here's my stash

[chuckwood]

Just finished canning my taters. I'm about done for the year. In Feb sometime I'll be packing sauerkraut into quart and half gallon canning jars. My stuff is 100% organic and home grown, I know exactly whats on it and what's in it. I'm lucky in that I have a great source for free dump truck loads of leaves that I use for mulch. Got canned green beans, corn, tomatoes, pickles, and potatoes. In the winter, I can throw together a tasty meal of bacon and canned beans and taters. Aside from frying the bacon and browning the onions, there's not much cooking involved, the canned beans and taters have already been cooked. All my other stuff like okra, leeks, bell peppers, broccoli, is home grown and in the freezer. I figure I'm growing around 70% of all my food. If I had some pigs, chickens, and a wheat field, I figure I could bump that up to around 95%.

 

[Marshy]

I wish I had the time for that amount of work. I have a nice spot for a garden and my mother has given me an old Troy Build Horse tiller that was her fathers. My soil is a little on the sandy/loomy side so plenty of drainage and lots of available water since I live in the watershed. A few years back I made the mistake of adding a truck load of horse manure (it was decomposed well) to the garden and had a bad case of weeds since. The garden could use more brown matter compost but not if I end up with that many weeds again Id rather look for a better source of compost. I try to till leaves into it in the early spring but was too busy to do anything with it last summer so unfortunately it was a weed garden.

Congrats on the fruits of your labor.

 

[chuckwood]

I wish I had the time for that amount of work. I have a nice spot for a garden and my mother has given me an old Troy Build Horse tiller that was her fathers. My soil is a little on the sandy/loomy side so plenty of drainage and lots of available water since I live in the watershed. A few years back I made the mistake of adding a truck load of horse manure (it was decomposed well) to the garden and had a bad case of weeds since. The garden could use more brown matter compost but not if I end up with that many weeds again Id rather look for a better source of compost. I try to till leaves into it in the early spring but was too busy to do anything with it last summer so unfortunately it was a weed garden.

Congrats on the fruits of your labor.

I hear ya. To do what I do you need to be semi-retired. It won't work out if you're working nine to five. I've found out that the old tillers like the Troy Bilts made a long time ago are the best, there's twice as much steel in em compared to the new ones, and you can put new motors on them and keep them going. A lightweight machine just bounces around on top of the ground instead of biting in and digging deep. I've used manure and also had weed problems, the only fix for that is till them in quick before they go to seed and make more. I know one guy who got frustrated and killed every weed in his garden with roundup, a bad idea in my opinion, I don't want roundup near my food. This year I bought a propane burner that works like a big flame thrower, cheap at Harbor Freight and works great so far for killing weeds. And propane is cheaper than roundup.

 

[Marshy]

I hear ya. To do what I do you need to be semi-retired. It won't work out if you're working nine to five. I've found out that the old tillers like the Troy Bilts made a long time ago are the best, there's twice as much steel in em compared to the new ones, and you can put new motors on them and keep them going. A lightweight machine just bounces around on top of the ground instead of biting in and digging deep. I've used manure and also had weed problems, the only fix for that is till them in quick before they go to seed and make more. I know one guy who got frustrated and killed every weed in his garden with roundup, a bad idea in my opinion, I don't want roundup near my food. This year I bought a propane burner that works like a big flame thrower, cheap at Harbor Freight and works great so far for killing weeds. And propane is cheaper than roundup.

I agree with you about using weed killer in the garden. If I did that there wouldn't be much benefit vs buy from the store IMO. I like the propane idea, does it kill the roots or do you have to keep going back every few days? I have saved enough large sheets of card board to be able to cover my entire garden for 2 seasons. None of it has any ink on it so it will be good to mulch into the soil at the end of the season. It adds additional labor at the beginning. Hopefully it eliminates some from weeding, I haven't personally tried it yet, have you?

BTW, every part needed to rebuild a horse tiller is still available! That's amazing considering they started making them in the 60's or something. Maybe it's not that impressive considering the quantity they produced over 20-25 years. There's only one tiller I'd buy to replace my horse and it wouldn't be cheap. BCS

 

[Del_]

I've got two Troy bilt horses. I'm sure they can be beat but ask me if I care! Both are 8hp Briggs IC.

 

[chuckwood]

I like the propane idea, does it kill the roots or do you have to keep going back every few days? I have saved enough large sheets of card board to be able to cover my entire garden for 2 seasons. None of it has any ink on it so it will be good to mulch into the soil at the end of the season. It adds additional labor at the beginning. Hopefully it eliminates some from weeding, I haven't personally tried it yet, have you?

BTW, every part needed to rebuild a horse tiller is still available! That's amazing considering they started making them in the 60's or something. Maybe it's not that impressive considering the quantity they produced over 20-25 years. There's only one tiller I'd buy to replace my horse and it wouldn't be cheap. BCS

A propane burner gives mixed results. It won't kill the roots like roundup does but it sure will slow 'em down a lot. I've used cardboard and newspaper mulch with good results. But you need something to weight that stuff down for it to work well. I've read that the inks used nowadays on cardboard and newspaper are non toxic with no heavy metals. I didn't know that parts are still available for the old TroyBilts. I've got two heavy vintage rear tine tillers I use, an Ariens and a Montgomery Ward, parts are not easy or are impossible to find. When I retire them I'll look for an old TroyBilt. BCS is really nice but a little outside of my garden budget, those are commercial heavy duty machines. With my big old tillers, when one is broke down and sitting in the garage, I've still got the other one available.

 

[066blaster]

We have 3 troy built with 8 horse Kohlers at our farm they have alot of hours on them. Replaced tines, seals and gears in them. We just ordered a bcs with a 13 horse honda, electric start. They had a 10% discount if you ordered by Jan 1. Think it was like $4200. The thing looks like the Cadillac of walk behind tillers.

The thing I don't like about the troy builts is they only have 2 speeds.

 

[Marshy]

We have 3 troy built with 8 horse Kohlers at our farm they have alot of hours on them. Replaced tines, seals and gears in them. We just ordered a bcs with a 13 horse honda, electric start. They had a 10% discount if you ordered by Jan 1. Think it was like $4200. The thing looks like the Cadillac of walk behind tillers.

The thing I don't like about the troy builts is they only have 2 speeds.

That's a pretty penny for sure, how do you like it? It it worth the money? I can still find horse for sale on craigslist used for less than 500...

 

[066blaster]

That's a pretty penny for sure, how do you like it? It it worth the money? I can still find horse for sale on craigslist used for less than 500...

Haven't got it yet. We had to order it. Not sure when it will be at the dealer. We let the troy builts sit outside all summer always start on the first or second pull. I know we got a five horse troy built also but it was low on oil and my dad seized the engine going up a hill. Are biggest problem is the seals on the tine shaft going out and the gear oil leaking out. There's a brass gear in the gear case that gets wrecked easy. We put many miles on these things a year for our strawberry operation. ... we have a 3 point hitch double row tiller with about 5 hrs on it. I just have to get it dialed in so it doesn't do more damage then good.

 

[Marshy]

I know what you are talking about in regards to the brass gear and the oil leaks. The shaft for the drive wheels and tines end up with grooves from the oil seals and leak. They are expensive to replace but not as expensive as the BCS. I've replaced the seals in mine knowing the grooved shaft is really the problem. I did some research on the internet and found you and buy repair kits for the shaft that will cover the groove with a sleeve.

 

[066blaster]

Picked up the bcs a few weeks ago. We didn't get the bniiggest one it just seemed to big. This one has equivalent to a 13 horse honda. They are not as simple as the troy builts but I will let you know how I like it when I start using it. The tines spin backwards, so it should work up the soil better. We only use them to keep the weeds down between rows. So it doesn't have to do any heavy duty tilling. Also there are some plastic parts on this so I think it will have to be covered if left outside or the sun will mess em up.

 

[Bill G]

I see several have mentioned weeds being a problem when using manure. You will not have not issue if you do not use cattle/horse/sheep manure. Any animal that consumes hay will produce manure with weed seeds. If you use hog or poultry manure you will not have issues.