Why do you need a walk-behind tractor when planting potatoes

Content

Site preparation for landing
Planting potatoes with a hiller or plow
Special planter for potatoes
Potato care and harvesting
Output

Surprise your family - learn how potatoes are planted with a walk-behind tractor, and in the spring, announce the day when you all go to plant potatoes. Such a message will not bring joy to anyone, a tedious job is ahead: one will dig holes, the other will throw tubers, the third in the next lane should dig holes for the next row and throw the planted potatoes with earth. Slowly prepare everything you need for a picnic: with the new technology, helpers are not needed, let your family rest in the fresh air, you can easily cope with the work yourself.

Site preparation for landing

Every year there are fewer summer residents who are digging up a potato plantation with a shovel. People buy mini-tractors, walk-behind tractors and other equipment that makes their work easier. Those who do not want or cannot buy agricultural machinery usually negotiate with their neighbors, and they will plow and plow the field for a reasonable fee. If you want work at the summer cottage to bring not calluses, but joy - use the achievements of technical progress.

The entire growing process can be divided into several operations:

loosening the soil;
landing;
hilling;
harvest.

In order for the potato to grow spaciously and produce many large tubers, you need to prepare loose, soft soil for it. If you want to create the most favorable conditions for your plantings, properly prepare the land with a cultivator or walk-behind tractor. Remove soft wheels and replace with cutters. Walk along one side of the potato plantation, then turn the mechanism at a right angle and loosen the ground in a perpendicular direction by 2 meters so that you have room to turn around. When you walk in the opposite direction, do the same on the other side.

Treat the entire area in this way. When loosening each row, place an ode cutter in the extreme recess left in the previous pass. Such work will take more time and effort, but the earth will be loose to a sufficient depth. If you do not grab part of the previous strip, and each time you loosen only the untreated area, the loosening will be shallow, this will create difficulties when planting and will affect the yield.

You can cultivate the soil in a spiral: first walk around the perimeter, then use the cutters along the processed strips until you reach the center of the plot. In this case, the work cannot be considered completely mechanized, because you will have to take a rake and level the surface of the site. See what a plowed field looks like. If the soil is not loose enough and mainly consists of large hard lumps, attach a special nozzle and pierce the entire area.

Planting potatoes with a hiller or plow

When buying new equipment, think about how many functions it should perform. You can purchase a cultivator, it will help you in the most difficult work - loosening the soil. This mechanism does not turn over seams and is not suitable for many other operations. A walk-behind tractor is a universal technique, a lot of accessories are produced for it, and if you assemble the necessary kit, it will do the bulk of the laborious work.

Here are some of the functions that trailed implements can perform:

transport cargo;
remove snow;
plow;
harrow;
loosen the ground;
cut furrows;
spud;
plant and sow;
dig out the harvest.

Helpers run to the cultivated field with shovels to dig holes. Send them to fry kebabs, and remove the cutters from the walk-behind tractor yourself and install the lugs and a two-row hiller.Make the length between the blades at least 65 cm - at this distance the rows of potatoes will be located. In order for the strips to go at the same distance, you can put one hiller into the already made furrow with each next pass, or mark the passage lines in advance. If you have not purchased a two-row attachment, you can place one hiller in the center.

Advice
For marking, you can make a marker resembling a rake. Nail a board about 140 cm long to the handle perpendicularly and attach 3 pegs to it 65 cm apart. When you run this tool over the soil, there will be straight lines on the ground indicating where the rows should go.

Leave the prepared tubers into the furrows, and then walk across the rows with the hillers and cover the potatoes with earth. Until you have enough experience, you can remove one knife, and put the second in the center. Replace the lugs with rubber tires and walk up the very top of the ridges along the furrows.

Potatoes can also be planted with a plow. In this case, it is better to work together: one person will cut the furrows, and the other will follow him and throw tubers into the ground. We made a row, turned the walk-behind tractor so that one of the lugs was in the furrow, and prepare the next strip. The soil from under the knife will pour into the previous trench and bury the potatoes.

This method has both supporters and opponents. Some argue that a heavy walk-behind tractor will transfer all the tubers, others are very happy and always get a good harvest. Much depends on the structure of the soil and the weight of the walk-behind tractor - try it, you might like it.

Advice
If the groundwater comes close to the surface of the ground, planting in furrows may not give the desired effect. In this case, make high ridges with a walk-behind tractor and plant the tubers in them.

Special planter for potatoes

When planting potatoes with a plow or hiller, the help of a second person will still be needed. If you yourself need to make furrows and throw tubers into them, it will take a lot of time. Family members are unhappy: they are already in the mood to swim in the river and fry barbecue, but they need to go to the field under the scorching sun. The land has been plowed and plowed, now you need:

cut furrows;
add fertilizers;
decompose the tubers;
bury the potatoes.

The work is not very laborious, but boring. Everything will be much easier and more fun if you purchase a special planter and figure out how to plant potatoes with a walk-behind tractor without manual labor. There are different modifications of this device, you can find a trailed or hinged structure. The principle of operation is approximately the same for all models: a small plow makes furrows, potatoes are laid out at an equal distance from each other, and the hiller fills them with soil.

The developers are constantly working on improving the country house technology, supplementing it with new functions. Sometimes a special mechanism is included in the design of a potato planter, which introduces top dressing into the furrows. You will only pass the furrow once and all planting operations will be completed. Before leaving for the dacha, look at the instructions: what if your planter can do some other work, and you didn't even know about it? If you bought a thing, use all its possibilities.

Potato care and harvesting

If you have a walk-behind tractor, forget about hoes and shovels, it is better to purchase more attachments. They will be useful to you not only in the spring when planting, but also throughout the summer season. Driving a heavy machine is not easy, but it will take much less effort and time to take care of the garden. You can mechanize all potato growing jobs.

To add soil to the grown plants, place a two-row hiller and drive the walk-behind tractor with wheels between the rows. For this work, choose a time after the rain, when the earth is already dry and will not stick together in clods, but there is still enough moisture in it.In one fell swoop, you destroy the weeds in the aisles, loosen the soil, making it more airy, and sprinkle fresh soil on the bushes.
When it's time to harvest, cut the tops with a trimmer and remove from the field. You can purchase a special tiller, and if not, use a single-row hiller. Place it in the middle of the row and run from the beginning to the end of the comb. The tubers will fall out of the ground on the sides of the garden, you just have to collect them.
There is no need to carry heavy bags on your back, hook a cart to the walk-behind tractor and transport the crop to the storage location.

Output

Various mechanisms are used to facilitate work on the potato plantation. You can purchase a cultivator - it will loosen the ground, and all other operations will have to be done manually. If you buy a walk-behind tractor with a set of various accessories, you will receive both a vehicle and a universal harvester for agricultural work.

As soon as the ground at a depth of 15 cm warms up to 8 ,C, plow and plow the area. With the help of various devices, you can plant potatoes in furrows, ridges, and in a square-nesting way. In some cases, it will not be possible to do without manual work, but digging holes on the tops of ridges or spreading tubers is not a very laborious task. If you install a potato planter on a walk-behind tractor, you will dig a groove in one pass, throw fertilizer and seed into it, and then bury it with earth.

People need a dacha for recreation, and not in order to work to the point of exhaustion, like slaves on plantations. If you purchase a walk-behind tractor, all work on growing potatoes and other vegetables will be easy and joyful. Do not forget that plants are living organisms, your energy acts on them, and what will it be for an exhausted person? If you call on the mechanisms for help and do all the work in a good mood, the harvest will grow for everyone to envy.