Last Updated on April 4, 2024 by Real Men Sow

5 Rotavator Reviews To Maximise Crop Nutrients (Review) 2021

5 Rotavator Reviews to Maximise Crop Nutrients

Are you giving your crops enough to grow with? What’s your soil looking like? Maybe you need to start doing some digging and aerating. But what if you can’t get down on your knees to dig in deep?

Crops need more than just sun and rain. They need an awful lot of nutrients to be able to grow properly! That goes for all kinds of growths, too. Vegetables, flowers, perennials, even weeds – if the soil conditions aren’t good enough, then they simply won’t grow.

That’s why you’ll find that more and more green fingered garden gurus are investing in the odd rotavator machine. Sometimes called a garden tiller or a cultivator, a rotavator helps you break up your garden soil so that you can access all the lovely nutrients within.

If you know nothing about soil pH or how to get nutrients into your garden, there’s no need to worry. In this guide, we’ll look at and review some of the best soil rotavator machines available for garden use right now. You can also use a cultivator in the allotment, as well as to remove weeds!

Garden Rotavators: Our Top Picks

If you’re just getting started with growing crops in your garden and you’re not sure what’s going to work best, make sure to take a look through our review list below.

We’ve listed some of the most important figures you’ll need to compare from product to product, too. For example, we’ve made a point to list cutting width as well as depth. Taking cutting width is very important if you’re planning carefully to sow those crops into your soil!

You’ll also find that pricing on tillers may vary – some models really are heavy duty, too, but the aim’s the same – to get that soil up and mixing with some lovely nutrients.

All of the following tiller and rotavator picks are well-rated and offer lots of potential for you to get your veggies and other plants off to a great start.

In This Review

T-Mech 52cc Garden Tiller Petrol Soil Cultivator Best Mini Rotavator

This tiller system has an impressive 2 stroke engine for the price, and what’s really striking about this tiller machine is the fact it is so small yet mighty. Offering 52cc of power, it has a good fuel oil capacity of around 1.2 litres, and boasts four tines working at 9000 RPM max.

We think this two-wheel tiller is a great starter option for gardeners who are yet to really get into crops. The fact it comes with safety goggles, mixing bottle and ear protectors is a massive bonus.

Features

Engine Power: 52cc, 2 stroke
Dimensions: 90cm x 54cm x 98cm
Weight: 18kg
Tine Blades: 4
Working Width: 20cm
Working Depth: 15cm

BU-KO 52CC Garden Petrol Tiller Best Value for Money

While this is easily the most affordable tiller on our list, that doesn’t make it cheap and nasty. Right out of the box, you get a 2 stroke engine and a heavy duty piece of kit that offers you 52cc in the impressive petrol engine. Offering impressive safety features, too, as well as handles designed to give great grip, this is also an impressively lightweight machine.

The tines reach a good depth of around 15cm, which is more than reasonable for a tiller of this type and class, and you’ll also get a good amount of capacity in the tank at around 1.2L.

Features

Engine Power: 52cc, 2 stroke
Dimensions: 63cm x 38cm x 32cm
Weight: 18kg
Tine Blades: 4
Working Width: Unclear
Working Depth: 15cm

Einhell GE-SA 1335 P Petrol Scarifier/Aerator Best Powerhouse

Einhell is well known for making some seriously impressive pieces of home and gardening kit, and this four stroke petrol rotavator is amongst their best. Boasting 4 wheels and a blade roller, this is actually a triple threat, in that it will not only scarify and aerate your soil, but that it’s great for catching, too.

Rather than working with simple tines, this tiller machine works with its own set of stainless steel blades, which seem to pick up a pretty positive review score. It’s also impressively robust, and you can even fold it away easily so that you don’t have to squeeze it into your shed or garage.

Features

Engine Power: 53.2cc, 4 stroke
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm x 52cm
Weight: 18kg
Tine Blades: 20 (stainless steel blades)
Working Width: 35cm
Working Depth: Unclear

Draper Expert 58972 135cc Petrol Cultivator Best Premium Pick

This cultivator / petrol tiller system is likely to be a popular pick with farmers – well, farmers who don’t mind paying a little extra – as this super durable, super powerful model is a one-wheeled wonder offering 135cc engine push.

What we like about this particular model of tiller is the fact that it’s refreshingly simple. It’s easy to move around without you needing to worry about a lack of wheels, and you can easily control the throttle with a handy finger touch system.

Features

Engine Power: 135cc, 4 stroke
Dimensions: 72cm x 44cm x 60cm
Weight: 36kg
Tine Blades: Unclear
Working Width: 40cm
Working Depth: 28cm

POWERPLUS 140cc 4 Stroke Best Adjustable Model

Flexibility is great when it comes to any kind of gardening product, and this super cultivator really does understand that. This model offers no fancy wheels but it does support a brilliant tilling depth and cutting width, as well as handles that you can easily move up and down for height functionality.

This is one of the more powerful petrol models on the market which is likely to put weedier rotavators to shame. Ideal in an average garden size but even better in the allotment, the effects of this great 4×4 tine tiller system are easy to spot pretty soon.

Features

Engine Power: 140cc, 4 stroke
Dimensions: 71cm x 43cm x 67cm
Tine Blades: 4×4
Working Width: 40cm
Working Depth: 26cm

What’s The Difference Between a Rotavator And Cultivator?

The honest answer is, not much! A rotavator is another name for a cultivator, and they are both one and the same.

However, you may also find that this garden equipment is often referred to as a tiller. A garden tiller is largely used to dig up soil using rear tines or front tines. Cultivators go a bit further by actively mixing up soil with compost and other nutrient boosters.

Quite why there are so many different names for these tools remains to be explained – but we hope we’ve cleared that up a bit!

What Does a Garden Rotavator Do?

A garden rotavator is a brilliant tool that helps you to prepare the soil in your garden.

It is a powered garden tool, often with a petrol engine, which allows you to carefully dig up and break soil apart so that it is ready for you to plant seeds for the season ahead.

However, this is only half of the job of a good petrol tiller, cultivator or rotavator. They are also fantastic for helping you to add nutrients and additions to the soil. Cultivators tend to differ slightly from tine tillers in that they help to mix in compost and other nutrient boosting resources so that you give your various shrubs and crops the best possible mix.

Seasoned gardeners who know more than a little bit about plant growth and soil types will use a garden tiller or rotavator to make sure that the soil is healthy enough and ready for them to start sowing into.

Essentially, if you have ever spent more than a full afternoon digging up and breaking apart soil in your garden, then a rotavator pretty much takes that hassle off your plate, and the strain off your wrists. If you like getting down and dirty in the soil, be our guests – but for maximum efficient, a good soil or garden rotavator is going to shave hours off your soil prep time, and that’s more time you can spend tending to other areas of your garden.

Even better, of course, is that you can use tine tillers, rotavators and cultivators to do away with the most annoying of gardening tasks – the weeding!

Rather than getting down on one or two knees to dig up the odd perennial, you can use a rotavator machine to dig up pesky unwanted plants from the soil with ease. It’s often more efficient than a lawn mower in this regard. You could also effectively use front tines and front blades to get rid of a few stiff plant roots, too.

Can I Use a Rotavator On Stony Ground?

Yes, you can use a rotavator on stony or rocky ground, but our advice is to always be careful.

Just as accidentally mowing over stones or rocks could send sharp pieces flying, the same applies to what you do with a rotavator or garden tiller.

What may be worth doing is – shock horror – a little bit of ground work beforehand. If you know that you are going to need to sow across stony or rocky ground, then it’s probably prudent to dig deep a little with a fork to loosen things up a bit. This way, at least, you can start to get bigger stones and rocks up and out of the way.

One of the last things you’ll want is to have to dodge a load of stones going here, there and everywhere, so trust us – some preparation work will likely be a safer option than to charge straight in.

Will a Rotavator Go Through Clay Soil?

Not always, and in fact, clay soil can be very hard, which can make rotavating at all pretty impossible at times.

It can vary across gardens, and depending on the type or brand of cultivators you buy, but soil conditions should ideally be soft if you want your blades to work properly.

Tilling or digging into harder soil is going to do serious damage to your blades, and though there are tiller models which are going to be hardier than most, any gardener will tell you it’s not going to be worth the effort.

There are some cultivators that go quite in depth. Of course, the depth you want to go will depend on how you want to sow your crops.

Our advice if you are working with clay soil or very hardened soil at the least is to try and get it wet, to try and soften it as much as you possibly can before bringing out your tiller. This is a trick that farmers and gardeners alike are known for using, so don’t shy away from a tried and tested method if you’re unsure whether or not to crack straight in. Protect your blades!

Buying Your Rotavator

As you can see, there are a few things you’re going to need to take into account when it comes to choosing the best tilling machine or cultivating machine for your garden. There’s a lot which can separate great value from cheapness, which is why it’s a really good idea to look carefully at different models.

Think about different engine sizes, fuel types, tines, depth ability, whether there’s assembly required – and look at the blades, too. Will you need to set up a long extension cable? How do the wheels support you?

We hope you’ve found our guide to buying the best rotavating systems interesting – now go ahead and hunt down the best tillers and rotavators for your crops’ needs – and save yourself a bit of time on the digging and kneeling front – save that for your flower beds and maybe for your weeds!

Grab yourself some engine oil and get ready to look at rotavators and tillers that farmers have depended on for years.