Use Old Tyres to Grow Leafy Vegetables

When you change your car's worn out tyres with new ones, you are left with a lot of scrap ones scattered in your home. These old tyres also become breeding ground for insects like mosquitos.

This instructable will guide you on how to use these old tyres to grow leafy vegetables organically.

You need to cut and remove top portion from one side of the tyre and close it from the bottom to make it suitable for planting. For that the following tools and accessories are required:

• A variable speed drilling machine
• A Jig saw
• A knife
• Synthetic woven packing materials used for packing fertilizers or sugar

• Lay the tyres flat on the ground and drills three to four holes adjacent to each other along the top outer edge of the tyre
• Connect these holes using the knife so that the blade of the Jig saw can be inserted through the slot
• Now insert the Jig saw blade in the slot and cut along the outer edge of the tyre
• Remove the cut portion and you have tyres wide enough to use it planting.

Please watch the video on how to cut the tyres

I have mentioned synthetic woven packing materials used for packing fertilizers or sugar. These synthetic woven packing material will retain the soil and at the same time allow the excess water to drain out. Synthetic packing material is durable and will not get danaged due to soil and water like organic ones.

If the packing material is stitched, then cut along the stitch and make it a single large piece

• Take equal amounts of garden soil, Farm yard manure and coir pith or cocopeat.
• Mix all together and prepare the potting soil

• Spread the synthetic packing sheet and place cut tyre on top of it so that the cut portion is on top
• Fold the excess sheet inside the tyre. At the same time fill potting soil inside the tyre so that the packing sheet is uniformly inseted inside the tyre. Fill soil upto top of tyre as shown in the last picture

Now you need different kind of leafy vegetable seeds. I have used different varieties of Spinach, Amaranthus and Fenugreek seeds

• Sow the seeds over the prepared tyres and sprinkle water over them
• Within a few days you will find the seeds started sprouting
• Water them regularly, if required twice daily

Within a month's time the leafy vegetables will be fully grown and ready for harvesting. You can harvest different kind of fresh leaves as per your requirement

The leaves will regrow again and again within a week after harvesting. You can enjoy fresh, healthy leaves for four to five months with this arrangement.