The first year we grew potatoes, they were in stacked tires. To be more precise, we TRIED to grow them. Sweet potatoes did pretty good, but everything else just turned into marble size things that would not soften even if boiled an hour.
Last year we tried to plant them traditionally in rows and had even less success. Now we are realizing that our soil needs more work than we thought, the chickens and rabbits are helping with that, but was still the overall issue we believe. The plants did great, but nothing happened underground.
This year we decided to try a different approach . Talking to friends who had had some success, we just tilled a plot. Put the potatoes on the ground and covered in hay.
Super easy , our concerns were are all the heavy storms matting down the hay as fast as we put it on there, and ants. We have all the ants, so if you are missing any, we have them. They are some of our best producers, unfortunately.
We ended up getting about a wheel barrow full. Excited to try this method again. The only thing we would change is make sure the ground under is tilled better. Even though they are planted “on top” of the ground , we found they stopped shallow because of the lack of tilling.
Green Journal Homestead 