Planting Potatoes in Old Tires
If you've ever planted potatoes, you know that it is back breaking work. Last year we planted a fair amount of potatoes the traditional way. We dug, planted and mounded the potatoes. We fought potato beetles most of the season. We dug again to find there weren't a lot of potatoes. They were delicious, but we didn't get a good yield.
For several years now I've been reading about alternative ways to plant potatoes. Grandmother Wren's post Grow Potatoes in a Barrel convinced me to try something different this year. I've also seen several articles about growing potatoes in old tires. A good one can be found at Back Woods Home, A New Use for Old Tires. The article discusses using old tires for a variety of garden needs, including growing potatoes.
Since I don't have any barrels on hand, and we did have a few tires and a neighbor who has lots of old tires, I decided to go the tire route. If you don't live in the hills like I do, where old tires are in abundant supply, you can get old tires from your neighborhood tire shop. They actually have to pay to dispose of them, so they would be happy to give you all you need.
Here is what you need to do.
1. Lay out your tires. Create some drainage.
The article suggested digging up the soil to create drainage. Since the soil where I laid the tires is rock hard clay, I put some stone and broken block pieces in to create drainage. I also stuffed dryer lint around the edge of the tire. This isn't necessary, but I had the lint and it will help to keep the soil in while the water drains. (Remember 13 uses for dryer lint?)
2. Put in some dirt and growing material.
I covered the drainage material with compost soil. Then filled the rest with leaves. Be sure to stuff the soil into the sides. You can use soil, leaves, or partially rotted sawdust. We will be using a little of all three.
3. Get the potatoes ready.
You'll want to use seed potatoes, not just some that you've had to long in your cupboard. Seems the potatoes you buy to eat have been treated to not grow. Those that do start growing will not do well.
Cut them in pieces so that each piece has two eyes in it.
4. Plant them.
Put three or four potato piece in each tire, and cover with planting material.
5. Water
6. Wait
This is as far as I've gotten. Next I wait for the plants to be about 8 inches tall. Then I will add another tire, and enough dirt, leaves, or sawdust to cover all but two or three inches of the plant. When I get to this step I will post an update. The process will be repeated until there are four tires stacked. To harvest I will simply remove one tire at a time, and remove the potatoes. A four tire stack is expected to yield about 25 pounds of potatoes.
We started with five tires, but decided it was so easy we would do more. We now have the start for 13 stacks. I will post updates throughout the season.
14 comments:
Great idea, Stephanie! Now I'm gonna have to scrounge up some old tires. That would be awesome to get 25# of taters from each stack. That would last us until next season! Any ideas how you plan to store these when harvested? That would be my only problem with that many taters!
That's a lot of 'taters! Mike's parents grow potatoes each year, but not quite that many. I've never heard of the tire method, but I'm interested to see how it works!
yep it is a lot of taters, but it is for my large family and my parents. It won't be enough for a full year.
Angie,
Dry, dark, cool, but not freezing. A traditional root cellar or a unfinished section of a basement. We don't have a basement, but I did store what we got under the house for a few months. In a tub in the garage might work. I've also read plans of making your own hole storage in the yard. I'll have to look up more on that.
I can't wait to see how it turns out! If we ever do potatoes, it'll likely be in one of these sorts of containers rather than in hills
Look forward to seeing these grow. Thanks for the info. I'll have to search for some seed potatoes online. I've planted a few store bought ones with eyes, and they never grew, except for the ones in the mulch pile is the deep shade?! Those were just garden trash, but they grew into mini-taters.
Alexandra,
I looked for seed potatoes at a couple stores that carry garden items with no luck. finally found them at a local farm feed store. I plan to save my own for next year.
This is a very neat idea. I haven't heard of it before. You'll have to update us with how it goes.
Great idea, but is there anything that might leach out of the tires and into the soil (and therefore, into the potatoes)?
Rose
http://learningathome.freedomblogging.com
Rose,
The article in Back Woods Home says the all the chemicals are too tightly bound to leach into the soil. The tires don't break down.
I'm looking forward to seeing how your experiment turns out. What is the advantage to using tires over a traditional garden bed?
Aaron
The main appeal to me is it is less labor intensive, but it also is a huge space saver.
Yields are suppose to be higher. Most of the tires only needed one seed potato. If I get 25 lbs from each stack that is an awesome yield.
hello, hello!
I'm back again, this time from the Learning in the Great Outdoors carnival. How are those potatoes coming along?
When we had our cleanup of the school woods last fall I volunteered to haul to the dump the six tires we lugged from the woods. It turned out I had to pay a buck or so0 apiece to dispose of them. I could have saved my six bucks and had 25 pounds of spuds to boot!!
Thanks for your continued support of Learning in the Great Outdoors.
Grandmother Wren
Good to see you back again. They are coming along well. Will be posting an update when the second tires go on. Shouldn't be too much longer.
Terrell,
Yep Potatoes would have been better! ;)
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