I am very new to growing tomatoes and am very excited about getting started!! Just want to make sure I'm on the right path and hope for some helpful input from experienced gardeners.
I have a 5'x22'x10'' raised bed. I only tilled the ground underneath about 4'' (hope that's enough room for good root growth). I am planting 2 rows of mostly different variety toms, 3 different peppers and eggplant. I have not thought much about different compost other than the vermicompost I started last summer/fall. I have plenty of sunlight, at least 9 hrs direct sunlight. I plan on getting some cages or making some out of a roll of concrete reinforcing wire. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep rabbits, squirrels and a BIG woodchuck outta the garden. Most likely will construct some sort of fence,, birds are a prob too.
Right now I'm bringing all plants in at night (still cold nights in nj), but plan on planting in the next week and a half or so. I know to bury half the plant at least and will add some compost to each hole I dig before planting.
Is this sufficient? Is there anything I can do to make this a successful first garden?
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hendi_alex
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I tend to plant tomatoes deep, but egg plant and peppers, for me, go in level with the ground.
Your question is pretty vague, general. If you have a specific question of some type, I think that you will get lots of replies.
I would suggest that you give some thought to watering, perhaps set up drip irrigation. Also, you may want to throw in a good handfull of lime or other calcium source for the tomatoes. Egg plant and peppers IMO do much better when caged as well, but they don't need more than two or three foot high support. You can use half section of concrete reinforcing wire or just a hoop support and the plants should hold up very well. Last but not least, be sure to leave enough space so that the plants get adequate air flow and don't end up touching the adjacent plants.
Your question is pretty vague, general. If you have a specific question of some type, I think that you will get lots of replies.
I would suggest that you give some thought to watering, perhaps set up drip irrigation. Also, you may want to throw in a good handfull of lime or other calcium source for the tomatoes. Egg plant and peppers IMO do much better when caged as well, but they don't need more than two or three foot high support. You can use half section of concrete reinforcing wire or just a hoop support and the plants should hold up very well. Last but not least, be sure to leave enough space so that the plants get adequate air flow and don't end up touching the adjacent plants.
Mike,
This forum gets busy when the gardens are in the ground. Right now, only a care taker crew hangs around. We are always ready to help new gardeners but if the question is to general, it is hard to answer without writing a book.
Everything you said you plan on doing sounds good, but different things work for different people. An example would be only tilling four inches deep sounds a little shallow to me, but it may work well for you.
Hope you stick around and share your gardening experiences with us. I don't think any of us consider ourselves experts, but we will be happy to share with you and possibly learn some from you.
Happy Gardening!
Ted
This forum gets busy when the gardens are in the ground. Right now, only a care taker crew hangs around. We are always ready to help new gardeners but if the question is to general, it is hard to answer without writing a book.
Everything you said you plan on doing sounds good, but different things work for different people. An example would be only tilling four inches deep sounds a little shallow to me, but it may work well for you.
Hope you stick around and share your gardening experiences with us. I don't think any of us consider ourselves experts, but we will be happy to share with you and possibly learn some from you.
Happy Gardening!
Ted
Thanx Ted,, that was my biggest concern being I only tilled about 4'' under the 10'' raised bed. Hopefully root systems will spread out more than straight down or maybe I should build some more height on top of the bed and add another yard of topsoil. Typically,, what would be the right amount of good aerated soil to plant toms, peppers, etc.?
I did also add some lime to the tilled soil along with some yellow sand being it was very clay like. Then added 10'' of good topsoil on top of that (about 3 yds.).
Sorry for being impatient,,,, Mike
I did also add some lime to the tilled soil along with some yellow sand being it was very clay like. Then added 10'' of good topsoil on top of that (about 3 yds.).
Sorry for being impatient,,,, Mike
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gixxerific
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Sounds like you are doing everything right. If you are going to till I would go deeper than 4 myself.
I have been making concrete reinforcing cages myself that past few day's. I have been cutting them so there is 11-12 full squares remember to leave an extra cut band so that you can wrap it around to seal the cage. I seem to think 11 is goo but others may do 12 or more. Try a few out for size at first.
Compost in the hole is great and the worm casting are even better. I just use good compost. I have a junk-load of worms that vermicompost for me. Being a fisherman you would freak on the amount of worms I have I should open a bait shop for real.
I agree with planting them DEEP. Some people plant the whole plant and only leave a few inches out. That is a little freaky to me but I still plant at least half. Any part of the stem will grow roots so the deeper the better.
You can get rabbit fencing at Home Depot or Lowe's or something that would be good to keep out the pest you might have.
Remember to keep adding organic material, compost is an excellent amendment to your raised bed, or any bed for that matter. But with the raised bed you shouldn't have to till any more once it has reached that certain point. Maybe just a light digging to loosen it up.
As Ted said sorry for the late replies I know I have been busy all weekend. And again as Ted said what I have told you is my opinion, that way I do things. There are million of gardeners with millions of ideas of what is the right way to do things.
Good luck, and keep coming back this is definitely the best garden forum on the web, trust me on that one.
:Edit: I didn't read this good enough. If you already added 10 inches of soil and are wanting to make your beds deeper I would 100% recommend adding a truckload of compost and mixing that in rather than getting another load of topsoil. You already have soil time to get the organic matter levels up now. Check out the compost and organic forum here there is a ton of good info.
Anything else I'm sure we can help.
I have been making concrete reinforcing cages myself that past few day's. I have been cutting them so there is 11-12 full squares remember to leave an extra cut band so that you can wrap it around to seal the cage. I seem to think 11 is goo but others may do 12 or more. Try a few out for size at first.
Compost in the hole is great and the worm casting are even better. I just use good compost. I have a junk-load of worms that vermicompost for me. Being a fisherman you would freak on the amount of worms I have I should open a bait shop for real.
I agree with planting them DEEP. Some people plant the whole plant and only leave a few inches out. That is a little freaky to me but I still plant at least half. Any part of the stem will grow roots so the deeper the better.
You can get rabbit fencing at Home Depot or Lowe's or something that would be good to keep out the pest you might have.
Remember to keep adding organic material, compost is an excellent amendment to your raised bed, or any bed for that matter. But with the raised bed you shouldn't have to till any more once it has reached that certain point. Maybe just a light digging to loosen it up.
As Ted said sorry for the late replies I know I have been busy all weekend. And again as Ted said what I have told you is my opinion, that way I do things. There are million of gardeners with millions of ideas of what is the right way to do things.
Good luck, and keep coming back this is definitely the best garden forum on the web, trust me on that one.
:Edit: I didn't read this good enough. If you already added 10 inches of soil and are wanting to make your beds deeper I would 100% recommend adding a truckload of compost and mixing that in rather than getting another load of topsoil. You already have soil time to get the organic matter levels up now. Check out the compost and organic forum here there is a ton of good info.
Anything else I'm sure we can help.
Mike,
If your a gardener, patience should be virtue number one. I'm just kidding.
Your comments really will be responded to a little sooner when everyone has their gardens growing and more folks are on the forum. We are a pretty friendly bunch. If we get tired of talking about gardens, we just switch topics to something like Striper Fishing. &&&&& I apologize, I just can't control myself sometimes.
Okay, like you; I grow my tomatoes in ten inch deep raised beds. I always plant them as deep as I can in my beds. I typically wait to plant them until they are about 12" tall and real leggy like a skinny blonde I knew when I was a kid.
My reasoning is the fact that when you transplant them, the tap root will be disturbed and the plant will start producing horizontal roots instead of vertical roots. If you plant them deep, even the buried stem generates horizontal roots resulting in a stronger, healthier; plant. You really don't need to till as deep as you plant them, just prepare the hole and a few inches around the plant. It's amazing how tomato plant roots can penetrate some pretty hard ground.
I've talked so much, I don't remember if you asked anything else. Hang around and enjoy yourself.
Ted
If your a gardener, patience should be virtue number one. I'm just kidding.
Your comments really will be responded to a little sooner when everyone has their gardens growing and more folks are on the forum. We are a pretty friendly bunch. If we get tired of talking about gardens, we just switch topics to something like Striper Fishing. &&&&& I apologize, I just can't control myself sometimes.Okay, like you; I grow my tomatoes in ten inch deep raised beds. I always plant them as deep as I can in my beds. I typically wait to plant them until they are about 12" tall and real leggy like a skinny blonde I knew when I was a kid.
My reasoning is the fact that when you transplant them, the tap root will be disturbed and the plant will start producing horizontal roots instead of vertical roots. If you plant them deep, even the buried stem generates horizontal roots resulting in a stronger, healthier; plant. You really don't need to till as deep as you plant them, just prepare the hole and a few inches around the plant. It's amazing how tomato plant roots can penetrate some pretty hard ground.
I've talked so much, I don't remember if you asked anything else. Hang around and enjoy yourself.
Ted
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applestar
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I'm in one of my moods so my first response is going to be that if you post how big the tomato you picked today was and how much it weighed, with a photo of the tomato on the scale to prove it, you'll get all kinds of followup action. 
I'll raise my hand and say I've been out in the garden too. Yesterday, half of that time was spent in bringing all the tomato starts back inside and re-arranging them under the lights because of the ultra-low temp forecast. Tonight doesn't look to be much better, so I left them inside, even though the sun was warm enough today when it did shine, and the temp in the garage didn't get above 50's. Today, I went to a garden center and found plants to finish the garden bed all along the front fence. Also found a shrub that I'd been looking for another location, and, a very interesting looking sorrel -- [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24129&highlight=]all NJ native plants[/url].
I have no comment on tilling. I use a garden fork to fracture the soil as deeply as the fork will go, or more -- 11"+
The deep-planting, may or may not work well because the soil is colder as you get deeper. Though with a 10" raised bed, you may be able to get away with it. You'll notice folks from further south and drought prone areas tend to plant deep, while further north folks plant side-ways. We're sort of in-between so I tend to plant on the diagonal.
Also with the clay soil, roots can get waterlogged way down there, and you definitely don't want to dig holes in clay to plant deep because then, you're only digging yourself a watertight bucket to plant in.
I'll raise my hand and say I've been out in the garden too. Yesterday, half of that time was spent in bringing all the tomato starts back inside and re-arranging them under the lights because of the ultra-low temp forecast. Tonight doesn't look to be much better, so I left them inside, even though the sun was warm enough today when it did shine, and the temp in the garage didn't get above 50's.
Today, I went to a garden center and found plants to finish the garden bed all along the front fence. Also found a shrub that I'd been looking for another location, and, a very interesting looking sorrel -- [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24129&highlight=]all NJ native plants[/url]. I have no comment on tilling. I use a garden fork to fracture the soil as deeply as the fork will go, or more -- 11"+
The deep-planting, may or may not work well because the soil is colder as you get deeper. Though with a 10" raised bed, you may be able to get away with it. You'll notice folks from further south and drought prone areas tend to plant deep, while further north folks plant side-ways. We're sort of in-between so I tend to plant on the diagonal.
Also with the clay soil, roots can get waterlogged way down there, and you definitely don't want to dig holes in clay to plant deep because then, you're only digging yourself a watertight bucket to plant in.