How to plant potatoes from seeds in a small garden the easy way? Tires is the answer

I am fascinated with potatoes. They are the most versatile, delicious root ever. However, many people do not consider them for their small urban gardens as they think it is a difficult crop. They are supposed to take lots of space and you have to keep adding mounds of earth on them right? NO wrong!!

I have been growing potatoes very successfully for a couple of years now, and how do I do it? I grow them in old tires. Yes tires! Good old tires – It does not get greener than that!

Apart from being green, tires not only save you space, but make the whole process so much easier, from putting up the earth to cover the roots to the harvest process.

Here is how it works:

The first thing you need are good seed potatoes, you can use your own potatoes or buy seeds from a garden center – Both with good results. What you need to look out for is a potato with lots of eyes! Each one of the eyes will develop into a little plant.

You can cut your potato in pieces, make sure each piece has a least 3 eyes, let them dry a few hours and then you are ready to plant.

You will need 2 to 3 tires of the same size per plant (where to get tires? I got 2 of mine from a neighbor who just changed hers, and the following year we needed to change the tires of our car so I got 4 more. Ask around, a lot of people do have unwanted tires in their garages. You can also go to a local tire center and ask if they can give you a few)

Place your first tire in the ground and add a layer of good planting soil inside the tire, you can also put some small stones to add drainage.

Russet Potatoes

Red Potatoes

Put your potato seeds inside 4 to 5 per tire, no more.

Cover the potatoes with another layer of soil. Water and wait.

In a few days you will see the potato plants sprouting out of the soil. Every other day you will take more soil and cover the plants leaving only one set of leaves out. Keep doing this until the tire is full of earth and the plants are poking out again. At that time, stack a second tire on top of the first and repeat the process again. You can do a third tire if you wish. Remember the potatoes grow on those stalks that you are covering up all the time.

I will be posting photos of the process as my potatoes grow so you can see it.

After about a week - you can see the potato plants coming out!

Here is a list of following posts throughout the season so you can see the whole process working!

• Growing Potatoes in tires Part II - How to stack the tires once the plants start to grow?
• How do they look in June? 3 tires high!
• How do they look in July? Huge!