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.
31 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! ;)
Please! Lay the potatoes out on something dry and let them sun dry for two or three days. It gives them a hard coat that lets them hold for months if you keep them someplace dry, dark, and cool. If it's rainy, rack them in the cellar or garage.
Stephanie, wondering how this came out. I tried something similar but got very low yields. Anyone out there have good luck with the tire method?
http://www.stoptheride.net/2008/08/potato-harvest-or-lack-there-of.html
Annon,
Not so well. I think I did a couple of things wrong last year. I posted about it in the above post. I plan to try again this year.
This morning , 15 Feb 2009 , in Chewton , Central Victoria , Australia, I harvested one potato plant of the King Edward variety that I had grown in an undug section of a previously grassed area of our back yard surrounded by a single tyre. The soil was dry and the plants roots appeared to have broken the soil up well.
Since being forced, fighting and kicking, out of business I now have time to put into growing vegetables just as I used to do as a newly married young family man before going into business.
This was one of two of this variety I picked up at a local farmers market from a women who sold a wide variety of vegetable seeds.
They were large potatoes at least three eggs size and I chose not to cut but plant the two as is in an experiment in undug soil.
I harvested 6 big tubers at least the size of the one I planted plus one half that size which as an experiment I choose to place else where in the garden.
The climate here at the moment is very dry, it has been many years of below average rain fall and Feb is the height of the summer season's high temeratures, with bushfires problems extensively around our state.
I had placed the original "largish" seed potato with some eyes after keeping in a shady, dry spot in the garden for about two weeks before planting in a hole just big enough to cover it with its own height in soil in undug ground about three and a half months ago. I then placed a single tyre centrally over it with a generous layer of mulched leaves about two to three inches thick. The ground at the time was moist, just.
The other still undug potato tuber was next to it with the standard 15 tyre's almost touching. As there were only two, and no other plants within several feet I felt they should have adequate area to get moisture from the soil, particularly as I had mulched this area extensively as part of a walkway.
We had them in a home made roast just moments ago...roast pork , onions pumkin and sweet potatoe , pees and beans, as my son and his Japanese born wife live with us since he returned from nearly ten years working in Japan.
Those potatoes were beautiful, the Tasmanian web site I accessed this morning indicated the King Edwards were excellent for roasting and these which the tops had died off at least for a couple of weeks were superb.
I am fortunate to have an old home, paid off long ago, on a 1/2 acre site which dates back to the era in this part of the world when everybody grew their own vegetables.
While I have only now had the time, planting the occassional tree over the years had confirmed in my mind that it had been used extensively for this purpose although it is some 40 years by my calculations since the WW2 serviceman who used it as a market garden and no doubt therapy, ceased, having finally drunk himself to death.
Unfortunately we still pay scant attention to the harm suffered by many in our world's increasingly vulnerable society as families grow smaller and less cohesive.
Unable to provide help to fellow family both because they physically and financially lack the resources but also unable to because they do not even have those abilities.
Yet, when we rely on the State to provide these it becomes inordinantly expensive and far to many slip through the cracks.
I've been growing my garden in tires for several years. No problems yet. You can check out last years garden at www.redneckgarden.sampa.com
I tried to grow potatoes last year. They grew very tall and had a lot of foliage. However when I dug up the plant there where almost no potatoes.
I recently found out that if the soil has to much Nitrogen in it that the plant will grow with a lot of foliage and almost no potatoes...I think that is what happened to me.
I'm going to try the tire method this year..I thought that info might help you to...
For what my B.S. in horticulture and 31 years experience is worth, I have to say that I did not like the looks of unrotted leaves in Stephanie's planting mix. I applaud her efforts, the idea and her followup reporting. That is part of good experimental process. Leaves have a very high carbon to nitrogen ratio for the decay process. That means that, as they decay, they rob a lot of nitrogen from the adjacent materials, in this case the soil. Leaf mold or compost is a great soil modifier, but the materials must first be thoroughly decayed to the point that the constituent materials are nearly unrecognizable to naked eye observation. Also, be aware that soil pH is the easiest and most important aspect of plant nurtition to monitor and a simple test kit is worth its weight in Yukon Gold Potatoes. Plants cannot feed you well unless you first feed them what they need. Each variety's particular needs can be determined through a little internet search or reading garden authorities.
Better luck this year to all tatermeisters. I recommend using simple, sandy, garden soil and maybe consider the straw method for the upper layers of tires. I am hoping to try that method this season.
Bob,
thanks. The leaves were a recommended method on one of the sites I looked at, but perhaps that was bad info. Our soil is heavy clay, and I hate to buy dirt. I do have some compost that I can use and straw at the top is a good idea. Appreciate your input!
I came across your blog while looking for ways to grow my own potatoes in tires. Then the wheels started turning. I think I've come up with a better way. Take a look:
http://www.catholichomeandgarden.com/food_security_2009.htm
Christine in New York
I tried this, and I would NOT recommend it for a yard prone to fire ants. They seemed to think I made a special home just for them -- I guess it was the looser soil. It took a lot of boiling water to get rid of them.
Hubby said he had a nice crop from using a plastic garbage can with holes in the bottom. I'm thinking of trying that, but putting the garbage can on cinder blocks in the hopes it discourages fire ants (and we've been flooding more). I think I remember reading someone lined the upper part of their can with foil to help bring in more sun when the potato plants were young.
How fortunate I feel!! I just got my tires ready yesterday and decided to surf the net as to whether anyone else out there was growing taters in old tires. Lots of good info here, so I will be checking it out from time to time
Liz V
I had heard about the taters and tires option and searched to see if anyone had done it and how to do it. Thank you for your info! I found it very helpful. I have the taters and tires and am now ready to plant!
To STOP the ANT invasion place potato growing container on blocks/bricks placed in a shallow water container holding an inch or so of water. The growing container needs to be above the water level and not touching anything else( wall, tree, etc)that they can climb from. The blocks need to be surrounded by water. Do not let it dry out!! Only flying insects have any hope of getting at your containers then.
To store your potatoes for months- leave them where they are (unless you are where they have snow) and only harvest one tire at a time. Put the first tire where you intend to grow next season and add all the ones too small for eating into it and cover up with dirt. They can be spread over several containers for next season.
Keep harvested potatoes OUT OF THE LIGHT after harvest. The sun builds a toxin in them! If you can see a green hint to the skin DO NOT EAT!
If there is a green hint to the inside DO NOT EAT.
It is fine to GROW green potatoe
this post is very usefull thx!
nice post. thanks.
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
Hi,
I've just planted some potatoes that started to sprout - reading this, maybe that wasn't the thing to do!
I did read elswhere to not stack to high if children are about, so I'm hoping I can get away with just a stack of two tires.
Can onions be planted with the potatoes - as I have a couple of those sprouting also.
Thanks.
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