Best plow for clay?

Posted by Farming 101 on March 15, 2003 at 19:40:25 from (172.146.3.74):

I bought an M about a year ago and after pulling up trees and digging ditches with it have decided to use it to enlarge the garden. Here’s the deal: When I bought the tractor it came with bedders, one on each side and one for the back and what I believe to be a John Deere 3 bottom disc plow. Before I go on, let me explain that I live in central Texas on black clay dirt. After getting the lifting mechanism to work on the plow, I found that it works….sortof. Sometimes the back of the plow will skid a couple of feet to the left and I get three big grooves instead of a row of evenly turned dirt. On one pass it will dig in and work perfectly and the next it goes crazy. Would adding weight to the back of the plow help? What about adding to the flange on the left rear wheel for better lateral guidance?
Hypothetically speaking, would a chisel plow be a better choice?
Part 2: When the plow does work, I’m left with these big 50 pound pieces of clay that it has peeled up. Obviously I need something to mince this stuff up. In the fall I first broke the ground so the winter could freeze roots and stuff and I hoped the weather would break up some of the clods so I could then go over it with the roto-tiller. This was only partially successful and the roto-tiller was no match for the remaining clods. I tried adjusting the disc so it made a narrower cut and going back over it but that didn’t help things at all. Should I look for a tandem disc to cut this stuff up? How about a spike harrow? I see those laying around sometimes. Any ideas?

Follow Ups:

• Re: Best plow for clay? CNKS 18:59:16 03/16/03 (0)
• Re: Best plow for clay? Hugh MacKay 05:41:29 03/16/03 (0)
• Re: Best plow for clay? ET 05:26:48 03/16/03 (0)
• Re: Best plow for clay? Steve - IN 23:31:13 03/15/03 (0)

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