would give more of a slot and less of a hole.

Maybe something along the lines of a ferris wheel with pivoting (like the seats on the ferris wheel) cross boards and pegs set in them. Once lowered, driving forward should rotate the ferris wheel and the pegs should drop straight down and then come straight up. Plus you shouldn't need the clutch till the end of the row.

[CapeCodCubs]

Am I the only one who thinks that all this stop, drop, lift, inch forward, repeat is going to eat a TOB?

I think I would want a continuous motion being a wheel/lawn roller as mentioned but I think that would give more of a slot and less of a hole.

Maybe something along the lines of a ferris wheel with pivoting (like the seats on the ferris wheel) cross boards and pegs set in them. Once lowered, driving forward should rotate the ferris wheel and the pegs should drop straight down and then come straight up. Plus you shouldn't need the clutch till the end of the row.

I absolutely agree, I am satisfied with what we did but my original intention was to buy a roller with pegs 4 months ago. But I would have had to weld longer pegs in place on one my friend has for sale. I can’t weld and needed to come up with something in a pinch and using the carrier was a good solution. I cringe when Sarah operates this knowing the damage she might be doing. Our goal is to plant 40,000 annually and we will evolve.

[Clemsonfor]

Am I the only one who thinks that all this stop, drop, lift, inch forward, repeat is going to eat a TOB?

I think I would want a continuous motion being a wheel/lawn roller as mentioned but I think that would give more of a slot and less of a hole.

Maybe something along the lines of a ferris wheel with pivoting (like the seats on the ferris wheel) cross boards and pegs set in them. Once lowered, driving forward should rotate the ferris wheel and the pegs should drop straight down and then come straight up. Plus you shouldn't need the clutch till the end of the row.

I absolutely agree, I am satisfied with what we did but my original intention was to buy a roller with pegs 4 months ago. But I would have had to weld longer pegs in place on one my friend has for sale. I can’t weld and needed to come up with something in a pinch and using the carrier was a good solution. I cringe when Sarah operates this knowing the damage she might be doing. Our goal is to plant 40,000 annually and we will evolve.

Now you know what to get for Christmas!! A welder, and learn. It's really not hard for the type stuff your doing. If your pipefitting or like making trailers or vehicle suspensions there is more skill involved but for farm repairs I bet you pick it up fast.

[Jim Becker]

40,000 divided by 12 equals need another approach. Some questions to ponder:

1. How clean do the holes need to be? Will the rotation of a drum cause the holes to be unusable? Can that be cured by angling the pegs a bit? Maybe a mechanism like the cylinder of a hay rake will be needed.

2. How "upright" do the cloves need to be? Can they be dropped down a tube? Can a suitable tube be incorporated into each peg?

3. How much soil packing is needed for each clove? Can that be incorporated with the tube that deposits the cloves?

You need to do the best you can to anticipate where you will eventually be, so you won't put a lot of effort into solutions that won't scale up.

[Eugene]

Tractor with creeper and 3-point hitch would let you raise and lower the hole punching platform without stopping the tractor.

Perhaps a Howard speed reducer for a standard Cub, a tractor with hydrostatic drive, or a numbered Cub low-boy.

[BullDAWG]

Am I the only one who thinks that all this stop, drop, lift, inch forward, repeat is going to eat a TOB?

I think I would want a continuous motion being a wheel/lawn roller as mentioned but I think that would give more of a slot and less of a hole.

Maybe something along the lines of a ferris wheel with pivoting (like the seats on the ferris wheel) cross boards and pegs set in them. Once lowered, driving forward should rotate the ferris wheel and the pegs should drop straight down and then come straight up. Plus you shouldn't need the clutch till the end of the row.

I absolutely agree, I am satisfied with what we did but my original intention was to buy a roller with pegs 4 months ago. But I would have had to weld longer pegs in place on one my friend has for sale. I can’t weld and needed to come up with something in a pinch and using the carrier was a good solution. I cringe when Sarah operates this knowing the damage she might be doing. Our goal is to plant 40,000 annually and we will evolve.

Another option would be to pop rivet them on, they may need to be "V" shaped instead of pegs to be able to pop rivet or bolt on. If you look close at the picture I sent, you'll notice that they are bolted on "V" shaped as this allows different sized, depth and spacing of the "V" shaped openers for different transplants/seed.

If my math is correct 40,000 is about 1/2 an acre correct? As I was wanting to do almost an acre and figured about 80-85,000 per acre.

I also don't understand why everyone thinks you need a creeper gear, your not pulling a load per-se, so why couldn't you just have it at low idol around 6-800 rpm's and go slow like that??? Even pulling that equipment, the rollers wouldn't cause much drag, the whole implements weight is on the depth gauge wheels, so it would act like a wagon which should be fine in 1st gear at idol pulling it. Unless your planning on two-500+lb. NFL linebackers sitting there putting the clovers into the ground LOL.

[BullDAWG]

I just looked this up and the whole thing weighs 930 lbs to ship, I would think 100+ lbs is pallets and frame to ship it safely if not 200+ lbs. I'm not sure if this is the one that had the water tank too or not, but if it is then thats more weight to remove if you don't need that attachment on it. They even have a garlic special for it... Though if you learn how to weld I would think you could make this way cheaper than what they sell em for. I'm already drawing up plans to make something similar to it and it should cost under $1000 to make....

[Eugene]

I also don't understand why everyone thinks you need a creeper gear.

.


This worked really well, we would press 12 holes and move forward and press 12 holes.

On the gearing to slow down the tractor in low gear. With a creeper or similar you could drop the platform punching holes and immediately pick up the platform, don't having to stop, drop/pickup the platform, move forward.

[BullDAWG]

That makes sense Eugine,
I was thinking they were mainly talking about a creaper for the roller idea CapeCod was talking about or the implement I was talking about.