Potatoes in a tire
What you'll need:
- 3 or 4 old tires - most places that fix tires will be happy to have you take away a few.
- 4 Seed potatoes - you can get these from an agricultural supplier, if that's not possible then 6 regular potatoes should work, but you won't get as high a yield.
- Straw or other Mulch.
Construction.
If you started with regular potatoes, put them in a dark place until they start sprouting.
Pick a location
Place
some cardboard on the ground, on it place the tire, spread
the potatoes around the inside of the tire, on the cardboard and
cover them with about 5cm of mulch. Wait ....
The
potatoes should grow up through the mulch, when they are sticking
out about 15 or 20cm then add more mulch, leaving about 2cm of
growth sticking through. Keep doing this until the shoots start
to flower. Wait ....
When the flowers die, lift off the tires, amid the mulch should be a bumper crop of potatoes, with the added bonus that they'll already be clean.
Credits: Authored by Mitra, from information supplied by Geoff Lawton of Permaculture Research Institute
