A potato planter for a walk-behind tractor is an indispensable plant in agriculture, which not only helps to plant root crops, but also helps to fertilize the soil. With this design, any farmer can easily distribute potatoes at the desired interval and perform other agricultural work. With a potato planter, you can save not only time, but also money, since a do-it-yourself installation will be much cheaper.
Potato planter: types of designs
Factory and do-it-yourself potato planters for walk-behind tractors come in three types:
- Belt. In these installations, potatoes are planted using belts that act as conveyors. In order not to injure the root crop during planting and deliver it to the ground intact, special recesses are made on the belts.
- Spoons. The name of the design speaks for itself. Spoons are attached to the belts forming the aisles, due to which the holes of the holes are minimized during planting.
- Pricking devices. This design is used for planting sliced potatoes.
Additional Tips and Warnings
Since a potato planter made by oneself is not heavy enough, it is necessary to hang additional weight on it to make the structure more stable. There are some more useful secrets with which potato planting will be easier. For example, to save time and not constantly stop filling up potatoes, you need to put bags of root vegetables in the container. Of course, this is an additional burden, so you need to move slowly.
To adjust the closing discs, it is necessary to twist them along the axis of rotation. To adjust the row spacing and the location of the potatoes, do the following:
- Loosen the stepladders.
- Adjust the angle of entry.
If the family budget is limited, a do-it-yourself potato planter will solve the problem of finding finances to allocate from the family budget to buy a ready-made store device.
Necessary materials
To make a potato planter for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands, there is no need to buy materials on purpose, because all the necessary details can be easily found in a barn or dump. Parts and materials that are useful for assembling a structure are often thrown into a landfill, namely:
- metal sheets;
- nuts and bolts;
- angle grinder;
- welding machine;
- wheels
- Profiles
The use of a welding machine is necessary, since for the manufacture of a potato planter, it will be necessary to connect metal parts. Those who do not know how to handle the device should seek help, otherwise it will not work to assemble the structure.
How to use a potato planter
Making a potato planter with your own hands is half the battle; you still need to learn how to use the device. This is important, because the number of passes and the quality of work depend on the ability to work with technology. First of all, before starting work, it is necessary to fill planting material in a container, and only then can movement begin. It must be controlled so that the speed of the device does not exceed 1 km / h. This pace is best maintained until all the potatoes are planted.
All fruits that are in the container, in turn, fall into the vas deferens. This process should be controlled by the driver, in turn to send root crops into the pipes and to regulate the movement of the device. Thus, the potato enters the soil.
After the planting is completed, the fruits need to be covered with earth and form ridges of the furrow. Closing disks will perfectly cope with this task. Since they are slightly slanted, they rotate and cover the potatoes with earth. They are easily and quickly adjusted. If you relax the ladders and move the disks, you will be able to deepen them without unnecessary effort.
How a potato planter works
Almost every person living in rural areas will find traditional tools and components that will be necessary for making a potato planter with their own hands. A device made with one's own hand is in no way inferior to factory analogues. They have the same principle of operation and function. In order for the design to be holistic and work well, it is necessary to manually manufacture such elements as:
- special box for potatoes;
- wheelbase;
- hole cultivators;
- device frame;
- hole digging parts;
- trigger mechanism.
With the help of these components it is easy to make the simplest, no frills device. Assembling the design, you can add additional elements, but this will significantly increase the weight of the potato planter and reduce the ability to work.
Sizes of potato planters for walk-behind tractor
First of all, you need to determine the size of the potato planter for the walk-behind tractor: make a drawing with your own hands and calculate all the values. This will help to avoid problems when working with the device in the future.
The size of a potato planter, made with your own hands, must correspond to the size of the motoblock. It must necessarily have a frame and working parts. On both sides of the frame, it is necessary to position the supports and strengthen the frame.
Base Instructions
Before you make a potato planter with your own hands, you need to prepare tools and materials. It will take stars and a chain in order to connect them. Wheels are easy to purchase in the market, but you can take from an old car, if available. It is necessary to weld corners on the disks, this will help to increase the area and prevent the installation from sagging. In order for the work to be of high quality, you need to do the following:
- On the front of the frame we weld steel arches and two rings for traction.
- On the sides we have the ejaculatory mechanism.
- We fix the frame with steel strips.
- We strengthen the arch with a gasket and sheets of steel.
- Using bolts, we attach the container to the bracket.
The size of a potato planter, made by yourself, depends on the parts used for the manufacture.
How to make a potato planter hopper
To make the hopper, you need to take plywood with a thickness of about one millimeter. All the details for a homemade potato planter with your own hands need to be cut with a jigsaw, then put on a drying oil on the finished elements and begin to assemble the steel corners. When the installation is ready, it is painted with a moisture-resistant paint. So the surface will withstand the negative effects - mechanical and atmospheric. So that the potatoes inside the hopper are not injured, it is necessary to make a rubber lining, this will protect the fruits from damage.
Next, you need to follow simple steps in the form of the following actions:
- attach the paw holder and axle to the frame;
- weld all pins;
- fix the wheel axle.
Planting potatoes is not an easy task. This is a rather time-consuming process that takes a lot of time and effort. To do all the work, you need to have a lot of physical strength and free time. Every year, agriculture becomes more automated, new, modern devices, such as potato planters, appear. This does not mean that you need to immediately buy such a miracle machine, you just need to make a little effort and do it yourself. Good luck in designing and success in planting a garden!