I need some advice for a very new gardener - POTATOES

[HeatherVera]

I have been growin over 30 potato plants in tires but didnt have a ton of info at the start and we used only 2 tires 1 on top of the other..., but now the plants are so full and so large and I have found out I should have been piling the tires.. is it too late these plants are approx. 4 feet tall and very bushy.. can I prune them to fit more tires over them or is it too late... should I just hope for the best out of what I have ...? I have been putting dirt ( a little) on top of the tires around the base of the plant but I'm afraid I have all plant and no potato... WHAT SHOULD I DO>>>

[TZ -OH6]

You are just fine because piling the tires up high actually doesn't work in most cases. Most varieties are determinant so that farmers have a crop of same sized tubers maturing at one time and fitting inside the hilled rows that the machines make. So as long as you have around a foot of stuff over top of the seed potato your crop will be protected from greening.


https://www.durgan.org/August%202009/21%20August%202009%20How%20a%20Potato%20Plant%20Grows/HTML/


If you are planting so many it would be more space efficient just to plant in the ground and either hill up soil or use straw.


I can't really imagine having 60-90 spare tires laying around.