The potatoes I planted in tires? They grew and grew and eventually, they were three tires tall. When the weather began to heat up, I shaded them and waited for what I thought was the appropriate amount of time for them to mature. The vines have all died back so I started taking one 'tower' down today. (In the 107 degree heat; I think it's getting to me.)
Here's the original thread for reference. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/832420/
Well, here's the entire crop of Adora's. (That entire bowl is only about 6" across.) I think you can safely say this was a huge waste of time, energy, water, soil and hope. However, there must be something that can be learned from this debacle. What?
You will find out when you cook and taste them!
While the yield may be dissapointing, you at least got some. Next year, another experiment, that is how we learn.
Well, not really. Unless I can learn what went wrong with THIS experiment, I will not do it again. I have two more tire towers and I fear there are no potatoes there either. Also have a big container and a basket. WHY didn't the plants produce? There was a huge amount of plant growth, very healthy and pest-free. When I dug into the soil, I couldn't find one vestige of a stem. Why? As it is, I think I waited too long to dig; 2 or 3 of these itty bitty tatos had begun to rot. But the whole concept of mounding dirt up over new growth proved fruitless; all those little specimens were in the first tire at the very bottom.
I'm so T'd off, I'm cooking red potatoes I bought at the store!
Well you could always plant a few the old way ( in the ground). Despite the early heat and zero rain for the last 6 weeks. I dug 120 lbs from 10 lbs of seed. Did not get any size, but I use them as new potatoes anyway. one plant
tomatofreak, that is so disappointing to have such poor results. I'm just not all that familiar with doing this in tires, but I'm wondering if you may have had too much nitrogen in such a small enclosed area with such lush growth. Mine don't produce such heavy growth. That makes the most sense to me anyway, you had good potatoes, etc, heat shouldn't affect them, so I'd bet on too much nitrogen. All leaves and little fruit, the standard result.
Nice taters, Farmerdill, if I do it that way I just feed the tater beetles here. sigh......
Tomatoefreak. The first place to start is to make an itimize dlist a smuch a syou cna, every step that you did. List all the things you used, like soil type an dfetilizers, how much and when and the composition of the soil. That way all elements cn be looked at and picked apart to figure out maybe what went wrong.
I possibly wondering if the composition of your soil was too heavy and maybe to much water and the water holding in the tires and with that rubber heating up that high wil put off alot of heat and maybe steam roomed the plants to much and so they didn't produce.
I would try the tire thing again, but instea dof piling more dirt on eahc layer, after the bottom layer of dirt would add leaves over the top and just use them.
My cousins in nearby coastal AL are professional farmers that grow potatoes under contract for Frito Lay. They plant right after New Years and harvest is done by late March or early April so they can replant the fields with melons. In hot climates, taters are considered a cool season crop. Once the plants start showing distress with yellowing leaves, they have done all they mean to so you may as well harvest. They like to be well fed and watered.
They withstand a few repeated frosts but I really don't know how many. I suggest you check with your extension agent for best varieties and planting schedule. Taters are very worthwhile so please don't give up.
Don't give up Alma. Plant those babies again next year but in January this time. twiggybuds is right, white taters are a cool season crop here. How are your sweet potatoes doing? Mine are still going strong but I don't expect to harvest any until the fall.
The idea of planting in the tire was really interesting to me - but then I wondered if the tires would leach something nasty into the plants...
120# from 10#. That's wonderful! The little ones are my favorite.
I'm getting very spooked about my food. I seem to remember somebody came up with the idea of using old tires off beaches to help break up the waves and thus help with errosion. Also they were going to be wonderful artificial reefs to help replenish fisheries. Then they all had to be removed because they leached something hazardous.
I think they could be used as a form lined with a huge trash bag with holes punched for drainage. The bag could be brought up as it was filled.
I continue to rely on black nursery pots of all sizes which are made from no telling what kind of recycled stuff. No telling what leaches out of any of it.
I agree RTl... don't give up. If ever you were going to be stranded on a desert idele and you were only able to take two foods along to grow they would be sweet potaoes and banas. With those two crops a person could live healthy for a long long time.
Not sure if it was Melody or somebody else, but somebody wrote a fantastic article about growing sweet potatoes or maybe it was regular potaoes, using the leaf method of piling up.
It an article well worth reading and trying. I don't know how to find past articles, or I would and supply a link to it.
Are you talking about my article on growing potatoes on the ground, Starlight? Here it is: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/435/
Yep that is it Doccat!!!!! Thanks for linking to it. Sorry, didn't rememeber it was you, but did remember the great article.
Tomatofreak. You might just try using the leaves instead of soil and if you wanted too, you could probably try and do the leaves in the tires.
The leaves would provide plenty of air circulation even if the tires did get hot and the worms would break like leave sdown into compost afterwards for ya too.
I did read an article where it said though not to use the same tires the next season because as the tires heat up they give off chemiclas that you may not want in your food. The article also said that growing in tires is not considered organic.
You might give th eleaf method or just using at least two gallon buckets and straw and composted manure in them for next year instead.
If you go with the leaves, ya got Doccat here to help ya along. : )
Well, it was an experiment, so I shouldn't be surprised that it didn't work as advertised. Here's what I did:
1. Filled a raised bed with straw so there would be good drainage.
2. Situated the tires (3) atop the straw and filled with bagged soil.
3. Planted the eyes as instructed about 3" deep.
4. Waited, waited and waited some more.
5. Watered as needed when plants emerged.
6. Added a tire when the plants were more than 8" high, the recommended height for adding more soil.
7. Filled 2nd tire with same bagged soil, stuffing it into tire cavities. (It took 2 cu ft to fill one tire.)
8. Watered as needed.
9. Added 3rd tire.
10. Added straw to the 3rd tire.
11. Began to look for potatoes when plants began to die back.
12. Got hot, dirty, tired and disappointed!
I do have - as part of my experiment - two other containers. One is a 1/2 bushel basket and one is a huge old discarded restaurant colander. I have fished around in that one and found at least two very small potatoes. All in all, I consider this a total failure. HOWEVER, being a glutton for punishment, I will try again this fall. I just won't use the tire method. Well, maybe one. My problem is, I don't have a big dedicated garden in the yard, so it comes down to digging up a spot here, a spot there and then trying to protect it from being run over by the dogs. Arrrrrgggghhhhh.....
Any other thought welcome. I'm looking forward to hearing about your potato harvest - and what went right.
I can only speak to last year's harvest, and it was great. I'm using the same method, the straw method, this year, with even more potatoes.
The only problems I had was leaving a few of the potatoes so long they started to grow sprouts t hemselves, and when a few of t hem rotted after a soggy spot invaded the bed.
Did you read the Growing Potatoes in a Garbage Can thread? I think it's genius. Sounds much easier than lugging big heavy tires around.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/825325/
I just use the ground, but I don't dig the potatoes into it.
I've got ground, and I don't know where I'd put the garbage cans, tires, etc.
Alma, you did better than I did. Just rummaged around in my straw pile, and found the eyes I planted down there, with withering stalks that I had been carefully covering with straw, and nothing else. No taters at all. DH was very sad...
But, I still have some seed eyes in the fridge that are looking good, so I'm going to try again as a cool-weather crop.
Here's hoping we both have better luck with the next round!
Jill, I can't help but think that the straw method works better in a milder climate. Heat that doesn't roast your eyeballs, plus some humidity seems to make gardening easier and more productive. I'll be looking for a few places to put some eyes in the dirt the traditional way for a fall crop, but I think I will try the tires one more time to see if the difference in weather makes or breaks the crop. Call me stubborn, but I'd really like to learn from this.
Well, we can be stubborn together :) I'd like to figure it out myself!
My planting guide from Native Seeds indicates that here in Tucson, planting-in-ground time for 'tatos is mid September to mid November, with mulching to protect from frost. I think that's what I'm going to try next.
Tomato Freak Plant in the Ground this Fall i did say that it may get to hot for poatoes in tires there paul
Paul, I believe you about the heat in the tires, but that doesn't account for my not finding a single stem, root or potato above the first tire. If there had been any potatoes that cooked, boiled or baked in there, surely I'd have found nasty spoiled potatoes. But I didn't; I only found soil with nothing in it. I'll be scouting some sites for in-ground planting this fall, but I'd really like to figure out why potatoes didn't grow in the tires. Like I said, call me stubborn but what's an experiment if you don't learn anything...
ive had good luck with tires in mass and nh but never in florida you need to plant all early types of poatoes there in spring you can do some mid season in the fall to paul
I've been following this post and been thinking about this. Logic says it's probably due to the intense temperatures. Perhaps this would be a good question to ask professional potato growers or your extension office? I'm puzzled as to why there is no evidence of potatoes left, that's very odd.
I'm using the leaf/straw method and have always had good production, but I'm in a different zone and we have the high temps also, but I think we've dealing with a different type of heat plus a big difference in our local micro climate.
I'm like you tomatofreak, I would want to know what happened and what I could do to make it work. Don't give up!
Doccat i lived in Winchester Va for 16 years i grew lots of nice Poatoes there some years sweet taters did great to if it stayed warm in to early fall Paul
Way cool, Paul. I haven't put in sweet taters this year. We got so behind on putting in the garden this year between medical issues and the deluges we had and we both discovered much to our surprise neither of us are 25 any more, LOL. Those type of taters will have to wait for next year. I'm just glad to have gotten in what few things we have, I'm holding off on some of my root crops and brassicas until fall.
I want to save some of my regular taters for seed for next year. I didn't not have a good experience ordering from non local sites this year. I wanted some of the more "exotic" varieties, and finally got them but I'm way late on getting them in. One outfit sent me a package of seed taters that were spoiled, UGH that was a nasty smelling surprise. So by the time we got replacements it was late as well and the seller was snotty, nasty into the bargain. Evidently don't need my business.
I use To get My seed Taters a Southern States feed and Seed ill tell you the red pontiac is a great grower paul
I usually get my Red Pontiacs and Kennebecs from either Roxbury Mills or Southern States here. I'm trying to talk them into getting some of the more "exotic" type varieties as well. The RPs and Ks are great taters and good "keepers". DH is "negotiating with a neighbor for an old bathtub with the idea of burying it by the house and turning it into a homemade "root cellar" to keep some of these things, it would be easier on us and they would "store" better in that environment. Should be interesting.......LOL
doccat5,
When did you plant your potatoes? I think I may have planted mine too late this year. I planted about mid-March.
Like tomatofreak, I planted in tires but then used a cage with straw/dried grass on top of that rather than more tires. Three of them died back after they got about two feet higher than the tire. When I opened those up, there were many potatoes in the tire but none above that, only parts of a rotted stem. The fourth one still has greenery coming up through the straw so I didn't open that one up yet, but I'm betting that it's just like the others, potatoes in the tire but none above that.
I did see on the internet where people planting in tires had cut the upper sidewall out of the tires as they planted in them and/or added them. I found that making sure the tires were completely filled with dirt was difficult and cutting away the sidewall on the top side would sure make filling them easier.
For the three that failed so far I ordered more seed potatoes and planted them again in the tires. I'm yet undecided whether to put the cages back or continue with more tires as they grow up this time. I'm considering a third alternative -- that is, put the cages back but line them with newspaper and fill with dirt. I'm concerned that more tires will pick up too much heat in our summer here. I did consider putting aluminum foil around the outside of the tires to reflect the heat. I really do want to find out what works in this area as I've seen too much evidence that others have had great success with this above-ground method. I cannot plant them in the ground as the red clay is just like concrete here.
How do you water yours? From the top and all the way down through the leaves or do you continue to water only the bottom original layer? I would think that maybe they got too much water by watering from the top, but then I've seen that the commercially-sold potato cages and the stacked tires all require watering from the top as there's no other way to do it. And both these methods have worked well for others.
So, I'm kind of stumped as to why tomatofreak and I had such bad results.
Karen
Started them in early May. I'll get pictures, we'll go out in the morning to add a layer of leaves. We only water from the top and rarely. Usually we get enough rainfall that it's one area where it's not an issue. DH is using bright orange hurricane fence to hold down the leaves this year and has caused several of the new neighbors to stop to find out what the heck is that all about. The old one's have thought we were total "nutso hippie, tree huggers" for years since we only use organic methods to garden. Interesting turn around for us, with the new "green" movement. They're going to have to hustle to catch up with the rest of us. LOL
If you want your neighbors to think you're weird, try hundreds of plastic bags fluttering in your apple trees.
Well, I am trying to grow trash bags as you can see...........LOL
A healthy crop!
LOL......We are confirmed and certifiable composting addicts.........!!!!
yummmmmm
doccat5,
Thanks for the info. So the time I started them and watering from the top is not the problem either. We had quite a lot of rain this spring so I rarely watered them, too. As I remember, you dug yours into the ground a few inches and then covered with the leaves. If I don't get this tire/straw thing to work, I'll have to try that. I can put a bed of them out where I've got the melons and squash growing. I can dig the ground there but the space is very limited. Where my main garden is I cannot dig the ground, hence the raised beds and lasagna beds. I do pick up bagged leaves along the road when I see them. Wish I had a nice stash like yours. I have some of that plastic construction fence, too -- orange and green both.
Luckily, I have only one neighbor -- but he does think I'm weird -- I don't care. I just tell people that it's okay because I'm from California. In AL, that's a good enough reason to be a little strange. Hee, hee, hee.
Karen
How about the old fashion mounding dirt up around the plants? I remember one writer saying that's what she does and she has a very large successful garden (if I could only remember her name).
The old way for planting potatoes is to dig a trench, 12-18" deep, plant the seeds in the bottom. Then as the plants grow you fill in the trench. But digging them up for the harvest is VERY hard work. If you plant the seeds only a few inches down, I don't think you can mound the dirt up very high without something to hold it in place. Otherwise, I would think that the dirt would not stay mounded up very well. Maybe there are some who have done this with dirt and can tell us how it worked for them.
Karen
