First try at a potato harvest. lots of pics

We probably did it wrong but we had fun. I'm guessing we got around 400- 600 lbs of potatoes. We planted 200lbs of seed taters. I know we missed some. It was a learning curve. Making a hitch to pull it next year with the Farmall H. The 9N was to fast and to light in the front. We will live and learn. All in all it was a blast. Enjoy the pics.

You did pretty good for your first time. You have found out why the "N" series are mainly a three point implement tractor. The IH H would be a little better but they still have a pretty fast low gear. If you are handy mechanically then a Sherman reduction in your 9N would work well. Just get some front weights on the tractor.

As for your potatoes. You need to spread them out and let them dry. I use a large old area rug to spread them out on. Then just pick them up and rub the dirt off of them. DO NOT WASH THEM. the water will make them rot. You then need a cool dry place to store them. They need to be protected from freezing but the cooler the better. Bushel baskets work the best to store them in. Card board boxes would be the second choice. Plastic anything will make them rot as they will sweat against the plastic.

If you have the room a large wooden shelf with old news paper and the potatoes spread out one deep works great to. My Grand Mother had shelves like that in her cellar. The where 24 inches deep and eight feet wide. The where only ten inches between the shelves. That way you can have just one section that will hold a bunch of potatoes.

Fuller,

Congratulations on your boutiful harvest. It looks like you had a blast with the whole process.

When I was a kid, we used to harvest potatoes for a big farmer in the area. He paid us from $.04 to $.08 per bushel basket of potatoes that we collected, depending on the quantity of potatoes that was in any particular field that we were picking up from. We'd spend hours crawling on our hands and knees from one end of the field to the other, using our bare hands to dig the potatoes out of the freshly turned dirt.

Eventually, the farmers started bringing in Mexican migrant workers to harvest the potatoes, so that ended the work for the locals.

Tom in TN

Fullers Farmalls,
Boy, that is a lot of spuds! Love your rusty old potato digger.

I agree with JD Seller, you need to spread them out and let them dry... they get their "skin" on them. They will begin to spoil quickly in a pile with moist dirt on them. We usually dry ours out in the barn for a few days and then rub the dirt off before bringing the into the basement.

We used the same type of hitch on our 8N with the same type of digger. 8N speed worked good for us - faster chain shook out more dirt.

You must have missed a pic of the process - or dig those taters jump into that trailer their own selves?

Looks good! We came up with a similar hitch setup for our old digger. Do you actually let someone ride on it when you are driving? We had to remove the seat from ours in order to remove the temptation to ride.

Our ground has a lot more rocks, which can jam the conveyor chain and cause the digger to tip over when the tractor operator doesn"t notice it in time. We mounted a set of wheel weights on the digger to compensate for the weight lost by removing the person.

Good luck!

That looks cool! You are inspiring me to get working on mine. Yeah, these horsedrawn models were suppose to have a small wheel axle under the hitch, and that had the shaft, wippletree-and kept the depth steady.... I will bet if you lowered it as far as possible, go around once again, you will find the rest of your potatoes, mine hide deep around here- water? heat? I don't even have to hill them, never near the surface...

That's what the picture is of my cousins wife picking them up and putting them in a bucket. I drove and picked. We had a blast!

I agree a 9n would be too fast and too light for this.

JDseller, I'm not gonna argue with your experience, just say that mine is different. We used to do potatoes wholesale and a good part of the crop would get stored in the potato barn- concrete floor, measured something like 48'X86'X16'. We would pile the potatoes, loose, floor to ceiling, against the back wall and 2 sides. There is some management required in terms of air flow, temps, etc but they would keep as long as 4 or 5 months if necessary. the potatoes do need to have the skin "set" in the field though.

Yes you're right Tom about the "imported labor" taking over the jobs. Government regulations keeping our children from working in the fields put a stop to this. Now we have illegal aliens doing all the farmwork. The children nowadays, due to these regulations, have lost work ethics. They don't know how to work nor do they want to work. Oh yes, they can go and flip hamburgers at McDonalds but what are they learning there? They still don't even know how to count change. They don't even learn how to slice tomatoes or onions,, they might cut themselves. So everything comes to the restaurant already sliced. "LIABILITY" is the nastiest word in our society.
Back when I was a kid, every kid was eager to do farmwork during the summer to make money for the next years school clothes and supplies. Now you can't hardly find kids to pick fruit or haul hay or do any other farmwork. Moms and Dads just hand them the money for whatever they need. Most of them have cell phones, cars and tatoos but no work. Who do you think pays those bills?
What a sad situation that we have to use imported illegal labor to do farmwork. It's because those imported laborors have a work ethics. It's because they were poor in their home country and learned how to work when they were a small child, in order for the family to survive.
But then when there's not farm work, we support them with a wealth of social services. So not only has our government spoiled our younger generation, they are also spoiling the imported labor. I guess if I lived in a place like Mexico I would come here too for all the freebies we will to give them.
A sad situation we have put our younger generation in.

Hey, nice pics. Do you have any trouble regulating depth without the front depth wheel? I've been told the ones w/o a depth wheel in front are a bear to keep consistent. I got a PTO powered Deere in the back of the shed that was left by the PO of the farm. Thinking about digging it out one of these years.

I got 600 feet to dig, but am waiting until the weather is cooler. It seems they keep better in the ground versus the basement when it's warm. I'll pull 'em up after the nights get below 40 degrees.

We had a heck of a time trying to keep it consistent. I may try
and rig up a depth wheel. Other wise a solid hitch that goes to
my drawbar on my H and adjust it with the lever that is still on
the machine.

Mine keep for years.
Richard in NW SC

That looks like a ton of fun!

When I was a kid my dad raised potatoes and he buried a concrete burial vault in the barn and stored the potatoes in it with some boards and straw for a cover. They kept all winter.

Richard could you post or e-mail me the instructions on how can potatoes. thanks

(quoted from post at 05:19:14 08/14/12) Richard could you post or e-mail me the instructions on how can potatoes. thanks

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Check your email and email me with any questions.
Richard

You should get 10 pounds of potatoes for 1 pound of seed planted.