Cultipacker useful for un-tilled ground (throw-n-mow)?

[Osceola]

I've been planting my plots using the throw-n-mow techniques learned on this forum and others with modest success. After I broadcast my seeds and amendments, I go over the seeded area with a cultipacker. When I inspect the ground afterwards, it seems the cultipacker is doing very little to nothing. The un-tilled ground is too firm for the cultipacker to pack anything. It just rides on the surface only touching the ground at the high points of the cylinders with very little surface area actually contacting the ground. So it seems I'm wasting my time cultipacking.
Would a flat roller or a drag be better or not bother at all, just throw and mow?

 

[shawn cox]

I've been planting my plots using the throw-n-mow techniques learned on this forum and others with modest success. After I broadcast my seeds and amendments, I go over the seeded area with a cultipacker. When I inspect the ground afterwards, it seems the cultipacker is doing very little to nothing. The un-tilled ground is too firm for the cultipacker to pack anything. It just rides on the surface only touching the ground at the high points of the cylinders with very little surface area actually contacting the ground. So it seems I'm wasting my time cultipacking.
Would a flat roller or a drag be better or not bother at all, just throw and mow?

I use a drag and it works good. I think the roller would work better than a cultipacker but I prefer the drag if I need it if the thatch is too thick. Otherwise I don't use anything on it.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Have you been able to get some heavy biomass crops put down yet? It sounds like your soil surface still needs improving. Are you dealing with a heavy clay soil?

 

[Osceola]

Have you been able to get some heavy biomass crops put down yet? It sounds like your soil surface still needs improving. Are you dealing with a heavy clay soil?

Soil is a good medium loam. Planted rye last fall and mowed it a couple times this summer to keep it from getting too high. I expected to have a really good thatch layer, but surprisingly, there's still a lot of exposed soil. Did have problems with wind-rowing. Plenty of rain this summer, but the soil is still pretty hard where there's no thatch. Maybe the packer is just not heavy enough. It's a four-footer I pull behind my ATV.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Yep, you definitely need to figure out a way of not having exposed soil. Try to keep some OM on the surface until right at planting time to help keep the topsoil from crusting. If it has some any clay content to it then it'll be like making pottery if exposed to the direct summer sun.

 

[Osceola]

Makes sense. I guess I mowed the rye too early. I was worried about it tangling up the brush cutter when it's long and stringy.

What about the four-foot cultipacker? Useful tool for un-tilled soil or waste of time?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

It would completely depend on the soil conditions. The more uniform that you can make things the better as far as germination goes.

 

[dogghr]

cultipacker sux for this application for me. Better to run over with tractor, atv or truck tires. First T&M I did in 2010 I drove over repeatedly with my Jeep. Did as good as any plot I've done and I had no idea what I was doing, simply sprayed, sowed, and packed.

 

[DocHolladay]

Makes sense. I guess I mowed the rye too early. I was worried about it tangling up the brush cutter when it's long and stringy.

What about the four-foot cultipacker? Useful tool for un-tilled soil or waste of time?

You shouldn't have to worry about tangling up the brush cutter. That is what it is designed for. Thick heavy growth in fields. I deleted the "before" picture off my phone, but I mowed down WW, oats and AWP that was waist high in most places and thick enough that it was hard to walk through.

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[Rempump870]

I think you were correct when you said you shouldn't have mowed the rye. I let mine grow until it developed a seed head, then it was mowed in mid July by the farmer with a brush hog. Depending on how thick the WR gets next year, I am thinking I might try spreading the seed, spraying if needed and then rolling the standing rye. Where the tractor tires hit the rye, it just laid down in 3-5 ft. lengths. These areas had really good germination.

The brassicas in this pic is where a lot of the rye was knocked over by the tractor not mowed/brush hogged. I spread the brassicas, fertilizer and then rolled with my atv and lawn roller.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I've been planting my plots using the throw-n-mow techniques learned on this forum and others with modest success. After I broadcast my seeds and amendments, I go over the seeded area with a cultipacker. When I inspect the ground afterwards, it seems the cultipacker is doing very little to nothing. The un-tilled ground is too firm for the cultipacker to pack anything. It just rides on the surface only touching the ground at the high points of the cylinders with very little surface area actually contacting the ground. So it seems I'm wasting my time cultipacking.
Would a flat roller or a drag be better or not bother at all, just throw and mow?

I've run my 12' Brillion cultipacker over throw n mow and it's mostly a waste of time, although it does roll the freshly mowed thatch a little tighter, it's not really making a difference in the germination rates. Like you said, it tends to hit the high spots, and isn't moving any dirt at all. In freshly tilled loose soils a cultipacker serves an important role and purpose in providing better seed to soil contact. In throw n mow the seeds are already on firm soil and covered with thatch that preserves the all important moisture needed to get the plants started, and a cultipacker doesn't do much to help the process. Wide rubber tires do a better job of rolling down thatch in certain loose thatch conditions call for rolling. But, usually the first good rain is what really lays down the thatch anyway.

 

[Jason Broom]

I tell myself the weight of the cultipacker bumping along rattles some seed down through the heavier thatch until it contacts the soil, but maybe it doesn't do much that wouldn't happen with the first good rain?

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[Osceola]

Thanks for the comments guys. Still learning a little more each year.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I tell myself the weight of the cultipacker bumping along rattles some seed down through the heavier thatch until it contacts the soil, but maybe it doesn't do much that wouldn't happen with the first good rain?

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I was assuming that most people spin seed first, and then mow the thatch on top. If someone is seeding on top of the thatch, rolling, discing, or dragging will be necessary, because most seed won't germinate without good soil contact. And dragging or discing type implements may clog and pile up the thatch, creating a mess that isn't going to result in a nice plot. So, rolling would help shake the seeds down to the soil in this instance.

 

[Jason Broom]

I was assuming that most people spin seed first, and then mow the thatch on top. If someone is seeding on top of the thatch, rolling, discing, or dragging will be necessary, because most seed won't germinate without good soil contact. And dragging or discing type implements may clog and pile up the thatch, creating a mess that isn't going to result in a nice plot. So, rolling would help shake the seeds down to the soil in this instance.

The best results from a throw-n-mow approach include a base layer of decomposing thatch, with another layer dropped on top of seed that has been broadcast. I tell myself that cultipacking still helps, but I no evidence of any kind to support that.