Growing Potatoes in Tires (I remember my children digging for potatoes...it was fun!)
Growing potatoes in tires is a really neat and inexpensive way of achieving a decent crop of potatoes in a confined space, as an alternative to growing potatoes in commercially available potato planters or traditionally in rows.
Types of Potatoes
The First Early potatoes are planted earlier (usually late March) and can be harvested as new potatoes when they are the size of an egg towards the end of June. Second Early potatoes are planted a couple of weeks later and are ready to be lifted in July or August.
Maincrop potatoes are planted in mid to late April or very early May, and the first ones are ready to be lifted in August to be eaten straight away, while most will be lifted in September or October for storage over the winter.
Within the early and maincrop there are also different types of potatoes. Potatoes can have red, yellow or white skin, and the flesh can vary between a pale cream and and yellow. Some potato varieties are particularly good for certain types of cooking, eg the maincrop variety 'Majestic' has been the most popular potato for making chips in the UK, while 'Kerr's Pink' is a good potato for mashing.
One of the benefits of growing potatoes in tires is that you can grow different types of potatoes easily. Simply have several stacks of tires: one for early potatoes, one for a red skinned maincrop and one for a potato variety perfect for making chips!
Remember: GREEN potatoes are poisonous!
Potato Likes and Dislikes
Potatoes like:
* Being chitted before being planted out.
* A nice sunny spot away from frost pockets.
* Being earthed up to prevent the tubers being exposed to the sun.
* Beans, cabbage, marigolds and nasturtiums.
Potatoes dislike:
* Frost! If there is any chance of frost after the potatoes have started growing, cover them with a blanket of earth or straw.
* Long dry spells - the tubers need water to grow properly, so water well during droughts.
* Being grown in the same place as the previous year or two. Potatoes are very much in favour of crop rotation!
* Cucumbers, pumpkins, squash or tomatoes.
Growing Potatoes with Companion Plants
Potatoes grow well with beans, especially bush beans, cabbage, marigolds and nasturtiums. They also get on okay with corn and eggplants.
Don't try growing potatoes in tires together with other plants or near cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, courgettes (zucchini) or tomatoes. One of the reasons for this is that all these vegetables are prone to mosaic virus, and keeping them apart helps to prevent the virus from spreading from one vegetable type to the next. Tomatoes can also catch potato blight, so again, keep them apart to try to prevent cross infection.
digging up potatoes
How to Grow Potatoes in Tires
If growing potatoes in tires, first chose a sunny spot in your garden or balcony.
Ensure there is drainage below the tire, as potatoes don't like getting water-logged, though they do need sufficient water for the tubers to form.
Early potatoes can be planted as from the end of March, while maincrop potatoes are usually planted in April, at the latest at the beginning of May. The main aspect affecting planting time is frost. Potatoes are only half-hardy and any frost will kill off emerging plants.
seed potatoes in tire
Fill the tire with damp earth to just over half the depth and place 4 - 5 seed potatoes in it, with the eye or shoots facing up. Cover with a couple of inches of soil.
In this example, we have used seed potatoes for a maincrop which have not been chitted.
emerging potato plants
Keep the soil moist but not wet and within about 6 weeks there should be several healthy potato plants growing. If your seed potatoes were chitted, the plants should appear sooner.
If there is any chance of a late frost, protect the young plants with straw or earth them up immediately they appear.
covering potatoes in tire with earth
When the young potato plants are 2 - 3 inches high, add a second tire to the stack and add more soil, almost but not quite covering them.
Continue covering the emerging plants with soil until your stack is 3 tires high. Tubers will be forming all the way up the stack of tires.
Early potatoes are ready to harvest when the flowers have opened or the buds fallen off; dig a few tubers up and check - they should be about the size of a hen's egg. With maincrop potatoes, wait until the foliage has turned brown, cut off at the stems and wait a few days before lifting.
One of the cons of the traditional method of growing potatoes in long rows, is that you have to ensure you have dug up every single tuber each autumn. Growing potatoes in tires avoids the possibility of missing that one tiny potato which would ruin your carrot patch next year!
Tips on Growing Potatoes
Although when growing potatoes in tires it is possible to have a stack four tires high, we would not recommend this when growing potatoes with children. The temptation to climb up the stack is rather too great and they could hurt themselves if the earth-filled tires fell on top of them.
Keep the potatoes well watered during long dry spells or droughts. The tubers being formed are largely water, so lack of water can result in potatoes which look okay, but are rubbery and soft on the inside.
Always grow potatoes from seed potatoes which have been certified as virus-free.
12 comments:
We tried to grow potatoes in tires a few years ago. We got a few, but the fire ants destroyed most of them. Thankfully, they leave sweet potatoes alone, so we grow those instead. I bet they would grow well in tires too, even though they're not related.
I love potatoes.
Did you start them early? Also if you used grocery store potatoes some are treated so they don't sprout.I have never had a problem with them so I can't imagine why they didn't grow.
I'm sorry you said the fire ants got to them. I wonder if marigolds planted around the bed of potatoes would ward them off. Marigolds are good for their pungent odor and lots of pests don't like them!
I used organic potatoes from the grocery store that had already sprouted in the pantry, but I've never tried seed potatoes. They might work better. The marigolds might help too, and even if they didn't, they are beautiful anyway. I could also drench the soil with an orange oil solution, which would kill the ants, but would not be toxic to us. It's a bit expensive, but a small area such as a tire might be do-able. I was planning to go to the feed store soon and get some onion sets to plant, so maybe I'll get a few seed potatoes to try. You've inspired me!:)
I think I'll try this. We havn't started any gardening yet. Last year we grew too large a variety but we discovered what did well. This year I thing we will stick to just 4 or 5 types of vegetables including potatoes. I have always liked the small red potatoes the best. Do you have any recommendations for these?
i will bring you some Yukon Gold seed potatoes when we come for Sean's birthday party. We will most likely be coming up on Friday(sometime in afternoon) and leaving about 5 on Saturday.
That is if you want some, I am getting 25lbs on Tues. way more than I can use but it is a 50 lb bag that someone else is dividing with me.
I will ask Jacob if he wants you to bring them. He will be working all day Friday, Sat and Sun but i guess the kids and I will see you at the party:)
I got my spring planting done! Including two tires with a few red skinned seed potatoes. Last month, the girls helped me plant garlic bulbs, snap peas and carrots, which are all growing nicely, and last week end we finished up with onion sets, spinach, lettuce and radishes. Once these are "done" we'll plant tomato and sweet pepper plants, crowder peas, canteloupe and some other summer veggies. I try to rotate each bed with a legume (peas, beans) after the other kinds, since they add nitrogen to the soil.
potatoes are yummy.
I think I will plant some sweet potatoes,too! They really are more healthy than regular potatoes.
I'm frying some potatoes right now...
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