[AT] RE: Selling things and hurricanes.....NOW: Potato diggers

[Greg Hass]

Due to a long period now of problems with our ISP, this and some other 
topics I will reply to are old so I will include parts of the original letter.

 From Cecil Monson:
"That reminds me that I have one more thing that has to go. It is a pair of 
IHC PTO operated one row potato diggers. One of these works just fine and 
the other one is for parts. There are even more bed parts too that go with 
them. I dug my potatoes with the one for a number of years and it works 
very well. Even the little JD 40 tractor handles it with ease.  If you are 
not familiar with potato diggers, they scoop up plant and all including the 
potatoes underneath, shake the dirt off as they cross the bed of steel 
rods. The dirt falls thru on to the  ground and the potatoes and vines are 
dropped off the back in a windrow on top of the ground. If you use a bush 
hog or rotary mower like the Woods I use, you can mow the vines off and not 
have to monkey with them when picking up the potatoes. It sure is a lot 
easier picking the potatoes up off the ground than trying to dig them by 
hand. At $300 for both of these
machines plus the parts, I don't see how anyone could ever go wrong."

About a month a a half ago I purchased an IHC one row PTO-driven potato 
digger at an auction sale.  I paid $350 for it which was more than I 
thought it would go for, but I'm sure the guy bidding against me thought 
the same thing.  I've not been able to run it as the PTO shaft is broken, 
which I knew when I bought it.  I have a new shaft for it (as in "new" used 
shaft), however it needs some modification which I haven't had time for 
with other crop things to be done.  Monetarily I cannot justify the cost as 
I only grow four 150 ft. long rows of potatoes, which is quite a lot of 
hand digging.   Several years ago, I bought a 1-row ground-driven digger 
from a neighbor for $50.  Under perfect conditions it worked "sort of 
OK."  However, there were several problems. First, my garden is where the 
old barnyard was 20 years ago so the ground gets mucky and soft, providing 
little traction for the drive wheels.  Second, I like to provide my 
potatoes with adequate shade during the growing season.  (ie: weeds)  And 
third, if the ground is moist it doesn't shake through the chain fast 
enough and the machine just skids, taking 20 minutes to unplug.  So, I am 
really looking forward to using the PTO-driven digger where I can keep it 
going at normal speed while regulating my ground speed according to 
conditions.  Another change I may or may not make, depending on time, is 
that this digger is hand-lift which I may change to hydraulic as I do not 
have a second person to ride along and lift the digger.

Greg Hass