DIY Farm Impliments

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by randydupree

Down here in the sunny south they grow lots of things under plastic.
Watermelons,tomatos and i'm sure other stuff.
What i have seen from the road is solid sheets,no holes preformed.
And from what i hear and see,theres water tubes in the plastic,each end is attached to an irrigation pipe.
So water is under the plastic.
They set plants as i guess you do,the field workers just poke holes in it and set the plants in place,they ride on a seat thing behind the tractor with the plants at hand.

Your plastic looks thicker/heavier than what they use here.
They put the plastic down with a tractor too,a roller thing rolls it out and they roll dirt over each side to bed it in place.

After they pick the crops they come back in and remove the plastic,and the cages the tomatos grow in and the stakes used to hold it all up.
Huge work,or so it looks to me.

The tomato crop is used for fast food,Wendy's,mcdonalds etc.
They pick everything,then grade it by size in a grid like grading gravel,the proper size goes to market and the rest gets hauled back to the fields where they burst them all and plow them back into the dirt,a huge huge waste of tomatos.

But you guys probably know all of this.

Randy, we looked at that, and the plastic layer machine is around 2500, and needs a bigger tractor than we have. And plastic has to be disposed of. It is supposed to disintegrate after 12 months if you plow it in. It is a good system for large truck farm operations, but garlic is a different beast and the plastic has to last over winter for us.
We are using ground cloth plastic which should be good for 10-20 years, just roll it up when the job is done. We got it in 100 ft rolls and I made an aluminum plate with holes drilled in it and we use a propane torch to burn the holes.
Instead of using weights to hold down the plastic, I may design a machine to roll dirt over the edges to hold it down from the wind. So far this works, time will tell.
This plastic allows water to flow through it at up to 20 liter a munutte so our current irrigation system will work.

[BukitCase]

Gerry, I'd looked into mulch layers, etc, several years ago and decided I had a few hundred OTHER projects that should be done first (or instead of :=) - the $8k versions (and probably lower) use another pair of disks to cover the edges (as you probably already have thought of)

https://www.elitemetaltools.com/site...?itok=6KzfnxMy

Link should pull up a pic, I'm in the same boat as you for tractor size - that one wants around 80 horse tractor, I haven't figured out a way to run BOTH of my 45 horse ones in tandem ... Steve

[randydupree]

Originally Posted by Ironman

Randy, we looked at that, and the plastic layer machine is around 2500, and needs a bigger tractor than we have. And plastic has to be disposed of. It is supposed to disintegrate after 12 months if you plow it in. It is a good system for large truck farm operations, but garlic is a different beast and the plastic has to last over winter for us.
We are using ground cloth plastic which should be good for 10-20 years, just roll it up when the job is done. We got it in 100 ft rolls and I made an aluminum plate with holes drilled in it and we use a propane torch to burn the holes.
Instead of using weights to hold down the plastic, I may design a machine to roll dirt over the edges to hold it down from the wind. So far this works, time will tell.
This plastic allows water to flow through it at up to 20 liter a munutte so our current irrigation system will work.

Ahh,you make the holes,interesting.
Cleaning up the plastic looks to be a chore,i'm not sure how they do that,the tomato plants are big and they are in cages,with a big stick holding the cages up.
I would think that the sticks are 6-8 feet long,the cages are 6 feet tall maybe.
All of that has to be pulled up and saved for next season.
I think they plow the whole field with the plastic in the ground,then pick the plastic up.
They do not leave it,i see big piles of the plastic along the roads.
I am not a farmer,but i can appricate the technology and equipment.
The corn crop is planted so close together that theres no weeds,corn,cotton and tomatos and peanuts are grown here.

[Ironman]

Today I got back at it.
I'll call this the Oscillating frame. I got it tacked together and all straight and bracked it where I don't want deflection. Then I laid some wire on it.
I got some pimples to remove at some point when I clean up.

So after stripping off the bracing, I had more than is in pictures, I began to fit it to the tractor.
It actually went on like it's supposed to.
As some of these guys use rubber mounts, I figure the motion ain't much, so I used 3/4" bolts for the pivot points. I' will drill the bolts for a grease nipple afterwards.
And Caddman and Arizonian, I almost made it, I am at 21 inches from pivot to blade.

So, next is to chop a brand new PTO driveline shorter for the job, and swap out one end. It has the 6 spline ends on both ends and I need to go to 1" keyed shaft on one end.
And complete the crank mechanism. This better not take to much as I have used every piece of 1/2 and 3/4" bits that have been lurking about, and even had to cut a bit of plate to make the blade arms.
So, as tomorrow is a town day, shop life will resume in a couple days.

[arizonian]

Looking good, can't wait to see the end results.

[milomilo]

Looking good!!!

[toprecycler]

Keep up the good work.


I never knew they made a 2wd kubota.


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[Ironman]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

Keep up the good work.


I never knew they made a 2wd kubota.


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I wish it was 4wd but I have not experienced a need for more traction, unless undercutting, and that may be helped if I put fluid into the tires.
I'm convinced the power driven knife is going to make a pile of difference.

The tractor is actually a L185 and in North America L1501
It has 4 speeds on the PTO box and 8 on the main box and down on the side there is a crawler gear that puts it down to less than walking speed. Plus a dif lock. Perfect for row crops

[CaddmannQ]

I remember riding a new Kubota in 1979. I was a Teamster working for a tractor etc rental company.

Those babies would do a nice slow wheelie and you could ride it down the lot.

They all got nose weights pronto.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

I remember riding a new Kubota in 1979. I was a Teamster working for a tractor etc rental company.

Those babies would do a nice slow wheelie and you could ride it down the lot.

They all got nose weights pronto.

Yup, I got 135lb steel block hanging off the front