Topic: Rotavator

[Normylass]

Hello everyone, this is our 5th year on the lottie.
We seem to have such busy lives we are thinking of ways to ease the burden a bit. We are thinking of getting a rotavator, maybe a second hand one, no hurry to buy as wouldn't be able to use it till the winter digging
What type do you lovely people recommend? ?
I was thinking a merry tiller?
Thanks in advance.

Any recommendations for  plot management too great fully received, We both work full time and Look after the grandchildren.....and elderly parents too, Iife seems busier than ever !!

[peanuts]

Can't recommend a make, as we live in France,   but for us  the purchase of a rotavator had been just brilliant.  Our soil is a light clay, and it is always difficult to get it in the right state to dig well and produce a tilth.  All changed when we bought a rotavator - it did what we ourselves could never do, produce a tilth, and in a fraction of the time.We are well pleased, although I'm sure you will have other replies that warn you of cutting worms in half etc.  We have no shortage of worms, ever.

[Normylass]

Thank you Peanuts for your quick reply. I am very glad to here your experience.  We have a very mixed lottie soil wise, between sandy and a bit of loam and some coal!! Lots of stones too if that will affect a rotavator.??
I never even thought of worms, although we do seem to have loads.:-)

[kt.]

I purchased a 4 stroke Mantis 4 years ago as a treat after working away.  It has been ideal for me.  It is small and light enough to do all cultivation at home and on both  allotments.  Folds well to fit in the car and the tillers actually sit in a washing up bowl in the car so as not to mark it.  As you are on your 5th year, your plot is probably fairly cleared and this would do just the job. 

http://mantis.uk.com/mantis-tiller-packages.asp

[Normylass]

Thank you very much kt, I like the look of the mantis. The fact I can fit in in the car is a definate bonus. 

[steve76]

Hi,
I brought a merry tiller of ebay a couple of years ago now for £80 its brilliant, get a good depth almost as good as digging it over by hand,and it fits in the back of a zafira or estate car.
I wouldn't recommend a mantis as what i've seen of them by people on our site they only scratch the top couple of inches of the soil,yes it makes a nice seed bed finish but to me you will still have to dig by hand 1st ..

Happy shopping
Steve.

[tomatoada]

I love my 4 stroke Mantis.   However the ground was well rotorvated 4 years ago by a kind gentleman whose has the plot next to mine.   Since then I use my Mantis which produces a lovely find soil ready for planting.  I also plant my potatoes with spacing wide enough to rotavate between and then rake up the soil.
The Mantis goes easily in my small car.  Not too heavy to lift and the handles hook over the passenger seat to hold it while travelling.
I must repeat the ground was well rotavated by my friend.  He went over it 2-3 times.  In between I forked out the stones and rubbish.  This would not have been possible with a Mantis.
Hope this helps.

[chriscross1966]

I've got a couple of old (like, early 60's old) Howards, a 200 and a 400.... they do the job very well, but like a lot of old machinery they need some TLC and a bit of knowledge.... I do have friends with Mantis units and they do do a good job of turning over soil s far as I can tell, but they won't handl;e the heavy stuff the way my 400 does, or for that matter any other big rear-tine rotavator will.... I've also got an expand-it attachment that uses the power head frmo my strimmer and turns it into a little cultivator, but although it is a fine beast for turniung the top inch or two into a tilth, it isn't for digging over heavy ground, whereas the 400 will trench in potatoes into soil that is really too wet to dig....

[goodlife]

Rotavating is not really recommended for 'winter digging' but to be done when the soil is bit drier for preparation for sowing/planting. When you rotavate..it will break the soil structure into small particles..get a load of winter rain and snow on top of that and the ground can go solid. Then you are faced with drainage issues and stagnant soil.

[jimtheworzel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p118fxRdK0

[chriscross1966]

This one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLVFm8d6dUI is pretty much my experience, though you will note that they're on pretty light fairly dry soil there. In a lot of ways a Mantis is a smaller version of the Merry Tiller/Norlett style cultivators, and the lighter weight means it's less like trying to cultivate with an excited springer spaniel,  they both get a finer tilth than my  big Howard will  but they cut to nothing like the depth, and are a lot slower to cover the ground than my smaller Howard and more importantly, neither of them are painted orange....

One thought regarding an older machine. You might look at a Howard Bantam, especially if it has a more modern engine on it. They're a sensibly small size and came with a wide variety of accessories from the useful (the potato ridger) to the bizarre (hedgetrimmer on a flexible powered shaft anyone?) to the quite frankly insane (the powered finger scythe puts a large hedgetrimmer blade at ankle height, the only safe place is behind the handlebars)...

I'd still go with a Mantis if you need a smaller machine, and probalby a Camon or BCS if you need a bigger one or a Honda of the correct size... I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, though make sure the seller demonstrates starting it hot and starting it cold....

[Uncle_Filthster]

  That old fart in that link is an accident waiting to happen!

We got a mantis (delux one for the extending handle) a few months ago and it's brilliant, you get a lovely tilth and it tills down to the stated 9", pretty much what you'd be doing with any spade.  There is a technique to using them though, which certainly isn't what the guy in the link is doing, but you soon get the hang of it and it saves so much time and backache.

The only thing I would say is ensure you don't have too many long, fibrous stems (like nettles and tussocky grass) when you're tilling as they can clog the tines and make it slightly harder work, though it will still go through.  Tough ground is ok with them too, but again there is a technique to it in that you chew away at the sides instead of just trying to blitz it from above or you'll have a kangaroo mantis!  I used ours today on a patch of ground that hadn't been dug for at least 5 years but had weed membrane down during that time, it went through no problem at all, even though the ground was pretty well compacted and is now a lovely fine tilth for planting my squashes.

The other good thing about the mantis is you can flip the tines over and they will cultivate to only 2 or 3" for weeding or making a shallow seedbed, plus you can get a narrower weeding attachment and a plough for doing trenches or earthing up tatties.

Are they worth £400 Queen's heads?  I reckon so after using ours a fair bit now and not being so crippled with a bad back from hand digging.  Make sure you get the weed guards too though as it helps prevent weeds wrapping round the axel and saves a fair bit of time when it comes to taking any vegetation that does get caught up off.

[chriscross1966]

I've always been impressed by the Mantis' ability to cultivate to a depth previously only the reserve of full-grown rotavators, but the "spinger Spaniel" effect puts me off.... my ancient Howard won't hurt me except for pulled muscles as long as I remember to take the rotors out of engagement before putting it in reverse.... I'd always be worried about hitting a buried rock and having the thing jump on my foot if I had a Mantis/Norlett/Merry Tiller style cultivator, I'm always pretty circumspect using the Ryobi expand-it cultivator attachement....

[Uncle_Filthster]

There's no risk of a mantis landing on your foot if you get a bit of bounce on a hard bit, it always pulls away from you even when they bounce and the tines stop rotating as soon as the throttle is released.  I don't know about other makes though as we went for the mantis because of it being fairly light and able to stick it in the car boot so it could be brought home all the time as we had our allotment shed and old pigeon loft set on fire recently so lost all of our hand tools, equipment, and a full greenhouse I had in the loft ready to be built.  Over 50 years worth of allotment gear gone in a bit more than a puff of smoke!

[jimtheworzel]

That old fart in that link is an accident waiting to happen!

keep your old fart remarks to your self its a Honda not a mantis.

[Normylass]

Thank you very much for everyones input. I'm sorry to hear about the fire which destroyed all of your gardening equipment
We have shed thefts from time to time so whatever we buy will have to come home after ever use. Hence a lighter smaller version being needed. 
Lots to think about 

[Uncle_Filthster]

You'll certainly be able to transport a mantis to and from home like we do no problem.  They're only 9.5kg for the standard, 12kg for a deluxe one and 15kg for the double sized XP.

Yesterday I was using it on a patch that hadn't been dug over for about 10 years.  It had been strimmed and had glyphosate on in that time but still a lot of grass, willowherb and nettles to contend with.  After strimming the area it chewed through the ground nicely, even when the tines were starting to get clogged with nettle roots.  The plus point to that being because of the design of the tines it removed most of the roots and the patch is now plantable.  If any weeds show on there now I'll just reverse the tines, flick them out and rake them off.

The fire we had was a deliberate arson attack.  I think ten allotments got hit in total, ours and the 3 adjacent to it and another area further down the lane.  One guy was hit twice, 1 loft full of pigeons the first time and his stock loft, also full of pigeons the night ours was hit a week later. There would have been more destruction that would have spread right along the lane if the lad on the next allotment hadn't of pulled down an old loft and by luck also happened to have a metal fence.  It was a fun morning finding my greenhouse amongst the remains in two small lumps of aluminium!    Nothing of value will ever  be kept there now, just a few hand tools when we get a new shed, which wont be positioned anywhere near the nice new fence I've just built.