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

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  • From: Vern and Amy <vaspencer AT sisna.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Potato furrows and eggplant (separately)
  • Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:15:23 -0800

We plant about 3" deep as well. (Our soil is only 6" deep in most places anyway before the subsoil which is usually clay and rock.)

We don't actually do multiple rows at once (yet). We just have two small middle busters set at 40" apart and the 6" wide tires set at 64" on center. We could do two in a bed like that, and probably will next year. Up to now, we cut the first two rows in the field with both, then only cut one at time after that with the one not making a new furrow plowing in the last furrow made to keep the 40" spacing for the new furrow. I think this is the most efficient use of space (not necessarily time) for the equipment we have for now.
Since I had less experienced drivers cutting the furrows this year, the rows strayed from the 40" enough that I had to narrow the tractor down so I could only straddle one row while hilling instead of two. This is not a big deal, since I only would hill one row at a time anyway even while straddling two, because two would be too much work for my little 10 hp 60-year-old tractor. This worked fine, except the rest of the crops wanted the wheels set back at the 64" spacing. It takes time to change back, and you either lose time there or things slip through the cracks while you wait to hill the spuds again before changing. To avoid this next year, I think we will cut two furrows at once, and throw away a little space between "beds".

The key to setting your spacing is knowing the spacing of the wheels of the tractor you will hill and dig with. If you will be using a behemoth with 16.9" wide tires (which actually eat up 18") set at 64" on center, 40 inches is way to close and you will squish potatoes that are near the side of the hill. We laid it out (use a 20' long piece of freezer wrap or pencil it out on the shop floor to show 2 or 3 passes with the tractor--you'll be surprised what it shows) full scale, including drawing in the width of the tractor tires. Dad and I have over 60 years combined experience reading blueprints, and trust me, it's easier doing this project full scale. I think to accommodate that tractor one year, we had to plant *at least* 54" apart. It was a space hog, but you don't want to waste your crop, either.

We can only dig one row at a time.

Vern




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