Well, I finally got my tomatoes planted in the tire today. I mentioned this technique in Thursday’s post, but thought I’d go into a bit more detail. This is my first year trying it. . . .
Picture from article on Groovy Green
Simply put, you plant potatoes in the center of an old tire. As the plant grows up, you stack another tire on top of the first, and bury the plant so that there is only 8″ or so showing. This causes the stem to turn into more root, and put out an additional layer of potatoes. I have 4 tires I am going to stack up (if I can come up with enough dirt) and the estimates in the articles I read said I should get about 25LBs of potatoes. That should hold me for a little bit!
If you want to read about this technique in more depth, Backwoods Homes has a good article about using old tires in gardening that talks about the technique.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool! You know, Long Island was famous for potatoes years ago. It’s funny, but sometimes you still find them growing wild where farms used to be.
What a great crop you’re going to have!
I use the same technique for growing rhubarb plants. The stalks get longer if I stack another couple tires on them. No need to fill with dirt on these……
Mom2Fur-Actually, the best bag of potatoes I ever bought just said “long island potatoes” on the bag. They were yellow and buttery, yum. Of course I never found them again. ..
contrary1-that’s a great idea about the rhubarb-it sould force the stems to be longer so that they can get up to the sunlight. Cool idea!
I love this idea!
You know, I’m honestly not sure if we still have potato farms here! Just as I’m not sure if there’s still at least one duck farm left. You know Long Island is famous for ducks, LOL!
I’m on long ISland and I do the same thing only I use old milk grates. the potates grow right through the holes in the crate but the holes seem just small enoough to hold in the dirt.
That’s a great idea. I saw a picnic table made out of old tires once–they stacked tires and poured concrete through the centers for the seats, and then the table part was made the same way, with an old door used for the flat surface. Functional and durable!