It was so shiny, and only $8. I held it in my hands feeling both its weight and its lightness. Maybe holding it a little longer would help me decide.
The last thing I need is an emergency tent. I am quite confident of my ability to survive almost anywhere and it is highly unlikely I would have this thing on me if such an emergency ever came up.
I’ve got a wonderful story of surviving through a bitter cold night I’ll share with you next Tuesday. That experience was very empowering and helped me get a step away from needing ‘stuff’.
So the attraction wasn’t because it was a ‘tent’. Calling the thing a tent was marketing hype as it was really an over sized space blanket and a bit of nylon cord.
But there was this strange attraction to it. “Maybe because it is shiny”, I thought. Who doesn’t love shiny things?
But I easily turn down the zillion shiny things my daughter suggests we absolutely need. So while I am not exactly immune to ‘shiny’ I felt this pull was something else.
One of the fun aspects of speaking at Expo’s across the country is getting to meet the vendors and see all the cool stuff being offered. And so here I am standing around at this booth holding this ‘tent’ with a strong desire to buy it and no real apparent need for it.
There are many times in my life when I’ve had a strong desire for something with no logical basis. And I usually act on it. It seems that most of the time it works out amazingly well. And, there are enough mistakes to keep me humble – and uncertain.
My husband isn’t much into supporting purchases based on intuitive leaps.
So what did I do?
I bought it.
Skip forward to the potatoes in tires project. Hey, they are growing really, really well. I’ve put on two more tires to the stack. So far, this experiment is very promising.
Check out these update photo where I am adding th
e second and then the third tires.
But recently it has been getting warm and black tires get even warmer. I needed to either paint them or cover them or something…. Now where is the white paint? And the brushes? And what about all the mess that will involve…
Hey, what about that space blanket tent? So that is where it is being used right now. Kind of looks like a little lunar space pod in my 20/20 research garden.
And click here to see the original 
video where I setup the experiment to see if growing in tires was 1) a good gardening technique, and 2) if the resultant poduce has any toxicities from the tire. Here is the link to that first video if you missed it.
http://growyourowngroceries.org/experiment-to-determine-if-growing-in-tires-is-toxic/
I am still trying to figure out where in the heck to send the potatoes once they are grown. You asked me about Mike Adams at the Natural News and I have tried contacting him several times. Could you drop him a line and tell him to contact Marjory Wildcraft about the potatoes test? Leave a message for Mike at this link http://www.naturalnews.com/Contact-Us.html Maybe it we both keep bugging him we’ll get a response.
I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the experiment. It should be harvest time in about a month. Stay tuned! And if you aren’t subscribed already, sign up now. You’ll be the first to know the results.
Marjory Wildcraft is an Expedition Leader and Bioneer Blogger with The [Grow] Network, which is an online community that recognizes the wisdom of “homegrown food on every table.” Marjory has been featured as an expert on sustainable living by National Geographic, she is a speaker at Mother Earth News fairs, and is a returning guest on Coast to Coast AM. She is an author of several books, but is best known for her “Grow Your Own Groceries” video series, which is used by more than 300,000 homesteaders, survivalists, universities, and missionary organizations around the world.
COMMENTS(23)
Hi Marjory,
I enjoy your emails and videos. thank you .
My question is, after the potatoes grow up in the first truck tire, how do you add another tire with more straw and compost without burying the existing crop?
Joel, I add the next layer of tire after the plant growth has reached a good eight that exceeds the next level of tire. So I wait until the plants are tall enough they will still have lots of ‘top’ above the new added tire.
Yes, I am covering up the lower parts. Apparently, for potatoes they simply stop growing leaves and start growing the tubers… Uh oh, tubers may not be the correct term. It might be ‘corms’. But anyway, they start growing potatoes.
This is pretty well known as people ‘hill up’ potatoes regularly.
I found that by stuffing the additional tires with hay and a bit of compost before putting them on top helped a lot.
Once I put the new tire on, I gently stuff in new hay and compost around the stems of the plants.
The plants keep growing up, and I add new layer once they are tall enough. I think I’ll stop at 4.
I get it. I wonder if that would be good with other crops like tomatoes?
Thanks again.
GREETINGS ,
HAVE YOU CKed WITH TXA&M FOR INFO ON TOXIC TESTS
FOR TOMATO’S. THEY HAVE HUGE DATA BASE AND
AND DO RESEARCH ON HEALTH AND RELATED ISSUES
Hmmm, good suggestion. do you know who specifically I should contact?
I THINK THEY HAVE AN AG EXTENTION OR AG DEPT.?
ALSO, THERE IS A LAB IN SPARKS, OR, RENO THAT
DOES HAIR, BLOOD AND STOOL ANALYSIS FOR
ALTERNITIVE DR.s also HORMONES FOR TOXIC LEVELS OF MINERALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCE’S
MAYBE THEY CAN HELP. THEY SEND OUT SPECIMEN
KITS. YOU SEND BACK THE KIT. ROBERT SCOTT BELL
SHOW.COM MAY HAVE THIS INFO HE ALSO TALKS TO MIKE THE HEALTH RANGER
I SO MUCH APPRICIATE YOU AND ALL THAT YOU OFFER THANK’S SO MUCH…… PAT
Pat, thanks so much. I’ll try to find that lab, and contact Robert.
BACK AGAIN,
THOUGHT OF ANOTHER PERSON LAST NIGHT
HIS NAME IS SAYER JI, HIS WEB SITE IS
GREENMEDINFO.COM HE HAS A GREAT WEBSITE WITH INFO ON STUDIES ON FOOD
AND PLANTS THAT ARE HELPFUL TO HUMAN
WELLBEING.
PAT
ok First you don’t have to worry about toxicity. Potatoes are toxic by themselves. Being a member of the Nightshade family, they share the all the nasty qualities of their family.
Want a decent root crop that doesn’t take the growing bs of potatoes?
Jerusalem artichokes are your crop. All parts of the plant are edible (unlike potatoes, where all parts of the plant are poison).
JA grows anywhere in any soil. Needs no fertilizer, watering or insecticide, etc.
Get over potatoes, they are poison and do no good for you.
I have cut them completely from my diet and do not miss them as much as I would miss a boil.
Hi Jerry, Yes you bring up some good points. For the record, I don’t eat much potatoes – preferring to limit my carbohydrate intake when I can.
But Jerusalem artichokes do cause gas, really bad gas in my experience. I couldn’t use them as a staple in my diet for that reason.
They are tough plants and grow well in a variety of conditions. I’ll say that is defiantly true.
Hi, I grow in tires (usually stacks of 3) and line them up with a good quality garbage bag before filling with compost and organic matter… this bag is to prevent compost and plant from touching the tires. I grow 2-3 month type crops. This takes this toxicity issue away and you can enjoy reusing and having a healthy crop.
How Do you know when potatoes are done?
just shot natnews an email. maybe it will help!! this really is very important i believe….
Yes Susan, thanks for your help
ok natnews emailed me back. tried to send you the email but couldnt do. so here is the info he gave me to tell you. try these 3 of you wish…. eurofins.com Soralabs.com and iehinc.com. hope you get some results. susy
Oh THANK YOU!!! Susan B. I am just in the process of redoing the experiment for a fall crop.
(I ate the previous experimental results without ever finding a lab – and it seems I am still alive at least…. grin).
Did you ever get the potatoes tested?
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails
with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Thank you!
Hi Janette – I looked at the subscriptions for this post, but I don’t see your email there. Did you subscribe with a different email? Let me know and I’ll take you off of the notifications. Thanks – Michael
Has this experiment been finished? I am very curious to see the results! Let me know as I have made a few tires myself before I found this information.
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Você quer testar se verdadeiramente funciona?
Years on; Did you ever get the potatoes tested & what were the results. if so???