No-Till Potatoes

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
They will be fine for hand harvest but there would be to many clods for mechanical harvest. Years ago by default there was a small area left in the autumn ........ the following autumn sent the harvester in and there were potatoes but the soil clods were as much as the pots yielded.
If they grow on the surface of the soil, but under the straw where will the clods come from?
 
If they grow on the surface of the soil, but under the straw where will the clods come from?

As I said it will be fine for hand harvest but for mechanical harvest you need soil on the web to stop bruising. That soil will be full of clods because its unmoved and tilled to a fine crumb size like normal spud growing. The soil is tiled harshly for a reason.

No tilled spuds will never work with current mechanical harvesting systems because of this.
 

Yep but again they will be harvested by hand so will work.

Potato harvesters have 'shares' which take entire potato bed into the webs where the soil is eventually separated from the potatoes but the idea is to keep the soil on the web for as long as possible which stops the potatoes rolling around on the webs and bruising.

Those no till potatoes were put into the ground so the share on the harvester would scope the soil into the bed.
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
I must admit that I know next to nothing about growing potatoes beyond the few rows in the garden...but we had a fond hope that we could get just under the potatoes with the lifter and on to the web (who's photo I'm looking forward to seeing); the top layer of soil should be fairly compost like with the fym and thick layer of straw at the surface, and thus slide through the web.

Luckily, we've got a few weeks before we have to worry about harvest. Variety is Hermes which is a crisp making potato, so @York 's party will have crisps rather than mash or chips to go with the dandelion and burdock wine. If harvest happens...
 

David_A

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Fife
Thinking about this from the harvesting point of view, you would likely need to de-stone and make the beds in the previous season, then plant the cover onto the prepared soil in order that it has enough time to bulk (thinking from a Scottish point of view where our previous harvest is later, although if the previous crop was an earlier harvested winter barley we may not loose out on a season of production). This might enable a harvester to work. However, this does rather undo the good that the no till is trying to achieve. It may be a useful stepping stone though.
 
I agree it will be difficult to harvest but I think the most interesting thing will be how the sample yields and how it looks. Because a lot less energy has gone into growing them and its obviously not a commercial thing but who knows in the future someone may invent a better way of harvesting them? The web and shears way has only developed because of ridge planting - I wonder if some sort of vacuum would work for them? (20 years away)
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
As far as I can see the tubers will be forming on the surface of the soil?:scratchhead:
If it works, then all you need is a machine to remove straw (like they do with carrots).Harvester share only needs to scrape the ground under tubers, therefore not too much clod.
The above sounds like a load of rubbish, but I'm rushing off to patent the idea anyway.:ROFLMAO:
 
As far as I can see the tubers will be forming on the surface of the soil?:scratchhead:
If it works, then all you need is a machine to remove straw (like they do with carrots).Harvester share only needs to scrape the ground under tubers, therefore not too much clod.
The above sounds like a load of rubbish, but I'm rushing off to patent the idea anyway.:ROFLMAO:

Yes but you need protection for the potato on the web so something's got to be there. Straw won't separate when you need it to so you'd be taking straw and spuds back to the yard.

Also web systems are designed to remove small tubers as well so a mat of straw on the web would carry them over as well into the trailer.

Growing potatoes needs loose friable soil so you might argue you get that with no till ....... That's fine but you need that soil in the web which means major soil movement.

Proper No Till and root crops cannot happen at the moment.
 
Maybe a heavy-duty wheel rake (like for hay, but much stronga) would work for making a big swath from several potatoe rows. Strong turbine to suck up some residue and blow it away. And then loading the big swath with something like a maus-loader for beets with a kind of pick-up, but made smaller, so suited for potatoes. Again with strong turbines to clean it all up from residues.

But the potatoes have to be on the surface just covered with mulch, otherwise you have to dig them out wihich wouldn`t be no-till anymore.
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Yes but you need protection for the potato on the web so something's got to be there. Straw won't separate when you need it to so you'd be taking straw and spuds back to the yard.

Also web systems are designed to remove small tubers as well so a mat of straw on the web would carry them over as well into the trailer.

Growing potatoes needs loose friable soil so you might argue you get that with no till ....... That's fine but you need that soil in the web which means major soil movement.

Proper No Till and root crops cannot happen at the moment.
True, but if you don't need to separate soil & clods you wouldn't need big harvesters with long webs with spuds bouncing all over the place. Compare the size of the old elevator diggers to modern harvesters which seem to be getting longer every year.
Just thinking aloud really, can't see it working at all, but an interesting discussion.
 
Maybe a heavy-duty wheel rake (like for hay, but much stronga) would work for making a big swath from several potatoe rows. Strong turbine to suck up some residue and blow it away. And then loading the big swath with something like a maus-loader for beets with a kind of pick-up, but made smaller, so suited for potatoes. Again with strong turbines to clean it all up from residues.

But the potatoes have to be on the surface just covered with mulch, otherwise you have to dig them out wihich wouldn`t be no-till anymore.

Yes but the problem is you need the blanket of soil/mulch on the separation web to protect the potatoes from bruising and then just at the right time you need that blanket to be removed so you only take potatoes back to the store.

Having to separate soil/mulch in the yard is costly and you don't want soil in the store with the potatoes.
 

Darren

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
As I said it will be fine for hand harvest but for mechanical harvest you need soil on the web to stop bruising. That soil will be full of clods because its unmoved and tilled to a fine crumb size like normal spud growing. The soil is tiled harshly for a reason.

No tilled spuds will never work with current mechanical harvesting systems because of this.
You don't need soil on the Web. You need a well set up machine. Clod, stone on the Web will bruise the tuber. Tubers on a Web are fine aslong as there's no big drops involved
 

Old John

Member
Location
N E Suffolk
You don't need soil on the Web. You need a well set up machine. Clod, stone on the Web will bruise the tuber. Tubers on a Web are fine aslong as there's no big drops involved
Perhaps you could use whatever they use to pick up windrowed onions?
These pick up small, round and delicate things laying on the surface of the soil, not unlike the potatoes would be after the straw covering is removed.
Just a thought.
 

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