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Groundhog max...is it worth the bother?

Merlot
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Merlot Collaborator

Merlot

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I'm wondering if this piece of equipment is reliable. Operates attached to ATV and breaks up the ground for planting. Seems like a slick way to do small food plots. Wondered if anyone out there ever used one and what did you think. Thanks.

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LET EM GROW Experienced

LET EM GROW

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I have never used one, but after I tried a few experiment plots. If you want tontry without it. I just sprayed off the vegetation dead(after 10 days) then seeded and rolled the dead vegetation down to the dirt along with the seed. Worked great. Vegetation holds moisture for the seed. Plus keeping the soil not exposed to air helps too.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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Zag Rising Star

Zag

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Merlot, they do look pretty slick. I thing phade gave it a decent review a couple yrs back. Really depends on what seed your planting. Most seed now you can just about toss around and it will grow fairly well. I've mentioned in recent threads I use a simple york rake to scratch the surface and I'm good to go. 

Check out growing deer t.v., there is tons of good info there too. Grant doesn't believe in turning soil at all.

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Adkhunter1590 Newbie

Adkhunter1590

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I tried the groundhog max last spring. While it did turn the soil up, it beat the living crap out of my 4 wheeler. I put it on a literally brand new 2016 brute force 750 and it bent the hell out of 2 different hitches and even bent in my rear frame piece on my quad. After I saw it start damaging the frame I stopped and sent the groundhog max back. If you have a atv with a seriously strong hitch, the groundhog might be ok. But the hitch has to be very very strong and designed in a way that the vertical upwards pressure won't bend or break anything. There's a lot of force on the hitch once you start tilling, especially when you hit rocks and roots.

My suggestion is to skip the groundhog and look into a well made pull behind disc.

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LET EM GROW Experienced

LET EM GROW

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As mentioned before, if you do break the soil. regardless of what seeds are planted there is no real need to go more than 2 or 3 inches deep in soil. For clovers and brassicas especially, just scrape the soil surface and roll the seed to the dirt. You can drag literally anything behind a quad that will mark up the sod/soil in some way to make a food plot, or as I posted earlier. On Growingdeertv, they call it there messy plots, and as zag stated tons of info! 

Theres lots of ways you can do it, you should have see some of the things i made and drug around behind my quad in my teens when i had very little money. 

IMO the groundhog would beat that crap out of a quad/equip. with all that downward pressure. Spend the money on a small disk, or harrow tine drag. Craigslist has some steals on peoples "scrap" thats not really scrap..  and also a roller.

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chas0218 Newbie

chas0218

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One of those pull behind disc harrow would be the cat's meow but man are they pricey. I have an old 4' spring tooth harrow I use and it does well. It takes all 500cc and 4wd of my polaris sportsman with reasonably new tires to rip that thing around tree roots and other debris. Best thing you can do if it is small tree growth is get one of those brush grabbers and actually remove the saplings roots and all. Old fields are tough being they are mostly sod. If it is an old hay field you should knock down the grass/weeds best you can then spray do this all early in the spring so you don't end up re-seeding all the new seeds into your plot and have twice as many weeds than before you started.

Small in my book is 1/4-1/2 acre. I will be doing a couple of these on my property this spring. One clover plot another brassica.

This will be my next investment.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/countyline-atv-compact-disc?cm_vc=-10005

Edited by chas0218
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Merlot Collaborator

Merlot

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Looks like I stay away from groundhog due to stress on an ATV. No sense messing the machine up. Always a problem getting things done on the property due to so many opinions by the club members on how to go about things. Wouldn't mind buying the place and do things my way...just hoping the lottery comes through lol.

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LET EM GROW Experienced

LET EM GROW

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Craigslist is where I go for everything. I found a dude 2 years ago that had tons of disks and drags laying around he was going to scrap. I went and offered 150$ for everything. I got an 8' working gang disk 1 8' harrow drag and about 6 3-4' harrow drag setups. The trailer was loaded lol. 150$ gave him a high scrap price lol and gave all the small drags away to buddies

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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growalot Newbie

growalot

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I was looking around ...crazy how much more for so much less, manufactures make people pay for convenience. You'd think they were all  manufacturing big tractors and penalizing consumers for only owning a lawn tractor or ATV... Anyways I now believe there is Nothing Amazon doesn't sell...

https://www.amazon.com/tractor-disc/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Atractor disc

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chas0218 Newbie

chas0218

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8 minutes ago, growalot said:

I was looking around ...crazy how much more for so much less, manufactures make people pay for convenience. You'd think they were all  manufacturing big tractors and penalizing consumers for only owning a lawn tractor or ATV... Anyways I now believe there is Nothing Amazon doesn't sell...

https://www.amazon.com/tractor-disc/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Atractor disc

It is crazy how much they charge for something so simple. I linked a better designed one. The key is big discs and weight. I have one of those smaller brinly and honestly they are junk they just bounce around the plow furrows and break.

https://www.amazon.com/51-Single-Gang-Disc-ATV-51SGDH/dp/B00BJ2ELDU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1484228998&sr=8-4&keywords=tractor+disc

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growalot Newbie

growalot

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Hey I have a 3pt double disc and with out heavy 2" 2'x3' steel plates bolted to it ,that bounces around as well...But is adjustable and costs me as much as some of of those ATV ones...I think that's crazy...and sad. the harrow drag we have now cost as much as I paid for the new disc...it's a toothed chain drag for crying out loud...The industry saw food plotters coming a mile away.

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