From igg@igg.com Fri Jun 4 11:41:57 1999 Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 06:49:27 -0500 From: Allan Balliett To: osalt@teleport.com Subject: Re: So what is a spader? Eugene Canales of Ferarri Tractor will be a featured speaker at the Oct 1-3 Mid-Atlantic Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Conf. which is held outside of Baltimore-Washington in Charles Town. With Joel Salatin, his presentations will center around the production, harvesting, and processing of grains on a small holding. He will have a lot of small, appropriate equipment from Europe as part of his workshops. More info, as it is avail will appear at www.igg.com/bdnow. (or email me to be on the direct info list!) We also have one of his spaders! It's wonderful if you can find a tractor that will pull slow enough. Everyone should be aware that Imants sells a 'spader' which is a spader in name alone and does not have the action that makes the Italian machines so wonderful. Allan Balliett Claymont Farm CSA BIODYNAMICS Now! temp mailing address: 207 W. High Street POB 3047 Shepherdstown, WV 25443 Voice Mail: (304) 724-6763 FAX Forwarding (815) 550-6067 >Sue Andersen wrote: >"How's a spader work? What's it look like? Will it turn in a cover crop >and incorporate compost? Does it leave you with a good enough seedbed >for fine seeded crops? What HP does it require? Where do you get 'em?" > >A spader looks a lot like a rotary tiller, but instead of rotating >"tines" it has "spades" on a double cam mounting. The spades look like >small shovel blades - shaped like the Heinz food company shield in their >logo - and move in a mostly up and dowm motion, with a little tilt at >the bottom of the stroke. > >The effect is like pushing a shovel (hence the name shove-l) straight >into the ground, rocking the handle back and forth, then drawing the >shovel back out. All without turning the soil over. The action opens up >compacted soil and allows air and water in, while doing minimal damage >to soil organisms and microlife. > >It won't "turn in" a cover crop, but it will chop it up some and push >some of it down into the soil, where it will break down better then >sitting on top. It will incorporate compost, as loose material on top of >the soil falls into the openings made as the spader travels along the >soil bed. > >It will make a pretty fine seedbed if you make 2 or 3 passes, but I >caution you to find better ways to plant fine seeded crops, as >pulverizing the soil into a fine seedbed is inherently very destructive >to the soil. > >We work the bed to baseball-to-golfball sized pieces (there is, of >course a lot of smaller stuff mixed in), then plant into the soil. For >fine seeds we make a grove 2-3 inches wide, fill it with a soil mix >(much like our starting mix), mix the seeds with sand and spread that >into a groove in the soil mix in the trench. > >The horsepower required depends on the spader (size) and your soil (how >hard). Ours is 3 feet wide, with 4 shovels about 6 inches wide at the >top and 4 inches wide at the bottom. It requires 20-22 HP. > >You can get them as walk-behind (probably 8-15 HP) or standard 3-point >implements. We got ours from Farrari Tractor CIE in California. This is >a one-man operation, I think. We met him first at the Ecological Farming >Conference in California years ago. I think he still goes there every >year. We've seen him at other ag events, too. He is very active on the >west coast. I imagine he would work with anybody in the country. He was >very accomodating with us and we recommend him highly. > >Good growing, > >Will Newman II >Natural Harvest Farm >Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust >www.osalt.org =========================================================================== BD NOW!, the International Biodynamic Agriculture Discussion Forum, dedicated to restoring the earth while producing healthy, high-value, food that promotes human development. Archives to BD Now! are located at: http://csf.colorado.edu/biodynamics/ To Subscribe to BD NOW!, the BD list server, send a msg to listproc@envirolink.org In the body of the message put (do not include the "<>:s!): subscribe bdnow If you have any questions, contact the list master at bdnow@igg.com