A potato harvesting apparatus for harvesting potatoes at maximum ground speed without regard to wet conditions, for removing during such harvesting operation practically all the dirt from the potatoes without bruising or otherwise damaging the potatoes, for separating the potato vines from the potatoes, for removing said separated potato vines and depositing same in the harvesting track and covering same with the dirt removed from the potatoes;
- said apparatus comprising a share, disk coulters, a cylindrical raker, primary, secondary and tertiary cylindrical cages, drive transmission means, shaker-tine means, a grinder suction fan and conductor pipe, cutting means and a conical cage;
- said share digging up the potatoes sufficiently for pick up by a first one of said primary cylindrical cages for transfer over to said primary, secondary and tertiary cylindrical cages, said cylindrical cages being in the harvesting flow of the potatoes and being arranged and disposed in ascending relationship to one another starting, in order, with said primary cylindrical cages and followed by said secondary cylindrical cages and ending with said tertiary cylindrical cages, said disk coulters separating and cutting the vines between adjacent rows of potatoes, said cylindrical raker being arranged and disposed before and above said first one of said primary cylindrical cages to engage and pick up the excess of vines, dirt and potatoes that said first one of said primary cylindrical cages can not handle and to move such excess of vines, dirt and potatoes onto a second one of said primary cylindrical cages, the periphery of each of said cylindrical cages having a uniform diameter throughout, said drive transmission means being operatively connected with said cylindrical cages and causing all of said cylindrical cages to rotate in the same direction and at the same rate of material-flow delivery speed, said cylindrical cages engaging, picking up and transferring said potatoes and vines to said shaker-tine means for separating said potatoes from said vines, said shaker-tine means comprising a shaker-tine assembly having tines spaced apart to allow said potatoes to drop therethrough while retaining said vines thereon, said grinder suction fan being arranged and disposed above said shaker-tine assembly to suck up said vines, separated from said potatoes, remaining on said tines to grind said vines into little pieces and to conduct same through said conductor pipe and deposit same beneath said cylindrical cages in such harvesting track, said rotating cylindrical cages, while so engaging, picking up and transferring said potatoes and vines, engaging and removing the dirt from said potatoes, including breaking up dirt clods, and said cylindrical cages sifting the dirt removed from the harvested potatoes down and through said cylindrical cages to cover said little pieces of vines deposited in the harvesting track, said cutting means being arranged and disposed beneath said cylindrical cages to cut up any vines in the material flow that slip between said cylindrical cages, and said conical cage being arranged and disposed with respect to said shaker-tine assembly to receive and carry along through said conical cage without bruising same said potatoes separated from said vines.