Machines for cultivating potatoes - features of agricultural machinery

In small garden plots, manual labor is used to grow potatoes. Cultivating land for planting, caring for crops and harvesting are labor-intensive activities. Growing potatoes over large areas is impossible without agricultural machinery.

What is the name of the potato growing machine?

To cultivate crops in large fields, you cannot do without a tractor or mini-tractor. Various mechanisms designed for a specific type of agricultural work are mounted on the tractor.

Required set of equipment:

• tractor or mini-tractor;
• attachments that allow you to perform all types of work at all stages of crop cultivation.

If there is no tractor, fields of up to 10 hectares are cultivated using a walk-behind tractor, which is controlled by a person holding the handles.

Equipment for growing potatoes

Using trailed agricultural machinery, vegetable growers perform the entire scope of work in potato fields: from planting to harvesting.

The potato attachment kit contains:

• reversible plow;
• ridge former (cultivator);
• disc harrow;
• hedgehog;
• potato planter;
• device for inter-row processing;
• potato digger;
• combine for harvesting.

Instead of a cultivator, disc harrow and ridge former, one universal mechanism is often used - a hedgehog. He loosens the soil, weeds out weeds and hills up the potatoes.

For landing

The work takes place in several stages:

1. First the field is plowed. To do this, a plow is attached to the tractor. To increase productivity, install from 2 to 6 mechanisms on the frame, which will increase the width of the plowed strip.
2. The soil is loosened using a mounted cultivator or harrow. A universal hedgehog is often used, on which disks are installed, inclined at an angle, with spikes of different sizes. As it moves, the device loosens the ground and forms furrows for planting potatoes. To increase productivity, several hedgehogs are attached to the frame.
3. Tubers are planted using mounted potato planter. It is a trailer with a container for seed material. The shaking mechanism feeds the tubers into spoons, from there they fall into the ground through the coulters and are buried in disks, while fertilizers are applied at the same time. To increase productivity and sow large areas, a four-row potato planter is used; it is easy to use and durable. In 1 hour of operation, a single-row planter sows 0.4 hectares, a four-row planter sows 1.6 hectares.

There are machines on sale for inter-row processing of potatoes: they form ridges and weed out weeds. Various modifications of ridge formers, cultivators, and disc rippers are available.

For processing

Caring for potatoes, in addition to watering and fertilizing, includes hilling, weeding and loosening.

For hilling, a ridge former or hiller is suitable, which, as the rows are cultivated, destroys weeds and enriches the soil with oxygen. The mechanism consists of paired disks (plates) inclined at an angle. The tilt of the discs is adjustable. They are driven by soil resistance or driven by a motor. walk-behind tractor/tractor. The hiller can be one, two, three rows, etc.Walking along the rows, the cultivator cuts deep furrows and covers the plants with soil, forming trapezoidal ridges above them. They also hill up the bushes with the help of a hedgehog.

Reference! The choice of hiller is based on compatibility with existing motorized equipment and depends on the type of soil. So, on wet clay soil it is better to use a disk mechanism, on light soil - a lister mechanism.

We remove weeds from the potatoes and loosen the soil using an inter-row tillage machine or a hedgehog. The first device has 2 wheels, equipped with knives and a drum. As the knives move, they cut weeds and the drum throws them away. The hedgehog will also do this job with a little hilling.

For cleaning

The type of equipment used to harvest potatoes depends on the area planted.

In small fields, two types of potato diggers are used:

1. Shovel - a towed device resembling a shovel, with the help of which potatoes are removed from the ground. Excess soil falls back to the ground through the grate. As a result, 85% of the harvest is harvested.
2. Screeners - have a coulter, a grid on wheels and a vibrating table. The tubers are thoroughly cleaned of soil and weeds. The yield is up to 95%.

These simple mechanisms harvest several hectares per day.

Large areas require a potato harvester that will allow you to:

• dig up the tubers;
• clear away soil and weeds;
• sort by size;
• load into a bunker for further transportation.

There are different types of combines: self-propelled, trailed. They are single-row and multi-row, as well as:

• elevator - on a moving belt, products are immediately unloaded into a vehicle while moving;
• bunker - due to a rotating drum or moving belt, potatoes are cleaned of soil and dumped into a bunker.

The combine harvests 95–98% of the harvest and minimizes manual labor.

Important! The choice of technology depends on financial capabilities. Prices vary from 800,000 to 20,000,000 rubles, depending on the model and manufacturer.

Nowadays in Russia, in small fields, a single-row trailed combine harvester with a bunker capacity of up to 10 tons is popular. In large potato farms, it is better to use an elevator combine.

The market offers machines of various modifications from domestic and foreign manufacturers. Experts highlight Grimme combines, products of the Russian-Dutch company Kolnag, and domestic machines KPK-2, KPK-3 from Ryazselmash.

Grimme offers bunker, elevator, trailed, and self-propelled combine harvesters for any soil, with side and central excavation, and various additional options. However, this technique is the most expensive on the market.

Many farmers choose Russian KPK combines. They have a limited number of options, but they are reliable and well adapted to the soil conditions in Russia.

Features of attachments

The use of mounted mechanisms in a subsidiary or farm allows, with the help of one tractor (tractor or walk-behind tractor), to carry out all the work on growing and caring for cultivated crops on time.

By using trailed devices, farmers reduce labor costs and save on hired labor.

This is interesting:

How to make a potato planter for a mini tractor with your own hands

What is good about a mesh potato bag and how to use it correctly

How to make a shovel for digging potatoes yourself

Conclusion

Automation of agricultural work reduces the time for planting and harvesting potatoes, allows all agrotechnical measures to be completed on time, and increases productivity.Agricultural machinery costs a lot. It is important to first assess the feasibility of purchasing a particular device. It is advisable to draw up a business plan and estimate the payback period.

When choosing trailed equipment, consider whether it will fit a walk-behind tractor or a mini-tractor. It is optimal to take the entire set of mechanisms at once to obtain high yields.