Cultivation Tool Design: Design and Construction of Two Novel Cultivation Tools

Cultivation tools have a long history of use. The integration of cultivation within current organic and conventional weed management programs is conditional on the availability of functional, practical cultivation tools. However, there are performance and operational limitations with current cultivation tools. Serviceable improvement in weed control is the impetus behind creation of new tool designs. The primary objective of this research was to design and construct two cultivators that might address the limitations of current cultivation tools. A secondary objective was to identify historical influences on the technology, availability, and capability of cultivation tools. Two new tractor-mounted cultivators were designed and constructed as loose extractions of antique handheld tools. The first tool, a block cultivator, has a flat surface in the front of the tool that rests against the soil and limits the entrance of a rear-mounted blade. The second tool resembles a stirrup hoe, where a horizontal steel blade with a beveled front edge slices through the upper layer of the soil. Block and stirrup cultivator units were mounted on a toolbar with a traditional S-tine sweep, so that the novel cultivators could be compared directly with a common standard. Relative to the S-tine sweep, the stirrup cultivator reduced weed survival by about one-third and the block cultivator reduced weed survival by greater than two-thirds. Of the three tools, block cultivator performance was least influenced by environmental and operational variances.