[Food] Has anyone actually done the potatoes in the tires thing?

[Walrus Whisperer]

I'm trying the tire thing this year, but I just realized tonight that I dont know how MUCH straw to pack in around the potatoe foliage in the tires. I did it in a minor way last year with boards and grass clippings around the potatoes. I couldnt believe all the potatoes under the grass clippings! I cant get enough grass clippings for what I have this year so I'm using straw. I'm going for rather firmly packing the straw unless I hear something to the contrary.

 

[Libertarian]

When I was a kid living in Satellite Beach FL I wanted to grow potatoes. Unfortunately the ground was too sandy and salty. My dad got an old truck tire for me. He had it turned inside out before he brought it home. hat was the big thing down there then.

I filled it with good soil and planted a bunch of potato eyes. I harvested 30+ small (2-3") potatoes that year. Dad said that if I had planted fewer potato eyes I would have had larger potatoes

Mom cooked some of them up for me in a roast with carrots They were the best spuds I've ever eaten. (sweet memories.)

 

[peachfuzz]

I'm trying the tire thing this year, I couldnt believe all the potatoes under the grass clippings!

What is this about? Is there an advantage to planting pot. this way? Was this covered before?
This looks interesting!
pf

 

[Annie]

I tried it once; it didn't work as well as in the ground, and if you change your mind, you've got all those old tires to deal with.

They did a study at Penn State for Rodale a few years back on all of the potato methods; by far the best was to put them JUST below the surface, almost at the surface and mulch heavily with, you guessed it, grass clippings.

The straw will pack itself over the season, just keep adding to it. Don't make it too loose or it might be too dry.

 

[blueberry]

I have always wondered about those too. I have NEVER been able to grow potatoes in this part of Texas. I have tried many times - always getting certified seed potatoes - and only end up with a few marble size potatoes.

 

[Renegade]

Tires do ok, but it's hard to reach in to the bottom and get a couple of big ones when you want them. I've done tires, wood boxes, chicken wire but here is the two best:

If you have a little slope to your area, take a middle buster, or plow and dig a furrow running with the slope (so water will drain out one end of furrow). Lay a row of taters in the very bottom. Fill up furrow with straw. The bigger and deeper the furrow, the more room you'll have for straw so more tater growing room. Best way to do the straw is to blow it in till you have a heaping row covering the furrow.

or,

you'll just have to try this to believe it.....

find a nice spot of yard grass (stays kinda short kind), take tater eyes and lay them out kinda like a grid pattern...however big you want to water. Lay them right on the grass, about 4-6 inches apart. Cover with about 6 inches of pine straw.
When the taters are ready just pull back the pine straw they'll be a layer of taters and roots in between the yard grass and pine straw. Easy to pick up that way too....no digging.

Both ways were done with a water soluble fertilizer (generic Miracle Grow) running through the sprinklers (on the yard one) and through the drip tape on the furrow one.

Either way you want PLENTY of LOOSE straw. Rain and time will pack it for ya.

Good luck!

 

[Walrus Whisperer]

Cool!
I will have to put the second tire on both tires pretty soon, I can't believe how tall the taters are getting. I HOPE they are making lots of tubers under all that straw. I was wondering if I needed to pick off some leaves when I go to put more straw in, I havent on the first tier-just stuck the straw in and now they have grown way past the top of the first tire tier.......
(its HARD to say "Tire Tier" )