plantwizard
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:19 am
Location: North Georgia

Raised Bed Soil Question

Hello all,
Need some expert advice...
Ive recently been filling a large raised bed. I used largely compost(some from a neighbor, some homemade), peat moss, some vegetable/flower soil from my local nursery - Pike Nursery, and included the previous raised bed soil(that I tore out). The problem is this ive started notice quite a bit of wood shavings/bark in my soil. I believe the shavings were hiding in some of my neighbors compost and the bark is from the bagged soil. My question is this...to have maximum productivity in the bed should I remove and screen and the soil to remove these carbon rich invaders or will adding organic nitrogen(ie. blood meal) counteract the decomposition effects enough?

ernsppw
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Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:51 pm
Location: Little Rock, AR

My thinking is you should be ok as long as the wood chips are minimal and not fresh. If they are from a compost pile that has been around for a while the decomposition is on it's way. I too have been using blood meal in my bed preparation this year. The compost I tilled in is not completely finished so I figured the blood meal might off set any nitrogen shortage. Hopfully you and me are right about this. The folks on this forum have an awesome knowledge of things like this so I'm sure more help is on it's way.

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jal_ut
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Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Nitrogen is the thing most often lacking in soils for good plant growth. Go down to the local farm supply store and grab a bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Caution: this is hot stuff, don't put it on too heavy or you will kill your plants. A little is good. I would not worry about those wood chips, but do add a bit of nitrogen.



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