I put in a friends garden and hers is better than mine LOL
Go figure. right? LOL her tomato plants are TWIce the size, cucumbers peppers everything, they look the size they're supposed to this time of year, mine are just so far behind still! this is her first garden ever haha. at least she's having good luck! and I gave her my smaller seedlings too LOL!!!!! and hers are still bigger and better looking than mine are. Now I sit and wonder where I went wrong. maybe I need more manure?
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DoubleDogFarm
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Both are full sun
hers:
new garden loam that we put in, I built her raised boxes and then shoveled all the garden loam. I tell ya, I did the work and she gets the nice plants HAHA.
I honestly don't know how often she waters hers? But, we've had a lot of rain and we really haven't needed to water at all. (IMO)
garden loam has 20% compost in it.
Mine:
one side has the same garden loam, but I used it last year and had stuff plantd in it. the other side is my sandy loam which is usually on the acid side, so I put in lime again. most things have a side dressing of goat manure. I sprayed fish fertilizer on them once.
All I can think of is they're not getting enough nutrients?
hers:
new garden loam that we put in, I built her raised boxes and then shoveled all the garden loam. I tell ya, I did the work and she gets the nice plants HAHA.
I honestly don't know how often she waters hers? But, we've had a lot of rain and we really haven't needed to water at all. (IMO)
garden loam has 20% compost in it.
Mine:
one side has the same garden loam, but I used it last year and had stuff plantd in it. the other side is my sandy loam which is usually on the acid side, so I put in lime again. most things have a side dressing of goat manure. I sprayed fish fertilizer on them once.
All I can think of is they're not getting enough nutrients?
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luvthesnapper
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I applied adequate lime, and I've been pretreating the water with oyster shells before I water.cynthia_h wrote:What about your acid soil and acid water? What are her conditions in this regard?
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
She purchased the soil, so that is pH balanced. No idea on her water though.
Things on her side:
*Beginner's luck
*Probably a less diverse crop than yours
*More limited garden knowledge limits your friend's tendency to "baby" everything
Things working against you
*You spent a good bit of time on that person's garden that you could have spent tending to yours.
*More garden knowledge can make you over think everything you do.
*When you set up someone else's garden, you usually don't take some of the short-cuts you allow yourself to take in your own.
This is just how things go. The exact same thing happened to me with a friend. BUT, I also realized that when we built his garden, I did everything "by the book". So it's no wonder his looks better than mine. He also only has about 5 or 6 different veggies whereas I am tending to 45 different ones.
*Beginner's luck
*Probably a less diverse crop than yours
*More limited garden knowledge limits your friend's tendency to "baby" everything
Things working against you
*You spent a good bit of time on that person's garden that you could have spent tending to yours.
*More garden knowledge can make you over think everything you do.
*When you set up someone else's garden, you usually don't take some of the short-cuts you allow yourself to take in your own.
This is just how things go. The exact same thing happened to me with a friend. BUT, I also realized that when we built his garden, I did everything "by the book". So it's no wonder his looks better than mine. He also only has about 5 or 6 different veggies whereas I am tending to 45 different ones.
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barnhardt9999
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Northernfox
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I have acidic soil.. blueberries grow wild on my land. My water pH is 5.2.barnhardt9999 wrote:My local paper ran a re-hashed tomato growing article from the AP. It said use lime in your holes. Everyone around here that went by that has had a miserable harvest. What made you decide to put lime in your soil?
Last year I had some stuff in the new garden loam (same stuff I put in my friends garden) and other stuff in my regular soil (which I add stuff to each year) and all the stuff in the garden loam I had brought in went NUTS and grew as it should, while the other stuff just suffered like it usually does. Either my soil fertility isn't good or the pH isn't good.
That is interesting about the lime in the tomato holes. I wonder if I don't have enough lime or if I have too much lime. I know some places had more than others, and some plants are doing better than others. Makes me wonder if it is indeed a pH thing still.
I do have some things in the garden loam from last year and those things aren't doing any better though. I did give them some goat manure. Perhaps things just don't have enough manure?
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rainbowgardener
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Given all the issues your garden has had, you really need to be testing your soil and water pH! Sounds like you keep trying to GUESS, did I use enough lime, too much lime, etc. If you were pH testing you would know.
Your puny plants sound like not enough nutrients. But if the soil is still acidic, that can be the cause. There can be plenty of nutrients in the soil, but if it is acidic, it "locks up" the nutrients so they are not available to the plants. So you need to know what is going on, to know what to do.
Get a good pH meter or soil test kit.
Your puny plants sound like not enough nutrients. But if the soil is still acidic, that can be the cause. There can be plenty of nutrients in the soil, but if it is acidic, it "locks up" the nutrients so they are not available to the plants. So you need to know what is going on, to know what to do.
Get a good pH meter or soil test kit.
The pH meter... is that something that I can get the results right at home and not have to send it in? Because yeah, I;d love to test stuff, but not have to send it in. Plus, I know I didn't spread the lime evenly, so I'd have to test each spot basically
do you have a meter you recommend? or test kits?
do you have a meter you recommend? or test kits?
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rainbowgardener
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Yes, a meter has probes that you stick in the ground, leave for a couple minutes and then see what it reads. And yes, you could easily test around every plant.
Depending on how expensive a meter you get, people say they are not always accurate. But you know what your water and native soil pH are, so you could calibrate against that.
Depending on how expensive a meter you get, people say they are not always accurate. But you know what your water and native soil pH are, so you could calibrate against that.
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jal_ut
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Yes, a ph meter first to see where the ph is. Lime can be a detriment if it is not needed.
If you find that your ph is OK, then you need to give it some fertilizer. Get some 16-16-16 if you can find it and give your plants a treat. Careful, don't over do it.
My soil has plenty of potassium and phosphorous, so I just boost the nitrogen with some urea that is 46-0-0. It doesn't take much of that to make a big difference in the growth of the plants.
If you are going to add lime, you should try to spread it uniformly on the whole area. The plant roots go everywhere so the whole area needs to be at the right ph.
Plant roots will go quite deep, so they do indeed go into the soil that your raised beds sit on, and will also likely go out into the soil surrounding the raised beds. Did you put a barrier? I think a barrier is a bad thing. What is your natural soil there like? Test its ph too when you get your meter.
If you find that your ph is OK, then you need to give it some fertilizer. Get some 16-16-16 if you can find it and give your plants a treat. Careful, don't over do it.
My soil has plenty of potassium and phosphorous, so I just boost the nitrogen with some urea that is 46-0-0. It doesn't take much of that to make a big difference in the growth of the plants.
If you are going to add lime, you should try to spread it uniformly on the whole area. The plant roots go everywhere so the whole area needs to be at the right ph.
Plant roots will go quite deep, so they do indeed go into the soil that your raised beds sit on, and will also likely go out into the soil surrounding the raised beds. Did you put a barrier? I think a barrier is a bad thing. What is your natural soil there like? Test its ph too when you get your meter.
thanks!
Most of the garden is not raised beds, I only have a couple. some areas I sprinkled the lime everywhere and some I put in the places that it went. The natural soil here is acidic. I have wild blueberries all over the place.
we can't grow grass, etc.
as for the pH meter, I can't afford much so I am going to try and get a cheap one and follow the persons directions of using steel wool to clean it between uses. I hope it'll work. because I can't afford a good one
I need to figure out how to though. Unless I get a thing that measures the nutrients too... I should probably get that right?
so if I need more lime, should I also put the lime on the outside of my garden as well?
Most of the garden is not raised beds, I only have a couple. some areas I sprinkled the lime everywhere and some I put in the places that it went. The natural soil here is acidic. I have wild blueberries all over the place.
we can't grow grass, etc. as for the pH meter, I can't afford much so I am going to try and get a cheap one and follow the persons directions of using steel wool to clean it between uses. I hope it'll work. because I can't afford a good one
I need to figure out how to though. Unless I get a thing that measures the nutrients too... I should probably get that right?so if I need more lime, should I also put the lime on the outside of my garden as well?
Oh and also... I have a few volunteer tomato plants that rooted themselves in the hay bales around the raised beds I put in last year. those are doing awesome! Which I would have thought they wouldn't be doing that great, but they've caught up to all the ones I grew from seeds. so something is definitely going funky.