| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one 20:45 - Apr 29 with 6388 views | GloryHunter |
Anyone used one of these things? Any tips? Can't be shagged with all that spade digging any more. |  | | |  |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 20:56 - Apr 29 with 2996 views | Norfolk |
My Dads got a Howard Rotavator, excellent bit of kit with the tyne's at the back, goes through soil like a knife through butter. |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 21:00 - Apr 29 with 2986 views | WokingR |
Best to hire one unless you are prepared to spend a lot.
The smaller cheap ones neither have the weight nor the power to deal with hard or heavy earth, rocks or roots. They either rise up or jam.
I have a hand held petrol driven one and it is almost as hard as digging the effort needed to push it down into the soil |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 21:08 - Apr 29 with 2966 views | GloryHunter |
Thanks boys, this is the sort of information I was hoping for. I see you can buy one for £250. And since a good electric drill can cost the best part of a ton, they can't be very good. Hate paying hire charges, though. | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 21:37 - Apr 29 with 2940 views | johann28 |
Fabulous things. Check out Einhell GB-MT336 - about £250. German made. Bit of a weight but built like a tank (4 stroke 163cc engine) and can deal with any kind of soil. |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 21:43 - Apr 29 with 2927 views | kingsburyR |
How often do you rota ate that your thinking of buying.
And I'm amazed board members are quoting model numbers.
This is one educated board.... If not a bit anorakie! !! |  |
| Dont know why we bother. .... but we do! |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:07 - Apr 29 with 2899 views | CiderwithRsie |
Useful as a one-off to deal with an overgrown jungle. For that, hire one.
If used regularly you are likely to produce a pan i.e. a layer of hard soil which prevents water draining [leaving your top soil water-logged] and stops plant roots reaching nutrients. That's because being a machine it always digs to exactly the same level.
As with any garden machinery, the weight of the thing is liable to compact the soil structure. Again, not really a problem with a one-off but if used regularly, especially on wet soil, you will completely screw your soil structure. If you produce a pan below the surface and compact the top you might as well simply concrete the garden over frankly.
If you really want to avoid digging try "no-dig" gardening. Basically, you keep chucking mulches of Bulky Organic Matter - compost or rotted manure to you - on the top. Generally speaking, the less digging you can do the better - every time you dig you run the risk of damaging your soil structure, which is the key to pretty much everything, and you expose soil organisms (which are crucial to releasing nutrients) to surface conditions which tends to kill them. |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:13 - Apr 29 with 2889 views | Fearless |
Longest palindrome in the dictionary I believe :) |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:15 - Apr 29 with 2883 views | Lblock |
He's very popular in Japan still I hear ---- they go for his lairy lycra and head sweatbands apparently
They love Mr Rotavator over there..... so get a Japanese model I'd say |  |
| Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:24 - Apr 29 with 2865 views | TheBlob |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:13 - Apr 29 by Fearless |
Longest palindrome in the dictionary I believe :) |
Madam I'm Adam.......that's another one. |  |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:26 - Apr 29 with 2862 views | kropotkin41 |
This is a most excellent thread. I've just bought myself a reasonably heavy duty Rotavator, but then I grow veg to sell.
I reckon if the work is heavy duty then hire a good one for a day or two - locally I can hire one for about £40 or £50 and there are cheap weekend rates.
After you've turned the ground over, whoever mentioned no-dig is quite right, I'd say go over to permanent beds and an annual mulch of well-composted muck - as long as you don't cause soil compaction and you keep on top of the most pernicious weeds you'll never need to do much more than fork it without turning - let the soil life increase over time and do the work for you. |  |
| ‘morbid curiosity about where this is all going’ |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:48 - Apr 29 with 2838 views | MrSheen |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:24 - Apr 29 by TheBlob |
Madam I'm Adam.......that's another one. |
A man, a plan, a canal - panama!
If you take the punctuation out. |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:51 - Apr 29 with 2832 views | TheBlob |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:48 - Apr 29 by MrSheen |
A man, a plan, a canal - panama!
If you take the punctuation out. |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:56 - Apr 29 with 2823 views | Fearless |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:48 - Apr 29 by MrSheen |
A man, a plan, a canal - panama!
If you take the punctuation out. |
Able was I ere I saw Elba
Supposedly attributed it napoleon (apocryphal I'd imagine) | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 23:22 - Apr 29 with 2806 views | BlackCrowe |
I love this board sometimes. Find another thread like this on another club's forum - it ain't gonna happen. |  |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 09:21 - Apr 30 with 2747 views | johann28 |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:56 - Apr 29 by Fearless |
Able was I ere I saw Elba
Supposedly attributed it napoleon (apocryphal I'd imagine) |
One for Norwich fans
DELIA FAILED | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 10:15 - Apr 30 with 2712 views | GloryHunter |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 23:22 - Apr 29 by BlackCrowe |
I love this board sometimes. Find another thread like this on another club's forum - it ain't gonna happen. |
Not only that, but I just googled "Einhell GB-MT336 rotavator" and what comes up first in the list? - this very thread! We are world experts in everything. | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 10:34 - Apr 30 with 2704 views | GloryHunter |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 21:37 - Apr 29 by johann28 |
Fabulous things. Check out Einhell GB-MT336 - about £250. German made. Bit of a weight but built like a tank (4 stroke 163cc engine) and can deal with any kind of soil. |
There is no MT336. There's a 3336 and a 3360 (bigger) - which one is yours? | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 11:01 - Apr 30 with 2678 views | Juzzie |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 22:56 - Apr 29 by Fearless |
Able was I ere I saw Elba
Supposedly attributed it napoleon (apocryphal I'd imagine) |
these are all multiple words though, rotavator is a single word. |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 11:11 - Apr 30 with 2669 views | Juzzie |
Now that I've moved and got a garden front and back, I'm getting all green fingered!
I've some some intrusive bamboo trees in both the front & back to dig up. I've used a hedge trimmer to cut them down and then secateurs to cut the stubs right down but was going then dig up the roots with a spade. Sod that, seeing this thread I think I'll rent something from HSS! | | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 12:50 - Apr 30 with 2633 views | komradkirk |
bamboo is a curse to get rid of....the electric board was fixing a fault next to us so i asked them to pull most of the bamboo out with a mini digger they were using.
got my garden peas in this week and working a couple of beds for french beans and carrots.
i like being a bit green this time of year......oooooohhh arrrrrrrrr |  | | |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 12:53 - Apr 30 with 2630 views | TheBlob |
A cucumber ain't fresh unless it's got a condom on it.Why go to all the ag?By the time things have grown yer dead from malnutrition. | |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 12:59 - Apr 30 with 2623 views | loftboy |
Who needs a rotavator, had to dig up my lawn last week, showed my autistic 19 year old how deep to go, gave him a spade, went out for a couple of hours, when I got back the job was done, I knew his obsessive behaviour would be of use one day. The mrs said he didn't stop once. [Post edited 30 Apr 2014 13:00]
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 14:05 - Apr 30 with 2606 views | headhoops |
Ha - getting your back garden completely dug up is easy. Dig a hole, stick in a human skull and call the police around - tell them the house used to belong to Harold Shipman and viola' they will completely excavate the entire plot! |  |
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| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 16:03 - Apr 30 with 2569 views | loftboy |
| Rotavators - I'm thing of buying one on 15:58 - Apr 30 by Juzzie |
Can you send him round to mine?  |
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