old tyres

[dandalady]

just been looking at reuses for old tyres - compost heaps, planters. They can be painted in bright colours to use as planters. saw a tip for a hotbed using an ol tyre half filled with fresh cow muck with a deep compost layer on top and planted with spinach and salad leaf seeds. the rotting muck provides bottom heat. However, I have also been reading that old tyres contain cadmium and are dangerous for planting veg in.
help? does anyone on here use them?

[wellywoo]

I have used them for flowers they did really well until the dogs peed on them and killed


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[Alison]

I grow in them but they had been sat on the side for ages so were well washed. However there are lots of people who don't use them due to concerns about chemical leaching. I grow strawberries in mine and they do very well.

[lottie dolly]

i have 2 at the lottie with mint in,as long as it's lined with say,compost bag,with a few small drain holes,mine been in place 3 years now,and do a fine job,not spread yet,also if you want to move it,it slides ok across the soil

[veggiechicken]

My garden looks like a scrapyard now - old tyres would be the final straw So not for me!!

[pintspiller]

a lot of people swear by them for growing potatoes

[Salvager]

I use old tyres to grow my first early spuds in I fill the first tyre with compost put two spuds in put another tyre on top fill that has the pots grow I keep hading tyres and compost

[Potstubsdustbins]

First saw this some years ago when Bob Flowerdew did it on his TV programme.

Potty

[Olorin2001]

If they contain toxic chemicals how come they are use shredded rubber from old tyres for childrens playgrounds?
I cut the side walls off and then have a planting ring, if you turn them inside out you can't tell it's a tyre once it is filled with compost.

[chris]

If they contain toxic chemicals how come they are use shredded rubber from old tyres for childrens playgrounds?
I cut the side walls off and then have a planting ring, if you turn them inside out you can't tell it's a tyre once it is filled with compost.

Why is half our produce full of harmful chemicals? (shampoos, toothpaste, etc!)

Those playgrounds tend to be the welded type - where it's fixed- though I've seen the shredded tyre play bark stuff too.

They're probably hoping the kids won't eat it

I personally don't use them - don't like the idea ( eating crops grown in them) but no doubt have eaten worse!

[Olorin2001]

In perspective

According to the World Health Organization, the air people breathe in many parts of the world needs to be labeled as carcinogenic to humans.
So the odd car tyre, plastic plant pot or bottle makes little difference to one's quality of life or life of quality.

[taff]

I used to use them for courgettes or squashes....most did well, some didn't, but the advantage of using them was i could move them round, and the curled bit ont he inside held onto water, so less watering than a pot.

[Martin H]

I've never used them. For me it's aesthetics: I think it makes the plot look like a used tyre dump.

It's not logical, I re-use all kinds of other stuff on the allotment; but that's how I feel.

[veggiechicken]

Just seen this How to Make a Decorative Pond From Old Tires - quite like the pond idea but not enough to bury a tyre in my scrapyard

[Bill HH]

I quite like the idea of making the place look like a tyre dump, Have you ever heard of anyone dying from the use of old tyres? We're all going to die, its just a matter of when and i dont think the odd tyre is going to make much difference. It they are that toxic quick fit staff would be dropping off like flies.
Its all going a bit too far for my liking, I used all the following substances now banned. I spent 30 years clipping sheeps feet and dipping them into formaldehyde, most of which splashed in my face, also parts of the year we were permanently covered in creosote which we used to spray on poultry houses etc,My dad had me sat on the transport box of our grey Fergy with a bucket full of the weed killer 2.4-D and a stirrup pump, while he drove round the field looking for thistles, each time he used the brakes the solution came out of the bucket and filled my wellies. We used to fill a tin bath with flee beetle dust (Strong DDT) and dust 10,000 chickens individualy to kill red mite, after half an hour my hair was white and my nostrils were packed with the stuff!! Yet I still went on to father at least two children (There may be others) and they have no extra limbs or anything. Then the organophosphorous sheep dips! Try dipping 400 sheep without getting soaked in the stuff. So a few tyres aint going to hurt you one bit.