The Ruminant: Audio Candy for Farmers, Gardeners and Food Lovers - e.57 All About Rotary Plows

Episode Date: September 18, 2015

This episode, I speak with a couple of market gardeners about the Berta Rotary Plow, a really handy soilworking attachment for market gardeners. One of my guests, David Mazur-Goulet of The BeetBox, has a great tip for building raised beds with the plow that are nice and even.  My other guest, Scott Humphries, has shared a photo of a bed marker he rigged up for his rotary plow. You can find it at The Ruminant in the episode notes. Scott farms at Bent Plow Farm. After that, in another installment of Ruminant Do's and Don'ts, I tell you why you shouldn't use a forced air heater to heat your greenhouse in the Winter. 

This is the Ruminant Podcast. I'm Jordan Marr. TheRuminant.ca is a website dedicated to sharing good ideas for farmers and gardeners. At The Ruminant, you can find past episodes of this podcast, essays I've written, a few book reviews, and a whole lot of photo-based blog posts, some of which were made by me and some of which were submitted by you. So I hope you'll check it out, TheRuminant.ca. And if you want to I hope you'll check it out. TheRuminant.ca And if you want to get a hold of me, editor at TheRuminant.ca or at RuminantBlog on Twitter. Okay, let's do this show. hey everybody so it's probably pretty important to let you know that the bulk of this episode

focuses on one attachment for a walk behind tractor which means that if you're not a market gardener, you're probably not going to be all that interested in this. But if you are a market gardener, and especially if you're a market gardener who owns or might own a rotary plow in the future, this could be pretty useful for you. I've got two conversations for this topic. The first with Scott Humphreys, who has been collaborating a little bit with me on the ruminant podcast. We both own a Brita rotary plow. And so we sat down just to talk through some of the challenges that come along with owning this very, very good tool. After that features a snippet of a conversation with a listener, David, who let me know that he had a few things to say about Rotary Paws 2,

and I was so glad that I got a hold of him because he had a lot of great stuff to say. So that's the bulk of the episode, although at the end, I finally got another installment of ruminant do's and don'ts. And this week, we're going to feature a don't. So if you want to hear about like a pretty spectacular failure on my farm, then you should either sit through this first interview or just skip ahead to the end of the of the episode. Okay, so just before we get to these two conversations about rotary plows, I want to remind you that I'm always interested in your submissions. So here's a question for you. What's the best decision you made for your farm this year? I would love to know and I bet other listeners would as well. Text me 250-767-6636 if you wouldn't mind me getting a hold of you so we could record a short conversation. Okay, I do. Scott, you own a Berta rotary plow for your walking tractor, is that right? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do.

I own a Berta rotary plow for my walking tractor, a.k.a. walk-behind tractor. And I love mine. How do you feel about yours? Yeah, I had, this is the first year that we'd used it, and what had happened was in the fall, I didn't know if I was going to have the finances to get one, so what I ended up doing was for the plot, is I ended up rototilling the whole plot with like a six-foot rototiller, and then essentially I measured out the beds and hand-dug them.

And I got it down to a bit of a science, but it was still taking me like 45 minutes a bed to do. So it was a lot of hard digging and a lot of work. So then in the winter I did find out a great deal on a PCS, and so I picked that up and got a rotary plow, and I was able to do what took me 45 minutes. I could do it in about five. Yeah, right.

So it was an incredible kind of revelation with that. Now, the issue that I've been kind of having with this, and part of it was because I had already dug the beds, Now, the issue that I've been kind of having with this, and part of it was because I had already dug the beds, I was kind of re-raising the beds. But I've got a smaller BCS. I've got a 732, so it's like the smaller professional models. And I wanted to try and work on the 30-inch beds because I feel like that's a good bed size. It seems like a standard size that most people use. But I don't know whether it's a weight issue or something like that,

but I've been having kind of a difficult time keeping very consistent, like, 30-inch beds. Because I'd already partially dug it, it felt like the tires were kind of slipping or anything like that, and I did kind of make a bit of a guide that runs off the back guide of the rotary plow to measure out the bed appropriately, but I still wasn't kind of getting where I wanted to go. So, you know, I know we had kind of chatted about it, but I was kind of curious about, you know, what you're doing and what other farmers are doing to kind of maintain those kind of bed widths appropriately.

Man, I found it just took, and this is the true of so much of the equipment I've invested in. It just took a lot of use to get, to get it down to where I kind of can do it exactly how I want to do it now. Um, I, so I I'll get into some more details in a second. I know that's a very useless answer, although I think it's worth saying because, um, especially with this expensive equipment, these expensive attachments, I think I could see people, because it's almost happened to me, getting like just freaking out. You buy one of these attachments and then you realize it's kind of hard to use or it's not working quite right. And then you're like, wow, I just spent two or three grand on this thing. I can say that for my rotary plow. I can say that for my, my, um, Rinaldi power harrow, which took a long time for me to really figure out how to use in my soil on my farm. But now I

fricking love that power harrow. But for a long time I was like, wow, I just wasted, I'm going to sell this thing. I just wasted two grand or 2,500 or whatever it was. Um, so yeah, again, that's not a great answer. Um, okay. But so, so when you, you, you came at it in the spring with your new machine, with the birder rotary plow. Okay. Yeah. And you've got, um, you've got 30 inch beds already prepped. So they've, they've, they've, they've shrunk down again, but you've got a raised bed garden. And, uh, so, okay. 30 inch beds. What are your centers from center of bed to center of bed? 48.

48. Okay, that's the exact same as mine and I think the exact same that a lot of people kind of following the sort of market gardener, you know, John Martin Fortier approach are doing. So 18-inch pathways then. Okay. So explain again then what was your challenge? You went and you wanted to essentially raise up the beds a bit more and you just couldn't get the spacing quite right or where to put the wheels of the tractor, that sort of thing?

Yeah, I couldn't quite get the spacing right. And like, you know, when you're kind of going through and like shoveling it and like measuring out, you're trying to be as accurate as possible. And so that was fine. But I guess I found like when um even when i was cutting new beds or kind of going back through old beds it seemed like the the the front end of the the uh tractor was kind of like you know partially sliding off the bed or you know because the soil

is um like a clay loam but in other places it's slightly sandy. In other places it's slightly heavier. So the tractor would kind of maybe like slide down the bank a little bit, and then I'd try and correct it. You know, I have like a four-row pinpoint feeder, and Elliot Coleman talks about getting like 12 in there on a 30-inch bed, but I can't get that many. So I'm losing, you know, potential production space on either side of the bed because my beds are kind of fluctuating between 25 inches to 28 to maybe as wide as 30 in places. And we tried to correct a little bit of that with the bed prep rig, but I'm just trying to keep things straight and consistent and trying trying to like, you know, save work if anyone kind of, or if you have any like kind of.

Okay. So I don't have, I don't see, I'm going to disappoint you. I don't have a hack because what I found is I think that what you've described, those challenges are really normal when you are, when you're using, when you're using the rotary plow in that way. Um, because you don't have a lot of space to deal with. I me, because the thing is, I used to do what you were doing. I used to not have the power harrow. So my bed prep, the final kind of major work I did was exactly what you're doing, tossing the soil up with the rotary plow to kind of raise the bed up and then moving over to a exactly 30 inch wide prep rake it was a 36 inch rake that I sawed down to 30 inches right so that I knew exactly that that was the width and then I would you know that's how I would smooth the bed

out and get my rough width but in my experience especially because I'm on a slope I just I couldn't my beds just weren't meticulous and perfect every single one 30 inches exactly wide so um for me because i'm a sloppy farmer that was fine but um what i so so that's where this is this is an annoying uh you know piece of advice but when i got the the the uh power harrow that truly gives you a uniform bed when you use that thing. It's incredible, right? It's just so heavy and so well designed that it just, you pull that over once you've done exactly what you're doing, which is raise the soil up. You then pull that over and you just have this perfectly level, perfectly, you know, whatever 30 inch wide bed. Um, now that's another big investment. And I should also know that when you, when you hill up a bed with the rotary plow and

it's too hilly, the, the, the power hero is going to have a real hard time. So what I mean is let's say you pile the soil up and it's when you pile it up it kind of tosses it up so it's more of like a big crest like at the top it's only about 18 inches wide in other words it needs to be then raked out or power harrowed out um it's the power hill is going to have a real hard time getting on top of that like it's going to get it's going to get hung up on that crest does that make any sense yeah yeah yeah no that totally makes sense yeah okay this Okay. This is a tough one. I don't, but my only advice is to keep, just keep playing around with it. Um, but, but, and also to reassure you that the exact, I've had the exact same challenges. So you're not, you're not doing anything wrong. I think, um, uh, with 18 inch pathways, there's not a lot of room for error. Essentially, I guess that's what I would say. Um, and there's

lots of times when i'm also because essentially when you're healing up a bed are you so i i imagine you're you're gonna be are you well whatever let's say you're to the left of the bed as you're going down the bed um what the right wheels up on the bed sort of isn't it yeah so it's just easy to slide off i i mean it's just it just slides off sometimes It just slides off. Sometimes you just can't help it. You're wrestling with the thing and as the machine's moving and the plow is working, it's just you can't keep the machine on the bed. It's a hard machine to wrestle with. So yeah, that's a tricky one.

Yeah, and sorry, just kind of as a side note, how um how deep are you how deep are you going like do you typically go with the rotary plow yeah i go um for the most part i go uh fairly deep another note is that i took a long time ago i took the little side hood off that blocks the soil like you know so the rotary um the rotary plow tends to throw your soil to the right and there's there's a little hood that comes down off the side of the plow for that thrown soil to hit it, so then it hits it and drops straight down. I just took that off ages ago. I don't use it at all because I find the soil doesn't get thrown very far

even without it on. Depth-wise, yeah, I usually go medium to deep, I guess, is what I'd say. Yeah. Yeah, no, because i know about taking the hood off because i i'd use that i'd kind of because mine came with a hood but then also like a a guard that kind of just goes around it you know just to prevent someone from like walking into the plow or something um which you know i think that's the one i think that's one you're supposed to be using for making uh... great bed yeah but i've essentially attached like a piece of uh... bent

uh... like step in fence posts that have kind of uh... clip to the back to try and like measure of the the bed often you open your photo of the but i think i might try and do that on the front of the tractor to just to get trying to get like really consistent rather than you know like you i'm i'm like you because you've admitted this i'm not saying this about your farming um i'm also kind of a bit of a sloppy farmer or like kind of in in that sense so i was

just like you know with with the bar on the back and in particular that i've measured out it's like okay i know that i'm like you know but in the ballpark in the ballpark yeah five you know well that's what we can say then. Cause it sounds better. We're ballpark farmers. So let's just establish there, there are two types of bird or rotary plows, the cheaper one only toss the soil to the right. And then you can get one that switches direction so that you can flip a switch and then it'll either toss soil to the left or to the right. I have the cheaper one. Sounds like you do as well. Right. So you're always tossing soil to the right. So in that case case you're in a given plot to me in my experience

there's only room to go down the the pathway basically and have the plow hitting the pathway you know and and and and carving up half the pathway so if you're going to toss all into the right hand bed you're going to carve up the right hand half of the pathway. So if you're going to toss soil onto the right-hand bed, you're going to carve up the right-hand half of the pathway, toss that soil on, and then come right back, and now you're tasseling the other half of the pathway up onto the bed. Hey, folks, it's Jordan just kind of cutting in here. So that was my main conversation with Scott.

I think I might have another segment with him at the end of uh of this overall segment on rotary plows but an awesome thing that happened is uh sometime after i recorded that with scott i mentioned to you the listeners that that i was making this segment on rotary plows and invited people to let me know if they had anything to say and i got a text message from david a listener out in eastern canada and uh well he wanted to talk rotary plows so now we're gonna cut into that conversation. So my name is David Mazur-Goulet and I'm a market gardener. I started the beatbox two years ago at an incubator farm in Lange-Gardin. So what did you what did you want to tell me? All right so the first year I got the rotary plow,

we did it a very time consuming way of like marking out beds with string and then making this line in it and trying to follow the line with the BCS. And that just took way too much time. So this year I was alone. So I thought about it a little bit. And what I did is I took, had a 200 feetfoot measuring tape and I would go on one end of the field. Then I would have little flags. So every 16 feet I would put a flag in and keep going all the way down until I got to the edge of the field. Then I would go to the other side of the field, do the same thing, measure every 16 feet, I would put a flag down.

So that means between each flag, I would have four beds on those 48-inch sensors. Okay, yeah. So after that, I can go to each flag and start making the beds there. And I found with the 853, the BCS 853, if you aim for the gas cap, it's pretty much that's your center. So if I aim for like the gas cap to the flag and I just keep, try to keep that as straight as possible while I'm going down and shaping the bed with the rotary plow, I got a pretty straight line and it was dead on to where I wanted it to be. Okay, that's awesome. So let me just, let me just make sure though that I understand and that everyone else can understand. When you're aiming the gas cap of the BCS-853 at the flag,

is the flag in that case representing the center of the bed or the edge of the bed? It would be the center of the alley. The center of the alley. So really going center to center. Right, okay. So then if others wanted to do a version of what you're doing, Right. Okay. So then if others wanted to do a version of what you're doing, you're suggesting if they're using flags or markers to make that flag the center of the pathway. And if you aim the gas cap at the center, then you're sixth one so it throws the soil on the right side yeah so if i aim that gas cap then i'm getting an eight inch or eight to ten inch pass to the right of

that flag and then i spin around i do 180 i want to come back the other way it's getting and then i don't need to aim anything because the wheel will just sit in that divot because i have the axle extension so then i don't need to worry about it. And then I just let the machine do the other side kind of automatically. So I don't need to like maybe manhandle it a little bit if it's hitting rocks and stuff. Okay. So some follow-up questions. Are you using,

have you removed the little kind of hood that comes off the side of the rotary plow that kind of blocks the soil from being thrown too far? Is that still on or have you removed it? I removed it okay i've removed it too uh and then so just so i can elaborate on what you just said what you're suggesting is okay so you've you've aimed your gas cap down the line towards the flag and that's throwing the soil to the right and as you say that that gives you kind of the right projection to get the soil in the right place for the bed. Then you're just turning 180 degrees, coming back in the same pathway you just came. The left wheel of the machine is going to be in the divot, in the trough you just created.

The right wheel will be up on the rest of the pathway that didn't get touched by the rotary plow. And that creates the perfect line to go back on to throw soil on the bed right beside it that's it your gas cap point is novel i didn't notice that myself and i'm gonna i can't wait to to see how that works out i didn't create a point on my machine that way yeah and every machine every yeah every machine will be different but you have to find that point and that's just just a matter of looking down at where the plow is, because the plow is kind of on an angle a little bit. It's not necessarily in the center where the PTO comes out. So you have to just find, depending on your machine, where that point is.

And you can experiment and change the point just to see how it works. But for the 853, definitely, and with the Honda 13-horse gas engine it's the gas cap right and see you and I have the exact same machine I have the 853 I have I have the actual extensions so this is going to work the same way for me in terms of using that gas cap now just a couple more questions so I just need to finish this thought so sure when using the flags I would say if you get two color flags or three color flags, then you can flag every four feet. And these flags are like 10 cents a piece or less even. And you can flag every four feet on each side of your beds and you won't get confused with

the colors. Because if you flag every four feet with an orange flag, all you're going to see is orange and you won't be able to aim, especially 100 feet, you won't be able to aim to the right one. Totally agree. It able to aim to the right one. Totally agree. It's so easy to get. I would change that next time I would get like four colors and every four feet, just put a different color.

And I think that would save a lot of time. So, and in that case, you would still be doing it in the pathways. Like each pathway is the center of the pathway. See what's so interesting, David, is that I've done essentially the same thing, except I've always used the center of the pathway see what's so interesting david is that i've done essentially the same thing except i've always used the center of the bed the difference being as a result that

i can't i couldn't use your gas cap trick i just kind of have to you know with experience i start to learn exactly where to how how far to the left or right to to place the machine yeah exactly to toss the soil so that that flag is the center of the bed. But your way sounds better. That's what's so interesting. Having this conversation, I've done it almost the same way, but not quite. And now I'm going to try that. And as an aside, a great place to get flags is an irrigation store. Like a proper irrigation supplier has great little irrigation flags of different colors.

They're super cheap. I get ours at du bois innovation quebec and uh so usually there's always some kind of irrigation order in the spring so i just get those thrown on there right on um what about depth how deep are you setting your plow normally when you're when you're doing this i'm going at a third notch from the bottom the let's say first from the bottom that's the deepest setting that you're the plow will go digging okay so i just go a couple notches so the wheel actually does roll because i could go potentially go deeper but then you're hitting rocks and you're causing these crazy hard pans because i'm on clay soil and um and the bed's going to be massive right then you have this just big heaping pile

and even the third from the bottom might be a little bit deep uh i find sometimes because then it just makes the pot then the bed's quite high and when i go to run either road tiller or i have to rake it out you know it makes like this really uh rounded shape whereas i'm looking for the flat shape yeah no that's really important too i found especially if you're then going to follow up with uh another common attachment the power harrow which is a wonderful attachment but when you create a really high bed of soil that's then that you then need to flatten out the power harrow will not work i find it's just it can't get over that hump so that's an important point so how is oh what what gear what gear do you use generally when you're rotary plowing either the first or second and it

depends on the soil condition so if because I have one seal where it's mixed where I have a nice loam so I can go and know like virtually no rocks I could go second gear where it's mixed, where I have a nice loam, so I can go and virtually no rocks. I could go second gear, where there's a lot of rocks and it's a bit heavier, and I want to make sure I don't get thrown off, like the machine doesn't go off track too much. Then I'll go first gear and just take my time. Great. Yeah, it's been the same experience for me. It does depend on the conditions. In my soil, I don't have any clay and so i generally

can go in gear two which i really appreciate because um gear one is slow it takes a long time to get work done so one thing i was when i was thinking about this uh like thinking in my head of like all the steps for the day in the spring it's been a few months since i've made beds and what i would recommend for some people too is like, so my work boots are, I measure them to 12 inches. So I can, when my flies are 16 feet apart, I can, if I want to double check where the next bed is going to be, I can just walk, you know, toe to heel at four feet and that's where my bed's going to be. Oh, beautiful. I think tricks like that are so important. I mean, I i always i figure out

my bed lengths are 50 feet um and so i figure out how many strides is 50 and how many strides is therefore half a bed and a quarter bed and that comes in handy so much oh yeah and i find too it doesn't take long to get pretty accurate with strides where where i can really within six inches i can get you know i can figure okay, I want to plant this half bed right till there and be pretty accurate. Um, one more question, David, we have the exact same walking tractor, the BCS 853. Um, it's a big purchase. It's a scary purchase for a new farmer. Cause it's a lot of money. Um, what attachments did you originally buy that's question a and b is do you have any regrets is there anything you do differently in terms of the

package that you bought well actually i did not purchase the um the tractor itself that i'm renting it's part of the incubator farm program however they only had the rototiller attachment so the lot in spring 2014 when we started we're doing it by hand we were just two and we realized if we really wanted to meet our production goals the machine would really save us time so i sprung for the machine and just it's amazing how much time it saves like you can do all your beds in two days instead of two weeks or more and um that i did not regret however i found the bcs to be like or the farming with the bcs i found it to be quite physically intensive um i find like maybe it's just my soil or something but it's like i'm always manhandling the machine quite a bit so you need to have a strong back and like it takes a lot out of you after a couple hours of preparing beds and stuff.

I find that you're pretty worn out. That being said, because I'm renting it, it was a great opportunity to try the machine. And moving forward, I am actually no longer going to be BCS farming. I'm going to be springing for a four-wheel tractor, probably on five-foot centers, and kind of going on a bigger, a little bit bigger scale. You know what? I'm so glad you made that point, David, because right now there's this huge surge in small-scale veggie farming. And partly responsible is The Market Gardener by J.M. Fortier. and part of the partly responsible is, is, um, the market gardener by Jam Fortier.

And, and, um, and so there's, I think it's easy for everyone to assume that the way they've got to do it is on the four foot centers and using a walk behind tractor. And there's a lot to be said for it. That's how I farm. That's how you have been farming. Um, but I don't think people should necessarily reject the concept of, of a four-wheel tractor especially because you can get models that are still quite small you know they're not massive um no you get that you could get a kubota you get four foot centers if you wanted plenty of those old diesel kubotas like 23 horse and can run a rototiller and you know they won't run a disc or anything but and those are you can sometimes find them less like use, of course, they're less expensive than a new BCF. Yeah. And look, I just going back to your point, the point you made,

you're absolutely right. People have to be prepared that using these walking tractors, if you're talking about a half or one or two acre market garden, which is kind of the scale you're using these tractors on, um, you're doing a lot of work with that machine and it is physically demanding, especially i find and i'm a big guy i'm about as almost as big as a farmer gets i'm six three i weigh 220 pounds and i i have trouble too it'll get you in good shape but it's it's hard on the body um especially i don't know if you've used the power hero but it is so heavy um but on that note i don't i want to know if you figured

something out, which is that when you need to transport, this doesn't help you when, so, okay. So, you know, a BCS 853 tractor, you can use it with the power takeoff shaft, which is the shaft that drives the attachments. You can use that on the rear, which is generally used for soil working attachments, like a tiller or power harrow or or rotary plow or you can use that shaft on the front uh generally for stuff like snow blowing or mowing um but what i've found is it's to to switch the steering column around so that you know it takes what like 30 seconds or less to very quickly transform the BCS from front power takeoff mode to rear power takeoff mode. So it really is worth it. I find when I need to put the machine back or just move it around the farm, quickly throw it into front PTO mode so that now when I'm driving forward,

my tiller or my rotary plow is on the front of the machine not being used just moving it but all of a sudden you've got great counterbalance and you don't you don't kill yourself um so i found that like i really i should say i really only do that with the power harrow but it has saved my body because that power harrow is unbelievably heavy i have the renal usually just adjust the handlebars in a way that like i'm like my arms are not like in this awkward halfway point but they're fully extended up or whatever or down so that way at least i'm not like forcing my arms but yeah that's a great point because i i had to walk it uh like maybe half a kilometer sometimes in my field last year and i was just

brutal i always well and the and the other, the other great thing about it is that it means that I'm sure you've experienced when you're walking with the rotary plow, there's not a lot of room for your feet because it's now you can, you can move the angle of the handlebars and that helps a bit. But when you throw that rotary plow on the front of the machine and walk with it on the front, all of a sudden you've got tons of room for your legs to move and take bigger strides. And then you've, and then you've got the, um, the, you a sudden you've got tons of room for your legs to move and take bigger strides and then you've got way better weight distribution with that tool on the front. Essentially, you've got a fulcrum on one side, the engine, and on the other side when you have the attachment on the front, you've got the attachment.

They just balance themselves and all you have to do is walk beside it. Do you not use the wheel? You don't just put the wheel down or you don't feel like oh see there's the difference between that's a good question so so just for listeners the rotary plow has a transport wheel so you drop this arm down and it has a transport wheel see to me that's the difference i would i would sooner switch the pto around the steering column around, cause that takes really quick. I find when, um, my machine is in use, um, I find the, the arm gets gummed up with dirt and it just, it's finicky. It's, you know, instead of taking 15 to 30 seconds, it takes 30 seconds to a minute. So I'd sooner just turn it around and do it that way. No, that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, David,

I'm so glad. Look, everyone listening. This is an example of, I think, you can tell me if I'm wrong, David, but you must have heard me reference this topic in a podcast and you texted me to let me know you had something to say. And I'm trying to get other listeners to do this. If I mentioned something I'm working on, or if you just have an idea, just some piece of advice you want to share, please text me, 250-767-6636. This is exactly what David did. And it took us about a week to get together, but now I'm talking to him and he's shared some really great stuff. So, David, thank you so much.

Well, thank you for the great podcast. And I'm always trying to preach to other people to listen to it. I think we need to support some more Canadian-based podcasts. Hey, this is Jordan cutting in again. So Scott and I are going to spend about the next eight minutes talking some more about rotary plows. So if you're really into that, keep listening. If you're not, if you're getting a little tired of rotary plow talk,

I would jump ahead about eight minutes, and somewhere around there, there's just one more segment to the show. It's another installment of ruminant do's and don'ts. Okay, here we go. Me and Scott. So Scott, how important is it to you that you maintain, you know, 18 inch pathways as opposed to pathways that shrink down to more like, let's say as low as 12 inches, just, just because, you know, so, so let's say because of your, your row seeder you mentioned, and you really want to get four or three passes with it in a bed, if your pathways end up shrinking, uh, as, because you go to make sure your beds are 30 inches wide or whatever, does that matter a great deal to you? Uh, no, it doesn't. I mean,

I think, I think it gets gets i guess a little bit tricky with uh like um like burying row cover or uh kind of dealing with that if you've got like two beds that are adjacent that you're using row cover for i don't have any wider stuff i just have uh the seven foot wide sheets so like i think that's where i'd where i would run into problems yeah for sure. Yeah. You know, and then trying to weed around that kind of makes it difficult. Like, I do have to say, like, based on, like, you know, even my own flexibility and, like, the size of my feet and this kind of stuff that 18-inch pathways is much more preferable to me than 12.

I have done 12 when I was doing urban farming. And I just sounded a bit too tight. I felt like I was always standing on the side of the bed when I was kind of... Oh, yeah, I feel the same way. All I'm getting at is, I mean, I want to, you know, personally, I'm going to stick with, I mean, measure out your garden for 18-inch,

but I find that inevitably, you know, to me, what's most important is the width of the bed once it's finally prepped and so um yeah if that means if because you haven't perfectly measured out your garden i find for me sometimes it means that the bed bleeds out a little bit into the pathway or to put it another way to make sure i get my 30 inches of planting width my bed sometimes end up being 34 36 inches wide or whatever if that that makes sense. Um, and that's worked for me. I should add to like just something interesting I tried this year. So first of all, I don't use any row cover at all. And, um, and that's because I hate it and because I don't have

really bad insect pressure here. And, um, I hate it so much that even the gains made just for season extension, I just don't do it. I hate using it. So, um, that means I don't have to deal with, you know, burying it, which is, which is another consideration when you're setting up your spacing. Um, but anyway, so I just, I needed to say that so you can imagine my garden. So I've got the same spacing as you. Um, so I've got those 18 inch pathways when things are done correctly and neatly, um, heading into this year, I spent an extra roughly 900 or a thousand bucks on a, uh, a standalone Husqvarna tiller that you can get at like a, you know, a typical machinery dealership. Yeah. And, um, uh, the reason I was attracted to it is it, it, it's, it's,

it's 14 inches wide. Uh, so, so it's a little, and it's more powerful. So it's not anywhere near as high quality and powerful as a BCS tiller, but it's way narrower and it is more, it is more powerful and higher quality than like a Mantis or, you know, a really dinky narrow little tiller. quality than like a mantis or you know a really dinky narrow little tiller and so the whole idea was okay 14 inches plus the hood which extends it out a little more uh that's going to be awesome for ripping up and down those 18 inch pathways to keep them clear of weeds um because i have very rocky soil so like um i love i love a wheel hoe with a big blade on it, but they, they, my, my, my, the rocks just destroy that stuff in my garden. So regardless, maybe I know a lot of people just don't like using wheel hoes. It is a, I've learned it's, it's a, it worked out pretty well. Even at, even

at 14 inches, once you factor in that your beds bleed out a bit and that, you know, yada, yada, yada is very narrow. Sometimes I'm really coming close to affecting the crop that's right on the edge of the bed. But in a lot of cases, it was really handy to rip that thing up and down the beds to keep weeds down in the pathway. So I just thought I'd mention that because it was very handy. Given that it also just means I have another tiller for other situations around the farm that's narrow,

which sometimes is a good thing, it wasn't a bad investment. I don't regret that thousand bucks yeah i mean i don't have the same sort of rocky soil and we did mid-season we did kind of pony up and get a get a wheel hoe just because we like you know uh stirrup hoeing to fat place is just shitty stupid yeah you know it's just like the amount of time you can save in in even like you know one round of of clearing pathways in your entire field is almost enough to pay for it in labor like it's well worth the well worth the investment on it but but again i don't have the same sort of like rocky soil in the same sort of way. I mean, I have big rocks that will make appearances like, you know, 500 pound stones that will kind of just push out, but not anything, nothing too rocky.

Yeah. Well, look, let's try and let's kind of bring this back out, broaden this out a bit. Because, I mean, clearly I wasn't able to share anything with you that's really going to help solve your challenges uh keeping things orderly and using the the power sorry the the the the rotary plow effectively but just in general do you are you glad you have that attachment so far like are you does your and do you have any regret about spending the money on it no no no no no no, definitely not. I mean, you can say that the same thing for a lot of pieces of equipment that you purchase,

but it is like one of those things, especially because this was our first season farming, it's like, you know, because I spent so much money on the rotary plow, then I didn't have money for allocated for other things and so you're like it's you know it it would be great to have like you know having a more money going in than we did um but you know it was just being able to do an entire but like all i've got six blocks in the field and they're like essentially 10 beds and being able to do like you know a block of beds in in like an hour and a half or something like that is just like i mean that would that was that would have taken me 10 hours of labor right no i i know it's it's it's been a revelation for me as well in terms of the the efficiencies gained i love my rotary plow um i find also just in the fact that it's like in the

spring you don't have a lot of time. Like, that's the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, totally. It would have been insane to try and, you know, do all those raised beds by hand and then try and find time to, like, plant and do other things and, like, start seeds and all that kind of crap. Like, it's just a huge time saver for me. Yeah, no, I found the same thing.

So, cool, man. just a huge time saver for yeah no i found the same thing so cool man well um before we wrap up i just think it's a handy time to also introduce you as someone who's uh maybe gonna collaborate a bit on the on the room and uh you you know you were you you you you've been in touch with me a number of times this is your second time kind of recording for the podcast. And we've been, we've been doing some, having some other conversations about some, some ideas for the podcast and that, and those ideas overlap. So we're going to try working together a bit. So everybody, this is Scott Humphries. He's, he might do a little bit of collaboration with me, at least for the next little while. Thank you very much, Jordan.

Sometimes your new farming ideas take your business to the next level, and sometimes they put the whole thing in jeopardy. This is ruminant do's and don'ts. Today is most definitely a don't, folks. Don't try to use a forced air heater to warm your hoop house in the cold months. So here's the thing. One consequential quirk of my farm is that my lease runs year to year, which means I don't have the kind of predictability of tenure here that would make me comfortable building some of the serious infrastructure that could be really helpful for my business. You know, like a permanent, massive, double-walled hoop house heated with a propane furnace for keeping my seedlings nice and warm during the winter months. That would be a dream. What I have instead is a single-walled polytunnel,

25 feet by 40 feet, about 10 feet high. Not much help during the negative 20 Celsius cold snaps we get every year on the farm. So two years ago, I had this bright idea. Inside my polytunnel, I built a second, smaller tunnel, 12 feet wide by 18 feet long by about 7 feet high. And inside of that, I decided to put a forced air heater. Do you know what I'm talking about? You can buy them at hardware stores. I'm simplifying, but picture an 18 inch long aluminum cylinder, 8 inches in diameter that sits on a stand at an angle of about 30 degrees. It's essentially a cannon that you supply with propane and when

the temperature drops below your thermostat setting that baby fires up and shoots a flame about a foot out past the edge of the cylinder. This causes the surrounding air to heat up like really fast. If you really want to know what I'm talking about, head to theruminant.ca and find the page for this podcast episode. I've got a video up there. Forced air heaters are typically used at winter construction sites and stuff like that. And it's said right on the box, in multiple places actually, that they shouldn't be used in enclosed spaces like, for example, a greenhouse. The problem is that they can produce carbon monoxide, which can build up and, you know, kill you. But I figured I wouldn't be in there much, and with the venting that would happen when I opened the door...

Anyway, I set the thing up and turned it on, and nearly wept for joy when I saw how quickly the heater brought the temperature up to a perfect 18 Celsius. I was less happy when I realized the flame was shooting out too close to the wall of the tunnel and severely melted both the poly and the PVC hoop that was nearby. But that was a minor detail. I repositioned the heater and went to bed pretty proud of myself for my greenhouse farm hack. The pride didn't last very long. The next morning, I developed a headache

after being in the greenhouse for just a few minutes. Doubt crept in, but I beat it back with denial. It was just a coincidence. Maybe I was just dehydrated. I wasn't dehydrated. The next morning, the same thing happened, and I was forced to conclude that, in the interest of producing happy tomato plants, I was subjecting myself to mild carbon monoxide poisoning. I returned the heater, and my plants returned to barely hanging on at 4 degrees Celsius. Alright, so that's another episode of the ruminant in the bag i hope you enjoyed it folks so as usual before i go i want to encourage you to get a hold of me if you think you have something you want to share on the podcast it can be any useful piece of advice that you have

for other farmers but if you'd like me to focus your efforts what was the best decision that you made on your farm this year i'd really like to know and i bet you other listeners would too i've already had one submission come in from dan brisbois and we're going to hear that soon enough but i'd like to hear from some more of you so what went really well this year get a hold of me 250-767-6636 if you want to text me and then I'll get a hold of you and we'll do a recording. Another option is just record an audio file right on your smartphone and then just text it to me. Or you can try calling my Skype number and that's 310-734-8426. There you'll get a voicemail and you can just record something or invite me to call you or whatever you want to do.

But I would really love to hear from you. Thanks folks. Talk to you soon. Because why would we live in a place that don't want us A place that is trying to bleed us dry We could be happy with life in the country With salt on our skin and the dirt on our hands I've been doing a lot of thinking Some real soul searching And here's my final resolve I don't need a big old house or some fancy car

To keep my love going strong So we'll run right out into the wilds and braces we'll keep close quarters with gentle faces and live next door to the birds and the bees and live life like it was meant to be To me.