Tests indicate that potato harvesting equipment designed to crush vines also crushes bugs and larger-sized weed seeds, thereby reducing insect and weed pressure on crops planted on the same field the following year.,
But it does not eliminate the need for herbicide sprays to control weeds and sprays or other methods to control bugs such as Colorado potato beetles.
Seed size played a role in how consistently the crusher worked, federal agriculture departmrnt researcher McKenzie-Gopsill said.
“It’s actually on springs, so that if a large piece of debris (such as a rock) moves through it… it allows the rollers to move out of the way to accommodate that.”
