Cultivating corn soon.

Our field corn started popping up. Sweet corn has been up and will be needing cultivated here soon. We got dumped on with rain this evening. Been almost 2 weeks since we have had some. We needed it but it'll be to wet to do it tomorrow. I have the Cultivators mounted on the rear of my super m. Putting the fronts on tomorrow and hopefully getting it done by Wednesday. ANy tips for cultivating corn with mounted cultivators?

alot of try and retry and hope you have good tight steering

Hope ya got power steering, if not hope ya got strong arms. Covered lot's of acres back in the day with an M and a Super M. Sure was nice when I got a 3 pt. tractor and a rear mount though. A lot of people won't agree with me on that though, but I liked them better. As far as tips, experience is the best teacher.

Do not fall asleep while weeding the corn.

I use mounted cultivators on my H every year. If you can wait until the corn has a few inches of height you can zip through it pretty quick.If its short then you have to go pretty slow unless you have side shields. Mounted cultivators take some effort to mount. I like them as you can see in front of you where you're going. Bad part is tractor isn't good for anything else while the cultivators are on.

Find something on the cultivator that lines up with the corn row in front of you to use as a guide. Steering by looking at the corn as it goes through the cultivator is difficult.

Look at both rows now and then to be sure you are not burying one side and not touching the other.

Try to move a little dirt into the row. You can affect that by how deep you run, how fast you drive, and how close your sweeps are set to the row.

If you do fall asleep, back up and recultivate the patch that you just plowed out. That way it will look like the planter skipped...

Greg

Wait until it gets bigger.

(quoted from post at 06:24:00 05/28/12) Do not fall asleep while weeding the corn.

Click to expand...

:lol: When I was little, I rode along when my Grandpa was cultivating, and it was my job to wake him up whenever he fell asleep.

I fell asleep one time cultivating beans in ninety degree heat. Woke up when the tractor starting bouncing over the end rows, shoved in the clutch and just kissed the fence with the front of the tractor. I was sixteen, the hired man who had little tolerance for kids was following me, wanted to know what happened? I told him I had been asleep for ten rod, he laughed and said you didn't plow any out, except for these in the end row.

Oh heck yes we went from SC Case, M, and H with mounted cultivators to 656 and 706 fast hitch rear cultivators and power steering. Heaven.

Tricycle front? If so, think about the second cultivation and set the rear center plow flat with a wide sweep. Makes driving easier the second time.

Make sure the sweeps are all set the same using a level concrete floor or smooth piece of barnyard. If two rows or more be sure the measurement from the inside tip of the sweep (not the point) to the matching sweep on the next row is exactly the same as your planter row width (check all rows). A mismatch or improperly set foot can make cultivating difficult or even impossible. Make sure the gangs are centered on the tractor or frame. Use the same size sweeps for all inside sets. 8 or 10-inch sweeps are actually easier to use than smaller sweeps because they do not throw as much soil near the end of the sweep. If you planted with a 2 row planter you have to cultivate with a 2 row cultivator (or a one row). If you planted with a 4-row you can cultivate with a 4-row or two row etc. If you planted with a six row you can't cultivate with a four row unit. You can't straddle the junction middle (the space between the planter passes). Try to cultivate in the same direction you planted, not absolutely necessary but it will make things easier. You can't look down at the rows all the time, look over the center of the tractor over the radiator cap and center the tractor between the rows (disregard if you are using a one row unit). Set you speed as fast as possible to avoid covering the crop. Once the crop is over 10 to 12 inches tall, the spacing between the ends of the sweeps can be reduced. Even if the sweeps are spaced 5 or 6 inches apart, you have much less "play" room. The amount of error allowed is set by the stiffness of the crop, the depth of the planter furrow, and the soil throw by the sweeps. For smaller crops you will find you only have about one or two inches of play one way or the other even if the sweeps are set wider. Remember that cultivation was necessary to control weeds and grass and you do want the soil to cover the row and weeds, just not the crop. To my knowledge I have never gone to sleep on a tractor.

I thank yOu sir for the reply. Tried a little out tonight with some luck. It worked ok. Need to tidy it up and I'll be good to go