The classic trimmer is an electric hand-held lawnmower that is powered by mains or battery power. Sometimes a trimmer is called a brushcutter – a more powerful lawn mower with a gasoline two- or four-stroke engine.
In terms of design and purpose, these devices are very similar, but it is better to use a brushcutter for processing the beds, since the electric trimmer motor is not designed for serious and prolonged loads.
Weeding potatoes with a trimmer in organic farming
While chemists develop more and more poisonous herbicides, and weeds adapt safely to them, proponents of organic farming argue that the soil should be loosened as little as possible, and traditional weeding is generally useless. Burian assimilates the nutrients with which gardeners fertilize the beds. If the weeds are removed from the site, the earth will lose a certain amount of trace elements. And if you cut the stems of weed grass at the root (but only before the formation of seeds) and leave to dry in the beds and in the aisles, they will play the role of mulch, attract useful worms and insects, and retain moisture. Of course, after a while, new shoots will hatch from the roots. But in place of the cut one, only one weed will grow, and if during weeding the root is chopped (and it is difficult to completely remove the roots from the ground), then a new plant will sprout from each piece. With periodic mowing of weed shoots, their roots will be exhausted and die off, and a new weed will take nowhere, except that the wind will bring seeds. The only exception is the old wheatgrass, whose roots must be carefully weeded out, as they are able to pierce through the potato tubers. Another method of organic farming is sowing siderates. Rye, barley, oats, phacelia significantly improve the structure of the soil (and at the same time suppress the weeds), but they need to be mowed when the potato shoots reach 15–20 cm in height. Cut green manure stalks mulch the beds, and the roots die and rot during the season. It is more convenient and quickest to mow weeds or green manure with a trimmer: this is less likely to damage cultivated plants.
Potato trimmer attachments
To cut weeds and siderates, it is better to use a brushcutter or a trimmer with an electric motor in the upper part: then the device can work in wet grass. In row spacings, they are usually mowed with a trimmer head with a fishing line (Fig. 1). Weeds have been observed to grow back more slowly with a round line than after being cut with a star cord. 1Sometimes a three-bladed knife is used to cut weeds (Fig. 2). But metal knives are put on only on trimmers with a straight bar, if it is bent, they use plastic attachments. The problem is that if the knife bumps into any solid object in motion, the trimmer will bounce back or even split. Curved bar models are equipped with plastic knives. 2
Weeding potatoes with a brushcutter with a cultivator attachment
In stores, cultivator attachments for brushcutters with soil milling cutters are sold (Fig. 3). The cutters are in the form of discs with curved blades, put on a common axis. As a rule, there are 4 cutters in the nozzle. Fig. 3The width of the nozzle, the diameter and the number of cutters directly depend on the power of the trimmer motor. If the cultivator is too large, the engine may overheat. Usually, the instructions for the attachment indicate for which trimmers or brushcutter it is intended. If the power of the brushcutter is less than 2,5 liters. with., and the cultivator is not included in the kit, then it is dangerous to use a separately purchased attachment: this will significantly reduce the service life of the equipment. It is not recommended to make the accessory by hand, as it is difficult to select its width and diameter of the cutters in such a way that the trimmer motor is not damaged. The same rule applies to milling cutters as to the mowing knife: a collision with a hard object will break the brushcutter. Do not weed potatoes with a brushcutter or trimmer on heavy, clayey soils. It happens that the Chinese potato trimmer attachment gets stuck after 10-15 minutes of operation. To prevent an accident, experienced gardeners recommend thoroughly treating all rubbing parts of the cultivator with silicone grease before the first use.
Rules for weeding potatoes with a trimmer
Before starting work, you must wear goggles and a respirator: the cutters rotate very quickly, creating a cloud of dust and small pieces of grass; Weed should be done when the weeds are still very small and have not had time to properly take root. Since weeding with a trimmer takes several times less time than manual labor, it is better to process the beds every 7-14 days. When the tops of the potato bushes close in the rows, weeding is no longer needed; It is recommended to choose the morning of a sunny day for weeding. Then weeds uprooted during the heat of the day will fade and turn into mulch; According to the principles of organic farming, the cutters should not be deepened by more than 0,5-1,5 cm. With this method of processing, the dried crust is broken, and the top layer of soil in the beds is saturated with oxygen and nitrogen, which is very useful for the growth of tubers; The cutters should not be deepened also because if you press too hard on the trimmer, the motor will overheat and break; When weeding with a trimmer with a low-power motor, it is recommended to take a break every 10 to 15 minutes to allow the motor to cool; At the end of the season, the nozzle is thoroughly wiped with a disinfectant (a solution of chlorine, potassium permanganate or copper sulfate), since pathogens of potato diseases may remain on it. If there were cases of diseases on the site, then such an operation is performed after each use of the cultivator.
Repair of the nozzle and replacement of cutters
A broken cutter can be replaced with a self-made one by turning a circle out of a sheet of metal, cutting and bending the blades. But the diameter of the new part should not be larger than the diameter of the old ones. Under no circumstances should additional cutters be put on the nozzle axle.
