How Do You Harvest Potatoes With A Tractor? Quick Facts

Potato cultivation requires precision, and many farmers rely on numerous farm equipment, gardening tools, and reliable tractors to get the job done. Yet, there are a few techniques to improve your potato farming operations.

Together with tractors and potato planters, these advancements enable you to increase output, improve harvest, reduce manual effort and time, and increase revenues.

A farming device known as a haulm topper removes potato stems before harvest. Frequently used in agriculture are the haulm toppers; these tools are either attached to tractors or built into harvesting equipment. 

Modern potato farmers commonly mount a haulm topper on the front of a tractor, and behind the tractor, there is a trailed potato harvester hauled. 

Bulker is the name of the piece of machinery behind the tractor. Bulkers are very adaptable because they dig potatoes, remove many weeds and vines from them, and then carry the potatoes along a series of conveyor belts to a device known as the boom, which descends into the truck to load it with potatoes.

Which Method Is Used For Potato Harvesting?

Harvesting time is critical in potato production. Tuber development continues until the vines die. When a large percentage of the leaves turn yellow-brown, the main crop is ready for harvesting.

The stems are cut near the ground level at this stage. After 8-10 days, the potatoes are plowed out of the field. These potatoes are picked by hand and stored in the shade.

The collected potatoes are surface dried and stored in vast amounts in the shade for 10-15 days to cure the skin. When the tubers turn green, they should not be subjected to direct sunlight.

Before transporting the produce to the market, it should be kept cool, and all rotten and damaged potatoes should be removed.

Manual potato harvesting is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and causes significant damage to the potato. Thus, tractor-mounted modern potato harvesting equipment is used today. 

The machines harvest the potatoes by lifting them from the bed with a share. Transferring soil, dirt, rocks, and potatoes to a series of webs allows the potatoes to be eventually separated from foreign substances.

How Do You Plough Potatoes?

In some cases, proper potato cultivation might be a complex undertaking. There is always a requirement for excellent ground preparation, like harrowing, plowing, and rolling, and also a bit of luck with the weather and a reliable water supply.

Before planting, three successive plowings with related harrowing and rolling are preferred. 

Instead of being developed from seed, potatoes are typically grown from another potato’s eyes. Commercial producers may mound the entire row when planting potatoes as a row crop utilizing seed tubers, seedlings, or microtubes.

Before planting, cultivate the ground for at least two weeks. Plowing improves soil air circulation. In addition, it helps facilitate soil workability and aids in the elimination of weeds.

We plow thoroughly to destroy any remaining plants, particularly after harvesting. A potato plow tool can be attached to your tractor for simpler plowing.

Make a straight plow before farming the potatoes. Each furrow should be between 8 and 10 centimeters deep. In potato cultivation, getting rid of all root weeds is preferable.

Potatoes are delicate and are harmed in the ground by severe frosts. Even in colder temperatures, potatoes are more prone to bruising and later rotting, which can swiftly destroy a huge stored crop, thus why plowing is essential.

Related: Are Potatoes Easy For A Beginner Gardener to Grow?

How Does A Potato Harvester Work?

Harvesting may be done manually or sometimes mechanically. When harvesting is semi-mechanized, diggers attached to tractors disintegrate the layers of soil and expose the potatoes.

Following that, the collection is completed manually by men or young women who also perform a thorough selection field. Yet, developed economies have grown potatoes using self-propelled machines.

The availability and labor cost are factors in the trend toward mechanization of the entire harvest. In two or more rows, the potatoes are gathered by these harvesters, who direct them to the carrier trucks after cultivating the soil layers apart.

Since they are larger, the rows must be longer to prevent rotations and frequent delays, limiting the machine’s operational potential.

This machine can mine potatoes, separate dirt simultaneously, and harvest potatoes with potato stems. It is versatile equipment that farmers may utilize for various underground crops, such as peanuts, carrots, and onions.

The machine first digs the potatoes with the digger web to lift the potatoes to the sieve webs. The potato harvesting machine uses a share to lift the potatoes out of the soil.

Potatoes and soil move to the top of the share and into the sieving web as the harvester passes through the crops. The blade that touches the underground potatoes is known as a potato harvester’s share.

What Is The Best Tool To Be Used In Harvesting The Potatoes?

In particular, if you planted potatoes in your garden, you could harvest potatoes with a variety of tools, such as garden gloves and trowels for smaller harvests and shovels, pitchforks, and potato scoopers for larger crops.

However, farming requires a lot of labor, as we all know. If you are harvesting on a potato farm, the equipment that would be ideal for harvesting is a potato harvester. 

Compared to the traditional method of manual digging with shovels and forks, it cuts labor costs by 75% and operational time by 50%. Moreover, harvesting losses are reduced by 4-5%. 

The tractor-drawn potato harvester was proven extremely cost-effective, time-saving, decreasing labor costs, and causing minor damage.

The harvester is one of the most expensive farming machinery used globally. Harvesters perform various tasks and are impressive for the time and physical work they save and the little residue they leave after. 

A potato harvester aids in digging potatoes out of the ground by separating the soil from the stems. When it comes to quickly separating the dirt, it is helpful. 

It largely resolves the issue with potato harvesting. Both small-scale and large-scale potato harvesting are appropriate for this type of machine.