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Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor

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Ray in Pa.

03-04-2003 20:10:33




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I was wondering if anyone has made a one row potato digger for the back of their tractor. I was thinking of making one for my tractor but need some idea's for making one. I plan on making one and adapting it onto the fast hitch and making it as simple as possible. I also want to make a type that would use a wide digger scoop similiar to a wide coal shovel shape for penetrating into the dirt and scooping the potatoes. My main problem is that I need to figure out how to remove some of the dirt (Sometimes its hard dirt due to being too dry from lack of rain at picking time) before the potatoes would fall back onto the ground for hand pickup afterwards. I'm not sure if I should make a simple non mechanical type or whether to try to use my pto somehow for shaking the potatoes to get the dirt off. So if anyone has any good ideas, photos, or diagrams on making a one row potato digger, I would really like to hear about them.

Thanks Ray in Pa

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rhudson

03-05-2003 18:32:58




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
i have a sketch around here somewhere of one by an ag college. it used a plate about 24" wide and 18 inches long about 7/16 thick. the leading edge was bevel sharped. was held at the width edges with 6" flats 1/2" thick leading vertically to a tool bar. the plate had 3/4" round rods, about 18" long welded at interviles at the rear to form a bar grate. the plate was set at an angle to allow it to bite and sink into the soil under the potatoes. the plate would raise the potatoes which would be pushed back up the bar grate allowing most of the soil to fall through before the potatoes fell off the back of the bar grate. a picture is truly worth a thousand works. in you are interested email me and i will try to find the sketch or will scan a hand sketch of my own.

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Ray in Pa.

03-05-2003 19:24:33




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to rhudson, 03-05-2003 18:32:58  
rhudson, I was original thinking about a similar idea, I think I understand what your describing and it sounds very interesting also. I'm not sure about the part about the 3/4 inch round rod positioning, but I think if I understood you right, the round rod would mount from front to back. I guess then the round rods should be made pretty long.

Thanks Ray in Pa.



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whats a middle buster?

03-05-2003 16:59:09




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
Whats a middle buster



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whats a middle buster?

03-05-2003 16:58:11




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
Whats a middle buster



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Hugh MacKay

03-05-2003 17:36:04




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to whats a middle buster?, 03-05-2003 16:58:11  
Just a V type hoe, similar to a cultivator sweep except 6-8 inches high. Kind of like a mini V snowplow. There are different sizes.



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Hugh MacKay

03-05-2003 05:11:42




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
Ray: I have designed a few of these in my day, don't think I have perfected it yet. Scoops, plows and middle busters. The item that I have settled on is the middle buster. I use it on the center mount cultivator of my Super A. Rear mounted fast hitch was not rigid enough. Between side movement of hitch and my steering corrections I sliced a few potatoes. On the center mount cultivator I use 1/2 inch plywood shields that raise and lower with middle buster. These shields are in line with and go back inside rear wheels. This keeps potatoes from rolling under rear tractor tires, also leaves potatoes in nice row for picking up. I run my tractor on 52" tire tread and use 52" rows. Wide rows you say, well wide rows in potatoes give you a higher percentage of those nice long oval baking potatoes. I have gotten them a foot long. I use rear hitch cultivator with 6" sweeps to go over ground after. The middlebuster if you can keep it dead on row center and with down presure, will dig 99% of the potatoes. Better than commercial diggers.

Another novel idea I have heard of, never used it though. Take a truck tire, lie it on ground, put in a good 4" of well rotted cow manure, then soil and 6 potato cuttings. When plants are up 6" add another tire and fill with well fertilized soil. Keep doing this until you are 15 tires high. Uses very small amounts of potato bug killer and blight treatments. When it comes time to dig you can either take it off layer by layer or upset it with front end loader. I was told the guy grows enough potatoes in 2 stacks of tires for years supply, and one of those is just summer use potatoes. He has 4 children.

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HavinFunin MO

03-06-2003 12:41:19




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Hugh MacKay, 03-05-2003 05:11:42  
My parents came upon a similar novel idea a while back that has worked very well for them and it is similar to the tire idea. You start with a piece of 4' chicken fence (or similar) long enough that when you connect the ends it makes a tube about 2' to 2.5' across. Line the outside, next to the fence, with hay about six inches high. Fill this cavity with GOOD soil and plant your potato. As the vine grows, line with more hay and fill with more good soil so you always are left with a small plant. By the end of the summer the potato will have grown to near the top of the tube. Harvest time can't be any easier as you disconnect the ends of the wire and the tower falls apart revealing some very nice sized potatoes. That is my preferred method of digging potatoes. I still remember the bent clothes line pole from mom trying to operate the standard pick-up while dad ran along behind with a manual potato digger.

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Tom A

03-05-2003 03:57:44




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
I haven't designed anything, but I hitch up an old horse-drawn potato plow to my drawbar and let the wife drive the tractor while I walk with the plow.

Takes us less than 5 minutes to plow up 300-600 feet of row, and most potatoes are left on top of the soil for pickup. Cost me $25 at a farm auction a few years ago, and I'm tickled with it 'cuz we used to dig all that by hand. Only thing I did to it was buy a length of light chain to hook it to the drawbar with.

I'd tried a middlebuster once, but it seemed to cut lots of the taters up before lifting them.

Tom A

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Miss Grundy

03-05-2003 03:54:19




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
You don't need no machinery. Here in Tennessee we plant taters on a steep hillside with the rows running down the hill. When tater diggin times comes we go to the bottom of the hill and dig a hole at the end of the row and hold a gunny sack and let em roll down the hill from the row and fill the sack. We know how to grow taters.



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Hugh MacKay

03-05-2003 08:50:01




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
I think I heard tell of one of your relatives in Nova Scotia, Canada. Old guy we'll call Mr R. was at saw mill getting some lumber. Mill owner and some friends were bragging about their great potato crops. Mr R didn't take part in discussion which he considered to be stretching the truth a bit. Next day Mr R phoned the mill owner and asked if he had any better quality 2"x10"x12'. He complained to the mill owner that one of the 2x10 had broken. Mill owner asked,"what were you doing with it." to which Mr R replied,"rolling some of my larger potatoes onto the cart."

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Hugh MacKay

03-05-2003 08:44:43




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
I think I heard tell of one of your relatives in Nova Scotia, Canada. Old guy we'll call Mr R. was at saw mill getting some lumber. Mill owner and some friends were bragging about their great potato crops. Mr R didn't take part in discussion which he considered to be stretching the truth a bit. Next day Mr R phoned the mill owner and asked if he had any better quality 2"x10"x12'. He complained to the mill owner that one of the 2x10 had broken. Mill owner asked,"what were you doing with it." to which Mr R replied,"rolling some of my larger potatoes onto the cart."

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Hugh MacKay

03-05-2003 08:41:18




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
I think I heard tell of one of your relatives in Nova Scotia, Canada. Old guy we'll call Mr R. was at saw mill getting some lumber. Mill owner and some friends were bragging about their great potato crops. Mr R didn't take part in discussion which he considered to be stretching the truth a bit. Next day Mr R phoned the mill owner and asked if he had any better quality 2"x10"x12'. He complained to the mill owner that one of the 2x10 had broken. Mill owner asked,"what were you doing with it." to which Mr R replied,"rolling some of my larger potatoes unto the cart."

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Dick A

03-05-2003 05:55:41




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
Sounds like those potatoes get plenty of fertilizer to.



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Dick A

03-05-2003 05:51:45




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
Sounds like those potatoes get the best fertilizer to.



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hehehe

03-05-2003 05:05:37




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 03:54:19  
Got to wear those waders in Tennessee to I see.
Dont want to be gettin any O that on your shoes.



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Miss Grundy

03-05-2003 09:40:51




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 Re: Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to hehehe, 03-05-2003 05:05:37  
You all come and see us sumetime



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Dick A

03-06-2003 05:48:55




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 Re: Re: Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Miss Grundy, 03-05-2003 09:40:51  
You method would never work here in Illinois. We have to cut them in half so they will fit in the sack.



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Jerry D in NC

03-04-2003 21:32:47




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 Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-04-2003 20:10:33  
I would love to design a 1 row digger but it will have to collect the potatoes. If you don't mind them being left for pickup then a simple answer to your question is a middle buster and make 3 passes and pickup potatoes after each pass. Works great



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Robert in Md.

03-05-2003 09:28:15




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 Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Jerry D in NC, 03-04-2003 21:32:47  
I use my Super A to plow pototoes. I have a 1 1/2 inch square bar clamped to the back cultivator wings with 2 big U bolts. In the middle of the bar I have a IH cultivator shank with a big middle buster plow about 12 inches wide at the bottom. Most of the potatoes end up on the top . I usually have someone walk beside the plow to move the vines if it starts to stop up. I plow ever other row so the tires doN't run over the dug pototoes. I dig 1 acre of Norland pototoes this way for our produce stand. I have a one row pulltype potato digger with shaker chain but the plow is less trouble and works better

If you want to see a pto digger with 3 point hitch, they make one in Canada. Go to www.willsie.com , cost about $2000.

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Ray in Pa.

03-05-2003 18:59:53




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 Re: Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Robert in Md., 03-05-2003 09:28:15  
Thanks to everyone for all those interesting ideas. I wish I had the type soil of Tennessee that Miss Grundy grows potatoes in. If I tried growing any of my potatoes with the rows running down hill on any steep hills here in South/Western Pa., the spring time 10 minute 2 inch thunder storms would no doubt wash away the topsoil. And then the no rain 2 month droughts of late spring / early summer would definitely finish them off since the topsoil would probably be gone by then. But then again, any surviving potatoes would probably be uncovered naturally for easy gather up, just kidding. Thanks Robert in Md. for the very interesting willsie web site on potatoe diggers. It looks like here on the forum the middle buster seems to be a popular method of digging potatoes. From what I gather from your ideas, It seems like maybe the key is to use a large digging point on a middle buster when digging for potatoes. And Hugh, How in the world do you grow some of them potatoes up to a foot long. I plant Kennebec potatoes and I'm lucky if I get many baseball size potatoes after all this hard work by hand digging up my potatoes. I'll repost this question further up the forum.

Thanks Ray in Pa.

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bill b va

03-06-2003 16:04:11




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 Re: Re: Re: Re: Has anyone tried making a home made 1 row potato digger for back of tractor in reply to Ray in Pa., 03-05-2003 18:59:53  

read the posts above but think wife idea beats them all . at potato digging time wife waits until i am feeling my oats and makes me hold a wheel with axle in my hands while she holds my feet and pushes me down the row . cost 1 used wheel barrow wheel with axle .some times i get rewarded if there is lots of potatoes .



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