BCS Root Digger

Description

BCS Root Digger for Potatoes and Root Crops

The root digger, sometimes called a potato digger, is BCS’s low-cost harvest tool for small plantings of root vegetables. Its round tines sift through worked soil behind the tractor and lift most of the crop into view, where it can be picked up by hand. It is a simple drag implement rather than a powered one.

It Digs as Deep as the Soil Was Worked

The digger can only burrow as deep as the ground has previously been tilled. In a bed that was prepared to 6 or 8 inches and kept loose through the season it reaches the crop comfortably; in compacted ground it rides up and leaves potatoes behind. Good spring tillage is therefore part of an easy harvest.

Down the Row or Beside It

For potatoes, BCS recommends running the digger straight down the center of the row, where it lifts tubers efficiently. For more delicate crops such as garlic, onions and turnips, run it slightly to the side of the row so the tines loosen the soil without striking the bulbs. Mounting a second digger on the straight bar speeds up the work on wider plantings.

Mounting the Root Digger

• Required: Tool Carrier Kit
• All fitting tractors: 5.5″ wheel extensions and wheel weights or barbell hangers
• Tractors: 732, 739, 749, 779, 852, 853, 750, 889
• 732: 5×10 wheel upgrade also required
• 750 and 889: HD 2-bolt bushing
• Not charted for the 710, 718 or 722

Harvesting Without Bruising

Potatoes bruise more easily when cold or freshly lifted in wet soil. Dig on a dry afternoon, leave the tubers on the surface for an hour or two to dry and toughen, then gather them gently into shallow crates rather than tipping them into a deep bin. Coverage is three years residential and one year commercial.

Root Digger or Power Potato Digger

The power potato digger uses a vibrating pan and sieving bars and clears a 50 foot row in under two minutes, but it costs many times as much and needs a 739 or larger tractor. The root digger suits a home garden or a small market patch where hand picking is part of the job anyway.