If You Have Room -

[cjs]

I'm still harvesting potatoes and probably will for another few months. There are so many I can't use a shovel any more, have to use my hands so I don't cut them. Unbelievable.

Takes no room at all, no care, nothing except enjoy the best potatoes I've had in years!

[Mare749]

I would love to know how to do this, Jean. Would you walk me through it? I'm not an experienced gardener because the deer eat everything in sight, so we just gave up.

[DFen911]

Ditto..how long do they take to get to harvest size? I always thought you had to have a lot of room for potatoes.

[cjs]

Oh, first of all - we have deer everywhere also, Maryann, but other than nibbling a tad on the foliage they haven't bothered them.

Growing potatoes –

Just planting them in a hole in the ground, yes, they do take up a lot of room horizontally. But, if you grow them vertically, no problem.



Of course you would keep your area much neater…. I went to Les Schwab Tires and they gave me 6 tires (3 each the same size). You can do this with one size tire (for 3 tiers) and I think next time I will because we really got too many potatoes for just the two of us. (Note: I guess you could certainly go higher than 3 tires, I just have always done the three.)

Lay one tire on the ground and fill with potting mix/good soil, filling inside the rim also loosely. Cut your seed potatoes (I love Kennebeck and I did red potatoes also, from the nursery) in chunks so you have 2 or 3 eyes in each chunk – that’s where your potatoes will grow from. I probably planted 10 or 12 chunks, from about 3 to 5 potatoes. Just poke them in the soil; then mound up additional soil to completely cover the potatoes. They don’t take much watering, but during the initial stages (meaning most of the summer) I lightly fertilized once a week, along with all my other veggies.

As the foliage grows up and gets thicker, you want to add a second tire. You want the foliage to be about 18” to 2 feet, it will fall over but that’s o.k.

This is easy with 2 people. Roy lays a tire on one edge (which you have added some soil to the rim) of the first tire and I reach thru the center and gather all the foliage and bring it back thru the hole. Hold the foliage while the other person lays the 2nd tire down on the first tire; then shovels more dirt on to cover the foliage. It will look messy, but if you don’t break the stalks you’re doing it right. Leave 5 to 8 inches of stalk out of the soil and let it grow more.

Just continue watering/fertilizing for a couple/three of months. The best way to tell if you have potatoes of a size you want, gently poke into the soil until you reach a potato and you can tell with your fingers how large it is. Then start harvesting. I only harvest 2 or 3 lbs. at a time and leave the rest in the ground. Mine have been in the ground since last spring, so the potatoes in the bottom tire are really getting big as you can tell.

When I start harvesting the potatoes, I cut back the foliage and just make sure the potatoes are always covered with soil.

They really take no time or effort at all. Now that I’m down to one tire level, I’m going to start more seed potatoes in the spring, but I think I’ll only do one new tire so we aren’t overwhelmed with them. I’ll start the new crop in one of the tires I’ve already removed then I can continue harvesting from the original tires. Have no idea how many potatoes are in there, but I can’t use a shovel anymore because they are so dense, I’m cutting into them, so I just use my hand to gently remove them.

Hope that’s clear and if not, don’t hesitate to ask more.

[Mare749]

Thanks Jean, that's pretty clear and easy to understand. I'll save your instructions until spring and see if I can get my hands on some tires, which should be too hard as there are tire places everywhere.

Where do you buy your starter potatoes?

[cjs]

Any nursery will have them. Kennebeck are really nice potatoes - they are the white skinned ones.

[DFen911]

That is neat! Now is that picture before they started to grow or did you remove the top tire?

What time of year did you start them?

[Harborwitch]

Hmmmmm. We could do that, small space, big rewards! Of course the potato farmers are generous with their crops - there are still lots of yukons, reds, and russets in cold storage in the cart barn.

[cjs]

Denise, I took that picture yesterday-I'm down to just one tire's worth now for each type of potato. I had 3 tires in each stack when I started harvesting. I started them last April/May.

[Lorraine]

Even though I now have a huge yard, I love this idea. I've started my seed/garden list, and this will be on it. Almost time to start a "What are we planting" thread.