planting spuds

Following on from my post a few days ago.....we planted a small plot of early potatoes yesterday....We never plant very many as we have a risk of late frosts...with this small patch I can cover the plants with black polythene if there is any risk. The variety are British Queen, a very old breed of spuds here in Northern Ireland and well liked for their delicious flavour. We usually raise the drills first to let some more drying into the ground. It also means the planting tractor is sitting level and I have no need to adjust the linkage every time I turn around! We still plant with our old 1949 Ferguson 'Bell' planter...although labour intensive it is a real useful piece of much sought after kit....Plus, I use the local child labour that I bred especially for jobs like this!!!
The spouts of the planter split the previously raised drills and the bell wheel sounds as it turns and hopefully the children drop a spud for every 'ding' of the bell. This method is very accurate and the wheel has different 'bumps' for different seed spacing, we plant at 10 inch gaps. Back in the '60s, when every farmer grew a few acres of potatoes, you could hear these bells dinging away all over the country at this time of year.
Sam

That's a nice setup. Those helpers look to be enjoying the ride and planting. Hal

That's neat Sam! Really enjoy your pictures and your countryside. Would love to see it some day.
Do you have another crop of potato planters coming up? That long legged girl looks folded up a bit.

Samn40,
Great photos. Love that the kids get in on it too.

I have never heard of a Bell planter. Now will have to look on youtube to see if I can find video of one in operation.

Great pic 's. that's a neat setup to plant potatoes, hear the bell drop the spud. I love it. Home grown potatoes just taste better.

Thanks for the pictures Sam, need to investigate what implements are still around for potato planting here.

Well it shows you how observant I am. LOL I thought the first picture was of an old light base. Never would have guessed a bell to time the seeding.

If your home grown "labor force" is like mine you will only get a few years until they discover that opposites attracted and then you could never find them to help. LMAO Maybe they just got smarter as they got older too.

Buddy of mine used to joke that was why he had all good looking girls. He said he got to use the teenage boys that they attracted. LOL

Hey Sam.

Great pics and an informative post.

This is why I love YT.

Brad

To bad we don't have a "like" button on here like Facebook so many interesting posts you can't reply to them all. That is great.

Thanks Sam! You've cleared it all up for me. That's a dandy piece of equipment, and thanks for explaining it so well. Fine looking kids, too!

Paul