Potatoe disaster (while growing in stacked tires)greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread |
My attempt at growing potatoes in tires didn't go verywell to say the least. Here's what we did, put first tire down filled with compost , planted 4or 5 pieces of potatoes with 2 or more eyes on each. They came up good and grew fast, as they grew we added tires filled with straw, some of our tower where 7 tires high. We pushed over the tires expecting our bounty. We got TWO large coffee cans full off of 8 towers. What did we do wrong, we kept them watered.NOW WE"VE GOT ALL THESE TIRES.but did get some fun dirt roading looking for tires and clean up oour enviroment some , but I WANTED TATERS not tires. We decided to laugh instead of cry but we still do't have any potatoes.Any ideas? Sherry
-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), June 28, 2001
Potatos need rich soil to have the things to convert to potatos, I suspect that straw did not provide enough nutritents, also 4 or 5 plants each per tire tower sound overcrowded. I plant potatos singlely and then put a 20 or so inch wire cylinder around them, adding well composted mulch up to there is only 4 leaves left visable. Averaged 7/8 bushel per plant last time.
-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 28, 2001.
I know people who grow potatoes in straw all the time, I don't think that was the problem, but overcrowding certainly might have done it.
-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), June 28, 2001.
Did you give the plants time to form potatoes? If you kept adding tires and straw all the growth likely went to vegetation, not tuber production. After reaching a certain height(You decide), let the plant grow above ground, supplying needed energy to underground growth. Even potatoes grown in conventional hilled rows get a chance at maturing (even flowering) before harvest.
-- ray s (mmoetc@yahoo.com), June 28, 2001.
Hum, might not have waited long enough, that sure rung true when I read it. O yea it was husband idea to harvest, he he. Know any uses for old tires with side walls cut out. Sherry
-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), June 28, 2001.