Tiller Vs Cultivator: What's the Difference?

Jun 21, 2022
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Whether you prep the soil for farming or get your garden ready for seasonal blooms- no matter what your target is, the best result depends upon your tool selection!

In either case, you need your soil to be lump free and devoid of unwanted crumbs of soil, stones, and other things. That’s when you need a power mixer to toss your soil for a perfect base for your plants.

But don’t you consider tiller and cultivator as interchangeable when it comes to breaking the soil, as that could cost you a big loss on efficiency and productivity. So, let’s find out what’s the difference between a tiller and a cultivator and decide which one is right for you.

First, let’s start with the basics!

What is a tiller?

Finding it troublesome to manage your farmland of over 200sq ft? Confused which farming tool is best for you that would help in breaking down the soil evenly? Get a gasoline-powered tiller or rototiller. These use regular gas and are meant for heavy jobs, ideally for a combo of rocky soil and clay.

From creating new garden beds at the start of the season to prepping your farm for tiller farming, tillers are ideally suitable as they can aggressively break down soil and make it fit for extensive use. The operative area of these powerful mechanical beasts includes a width of up to 36 inches and a digging depth of 10 inches.

There are varieties of models available in the market. Two main types of garden tillers are:

Front-tine tiller:

These are best for small to medium-sized land that helps in breaking moderately hard ground. Even they are good in weed control and make loosening firm soil a breeze.

Rear-tine tiller:

Whereas, a rear-tine tiller is best for small farms and large gardens. These types of tillers come in both forward-rotating and counter-rotating tines that make working on existing beds as well as breaking up new ground seamless.

What is a cultivator?

Cultivators are used for soil mixing and look like lawn seed spreaders. From two-cycle and four-cycle engines running on gasoline, oil, or only gas to electric cultivators, there are varieties of models available for these power mixers.

Moreover, these are designed to offer finesse in mixing and breaking the soil. They are typically meant for specific purposes like controlling weed growth, mixing up fertilizer and compost with soil, and blending the soil before planting.

Cultivators are typically compact and lightweight farming or gardening equipment that helps in operating width up to 12 inches and diggs up to 6 inches deep. Additionally, these are easily maneuverable, easy to transport, and can be stored anywhere.

Tiller Vs Cultivator: Main Differences

There is a fine difference between these two farming tools. But the point is, each one has its advantages and is meant for specific tasks. They can have a huge impact on your task depending upon your need. Hence to ensure you have a better understanding, we have listed the following differences to help you make the right choices.

Rundown through the table quickly!

	Tillers	Cultivators
Purpose	Tillers are best for breaking hard soil. They implement large and heavy-duty tines to break down the soil which makes tiller farming seamless.	Cultivators are ideal for loosening soil, weeding, and mixing fertilizer, compost, and soil. These are meant for mixing the soil that is already worked upon.
Fuel Type	Tillers require only gasoline to operate.	Cultivators use a gas and oil mixture.
Design	It features an electric or gas-powered engine that moves the blades or tines mechanically. Attaching this to the tractor through a 3-point hitch ensures more power.	Cultivators feature rotating metal discs with sharp edges that help cut down weeds and break the soil.
Tillage method	They go deeper and turn it to make the soil even and free from clumps of dirt or weeds.	They leave behind clusters of dirt and clumps of soil.
Size of the working area	These are large enough to dig deeply. Their weight and high-power range make them suitable for difficult digging jobs. Moreover, with additional features, it can be customized as per your work requirement.	They have bigger discs so they cover large space but are not fit for big sites.
Power	Tillers also need a good range of power capacity, around 20-30+ hp for enhanced efficiency.	Cultivators need a tractor of at least 18 hp power range for effective performance.
Blade	Depending upon the type of soil they work, tillers come with different varieties of blades like rotary tines, disc/harrow coulters, chisel plow, and spike shows/tooth harrows.	Cultivators also feature different types of blades but they generally perform in the same way and on one type of soil.
Maneuverability	These are much bigger and more powerful than cultivators yet slower than cultivators. Hence, they are not easily maneuverable and not easy to transport or store.	These are much smaller than the former one and can be moved effortlessly around narrow space. It's even easy to store them and faster than tillers
Side effects	Tillers dig much deeper into the soil that kills beneficial earthworms, thereby causing the growth of weeds.	While cultivators are less disruptive to the environment as they do not dig deeper into the soil.

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Final word!

So what do you think, which one is best for you? Well, that’s up to you!

It depends upon what you are trying to do. If you have a small patch of land with wet soil, get a cultivator to mix up your soil with compost. Or else find a tiller to loosen up your large farmland of dry soil to make it fit for plantation.

But make sure you have access to the right farming tool. Hence, check out Farmtender for the premium quality farming machinery and equipment.

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