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  • From: "Rob Wallbridge" <rob AT songberry.ca>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] potato digger advice
  • Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:07:51 -0400

Hi all,

 

Anybody have any advice to offer on using chain-type potato diggers? I bought an old “Hoover” ground-drive digger this spring and hauled it down to my potato patch yesterday. The conditions were definitely less than ideal – too many weeds, soil a bit on the wet side – so there was a lot of plugging, sliding, and backing up, but it still beat digging by hand! I’m wondering, though, if any one has any advice to offer on how to make things go easier. I’m mowing everything off with a rotary mower as close to the ground as possible, which deposits more of the top growth to the side and out of the way.

 

I’m most curious about the effect of the speed of travel, and the angle of the chain. My observations so far are that the momentum of a faster speed seems to help keep things flowing, but I don’t want to overdo it and break something. I can’t really decide what difference the angle of the chain makes – I’m pulling it with a hitch bar on the 3-point hitch, so I can adjust the digging depth that way, without having to get off and move the lever, so moving the lever really just adjusts how steep the climb is for the potatoes and soil. Anybody know what angle and speed these things were designed to work at?

 

(And yes, I know that a new PTO-drive machine would be better and that this thing probably belongs in a museum, but this was a fraction of the cost, and those big spaded cast-iron wheels look so cool… J)

 

Cheers,

Rob

 

Rob Wallbridge

Songberry Organic Farm

24 Sixth Line, Bristol, QC J0X 1G0

email: rob AT songberry.ca

web: www.songberry.ca

facebook: become a fan of "Songberry Organic Farm"

 




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