[Jackie 2]

I generally plant my spuds in tyre towers as I get a MUCH bigger crop.


lay tyres on the floor cover floor with cardboard then straw, then manure then soil, place the spud in the soil then earth over. As the leaves appear add another tyre and repeat with earth until the tower is 4 - 6 layers high then 'allow' the leaves to grow and flower.


Keep well watered.


Truly you will be amazed at the crop you get and as they are above the ground no rotting in this very wet weather and no frosting so can start earlier than in the ground.

[Carl f k]

think ill give that a try thanks for the tip...i got loads of tyres here at the garage

[Jackie 2]

Most garages give away tyres as they have to pay for them to be collected.


Oh Ive noticed I said only 1 spud per tyre, that should be 2 or 3 per tyre depending on what variety

[Carl f k]

Yes it's a pound per tyre to get rid of them

[Jackie 2]

Tell them to pay you 50p then lol

[rusticranger]

Fantastic, I'm going to start this today. I have a quick question though; when you add more soil as the potato leaves come up, are you completely covering the leaves with soil? Or are you leaving a bit of leaf in the sun?

[Jackie 2]

I completely cover them until they at a height I want then I let them grow. We need the spuds to reach for the light


This encourages a REALLY long stem and all along that stem roots grow and so do spuds

[rusticranger]

Awesome! Thank you!

[Jackie 2]

You are welcome. 


 Ive grown some really big spuds this way too as I can give extra feed to the king Edwards and have wonderful jacket spuds.

[Jackie 2]

And another crop I find tyres are useful for is carrots as carrot fly doesn't usually fly higher than 18 inches from the ground so 2 tyres high covers that and you get great carrots, not too much manure though or they 'fork'

[rusticranger]

Just put 3 potatoes into a tyre! Exciting!

[Jackie 2]

Good luck Spuds are greedy feeders too so make sure they are well manured

[Carl f k]

I can get tyres easy and muck..just the soil I'm short of

[Jackie 2]

Cant you borrow some from elsewhere in your plot?


To eak it out add shredded newspaper, straw, sand polystyrene packaging crumbles up and of course manure 

[Jackie 2]

The only time I 'chit' my spuds is if I need to divide them and get two plants but they dont HAVE to be chitted to grow. I have never noticed a difference in growth between chitted or non chitted