Rigger for potatoes

Types and instructions of homemade potato hillers

Types of hillers

Therefore, due to hilling, the yield and quality of potato fruits increase. It is necessary to sprinkle potatoes with moistened soil, it is very good to do this after the morning dew or rain falls. If you cover the fruits with dry soil, you will destroy the plants, so never huddle the potatoes on hot days.

To prevent this, you need to loosen the two bolts on the hitch bracket and move the beam upward along the vertical groove, as a result of which the walk-behind tractor will “fall” back, and the hiller stand will stand vertically. If, on the contrary, the stand of the hiller is “overwhelmed” back, then the hiller will not go deeper to the required depth. Therefore, we move the bead along the vertical groove down to the vertical position of the hiller.

Take as much carbon steel as possible. Cut the knife into an arrowhead shape and sharpen it properly at a 45 degree angle. This angle will provide sharpness for a long time. Weld the knife to the bottom of the upright and grind it down. The hiller is ready to go!

Advantages of the device

A pipe with a length of 900-1000 mm must be bent at a distance of about 300 mm from the beginning at an angle of 10-15 degrees. A pipe bender will help to cope with this. But if it is not there, then you can do this:Front thrust, necessary for one of the workers to pull the hiller forward;Today, to facilitate the care of potatoes and speed up the hilling process, you can purchase a special walk-behind tractor. The advantages of the walk-behind tractor are its universal use: from loosening the soil to harvesting. The disadvantages of this device include its high cost, as well as an increased likelihood of damage to potato tubers.

Hollow tube (length – 90-100 cm, diameter – 1 inch).

How to use

The second hilling is desirable during the period of tuber formation. This is about 2-3 weeks after the first, before the flowering of the culture.

Hilling equipment

If the area intended for processing significantly exceeds this indicator, of course, it is best to fully automate your work. At the same time, it would be nice to think about purchasing such a technique as a cultivator. With this equipment, you can carry out a wide variety of excavation work, spending a minimum of effort. Let’s take a look at how to choose the cultivator that is most convenient for each site.

Vegetable gardening equipment

Lister and disc hillers, due to their simple design, can be made independently. On the Internet or specialized literature, you can find many drawings for homemade tool making.

Homemade hiller

One of the important points that arise when growing potatoes is the problem of hilling potatoes. If the planting area is small, you can do it manually. The hilling process is quite laborious, so it is best to use a motor cultivator with special equipment. Nowadays, you can find a wide variety of devices, but most often they use a disc hiller for potatoes. The device will help you process all the beds easily and comfortably.

As soon as the potatoes come up, carry out the first hilling. If frost is possible, then fill the tubers completely. Fill the tubers as high as possible, with a “heap”, since usually the earth crumbles down and the efficiency of hilling is reduced. When the bushes grow up to 30 cm, do the hilling again. Make sure that the stems remain upright after raking the soil into the rows.

How to make a hiller for potatoes

We control the verticality of the rack along the heel of the hiller, which is located between its wings at the bottom and sliding along the bottom of the groove being cut. After installation, tighten the nuts on the bolts securing the beam to the hitch bracket. The angle of attack for other mounted implements is set in the same way.

The disc hiller for the walk-behind tractor is used for hilling potatoes and other crops. In parallel with hilling, weeds are cut in the aisles, and the weeds between the bushes are covered with earth. Hillers also carry out other tillage work, such as cutting furrows for planting tubers and backfilling furrows in the back of the walk-behind tractor.

Hilling a potato field with a tractor

You need to fill the pipe more tightly with sand;

Rear handle – designed to be operated on behalf of the second worker;

Video “Do-it-yourself disk hiller”

In the case of processing potatoes using a walk-behind tractor, you need to make sure that the distance between the rows is fixed and the same during planting. To do this, it is recommended to use a special marker and use it to draw lines on the beds.

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Manual potato ridger and other garden equipment

Hollow tube (diameter – ¾ “), designed for the manufacture of traction: rear and front.

manual potato ridger

The third procedure for caring for potatoes can be carried out when the bushes grow about 25 centimeters. It is not necessary to completely fill them, it is enough to sprinkle the base. You can also throw some dirt between the branches of the bushes so that they grow wider.

This technique can be of different power and weight, and also run on gasoline, electricity or diesel fuel. When choosing, as in the first case, you need to focus primarily on the size of the area of ​​the site. An electric cultivator is perfect for small gardens. Such models are economical, practically do not make noise and do not pollute the environment at all.

how to choose a cultivator

To make a lister hiller from metal, it is necessary to cut out the halves of the product with a thickness of 2 mm according to the drawing. Next, you need to bend these halves so that their radii coincide, weld them and process the seams to obtain a perfectly even cut of the metal. If you make two such structures, you get a device for two-row processing of potatoes.

Consider the main types of potato hillers for a walk-behind tractor. The easiest to use is a lister, or fixed-width hiller. Such a device is suitable for walk-behind tractors or cultivators with a power of no more than 3,5 hp. for processing narrow row spacings. Fixed wings are attached to the rack.

cultivator tarpan

Hilling potatoes with a regular and disc hiller. When installing a conventional hiller, set the immersion depth and angle of attack. The tiller is simply installed on a level surface (without stands), the hiller is placed on the ground so that its stand is vertical, which is equivalent to setting the desired angle of attack, then it is attached to the hitch.

The disc hiller contains a T-shaped leader, two stands, two discs and two screw lanyards. The discs are constantly inclined forward, and the angle of their rotation around the vertical axis is adjusted using lanyards.

The most common on farms are hillers with a fixed or variable working width, as well as disc hillers.

How to huddle potatoes?

Well-groomed vegetable garden

The hiller greatly simplifies the process of many routine work in the course of caring for the site. It also copes with cutting furrows when planting potatoes and hilling them. Also, this device is indispensable for cutting ridges and when loosening the soil.

The need for hilling potatoes

Correctly hilled potato ridges

To carry out hilling potatoes on a walk-behind tractor, the following are installed:

Millimeter steel sheet to manufacture dumps.

Time of the first and subsequent hilling

The first hilling of potatoes

When a color appears on a crop, it is necessary to spill or weed the crop very carefully. During this period, tubers begin to set and they can be damaged.

Hilling schemes

For large areas, a gasoline or diesel tool such as the Tarpan cultivator is an excellent solution. This is a truly versatile piece of equipment that can be combined with a lawn mower, water pump, trash grinder, etc., if desired. The engine, running on gasoline, has a power of 6 l / s, thanks to which even heavy soil on a plot of 6 acres can be processed in just an hour.

    • Consider a model for manufacturing a disk model for a walk-behind tractor. The first step is to choose the type of wings. Discs – steel sheets 1,5-2 mm thick with bent edges. It is important that the disks are symmetrical. If this condition is not taken into account, then the structure will go to the side, which will significantly complicate the work. The discs are welded together or bolted together. The set for the disks includes a T-shaped leader, screw lanyards that adjust the vertical axis of rotation of the disks and stands. A beam with wings serves as an attachment to the walk-behind tractor. It is very important to adhere to the ratio of the sizes of the parts. Depending on your capabilities and needs, it is possible to manufacture the device with both fixed and variable working widths.
    • The most common equipment is a device for hilling potatoes with a variable working width, which is suitable for more powerful tillers. You can use the hiller on beds of different widths. The main disadvantage of the device is the consumption of more fuel. To speed up the processing, two-row devices are made that allow processing twice as fast.
    • If, during work, the hiller digs too deep into the ground or, on the contrary, comes out of the ground, then the stand must be tilted either slightly backward, raising the toe, or tilted forward, increasing the depth.

It will be pleasant to work with a disc hiller if you first fulfill one condition – install the discs in such a way that the gap between their lower points is equal to the width between the rows (while the track width from the walk-behind tractor wheels is also equal to the width between the rows).

How to hud potatoes by hand: process features

Hilling potatoes with a hoe

The first and second types differ only in the design of the movable wings, which set the working width.

Heat the place of bending with a blowtorch to red and do not start slowly bending the pipe;

To build a manual hiller for processing potatoes with your own hands, you will need the following tools and materials:

    • Two openers on the front of the device.
    • Blowtorch to heat metal for bending.

Before you start hilling the potatoes, you need to pull out all the weeds on the site. The grass can not be removed, but left on the ground. When dry, it will be an excellent protection from the sun’s rays. It is best to do potato care procedures not in the middle of a hot day, tormented by thirst, but to do it early in the morning or in the late afternoon with a decrease in sun activity. Indeed, in any case, when hilling, you disturb the plant system a little, and it can wither.

Care of potatoes with the manual tiller

Manual tiller

Each garden owner decides for himself what kind of equipment suits him best – super economical, such as a manual potato hiller, or almost completely eliminating the need for manual labor, but more financially expensive, such as a cultivator or walk-behind tractor.

Manual tiller discs

It is possible to provide for the arrangement of sleeve bearings to facilitate work, increase the reliability of the product. In order to securely attach the tool to the walk-behind tractor, use the hitch bracket. A leash is attached to it using flat washers.

    • The functionality of the previous two can replace the disc hiller. It is more expensive, but more convenient and easier to use. On the market there is an average version between disk and analog – a Dutch-type hiller, which consumes significantly less energy, and also costs less. The equipment wings can be rotated vertically and horizontally. There is another option, but it is used less often – a propeller-type hiller.
    • Before working with a disc hiller, the gap between the lower points of the discs is adjusted, equal to the accepted width between the beds (from 35 to 70 cm, depending on the crop) and the angle of attack, which should be the same for both one and the second disc , otherwise the hiller will pull to the side.
    • To set the required spacing between the lower points of the discs, we rearrange the stands C of both discs and the bolts B into different holes on the hiller’s leash.Thus, the width between the rows varies from 35 to 70 cm. by turning the lanyards.
    • A hiller with a fixed working width is usually hung on light motoblocks weighing up to thirty kilograms with an engine power of up to 3,5 horsepower. These hillers are distinguished by thin racks with a diameter of 12 mm, which act as overload protectors for light motoblocks.
    • The sand inside will not allow the pipe to maintain its original cross-section under the influence of temperature and physical force.
    • The hollow water pipe required for the upright is 1 inch diameter and 900 to 1000 mm in length.
    • Hiller behind, which is intended for filling potato bushes with soil.
    1. The basic rules for understanding how to huddle potatoes will be described below. For manual hilling of potatoes, you do not need to have supernatural abilities, it is enough to have a hoe or a hoe and be able to use them. The boot is the most popular tool used by gardeners to care for plants. It can be trapezoidal, triangular, sharp or rounded.
    1. In any case, when buying any of these types of modern tools, you can significantly facilitate summer cottage work and, accordingly, get an excellent harvest, spending much less effort.
    1. After assembling the structure, testing can be carried out. If the wheels of the walk-behind tractor start to be towed, they need to be paired.

Hilling potatoes with a walk-behind tractor

Motoblock for hilling potatoes

Each type of hiller has its own pros and cons.

In disc hillers, one more parameter is distinguished – the angle of inclination of the discs in relation to the vertical, but it, almost always, is constant and not adjustable.

To facilitate turning the lanyards, the following method of attaching their ears is used: a nut or thick washer 1 is placed between the leash bar and the lanyard’s ear, the bolt is threaded through the lanyard’s ear, nut and bar. All this is pulled together by nut 2. Then this nut is released by 0,5-1 turns and locked with nut 3.

    • Variable width hillers are the most common type of hillers used by farmers due to their relatively low cost and ease of use. The disadvantage of this type of hillers is that some part of the land, after filling the rows of plants, rolls down into the furrow.
    • A pipe that is ¾ ”in diameter should be bent in the same way as the upright. To adjust the height of the rack, drill holes in its upper end and the same holes in the vertical part of the future fork. By changing the position of the bolt in the holes, you can change the height of the rack for the convenience of each worker.

A ¾ inch diameter hollow tube cut is required for front and rear thrust.

It is important to note that to care for large plantings of potatoes, you can use three-row nozzles, which will simultaneously spud three rows of potato bushes. Each gardener decides for himself how to care for the plants: spend little time and a lot of money on it, or vice versa.

The design and purpose of the manual hiller

As you know, hilling potatoes is necessary to increase yields and protect tubers from adverse weather conditions. That is why all gardeners who grow crops should know how and when to huddle potatoes, as well as be able to use hilling devices.

    • Thus, we examined the main types of potato ridgers. The choice of a reliable assistant for the cultivation of the garden is yours. Do not forget that the use of specialized equipment will not only make your work easier, but also contribute to an increase in yield. You can also use devices for planting other crops. Homemade hillers are not so difficult to make, the main thing is to draw up a drawing correctly and adhere to all parameters.
    • When using a fixed grip hiller, keep the same row width for potatoes. Otherwise, you will only damage the plants.
    • When the wheels of the walk-behind tractor have a diameter of about 70 cm and a width of 10-14 cm, then they do not damage the plants. Therefore, the correct wheels must be fitted before working with the disc hiller. There is no bead on the hitch hitch for the disc hiller; instead, there is a hiller’s leash, which allows you to adjust all the necessary parameters.

The disc hiller is attached to the walk-behind tractor on the hitch bracket, which does not have a bead. Like the bead, the hiller’s leash is attached to such a bracket by means of a stopper and two bolts with flat washers. A square pipe of the bracket is put on the stopper, and the bolts firmly press the leash of the hiller from the outside to the square pipe.

DIY manual potato hiller

This disadvantage is largely devoid of the so-called. “Dutch” hillers, which are a separate subtype of hillers with variable working width. Their wings have the ability to move not only to the sides, but also up and down. These hillers are intended for connection to motoblocks weighing more than thirty kilograms with engine power from 4,0 horsepower and above.

    1. The front link is the same fork as the rear link, but there is a difference in dimension. The length of the handles should be such that the front worker can easily position himself between the handles and grasp them.
    1. A piece of sheet traction with a thickness of 1-2 mm – for creating dumps.
    1. To increase the efficiency of caring for this garden crop, it is advisable to first watch a video on how to properly huddle potatoes, regardless of the chosen method of hilling.
    1. Welding machine.
    1. The first method is to rake the soil to the bush from all sides. Thus, one “bouquet” of stems is obtained.
    1. Recently, one can hear the opinion that potatoes can be grown without hilling. Of course, the roots of the plant, which are directed downward, do not require such work, but the stolons on which the tubers appear often grow not only downward, but to the sides and upward. Carrying out such a procedure is necessary for the formation of additional tubers in loose soil and a mound and for improving the yield of the crop.
    1. The video shows a hiller for a home-made walk-behind tractor and tells how and from what it was made.

Making a vertical stand

To avoid these difficulties, use a hilling device with a variable working width, but it consumes more energy. Also, such devices are difficult to use on wet soil. The advantages of the Dutch potato hiller are reasonable price, high-quality work performance, low energy consumption. The propeller hilling device efficiently loosens the soil and pours it to the roots of the plant.

    • We put lug wheels on the cultivator, set the maximum working width and, at the first shift, let the walk-behind tractor between the beds.
    • After that, by means of two bolts B, the hitch bracket is rotated until the hiller leash is set strictly along the longitudinal axis of the walk-behind tractor. In this position, the leash is fixed with nuts G.
    • To fix the depth of travel of the hiller for the walk-behind tractor, the side bolt 1 is used. In the vertical position, the stand of the hiller is set with the bolt 2, located with the head to the stand of the hiller to prevent thread creasing. We align the beam to a strictly horizontal position with two bolts B on the hitch bracket and fix it with locknuts D.

The length of the vertical part of the fork will be 600 mm, you need to flatten it at the ends and drill a hole here to connect to the vertical post.

We make front and rear rods

Lanyard – needed to connect the front link and upright. Can be replaced with a steel plate with holes for stepped angle of attack.

At a time when the time for planting potatoes comes, many gardeners are guided by the following algorithm of action: – mark future beds at the same distance; -after using a shovel, dig holes; – sowing potatoes; – I manually fall asleep

To make a potato hiller with your own hands, you need:

According to the second method, the stems must be pushed apart in different directions and only after that the soil must be poured into the middle of the bush.

Over time, potatoes grow and come closer to the surface of the earth, which indicates the need to harvest. In addition to increasing yields, hilling protects tubers from the hot sun or possible night frosts, as a result, they do not turn green and do not deteriorate.

Double-mold plow

All gardeners know that hilling carried out on time has a very strong effect on the potato yield. Due to the fact that the root processes begin to grow not only downwards, but also to the sides, many large tubers are formed on them. In order to get a large crop of potatoes, it is advisable to huddle it after each heavy rain or abundant watering.

Undercut knife

A miracle potato hiller is considered to be a disk device, the design of which allows the most productive work to be done. The processing of potatoes with a disc hiller forms high ridges, the device is very convenient to use and allows you to calculate a certain angle for work as accurately as possible. It can also be used to prepare furrows for sowing seeds and planting seedlings. But the main advantage of the disc-type hiller is that it is easy to make it with your own hands, while saving money.

Since the distance between the rows and both hillers is the same, the wheels will go exactly along the rows along the bottoms of the furrows and will not touch the stalks of potato bushes, and the hiller will evenly roll the soil to the bases of the stalks.

Disk hiller for walk-behind tractor device and application

It is preferable to work with a hiller for a walk-behind tractor in the first low gear. At a low forward speed of the walk-behind tractor, it is much more convenient for the operator to work, and the traction of the walk-behind tractor increases accordingly. If the walk-behind tractor has only one forward gear, then try pairing the wheels to prevent them from slipping.

The width of the grip of the hiller is set with bolt B and a nut.

Hiller device for walk-behind tractors with fixed and variable working width

A lanyard will be used as a mechanism for adjusting the angle of attack. It fits between the rod and the rack.

Blowtorch or gas torch – needed to heat the metal at the folds.

During the entire growth, the potatoes must be hilled, which is usually done with a hoe. This is a very time-consuming and ineffective method that will never go away. But there is salvation: today you can huddle the beds with the help of a hiller.

Setting the depth of the hiller

Make an upright strut, back and front rods. This step consists of making a bend from a 100 cm pipe about 30 cm of that pipe. It is optimal to do it with a pipe bender. The manufacturing process of the front and rear links can be better understood by watching the dedicated video.

Setting the furrow width of the hiller

When hilling, make sure that the mound is wide and high. In this case, the tubers will be spacious, and they will be able to grow more and more.

In order to achieve a good harvest and protect the crop from adverse weather conditions, you need to know when to sprinkle potatoes for the first time, as well as how many times to carry out the procedure in the future. It would be nice to do hilling on wet ground after rain or watering. In this case, the stolons, on which tubers are subsequently formed, will begin to grow even faster. A paddle threshold on too dry soil can be very harmful to potato bushes.

In our age of technological progress, many means have been invented that make it possible to mechanize all labor-intensive operations associated with earthworks. Hilling potatoes is no exception in this regard. Both fully automated tools and manual tools are available for this purpose. A manual potato ridger can be the best option for both price and performance.

Before using the walk-behind tractor, it is necessary to install wheels, a hitch and a hiller. Next, it is important to correctly set the parameters of the depth and angle of immersion. The tiller is placed on an equal surface, the hiller is lowered to the ground, attached to the hitch. In this case, there is no need to immerse the tool in the ground. It is important that the rack is vertical so that it will be easy to set the required angle.

Thus, we huddle the whole garden. If you only have a single-row hiller, then you need to install wheels with rubber tires on the walk-behind tractor and let it run between the rows.

Disk hiller for a walk-behind tractor: device and application

Hilling potatoes is an agricultural operation, which consists in dusting the bases of potato bushes with soft and loose soil. When hilling, the soil moves from the row spacing to the row of potato bushes. Hilling creates good conditions for the development of root crops, improves soil aeration, and also destroys weeds.

The universal hitch is distinguished by the absence of a screw mechanism to regulate the angle of attack of the hiller; instead, a vertical groove of the bracket is used, as a result of which there is no loosening of the hitch during hilling.

Disk hiller for walk-behind tractor

At a distance of 300 mm from below, a corner is welded to the vertical post for attaching the front link. Then, at a distance of 250 mm from the hole, we weld a similar corner 25 by 25 to the fork. You also need to make a hole in it. The same corner must be welded to the rack above the first corner.

Setting the distance between the disks of the hiller

Welding machine.

Fastening the lanyard and the strap of the hiller’s leash

This device is a rather primitive tool that two people must work with at once. The design includes the following elements:

Make a double plow. You will need two concave round plates to make the dumps. These discs must be set at a specific angle and connected using a welding machine.

Mount the hiller for the disc walk-behind tractor

The manual tiller is the most affordable and convenient device for caring for this crop. You can buy a manual potato hiller at a hardware store, or you can make one yourself. This device is used to treat the soil between the beds. Its construction is very simple. It consists of a handle – a handle and two dumps, on each of which a torso is attached, located at an angle of 45 degrees to the ground. To carry out the procedure, it is enough to pull the device forward, holding on to the handle, and adjust the blades in the desired direction.

Hilling potatoes with a walk-behind tractor video compilation

Instructions and recommendations: how to huddle potatoes with a walk-behind tractor

There is an opinion that hilling should be carried out two or three times:

There are many models of this equipment designed for use by one person or two people. With the help of this tool, not only the actual hilling is usually performed, but also the planting of potatoes (cutting rows). The manual potato hiller is a fairly simple device, the design of which includes a double-mold body equipped with a pruning knife and a manual pull with handles and a neck-axillary addition made of some flexible material. Sometimes these tools are equipped with a rear link, designed so that the person following the trail has the ability to push them.

Sometimes, at the beginning of work, the device for hilling deeply deepens or, conversely, comes out of the ground. In this case, you need to tilt the stand back or forward, depending on the problem. As I have already recalled more than once, hilling potatoes with a disc hiller is not difficult. The main thing is to correctly set the distance between the lower points of the disks. The distance depends on the row spacing. Next, we set the angle of rotation, or, as it is also called, the angle of attack. This setting ensures the potatoes are sprinkled with soil. The value of the angle relative to the vertical axis is constant and is set once. For better work, it is necessary that the wheels of the walk-behind tractor be about 70 cm in diameter and no more than 14 cm wide. Such parameters will prevent damage to plants.

The first hilling of potatoes

A width of 70 cm is enough not to damage the potato bushes. It is important to note that the hilling of potatoes with a walk-behind tractor should be carried out after rain, when the soil is slightly dry, but remains moist. The benefits of hilling are enormous: air is provided to the potatoes, weeds are destroyed, and the soil falls to the tubers.

Many people are interested in the question: when to hilling potatoes and how to hilling potatoes with a walk-behind tractor. Experienced gardeners carry out hilling two to four times a season. It is well known that potato tubers are not able to develop deeper than 15 cm from the surface of the earth, and due to hilling, additional space is created for them to grow in different directions.

Before setting the angle of attack of the hiller, first set the desired depth of its stroke, and then look at its stance. If its upper end is inclined forward, then the toe of the hiller will turn out clods of wet soil to the surface, which will cause the walk-behind tractor to brake and “drive” it from one side to the other.

Adjusting the hiller before work

We need two equal plates with a thickness of 2 mm. Give them semicircular curves. We weld the two halves of the plow to the upright post. There should be an even seam at the joint. Grinding the plates with a grinder for sharpness.

Grinder – required for processing joints.

Double-moldboard working body equipped with a trimming knife;

Hillers for potatoes for a walk-behind tractor

Make a pruning knife. This stage is very important in the manufacture of a hiller, since it is the knife that assumes the main resistance when the plow is plowed into the soil. The steel sheet should be cut in the shape of an arrowhead with an acute angle of 45 degrees, and then welded to the bottom of the rack and sanded.

So, making a potato hiller with your own hands is quite simple. To manufacture this device you will need:

The first procedure should be carried out when the potatoes grow 5-10 centimeters. If night frosts are expected, it is recommended to completely cover the bushes with earth to protect them from the cold. If a decrease in temperature is not expected, there is no need to cover young shoots with soil so as not to slow down their growth.

Similar attachments are also available for walk-behind tractors. In terms of mechanization of garden work, this is, of course, the most convenient option. However, a walk-behind tractor is not available in every household, and its purchase can cost a pretty penny. In this case, the most correct solution would be to purchase a tool such as a manual potato hiller. Especially if the site is small – within 4-6 acres.

When using a two-row hiller for processing potatoes, you need to attach the devices to the hitch at a distance that is equal to the width of the rows. If you make a mistake, you can stop the machine and adjust the width.

Anna Evans

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