Cub cultivator tines

[Puffie40]

I have decided a complete cultivator attachment for my cub would be too expensive for me to buy (They aren't exactly common in the Rocky mountains, and the US exchange rate does not help), and I'm thinking fabricating the universal mounting would be cheaper and easier than finding a complete cultivator. I looked up the shank selections on agrisupply and am rather blown away with all the styles available. S-tine, C-tine, Rolling spyder, then a whole variety of sweeps on top of that.

The thing is I don't know what type is the best for me. I'm working relatively hard clay soil in a small vegetable garden, so I think that narrows my selection to friction or c-tine.

Does anyone have some advice on selecting the tooling for a cultivator?

[Jim Becker]

I just noticed no one had replied to your question yet. As far as the choices of tines/sweeps/etc, it does depend greatly on your soil, crops and even the predominant weed you are going to deal with. In hard clay, I think you want to steer away from s-tines and the like in favor of tools that are more rigid. You want to be able to work as close as possible to your vegetable plants while reliably preventing any damage to them. Some vegetables remain small (carrots, radishes) so soil disturbance must be minimized. Others need more soil movement, possibly hilling up (corn, potatoes) so hilling tools will be helpful. You best advice on these questions is probably found from local contacts in your area. Those are the people that have had your exact situation.

As far as fabricating your own mounting, you need to consider total costs for each option vs. how well each would work. Keep in mind that shipping and currency exchange will be just as big for parts from Agri-supply as for a whole cultivator from anywhere in the US, maybe more for multiple shipments of parts. Remember my comment above about the need for a rigid mount.