Growing potatoes

sros990 · Apr 27, 2005

What tractor implements are used to plant, hill and dig potatoes in a large home garden?

Thanks,

Steve

PineRidge · Apr 27, 2005

Friend of mine uses a Troy tiller with a hiller attachment both also available as tractor attachments.

ScottAR · Apr 27, 2005

What Pineridge said... You might want to look at the tiller mod page down this forum screen.

Dad used the backhoe to dig potatoes during a drought one year when the ground was hard as a rock.

JWE · Apr 28, 2005

I harvested about 4 bushel last year from my garden. I used a Middle Buster to dig them up. It did an excellent job; very few damaged potatoes (see picture).

John

kensfarm · Apr 28, 2005

We put 200lbs in the ground a couple weeks ago.. the ground was plowed last fall.. hit it w/ the disk this spring.. then tilled to fluff the dirt.. then used the disc hiller to make the hills.

We have one man dropping the potatoe cuts.. another follows behind & pushes it into the dirt w/ a stick.

And like others have said.. use the middle buster(potatoe plow).. to harvest.

Mmmm fresh potatoes & potroast.. I'm getting hungry!

PineRidge · Apr 28, 2005

Hey John those are some great looking spuds. Do you do anything special to store them?

KennedyDiesel · Apr 28, 2005

If you're talking home garden, I'd look at a Mantis "Little Wonder" tiller/cultivator for weeding etc. I till with my 455 and then cultivate with my Mantis. The loose dirt is then raked up ti "hill" my rows.

That middle buster harvest method sounds pretty cool!

JWE · Apr 28, 2005

Mike, I store my potatoes in my lower garage. My property is on a hillside so when I built my home I used prestressed concrete for the floor of my main garage. Underneath my main garage I have a second garage that is mostly underground. As a result of the garage being underground, the inside temperature rarely gets below freezing. The outside temperature has to be at or below zero for several days before garage temperature goes below freezing. It's an ideal place to store the potatoes. We just finished the last of the potatoes last week.

BTW, that's not me in the picture. It's my oldest son. I'm a lot older and fatter than him! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

John