ali-s Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Is it possible to plant up a potato barrel that will be ready in time for Christmas? I have harvested the new Potatoes and would like to grow another crop using the same compost. Would they grow outside, or do I need to use the greenhouse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila the Hen Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 I think you would have trouble getting spuds ready for digging at christmas unless you had a greenhouse. My father in law is a fantastic potato grower, and he uses old car tyres. He starts with about 3 of them, stacked up and full of compost. He plants into that, and when they are about 4 inches above the soil, he throws on another car tyre, and fills compost up to just below the top leaves. When that grows, he just keeps on earthing up, and putting on more and more car tyres until he can't reach it any more with a small ladder (about 10 ft). When it comes time for harvest (after they have flowered) he knocks the whole lot over (the compost goes onto the rest of the veggie patch) and simply picks up the spuds as he separates the tyres. By no means the most pretty way of growing spuds, but my word he produces loads of them. Sorry that this doesn't really help you, but I thought I would post up in case it helped anybody else.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindy Loo Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 I think you would have trouble getting spuds ready for digging at christmas unless you had a greenhouse. My father in law is a fantastic potato grower, and he uses old car tyres. He starts with about 3 of them, stacked up and full of compost. He plants into that, and when they are about 4 inches above the soil, he throws on another car tyre, and fills compost up to just below the top leaves. When that grows, he just keeps on earthing up, and putting on more and more car tyres until he can't reach it any more with a small ladder (about 10 ft). When it comes time for harvest (after they have flowered) he knocks the whole lot over (the compost goes onto the rest of the veggie patch) and simply picks up the spuds as he separates the tyres. By no means the most pretty way of growing spuds, but my word he produces loads of them. Sorry that this doesn't really help you, but I thought I would post up in case it helped anybody else.... I am trying to convince LSH (long suffering husband) that we should plant our potatoes in car tyres next year to get maximum spuds from minimum space. it must be said that he is a bit sceptical but with my father in law (who does most of the veg gardening in our house) on my side we are going to give it a go. The question is how many potatoes do you plant per tyre stack? i have looked on the web. Some places say two or three. The RHS site says five. I suppose it depends a bit on the size of the tyre but it would be good to get a rough idea from someone who has actually done it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila the Hen Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 I honestly don't think that it matters. Remember that the reason for using tyres is that you can stack them up, meaning that each plant will grow lots of tubers vertically. The more tyres you can manage (or manage to put up with the look of), the better - within reason. In a normal car tyre, I would go for 4 to start off with. So long as they aren't packed in there, they will just grow to their maximum allowed size. One little tip, go for 'second earlies'. I find them much tasiter than either 'first earlies' or main crop. If you have a look at Riverford organic box scheme's brilliant veg website, they give loads of info about choosing the best variety of seed potato to start with. Let us know how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Have a look at the recipe section on the Riverford website. Cor. Wow. Kaaz....are you there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
