Planting Potatoes, with Pony Power!

By the Callens Family

Close up of the rear shank assembly from an old tractor/farm cultivator. It has a gauge wheel in front as you can see. We just mounted a singletree onto it. The handles are from an old tiller I bolted on to the frame. The photo is from last week when we were breaking ground.

This is a Welsh pony who is used to pulling carts but has never been used for heavy tillage before. So I had Clayton guide her to keep her headed in the right direction. Also it is very hard when you have a hand held implement to hold the reins until the animal is well trained by voice commands etc. Especially in a small garden. I reccomend Welsh and small ponies- they pull relatively fast and are easy to handle especially for cultivating in between rows later on. Very hardy animals and stay fat on grass.

Leaning on the fence to the left of the horse is a spike tooth drag section. It is used to level the soil and break it down more after initial digging or breaking. The horse also pulls this and this was the second step which we did this afternoon in preparation for seed potatoes. Also as you can see I removed the shanks off of the side and left one in the center to dig the rows for the potatoes.

Now the implement has been changed to a row digger and is being utilized to dig deep rows for potatoes. The plow share can also be used to burry and hill the
potatoes.
Keep the horse straight and GO! I also have another implement which I made which is a plow share bottom. The same machine can be used as a single bottom plow, and can be switched in a matter of a minute with two bolts. Also I will be building before the fall a potato, digger, spade shaker, harvester. Now all I want for Christmas is a mower attachment! :-) And I've got the design in my head....

2 days work done by humanity turned into 4 hrs work done with a 9 yr old welsh pony!