[Nairb]

What works best for seedbed prep in the spring? Want to pull behind field cultivator.

 

[critter8793]

Both will do a good job packer will make our soil crust pretty hard, the crumbler will leave the ground more cloddy but it wont crust much. I prefer the double basket crumbler.
Crumbler will plug with mud if its too wet and it really sucks digging the mud out.

 

[Nairb]

Thanks for the info. Will a coil packer plug with mud? I've been told if the crumbler plugs just drive fast with it down and mud flies. Not sure if it actually works.

 

[custom_farmer]

I would have to ask if you want to keep moisture in, or let the soil dry more? I pull a Flexi-Coil packer behind most of our tillage passes, it seals the ground better in the spring than our rolling harrow, and in the fall it sort of "plants" some of the straw residue to help hold it in place. Our soil is mostly a loam of some sort, and it's usually a pretty dry climate here.

 

[Nairb]

We currently run a 4 bar harrow attached to the cultivator. The last 2 years the ground seemed too fluffy. As far as moisture we do 2 passes in the spring. One to pull up rocks the other to level skid loader tracks. The 2nd pass is very shallow. Would pull only on the 3nd pass.

 

[Nairb]

2nd pass. Not the 3rd

 

[custom_farmer]

One to pull up rocks the other to level skid loader tracks.

I can relate to that. I will warn that if your rocks are of the cobble type, about the size of a softball, a coil packer does very well at picking these up...too well

We changed up our spring pass a few years ago from a Calkins culti-weeder pulling a Unverferth rolling harrow, to a shallow chisel plow with sweeps pulling the Flexi-Coil. We did this so we could shank in 32% and Thio-Sul, rather than dry spreading. We've felt like our moisture retention has been better with the chisel/coil packer.

 

[critter8793]

Thanks for the info. Will a coil packer plug with mud? I've been told if the crumbler plugs just drive fast with it down and mud flies. Not sure if it actually works.

We always use a screwdriver or rod to dig the mud out, also if you have rocks they can get stuck in the bars.
Disregard what I said about the packer I was thinking of a cutipacker I dont know what a coil packer is.

 

[custom_farmer]

Will a coil packer plug with mud?

I'm not gonna tell you it won't, but, the only time mine has plugged bad was last spring. 30 minutes left on the last field of the spring, and it started raining, the field had a lot of residual russian thistles from the fall before, and I told the hired man to just finish, it filled the inside of the coils with russian thistle adobe, it was pretty miserable cleaning that out. Generally speaking, I think the coils will still work when other packers are plugged. On the other extreme, if you have very dry blow type sand, and not much residue, the coil is not the best option there.