Garden cultivators[edit]

Small tilling equipment, used in small gardens such as household gardens and small commercial gardens, can provide both primary and secondary tillage. For example, a rotary tiller does both the "plowing" and the "harrowing", preparing a smooth, loose seedbed. It does not provide the row-wise weed control that cultivator teeth would. For that task, there are single-person-pushable toothed cultivators.

Variants and trademarks[edit]

A Japanese two-wheel tractor

Rotary tillers are popular with home gardeners who want large vegetable gardens. The garden may be tilled a few times before planting each crop. Rotary tillers may be rented from tool rental centers for single-use applications, such as when planting grass. A small rotary hoe for domestic gardens was known by the trademark Rototiller and another, made by the Howard Group, who produced a range of rotary tillers, was known as the Rotavator. Rototiller The small rototiller is typically propelled forward via a (15 horsepower or 0.83.5 kilowatts) petrol engine rotating the tines, and do not have powered wheels, though they may have small transport/level control wheel(s). To keep the machine from moving forward too fast, an adjustable tine is usually fixed just behind the blades so that through friction with deeper un-tilled soil, it acts as a brake, slowing the machine and allowing it to pulverize the soils. The slower a rototiller moves forward, the more soil tilth can be obtained. The operator can control the amount of friction/braking action by raising and lowering the handlebars of the tiller. Rototillers do not have a reverse as such backwards movement towards the operator could cause serious injury. While operating, the rototiller can be pulled backwards to go over areas that were not pulverized enough, but care must be taken to ensure that the operator does not stumble and pull the rototiller on top of himself. Rototilling is much faster than manual tilling, but notoriously difficult to handle and exhausting work, especially in the heavier and higher horsepower models. If the rototiller's blades catch on unseen subsurface objects, such as tree roots and buried garbage, it can cause the rototiller to abruptly and violently move in any direction. Rotavator

Unlike the Rototiller, the self-propelled Howard Rotavator is equipped with a gearbox and driven forward, or held back, by its wheels. The gearbox enables the forward speed to be adjusted while the rotational speed of the tines remains constant which enables the operator to easily regulate the extent to which soil is engaged. For a two-wheel tractor rotavator this greatly reduces the workload of the operator as compared to a rototiller. These rotavators are generally more heavy duty, come in higher power (418 horsepower or 313 kilowatts) with either petrol or diesel engines and can cover much more area per hour. The trademarked word "Rotavator" is one of the longest single-word palindromes in the English language. Mini tiller Mini tillers are a new type of small agricultural tillers or cultivators used by farmers or homeowners. These are also known as power tillers or garden tillers. Compact, powerful and, most importantly, inexpensive, these agricultural rotary tillers are providing alternatives to fourwheel tractors and in the small farmers' fields in developing countries are more economical than four-wheel tractors. Two-wheel tractor The higher power "riding" rotavators cross out of the home garden category into farming category, especially in Asia, Africa and South America, capable of preparing 1 hectare of land in 810 hours. These are also known as power tillers or walking tractors. Years ago they were considered only useful for rice growing areas, where they were fitted with steel cage-wheels for traction, but now the same are being used in both wetland and dryland farming all over the world. They have multiple functions with related tools for dryland or paddys, pumping, transportation, threshing, ditching, spraying pesticide. They can be used on hills, mountains, in greenhouses and orchards. Diesel designs are more popular in developing countries than gasoline.

See also[edit]
Cultivator No. 6

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:
a b c

"Howard, Arthur Clifford (18931971)". Australian Dictionary of

Biography Online Edition. Australian National University. 1983. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 2. 3. Jump up^ "The Howard Rotavator". 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2007-07-12. Jump up^ "Machinery Manufacturers - Secondary Tillage". Worldwide Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Directory. 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 4. Jump up^ http://www.kuhn.co.uk/uk/range/soil-preparation/folding-power-harrows/hr6004-r.html