To facilitate this process, a device such as a potato planter was developed.
Description and purpose of the design
A potato planter is a device that minimizes the use of heavy physical labor for planting potatoes, because it is enough to attach it to a planter, fill in the tubers, and the device itself will dig a trench, lay them and cover them with soil, and you only control the self-propelled equipment and do not forget to replenish consumables. The components are very easy to understand and make, even on your own. This is directly the container into which planting material is poured, the so-called bunker.
Its design can be either cone-shaped or rectangular, but the main condition for it is a bottom with a good slope, which will direct the flow of potatoes to the point of capture in the transport baskets.
Did you know? The first vegetable grown in space was potatoes.
They, in turn, are attached either to a chain or to a tape running from the reverse side along the gutter. We will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a conveyor mechanism later.
A plow is also attached to the frame, making a furrow, a hiller and wheels, the movement of which is directly coordinated with the movement of potatoes from the bunker to the ground. Important!
Homemade potato planters are best used on soil that has already been prepared for this.
Principle of operation
The design determines the manual adjustment of the planter depth and the potato planting interval, that is, it provides for the organization of the entire process at your own discretion. Moving is carried out using any self-propelled equipment, but the weight of the digger is concentrated on the wheels, which also have a number of mandatory features.
They must guarantee high-quality adhesion to the ground so that movement in space has a direct connection with the conveyor mechanism.
The result is a bed with a constant value of planting density and distance between rows. This entire design is easy to maintain and reliable in operation.If we consider the entire cycle of heavy manual labor, which the use of this device eliminates, then the only question will be whether to buy it or make a potato planter directly with your own hands. 
How to choose a potato planter in a store
The choice of potato planter is influenced by its compatibility with yours. Some companies adhere to the policy of using this device only with their own self-propelled equipment. But some models are very universal and fit all walk-behind tractors.
In addition to compatibility, the following factors are important:
- weight and ergonomics;
- productivity;
- ability to adjust and customize.
If your plot is small, choose a single-row potato planter. 
The two-row device has greater productivity and is designed for processing large planting areas. Some options have additional containers for fertilizers applied along with the potatoes.
The benefits of the acquisition are incomparable: saving effort, time and simplifying future processing, care and harvesting.
Did you know? Does the price of potatoes on the market seem too high? How do you like 500 euros per kilogram of the most expensive potatoes in the world! They say that this variety, called« La Bonnot» , has a magnificent delicate taste.
Depending on the method of feeding potatoes, potato planters are divided into chain and belt. The former provide reliable transmission of torque, but the chain of the potato planter in motion can damage the tubers, which the tape does not do. 
But if there is insufficient tension, the tape can slip, and you will leave empty space instead of planted potatoes. In both cases, the potatoes are scooped up and moved in baskets, the movement of which is coordinated with the movement of special wheels.
Maintenance and use of all potato planters for walk-behind tractors is quite simple, but periodic technical inspections and, if necessary, repair work are still required. It is better to service factory units in specialized service centers.
Taking good care of this device will allow you to serve you for many years and plant more than one plot with a good harvest.
How to make it yourself
Some farmers equip their walk-behind tractor with a homemade potato planter made by themselves. It comes out much cheaper if you use elements from old unnecessary equipment, metal corners, plates, suitable chains with sprockets.
A homemade device can be no worse than a store-bought version and will serve with dignity for many years.
Preparation of materials and tools
You need to start preparing with yourself. Determine exactly how you want to make a potato planter, what tools you will need to do it yourself, look at ready-made drawings on the Internet, and also create your own with correctly calculated dimensions.
To make a potato planter you will need the following materials:
- a metal corner from which the frame will be welded;
- a container that acts as a hopper (most often they use a tank from old washing machines, but if you have a worthy alternative at hand with the necessary dimensions, then use it);
- sprockets that transmit torque from the support wheels to the feed mechanism;
- chain;
- fittings and wire for baskets;
- wheels;
- channel.
And also tools:
- welding machine;
- keys;
- screwdrivers;
- drill;
- Bulgarian;
- wire cutters.
Frame
The basis of any device, regardless of application, is a frame on which parts and mechanisms are fixed. Our frame will consist of two longitudinal bars connected to each other by reinforcement in three places.
The towbar and coulter will be attached to the front. The frame must be reinforced with metal plates.
Tow hitch
The task of the towed device will be not only to transmit traction from self-propelled equipment, but also to provide the ability, together with the ripper, to control and adjust the depth of the trench being dug. 
Therefore, the fork, which is welded to the front of the frame, has a tow hook freely moving in the vertical axis. Its height is fixed by tightening the bolts in the fork.
A plow is also attached to the frame, making a furrow, a hiller and wheels, the movement of which is directly coordinated with the movement of potatoes from the bunker to the ground. Due to the heavy weight of the potato planter, the structure may be unstable. In this regard, it is recommended to equip the front part of the walk-behind tractor with a counterweight.
Wheels
The origin of the wheels used to make a potato planter is not as important as the tasks they perform. It is better to make it yourself in the form of wide cylinders, with welded toe strips.
Their task is to coordinate movement across the soil with the operation of the seed-feeding mechanism, having minimal impact on the surface. 
The hubs are mounted on ball bearings, which are placed on the axle. To prevent dirt from getting into the moving parts of the mechanism, you can use wide lock nuts and attach cuffs.
For the axle we use a thick-walled steel or cast iron pipe, since it must withstand heavy loads, inserts with spikes and retaining pins. Having assembled the entire mechanism, the pins are welded, and the axle is secured using bolts and steel clamps.
Ripper
Holders for the ripper must be welded from metal corners in the form of a square. Use corners of good quality, as deformation is possible during use. 
The opener, like the towbar, has a vertical degree of freedom fixed with bolts and clamps.
To cover the furrow with soil and ensure the correct shape of the ridge, discs installed at a certain angle are used. As they rotate, they move the soil and roll down the potato tubers.
Discs for leveling trenches can be taken from seeders, but an additional bearing must be installed to prevent soil from getting into the unit.
Bunker
To make a hopper, tubs from old washing machines are most often used, but they have a serious drawback in the form of a small angle of inclination of the bottom, which causes problems when the planting material runs out and does not roll down to the catching baskets. 
Therefore, sometimes it is made independently from metal sheets or plywood about 1 cm thick.
Plywood parts are cut out with a jigsaw and treated with special liquid agents that protect against corrosion and mechanical influences. They are assembled using steel angles and lined with rubber inside so that the potatoes are not damaged.
Two rods are also welded in parallel to the frame, allowing a gear to be mounted on top to transmit movement from the wheels to the chain with baskets.
When making a manual potato planter, a seed-conducting trench can be made either with your own hands from a sheet of metal or from a pipe with a diameter of about 10 cm. 
The tensioner is fixed with bolts to regulate the condition and position of the chain. Baskets are made of metal rings or entirely of wire. Their evenness and appearance do not play a big role, since the shape of the potato itself is far from ideal.
A plow is also attached to the frame, making a furrow, a hiller and wheels, the movement of which is directly coordinated with the movement of potatoes from the bunker to the ground. After planting potatoes and leveling the trenches, wheel marks may still remain on the site. To avoid this, you need to attach special paws to the discs, which, penetrating the soil, loosen it, eliminating traces of the potato planter.
A potato planter is a very useful unit on the farm, even if your garden is not particularly large, so purchasing it or building it yourself will greatly facilitate your work.
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Planting potatoes has always been a labor-intensive and difficult process. However, today, thanks to the development of technology, agricultural work has been greatly facilitated. Now, thanks to walk-behind tractors, mini-tractors and all kinds of attachments, it is possible to improve soil cultivation, obtain higher yields and reduce the cost of the product, at lower costs than before. Among farmers and owners of small plots of land, walk-behind tractors are very popular, on which you can install various attachments, including a potato planter.
A potato planter mounted on a walk-behind tractor makes it possible to simplify the work of planting root crops as much as possible and to cultivate a larger area than before. Below we will talk about the types, design of equipment and how you can make a potato planter for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands.
Device elements
You can make a walk-behind potato planter yourself, especially since this does not require any special tool, and there are plenty of drawings of the device, photos and videos on this topic on the Internet. To manufacture this type of attachment, you will need the following parts:
- frame for fastening all elements of the potato planter;
- bunker for planting material;
- a system of gears that drives the tuber planting mechanism;
- a loosening mechanism that prepares holes and buries them after planting;
- tuning mechanism;
- wheels.
This is the required minimum of parts in order to make a homemade unit for planting potatoes. Many craftsmen are constantly upgrading this type of attachment, adding a container for fertilizers or, in an attempt to increase productivity, installing two planting modules. However, all this sometimes leads to an increase in the weight of the walk-behind tractor, and accordingly an increase in the load on it and a decrease in its productivity. For this reason, it is necessary to select the type of construction and materials in full accordance with the power of the unit.
Design and manufacture of potato planters
A homemade potato planter is basically a cart on wheels attached to a walk-behind tractor. It is only at first that the design of the device for planting potatoes looks simple, but there are some nuances in it. The walk-behind potato planter is mounted on a channel chassis with two longitudinally located spars connected by three cross members. At the front of the frame there is a fork and an arch. On the sides of the chassis there are racks of closing disks and supports for the planting material feeding mechanism.
The wheelbase also consists of two wheels with lugs. Between the wheels there is a disk made of wood 60 mm thick with four evenly spaced semicircular grooves, the dimensions of which should allow even large potatoes to be captured. Also, instead of a wheel with grooves, a system of gears, a chain and tuber trays located on it can be used for planting potatoes.
Potato planter for walk-behind tractor - drawing No. 1
Potato planter for walk-behind tractor - drawing No. 2
Potato planter for walk-behind tractor - drawing No. 4
Potato planter for walk-behind tractor - drawing No. 5
Potato planter for walk-behind tractor - drawing No. 3
As the drawing shows, there is another important element of the device - this is a hopper, which is located above the wheels. To make a container for potatoes you will need a 3 mm sheet of metal. The narrow neck and bottom of the hopper should be covered with rubber to avoid damage to root crops.
The wheel with grooves must be covered with a special shield, which will prevent the potatoes from spontaneously falling out before they hit the ground.
The frame of a homemade potato planter should be reinforced with steel strips, which must be placed from the middle cross member to the arch. You also need to weld additional corners and steel plates about 4 mm thick.
On the Internet you can find many drawings and video material with a wide variety of potato planter designs.
Operator seat and axle
A support and a footrest made of 5 mm steel must be attached to the side members. The height of the step must be made taking into account the height of the operator and in such a way that using the potato planter does not cause difficulties.
The seat is made of a metal corner 45x45x4 mm. Boards are attached to the frame, which are lined with foam rubber and covered with leatherette or strong dense fabric. You can do the simplest thing, as shown in the photo, but in principle, for greater convenience, you can use an old car seat bought at a car disassembly. However, in most cases, potato planters are made without a seat.
A wheel axle and a bracket for attaching rippers are fixed under the frame. For the axle, a thick-walled metal pipe is used, on both edges of which there are spikes, turned on a lathe and fixed with steel pins.
Wheels
Special wheels for potato planter
Wheels for a homemade potato planter must have special lugs. It is advisable to take any wheels from agricultural machinery that are suitable in size.
The hubs that hold the wheels must have two bearings, and are protected from dirt by felt pads. The axle is attached to the frame by means of two metal plates and four bolts or angles and welding, as shown in the photo.
Rippers
For the ripper holder, a metal rod is used, along the edges of which there are clips that hold the paw stands. The rod is made from a metal corner 50x50x5 mm, but it is best to use a square pipe for strength. The clips are made from 5 mm metal plates.
Seeder
To manufacture a potato seeder, minimal costs are required. To do this, you need to take a 100 mm pipe with a wall thickness of at least 3 mm, in the lower part of which a furrow cutter is attached.
Disks for burying potatoes can be taken from the seeder and two bearings are installed instead of one. Bearings must be installed in such a way as to prevent dirt from entering the unit.
The video shows how potatoes are planted in reality using a walk-behind potato planter assembled with your own hands.
Peculiarities
Since the potato planter weighs quite a bit, when attaching it to a walk-behind tractor, you should definitely install a counterweight, which will give stability and prevent the walk-behind tractor from lifting up.It is imperative to install an operator's chair and footrests on the potato planter.
The potato planter works as follows:
- seed material is placed in the bunker, and additional bags are placed on top so as not to constantly be interrupted for refueling;
- the operator sits down and begins planting potatoes, moving at a speed of no more than 1 km/h.
After the planting material gets into the soil, it must be covered with earth. It was for these purposes that seeding discs were invented, which, rotating, move the top layer of soil and cover the root crops.
A self-assembled unit for planting potatoes is not only a significant cost savings, but also a unit made specifically for you, and also more reliable than a purchased one, because who would do anything bad for themselves. In addition, this is a good opportunity to feel like a real Kulibin, making your own changes to ready-made projects.
Agricultural machinery is in great demand in rural areas. But sometimes there is a need to perform special tasks. For this purpose, agricultural machinery is equipped with special attachments.
You should not think that, having a walk-behind tractor or a mini-tractor, you will be able to complete any task related to working on the ground.
If, say, you need to mow the lawn or plant potatoes, then this equipment alone will not be enough to perform such operations.
The land is most often cultivated to plant potatoes in it. Most of us are used to doing this manually. However, a mini-tractor or walk-behind tractor can significantly simplify this task. After all, with the right approach, this technique can be converted into a potato planter. But you need to immediately prepare for the fact that this will not be easy. You will first have to acquire certain knowledge and skills in order to be able to successfully complete this job.
Varieties
Modern potato planters for walk-behind tractors may differ in various parameters. And to better understand what each model is capable of, let’s take a closer look at them.
Based on such a feature as the type of technological process, potato planters can be divided into the following types:
- Devices that can plant sprouted tubers. These devices can work with fruits that have developed sprouts, which usually germinate approximately 20 days from the moment they are planted in the ground.
- Potato planters that allow you to plant unsprouted tubers. Not everyone can create ideal storage conditions for potatoes. And often this leads to the formation of sprouts. To prevent this from happening, such devices should be used.
- Mixed potato planters.
Potato planters can also be divided by the number of rows. It is customary to highlight:
More potato planters can be divided based on the type of their connection to the driving unit:
- trailed;
- semi-mounted;
- mounted
Instructions
Many gardeners who are interested in a potato planter have many questions regarding making it themselves using ready-made drawings. In principle, this task is not so difficult. You just need to follow the instructions in the drawings, which will be enough to produce a working unit.
Materials
Any owner can make his own potato planter. The fact is that anyone can cope with this task, even if they do not have specialized components and tools.
To make a homemade potato planter for a walk-behind tractor, you need to prepare the following materials:
These are the required elements that a home potato planter should have. They can be borrowed from old agricultural equipment or made with your own hands. Also during the work you will need a welding machine, an angle grinder, channels, spars and other related materials.
If desired, in addition to the potato planter, you can make your own fertilizer dispenser for it. Such a device will be very convenient, because it will allow you to immediately plant potatoes and fertilize the holes. This practice is very common, because when planting potatoes manually, a mixture of ash and chicken droppings or manure in combination with phosphate fertilizers is often used.
However, it is quite possible to do without this. Although, with fertilizers, the results can be significantly improved, because as a result of fertilizing, the ripening of tubers is accelerated, which is especially important for our country, where summer ends pretty quickly.
Manufacturing process
To create a potato planter with your own hands, you must adhere to the following algorithm:
In general, specialists They do not provide exact dimensions for a homemade potato planter. They need to be selected based on specific tasks. However, if you adhere to the above scheme, you will still get a working unit that will cope with its task.
Based on this diagram, you can make a homemade potato planter for the T-25. Remember that it does not matter what equipment will act as the main traction - a walk-behind tractor or a mini-tractor. Naturally, they will differ from each other in power, but at the same time, in terms of design, such potato planters will be the same.
After you make a planter for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands, you need to find out how plant potatoes correctly using this equipment:
Conclusion
Most domestic gardeners We are used to planting potatoes by hand. However, many people do not realize that this work can be simplified if they use a homemade potato planter. This is an excellent solution for gardeners, which have large land plots.
Making it yourself is quite simple. This does not require any special knowledge or tools. You can make a working unit for a walk-behind tractor from a metal pipe, plywood and other materials that are likely to be found in every household. The main thing is throughout the entire work adhere to the described algorithm of actions.
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In our country, many families traditionally have private farming. For many people, this is not just a way to get healthy and tasty food at minimal cost, but also a good option for earning extra income.
Even residents of large cities, with the arrival of spring, go out to their plots of land and begin cultivating their gardens. One of the most popular crops, of course, is potatoes. Potatoes are tasty and nutritious, but planting them is a labor-intensive process that requires significant physical effort.
But small gardens still require heavy manual labor, just like centuries ago. Digging up and planting potatoes manually on a plot of, for example, ten acres requires the gardener to shovel almost 15 tons of soil. Such “exercises” are not for everyone.
Therefore, many try, where possible, to simplify their work by using various methods of mechanization and facilitating the planting process. One of the simplest devices for manual mechanization of the process of planting potatoes is a homemade manual potato planter.
With the help of this simple device, which, by the way, anyone can make for themselves, gardeners in all corners of our country every spring simplify the process of planting potatoes and save energy for other equally important garden tasks.
In our article we will try to describe the structure of a manual potato planter, tell you what it is made of and how to make it, and give some tips on how best to use it.
For more information about a homemade manual potato planter, watch the video:
Having asked yourself the question: how to make a manual potato planter with your own hands, you must first of all look at its diagram. You can easily find drawings of a potato planter on the Internet. They show that the design of the potato planter is essentially a hollow pipe with an open top and a sliding valve at the bottom.
The lower end of the pipe is cut with a bevel so that a handle pointed at the bottom is formed, and the entire structure can easily fit into the ground.
A sliding valve is attached to the beveled lower edge, which opens at the moment when the device with a potato tuber inside is stuck into the ground to the required depth.
To ensure that the potato planter sticks in at the same desired depth all the time, a flat stop is welded at some distance from the bottom edge. With its help, it is convenient to stick the potato planter into the ground, pressing on it with your foot. The top edge of the potato planter is open.
You can attach a container to it for a small number of potato tubers for planting and a simple dispenser for directing them one by one towards the bottom of our device.
Necessary materials
You can either purchase a snow blower, such as a Honda snow blower.
Or try to do it yourself. In this article you will find drawings of a snow blower for a walk-behind tractor.
How to do it yourself
How to quickly and easily make a manual potato planter with your own hands. When all the materials are prepared and collected in one place, we take our pipe and use a grinder to cut off the lower part with a bevel so that a certain point is formed downwards.
We cut out the valve cover so that it covers the hole formed at the bottom of the pipe with a margin. Attach the hinge (loop) to the pipe body. We attach the cover of our valve to the hinge. At a distance of 20-30 cm from the bottom, we weld the footrest to the pipe.
It is best to make its length equal to the distance between the bushes of future potatoes. In this case, during the planting process, the end of the step will rest against the ground where the next tuber needs to be planted. On top of our pipe we attach handles for ease of use and a basket for potato tubers.
You don’t have to use a basket, but then you’ll have to carry a bucket of planting material with you everywhere and constantly bend down to take one potato for each hole. The basket should not be too large and bulky.
A huge basket will complicate the planting process and will interfere with the gardener when manipulating the device. And carrying a lot of heavy potatoes everywhere is also not very fun.
The size of the basket is selected individually, so that it is convenient to use the potato planter, and you do not have to add a new portion of potato tubers very often.
Fastening the footrest, handles and valve is best done by welding. Fastening structural elements with bolts or self-tapping screws may be no less strong, but in those places where their ends stick out inside the body, obstacles will form for the passage of potato tubers.
Before assembling the entire structure, make sure that the total weight of all elements will not pose a problem for you during operation.
The device should not be too heavy, otherwise you risk not making your work easier by slightly mechanizing and speeding up the process of planting potatoes, but on the contrary, complicating your life by moving a non-lifting device.
At the same time, the pipe body must be strong enough to withstand many cycles of inserting and removing the device from the ground. Depending on the preferences of a particular designer, individual design elements of a manual potato planter can be made in different ways.
So, for example, the valve can be made not folding, but sliding. Also, as a rule, everyone has a different design of baskets for planting material and the method of feeding potato tubers into the supply pipe.
Some equip the valve mechanism with an additional hook so that you can reliably control the process of opening and closing with your foot. This is, of course, the simplest and most primitive agricultural tool. However, this is where its beauty lies.
Anyone can make a potato planter; the material for this will probably be found in any household, and the efficiency of the device is very impressive.
Separately, I would like to talk about another design of a homemade apparatus for planting potatoes. This is a two-wheeled cart, on top of which there is a box for tubers prepared for planting.
In the lower part, between two running wheels, there is a device for uniform feeding of potatoes into a pre-prepared furrow. Such a cart rides over the furrow and, while moving, lays out potato tubers at regular intervals.
A shield covering the furrow can be located behind such a device, but in this case, moving the cart will require more effort, or the help of a second person.
Such a device can hardly be called a manual potato planter, but it is also a simple home-made unit that can collect any old and unnecessary items.
Some craftsmen make a potato planter from ordinary one-wheeled wheelbarrows. To do this, a hole is made in the bottom of the wheelbarrow trough, into which one potato can freely pass, and in the wheel, the top point of which is located just under this hole, recesses are made at regular intervals.
When moving the wheelbarrow, potato tubers fall into the recesses on the wheel and with the movement of the wheel they move down into the prepared furrow. To prevent the tubers from falling out along the way, there is a protective wing in front of the wheel.
Shovel-harvester
Another design used for planting potatoes is called a harvester shovel. These are two handles that can move closer and further away from each other, opening and closing a cone-shaped container into which potatoes are placed for planting.
When closed, the container is stuck into the ground, after which the handles are brought together, the container opens and the potato tuber ends up in the ground. It’s convenient, but you have to bend down and put one potato into the cone each time.
As you can see, people have come up with many convenient and practical devices that make life easier for gardeners. Some of them can be called successful, some not so much, but they all help and, with varying degrees of success, replace the classic shovel.
User manual
Using such a device for planting potatoes is not difficult. The potato planter is inserted into the ground at the selected location and, by pressing the foot on the footplate at a slight angle, is buried to the required depth.
A potato tuber prepared for planting is fed into the device. After this, using the handles, the body of the potato planter is tilted in such a direction that the valve at the bottom of the device can open and the potatoes fall into the ground. After this, the device is removed, and the potatoes remain in the ground.
The operation cycle of the potato planter can be repeated again. With the correct organization of the process, in 1-2 hours of not very difficult work you can manage to sow an area of 10 acres or more. This device is especially convenient because when using it you do not need to constantly bend over.
People with bad backs appreciated the convenience and efficiency of using a manual potato planter. The entire work process takes place in a straight position, the potato tubers are also on top, in the basket, and there is no need to bend down for each new potato.
When using the device, you need to get used to inserting it into the ground so that the outlet valve does not open. If you hold the valve side down, it will open simply under the influence of gravity.
Therefore, before feeding new potatoes into the potato planter pipe, you need to ensure that the valve is turned with the lid up.
Conclusion
As you can see, a manual potato planter is not a complicated device at all, either to manufacture or to operate. The materials for its manufacture will probably be found in any owner’s barn. The only difficulty in its manufacture, for some, may be the need to use welding.
But this issue is not difficult to solve, especially since anyone can master welding skills at a level sufficient to create simple welding seams, and modern welding machines (meaning inverter-type welding machines) do not require any specific complex skills from the operator to working with them.
As a last resort, you can always turn to a welder you know for help.
Using the potato planter is very simple. It is especially effective to use it on a potato field that has been previously plowed, say with the help of a walk-behind tractor (for example, Niva), or a mini tractor (for example, Belarus). With its help, you can plant potatoes quite quickly and without much effort over a large area, saving your energy and time.
The advantages provided by the potato planter are facilitating and speeding up the planting process, maintaining the same depth when planting tubers. We hope that you found this article interesting and helped you in designing and creating a manual potato planter.
With the arrival of warmer weather, every self-respecting gardener and farmer thinks about planting potatoes. It’s good if you have a small dacha and 2-3 acres of land. What if the field is several hectares? You can't get by with just one or two hands.
The usual method of planting potatoes under a plow is very slow. In addition, it has a number of disadvantages: it is difficult to evenly distribute the planting material, the furrow does not lie evenly, and when working with the plow, many workers are required. And, if you don’t have a company of helpers, then you need to think about purchasing a potato planter.
1 Types of potato planters
There are, of course, manual potato planters on the market, but these tools are not suitable for large areas.
Automatic potato planters are divided into two types: some carry out only part of the work of planting potatoes, others carry out everything from A to Z.
The first type includes the Zimmerman, Binder, and Bredikov machines. For example: the Zimmerman machine is a single-row potato planter that first makes furrows and only then makes recesses in them for planting material, requiring a carefully harrowed field. It is proposed to close the potatoes using a separate machine, which is wasteful and inconvenient.
The second type includes the machines of Gader, Zideragaben, Aspinval…. Such machines themselves lay a furrow and place tubers there (can be cut). These are multi-row potato planters - they cover several furrows in one pass of the field.
1.1 Potato planters on walk-behind tractors
Potato planters for walk-behind tractors are considered more convenient. These machines are equipped with a small plow that digs a furrow to a given depth and then covers the laid potatoes with soil. This is trailed equipment for a walk-behind tractor.
If you need to quickly plant large areas with potatoes, it is recommended to use a four-row potato planter. In addition to the speed of processing large areas, the use of such a device guarantees successful mechanized processing of plantings (hilling up, loosening, digging).
Using a universal potato planter will ensure quick and high-quality planting of potato tubers evenly to a given depth.
Advantages of potato planters for walk-behind tractors:
A huge advantage is the ease of maintenance of such a unit. It is enough to carry out a technical inspection before sowing, replacing parts as necessary.
A compact potato planter will become an indispensable tool for a farmer. Just attach it to your tank, fill the tank with seed, and save yourself the tedious work.
1.2 The simplest DIY potato planter (video)
1.3 Popular models
The main types of potato planters include:
- KS-1A. Potato planter for processing small areas. Deepens the planting material to the set depth.
- KS-1. Produced for large-sized . High performance. Creates row spacing of 60-70 cm.
- KSM-1. Weight 44 kilograms. Row spacing from 40 cm. Universal.
2 Potato diggers
There are two types of potato diggers:
- shovel. They are named so because their simple design resembles. The tubers are taken out of the ground with a point and shaken off through the twigs;
- potato diggers. More complex units equipped with a coulter and screens on wheels. When using such a potato digger, the tubers are cleaned of dirt better, thanks to the vibration mechanism.
One of the most convenient mounted potato diggers is the unit for the T25 tractor. The load on the tractor hydraulics should not exceed 600 kg. Therefore, it is recommended to use single-row. Among the range of offers on the market, the most popular ones can be identified:
- BULVA-1. Single-row potato digger for light soils. Cultivates soil up to 25 cm.
- KTN-1B. the simplest domestic unit. Does not require constant technical inspections.
- 2MBS-1. Single-row potato digger. “Knows” how to apply fertilizers.
When choosing equipment, remember that you will need to transport it at the beginning and end of farming work. And consider transportation options. When choosing a potato planter, take into account all the nuances of your own work.