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Getting More Out Of Garden
Tillers:
Offering customers a few
gardening tips can help them use rental equipment more
successfully and lead to repeat business.
By Mike Smollock
The garden
tiller is one of the most popular and widely used rental
tools. But as with most lawn and garden products, there is a
relatively short window of rental opportunity. The trick is to
rent tillers as many times as possible during this window and
ensure that customers are successful in their gardening
projects.
Not only can your counter staff
instruct your customers on the proper use of lawn and garden
equipment, but a few words of gardening advice can help them
use the equipment more successfully.
A healthy, productive plant
begins with a good root system, which is the result of a
well-prepared and maintained seed bed. A good seed bed will
easily absorb air and moisture. Not preparing the bed properly
is where the average gardener fails by making one of two
mistakes:
- In the beginning, the
seed
bed is not made at least 8 inches deep.
-
Maintenance and
additional plowings are not completed as necessary. For a
plant to reach maximum productivity, its root system must
have room to expand. Therefore, additional plowings, which
will throw loose soil to the base of the plant, are critical
to the plant's survival.
These additional plowings serve other purposes,
including:
- Covering weeds and grass
in the row that rob the plant of food and moisture.
- Conditioning the soil in
and between the rows so that it will more easily absorb
water.
- Causing moisture to rise,
which is very important in extremely dry conditions
Using the following six
preparatory steps, your rental customers can produce results
like a professional:
Breaking Ground
Use a tiller equipped with bolo tines or slasher tines and cut
up the soil about 8 to 10 inches deep. When finished, if the
soil is not pulverized and thoroughly broken, go over the
entire bed with finger tines. Finger tines are also used to
remove tilled grass from soil.
Laying Off Rows
Install finger tines on the tiller. Remove the drag bar and
install a plow bar equipped with an 8-inch plow. Now lay off
rows. Next, place the best fertilizer for the area in the
furrow. Remove the two outside tines, plow bar and plow, and
reinstall the drag bar. Put the tiller in the furrow and cover
the fertilizer to ensure that the seed does not come into
contact with raw fertilizer.
First
Plowing
As soon
as the plants begin to show slightly above the ground you want
to do your first plowing. This is to cover up weeds and grass
and provide moisture. Install your finger tines and using only
the drag bar, begin working between the rows, getting as close
to the young plants as possible without covering them up.
Second
Plowing
A
week to 10 days later or right after every rain that has left
a crust on the soil, you will want to do your second plowing.
Install your finger tines and again work as close as possible
to the plants without covering them up.
Third
Plowing
As
the plants grow larger you will need to throw more dirt on
them and you must be careful not to cut or disturb the root
system which has also grown and spread towards the middle.
Install your finger tines and using only the drag bar,
adjusted so you do not cultivate too deeply, work between the
rows. For larger plants remove the outside finger tines.
Side
Dressing
Sometime between the first 25 percent to 75 percent growth,
add fertilizer in between the rows. Be sure it does not come
in direct contact with the plant. This is called side
dressing. After spreading the fertilizer between the rows,
equip your tiller with the inside finger tines and plow bar
and 10-inch-wide-plow. The plow will push the soil to the
sides as the finger tines mix the fertilizer.
END
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