Graduating Potatoes

The potatoes are growing nicely and the plants pop through the added dirt almost daily. The second stack of tires are added as the mounds of dirt grow. A third row of tires can be added if you are brave enough.

One year, I was over-exuberant with my potato growing technique. My family warned me that I was stretching the plants too much. A was on a roll, the plants were growing so fast that each day I would add shovels-full of dirt to the emerging plants. I had four tires stacked up on each mound and piling the dirt high before adding the fifth tire. Then one day, it just stopped, it meaning everything. No new sprouts broke through the surface. I tried watering and waiting, nothing. After a week of no green leaves I started dusting off the mounds of dirt just hoping for a sign of life. I removed the fourth tire off each stack and watered again. No sign of life, I killed my whole harvest.

Now,  I stick with two tires on average and three for very vigorous plants or very squished tires. This plan seems to work well for my garden.