permaculture

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

Hey are you in a hurry to plant not spader world  what about rippers and
like creations?   Trash on the surface and Carbocrops and less saladmix and
something you can obtain energy from  weeds are adequate greens  gracias
----------
>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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