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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Potato furrows (separately)

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  • From: Jay Sleichter <jaysleichter AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Potato furrows (separately)
  • Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2012 11:49:31 -0800 (PST)


In the attempt to use more tractor power as opposed to human power, we built our own potato hiller and raised bed maker.  The 3 point tool bar was found in the junk pile at my parents farm, the 2 inch bar was found at a junkyard and I bought the brackets from Steven's Tractor online and the Disk Hillers were from Agri-Supply or Steven's tractor, I don't remember they both have them.  Since building this, I have found a longer bar so I can adjust the width even more and add cultivator to break up the tire tracks.

Here is a picture of it.

http://s587.photobucket.com/albums/ss315/jrslick/2012%20Garden%20Season/?action="view&current=tractorhiller.jpg

No that isn't our tractor, I borrowed my families smallest tractor to test out how it works. I used it to on a 1/4 acre of potatoes we were raising at there farm.  It took 15 minutes to hill them up. I also used this tool to make raised beds.  I laid down drip tape, cover it up every 10 feet with some dirt then ran the hiller over it and made perfect raised beds.  I tilled everything first, so the soil was fairly soft.

I have also tore apart a junked Lister planter and took the plow portion off and mounted it to a shank I took off a four row cultivator and now can mount that on this tool bar to have middle buster.  It only cost the time to loosen 50 years of rust to remove a few bolts.  A air powered impact wrench sure helped!

These tools were made after I saw these.
http://www.everythingattachments.com/Tractor-3-Point-Hitch-Garden-Bedder-60-GB60-p/ea-garden-bedder-gb60.htm

I also going to try to lay some plastic using this tool this year.  I am going to till my plots, lay out my drip tape, run the hiller to make a small raised bed.  Then reverse the hillers to make a small furrow on both sides of the raised bed and loosen up the dirt.  Finally, I will unroll the plastic by hand and cover the edges.  While a mulch layer would be much easier, I don't have the $$ to buy one and this would be much quicker than doing all of it by hand.

If you google "Disc Hillers" and click on the images, you will see lots of variations of these.  It just depends on your set up and the amount of money you want to spend.

Jay

 
Jay's Jellies, Produce and More
Clay Center, Kansas
www.jaysjellies.com
http://rvp.locallygrown.net/





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