Potatoes in tyres

[Andy Hamilton]

My potatoes in tyres have worked a little too well this year. I have got to six tyres and if I had not been so stupid to think that a smaller tyre at the bottom would support bigger tyres further up then I probally could have got up to seven or eight tyres. It does not seem to be showing any signs of stopping growing.

The potatoes that I planted on my allotment have long since been harvested and eaten and they were planted at the same time.

The plant has got so big that the tyres are all leaning over with the weight and the leaves are nearly touching the floor. Now with this kind of growth will I still get a bumper crop? Or when the top part of the potato plant gets this big does it mean that the actual potato growth will suffer?

[the.fee.fairy]

i don't know the answer, but please keep us posted...

I've got a garage down the road willing to let me have tyres, so i'm planning on 2 tyre stacks next year...

[Boots]

Sounds great! I have pretty much found the outside growth isn't much of an indication. When it comes time to look for spuds the tyres are a bit like wrapped presents and you never know what they will hold.

I have had as few as 5 potatoes from a stack in some cases and dozens in others, so I guess that is all just part of the fun. The longer your plant flourishes though, the more spuds you should get and the bigger they should be, but hey nature does funny things sometimes. The reason tyres are good, I think, is because they can prolong growth and limit light much more effectively.

Can you prop the tyres to keep them a bit steadier?

[Andy Hamilton]

Can you prop the tyres to keep them a bit steadier?

They seem to be holding rather like the leaning tower of pisa! The trouble is as they are straight onto concreate I would need to get an anvil and strong plant of wood to prop them up. I am not so worried about the plant leaning over as I don't think it will fall over. I just hope I get more than 5 spuds.

[Christine]

How did you organise your tyres? Did you turn them inside out as per Bob Flowerdew's advice or just stack them?

[Andy Hamilton]

I just stacked them, why does bob turn them insdie out?

[Boots]

... and how does Bob turn them inside out?

[Christine]

I'm a bit vague about tis, as I've only heard him describe it on the radio but I understand he cuts off the sidewalls and only uses the tread bit, turning it inside out (why, I don't know...)
Encouraging to know that you use the whole thing, any way! I've always wondered what you're supposed to do with the bits you cut off.

[Millymollymandy]

Is he using them as a pot then? I used to have cut open, turned inside out flower pots made from old tyres, back in the days when I was new to (flower) gardening. Ugly old things, painted them white. Still ugly!

[digiveg]

Ugly old things, painted them white. Still ugly!

Aaarrgghh...and did you check to see what was in the paint, that was therefore leaching into your soil? Come to that, did you check to see what was in the tyres?

I know you said this was back when you were growing flowers; but it really doesn't sound as if you put much thought into what was happening a bit further down...

C'mon, guys - you all seem to be talking very calmly indeed about growing food inside the battered rejects of something made almost entirely from petrochemical residues. I've seen what goes into tyres, because I've helped to make them. Are you sure it's a good idea? Did you check up? If you didn't, why are you doing it? Because others are? Well, I bet they didn't check up, either!

Here's a clue: I will NEVER grow anything in a tyre. Not even a weed.

[Christine]

I felt I had to dig around after this topic and here's what I found...
"Bob Flowerdew, once recommended using old tyres for this. He suggested starting off with two or three tyres stuffed with straw for insulation. Put them on top of each other, fill them with soil and plant your potatoes. As they grow, keep adding another tyre and fill with soil."
www.allinfoaboutgardening.com/index.php?page=28

For other comments about experiences growing potatoes in tyres, look here http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/showthrea ... rid&t=9489

I haven't yet found any reference to cutting the tyres up - I only heard it on GQT the other week and I remember him saying that the sidewalls are easy to cut into...

[Boots]

Here's a clue: I will NEVER grow anything in a tyre. Not even a weed.

Weeds are just plants that grow where you don't want them to, Digs.

I'm not sure of why you are suggesting we are all too calm or must never have looked into this. I agree a lot of raw and unnatural materials go into forming tyres and they have posed one of the worlds worst environmental problems for a very long time. They have recently been used as a coal replacement and are being reduced (as in firing) inside contained environments, but for a long time they were considered totally irreversible once formed. They essentially formed very large expanses of landfill and created layers of lifeless litter beneath the earth, which contributed significantly to earth warming as they also stand as very effective heat conductors and retainers.

I make a conscious effort to re-use tyres Digs, because I truly believe that they are less damaging above the soil than beneath it, and can be re-used practically rather than thoughtlessly. For several months I was able to detour about 20 tyres a week onto my farm rather than into landfill. So I have a stack of them here serving a lot of different purposes.

Instead of using trees/wood to build loading ramps and retaining walls, I used tyres.

Instead of paying $300 each for water troughs I made them from tractor tyres.

Instead of using trees/wood for raised garden beds, I created terraced beds using different sized tyres.

The only problem I can report from growing in them, is that during summer they hold a lot of heat. Too much for our climate, so I don't grow all year in them (except for spuds). They are particularly good here in Aus as they hold water in the lips and plants tend to do a lot better in them than they do in raised beds where the water just runs away and disappears pretty quickly. They also provide a bit of protection from animals that I appreciate and I can wire them off very easily to protect seedlings and give young plants a good start.

None of my vegies appear to be double headed or siamese or whatever... and as far as I can tell they are healthy and taste great. Plants grow in and around them without any obvious difficulty, so I figure if there was any contaminant effect, it would be seen by a plants inability to thrive in or beside them. I'm totally open to any new findings that may suggest harm, and would respond practically, but as far as I'm aware there hasn't been any negative effects reported, and other than the above I can't actually add any.

You'll find petrochemicals in fabric, all your electronic equipment (including the computer your sitting at) and even in aspirin. They are very difficult to avoid in todays world. Ideally, we would refuse them to start with, but I'm not willing to surrender my transport. I live too far from everything. So instead, I attempt to re-use what I use (and what others use if I can), so that it doesn't just contribute to further mass landfill. Whether that is right or wrong, maybe my kids will admonish me in years to come, but for now I have made what I consider to be the best decision from what information I have been able to find.

As I said, I am very open to any new info though.

[Andy Hamilton]

very well put boots. Yep I did look into harmful effects before I used them and did not find any evidence anywhere that growing in tyres would be detremantal to ones health.

I also think that it is better be using something that generally ends up in landfill or dumped. In fact tyre one in my stack was one that I found by some flats dumped near my house.

digveg - I really don't think that any of us are feeble minded sheep who do things just because others do. Anyway chill mate, perhaps you should be having a go at the people who eat ready meals and plastic sandwhiches do you think any of them look into the effects that they have on thier body?

[digiveg]

Sorry, guys - as you may guess, I tend to rant!

I agree that old tyres are better being used above ground rather than dumped beneath it, and applaud some of your ideas, Boots - but I will continue to draw my own personal line at using them in my garden. I'm not convinced that they're OK by the lack of oddness in what's grown in them - after all, it's hardly a long-term study, is it? I'm more worried about very low-level contamination that builds up until...well, until it's too late. Particularly when it involves things I eat.

Incidentally, NOTHING is totally irreversible once formed...

Andy, I didn't intend to call anyone a sheep, even an intelligent sheep! But we all tend to go along with what we've been told, so long as we respect the person saying it. It just seems to me that, knowing what a tyre is made from, and knowing that it will gradually - albeit very very slowly - break down through water erosion, sunlight etc, the last place I would want to use them is in the garden. Of course, as that's MY opinion, I can't for the life of me understand anyone who holds a different view!

And I would gladly take on the ready meal eaters if I could only find their forum...it must be around here somewhere...

[Boots]

The vulcanisation process used in tyre formation cannot be reversed.

It isn't possible to reverse the process and return tyres to their original components, which include virgin and synthetic rubber, carbon, oil, zinc, polyester, resin and sulphur. The steel cords can be extracted.

Vulcanised rubber is considered almost indestructable - in that it will wear, when subjected to friction, crack when subjected to sunlight, and soften when subjected to heat, but it is definately not biodegradable.

If you are interested in the extractive/re-use process, we have had some big developments in Aus and Molectra have a website that's worth a look... They are doing some fantastic work, and also provide details on the environmental problem that is growing in line with tyre dumping.

http://www.molectra.com.au/