What does a cultivator do?
Whether you’re farming organically, using traditional methods or in a new way, knowing what a cultivator can do to help your farm is important. On smaller farms, you may not need a cultivator but by the end of this blog, you might want one knowing all of the benefits.
In this blog, we will discuss ‘What exactly does a cultivator do?’, giving you all the knowledge you need to decide if your farm needs a cultivator or not.
If you’re looking for a cultivator to help on your farm, take a look at Claydon Drills website today.
What is a cultivator?
You can use a cultivator to till and cultivate the soil. You can get many forms of this machinery, which vary from small cultivation of the top soil to tilling deeply. Cultivators are commonly used during the growing season when sparing the crops and ripping up any unwanted weeds. As well as this, you can use this machinery to till the entire topsoil level to remove plants and prepare the beds for new ones.
If you’re using cultivators for heavy-duty purposes, you can hook them onto a tractor. On the other hand, you can use a small garden-sized cultivator equipment suitable for garden beds. Cultivators come in all shapes and sizes, some human-powered, and some run on gas, electricity or pulled behind by animal or tractor.
You may be wondering what the difference between a harrow and a cultivator is. Using a cultivator, the tilling is performed in patterns that will till up any weeds whilst sparing crop roots. In contrast, harrows disturb the entire soil area.
Roto-tillers can run both the function of a harrow and a cultivator, which can be useful if you own a big farm. It’s important to understand exactly how your machinery will perform, making sure that it serves its purpose correctly. It isn’t ideal to get machinery without fully understanding how it works.
What does a cultivator do?
On a smaller scale, a cultivator has the exact same purpose as hoeing to remove weeds in a certain area. In most modern agriculture, farmers will use herbicides to kill weeds, whereas organic farmers will till and cultivate the weeds in order to reduce the number of chemicals on and in their crops.
Using a cultivator doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better for the soil, although it is a more natural way to reduce the amount of weeds.
The weeds and roots will be pulverised by the cultivator as it scratches the soil. As well as this, a cultivator can help oxygen get into the soil, aerating it for a better crop. In addition, the soil structure will be improved immediately after cultivation and tilling.
Although this might be beneficial to soil in the short term, long term effects can actually worsen the soil health, increase erosion and harm soil structure, which is why it might be beneficial for your farm to take a zero till approach in the long run. Similarly, you can till in amendments to reduce any negative effects.
How does a cultivator work?
Whether you’re cultivating on a big or small scale, it all works in the exact same way.
A unique function of certain cultivators can allow you to use it during the crop growing season or before planting. This is why when looking to purchase or rent a cultivator, you complete adequate research to find one that functions in the way you desire.
For small scale projects, rotary tillers and cultivators are used, but they come in different names such as rototiller, rotavator, garden tiller or two-wheel riding rotavators. On the opposite scale, larger machines are typically called field cultivators and row crop cultivators.
Typically, larger scale cultivators have adjustable settings in order to change the rate of cultivation and the tilling depth. These factors can alter the quality of the crop and how much soil is turned. Farmers will often use deeper settings in order to get rid of tough weeds, whereas shallow till is more beneficial for patches of land with less weeds.
Thank you for reading our blog ‘What does a cultivator do?’. If you’re looking to buy a cultivator, take a look at Claydon Drills website today.