The undercutter

[Ironman]

I just sold off my Kubota tractor and the tiller, brush hog, and undercutter, etc and bought a Massey 35 tractor so, now I'm upgrading to a larger rotovator, and brush hog, and making a larger undercutter for the garlic harvest. The Massey is a true rowcrop tractor so I don't have to add spools to the rear wheels to get wide enough to straddle the rows. I cut the bits and pieces on the plasma table, bent the arms on the press brake, and then started assembling everything onto the main bar which is 2x2x1/4" tubing.
Somewhere the pictures I took of the assembly and tacking everything into position is in the 4th dimension and therefor unseen. But here is the mess of photos of the rest of the welding and assembly. Along about 1/2 way through the construction, after the cardboard design stage, I decided to get me a quick hitch. Normally if you are frisky and want to wrestle with the 3point, the actual dimensions are very flexible. With a QH you want the top link pin to be in the same vertical line as the bottom arm pins. So I had to add an ear to each side of the top link to make the QH happy. I could have lived with it the way it was, but why should I?

 

[Ironman]

The bars marked weight are there to mount a 52 inch long steel bar I have with a weight of 336lb. This saves having a human ride it for weight to keep the blade down.
Items yet to do:
I have to create a leg to mount on the weight so that when I unhook the cutter it will sit on the blade and rear leg, so it does not do a backflip and then I have to get the mini-X to stand it up when I need to re-attach.
And then clean it up and paint it.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Nice job. That plasma table is a very handy thing to have for stuff like this.

You went the opposite way that I want to. I have a Massey 35, and want to get a little Kubota .

 

[Ironman]

Nice job. That plasma table is a very handy thing to have for stuff like this.

You went the opposite way that I want to. I have a Massey 35, and want to get a little Kubota .

When we started with 300 plants 15 years ago, that little Kubota was an awesome little bugger. Now we plant and harvest 15,000 and it will be 20,000 plants soon. It was hard to part with her, but this new one is just one of the best designed classic tractors in the world. Still manufactured daily in Kenya, India, and Czechoslovakia.

 

[phaxtris]

how many acres does 15k garlic plants take up ?

 

[Ironman]

how many acres does 15k garlic plants take up ?

They say you can plant 35000 in an acre. But that's wrong. I plant a row that has 1000 plants in 100 ft. So I have two patches, each one roughly 50 x 100ft. Had a hell of a time posting this, this site is offended by my pictures. We harvest around 1200lb and sold 740lb last year. The rest gets planted.

 

[Doggggboy]

What variety?

 

[Ironman]

What variety?

I grow Majestic and Russian Red. Majestic is a large strong plant developed by Paul Popeil at Beaver Pond Estates in Ontario. The Russian is grown by everyone around and the only reason I grow it is the customer demand. I dislike the taste and it is not as forgiving to grow as Majestic, and the sizes are inconsistent. The Majestic is consistently large.
There is a half ton of BS out there about raising garlic, but I follow the advise from the Maine University Ag Extension and it is common sense.

 

[Bandit]

Do you have a machine for planting or by hand? What about digging them up, like a spud digger?
Be careful, tractors can be like lathes, ones never enough! The Landinis were not always well thought of, but many/all of them were blue Massey's and had Massey casting emblems all over on them and used the Perkins engines, (diesels).

 

[Ironman]

We plant by hand. The undercutter I'm building is for harvest. Garlic roots can grow to 48 inches, you cannot pull a garlic by hand, the bulb will tear apart first. The cutter goes under the bulbs and cuts off roots and lifts the bulb.
I have machine illness already, and only need one tractor. I have a 1945 JD model B, a1974 JD 544 loader, and a Komatsu Mini-X, and a Massey 35....that's all I need. Almost everything is bought cheap and repaired, the loader was a burn victim. New tires were the biggest cost.

 

[Bandit]

The spud diggers I have seen are towed, have a blade that goes under/lower then the to be harvested spuds, the spuds then travel up on to bars moving that shake dirt off and spuds are then put back on top of the ground to dry off and or be picked up. Some units put the spuds into a following trailer or bin setup. You likely know this, never sure. Might not work well if stems on.
Didn't know about the long roots on garlic, learn as can each day!
Yah, tires will get you sooner or later, often worth more then the tractor etc.

 

[Ironman]

The spud diggers I have seen are towed, have a blade that goes under/lower then the to be harvested spuds, the spuds then travel up on to bars moving that shake dirt off and spuds are then put back on top of the ground to dry off and or be picked up. Some units put the spuds into a following trailer or bin setup. You likely know this, never sure. Might not work well if stems on.
Didn't know about the long roots on garlic, learn as can each day!
Yah, tires will get you sooner or later, often worth more then the tractor etc.

I've tried and considered every idea including the spud digger. A garlic mechanical harvester works similar but on a single row. It undercuts and at the same time there are rollers that grab the stem and place it on an inclined belt which delivers it to a guy sorting weeds from garlic and dumping the weeds.
If I was 20 years younger, I would do a lot of things, but my time is limited now and we will do this til it is not fun anymore, then we'll give it up. So I figure that things have to pay there way and I'm not getting into anything with big money and long term payback. Free or home made is best.

 

[phaxtris]

They say you can plant 35000 in an acre. But that's wrong. I plant a row that has 1000 plants in 100 ft. So I have two patches, each one roughly 50 x 100ft. Had a hell of a time posting this, this site is offended by my pictures. We harvest around 1200lb and sold 740lb last year. The rest gets planted.

wow that looks like an excellent setup! not that i know anything about growing garlic, but i have heard that it can be worth the effort.

Where do you sell it? i would imagine getting rid of 740lbs at a farmers market might be kind of a stretch.

In either case it looks like kind of an enjoyable past time with some financial benefits

 

[Ironman]

We sell by the pound from Saskatchewan to Inuvik NWT. Inuvik takes 100lb in one order. We have just been contacted by 2 resellers who deliver local grown groceries to Edmonton customers, sold 200lb to one of them last year.
The way we do it is not labour intensive, just during harvest and planting. It suit retired people. Garlic is VERY intolerant of weeds,and the landscape cloth we use takes that issue off the board. We used to go to the garlic festival in Andrew, but we don't have the time and sometimes the whole crop is sold by then so we don't need to. Farmers markets are good for exposure, not for making money, unless you are in a city.

 

[RobinHood]

That’s an impressive operation you got going. Well done.

 

[LenVW]

Vampires don’t have a chance in Warburg, Alberta.

 

[LenVW]

We sell by the pound from Saskatchewan to Inuvik NWT. Inuvik takes 100lb in one order. We have just been contacted by 2 resellers who deliver local grown groceries to Edmonton customers, sold 200lb to one of them last year.
The way we do it is not labour intensive, just during harvest and planting. It suit retired people. Garlic is VERY intolerant of weeds,and the landscape cloth we use takes that issue off the board. We used to go to the garlic festival in Andrew, but we don't have the time and sometimes the whole crop is sold by then so we don't need to. Farmers markets are good for exposure, not for making money, unless you are in a city.

Ironman,
You seem to have worked on some tillage units. My brother has a coupIe old cultivator frames in his tool-shed.
I am trying to find out what ‘grade’ of steel was used in . . .
Kongskilde Triple K cultivators (Circa 1985).
Any idea ?

 

[Ironman]

I got another day on the undercutter and I'd say the metal work is done, and all is left is to check for berries, prime and paint it.

 

[Ironman]

Ironman,
You seem to have worked on some tillage units. My brother has a coupIe old cultivator frames in his tool-shed.
I am trying to find out what ‘grade’ of steel was used in . . .
Kongskilde Triple K cultivators (Circa 1985).
Any idea ?

The tip or shoe will be a wear hardening steel, and the coil spring tooth is just spring steel, If parts are not available a spring shop could make them. I suspect that the tips of the spring tooth are universal and available. Frames on all cultivators and disks are just soft iron. I just chopped up a horse drawn disk harrow and the metal was like 1/2 and 5/8 thick and yet butter soft.

 

[Susquatch]

Ironman,
You seem to have worked on some tillage units. My brother has a coupIe old cultivator frames in his tool-shed.
I am trying to find out what ‘grade’ of steel was used in . . .
Kongskilde Triple K cultivators (Circa 1985).
Any idea ?

The frames on modern tractor drawn cultivators are basically mystery steel. My own cultivator is a 24ft Kongskilde - maybe same time frame as your brothers. Some parts of the frame are clearly different than others, but nothing exotic. I just treat it like regular steel when I do repairs.

@Ironman is right about the spring tines and shoes.

In my dirt, the shoes wear fast. Mine has 5 sizes of shoes with bigger ones at the front and smaller at the back. They are getting harder and harder to find.

Spring S Tines are the same way. I have 3 sizes on mine. They usually break at the hanger bracket. I've never tried welding them.