ATV Drag ?

[mtholton]

Hi All,

I've been prepping a 1/3 acre spot for a August clover planting. I've sprayed it twice and plan on doing one more spray a week or so before planting. I don't have a disc and just plan on ensuring all the current grass/vegetation is dead. I would like to broadcast the seeds (clover and a nurse crop) at a high rate then use my ATV to drag something over to lay the grass/plants down. They are about thigh high at their tallest and not overly dense since we sprayed at first thing when things were greening up this spring.

Instead of buying something purpose built for that, just curious if I could take a large PVC pipe and maybe fill it with cement to drag with my ATV? Or Cut a 4 foot section of telephone pole to drag it? I'm assuming I just need to knock it over and since it will be dry and dead it should stay laying down?

Just curious if there is something cheap and easy that has worked for you. Appreciate the input as always.

 

[Tree Spud]

To knock down some rall weeds once, I took a 10", 4 "x6" and put 2 eye hooks about 2' from each each. Attached a yellow tow strap to the eye hooks and the attached the tow rope to my ATV ball hitch.

 

[j-bird]

Best drag I ever used was the tailgate section of the old hard plastic truck bed liners. I simply tossed some concrete blocks on it for weight and some decent duty chain and it worked great and the "ribs" in the plastic left some ridges in the finished soil as well.

I often use the bucket on my FEL for pushing weeds over. Just set it on the ground with enough tilt to keep the leading edge from catching and let it float on the ground andit works fine as well.

Yep - use what ever you have handy. I like something with some flex in it to account for uneven surfaces if possible, but if your just knocking down weeds who cares. Both your options are fine. If you go the PVC route - consider putting a means in the end to use fluid to fill it instead of concrete that way you can empty it and it becomes much lighter to deal with is so needed. If you go PVC go schedule 80 if you can.....schedule 40 may be too thin to be real durable. The utility pole would work well also.

 

[MRBB]

you can roll a section of tele pole in some chain link fence, it will help garb and roll more things that way
me personally if things were that tall, I would mow it, weedwacker if needed, and then burn it, that's a lot of vegetation on top to block sun light from reaching your seeds.
and or getting your seeds to land on soil!

have you done a soil test yet?
as if not, now is the time to do that too?
if soil PH isn;'t good for seeds, your wasting a lot of time and money here, why NOT spend the 10 bucks on a test and know??

 

[Semisane]

A 4 foot section of telephone pole will work just fine. And you can put a few bricks under it to get it off the ground and leave it next to the plot for future use.

 

[mtholton]

I've done a soil test and was dang near perfect to my surprise. The growth isn't that tall or thick when we sprayed it last (see pic). I'm guessing if dragged over it should be minimal enough to provide some cover and moisture help while not drowning out all light? Trying to avoid mowing since there are small stumps etc and I don't have the right equipment yet... Maybe I could weed whip the taller stuff if needed.

 

[dsinwi]

I used to use a 6' long piece of chain link fastened at one end to a heavy steel pipe. In the middle I nailed a large log to the top of it for weight. A couple pieces of chain from the kids old swing set connected from the pipe to the atv. Worked great for that and dragging seed in. On the cheap. Use whatever you have on hand and your imagination. Your options should work just fine.

 

[MRBB]

that's pretty tall stuff your standing in, I would for sure want it cut and if possible, piled up and burned off!
not saying it won't work leaving it be and just burned down with some type of round up?
but when IO do plots, I like to do as much as possible to have the best shot at working out, too much time and effort goes into making them>'

 

[mtholton]

Good to know. I will have to see what it looks like once the round up has kicked in. If it looks too thick I'll have to mow first, if not I'll plant and knock it over.

 

[35-acre]

Harrow rake form Tractor Supply ran about $200 when I bought mine. It works great! You can see a bit of it in this photo of it knocking down Buckwheat. I have it upside down, instead of spikes down/they are up.
I also built my own "turf buster" with some rough cut lumber. I can adjust the spike depth with a hammer and add a cinder block for weight if I want. That ran me about $70 in spikes, chain and connectors.