I have been growing pottatoes in tyres for some weeks now. One stack died off, 3 are still going and I pulled one up today expecting a crop of new potatoes. The stack was 6 tryes high, I got a measly handful of potatos. Bugger.
rob
"George.com" wrote in news:flsvmo$o3r$ snipped-for-privacy@lust.ihug.co.nz:
how many weeks? did you dig up the one that died off? did you dig up the one that you thought should have new potatoes or did you literally "pull it up"? lee
Not a good idea. There are a lot of noxious chemicals used to cure and stabilize rubber and they may or may not be absorbed by the plant. Why take any chances?
Why in tyres? What is under the tyres? Soil? Cement? Other?
I decided to see how it worked out. Grass is under the tyres. One garden is full of tomatos, another in Kumara, another with garlic, one 1/2 full of garlic and some (non heading) broccoli and the last spring onions, carrots & lettuce. I wasn't going to do spuds, then decided to & thought tyres was worth a try. One measly handful down so far.
rob
I dug up the dead lot & got a few spuds. This last lot came down with something as the potato stems had started to rot in the compost. The stack went in mid october so about 2 1/2 months. Heaps of top growth, 6 tyres high, but bugger all potatos. I'll see how the other 3 tyre stacks go.
rob
g'day rob,
can't vouch for the tyre system i wouldn't use tyres myself, but maybe you went higher than was needed?
i tried growing them in 44 gallon plastic drum cut in 1/2 and when they got tall enough i had so i could add the other 1/2 of the drum, the results absolutley like your though maybe better i did get some spuds about 1 or 2 per plant also tried just using 1/2 a drum but no good either.
now i just simply lay my seed 'taters on the ground and start to mulch around them up to about 18" or 20"s high as they grow, then leave them and the results are much better a return of 5:1, but for no real effort that isn't tooo bad.
ahve pic's on our site
On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 23:41:52 +1300, "George.com" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,
len & bev
-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."
Here's my take on the potatoes in tires, in the USA "tyres" are really difficult to find, probably would have to import them from some place in Canada ;)
I remember this "new idea" coming forth about 30+ years ago during the start of the recycling movement. It didn't seem like a good idea to me at the time and still doesn't because:
If you have enough room in your garden to stack rows of ugly tires why don't you plant the spuds in the ground? You have to stack the tires and add more soil (from somewhere) as the potato plant grows instead of hilling it as you would normally do. Just by the shape of the tire alone watery muck would gather as the stack grows in the 'cup' of the tire so there goes the good drainage theory IMO. It can't possibly be considered easier since you have to lug those things in to stack, fill with soil as you stack and then to harvest you have to disassemble the stack, empty each tire, watched the neighbor banging and bouncing these things to get the soil out of the inside, and then what do you do with the damned tires when you aren't growing potatoes. One ugly stack of trash somewhere in the corner of the garden for 8 months a year. Of all the people I knew who tried this not a decent crop of potatoes was harvested.
I didn't have room in my vegetable garden for a crop of potatoes, but having some fresh spuds IS a nice treat so I thought about the theory of the tire thing and tweaked it a bit. I had a half dozen large, round, plastic laundry baskets and placed them on the concrete along the edge of my driveway. I used some damp straw I'd gathered for mulch, formed a nice even layer around the inside wall so the soil wouldn't fall out the sides, filled the basket
1/4 with soil and planted three sections of potato in the center of each basket and then covered with a few inches of soil and a thin layer of straw. As the potato grew I "hilled it" with thin layers of soil covered with another thin layer of straw and did this each week until the basket was full. I had huge, healthy, bushy potato plants growing in each basket and they bloomed profusely.....looked rather nice down the edge of the drive. In the fall, after the tops had completely died down, I put my shaker box over my wheelbarrow and dumped the basket into it. Not only did the beautiful, black, fluffy soil fall through the wire of the shaker box, the potatoes where on top, and I had some beautifully composted soil from all that straw to put back in the garden and raised veggie beds. The baskets I hosed off, dried, stacked and hung all on one big hook from the garage rafter. I got a little over 100 pounds of potatoes from six baskets. The plants were kept out of soggy soil so didn't rot in the ground....Seattle got a LOT of rain...the plants grew in warm, well drained soil, produced like mad and I composted straw all in one fell swoop! Plus dumping the baskets in my shaker box made it an easy, no dig harvest and I no potatoes were left in the ground. I just gently rolled the potatoes out of the shaker box on the drive, hosed them down and let them air dry for a few days before storing. EASY!My little Grandma used to peel her potatoes into a piece of news paper, bundle it up and take it to her flower garden and tucked it in where ever she had an empty spot for planting. If you peel with a knife instead of a vegetable peeler you have enough eye left in most of the peeling to grow. Made a nice green filler in her flower beds and the blossoms were very pretty as well. In the fall she'd dig them up. Not only did she get some nice potatoes that where dug at the same time as she was "putting her garden to bed" for the winter, she was improving the soil as well. Potatoes do wonders for soil improvement. The volunteers that occasionally came up in the spring where just dug the following fall.
Just my opinion but that tire thing looks like Hell, is an enormous amount of work and doesn't work worth a darned!
Val
It makes no sense, really. Nothing is gained by planting potatoes that way, except you don't need to bend down quite as much to harvest them.
Because you can grow the spuds in straw inside the tyres. Or you can use them to make compost at the same time as growing spuds.
You have to stack the tires and add more
Tyres in the garden are useful. They can be used to sling on top of plastic to stop the wind lifting it when one needs to cover big piles of compost or sand or horse poop or anything else. They are useful to throuw on top of tarpaulins on trailers when one goes to the tip to stop crud flying out of the trailer. They can be used in the chook pen to hold a nesting hen. They ahve a hundred uses.
Then they didn't get it right. I've had good crops from tyres but my tyres were all stolen by the farmer who needed them round the farm.
And exactly the same thing can be done with tyres. You've explained the theory of tyre growing very well.
The baskets I hosed off,
And you think that lifting one tyre at a time is easier than lifting a washing basket full of spuds and soil? I very much doubt it.
It does. And if you haven't tried it how do you know? You did it with washing baskets so next time try the same thing with tyres and then you will know whether it works or not.
Sounds like your growing medium was too rich - all show, no go.
"Val" expounded:
What a wonderful memory, and a good idea! My great grandmother was the garden inspiration in our family. We're lucky to have had them in our lives!
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