HELP Wanted: Raised Bed vegi garden going bad

[determinedtogrow]

My husband built me two 8ft x 4ft cedar wood beds for me to start my new raised bed vegetable garden. I filled it with a garden mix at our local yard works...it was 50%compost and 50% top soil. THEN, I added some worm casting, quite a lot of perilite (to help with water retention) and some chickity doo doo. I want to go organic as much as possible. Then, my father took me to get plants and seeds. We bought several little celebrity tomatoes, a juliet, some banana peppers, and then seeds for beans, cucumbers, zuccini. I planted all abut 4 weeks ago. So far, the beans, cucs, and zuccini's have come up. But, while they started with beautiful rich green leaves they now are a little more light green in color and they don't seem to be growing particularly well. The tomatoes and peppers have HARDLY grown and they just don't look happy and vibrint. I'm so frustrated. MY father's garden is doing fabulously and I mention this because we shared the seeds and the plants and our weather has been about the same. SO, clearly there is a problem with my soil. They get full sun all day and I have been watering them regularly and making sure that I don't over or underwater them. What should I do now? Just keep waiting and hope that everything starts to grow? Should I rip them up and start all over?...only for it to happen again. HELP

[tedln]

It's really hard to offer an opinion without actually seeing the garden. In most cases with new gardens and new gardeners, the best advice is "be patient". Normally in a new garden bed with new seedlings planted it simply takes a while for everything to get balanced. When you grow from seed in the garden bed, the new plants acclimate themselves to the conditions present when they germinate and start growing.

Your description of all you have done leads me to believe you may have given your plants to much of a good thing. With chickty poo, and compost, and new soil; your plants may simply be overwhelmed with all the good stuff. After everything dissolves, bacteria become active, minerals and nutrients are evenly distributed; I think you will have a nice garden.

The only other thing I can suggest is find out what your father is doing different and copy his example.

I love your enthusiasm.

Ted

[determinedtogrow]

Thank you. I will try to be patient. ahhh. You are the second person (the first being my dad) who has said that perhaps there is too much of a good thing with all the stuff I've used to create good soil. Sadly, before hearing this advise I scattered another little round of chickity doo doo. Maybe I'll go out tomorrow morning and try to rake it up....but I think it's fairly benign as far as fertilizer goes. Humm.

My dad has gardened forever and has soil that has been worked forever. He has never done a raised bed and has never bought soil or any other amendment...only his own compost which is largely just yard waste. I, however, have clay soil and not knowing how long we'll be living here so I thought a raised bed would suit us best. Now I"m not so sure.
Thank you very much for your reply

[tedln]

Everything I grow (a lot of stuff) is in raised beds. I have five right now and I am adding three more. Again, be patient. I want to tell you to really water the bed heavy for about a week to get everything mixed well. If you do, it will probably drown your plants. You have a nice garden. I wish I had all the stuff you have put in yours. Give your plants time and they should acclimate to the bed.

Ted

[DoubleDogFarm]

Chickity Doo Dooâ„¢ Organic Fertilizer 5-3-2.5

I'm with Ted and Dad. Sounds like to much love.

[supagirl277]

OH that's good, I was about to say don't put fresh poop on it, or it will kill the plants. But if it's fertilizer, then you're good.

[tedln]

Just so you can be sure raised beds work fine, here are a few photos from my garden last year.















It will look about the same this year later in the season, but it will have four new beds.

Ted

[determinedtogrow]

WOW. What you have is my dream. I sooooo want that. My beans are bush and I was too late for peas but I love vertical planting. Do you have any soil suggestions...as I'm feeling confident that's my problem. How did you get your soil? I know that doing my own compost is best but I don't have that yet. That's next years project....so long as I don't give up between now and then. Gardening is just so natural it doesn't seem like it should be so hard. I really hope they start growing soon because it's depressing running out to check on it everyday (multiple times a day) and see them looking sad and not growing. I have been watering them every evening because by the end of the day I stick my finger in the soil and it's definitely not moist so I go ahead and water well again. Do you think I should let it dry out a little?

As for the Chickety doo doo....I just put more on (shouldn't have I guess). It's an organic fertilizer. Ideally I need to start composting but haven't done that yet. And, we don't live on a farm so I don't have aged manure readily available. When my beans popped up there were rich dark green but over the last week they've seem to slow down in growth a bit and are a much lighter shade of green than the first leaves. Also, some bug or worm has been munching on the leaves which is about to drive me mad as well.

Thank you for you help

I threw worm casting in because with a truck load of 50%compost 50%top soil I thought that would add micronutrients (maybe I was wrong there)

[jmoore]

Just so you can be sure raised beds work fine, here are a few photos from my garden last year.

Ted

Wow ted! Vegetable pron

[DoubleDogFarm]

determinedtogrow,

Just a few questions. How tall or how deep is your raised bed . What is at the bottom

[determinedtogrow]

The beds are between 6-8inches deep. Basically they are sitting on clay soil. We took out the sod and took a pick ax to the clay to try and loosen it a bit. Then we leveled it, put the 8x4 boxes on top and filled with soil.

A couple years ago he made me two 2x4 beds with legs (so the floor was plywood) I read parts of Mel's Square Foot Garden book and gave it a go. They were great for herbs especially but I also some decent vegis.

For a couple years I've been wanting to expand. I'd LOVE to fill up several more boxes but of course I've gotta have a successful growing season first. I"m glad I have two because I can rotate the tomatoes / peppers with the beans next year.

Do you think depth is an issue? If so, I would would have expected the plants to still start out strong and then later in the growing season run into problems. I can't imagine depth being an issue this early on in the growing season.

I could take some pics tomorrow and upload them....uh....if that's not hard to do.

[tedln]

All of my beds except the new beds I am adding were basically filled with the cheapest dirt I could buy which last year was $.99 cents per bag at home depot. I've always used that cheap, worthless stuff because after I add some organics like compost and a few other simple amendments it's really pretty good stuff. It's probably similar to what your Dad started growing in many years ago. Given time and attention, you can make something good out of something that wasn't so good. It sounds like you started with all the good stuff people recommend.

This year, I will be filling my new beds with a dump truck load of really good top soil. I will also be adding more organics and other amendments to it. When the new beds are finished, the dirt in them will be no different than the cheap dirt I bought at home depot.

Don't give up. It will work.

Ted

[engineeredgarden]

determinedtogrow - I feel that the problem is drainage. The reason I say this is because your box is only 6-8" deep, and sits on top of clay soil. In traditional style gardens, farmers "hill" all things belonging to the cucurbit family (in your case squash and cucumbers). The reason is that they demand really good drainage to thrive - which "hilling" helps to accomplish. Because of the abundance of rainfall in my area each year, I had the same problems with my 8" deep bad (especially with zucchini). It is now 14" deep, and works much better. Just my 2 cents.....

EG

[applestar]

I'm thinking, too, that if it's clay underneath, you shouldn't need to water every day. Perhaps you're not watering ENOUGH at a time, though what engineeredgarden said is an issue too. Often, digging in clay soil only creates a basin for the water to sit in.

Two things I would try.
(1) Use garden fork and stab into the soil around the raised bed. Stand on it if you have to to get it as far down in the soil as you can, then wiggle to fracture the soil (don't lift). This is what I normally do to prepare the clay soil before building a raised bed above it without actually digging the clay. This should help any water from pooling below the raised bed and drain into the surrounding soil.
(2) When you water, water thoroughly until you have puddles around the raised bed. Then don't water for a couple of days. If you have any seeds waiting to grow or seedlings that just started to grow, then just water the seeded area to keep moist and water the seedlings if the soil feels dry 1" below surface.

[jal_ut]

The base of real soil is made up of clay, silt and sand. These fine particles are what come in close contact with the roots and and close the air pockets so the root hairs can obtain water from the soil. These fine particle also hold water well. I think that when you try to build soils from 80% organic matter, you are ignoring the basics of good soil. When you make raised beds, you should excavate about 6 inches of the soil where you are placing the bed, and then mix that removed material with your other fillers. Clay is not a bad thing. A good soil should have about 20% clay in it. Perlite is worthless as a soil. Its only virtue is light weight which is desirable for flower pots.

You answered your own query here when you said: "He has never done a raised bed and has never bought soil or any other amendment...only his own compost which is largely just yard waste. "

Compost, and manure are soil amendments. They should be used to improve the fertility and tilth of your soil, not as a soil substitute.

Remember to include the basics of soil, clay, silt, and sand.

I think your soil has too large of particles and the roots do not have good contact with the soil.

I would recommend just water your bed well, and if you can get the worms working it , they will eventually bring up some clay from down below, and the microbes will break down the organic matter in to plant nutrients.

Drainage is not an issue in a raised bed. The excess water can run out the bottom.