Potato planting & harvesting - Russian style

Simple method - for large gardens

This first video shows a potato planter that opens a furrow, allows seed potatoes to be dropped into place, then covers them with soil and shapes it into a ridge.

This machine could easily be converted to pull it with a winch. The blue portion would be attached to a pair of front wheels to form a cart. The seat could be switched so he faces forward. A long pair of handles out the back of the cart would allow the operator to tilt it up like a rickshaw and roll it back the opposite end of the field.

One advantage to a hand-fed machine is that it allows the use of cut chunks of seed potato, which is more economical for garden growers. An improvement would be to add some spacing indicators or "flags" to the wheels to let the operator know when to drop another spud.

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Could easily be pulled by a winch   The planting machine in this 2 minute video could be a wheeled cart that one person rides while another runs the winch. Due to the weight, it may be best to move the winch each time rather than dragging the cart back across the garden.

Complex method - for small-scale agriculture

This video shows a more automatic potato planter that opens a furrow, drops seed potatoes at a consistent spacing, then covers them with soil and shapes it into a ridge.

This machine could also be converted to allow it to be pulled by a winch. The red portion would be attached to a pair of front wheels to form a cart. Since no seat is needed, the operator could walk behind to steer. An improvement is needed to allow it to create a taller and broader ridge, like the blue machine does.

This machine does require whole seed potatoes. Loading just enough potatoes to seed a single row would allow the operator to pull an empty and lighter machine back across the field.

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Automatic potato planter   This machine does not require the operator to drop the seed potatoes by hand. That would leave the operator free to steer as the winch cable pulls it forward. But would be a more expensive and complicated machine.

Simple method - for large gardens

These guys deserve a round of applause for the way they have really simplified the potato weeding operation AND for the nice clean design of their tool. I wonder if it could be improved by using the same handle in the rear that they do in the front, but extending it to the left instead of the right? This would allow each operator to walk in a valley.

As nice as their tool is, it would not work when pulled by a winch. The reason is that the winch cable would need to be run along the top of the ridge to pull it straight. The moving cable would shred the foliage of the plants and likely kill them.

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Very nice potato weeder!   Sure, the guys look a little goofy with the film speeded up, but what an improvement over manual weeding.

Complex method - for small-scale agriculture

To allow a winch-pulled machine to weed potatoes that are planted on ridges, the cable must stay in the valley. This prevents the cable from damaging the foliage of the plants.

Here is the link to the video of a spiked disc potato weeding machine   There is also a still shot of it at the top of this page.

The line drawing shows how this "spiked disc" potato weeder could be modified to weed one valley at a time while being pulled by a winch. It could easily be pulled back to the far end by tilting it down onto the rubber wheel.

Device to weed the valleys of the potato ridges

Simple method - for large gardens

Well, this series of articles started with a plow, and now it's going to end with a plow. Notice the angle and the "fingers" on this special potato plow. The idea is to break up the ridge, pull the potatoes up, and leave them on top of the soil for easy harvesting. The fingers on top of the plow (the metal rods) are supposed to allow the loose soil to pass through first so the tubers and dirt clods are the last to fall and therefore remain on top of the soil. There are more effective fingers on the potato plow in this other video.

This tool could also easily be pulled by a winch. Perhaps an old walking tractor or rototiller without an engine could provide the wheels, frame, and handlebars to bolt this harvesting plow and other tools to? Also see this video for a nicely designed unit.

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Harvest potatoes with a special plow   It appears to do a decent job, but due to it's narrow blade it may be leaving some spuds in the ground. See the article for a link to different style of potato plow that may work better.

Complex method - for small-scale agriculture

This video shows a larger, powered potato harvester - but it is the same principle as the smaller unit above. There is a curved scoop blade that cuts under the ridge, then the rods (like the fingers above) sift the loose soil through first and drop the clods and tubers on top of the soil at the rear. The rods shake and vibrate to get the soil to quickly sift through. The tractor's PTO powers the shaking action. This machine can be seen in detail here

It would be a tougher to use winch power to run a harvester like this, but not impossible. If the winch is slowed down, it has more pulling power, and the loose soil has more time to pass through the rods. Vibrating does not take much power, so perhaps the harvester could carry a battery and a DC motor, or a small gasoline engine just to do the vibrating.

One way or another, somebody has to pick up the potatoes and put them in a bucket. But that's a pretty rewarding job...

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A bit more efficient machine   The wider U-shaped scooping blade on this machine does a nice job of gathering the whole ridge to avoid missing any potatoes. The shaking fingers simply speed up sifting the soil out of the bottom of the chute. The soil would need to be pretty dry for this to work well.