Content
Weeding is an important step in the potato growing process. This procedure allows you not only to remove everything from the garden weeds plants, but also to loosen the soil. Thus, nitrogen flows freely to the roots along with the air, stimulating the growth of potatoes. Recently, gardeners have given preference to special motor-cultivators, with the help of which it is much easier to cultivate the soil. Let's take a look at how potatoes are weeded with a motor cultivator, and which harrows are best used for these purposes.
Weeding potatoes with a flat cutter
Many gardeners claim that the flat cutter is the most convenient tool for weeding potatoes. Distinguish between these devices in width. There are 4 types in total:
- "P-240";
- "P-320";
- "P-400";
- "P-700".
Accordingly, a plane cutter with the designation 240 can cut a row spacing of 240 mm in one pass, and a plane cutter with a 700 can cope with a distance of almost 3 times. It is not necessary to use only one type of flat cutter. They can be combined or used one at a time.
The holes on the plow stand allow you to adjust the height and depth of plowing. Such devices are made of high quality steel and can serve you for many years. The metal for the cutting part is heat treated, which makes the plane cutter durable and tough.
There are flat cutters with a ripper that work the soil better. The ripper is made of eight round plates that have distinctive cutouts. Such discs are located on the axis and begin to rotate during movement. There is also a spring on the structure that presses the ripper to the soil. This is a great tool for those who don't like doing the same job twice. The flat-cut ripper perfectly copes with the task, removing all weeds from the row spacings, as well as loosening the soil.
Weeding potatoes with a walk-behind tractor and a hedgehog
Everyone agrees that weeding potatoes with a common hoe is time-consuming and requires tremendous effort and stamina. It is especially difficult for owners of large land plots. In this case, you cannot do without a motor cultivator. In addition, the choice of harrows for weeding is quite large. For example, with weed removal in planting potatoes, a cultivator for inter-row cultivation of potatoes called hedgehog.
This device consists of rings of different sizes, on which teeth and spikes are located. The hedgehog has a cone-shaped appearance. Usually, 2 such devices are used for cultivating a garden, placing them at the same distance from each other at an angle. You can make a hedgehog yourself at home. The main thing is to choose high-quality material and correctly assemble the structure. Often discs are used for this, which did not perform well during the weeding process. The fact is that between the discs, soil and weeds that have been plucked are constantly packed.
The hedgehog is a smaller version of the large rotary harrow for tractors and operates on the same principle. It easily penetrates the ground. And then, rotating, loosens the soil, simultaneously pulling out weeds with roots from the rows.
Net harrow for weeding potatoes
Some gardeners prefer the so-called harrows. This device consists of a hinged frame, inside which a toothed mesh is stretched. The mesh has hexagonal or square cells about 20 cm in size. The teeth are wrapped down towards the ground. A hexagonal mesh is more convenient, since the teeth in it are staggered. But, if you install a square grid at an angle of 45 ° relative to the direction of the walk-behind tractor itself, then you can also achieve a staggered arrangement of the teeth.
The harrow has its advantages and disadvantages. The positive aspects include the following:
- The harrow covers a large area at the same time.
- The device can be easily built with your own hands.
- Can be used together with others together with other plowing attachments.
But unfortunately, there are no less important disadvantages. The harrow does not loosen the soil. Because of this, additional procedures have to be carried out, which takes a lot of time. Some gardeners prefer to use a harrow for cultivating the soil after plowing the soil in the spring or in the beds before the first shoots of potatoes appear.
Conclusion
Nowadays, walk-behind tractors are gaining more and more popularity. This is not surprising, because this technique greatly facilitates our work and saves time. Cultivators are especially needed in large areas with potatoes. And all kinds of adaptations make the task even easier. In this article, we looked at the most common tools for making weeding potatoes with a walk-behind tractor... It would also be nice to watch the video below, which tells and clearly shows how the weeding of a vegetable garden is carried out in this way.
