What is Potato Planter?

Potato has been cultivated in India for more than 300 years it has become the most popular vegetable crop and an essential element of our diet. And when it comes to potato farming it is insufficient without the use of Potato planter.

Potato planter is an implement used in farms for the purpose of sowing potatoes. Earlier, a manual planter was used for the sowing of potatoes but the mechanization of farming and growing use of tractors led to the birth of an automatic potato planter. The use of these planters saves labor and makes the sowing of potatoes more efficient and fast.

Working of Potato Planter

Potato planters have a double side plough body that forms slit or opens up the furrows on the ground. Then potatoes are dropped by the hopper in the channel (trench) after a particular time interval with the help of a seed metering device. And this channel drops the potatoes in the soil at a particular depth and distance in a minimum amount of time and labour. 

While the advanced potato planters also have the feature of fertilizer application with them that helps to cover the seed potato with fertilizer before sowing it. Hence reducing the time and labour required to cover the seed potatoes with fertilizers.

Types of Potato Planter

There are following types of Potato Planter-

Automatic Potato Planter

In this type of planter, there is a vertical, rotating picker wheel with cups that picks up the potato and drops it in the furrow. It also has a mechanism to check whether in each cup there is a seed potato or not. It makes sure that the potatoes are sowed at a uniform distance. There are 2-4 rows of potato planters available in the market with a capacity of 6000-14000 potatoes per hour. Some of them also come with fertilizer application mechanisms. It can be operated with 35-60 HP and above tractors.

Semi-Automatic Potato Planter

It has a horizontal, rotating feed ring with cups but it does not have the mechanism to check whether each cup has a seed potato or not. Due to this, it requires a worker to check whether there is a seed potato in every cup or not. It also comes as 2-4 rows planter but it is comparatively slower than an automatic planter and can be operated with 25-45 HP and above tractors.

High-Speed Automatic Potato Planter

It has a picker-pin type mechanism with two picker wheels. There are eight picker pins in both arms that pierce the seed potatoes and put them in the furrows. They double the speed of sowing but this doesn’t mean picker wheels rotate at a faster speed they operate at half the normal speed of the single wheel. It can be operated with 35 and above HP tractors.

Potato Planter Price List 2024

The price range of Potato Planters in India is as follows-

Potato Planters	Price range
Automatic Potato Planter	5.5 lakh*
Semi-Automatic Potato Planter	55000*
High-Speed Automatic Potato Planter	1.6 lakh*

Potato Planter Advantages

• It saves labour and time.

• It is more efficient than humans as it ensures proper depth and distance between the seed potatoes.

If you cultivate potatoes as one of your major crops then investing in potato planters won't be a bad deal for you at all!