Harvesting potatoes with walk-behind tractors and motor-tractors

Harvesting potatoes on large areas is always a time-consuming operation, which you always want to speed up and facilitate at the same time without losing the quality and quantity of tubers. If the farm has a walk-behind tractor or a minitractor, the use of a potato digger as a mounted or trailed unit can significantly facilitate this operation and allow additional earnings by providing mechanized potato digging services. The latter is important, because as a rule, high-quality diggers are worth considerable money, which you want to "recoup" as soon as possible. So let's consider this issue in detail.

Unlike large farms, where potatoes are harvested with expensive potato diggers or potato harvesters, in small and auxiliary farms it is advisable to use potato diggers, which are aggregated withmotoblocks andmoto-tractors. But in both cases, regardless of the cost of the units, it is necessary to achieve minimal loss of tubers and their minimal damage and injuries.

Buy a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor

Buy a potato digger for a minitractor

The main stages of harvesting potatoes with mini machinery

Harvesting potatoes is realized in three stages:

• The first stage is the removal of weeds and tops. To do this, you can use lawnmowers or chemically by spraying (although desiccation is impractical for personal consumption). It is advisable to do it a few days before digging up the tubers. Unlike manual digging, there is no need to worry about marking the bush with the tops, since the entire row is dug up, not the bushes selectively.
• The second stage is the direct digging of tubers by cutting the row and placing the tubers on the surface of the field.
• The third stage is the selection of the dug tubers in containers (nets, bags, containers, boxes) and their subsequent transportation to places of post-harvest processing (often using a trailer for a walk-behind tractor or mini tractor). It is advisable to pick up the tubers a few hours after digging, which will allow the tubers to dry (for better separation of stuck soil), and the crust on their surface will strengthen (to reduce injuries).

Main types of potato digger for walk-behind tractor and walk-behind tractor

When harvesting potato tubers, regardless of the type of potato digger based on walk-behind tractor or walk-behind tractor, the following operations take place:

• cutting a row of potatoes with a knife;
• sieving fine soil through a cleaning surface;
• laying tubers, soil clods, plant impurities on the surface of the field.

So, implementing these operations in different ways, potato diggers for walk-behind tractors are most often designed:

• universal;
• vibrating and vibrating;
• transporter.

Universal potato diggers

Universal potato diggers consist of the main elements:

• stand;
• a fixed knife for cutting a row with a grip width from 20 to 40 cm;
• bars attached to the knife for sifting soil impurities.

Popular and cheap universal potato digger, often called "dolphin", "rocket". Despite its simplicity, it is quite effective. However, there are certain nuances during work: from time to time you need to lift the bars; it can be attached both through a universal coupling and directly using the holder of the depth limiter when working with soil cutters (with small volumes of digging); it is necessary to dig across the row, then the neighboring plowed ones will not snuggle up, and then the remaining ones. And be sure to check the adjustment of the installed digger on a bad ridge so as not to spoil the tuber. Often this is only necessary for the first time or for unfamiliar soil and planting method.

On AGROLUXE potato diggers, instead of rods, a strip surface can be used, which allows you to significantly improve work, especially on wet soil.

AGROLUXE potato diggers. The design is the same as that of a digger and there is an adjustable limiter of the digger's immersion.

Potato diggers are connected to the walk-behind tractor using a hitch.

The universal hitch allows not only to adjust the depth of immersion of the universal digger, but also the angle of attack (this parameter is regulated by the threaded part)

Universal potato diggers are made in one row with the digging depth a row of potatoes - 11...32 cm. The digging depth can be gradually adjusted by changing the position of attaching the rack to the walk-behind tractor through the holes. It is impractical to use several such potato diggers with one walk-behind tractor, as this will, first of all, make it difficult to control the walk-behind tractor, and plowing several rows of potatoes makes it difficult to pick them. When purchasing such a potato digger, you should pay attention to whether it can effectively work with all brands of walk-behind tractors, or whether it is designed to work with certain brands of walk-behind tractors. The same applies to other types of potato diggers.

Peculiarities of the construction of potato diggers and the peculiarities of their use also affect the price.

Vibrating and vibrating potato diggers

Vibrating and vibrating potato diggers are used mainly with heavy walk-behind tractors and motor-tractors. The main elements of such a potato digger are:

• undermining ploughshare (knife) for cutting the row;
• screen (grid) for sieving fine soil;
• eccentric mechanism for oscillating the ploughshare with a belt drive; depending on the drive, potato diggers can have a one- or two-hexcentric mechanism;
• supporting metal or pneumatic wheels for adjusting the digging depth up to 20 cm by changing the position of the supports of the support wheels along the holes.

Vibrating and vibrating potato diggers at the point of sale. The frame is painted blue, and the ploughshare with the screen and its drive is black. With relative simplicity, an effective digger, but requires aggregation with a power take-off shaft.

As a result of the oscillating movement of the plowshare with a screen, digging of the row and sifting of fine soil is improved. The attachment of the potato digger to the tractor can be central or with an offset center (simplifies control of the tractor and reduces damage to dug tubers).

The productivity of such potato digger is up to 0.15...0.3 ha/h. (depending on the width of the grip 0.4...0.6 m).

Transportable potato diggers

Transportable potato diggers are used when harvesting potatoes on the basis of walk-behind tractors and motor-tractors. Potato diggers can have a working width of up to 60 cm with a digging depth of up to 25 cm, and their productivity is on average about 0.35 ha/h.

Compact transport potato digger. The knife for cutting ridges is additionally equipped with ribbon looseners for more effective separation of soil and tubers. The digging depth is adjusted by moving the mounting rack.

The main elements of the conveyor potato digger are:

• passive knife for cutting a row;
• rod conveyor for sieving fine soil and transporting and placing tubers and impurities in rolls on the surface of the field
.

At the bottom of the potato digger there are slides, the position of which can be adjusted by changing the depth of digging the row.

The conveyor is driven by a wheel with with ground grabs.

Conveyor drive from a wheel with ground grabs.

Type of attachment of the conveyor drive gear and wheel.

Features of using potato diggers

Potato harvesters for walk-behind tractors and walk-behind tractors can provide high-quality and efficient harvesting of potatoes, which are grown both with ridges and without ridges on light and medium soils. At the same time as the tubers are dug up, a high-quality loosening of the soil occurs, which is quite important for its further use. Such potato diggers can also be used for digging onions, garlic, and root vegetables.

Based on the productivity and costs of labor and time for picking up tubers, vibrating and conveyor potato diggers should still be considered more effective, although working with them requires greater fuel consumption and motor power of the walk-behind tractor.

Preparation of potato diggers for harvesting

The main thing in preparing potato diggers for work is:

• checking the condition of their elements;
• adjustment to the appropriate digging depth;
• connection with a motorized vehicle.

If damaged elements of a potato digger (for example, a knife) or a hitch are found, they must be replaced or repaired, as damaged elements make it difficult or impossible to harvest potatoes with quality.

Purchase spare parts for potato diggers

Adjustment to the appropriate digging depth is carried out by moving the racks of the knife (ploughshare) or the support wheel. To check the correct setting of the digging depth, it is necessary to walk several meters of the row and evaluate the tubers for cuts. In the presence of cut tubers, it is necessary to increase the depth of digging.

When using such potato diggers with walk-behind tractors and walk-behind tractors, it is advisable to ensure that rows of potatoes are dug one after the other, in order to reduce the loss of unharvested tubers and their damage by wheels, as well as to avoid lateral displacement of the motor vehicle.

And for the rest. If you wish, if you have metal and you have the skills to work with it, you can easily make such a unit yourself and specifically for your motorcycle. For this, drawings and videos on the network are more than enough. And rather, your creation will be of higher quality than factory or hand-made, it is not known where. Samples of potato diggers with a circular conveyor, which collect the tubers already in the boxes, are interesting. And in general, we advise you to review the designs available on the network and make your rational contribution to their improvement.

Good harvest to you and minimal effort to get it!