Stackable potatoes?

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

Just heard from a buddy of mine about his uncle, who grows potatoes in stackable hollow buckets to save space. Plants a seed tater in a 5-gallon bucket (with an intact bottom), and as soon as it flowers and grows up out of the top of the bucket, he stacks another bucket (with no bottom) on top and fastens them together, adding dirt up the plant. When the plant outgrows that bucket, another one goes on top and dirt is added, and so on.

As more soil is added and roots develop, more potatoes also are produced. At the end of the season, he tips it over and harvests 6 vertical feet of potatoes. I've also heard old tires work great for this purpose.

Anyone ever tried this?

We don't eat many potatoes anymore, but I think we're going to give this a try. Got a hankering for some of those great Red River Valley reds.

[RumRiverRat]

Interesting................

[Steve Foss]

We're going to give the old tires a try. Lots of then to be had for free at local tire outlets, and we've got some room in the sun but out of sight (they be UGLY), so we'll put up a couple Tasty Tater Tire Towers.

[Get'n Jiggy]

I saw a gardening show a while back where they had a guy who did the tire

potato idea and it showed him harvesting a nice crop from about 4 stacks

of tires. Lot less work involved than the conventional way, just tip over the tire stack and pickem up. The tires will heat up and hold heat for us

northern gardeners. Surely no problem getting used tires.

[Juneau4]

I tried the tire routine 1 time and had poor results, I had a watering problem and those tires hold a lot of dirt, the total amount potatoes produced made it not worth the effort IMO. Good luck to those who try it.