The zone tiller attachment employs a pair of spoked tillage wheels that converge downwardly and forwardly toward one another in leading relationship to the planter and in such an orientation that their heavy, thick, blunt spokes mutually intersect and overlap one another along the lower front extremity and bottom portion of the tiller. The crossed spokes penetrate into the soil to pulverize, cultivate, and substantially disturb the soil particles in place with a churning action while also displacing surface residue to opposite sides of the path of travel, thus producing a relatively narrow band of thoroughly tilled soil having a depth extending down to or below the seed planting level such that the trailing opener can perform its trench opening and seed placement functions in the optimum manner. The individual spokes of each wheel are preferably constructed from short sections of sturdy metal cable formed by individual strands of thick wire twisted into a common, unitary body so that strength with a certain minimal amount of flexibility is achieved to prevent breakage and facilitate the self-discharge of foreign objects. The spokes are disposed at non-radial, raked backed angles so as to strip cleanly out of the soil on the rear, upsweep side of the wheels and leave the soil in place, instead of throwing it to the side.