Eco-friendly row forming and weed control made easy with AVR’s Combi machine

Shaping rows and preventing weed growth mechanically has never been easier than with AVR’s Combi machine, the company says in a news article. The AVR Combi machine effortlessly combines three functions in one frame: ecoridger, speedridger and weeder. By simply switching components, the machine operator can choose which function to employ:

Ecoridger: scraping weeds from the ridges
Speedridger: building the ridges
Weeder: cutting weeds

Ecoridger: Eco-friendly weeding the ridge sides

The Ecoridger executes two steps:

First, the scrapers remove a thin layer of soil and any weeds that are present from the ridge sides. The loosened soil covers and suffocates the weeds.
Next, the High-Speed ridging elements recompress the soil so as to make sure the ridge sides are solid again.

Speedridger: Solid ridge construction in lighter soils

If you are working with lighter soils, you have undoubtedly noticed that constructing a solid ridge is not always straightforward. The Speedridger’s components have been developed to be able to do just that, both at high speeds and in lighter soils.

The forming plates allow you to create high ridges with wide tops (17 or 22.5 cm) at high driving speeds. This construction ensures a uniform soil distribution and an optimal protection against stones and other obstacles.

By removing the guard plates from between the ridging elements, the Speedridger is able to construct ridges with a loose top, resulting in an optimal water management.

Weeder: Weeding ridges for other crops

The Weeder is a mechanical weed killer which can be used for crops that are grown on ridges, such as Belgian endive, carrots and potatoes.

The weeding elements are mounted to the base frame by means of hinges. This construction makes sure that the weeder’s wheel follows the ridge sides’ surface, resulting in a uniform working depth. The weeder’s angle, height and depth are steplessly adjustable.

The pressure on the weeding elements can be adjusted in three steps based on the firmness of the ridge sides. Each weeding element is equipped with a large wheel (200 x 65 mm) with flex tire. The ridging elements that ensure a solid rebuilding of the ridges are also present.

Meeting the increasing demand for mechanical weed control: the foldable ridger

Respectfully using our soils and cultivating efficiently are key for a sustainable agricultural sector. Both private individuals – who determine demand in supermarkets – and governments are calling for a change of techniques, which is clear from the fact that all manner of chemical crop protection products and weed killers are rapidly and increasingly being prohibited. Mechanical weed control is more and more an essential part of potato farmers’ cultivation techniques and is no longer limited to biological cultivation.

To meet the increase in scale in bio-cultivation and the increasing demand for a complementary cultivation operation in conventional farming, AVR has introduced a foldable version to be able to remove weeds from even more ridges in one working passage time- and cost-efficiently.