Guest guest Posted June 15, 2000 Report Share Posted June 15, 2000 I have just completed the latest stage of our potato planting. perhaps some ouf the read3ers of this conference may be interested and enthused to hear how it can be done using oxen. in Autumn the land is heavily manured. It is said 20 tonnes per acre is a good amount. The manure is then ploughed in. In the begining you may need two persons to help you plough. One person holding the plough and one person leading the oxen (voice) or driving the oxen (nasal harnessing). Later you will be able to plough on your own if you have a self adjusting plough (Sulky type) if you are using voice commands or any type of plough if you use nasal harnessing. At BM we plough with one man using nasal harnessing. sometimes it is a bit exciting but it is a fantastic fealing. During the spring (Spuds are planted at around easter here in the UK) the land may need to be p0loughed again if the weeds or grass has become to established. The next task is to ridge the field. to do this you need a wide yolk. Your spud rows should be about 30-36 inches apart. The ridging yolk should be twice the distance your ridges are apart. If your ridges are going to be 30 inches apart then the distance between the middle of one ox's neck piece to the middle of the other ox's neck piece will be 60 inches. Ridging is very easy because one of the oxen will be walking in a great big furrow left by the ridging plough. Furrows done it is now time to plant your potatoes. Fill up a bucket with your seed and walk down the furrows dropping a potato every foot. If you haven't got a ruler on hand drop a potato in fromt of your own foot and one behind it. Now the seeds are sown they need to be covered. THIS IS THE TRICKY BIT! I have found that it is easier to go back to the normal size yolk to cover the potatoes. After the first row then one bull will be walking in the new furrow and one will be walking in the older furrow. The main thing is to cover all the potatoes. Having your lines a bit squiggly won't really matter at this stage. Now the potatoes are covered they should be rolled flat; or at least as flat as you can. It is better to use a ring roller rather than a flat one. Every few days the land can be lightly harrowed using a chain harrow or light harrows until the shoots start to emerge. When the potato shoots appear then the plants can be buried again by reridging down the rows (Ridging yolk). So now we will have returned to rows of deep furrows and ridges. To keep your weeds down simply go up and down the furrows using the ridging yolk and ridging plough. One bullock walks in a furrow, in the next furrow is the ridging plough and then in the next furrow is the second bullock. If you land is weedy you may need to hand hoe at least once between the plants (the ridging plough cannot get there). To lift out the potatoes you can get a special spud lifting plough, a spud spinner, a ground driven spud lifter (perhaps a 6 ox job) or if you haven't got any of these try ploughing them out. Ox powerd spuds kijaya ys syamasundara dasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 21, 2000 Report Share Posted June 21, 2000 Dear Syamasundara prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP. Great Stuff! This was one of the main purposes that the cow conference was organized. Sharing proactical ox-power knowledge. Keep it coming, the more the better. Your servant, Balabhadra das ISKCON Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture - "Syamasundara (das) (Bhaktivedanta Manor - UK)" <Syamasundara (AT) pamho (DOT) net> "Cow (Protection and related issues)" <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> Thursday, June 15, 2000 2:20 PM Planting potatoes by oxen > I have just completed the latest stage of our potato planting. perhaps some > ouf the read3ers of this conference may be interested and enthused to hear > how it can be done using oxen. > > in Autumn the land is heavily manured. It is said 20 tonnes per acre is a > good amount. > > The manure is then ploughed in. > > In the begining you may need two persons to help you plough. One person > holding the plough and one person leading the oxen (voice) or driving the > oxen (nasal harnessing). Later you will be able to plough on your own if you > have a self adjusting plough (Sulky type) if you are using voice commands or > any type of plough if you use nasal harnessing. At BM we plough with one man > using nasal harnessing. sometimes it is a bit exciting but it is a fantastic > fealing. > > During the spring (Spuds are planted at around easter here in the UK) the > land may need to be p0loughed again if the weeds or grass has become to > established. > > The next task is to ridge the field. to do this you need a wide yolk. Your > spud rows should be about 30-36 inches apart. The ridging yolk should be > twice the distance your ridges are apart. If your ridges are going to be 30 > inches apart then the distance between the middle of one ox's neck piece to > the middle of the other ox's neck piece will be 60 inches. > > Ridging is very easy because one of the oxen will be walking in a great big > furrow left by the ridging plough. > > Furrows done it is now time to plant your potatoes. Fill up a bucket with > your seed and walk down the furrows dropping a potato every foot. If you > haven't got a ruler on hand drop a potato in fromt of your own foot and one > behind it. > > Now the seeds are sown they need to be covered. THIS IS THE TRICKY BIT! > I have found that it is easier to go back to the normal size yolk to cover > the potatoes. After the first row then one bull will be walking in the new > furrow and one will be walking in the older furrow. The main thing is to > cover all the potatoes. Having your lines a bit squiggly won't really matter > at this stage. > > Now the potatoes are covered they should be rolled flat; or at least as flat > as you can. It is better to use a ring roller rather than a flat one. > > Every few days the land can be lightly harrowed using a chain harrow or > light harrows until the shoots start to emerge. > > When the potato shoots appear then the plants can be buried again by > reridging down the rows (Ridging yolk). So now we will have returned to rows > of deep furrows and ridges. > > To keep your weeds down simply go up and down the furrows using the ridging > yolk and ridging plough. One bullock walks in a furrow, in the next furrow > is the ridging plough and then in the next furrow is the second bullock. > > If you land is weedy you may need to hand hoe at least once between the > plants (the ridging plough cannot get there). > > To lift out the potatoes you can get a special spud lifting plough, a spud > spinner, a ground driven spud lifter (perhaps a 6 ox job) or if you haven't > got any of these try ploughing them out. > > Ox powerd spuds kijaya > ys syamasundara dasa > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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