BCS Power Potato Digger

Description

BCS Power Potato Digger

Hand-digging a potato crop is slow, back-breaking work, and the power potato digger takes it off the grower. Built for BCS by Spedo, an Italian company that specializes in potato planting, ridging and harvesting machinery, it lifts a row of potatoes onto the surface ready for picking, and BCS’s own video shows it clearing a 50 foot row in under two minutes.

A Vibrating Pan That Breaks the Soil

The digger’s 18 inch pan moves with a vertical vibrating action that fractures the soil ahead of it, so it slides under the hill without needing to be dragged. Behind the pan, a set of horizontally vibrating bars lets loose soil and small stones fall through while the potatoes travel over them. Vines and other plant residue ride across the rods and drop behind the machine, leaving the crop on top of the ground.

Setting Depth and Straddling the Hill

The pan angle adjusts, reaching a maximum of 6 inches below the two support wheels. Those wheels are 14 inches in diameter and can be set to straddle hills from 20 to 30 inches wide, so the digger runs centered on the row. The operator walks with the handlebars offset to one side, off the dug row.

Digger Details and Fitment

• Pan width: 18″; maximum depth 6″
• Weight: 198 lbs
• Support wheels: 14″ diameter, 20″ to 30″ hill straddle
• Tractors: 739, 749, 779, 852, 853; 750 and 889 with the HD 2-bolt bushing
• Bumper Weight Kit: needed for turning at row ends

Digging Day Timing

Potatoes skin easily if lifted while the vines are green. Many growers mow or let the tops die back and wait about two weeks so the skins set, then dig on a dry day when the soil sieves freely through the rods. Wet clay clings to the tubers and the bars alike. As a BCS attachment the digger carries three years residential and one year commercial coverage.

Planting and Harvesting Pair

The power potato planter from the same maker furrows, plants and hills in one pass on the 749, 750, 852, 853 and 889, and the digger brings the crop up at the end of the season. Owners of the 739 and 779 can dig with this machine even though the planter is not charted for them.