A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Little space but lots of desire for fresh potatoes

I have a small plot availabe and would like to grow potatoes. The plot is only about 64 square feet (8 x 8). I read about stacking tires and growing potatoes in that manner, but old tires would get less than favorable reviews by neighbors and the environmental gendarme. Would frames of wood serve the same purpose as the tires, or is it the 'tunnel', created by the tire itself that makes this method work?

I think a wood frame would work fine. I believe the point is to plant the taters and as the top grows you put another layer of soil and another and and another....mound it up. they like a lot of organic matter also.

why don't you just plant them in the dirt?

Look under the post brainstorm bonus potato towers. I have a link to some potato towers for growing in little space. You might be able to come up with something similar.

That sounds like a great idea, Cindy.
potatoes don't produce tubers below the part you plant, but they don't get many nutrients above that, so they mostly just make tubers above. They'll produce in nothing but straw layered above the "eye" portion, so if you don't have soil to spare, you can use only straw, or a soil/straw mix.
You can begin to pick the small "new potatoes" after they begin to blossom...that's the sign that tubers are forming.