Frank: I presently have three size tillers. My Large one is 48" (Woods) and fits onto the back PTO oif my Mahindra tractor. My favorite is my BCS. It has a 30" tilling width. This until is great. I've owned it for 19 years. Very low maintenance. Parts are very accessible. Than I have my baby. I believe it is 10 inches wide. The two larger tiller I also use to earn extra $$$ by tilling for other people. The Large tiller is a blessing at the start up in spring and the final tilling in the fall. My BCS is used more than any other piece of equipment I own. All my rows are planted to accomidate the width of it. Thoiugh I try not to over till too much, I do use it to keep the walk ways fairly weed free. If I ever had to replace my tiller, I would definetely get another BCS. Good Luck to you. HEIDI

I have to agree the BCS is a very fine machine, worth every penny. I have a 1088 troy bilt horse, 8 HP. My neighbor had one too then went to the bcs as the troybilt wore out. The bcs can turn on a dime and tills 30" wide, my neighbor thinks the tines on the bcs wear out at about the same rate as the troy bilt. The neighbor has an old horse, 7 hp that he uses for controling weeds only, he has extra tines on it and it does a good job. My land is small only 1 and 1/2 acres, I have no room for a 4 wheel tractor, so the two wheel tiller is my machine. and I have to say the troybilt [and a bcs would do the same] is a great soil builder. I till in tons and tons of compost, manure and mulches into the garden beds and the soil is great and very productive. I have tried no till, and it never gets going. I had a bed with 15" of mulch and manure on top of it for 2 years and the red clay never yeilded. Once I tilled the organics in the bed came alive. some tilling is needed on some regular basis. When i buy a second tiller it will be the bcs. I have inquired on other fourms about the troybilt horses and how they are now made. the factory in troy, new york is closed, the machine appears to be the same aand looks sound.

From my experience and my neighbors experience I can tell you this, tillers eat dirt for a living, this is a tough job. Wear and tear on these machines is hard. The tines fade away very quickly, I replace mine every year and keep a few extra on hand. the condition of the tines makes a bid difference in the performance of the machine. For a troybilt the tinea are almost 100 dollars per set. the bcs is similar. I add a few tines to my troybilt, and you can do this once the garden is established.

A final note, the bcs has a higher tine rotating speed than the troy bilt, and mixes organic material in better. I am on the outlook for a used horse and will convert the drive belts to a different ratio to increase tine speed to 240 to 260 rpm and up the hp to 10 or 11 hp.

I want a bcs bad, but it is a bit down the list of must haves right now as the 'farm' develops.

Mark

check around and advertise for a used tiller. Lots of people get tooo old to handle them and let them go for a song. Look for aretired person who hasn't used it too hard, and you can get a good buy.

I have a 14Hp Diesel Ferrari Model 72S...It is a step up from a BCS...It will till through almost anything. I also have a smaller 5.5hp tiller for inrow tilling after planting is done. If you plan on getting bigger get a bigger tiller. It will pay for itself with the time saved.

Thanks for all the feedback. As I had thought though, there is no simple answer and it appears that in the long run multiple sized tillers for different jobs is what's needed.

With that said I think this year we buy the walk behind and do the whole area, maybe next year or after we buy a larger one for the tractor..

I've ruled out troy-bilt as everything I've read and everyone I've talked to has confirmed the new ones are not the same as the older ones. I've battled an old Bolens tractor in the past and I don't have time for that with an old Troy Bilt tiller.

So now I need to decide the tiller width...30" sounds attractive but prices to get the 732 model are up there...and this tiller may get relegated to only cultivating paths in the future...tempting though..

Heidi I see you are in MA also. Where is your farm? We are in Pepperell.

Hi - we added a tiller to our tractor this year. Last year we used a walk behind. We now only use the walk behind for tight areas. As for the 5 foot width - EVERYTHING is planted in 5 foot strips now - with five foot strips of cover in between the planted rows. You can get to everything planted in the strips from either side for harvest.

I can't even imagine using the walk behind for big jobs - or even medium jobs. If you have a tractor - you will love a tiller attached to it! Happy Gardening!

CatGrass....what do you mean by cover between the rows? Cover crop of clover or something or a weed barrier material..

We have 2 BCS one is a 10hp and the other is a 14hp. the 10hp was bought for under $250 at an auction and was in aflood so it has some problems but it came with a lot of attachments including an extra tiller box.

The really nice thing with a BCS is it is a tractor and has a pto that can take many many attachments (I think BCS makes around 300 attachments for their walking tractors).

Parts are not hard to get. I think the longest we have had to wait for a part was 2 weeks. they sell alot of these in the US so the factory in Milan makes sure the parts are well stocked in the US

Frank, I'm in Belchertown, near Amherst. Where is Pepperell?Good luck with your farming this year. HEIDI

yes - clover - I can't deal with plastic mulch - it is harder to work with than clover. But, I know they have machines for laying the stuff if you can afford one - however, clover works just fine for us. Gets too tall? - you can mow it. Clover wins over weeds. As does winter rye. So we do 5 feet clover, 5 feet growing space. The five feet of growing space might contain 8 rows of carrots, or 2 rows of peas, for example. (You have to be willing to sacrifice growing space for cover crop - that's the only downside)

CatGrass.. I assumed clover, but wasn't sure. Nice solution, but wouldn't give us enough rows this year. We have the room, but it's not prepared. We grew last year in freshly turned soil and it didn't work out so well. So last year we mixed in cow manure and planted a good cover crop mix so hopefully this year the space we have prepared will work out better.

Heidi, Pepperell is just north of Shirley, off route 2. I went to school in Amherst and lived in Belchertown for awhile. I LOVED it out there. Good luck to you also.

To let you know I bought a BCS 732gx11 with 30" tiller with the furrower attachment tonight. Found a guy that sells/services them 20 minutes away. I can't wait for this place to dry out. I get it Saturday.

last year we grew in a pasture that was turned two weeks before we started growing. Actually - it was a pasture/thistle field. It was in fact an extreme challenge. But it worked ok. We planted rye over winter and then sent some sheep off to work in the winter to fertilize and till. The soil is fabulous now. Anyway - it was freshly turned from grass and this year it is perfect! Off tiller topic, but that grass was a huge challenge and I am glad to hear that someone else had similar challenges!

What type of clover are you using for a cover crop, and can it be mowed? We have a bad snake problem here, so things have to be kept cut short.
leeH

eeewww - snakes! I hadn't thought about that.

We use red clover - I am pretty sure white clover grows shorter - but we did mow it just like grass.

I know I'm probably a lone voice in the wilderness, but I don't till. I have beds, not raised beds, just beds flat on the ground with lots of mulch and walking paths between them. I make the mulch/growing beds 2x the width I can reach comfortably and work them from both sides. When I have a lot of vegitive material I knock it over into the walking path then use a monster mower to shred it and throw it back onto the mulch bed.
for weeds on the walk row, foot traffic keeps most down but I occasionally hula hoe. Catch weeds early and it really goes fast.
After each harvest, I add more mulch on top, pull back just enough mulch to get seeds into the soil, and plug seed down into the richest soil around.
Just for curiosity, I dug one spot to see the soil horizons, and I have a text book class A soil with 6 inches of coarse mulch, 2 inches of composted mulch, a 2 inch A horizon, 12 inch B horizon and a beautiful deep brown C horizon. And it only takes about a year for the soil to get like that.
You might want to use a machine drawn cart of some sort to pull mulch into the garden and produce out. I just use a home made cart similar to a gardenway cart.
well, ... sorry I wasn't any help about tillers.
Arthur The Date Palm Guy

So, how's the BCS working for you, fventura?

SoftMentor, Have you ever considered a "chicken tractor"? Would fit in nicely with your style of gardening.

>So, how's the BCS working for you, fventura?

Well I wish I could say it's seen alot of use, but most of my garden is still to wet to till.

Luckily though I was able to turn one section a few weeks ago so it should dry out soon to plant in.

I like the BCS alot. The differential makes it a breeze to turn at the end of the row. And getting in and out of the differential gear is a breeze also. One easy flip of a lever.

I really like the controls on this thing. Forward and reverse is a flip of a lever and sliding the handlebars to one side or the other is realy easy also.

The beds that it leaves behind are very nice also.

I've got ALOT of rocks as the area is fairly new and it handled them well.

I can't comment on it's ability to rip up new earth as I use a tractor for that but it does a great job at seed bed preparation and hopefully cultivating the paths(soon to be tested) And it is super easy to use. My wife who won't go near most mechanical machines uses this easily.

I'm a retired teacher starting a new life in Portugal. Just bought a quinta with 7acres of arable, 7acres of olives and grapevines, and 15 of woodland/hillside. Was looking for advice about small tractors and stumbled into this forum. SO HELPFUL - thanks, guys!

ch3mist, what part of Portugal are you in? I travel there quite a bit and have also considered a quinta there.

thanks