Potato Container Gardening: How to Grow Potatoes in Car Tires and Containers

Get ready to elevate your potato game with car tires! Stack ’em up, fill ’em with soil and spuds, and watch those taters reach for the sky. With a side of earthworms included, it’s a whole production. Plus, you can recycle those old tires and give them a new purpose – beats letting them collect…

shanegenziuk

April 10, 2011

1–2 minutes

coffee, картофель в шинах, farming, potato, Tire, worms

Growing Potatoes in Car Tires

We have 2 complimentary factors here:

Potatoes grow well in bags, containers, or other semi enclosed setup (like a car tire)
There are so many car tires for the taking you will never need to look hard to find them

The idea is to start with a few potatoes in the base of a single tire, then when the plants are about 6 inches in the air, you place another tire onto the first one and fill it with quality soil, leafmold, lawn clippings or coffee compost, leaving about 2 inches of foliage above the surface. That is it really, just keep repeating the process until you get as high as is practical. I’ve found that 3 standard car tires is about right.

potatoes flowering in car tire with coffee compost

The end result here is a bucketful of Kipfler potatoes.

There were a couple of earthworms sticking to this one, but I encouraged them to go back home!

potatoes growing from car tire in coffee compost

As mentioned, there were a large number of worms in with the potatoes. So much so that I’m going to try the three tires as a worm farm and see how that goes.

You can also use those polystyrene containers to grow potatoes, and I’m seeing good results so far. In the mix here is matured compost, wood shavings, and plenty of coffee grounds.

potatoes growing in a mostly coffee mixture

Growing potatoes is easy and fun to do. I’ve heard some objections to using old tires as a container for growing potatoes, and can appreciate those concerns.

Give it a go for yourself, and let me know how you find it. Hopefully as productive as I have.

13 responses to “Potato Container Gardening: How to Grow Potatoes in Car Tires and Containers”

Edward A. Schroeder

June 12, 2016 at 2:54 am

If you grow sweet potatoes, you can eat the leaves from the vine. Called Kamote or camote tops. Very tasty, look it up.

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Susan M

June 14, 2012 at 7:34 am

Interesting idea, and I am a little late on here but I was told years ago that NO veg should be grown in tyres/tires due to the heavy metals that they apparently can contain!! NOT nice !!!! I have grown LOTS of flowers in them though !!!

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1. shanegenziuk
  
  June 18, 2012 at 11:34 pm
  
  That might be the case Susan, which can be fixed by lining the inside of the tyre with plastic sheeting like with a pond. The soil sites surrounded by the plastic which is all held in place within the tyres.
  
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Car Tires for Worm Farm and Compost Bin | Coffee Grounds to Ground

June 13, 2011 at 12:04 am

[…] for me that I had already been experimenting with car tires for growing potatoes, which worked very well for a decent crop, and the worms had already decided to make it their home, […]

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Kartul tornis | Elekas-telekas

May 23, 2011 at 6:19 pm

[…] Keldris on mõned vanad rehvid. On võimalik nendest samuti kartulitorn teha. Samas ei meeldi mulle mõte kartulist ja kummi maitsest isegi kui mu kahtlused on alusetud […]

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Dimitri

April 28, 2011 at 5:43 pm

What a neat idea to re-use old tires! I bet they could be stacked to simulate a large pot as well…

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1. shanegenziuk
  
  April 29, 2011 at 9:50 pm
  
  Yes they could Dimitri, and thanks for stopping by. Besides using old tires as potato grow bags, stacking a couple would make for a great environment for a plant, much the same as a large pot. The temperature is well managed within the tires, meaning it will not get too cold for Winter frost, and seems not to mind direct sun and high ambient temperatures.
  
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Crystel

April 17, 2011 at 10:17 pm

Is it safe to use a car tire to grow potatoes?

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1. shanegenziuk
  
  June 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm
  
  Good question Crystel, and there is no one answer on the subject, although most of the evidence suggests that there is little to no danger in using car tires for gardening, be it for growing potatoes, herbs, or as a worm farm. You might also find this link useful- http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/03/how-to-recycle-tires-in-your-garden/
  
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Christine

April 13, 2011 at 1:13 am

Very cool!
do used coffee grounds need to be dried for gardening

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1. shanegenziuk
  
  June 5, 2011 at 10:29 pm
  
  No they do not Christine, and you will find that moist coffee grounds will do just fine for all your needs. However by drying them you can store them for months, and that can come in handy. Check out my post on drying used coffee grounds which you might find useful.
  
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adeeyoyo

April 10, 2011 at 11:49 pm

It sounds like a good idea!

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1. shanegenziuk
  
  April 12, 2011 at 10:48 pm
  
  Yes indeed it is. I’m getting kilos worth of potatoes growing in those tyres, and then I keep using them as a worm farm. When planting time comes again, I’ll strip out all the vermicast and start over again. A great natural system.
  
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