Human pulled plows - anyone know about them?

We have had some good rains lately and the vegie patch is overgrown with weeds. I was thinking about a future without modern distribution systems and well, my patch is not big enough to warrant a horse. I saw humans pulling a plow once and I thought "wouldn't it be cool to get a human pulled plow and I could get the wife or kid on the back of it and pull it myself" certainly a lot easier that tilling with a spade like I am doing now.

So I looked on the internet and I can't find anything commercially made that would be suitable for the job. Anyone know anything about this subject? Anyone know anyone who makes these?

This is what I have found so far:

This is the sort of thing I was thinking. These guys must be desperate to pull it with their arms, put a harness on it and I reckon I could go for hours. Maybe I could one that has a cultivator attachment instead of just a mouldboard as well?


The one in the middle is the sort of thing I was after but it is push not pull. The other two don't look like they can do heavy work.


I don't want one of these as it is push not pull, and looks too flimsy to be able to do some ploughing.


Steps for making a bike frame cultivator

Good blog with similar problem.

Why not get a donkey, they fertilize the soil as they work.

Too small to warrant a donkey, what do I do with it the other 340 days of the year?

Found something which might work, but don't know, it looks a little too weak.
This or this for use with this

Aslo, a guy on here thinks it is too hard to pull by person, but I'm only talking about an area around an acre.

The push type is way way easier to deal with having used one myself, if you have some fabrication skills you can make one out of a wheel barrow kit forming the blade out of the barrow bed.

Whether you go pull or push I suggest a single blade as dual bladed would require a donkey.

originally posted by: Cinrad
Too small to warrant a donkey, what do I do with it the other 340 days of the year?

Found something which might work, but don't know, it looks a little too weak.
This or this for use with this

Aslo, a guy on here thinks it is too hard to pull by person, but I'm only talking about an area around an acre.

You know they make plow attachments for tillers?

example

a reply to: Cinrad

You need most of your energy for digging down, not moving across, so a push plow is probably better. (You will almost certainly need to pick away at the ground, and that is kind of what a push plow is: a sort of pick or mattock on a wheel. Actually, if the ground is really compact, your best choice might be a pick mattock.)

And just to throw this out there... I saw a youtube video where some guy had made a weird prong digger and it inspired me to try a pitchfork on some soft ground outback... It worked pretty good, so if your soil is not too compact, you might get away with using a pitchfork or something similar. That is, if the ground is loose enough, you can make use of a pitchfork's small prongs to break up the ground. (The small prongs/tines give you more energy channeled to penetration points, while the over all width of the head spreads out the energy enough to make it worthwhile.)

Oh I found the video:

Maybe you can find one of those? It would have to be better than a pull plow.

Edit: Thinking about it, something like what is in the video would be great if you had several heads that you could swap out for different depths. (Smaller tines at first and then swap heads and work your way deeper.)

a reply to: Bleeeeep

That looks really good. The fact that peds are pushed against the other tines makes them break up, it makes all the difference. I might get one of those.

As far as moving down and across, the person holding the handle of the plow pushes down, so the load is shared between you.

I think I can make one out of an old kid's bike. I'll post pics if I do it.

a reply to: Cinrad

I own a homestead. These plows are back breaking. Hand tending 3600sq feet of veggies kills my wife and I, your better served planting succoring fruit and nut trees, berries etc...thats what we do.

1 acre of plowed land (43k+ feet) is creating one gigantic weed party. It takes all weekend to keep the weeds out in an organic scenario. You are far better off if youre just starting, to build a half dozen raised beds with wire mesh underneath to keep out moles, rabbit fencing (for the obvious) and build a few cold frames for early starts and year round greens depending on your growing zone.

1 acre is traditionally the amount of field plowed in a day using a horse. 1 acre is an insane amount of work...take my word on it.

ETA. Plus if you breaking virgin ground....LOL you have NO IDEA how hard that is...you might be better off with no till methods and save the soil structure.

You do what you have to do. But if you have an established well tilled garden area, it's much easier to maintain if it's tilled very well initially. Renting a tiller or have a friend who has one you could borrow will make your life much easier in the future. Likewise, if others in the area have horses or donkeys you could borrow, same thing. Utilize what you can borrow and it will make life much easier plus you might make some useful friends.

Using cardboard or straw in between rows helps eliminate a lot of weeding. If you have a lot of people to help, pulling a back breaking manual plow would at least be spread out between several backs! If you garden a smaller area, say 1/2 acre for year or two you may find that it is plenty of space to grow what you need. Increase gradually as needed. Often, our big enthusiasm ends up giving us a big punch in the face when reality kicks in.

The push type is way way easier to deal with having used one myself, if you have some fabrication skills you can make one out of a wheel barrow kit forming the blade out of the barrow bed.

That would be my advice also.

Before the SHTF though, why not simply rent a tiller? Why make it hard on yourself.

I was at an agricultural fair last year and they had a plowing demonstration of old steam traction engines.

One at each end of the field dragging a plow back and forth on a winch cable.

Maybe you could rig up something using ground anchors and a hand winch to drag a small plow along your land?

a reply to: BlueJacket

Thanks for the advice. I already till 1/4 acre alone. I don't use all of it all the time but 2/3 of it is planted at one time. At this stage I don't need all of it because I still buy most of our vegetables, though some weeks i don't need to buy much. I till each part about once a year at some stage. I till it by using a long handle spade and can usually keep up. We had a wet winter and the weeds went beserk. I am a pretty beefy bloke, I'd like to try pulling a small plow though to see if it was a viable option before I have to use all our lot for real. Our summers are usually very dry so weeds aren't usually too much of a problem to keep under control.

I have 3 established srone fruit trees from which I get around 65 pounds of fruit from, (half which we bottle), 6 that are in their 4th year and second year of fruiting, and 5 I planted this past winter. I love home grown fruit and so do the kids. I am going to dry and bottle more fruit as it comes available. 6 chickens give us more eggs than we can use. Surrounded by wheat farms, rabbits and kangaroos, I'm hoping we can stick it out if the nukes start flying over in the northern hemisphere. Well done on being a homesteader, I know it is a lot of hard work, I wish I had the land for it but glad I don't have to do it yet.

Got any neighbors? I have a big ol' Mahindra 5555 with all the tilling and rowing attachments you could ask for, and I'd be happy to bust up a couple of acres for any of my neighbors. It doesn't take much time with the beast. Once it's tilled deep and rowed up, it's easy to keep it that way with a small gas tiller.

a reply to: Cinrad

I appreciate your fortitude. Now that I see you know what you're doing I am not so nervous about your keeping up.

I just see so many people in the US, thinking its all fun and games ...i may have been overly discouraging.

Good on you mate. Speaking of of chickens I just built another coop and brood house...35 birds by this Saturday and a dozen more chicks on the way!

Im getting a 2 year old Great Pyrenees this Saturday as well, so hoping she keeps the hawks and other predators to a minimum.

Well met mate

Its a cool idea, would make one fun welding project.