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Don’t throw away that old tire—it could become the perfect onion planter!
In this video, you’ll learn how to reuse an old tire to grow healthy, large onions at home. This simple gardening method is affordable, space-saving, and great for beginners with small yards, patios, or backyard gardens.
We’ll show you how to prepare the tire, choose the right soil, plant your onions correctly, and care for them until harvest. Instead of spending money on expensive garden containers, turn something unwanted into a productive onion-growing bed.
Watch until the end for helpful tips that can improve your onion growth and prevent common planting mistakes.
#OnionGrowing #GardeningTips #OldTireGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #ContainerGardening #BackyardGardening #OnionHarvest
Don’t throw away that old tire—it could become the perfect onion planter!
In this video, you’ll learn how to reuse an old tire to grow healthy, large onions at home. This simple gardening method is affordable, space-saving, and great for beginners with small yards, patios, or backyard gardens.
We’ll show you how to prepare the tire, choose the right soil, plant your onions correctly, and care for them until harvest. Instead of spending money on expensive garden containers, turn something unwanted into a productive onion-growing bed.
Watch until the end for helpful tips that can improve your onion growth and prevent common planting mistakes.
#OnionGrowing #GardeningTips #OldTireGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #ContainerGardening #BackyardGardening #OnionHarvest
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Most folks, when they have got an old, worn-out tire lying about, haul it off to the dump or
00:05let it sit in a fence row filling with rainwater and breeding mosquitoes.
00:10But that old tire is a useful thing yet, and today I am going to show you how to turn
00:16a few of them into a fine bed for growing a whole crop of onions,
00:20right in a small corner, up off the cold ground, where they will grow easy and store you through the
00:27winter.
00:27And I will be straight with you about the right way and the wrong way to do it, for there
00:32is a wrong way that folks never think about.
00:35My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.
00:41And the onion is one of the most useful things a body can grow, for it keeps for months in
00:47a cool cellar.
00:48It flavors near every dish that comes out of a kitchen, and a good braid of onions hanging in the
00:54pantry is money you do not have to spend at the store all winter long.
01:00Before I go on, I will say this once and then leave it be.
01:04I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
01:11You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
01:14The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it again.
01:21Now let me start with the tire itself, and with the honest word I promised you, for this matters, and
01:28I will not skip past it.
01:30I do not grow my onions pressed right up against the rubber of a tire, and I would not have
01:35you do it either.
01:36An old tire, sitting out in the weather and the hot sun year on year, will slowly break down and
01:44give off a bit of what is in it into the soil right against it.
01:48For a flower or an ornament, no one troubles about that.
01:52But an onion is a thing you eat, and its bulb sits right down in the soil, so I would
01:58rather be careful than sorry.
02:00So here is how we use the tire the right way.
02:04We use it as the wall, not as the soil.
02:07You take your old tires and you stack them, two or three high, to make a round raised ring, a
02:14wall to hold a bed up off the ground.
02:16Then inside that ring you set a good liner, a bit of old feed sack or burlap or plain cloth
02:24down the inside walls,
02:25and you fill the whole of the inside with your own good garden soil and compost,
02:31so that the onions grow in your soil, in the middle, with the tire only holding the shape and never
02:38touching the bulbs.
02:40That way you get the fine use of the tire, a free raised bed that costs you nothing and lasts
02:46for years,
02:47and your onions grow safe in clean soil the same as they would in any bed.
02:53That is the honest way to do it, and it is not one bit more trouble than doing it careless.
02:59And there is real good in a raised ring like that, beyond just using up an old tire.
03:05It lifts your onions up off the cold, heavy ground, so the soil inside warms faster in the spring and
03:12drains better.
03:14And an onion loves warm, loose, well-drained soil above near anything.
03:20It brings the bed up to where you can tend it without bending your back double.
03:24And it lets a man with only a little hard, poor ground, or only a bit of a yard,
03:30grow a real crop of onions in a spot where he could not otherwise,
03:35filling that ring with good soil he has made himself.
03:38So do not think of it as second best.
03:41For many folks, it is the best way there is.
03:45Now to the onions themselves, and the first thing is how you start them,
03:49for there are two ways, and I will give you the easy one.
03:53You can start onions from seed, which is slow and fussy, and takes a long head start indoors.
04:00Or you can start them from what we call sets, which are little small onions,
04:05grown last year and dried, about the size of a marble.
04:09And for the home gardener, sets are the easy road by far.
04:13You buy a little sack of them, or better yet, you save your own from year to year,
04:18and you just push them down into the soil.
04:20They are near foolproof, they come up fast and strong,
04:25and they are far less trouble than fighting with the tiny seed.
04:29So fill your tire ring with good soil, and let us plant some sets.
04:33Push each little set down into the soft soil,
04:36so that just the very tip of its pointed nose shows at the surface,
04:41no deeper, with the pointed end up,
04:44for that is the end the green shoot comes from,
04:47and the flat end below is where the roots come out.
04:51Set them a good four fingers apart, near a hand's width, all across your bed.
04:56And here is a thing folks get wrong, and it costs them dearly, so mind it.
05:02Do not crowd your onions.
05:05An onion cannot swell into a big bulb if its neighbor is jammed up against it,
05:10for the bulb needs the room to grow out into.
05:13Crowd them, and you get a bed full of little runty things,
05:17no bigger than the sets you started with.
05:20Give each one its hand's width of room,
05:23and each one has the space to swell into a good large onion.
05:27It is the plainest thing, and it is the commonest mistake.
05:31Space them well.
05:33Now the onion has a curious kind of root,
05:36and understanding it tells you how to tend it.
05:39Its roots are shallow, and they do not spread wide.
05:42They mostly go straight down in a narrow little bundle right under the bulb.
05:47And what that means is the onion is a poor forager.
05:51It cannot reach out sideways through the soil,
05:54hunting for food and water the way a big sprawling squash plant can.
05:59It can only take up what is right there in its own small patch of ground.
06:04So two things follow from that.
06:07First, it wants rich soil, for it cannot go looking for food.
06:11The food must be right there where it sits,
06:14which is why we fill that ring with good compost.
06:17And second, it cannot compete with a weed to save its life.
06:22A weed will outroot a shallow little onion and rob it blind.
06:26So you must keep an onion bed clean of weeds,
06:30weeding gently and often, but shallow,
06:33scratching the weeds out with just the tips of your fingers
06:36or a little hand tool so as not to disturb those shallow onion roots.
06:41Keep it fed and keep it clean, and the onion asks little else.
06:46For the feeding, an onion wants a good deal of feeding early,
06:50while it is building its green tops.
06:52For here is the thing to understand about how an onion grows,
06:56and it is the very heart of growing a big one.
06:59An onion makes its bulb out of its leaves.
07:02Every leaf that onion grows up top becomes, in time,
07:07a ring in the bulb down below.
07:09A big onion is simply an onion that grew a lot of big, healthy leaves
07:14before it started to bulb up.
07:16So early in the season, while it is growing its tops,
07:20you feed it well.
07:21Plenty of compost and a drink or two of manure tea
07:24to push all the strong, leafy green growth you can,
07:27for every leaf now is a ring in your onion later.
07:31Feed the leaves early, and the bulb takes care of itself.
07:35But then, as the season turns toward high summer
07:38and the onion begins to bulb up in earnest,
07:41its wants change,
07:42and now you do the opposite of what you would think.
07:45You ease off.
07:47You stop the heavy feeding,
07:49and as it comes near ready,
07:51you even ease off the watering,
07:53letting the bed go a bit dry.
07:55For once the onion has quit growing tops
07:57and is finishing its bulb,
07:59too much water and feeding just then
08:01keeps it soft and green and unwilling to ripen,
08:05and a soft onion will rot in storage rather than keep.
08:08So you feed and water it generous early to build the tops,
08:13and then you back off and let it firm up
08:15and ripen dry at the end.
08:18Generous early, lean, and dry late.
08:21That is the whole rhythm of an onion.
08:23You will know it is coming ready
08:25when the green tops begin to yellow and weaken
08:28and flop over and fall down of their own accord,
08:31the necks going soft right above the bulb.
08:34That falling over is the onion telling you
08:37it is done growing and is ripening off.
08:40Some folks, when about half the tops have fallen on their own,
08:44go along and gently bend the rest of them over by hand
08:47to hurry them all along together,
08:49and that does no harm.
08:51Once the tops have fallen and begun to yellow and dry,
08:55stop watering altogether
08:56and let them sit and firm up in the dry soil
08:59for a week or so.
09:01Then comes the lifting,
09:02and this you do on a dry day.
09:05Loosen the soil and lift your onions gently,
09:08and do not just yank them by the tops.
09:11Now here is the most important part of the whole business
09:15if you mean to store them,
09:17and it is the part folks skip,
09:20and then they wonder why their onions rot by November.
09:24You must cure them.
09:26A freshly pulled onion is not ready to store.
09:29It is soft and damp at the neck,
09:32and it will rot if you box it up straight away.
09:36To cure it,
09:37you lay your lifted onions out in a single layer,
09:41somewhere warm and dry and airy,
09:44out of the rain and out of the hot direct sun,
09:47under a shed roof or on a porch,
09:50or spread on a screen in the barn,
09:52and you leave them there two or three weeks.
09:56In that time,
09:58the outer skins dry to that papery brown rustle,
10:02and the necks dry down
10:04and seal themselves shut tight.
10:07And once that neck has sealed,
10:10no rot can get in.
10:12That is what curing does.
10:14It seals the onion up for the winter.
10:17Only after they are good and cured,
10:20with dry papery skins and tight dry necks,
10:25do you brush off the loose dirt,
10:27twist or clip the dried tops,
10:30and store them.
10:31And stored right,
10:33they keep wonderfully.
10:35Keep them somewhere cool and dry and airy,
10:39never damp,
10:40never sealed up tight in a bag where they sweat,
10:44but in an open basket or a mesh sack
10:47or braided by their dried tops into a rope
10:51and hung from a rafter,
10:53the old way,
10:54where the air moves all around them.
10:57Kept cool and dry and airy like that,
11:01a well-cured onion will keep you three,
11:04four, six months and more,
11:07right through the winter and into the spring.
11:10That braid of your own onions
11:12hanging in the cool of the pantry
11:14is about as satisfying a sight
11:17as a garden gives,
11:18for it is your own food,
11:21grown in an old tire
11:22you were about to throw away,
11:25keeping you fed clear through the cold months
11:28for nothing.
11:29Let me say a plain word
11:31about who profits from you
11:33not knowing all this,
11:35and it is no dark scheme.
11:38Onions are cheap enough at the store,
11:40that is true,
11:42but you buy them again and again,
11:44every week,
11:45all year,
11:47year upon year,
11:48and it adds up to a good deal of money
11:51over a life.
11:52And the store would far rather sell you
11:55a bag of onions every week forever
11:58than have you learn
11:59that a stack of thrown-out tires,
12:02filled with your own soil,
12:04and a sack of sets,
12:06would grow you a whole winter's worth
12:08for almost nothing,
12:10and store them yourself besides.
12:13Nobody makes a dollar
12:15teaching you to grow and cure
12:17and braid your own onions.
12:19There is no trade in it,
12:21no product,
12:22nothing to sell.
12:24So it does not get taught,
12:25and folks go on buying by the bag
12:29what they could so easily grow
12:31by the bushel.
12:32It is not hidden from you,
12:34it is only never taught,
12:36because the teaching profits
12:38no one but you.
12:40The money runs toward the store
12:43and away from the old tire
12:45in your fence row,
12:46and it always has.
12:49So there is the whole of it.
12:51Take your old tires
12:53and stack them into a raised ring.
12:56Line the inside
12:57and fill it with your own good soil
13:00and compost so the onions
13:02never touch the rubber.
13:04Push in your sets,
13:06nose up,
13:07a good hand's width apart,
13:09and do not crowd them.
13:12Keep the bed clean of weeds
13:14with a shallow, gentle hand,
13:16for the onion cannot fight a weed.
13:19Feed and water it generously early
13:22to build big, leafy tops,
13:25for every leaf is a ring in the bulb.
13:28Then ease off the water
13:30and feed as it bulbs
13:32and let it ripen dry.
13:35Lift them when the tops fall,
13:37cure them two or three weeks
13:39till the necks seal,
13:41and store them cool and dry and airy,
13:45or braid them and hang them.
13:47Do those things,
13:49and one old tire
13:51and a handful of sets
13:52will give you onions
13:54on your own shelf
13:55clear through the winter.
13:57Tell me down in the comments
13:59what county you garden in
14:01and whether you have grown onions before
14:04and whether it was maybe the crowding
14:07or the skipped curing
14:08that tripped you up.
14:10For now, I think you may know.
14:13And if your family had a way
14:15of braiding or storing onions
14:17that has kept them all winter
14:19for generations,
14:20tell me about it,
14:21for those old storing ways
14:23are worth their weight in gold,
14:26and I love to hear them.
14:28Next time out here,
14:29I want to show you
14:29how to build a proper compost pile
14:31the old way,
14:33layer upon layer,
14:34so that you make your own
14:35black crumbly gold
14:37to fill that tire ring with,
14:39for an onion sitting
14:40in a small ring of soil
14:41cannot go hunting for its food
14:43and must have the richest ground
14:45you can give it
14:46right there where it sits.
14:47It is the foundation
14:49under all of it
14:50and it is past time
14:51I showed you.
14:52But for now,
14:54remember this.
14:55There is no such thing
14:56as a worthless old thing
14:58on a farm,
14:59only a thing whose use
15:01a man has not yet thought of.
15:03An old tire bound for the dump
15:05becomes a raised bed
15:07that feeds you,
15:08and a handful of little dried sets
15:10becomes a winter's worth
15:11of onions on the shelf.
15:13That is the old way of thinking,
15:16wasting nothing
15:17and making do,
15:18and it will serve you
15:19as well now as it ever did.
15:21The people who built this country
15:23with their hands
15:24knew that,
15:25and we are only just starting
15:27to remember it.
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