Hi Wayne.
How well has the potato planter and digger worked out for you?
About how much did they end up costing? Were there any issues with ordering equipment from China? How long did it take from the time that you ordered them, until you got them?
I just planted 80 lbs of potatoes, using a rototiller to loosen up the soil, a middle buster to make rows, then a rake to hill up the rows after the potatoes were put into the rows. My stomach muscles were sore for a couple of days afterwards, from all the raking, so I'm looking for a better way to plant a lot of potatoes, that's easier on my body.
Can you use the potato planter for other things, like onion bulbs/etc?
Well, we are finishing up on our Potato planting, maybe tomorrow (another 60 r 70 pounds to go). We will have around 850 pounds of potato seed planted. The planter worked fine, we did have some issues with the disk hillers on the backend of the planter and after a bit of reconstruction/welding they are working fine now. One issue was the amount of compost in the fields. If the soil was sandy the planting would of been easier. With all the compost we have tilled in from time to time the disk would pick up clumps and clough up, not permitting the disk to cover the potatoes. Actually it would drag the earth and potatoes. Not really a major problem.
Being a hobby farmer we can take our time doing things so it has been okay so far. I did find that the smaller seed potatoes were easier to work with. We had many larger potatoes that had to be cut and they created some problems with the planter picking them up. I had my helper (wife) walking along side of the planter and adding seed potatoes if the machine didn't pick one up. We were going in low range 1st gear so it was a nice walk for her.
I will take some pictures of the field (s) and post them one of these days.
Now I have to wait and see how the cultivator/hiller works for. All depends upon how will I was able to keep the rows straight and the final adjustments to the cultivators.
As for ordering equipment from China there are always some issues. Just getting all of the paperwork in order finding the proper codes for everything and then dealing with the shipping companies, agents, customs officers, etc, can wear on you for sure.
There are cost included at every turn along the way. We had to pay the bonding charges, wire transfer charges, shipping, handling and labor charges at every port. It all adds up. Not really sure of the actual cost, but compared to what it would have cost here in the states, it was a good deal. For other reasons I do not want to publish the actual price in any forum. Drop me a line and I can tell you more about dealing with things and pricing.
Compared to last year where I planted with digging the rows with my potato plow and then hand dropping all of the potatoes and like you using a rake to cover them up. Took for ever and was a royal pain in the back side..
Wayne