judyf
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by judyf on Sept 4, 2006 10:31:19 GMT -5
Has anyone ever planted potatoes this way? It's talked about a lot in the gardening articles, especially the homestead, or organic ones. You plant several potatoes in the center of a tire; as they grow, you keep adding tires on top of one another, filling them up with ground as you go higher. Theoretically, the potatoe plants are supposed to form new roots all along the long stems you are creating by doing this, and they will form new tubers all the way up the plants. You are supposed to be able to grow a fantastic amount of potatoes from the original plant this way. And they are easy to harvest --- just remove the tires, and you have a tower of potatoes to pick up. Well, I planted six of these "tire towers", watered them well all season. The potatoes LOOKED stupendous; huge bushes over each mound. Now they dried off, and I harvested them -- what a rip-off! There were only potatoes on the bottom level, and no more than I would have gotten from an ordinary plant. I was really disappointed -- I had been looking forward to something I could brag about! Has anyone else ever tried this? I wonder if I could have done something wrong, but I don't know what it could have been.
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Post by plfreitag on Sept 4, 2006 16:28:25 GMT -5
I found this.... "Last year, we grew potatoes in eight stacks of tires, using eight: different potato varieties. Each tire stack averaged 11 pounds of potatoes: Some readers have reported yields of up to 38 pounds per stack. Others have reported poor results, averaging as few as one or two potatoes per stack. Over-watering or the use of too much high nitrogen fertilizer could be the reason for poor yields. " from www.humeseeds.com/potato.htm
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Post by admin on Sept 4, 2006 21:02:50 GMT -5
I haven't tried gardening in tires here in Florida.. I'm wondering if the fire ants would try to take over? So far the have taken over my back yard, leaving no room for me. However the ducks and geese just stomp all over the ant mounds and don't seem affected by it at all. Not me, every time I go out there I get bit. If we spray, it might hurt our poultry that we let loose all day in the back yard. The rain is really making the ant situation worse too. Elaine
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Post by admin on Sept 5, 2006 9:50:36 GMT -5
Just had time to go read the potato link...NICE LINK! I've seen these potatoes in gardening catalogs/ If anyone can say how to keep the Florida ants out of them, I might like to try potatoes. There's plenty of tires on this dairy that people have thrown away. Elaine
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Post by wildchildmom3 on Sept 10, 2006 8:05:56 GMT -5
I have tried potatoe tires with no luck. I now use the straw method . Its a lot faster and you can harvest all summer long and the straw can be tilled back into the ground when finished. Have a great day.. Lisa M in Mich
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Post by admin on Sept 10, 2006 13:40:30 GMT -5
We have hay, no straw in Florida. Do you think it will work with hay? How to you do that ?? Elaine
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Post by wildchildmom3 on Sept 12, 2006 11:29:09 GMT -5
Yes hay, straw, grass clipping , sawdust/shavings and leaves work too. The easiest way to start is to line your potatoe seeds in a row and start layering the "mulch" over the potatoe seeds. Once the potatoe starts to grow keep putting mulch around the potatoe so the sun never touches the growing potatoes. When you want some potatoes for dinner just pull back the mulch and reach in a grab what you need then quickly replace the much around the potatoes again. Its easy to do and I have been doing this for 4 years now and I get great results with this method. Save on watering during drought times too.. Lisa M in rainy Mich
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Post by plfreitag on Sept 12, 2006 13:53:54 GMT -5
So the potatoes grow "up" with the mulch level?
Sorry...feeling kinda blonde today.
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Post by wildchildmom3 on Sept 13, 2006 12:03:06 GMT -5
Yes, the potatoes grow upward and out. You just have to make sure the sun light doesn't touch the growing potatoes or they will turn green and be bad to eat. Lisa M
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