rotavators

westcoastreticence · Post by **westcoastreticence** » 11 Jul 2009, 13:13

Has anyone had experience of the 6.5 hp rotavators on e bay? There seem to be several sellers of what appears to be the same item engine looks very similar in colour etc to a honda but at £350 ish it isnt! Might just consider running to a Husquarna at £650 ish

I have tended to stick with honda stuff (quad, mixer etc) and its served me well but realistically a honda rotavator of 6.5hp is over a grand and I dont think the area I would use it for veg plot 25ft x30ft and a potato patch of say twice that area would require one for more than a few hours. The veg plot I have is well established but planning to make two potato plots spread manure cover with tarpaulin and rotavate in spring. Do one over winter initially then once one up and growing prep the other over summer for following year and use them alternate years

Thoughts and advice please?

contadino · Post by **contadino** » 11 Jul 2009, 14:49

Rent one when you need it. It's way too expensive a bit of kit for those sized plots.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 11 Jul 2009, 16:43

westcoastreticence,

If you're not in a hurry then and have access to manure and straw then you don't need a rotavator at all - you don't even need to dig your soil.

Cover the plot with manure then a thick layer of straw and in Spring put your potatoes and other plants in easily with a trowel. Once you've watered them in, mulch again. Your soil will get better every year and will never need digging.

westcoastreticence · Post by **westcoastreticence** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:02

OK, fair comment and I would rent if the option was available but geographically not, so not an option. Now I could try and borrow but what if it breaks? and all that. Also I dont have a towbar so not that easy to move(rural area hence miles not yards/metres)

Now while I do have access to manure and seaweed come to that I'm aware of no dig but dubious shall we say though I havent tried it so I'd not scoff at the concept. I would have thought the time and quantities required would suite it to a smaller area. If we take the 25ft X 30ft plus two potato plots twice that size thats 125ft x 30 ft x what 4-6" of straw manure that would be a lot of manure (straw is also £3-4 per small bale here so not a cheap method.

I also work full time (for now) and have many calls on my time so its a juggling act but once broken in I could keep it going for what a few litres of fuel per year surely do-able for the forseeable future.

But that aside the question I was looking for an answer for was the 6.5 hp rotavators on e-bay has anyone bought one/know someone who has?

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:56

westcoastreticence wrote: But that aside the question I was looking for an answer for was the 6.5 hp rotavators on e-bay has anyone bought one/know someone who has?

It's the wrong question. You do not need a rotavator. I used to have one a long time ago but sold it when I learnt the error of my ways. Hardworkinghippy is absolutely right. Do not dig. It just messes up the soil structure, breaking the mycorrhizal ecology. Concentrate your effort on collecting compostable material and mulches and the biggest tool you will need for planting the spuds is a trowel. Everything will grow better, you will have a quieter veg plot and save on the petrol.

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 11 Jul 2009, 23:02

Agree with Biff and HWH. I have a rotovator that has sat for the last 15 years. It needs more than 10 times your area before it becomes useful. The no-dig is not strictly accurate, as normal planting and harvesting activity involves some digging, but it is not a pointless autumn/winter ritual. If you have one of these http://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk ... ad-only-p4 you will be surprised how your workload goes down. http://www.easydigging.com/ tells you lots of useful info, as does http://www.get-digging.co.uk/testimonials.htm.

If you were thinking the rotovator was the replacement for the normal spade and fork, I can understand your thinking. I just wish I had the fork on a stick 20 years ago.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 11 Jul 2009, 23:28

Woodburner,

If you have one of these...

I don't have one one those exquisite tools but I do have an old thing that looks suspiciously like it uses the same principle.

I use mine to open up the earth and tumble about the overwintered mulch to let the chickens get at the beasties and flatten and manure it for me. It's not like digging though it just falls into the earth.

westcoastreticence, you're really lucky having access to seaweed - it makes a brilliant mulch !

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 12 Jul 2009, 04:46

If you really must buy a rotavator, try one of these http://mantis-uk.co.uk/home.asp. I've used heavyweight tillers in the past but the Mantis breaks up soil much more easily, even our hard very stony silt on a hot dry summers day.

One of the problems with tillers is that they massacre the worm population and it can take a very long time to rebuild the numbers of these natural tillers. We had to resort to buying some from Wiggly Wigglers to rebuild the population.

The best thing we ever did was to cover a large area of garden with muck and black polythene for a couple of years while we were building our house. When we opened up the area again you could push a fork, by hand, into the ground, twist it and fluff up a beautiful tilth ready for seeding. It was still full of stones but the structure was just right and with virtually no effort. Black polythene is a much better and cheaper option and has no running costs. Old carpet is even cheaper, apparently.

We try to work on the basis of not turning the soil at all. The only time we have to is once every four years when we are digging spuds. We put a thick layer of compost over the spuds and this gets dug in at harvest. We then have various types of beans and peas in the rotation to boost nitrogen levels but, by not turning the soil and exposing organic matter to free air and subsequent oxidation, we keep fertility levels up throughout the rotation. We do add some chicken manure, blood fish and bone meal and lime at various times throughout the rotation.

We use a fork to lift and loosen the soil to get weeds out but do very little heavy digging. We also have a no tread policy: anyone treading on a bed gets a sharp telling off, even the dogs. We've had a problem recently with our cattle invading the garden and they have left 4" (100mm) deep foot prints (and topless carrots and parsnips) in many of the beds. They got told off as well but didn't take much notice until I set the collie on them.

We're trying planting through a cardboard layer with a straw mulch on some beds this year. I tried to find the Youtube film about it but couldn't but the people in the film plant everything in this way, even spuds and carrots. Eventually, they say, you end up with no weeds. That would be good.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 12 Jul 2009, 17:38

I've got a cheap electric tiller that I paid about £65 for.
I did a 20' by 50' plot without much trouble.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 13 Jul 2009, 13:07

kenneal wrote:We're trying planting through a cardboard layer with a straw mulch on some beds this year. I tried to find the Youtube film about it but couldn't but the people in the film plant everything in this way, even spuds and carrots. Eventually, they say, you end up with no weeds. That would be good.

This sounds nice but how do the plants get enough water? Does it seep through the cardboard fast enough to make up for what the plants transpire away?

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 13 Jul 2009, 16:42

I create new beds here by laying cardboard and then topping with loads of manure. I plant spuds under hay in this for the first year. (With no holes punched in the card - just the over lap joins.)

Spuds grew really well and by end of year there was no cardboard and no weeds.

I did try cardboard over the manure heap with old hay on top. Unfortunately slugs loved the card and ate it and everything I tried to plant through the card.

So better to bury the card under your growing medium IMO. The card itself soaks up water and acts as a good water reservoir - although I did water a bit in really dry spells.

westcoastreticence · Post by **westcoastreticence** » 25 Jul 2009, 22:36

OK, I'll give the no dig (for potatoes) a shot started today starting with newspaper and straw, manure etc to come intend to let it rot down over winter and plant spring 2010. It'll be an education if nothing else.
No-one could answer the original question though! Are the 6.5 Hp rotavators on Ebay any good?

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