Planting potatoes on 1 acre

arctictree

I'm looking at planting a field of potatoes, about 1 acre.

So, I have planted spuds for years in a garden using a rotovator and then making the ridges by hand.

To apply this to a field, I'm thinking I need a ridging plough (I have a tractor). I could plant the seeds by hand just walking down the furrow.

Anyone know what implement I can use for earthing up? Would I just run the ridge plough again between the rows? Or do I need a separate implement for this?

Donald Trump

Your drill plough would be fine.

An acre is a lot for a house, but also annoying for actually looking after in terms of spraying as it's very small otherwise

Water John

If you've a tidy tractor, yes you drive on the ridges and split them to cover the seed.

arctictree

Depends what you mean by tidy! In have an old JD but is quite large!! Maybe I just increase the width of the furrows to match the tractor wheels?

Water John

Yeah. Important to have the drills straight, or it'll be a nightmare closing them/the second run.

cute geoge

will you need to match width of the furrow to match wheels of the tractor spraying

Donald Trump

You'll have a pain in your bollox planting an acre by hand. You'd be better off seeing if someone has one of these stuck in a ditch near you.

https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagemachinery-for-sale/potato-planter/33320249

You need to make your drills before planting but that will cover them over afterwards. You'd want reasonably narrow tyres. If you have something like a 135 or that size then the standard ones would probably already be grand. For a larger tractor, it would probably want narrower than standard for it.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245876#Comment_120245876

If you make them too narrow you will end up with green spuds. Which you wouldn't want to be eating