Saturday, November 28, 2009

A second try

When we started growing our own food in June 2008 one of the first things I tried was growing potatoes in tyres. The goal was to create more space and leave the raised beds for other vegetables.

While we recieved a medium success with tyres we really did not get the yield that was expected. We then started growing potatoes in the main beds and had great success.



This year I have used up all my available ground space with corn, potatoes, beans, squash, tomatoes but still had some seed potatoes left over.



We have started off 6 stacks of tyres again for the remaining potatoes. I think when we first grew them I was in a rush and did not let the foliage die back before harvesting, so this time I will be more patient and give them a little more time before harvesting.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen The Potato Farm? http://www.potatoesforafrica.co.za

Potato Farm in a sqm.

Adèle Breedt aka The Queen of Avalon said...

How many potatoe plants do you recommend per tyre stack?

Urban Homestead South Africa said...

Hi Adele

We didn't have much luck with this...but we went to 4 tyres over the growth period.

Adèle Breedt aka The Queen of Avalon said...

And how many PLANTS inside the tyre? I see three in your one pic, was this too much? We also have horsefood bags that I'm considering using (roll them up as the plant grows). BTW loving your blog (and learning much)!!!

Urban Homestead South Africa said...

3 or 4 is fine. I think ours "failed" due to positioning rather than too many in one stack.

Take a look at this:
http://www.thecorkums.com/2011/05/25/potato-towers-wall/ This looks like a great idea!