Double row potato plow?

[drw]

I think a double row potato plow is what I need. I am gardening with raised beds, and I use my potato plow to start the bed.

First, I cultivate it nice and finely, then I drive down the rows with my potato plow to dig trenches parallel to each other. I then go back with my shovel shape the beds up nice and neatly. There are two problems with this technique:

1) The shovel work gets REAL old FAST when I'm doing hundreds of feet of gardening rows.

2) The tractor is driving over the area that later becomes the planting/growing area.

It seems like if I had a double potato plow, then I could set the spacing of the plows so that they are each directly behind the wheels of my (Kubota 30hp) tractor. Then I drive down the row and it automatically makes two trenches with the planting surface directly between them.

It makes sense to me, but I've searched and searched and haven't found anyone else talking about this. Am I on the wrong track here? Is there a better way to do this? And if not, is there such a double row potato plow available anywhere?

 

[rayh76]

I don't have an answer for you, but one thing you can expect with raised beds is WORK! They sure look nice and appear easier to maintain, but I will stick to traditional type beds. I have considered a raised bed for strawberries but that is about it.

 

[drw]

I don't have an answer for you, but one thing you can expect with raised beds is WORK! They sure look nice and appear easier to maintain, but I will stick to traditional type beds. I have considered a raised bed for strawberries but that is about it.

I've gardened on raised beds for about 5 years and love them to pieces, especially for weed control and the general health of the plants. The only trouble is that you are correct, they are big time WORK to setup, and thus my idea for a double potato plow.

 

[rayh76]

See link. Are these results something like you want?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/56139-tiller-mod.html

 

[charlz]

You probably are thinking of something with hippers to form a bed.. like this:


3-PT KEULAVATOR FRAME (FRAME ONLY) - Agri Supply

Personally I have formed 'drive on' raised beds which are frameless raised beds. They are the width of my tiller and I just drive right on the bed and till them up. There are a couple of pics in this thread:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/117555-starting-garden-yet-4.html

I have since planted grass between the beds to keep down weeds and to provide mulching material. Just waiting for the grass to thicken up so I can give it a first mowing.

 

[Rara Avis]

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 00-01 Introduction

Market Farm

 

[troweller]

You need a Toolbar with 2 Furrowers. New about $500, used $100

 

[charlz]

You need a Toolbar with 2 Furrowers. New about $500, used $100

I have one and it doesn't really make a 'raised' bed... it will make furrows on the sides like for flood irrigation but it doesn't move much dirt onto the 'bed'.

 

[AndyinIowa]

Try one of these sometime:

Leinbach Machinery Catalog

Not too bad. You may want a shaper on the backside to square off the bed top, but otherwise it works fairly well..

IowaAndy

 

[drw]

This is great information - thank you all! I'm well on my way here.

The S-Tines on a toolbar with u-clamp seems to be the setup I'm looking for. I'd rather have straight bars rather than S-Tines, but maybe there's a reason S-Tines are superior?

I'll be calling a few of the companies that you all listed.

Thank you again; I'll post pictures when I get my rig setup!

 

[madalyn]

DRW, how did the beds turn out? i'm considering a double bottom plow to carve beds with and am wondering how your potato plow did? thanks, madalyn

 

[drw]

Madalyn,

I ended up getting exactly what I wanted: A double row potato plow. It performed exactly as I imagined it would, too.

I ended up not using it as much, however, because our soil is extremely sandy. The sandy soil means that the perfectly formed raised beds were draining off the water way too quickly, and my plants suffered tremendously.

I also have a double bottom plow, and I used that to make a bed for my blackberries. The bed was about 6' wide which was just about perfect. That's how I'll be making any beds that I do make from now on.

 

[NSBound]

Madalyn, I ended up getting exactly what I wanted: A double row potato plow. It performed exactly as I imagined it would, too.

Any good pics you could post?

 

[RalphVa]

I used two opposed 20" discs mounted on an old JD M soil ripper bar and adapted to 3ph. Below is a picture. Made nice raised rows in one pass.

Ralph

 

[drw]

I actually looked through my photos and I can't find any. I must not have ever taken any pictures.

Next time I'm out there, I'll take a shot of the implement I'm using, as well as some of the rows. It's winter so there's not much growing, but some of the rows are still there.