Im thinking of buying the aforesaid Mantis tiller, the smaller one, as I have a very large inguanal hernia which means I cannot dig so the tiller seems a great compromise for me.
Anyone have any experience with them?
I have one, and found it useful to till soil which is either soft or has been dug over. It will just bounce off heavy or very dry soil! The hardest thing is getting it started (I have a two stroke version), my OH does it easily, but so far I have never been able to get it going on my own. ::)
Once it starts and runs it is fine. They now do a four stroke and an electric version (no use to me on the plot!) which do not seem to suffer from the same problems, but are not cheap. You use it a bit like a hoover, running it back and forth over the soil, it digs deeper when you pull it back towards you, about a foot deep in total.
I thought I would use it more than I have, because of the couch problem on my plot I ended up digging and removing the roots by hand, and just used the Mantis to incorporate mushroom compost into the dug over raised beds. Since then I have just added loads of compost, manure or mushroom compost, cover overwinter and then they only need a light forking over now.
The other side of my plot is kept as 'long rows', but I've still split them into sections and they require more digging as the clay is a lot worse that side. I use Calcified Seaweed to help act as a claybreaker and used tonnes of manure, getting there now. I didn't rotovate that side this year because I have the overwintering garlic and onions there, and left the manure 'lumpy' for the potatoes. I might rotovate the remains of the manure in when the potatoes are finished if it is still lumpy! It does make a nice fine tilth, and it doesn't seem to have affected the worm population!
As the plot has already been rotovated the mantis is going to be used for;
1 Making a finer tith
2 Weeding between rows
3 Lifting up onto raised beds for weed control
4 Getting manure and straw chopped and into the soil
5 Chopping up and incorporating red clover in the spring
Do you think a 2 stoke petrol tiller could do this?
Quote4 Getting manure and straw chopped and into the soil
I used mine on an area of ground where I'd killed off the couch grass with weedkiller first. The ground was still full of dead roots. Using the mantis (basic 2stroke) was very hard work as the roots got wrapped around the rotating bits and stopped it working every few minutes. If you've a lot of straw in your manure you might get the same problem.
Quote from: Ishard on May 08, 2008, 13:48:44
As the plot has already been rotovated the mantis is going to be used for;
1 Making a finer tith
2 Weeding between rows
3 Lifting up onto raised beds for weed control
4 Getting manure and straw chopped and into the soil
5 Chopping up and incorporating red clover in the spring
Do you think a 2 stoke petrol tiller could do this?
I think it would be fine for all of that!
Can't dispute, but I would be a bit unhappy in a raised bed.
And they do need quite a bit of controlling.
Ask Mantis if they have a customer near you & beg a trial. We did.
And after the trial Tim......did you buy one?
Thanks for your replies I will definately get 1 :) Tim Im not so forward as that, I wouldnt dare. lol
I have a lot of time for the Mantis type Tillers..........A fellow allotement holder adjacent to me was using a STIHL Tiller.he sells and repairs garden machinery.In his opinion the Stihl Tiller is better than the Mantis.....................From what I saw,the Stihl Tiller had an awsome capability,superb design,very powerful and entirely suitable for raised beds..............the width of the blade heads is only about 6 inches and his very light to handle
I use a mantis all over my lottie,for creating furrows for planting pots, digging in manure, with the blades turned round i use it for weeding in between my rows but you have to be careful that you dont catch your crops! i also use the weed reducers that stops the weeds getting too tangle round the tines and when they do become tangled when you remove the tines the weeds just fall off, i have a sliding hiatas hernia and find bending down quite oftern very painful and the mantis does help eleviate this.Its not capable of digging a whole plot but in small doses it comes into its own i use a howard 350 to break up very compat soil and then go throught it with the mantis to make it fine. If you look on ebargumbay on here im selling my 2 stoke mantis as i now have a 4 stoke.
Hippy
Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2bn5LsPozI
Thank again for your replies :)
Kt that youtube vid was great I definately want one now! The tiller will also cope with digging in the red clover Im going to plant for over winter ;D
Sorry Hippy but I am going to buy a new one because of the guarantee with it :)
The mantis is good.......but after you have used one of these babies!.This is the machine I use.I have three different sets of tines for use depending on what type of job I want to do.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n2/neil_1_1956/P1010003.jpg)
Boasting about the size of yours again Neil? ;)
My plot has already been gone over with a brute force 1, I just need to be a bit more gentle now. ;D
Yes its a big un......5hp.....cant control it sometimes...runs away with me ;D