Topic: Growing in tyres

[VegBob]

I have been offered some old lorry tyres which I estimate will be about 4ft across when one of the walls is removed by about 1ft deep. Although I have heard of them being used I have never had occasion to try them myself. Is it best to simply treat them as raised beds or are there any pitfalls? I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks, in anticipation. Bob.

[hightower]

I'm a noob at this, but I read somewhere (sorry, can't remember where) to grow potatoes in them. Start with one tyre, and then when the shoots show stack another on top and fill. When the shoots show stack another etc until you have a 4 or 5 foot tyre wall full of potatoes.

Don't know how well this works though.

[Bugloss2009]

bob flowerdew used to recommend growing potatoes in tyres as hightower says, but I think it's not thought a good idea, because of cadmium and lead leaching out of the tyres. It's a small risk, but it's not zero...........

[Ellen K]

On some allotment sites, tyres are banned because of the cost of disposal.  And so of course garages will be only too glad to give them away.  My neighbour has herbs and fruit bushes in his and uses them to hold down black plastic.  But they get hot in the sun and dry out so things don't always do well in them.  I think they are an eyesore and would recommend you try something else.  Anything else, actually.  Sorry.

[Vinlander]

It's a small risk, but it's not zero...........

Like getting out of bed?

Being alive carries a non-zero risk of immediate unexpected death.

I'm not getting at Bugloss in any way - who may have an entirely reasonable approach to life... but for millions of people the recent (US-led?) fashion of risk-reduction has gone beyond all sensible bounds - mainly because it's one of the few things (apart from illicit sex) that will make people read newspapers and magazines - especially those people that normally only look at the pictures and struggle with the headlines.

Throwing a peanut up and catching it in your mouth is more dangerous than both lightning strikes and 90% of all the 'risks' hyped by lazy journalists and lazier press barons.

There was a wonderful table in New Scientist showing all the 'risky' things that are less dangerous than a falling peanut, and all the everyday 'safe' things that are actually more dangerous (like reading tabloids, believing them, and committing suicide from losing the will to live).

If anyone can find it I'd love to re-read it (it was published long before the www).

On a more serious note, manufacturers go to a lot of trouble to make rubber that resists soaking abrasion and solvents.

I suspect there is much more heavy metal contamination on the surfaces of tyres than there is inside the rubber - certainly anything inside the rubber is likely to stay there for centuries if not millennia.

The answer is to wash them.

Reuse is better than Recycle - a lot more nasties are going to come out when they are ground up for playground mats.

Of course Reduce is best - but I don't see there being any reduction in car ownership this century - even electric cars need tyres. In Paris even the trains have them!

Cheers.

[Bugloss2009]

actually I never said don't use tyres for potatoes. I was just pointing out there may be an issue with it. Certainly i'd use them if i was pushed for space and they weren't so pig ugly. Much more of an issue using old carpets. Certainly lead and cadmium do leach out of tyres but you chance of getting poisoned is zero. The worst that could happen is your kids drop an IQ point. Nothing to get worried about.  If i'd dropped a few IQ points, there'd be a lot more worth watching on the telly, for instance

Of course Reuse is good, but only if it's safe and suitable. I suppose that was the philosophy if those pig farmers who fed untreated food scraps to their animals, and started the 2001 Foot and Mouth epidemic

[Old bird]

I did try this about 10 years ago and got to about 5 tyres high - huge expectation of a bumber harvest and I virtually got zilch return. 

i may well have done something wrong but I didn't try them the following year!

They do make good windbreaks for young plants as you can put a sheet of glass over the top for protection when they are small and when they are larger they give a certain amount of wind protection.  i can see the pros of them but they are a bit of a menace to store and then ultimately to get rid of!

Good luck with your experiment!

O B

[manicscousers]

We use them to plant courgettes and squash in and have done for years, we fill with compost or well rotted muck, mound it up and plant on top, we can put a bottle cloche over or a fleece cover, ours are ordinary car tyres  :)

[VegBob]

Thankyou to all the respondents to my query. I have been gardening for several decades and it is a delight to come across such a friendly forum. Bob.

[cacran]

I have tried growing potatoes in them but the yield has been poor. I also tried some in a bin bag and the yeild was also poor. Potatoes are best in the ground, but if you don't have the space, then the other methods could be your only choice. I used to use a stack of tyres for a compost bin, which was quite effective as you can just lift the tyres off when the compost is ready, it just leave a pile of soil to dig.

[Jeannine]

I agree totally withBugloss and enjoyed ios witty expanation too. I would never plant in tyres.They are banned on our site for just that reason XX Jeannine

[lewic]

A total eyesore. Perhaps OK in an urban 'guerilla garden' setting (maybe the corner of a car park?), but I generally hate seeing rubbish recycled into planters. Someone even asked me at work if they could have one of our waste computer monitors to use as a 'something different' plant pot.. arghh!!

[manicscousers]

 :-X

[gaz2000]

i have a lorry tyre,full of mint  ;D

it stops the mint spreading,and its one less tyre being dumped or burned

[Ben Acre]

Living in the country as I do we get lots of tyres fly tipped in the hedges and dykes. I collected a load last week and sold them at a fiver a time to a garden centre for selling on as planters!

[Fork]

I cannot recall who it was but many years ago a TV gardener showed us how to use tyres to grow potatoes.

He did nothing to the tyres apart from tightly pack straw inside them and place them on top of each other as the potato haulm got bigger....and he topped them up with compost of course.....the results where shown when he took each tyre off one by one....lots of prefect new potatoes.

Despite all that.....mine go in the ground  ;D

[artichoke]

"I generally hate seeing rubbish recycled into planters"

One of the most charming sights in Greece and elsewhere is ranks of geraniums and oleanders, basil, mint and all sorts of other useful and beautiful plants bordering the pathway to the house door - all in old olive oil cans, big sardine tubs, anything they can lay hands on.

[cacran]

Hi Fork. Think it might have been Bob Flowerdew! ???

[camo_lady]

we're using old tyres in the following manner.
A) raised beds for carrots, parsnip (long root plants)

B) mini composters.. Stick your weeds/cuttings in, cover with a bit of tarp/carpet, and it rots down the contents really quickly

C) raised bed borders.. A line of tyres planted up with trailing flowers looks nice, keeps the bees happy and confuses carrot fly

D) Seating. Again, fill them with your rotting veg so they work as composters, put plank over the top and you have a bench/table.

E) sapling protectors when folk get strimmer-happy they protect the sapling from being ring-barked. (a couple round the sapling, and planted with spring bulbs/onions/marigolds. Tyre can be moved when required.)

Hope that's of use to you?

[artichoke]

What good ideas! Makes me want a lot of old tyres immediately. Love the dual purpose composter/tables or seats. Thanks!