Double row potato plow?

[drw]

I think a double row potato plow is what I need. I am gardening with raised beds, and I use my potato plow to start the bed.

First, I cultivate it nice and finely, then I drive down the rows with my potato plow to dig trenches parallel to each other. I then go back with my shovel shape the beds up nice and neatly. There are two problems with this technique:

1) The shovel work gets REAL old FAST when I'm doing hundreds of feet of gardening rows.

2) The tractor is driving over the area that later becomes the planting/growing area.

It seems like if I had a double potato plow, then I could set the spacing of the plows so that they are each directly behind the wheels of my (Kubota 30hp) tractor. Then I drive down the row and it automatically makes two trenches with the planting surface directly between them.

It makes sense to me, but I've searched and searched and haven't found anyone else talking about this. Am I on the wrong track here? Is there a better way to do this? And if not, is there such a double row potato plow available anywhere?

 

[rayh76]

I don't have an answer for you, but one thing you can expect with raised beds is WORK! They sure look nice and appear easier to maintain, but I will stick to traditional type beds. I have considered a raised bed for strawberries but that is about it.

 

[drw]

I don't have an answer for you, but one thing you can expect with raised beds is WORK! They sure look nice and appear easier to maintain, but I will stick to traditional type beds. I have considered a raised bed for strawberries but that is about it.

I've gardened on raised beds for about 5 years and love them to pieces, especially for weed control and the general health of the plants. The only trouble is that you are correct, they are big time WORK to setup, and thus my idea for a double potato plow.

 

[rayh76]

See link. Are these results something like you want?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/56139-tiller-mod.html

 

[charlz]

You probably are thinking of something with hippers to form a bed.. like this:


3-PT KEULAVATOR FRAME (FRAME ONLY) - Agri Supply

Personally I have formed 'drive on' raised beds which are frameless raised beds. They are the width of my tiller and I just drive right on the bed and till them up. There are a couple of pics in this thread:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/117555-starting-garden-yet-4.html

I have since planted grass between the beds to keep down weeds and to provide mulching material. Just waiting for the grass to thicken up so I can give it a first mowing.

 

[Rara Avis]

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 00-01 Introduction

Market Farm

 

[troweller]

You need a Toolbar with 2 Furrowers. New about $500, used $100

 

[charlz]

You need a Toolbar with 2 Furrowers. New about $500, used $100

I have one and it doesn't really make a 'raised' bed... it will make furrows on the sides like for flood irrigation but it doesn't move much dirt onto the 'bed'.

 

[AndyinIowa]

Try one of these sometime:

Leinbach Machinery Catalog

Not too bad. You may want a shaper on the backside to square off the bed top, but otherwise it works fairly well..

IowaAndy

 

[drw]

This is great information - thank you all! I'm well on my way here.

The S-Tines on a toolbar with u-clamp seems to be the setup I'm looking for. I'd rather have straight bars rather than S-Tines, but maybe there's a reason S-Tines are superior?

I'll be calling a few of the companies that you all listed.

Thank you again; I'll post pictures when I get my rig setup!