Middle Buster

[Tim_in_IA]

I just got a middle buster for some planting I'll be doing and I read in the ad that it can also dig potatoes? Could someone tell me the technique that is used to do this? I know it might be perfectly obvious to some folks. I just don't want to drive down the row and slice up a bunch of potatoes. Do I drive along each side or how are they dug up? Or do you center it on the row and it just pops em out without cutting them?

I got this one:

American Farmland - Middle Buster - By Tarter Gate

[rayh76]

Tim,

I am not sure the difference between this and a Lister. Growing up, we would dig potatoes all the time using a Lister. It appears it may be the same as a Middle Buster maybe with a little bit larger blade. My dad and I would use the Lister to draw the rows with. I would then sit on the back of the tractor with a bucket full of cut potatoes, and drop the potatoes in the row as fast as I could possibly drop them (old gear tractor that wouldn't go very slow). He then took the cultivator and covered them up. When time to dig, Lister came back out and that thing would roll the potatoes out of the ground. The lister would be centered directly under the potato row. If you don't go deep enough, you could slice some spuds. I think we would hit one or two now and again but who doesn't even with a spud fork. This year I decided to plant 55lbs of potatoes. The problem with my tractor is the width of the tires (R4's). I would have to space my spuds to far apart so not to drive on a row while using the lister. Unfortunately, I will be hand digging all (or most) of my potatoes again this year. I don't have a lister or middle buster yet though. Maybe I will get my dad's someday and I can figure out how far to plant each rows or expand the garden. Hope this helps some.

[rayh76]

Something I thought about while eating a baked spud tonight...

The middle buster should be vertical and not tilted towards the tractor or away. If the blade is pointed down into the dirt (top link to short), it will tend to dig deeper. If it is pointed up (top link extended to far back), it won't dig at all most likely.

[Bird]

If you have a bedder; i.e., like two middle busters, you can use them to plant your potatoes and cover them. I've both planted and dug a lot of potatoes by hand, but with my Kubotas, I probably did things differently than most folks. I tilled the ground, then "planted" my potatoes by just laying the seed pieces on top of the ground. Then with the tractor at 90 degrees to the row, and the front end loader bucket dumped all the way forward, I'd let it down about a foot and a half past the row, and pull dirt onto the seed potatoes by backing slowly and at the same time slowly raising the bucket. Then I'd lower the bucket into the ground on the other side of the row, and slowly drive forward as I raised the bucket to push the dirt up front that side. In that way I had my potatoes planted in a pretty good hill. When it was time to dig the potatoes, I'd use the middle buster, adjust the top link to make the plow go fairly deep into the ground, then straddle the row and drive right down it. That would throw dirt and potatoes to both sides and the faster I drove, the farther it threw them.

[rayh76]

If you have a bedder; i.e., like two middle busters, you can use them to plant your potatoes and cover them. I've both planted and dug a lot of potatoes by hand, but with my Kubotas, I probably did things differently than most folks. I tilled the ground, then "planted" my potatoes by just laying the seed pieces on top of the ground. Then with the tractor at 90 degrees to the row, and the front end loader bucket dumped all the way forward, I'd let it down about a foot and a half past the row, and pull dirt onto the seed potatoes by backing slowly and at the same time slowly raising the bucket. Then I'd lower the bucket into the ground on the other side of the row, and slowly drive forward as I raised the bucket to push the dirt up front that side. In that way I had my potatoes planted in a pretty good hill. When it was time to dig the potatoes, I'd use the middle buster, adjust the top link to make the plow go fairly deep into the ground, then straddle the row and drive right down it. That would throw dirt and potatoes to both sides and the faster I drove, the farther it threw them.

Bird, that is to much work to pull dirt on a few hundred pounds of spuds at 5 or 6 ft at a time! I would imagine using your approach they would look really nice. I used a HOE to pull dirt over my spuds after they were starting to come up. That is a lot of work but I don't have a few hundred pounds either. I really like the cultivator type setup my dad used. Somehow he adjusted the cultivator to throw just the right amount of dirt on top of the spuds. Out of curiosity (not to rob the thread) what was the reason for planting on top of the soil as you did? Wet and needed drainage or just preference?

[Bird]

The reason I planted my potatoes on top of tilled soil was simply because I knew they were going to be deep enough in dirt when I finished and a thought (whether right or wrong) that they might grow better in looser or softer dirt. Of course, right after I planted them, I did water them to settle the dirt well around the seed potatoes.

[Tim_in_IA]

Thanks guys. This helps quite a bit. Yes my tractor has about a 8 foot span so it is a bit big for this. That bedder would be nice as I could probably do 2 rows at once! I have some toolbars, I'll have to see if I should just make a bedder for that job.