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Started By
Message
Tips for my raised garden
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:04 am
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:04 am
I've piddled with a raised garden for a couple years but have a great hard time with tomatoes especially. But overall yield is average at best. The ground is so poor here and acidic. Mainly compact clay which is why I though a raised bed would be better in the first place. I live in central AL.
I've composted on and off for a couple years. But I have chickens now and use the pine shavings and my food scraps and leaves. I'm hoping this helps.
The soil is a mix of bagged compost and mulch along with some garden soil. I haven't tilled the ground below since it's so hard and poor (and I don't have a tiller and it's impossible to do by hand)
Crops I plant will be okra, squash, tomatoes. Are there a better tomatoes I should be trying? I've tried beefsteak, better boys, a purple looking one (can't remember the name) none seem to produce. Okra usually does ok and squash as well. Size of the bed will be 16x4.
I've composted on and off for a couple years. But I have chickens now and use the pine shavings and my food scraps and leaves. I'm hoping this helps.
The soil is a mix of bagged compost and mulch along with some garden soil. I haven't tilled the ground below since it's so hard and poor (and I don't have a tiller and it's impossible to do by hand)
Crops I plant will be okra, squash, tomatoes. Are there a better tomatoes I should be trying? I've tried beefsteak, better boys, a purple looking one (can't remember the name) none seem to produce. Okra usually does ok and squash as well. Size of the bed will be 16x4.
6
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:25 am to Lucky_Stryke
Till in some 13-13-13 fertilizer and some pellitized lime. The lime will raise the pH, and this lime from Tractor Supply has magnesium and calcium which will also prevent blossom end rot on your tomatoes. Using compost, chicken shite, and pine shavings has your soil pH way off, I'd just use 13-13-13 fertilizer. Test your pH. I am 100% positive it's below 7 and to acidic.
LINK
LINK
This post was edited on 3/2/20 at 7:40 am
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:43 am to Lucky_Stryke
You didn't mention how deep you have your raised bed, only that it is 16x4. The depth of the mixture you have on top of your clay soil may not be sufficient to supply all the nutrients your plants will need.
My raised bed for root crops is 12x4x1 ft. deep and I tilled the clay based soil to 8 inches deep where the raised bed was going to be placed. Then I filled it with a good garden soil I got from a local soil/mulch supplier and turned it under to mix in some of the clay based soil.
My raised bed for root crops is 12x4x1 ft. deep and I tilled the clay based soil to 8 inches deep where the raised bed was going to be placed. Then I filled it with a good garden soil I got from a local soil/mulch supplier and turned it under to mix in some of the clay based soil.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:56 am to boudinman
I tested soil about 10 years ago for my sod and the results were ph 5.5
Posted on 3/2/20 at 9:15 am to Lucky_Stryke
Try some smaller tomatoes also. Big tomatoes you have to start early in the year to get good results. Smaller varieties especially cherry grow much better when its hot.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 9:27 am to baldona
quote:
Try some smaller tomatoes also.
This. The cherry and grape tomato varieties I plant every year produce pretty heavily and longer in the season. I've almost given up on the beefsteak, creole type tomatoes between pests and soil born bacterial and fungal issues. I've rotated planting them in every square inch of my garden with little success the past 4-5 years. It will especially be bad this year with pests since we have had such a mild winter.
Plus, if out of town and I get frequent rains when ripening, they split open.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 9:47 am to gumbo2176
I can't stand the little Tommy toe tomatoes. I love s good tomato sandwich.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 10:52 am to Lucky_Stryke
quote:
I can't stand the little Tommy toe tomatoes. I love s good tomato sandwich.
For larger tomatoes plant only Celebrity. They are very disease resistant and heat tolerant. One of the best varieties you can plant. For smaller tomatoes, plant the Sweet 100 variety. They are somewhat larger than the tommy-toes and taste like a regular tomatoe. Tommy-toes(cherry) are to little and sour tasting for my preference.
Also, when setting out your plants, place a little garden dust around the base of the plants, this will prevent any nematode(cutworm) damage. Don't get any on the leaves, just around the base of the plant. To spray you garden for pests, buy some Permethrin 10 from Tractor Supply. Mix 3 teaspoons of Permethrin 10 per gallon of water. Spray as often as needed, won't harm humans or pets. This will take care of your insect problems. You can wash/rinse off vegetables and eat them the next day.
LINK
LINK
This post was edited on 3/2/20 at 11:00 am
Posted on 3/2/20 at 12:07 pm to boudinman
Thank you. I've always used sevendust. I'll try those out
Posted on 3/2/20 at 1:00 pm to Lucky_Stryke
With as wet as the ground is right now, if you cant dig by hand, then I don't know how you expect anything to grow.
Go dig a trench / hole the size of your raised bed's foot print. Fill with wood debris, larger logs / limbs first gradually mounding them up with smaller limbs on top. Fill with the removed soil as you mound the limbs. Now build your raised bed frame around the mound you created and fill it in with the remainder of the dirt, and add top soil / compost at the same time.
As the logs decompose, they will feed the soil. Over the next few years your spot will improve by leaps and bounds.
Continue to compost and add each spring.
Go dig a trench / hole the size of your raised bed's foot print. Fill with wood debris, larger logs / limbs first gradually mounding them up with smaller limbs on top. Fill with the removed soil as you mound the limbs. Now build your raised bed frame around the mound you created and fill it in with the remainder of the dirt, and add top soil / compost at the same time.
As the logs decompose, they will feed the soil. Over the next few years your spot will improve by leaps and bounds.
Continue to compost and add each spring.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 1:23 pm to Lucky_Stryke
quote:
I can't stand the little Tommy toe tomatoes. I love s good tomato sandwich.
Find the in between sizes then like Celebrity and Roma. Big Beef steak are hard to grow past May. You need to plant them early and enjoy them March through early May.
ETA: I'd plant a couple cherry tomatoes just to see how they do. If they are growing fine, and I know all varieties are different, but then you are doing something right. It may be the heat or something out of your control with the Beef steaks.
Beefsteaks are also MUCH more dependent on consistent water. Too much water and they break open and rot, too little water and they won't produce past flowers. Cherries and smaller varieties just go go go.
This post was edited on 3/2/20 at 1:26 pm
Posted on 3/2/20 at 1:51 pm to baldona
Homestead I think was another I tried but I'll definitely try celebrity. I'll throw down some lime. Not sure if I'll till it since I don't have a tiller.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 5:05 pm to Lucky_Stryke
What a lot of people do is dig out the area under their raised garden a foot or so. Then add better dirt to fill it up. That way you have good dirt for 24" or so.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 5:13 pm to boudinman
quote:
The lime will raise the pH, and this lime from Tractor Supply has magnesium and calcium which will also prevent blossom end rot on your tomatoes.
I haven't used lime but will in my raised garden this year. I wonder how much to use per raised bed, say OPs size garden? Maybe half the bag or would that still be way too much? Mine is a 10x4 raised bed. Also with lime, do we need to go ahead and put in the ground now? I'll be putting in my plants in about 3 weeks.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 6:56 pm to windshieldman
quote:
Also with lime, do we need to go ahead and put in the ground now? I'll be putting in my plants in about 3 weeks.
I till mine into my rows with the fertilize right before I set out my plants. It will dissolve and go to work quickly each time it rains or you irrigate,as will the 13-13-13 fertilizer I'd use the entire 40 lb bag of lime in a 10 X 4 raised bag.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:28 pm to Lucky_Stryke
quote:
(and I don't have a tiller and it's impossible to do by hand)
Then don't try to tackle this all at 1 time. Set a timer on your phone for 5-10 minutes and see how far you get during that time. Then tackle a little more the next day.
Use an ax to break up the soil if you have to. You might not be able to get it ready for the spring/summer but you could plant a fall/winter garden.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:40 pm to 2 Jugs
Doesn't gypsum help to loosen hard packed clay soils?
Posted on 3/2/20 at 7:59 pm to ChenierauTigre
quote:
Doesn't gypsum help to loosen hard packed clay soils?
Yes. It's usually marketed as Clay Buster. Needs to be tilled into the clay soil. The stuff works pretty well.
Posted on 3/2/20 at 8:04 pm to boudinman
quote:
boudinman
Thanks for the reply
Posted on 3/2/20 at 9:17 pm to baldona
quote:
That way you have good dirt for 24" or so.
Oxygen below 18 inches of soil is almost nonexistent. Trees can deal with it, down to 24 inches, but not necessary for plants.
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