cultivator question about row spacing

[steve(MI)]

I just purchased a 400 series row crop cultivator to mount on my D14. My question is how much spacing to you set for the row?
The manual shows where to place the first gang but does not suggest a width for the row. I will be planting corn in 30 inch rows.

 

[paul]

Tighter kills more weeds but can ridge up dirt over young crop (you have shields for first pass?) and need to drive a lot more careful and slower.

To be honest I never measured, all my cultivation was done by whatever the used machines were set at, got them all used.

Paul

 

[steve(MI)]

Thanks Paul
The one i bought was set up for much wider rows,
For what it’s worth I searched on the net and AI (not that I trust that) said 3-5 inches outside the row, translated to 6-10 inches total width for the inside of the sweeps. Without more that’s where I will start.

 

[steve(MI)]

I rode many hours behind a cultivator growing up but paid no attention to this and dad’s gone so I can’t ask him

 

[matthies]

How much spacing is there now? and then narrow it down accordingly? Post any pics?

 

[steve(MI)]

Right now it’s set at 10 inches for each row. I did that before searching the net just based off memory. I have to slide everything 1 inch closer to the frame because it’s set for 32 inch rows. When I double checked the planter it was set for 30.

 

[ET]

I used to set mine up 10" apart like you are doing. I marked my cultivaror frame with a paint stick where each row should run to make set up easier

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Thanks Paul
The one i bought was set up for much wider rows,
For what it’s worth I searched on the net and AI (not that I trust that) said 3-5 inches outside the row, translated to 6-10 inches total width for the inside of the sweeps. Without more that’s where I will start.

That sounds awfully tight. I'd want to be on the wide side of those numbers.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Right now it’s set at 10 inches for each row. I did that before searching the net just based off memory. I have to slide everything 1 inch closer to the frame because it’s set for 32 inch rows. When I double checked the planter it was set for 30.

Nice looking D14. I hope it has power steering.

 

[JD Dave]

Setting up a cultivator for each crop and spacing is an art. Early on you don't want to smother the crop but later you may want to tighten up and adjust the sweeps and speed up in order to hill the crop row and bury larger weeds. Corn and potatoes come to mind. Experiment with width settings and speed in the field.

 

[flying belgian]

Depends if your using it to kill weeds or to incorporate fertilizer and aerate ground. If your using a pre herbicide you can hold off cultivating until crop is bigger. Then you can set shovels wider and travel faster to throw ground up around plant and cover any weeds that are starting to come. That's what I used to do.

 

[steve(MI)]

No power steering but that’s not a problem. Grew up on a WD45 with no power steering. I also have a set of disc hillers that I can swap out for the front sweeps. Previous owner had setup for hilling up rather than barring off. Had to look that term up as I never heard it before . I don’t have the disc hiller clamps for barring off so they have to be attached for hilling up

 

[paul]

I was going to guess 8-10 inches as a generic starting point, but didn’t want to mess you up with a guess. Sounds good.

Paul

 

[J.Wondergem]

No power steering but that’s not a problem. Grew up on a WD45 with no power steering. I also have a set of disc hillers that I can swap out for the front sweepsc Previous owner had setup for hilling up rather than barring off. Had to look that term up as I never heard it before . I don’t have the disc hiller clamps for barring off so they have to be attached for hilling up

Dad would start with the disc turned out , but not deep when the crop was small. When it got bigger the last couple of times turn the discs in to cover the weeds in the middle of the row. He had me doing the cultivating and he'd set it up when I was starting a field. I was young when doing it.

 

[300guy]

We always used shovels the first two times going over the crop and the last time we put on the disks to form the ridge around the corn. Course were dry land all the time and that ridge helped hold moisture around the roots.