At the moment, a new technique is often used in the technology of potato production and that is pre-treatment of seed material, which is done with the help of chemical, biological and physical methods in complex. Stimulation of plants in the initial period of the growing season requires a special approach. On the one hand, plants need nutrients and, on the other hand, they do not have a developed root system for their production. Therefore, foliar treatment of plants with protective stimulating preparations is an alternative to fertilizer application. Potassium mobilizing bacteria are able to mobilize potassium present in the soil in the root zone of plants. Liquid fertilizers based on humic acids are natural immunomodulators and stimulators of the formation, growth and development of plants, as well as antidepressants and complex nutrition additive. They are suitable for organic farming. Potato seedes were treated with hot fog of protective stimulants at temperatures from 40° C to 60° C immediately before planting. As a result of the studies, the effects of protective-stimulating preparations on plant biometry during the growing season (accumulation of aerial mass) and yield were studied. Hot fog treatment of potato seed tubers with POTASSIUM HUMATE and AZOTOVIT preparations showed the best dynamics of increasing the height of shoots of potato bushes, which exceeded the control by 5.3% and 8.2%. Pre-treatment of potato seed tubers with hot fog of protective-stimulating preparations is an effective method of increasing productivity and it contributes to better products.

For transporting potatoes, it is proposed to equip the vehicle with elastic partitions. Elastic partitions are formed by tubes of elastic material and can rotate around the axis of the transverse partition. A model has been developed that allows one to take into account a large number of parameters of root crops, a vehicle body, elastic partitions, parameters of the unloading process, and also calculate the main indicators of the efficiency of unloading root crops. As a result of optimization, it has been found that the optimal length of the elastic tube is 1.58 m (when the height of the vehicle body is 1.60 m), the optimal coefficient of bending stiffness of the tube is 0.9 kN/m2. At the same time, the unloading time will be less than 11.5 s and the share of damaged root crops will be less than 4.0%.

Potato production is associated with high energy and labor costs, and the final part (harvesting) accounts for the bulk of the costs. When designing potato harvesting technology, the main focus is on the separation of soil impurities, which make up about 97 % with a high yield of 300 kg/ha, and lower yields increase them to 98–99 %. Nowadays, with the advent of new materials and new technologies in agricultural engineering, there is modernization of existing structures using innovative materials, as a result of which some new and having no analogues models are created that can improve the quality of the machine, increase its service life, and reduce energy costs. The effectiveness of the working bodies of potato harvesters determines the ratio of the separating ability of the working body to its energy consumption. As a result of the studies, power parameters and the separating ability of the main working bodies were generalized. The modernization of the separating elevator consists in replacing the metal rods of an existing elevator apron with a similar apron with rods of some composite material. This modernization can significantly reduce the mass of the working body and the whole combine as a whole and reduce energy consumption.

Potato harvesting in Ryazan region is due to the short harvesting period and difficult soil and climatic conditions, making the process of soil separation difficult because soil sifting by separating working bodies is difficult. Therefore, a significant part of the load falls on external separation organs or a finger hump. To intensify the separation, a multi-cam shaker was installed under the canvas of the finger hump, which made it possible to select the required frequency and amplitude of oscillations. To improve the quality of the separation of components when finger humps working, it is important to ensure the relative movement of the components of the potato heap through the fingers of the hump. The direct transverse bending of the finger under the influence of the potato heap weight was studied, considering the dynamic loads when the canvas is tossed. Knowing the dependence of the vibration accelerations of the finger hump, the frequency of rotation of the multi-cam shaker in the range from 50 to 150 rpm and the angle of inclination of the finger hump from 25° to 35°, the velocities and acceleration of vibrations were obtained on the basis of which the parameters of the finger hump were calculated. They were as follows: Young’s modulus - E was 20·106 Pa, the height of the elastic part of the finger was 0.06 m, the diameter of the finger was 0.012-0.016 m, the stiffness of the finger was 3.7-4.8 N/m.To check the obtained parameters of the longitudinal finger hump with an installed shaker, a laboratory setup was developed. When conducting experimental studies, it was found that the highest values of the completeness of separation corresponded to the following values of factors: the rotational speed of the shaker was 130 rpm and the angle of inclination of the hump canvas was 34°.

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