Hilling Potatoes

11 years ago

I am planting potatoes at my other "Farm" this year to free up some space at my house for other crops that have to be picked more often. I am trying to use more tractor power instead of human power to take care of them. I have built a disc hiller and I am working on a potato digger.

Yesterday I tilled between the rows and hilled them up using the hiller. It worked great. I showed my wife the pictures and she said,"Tractors are nice"! She said we can look more seriously at one, after we get a vehicle sold. So I guess my plan worked!

Here is the finished picture. Not perfectly weeded, but much better than it was before. I hilled 4 of the 6 rows. The last two rows have been very slow to grow. They got buried too deep and didn't have very well developed eyes. Now if we can pick up that rain this weekend, it would be great!

Here is a picture of the disc hiller I made. I want to add some cultivators to cultivate the tire tracks, but I haven't got that done. Also a 105 hp tractor is way to big for this field and piece of equipment, but it was the smallest thing my family has.

The before picture. I didn't get between the rows 100% tilled the last time I worked the ground because I broke a belt on the tiller and I had to quit. This time I got it all tilled.

Comments (11)

henhousefarms
11 years ago
Better too much tractor than too litle. I built both a hiller and a good middlebuster last year - it's amazing the amount of time and labor that it saved. I actually like growing potatoes now. I really would like to find an old digger for them as that would be the cat's meow but around here they are not common at all. One of the people we know grows a lot of sweet poataoes (several acres) and swear by it. I have seen some vids of homemade units that work OK so maybe next winter it will become a cold weather project (like I do not have a list as long as my arm already).

Tom
jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
11 years ago
Tom what did you make your middle buster out of? I am taking apart a two row corn lister and attaching one of the lister plows to the 3 point set up I already have. I just have 50 years of rusty bolts to loosen up and it will be done!

Jay
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myfamilysfarm
11 years ago
Jay, you can buy them already built at RK. Just be sure to mow the taters off before digging. It really helps.

Marla
jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
11 years ago
We don't have a Rural King in Kansas, I have seen them at other farm stores. However, I few minutes of turning wrenches will save me $125. Also, it will make my dad happy. He used the old lister to plant potatoes when he was younger. Sometimes it is nice to show others that we appreciate what they use to do.

Jay
little_minnie
11 years ago
I will think of your tractor when I am hilling my taters with a hoe this summer. waaa I am planting as much as 100#

Of course around here they have potato hilling tractors that cover many rows in one pass! But with hundreds of acres of taters it still takes a long time for the job to be done. When they do the field immediately next to me it takes the whole day to drive it with a tractor.
henhousefarms
11 years ago
It was one of those hodgepodge projects - I have no idea where the actual shear came from other than I found it in a shed at the folks. It may well have been off a lister - I had no idea what a lister was so found some pics and they look very similar. I like it much better than the new style middlebusters as this gets under the spuds and pushes them up - all the new ones I have seen are much sharper and set at a more acute angle to the ground. I had very few potatoes that I cut with it as long as it went in deep enough. I'll try to grab a snapshot in the morning when there is some light.

Tom
myfamilysfarm
11 years ago
Jay, I'm not fortunate enough to have any equipment laying around, wish I did at times. My grandmother's 'stuff' was hauled away for junk before I was able to 'save' anything.
henhousefarms
11 years ago
Jay -
Got some photos of the plow - it's nothing special but works good. Need to clean off the shear and oil it - was opening furrows for more spuds over the weekend and put it away dirty.

Tom
jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
11 years ago
Looking very nice.

I hope I can get mine taken apart next week and start putting it back together to make it work. Potato digging time will be here before I know it!
little_minnie
11 years ago
Well today I planted all the taters I had, then bought more on my way home. Since I didn't dig trenches last fall and was not strong enough to dig 900 feet of trenches this spring, I just went down my beds really lightly with a mini tiller to loosen the top crust and then I raked the top few inches of soil to the side. Then I planted the spuds with my bulb planter as usual. I will be able to hill up one time by hoeing the sides back on. And then maybe one time by dumping on some compost.

Before planting

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After planting- see the circles where I planted.
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myfamilysfarm
11 years ago
I've used a drill type of bulb planter before also. I also use it for planting other plants.