permaculture

["Jeremy Sharp" <jez@monitor.net>]

creeper gears folks  real slow  S.P.
----------
>From: Larry London <london@metalab.unc.edu>
>To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: Re: So what is a spader? (fwd)
>Date: Fri, Jun 4, 1999, 8:38 AM
>

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 06:49:27 -0500
>From: Allan Balliett <igg@igg.com>
>To: osalt@teleport.com
>Subject: Re: So what is a spader?
>
>>Will Newman II, osalt@teleport.com wrote:
>
>>>Sue Andersen wrote:
>>>"How's a spader work? What's it look like? Will it turn in a cover crop
>>>and incorporate compost? Does it leave you with a good enough seedbed
>>>for fine seeded crops? What HP does it require? Where do you get 'em?"
>
>>A spader looks a lot like a rotary tiller, but instead of rotating
>>"tines" it has "spades" on a double cam mounting. The spades look like
>>small shovel blades - shaped like the Heinz food company shield in their
>>logo - and move in a mostly up and dowm motion, with a little tilt at
>>the bottom of the stroke.
>>
>>The effect is like pushing a shovel (hence the name shove-l) straight
>>into the ground, rocking the handle back and forth, then drawing the
>>shovel back out. All without turning the soil over. The action opens up
>>compacted soil and allows air and water in, while doing minimal damage
>>to soil organisms and microlife.
>>
>>It won't "turn in" a cover crop, but it will chop it up some and push
>>some of it down into the soil, where it will break down better then
>>sitting on top. It will incorporate compost, as loose material on top of
>>the soil falls into the openings made as the spader travels along the
>>soil bed.
>>
>>It will make a pretty fine seedbed if you make 2 or 3 passes, but I
>>caution you to find better ways to plant fine seeded crops, as
>>pulverizing the soil into a fine seedbed is inherently very destructive
>>to the soil.
>>
>>We work the bed to baseball-to-golfball sized pieces (there is, of
>>course a lot of smaller stuff mixed in), then plant into the soil. For
>>fine seeds we make a grove 2-3 inches wide, fill it with a soil mix
>>(much like our starting mix), mix the seeds with sand and spread that
>>into a groove in the soil mix in the trench.
>>
>>The horsepower required depends on the spader (size) and your soil (how
>>hard). Ours is 3 feet wide, with 4 shovels about 6 inches wide at the
>>top and 4 inches wide at the bottom. It requires 20-22 HP.
>>
>>You can get them as walk-behind (probably 8-15 HP) or standard 3-point
>>implements. We got ours from Farrari Tractor CIE in California. This is
>>a one-man operation, I think. We met him first at the Ecological Farming
>>Conference in California years ago. I think he still goes there every
>>year. We've seen him at other ag events, too. He is very active on the
>>west coast. I imagine he would work with anybody in the country. He was
>>very accomodating with us and we recommend him highly.
>>
>>Good growing,
>>
>>Will Newman II
>>Natural Harvest Farm
>>Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust
>>www.osalt.org
>
>Eugene Canales of Ferarri Tractor will be a featured speaker at the Oct 1-3
>Mid-Atlantic Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Conf. which is held outside
>of Baltimore-Washington in Charles Town. With Joel Salatin, his
>presentations will center around the production, harvesting, and processing
>of grains on a small holding. He will have a lot of small, appropriate
>equipment from Europe as part of his workshops. More info, as it is avail
>will appear at www.igg.com/bdnow. (or email me to be on the direct info
>list!)
>
>We also have one of his spaders! It's wonderful if you can find a tractor
>that will pull slow enough. 
>
>Allan Balliett
>
>
>
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