That’s where I am today. I only doubled up one of the tires though. Too chicken to sacrifice them all to some guy on the internet.
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if not raised, what’s the purpose of the tires?
Maybe @jdsmith feels nostalgic for Taiwan and wants more microplastics and plasticizers in his potatoes? Don’t judge!
It keeps the soil wet when it gets really hot in July and august. Also, it’s deeper than it looks from up on the deck. There’s probably a good foot and a half of soil above the lawn.
That what it looks like this morning. 
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your experimental one isn’t looking so good, are they still growing through the soil you put on top?
I just covered it when we had a week of heat. It just rained for several days so the other took off. But you may be right!
The plants are growing at a nice clip! looking good 
When is harvest season where you live?
not sure how to word this, cause I know through writing online it’s going to seem dickish. but in my most sincere possible way with actual good intent and no judgment intended, heck, even a few canadian sorrys’ from the old country, I must ask. sorry.
why do this tire style inside a raised bed? I know I asked and you answered, water retention. but there are more efficient ways without introducing dirty tires and honestly unproductive geometry to the potato infrastructure. I know, dick comment. but.
Again, sorry. sounds arrogant as fuck. coming from good place. but my plant OCD cant in good conscience bite its invisible tongue any longer 
the more I want to say, the worse it sounds haha. Can we talk about this? I love experimenting! And is absolutely what every gardener always does! But I worry slightly about both yield and wasted work as well as unnecessary soil contamination. Open to panel discussion?
sorry… 
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some use tires to make it easier to mound the soil over the plant as the potato grows, and makes it easier to harvest when ready.
what do you mean “unproductive geometry”?
Go at it. I doubt I’ll move them now. And the leaves have sprouted through the doubled up tires. Whoohoo!
It’s a tried and tested method with good results in small spaces. Used tires would generally go to landfill anyway: may as well make use of them as a layering aid rather than dispose of. And they provide a convenient and secure method of gradually adding height to a potato tower, which is easy to dismantle at season’s end/harvest time to recover potatoes layer by layer without digging.
and why inside/on top of a raised bed? because it saves raising the bed any higher, and when you dismantle them (without any digging needed), the soil goes into the raised bed surrounds and not onto the lawn. this is a backyard, not a farm.
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I suppose what confuses me is putting them inside the raised bed, why? I get it on concrete or non permanent gardens (like on the lawn), but still confused as to way putting extra walls inside the bed is used
On geometry, I see the walls creating blocks for roots, water logging inside and places for more bacteria/fungi growth. Good potential sites for rodents as well. It appears to just be putting walls inside the raised bed without any obvious benefits I would presume letting the roots spread free to the raised walls would be preferable.
Because they fit, man. Because the bed is already raised and the tire tower raises it more. Ad finally, because I wanted to do it that way to see it if would work as expected during the really hot months, as last year I lost most everything with a leaf on it to the deer.
WTH are you talking about?
Okey dokey. Just askin Have fun!
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