Peanut digger-shaker-inverter

In a root crop harvesting apparatus having digging means for digging root crop plants from their growing implantation in the ground, shaker-conveyor means receiving said plants for shaking them to remove debris while conveying them to elevated discharge disposition, and inverter means intercepting the discharged plants from the shaker-conveyor means for directing them in inverted position in a windrow behind the apparatus, the improvement wherein said inverter means comprises a pair of open-like inverting drums, each drum including a plurality of spaced spider discs mounted along a common central shaft, said spider discs having finger portions that constitute the majority of the diameter of said discs and that are curved in a direction away from the rear of said harvesting apparatus, means for rotating said open-like inverting drums about downwardly inwardly inclined axes that positions said spider discs at an angle that is substantially displaced from the horizontal plane of the ground, and a set of inverting tines operatively associated with each of said open-like inverting drums and positioned below the distal end of said finger portion to support the plants as they pass over and are gently agitated and bumped by the fingers of said discs while being positively urged along the inverting tines, said fingers of each of said inverting drums operatively extending along substantially half the length of its associated set of tines thereby exerting positive control on the moving plants after being discharged onto the inverting means and subjecting said plants to an additional cleaning action during the inversion state so that the loosened soil falls freely between said spaced spider discs and through the inverting drums and not onto the inverted vines which have been deposited on the ground.