Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm trying to keep out of this, but I can't as I'm a BIG fan of the petrol Mantis. Can't recommend it enough as a woman who's pretty strong but has struggled with some of the big rotovators. I've even managed to convince some of my (male) neighbours of it's application.

Howard 350 every time.

howard e70 is better, 70 inches wide, stick it on the tractor and do the job in minutes, sitting down

I'm with you all the way Tigger, I love my Mantis.

Me too! (My story is near the top of the thread)

My wife loves her mantis, I do the heavy rotorvating with my 5hp then she gets stuck in with the mantis to make a superb seed/planting out bed

Don't need a mantis, my rotavator will do anything it can do faster & more effectively, they're all right for women & children I suppose

Let's just agree to disagree folks. There's room for all.

its horses for courses , what suits primary cultivation on a large traditional veg plot wont even climb onto a raised bed. thats without getting into personal preferences and physical capabilities. no two gardens and gardeners are the same.

Happymouse wrote:Hi everyone.
I had a leaflet in the post today tempting me to buy a Mantis Tiller. Are they as good as they claim to be ? My only worry is would it chop up my garden worms ? I am very fond of garden worms so this would put me off buying one.

I bought one second hand and its brilliant!I use it on my lottie after hand digging and it will cultivate between rows of spuds etc

Hi happymouse

I have a Honda tiller and it's OK it starts first time, even after 6 months in the shed. One of my allotment neighbour has a Mantis and it sounds like a chainsaw.
Give me a 4stroke petrol tiller any day.

I suppose you lot have read the news that Mantis are changing over to a Honda 4-stroke engine on the Mantis. Meanwhile I still have a Mantis that's near impossible to start at least by either of us and nobody has offered to buy. Honda for me any time, on both my generator and Benassi cultivator, it's as easy as switching on a light.

I bought a Honda Tiller after all and love it. Many thanks for all of your advice which really helped

Tiller wrote:Personally I think they're not so good for tilling the soil, alright for tickling the suface up a bit but no guts for much else.
Always seem to be a lot of them for sale when they're still quite new, wonder why?

If you only tickled the surface, then you must be using it in the wrong way. I have the Mantis Electric (2 and 4 stroke petrol should be the same) and have tilled to the full 10" depth. You do have to pull the tiller towards you while stepping backwards (the opposite to how other tillers work. My soil is heavy clay which I have set out in "beds" 1metre wide so that I don't have to walk on the tilled land.

You say that there are a lot for sale, I haven't seen so many. If anyone has the "planter" rotors for sale I would be interested.

Edit: I ordered the rotors and the firm phoned to say that there are none available in the UK, They don't know when they will be available. I cancelled the order. Looks like I shall have to dig the potatoes in.

So does anyone know what the actual tiller costs?

CoMpO