1.

See bed Preparation (Spring): Tillers are used in the spring to prepare the garden seed bed. Tilling the ground until you have an 8" deep seed bed of well tilled soil produces the proper growing environment for young plants

2.

Cultivation (Summer): It is important to cultivate between the rows of plants during the growing season. Tilling only 1" to 2" eliminates weeds and loosens the soil surface. This allows moisture to penetrate the soil, controls the weeds and provides more moisture for your crops.

3.

Power Composting (Fall): Tilling garden plant remains into the soil, chopping them into small pieces and burying them in the garden soil promotes rapid decomposition of the plant material, adding more organic matter to the soil.

1.

The forward motion of the machine relies on your shoulders to tip the tines into the soil since the tines drive the machine forward. It is more physically strenuous and difficult to operate a front tine tiller.

2.

It is difficult to till at a consistent depth with a font tine tiller. You must hold back on the machine to control the tilling depth while pushing forward to propel the machine itself forward.

3.

Front tine tillers cultivate too deeply and prune lateral roots of the plants you are growing. The tines chop off the tomato and corn lateral roots that grow 3" below the soil surface.

4.

Front tine tiller tines rotate very slowly, making power composting impossible. The plant material winds around the tines, leaving the gardener with a ball of material to unwind. Returning the chopped garden material into the garden is essential to build healthy soil in organic gardening.

5.

The slower tine speed also produces a rougher seed bed for spring planting.

1.

Counter-rotating rear tine tillers do not till at a consistent depth for seedbed preparation. They till at 8" in some areas and 5" in others because the counter-rotation of the tines is fighting the forward rotation of the drive wheels. This results in unevenly tilled seedbed.

2.

These tillers cannot cultivate properly. The aggressive digging action of the counter-rotating tines cause the tiller to dig down more than the desired 2" cultivating depth. Cultivating at depths of 4", 6" or 8" prunes off the lateral roots of your crops that grow only 3" below the surface.

3.

Power composting with a counter-rotating tiller is not possible. The tines enter the soil at the back of the tiller box and come up from under the soil surface to the garden material. Instead of chopping it, the material is wrapped over the top of the tines to the back of the tiller box.

4.

Traction is a problem in the well-tilled gardens of serious gardeners. In soft soil, the counter-rotation of the tines pulls the machine back as the wheels try to drive the machine forward. The result is poor forward traction as the tiller tines work against the shell drive.

1.

You can till at a consistent depth for the seedbed preparation. Both the tines and the drive wheels turn in a forward direction. However, rear tine tiller drive wheels only allow the machine to be propelled forward slowly despite the forward action of the tines, so the drive wheels actually hold the machine in place so that the tines can dig the seed bed to the desired depth. On the BCS tiller, the tilling depth is controlled by the depth gauge on the tiller box.

2.

Using a BCS rear tine tiller, cultivating at a consistent 2" depth is a snap with the depth gauge set at 2". The adjustable width tiller boxes offered by BCS get your tiller into the narrow aisles between rows.

3.

Power Composting is efficient because rear tine tillers tines can rotate much faster than front tine tiller tines. The forward rotation of the fast turning tines come down on the plant material, chopping and tilling it into the soil, and then the tines come around to chop the plant material again.

 BCS Shop

PO Box 249,         Harvard  MA, 01451

978 456-3327

john@bcsshop.com