Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Library Girl on December 06, 2010, 20:48
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Hello,
I am hoping to grow asparagus next year and I was wondering if anyone had ever grown asparagus in tyres rather than in raised beds. I just have a few tyres lying around (don't ask!) and I was wondering if it would work-I have grown potatoes in tyres before and am thinking it would be the same principle.
Thanking you kindly.
L
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Creative thinking!
Asparagus crowns have quite wide roots so I would think that they might be a bit cramped in tyres. Also you'd exhaust the nutrients in the compost more quickly than in the soil, and they are permanent planting - live for 20+ years in the ground once established.
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At one time it was believed tyres would leach out nasties into the soil, but experiments found it's not really true. However, potatoes are a one year crop, whereas asparagus is a 20yr or longer crop. So ask yourself if in that time you'd still want deteriorating tyres in your yard. Also, asparagus need big root areas and 2 plants max per tyre wouldn't yield much. they'd grow into soil in the interior bulges of the tyres and if you had to replace the tyres, you'd have a difficult time with the huge root systems.