23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Get your wallet out and just pretend that the beds are large containers; I use a soilless mix like ProMix BX or Fafard's #2, combined with compost--at least a third since the soilless mix is almost nutrient-free, unless you use something like Miracle-Gro.
If you are square foot gardening, do a search for "MEL'S MIX" formula, which uses about 3 or 4 ingredients including granular fertilizer (not water soluble like M-G.)
Most of my raised beds were started with a 3-part mix including topsoil, and regret it; now, I try to refresh them with compost or a mix of peat moss and M-G Garden Soil, which looks exactly like the compost I used to truck in (the town's compost facility got bought by a commercial topsoil company and no longer sells a pickup truck bedful for under $20. They also sold a garden mix, but I really needed just the compost.)
Most of my raised beds are either 3 or 4ft by 7 or 8ft and everything settles over winter, so I add a bale of peat moss and a couple bags of the Garden Soil to each bed, all tilled or forked in.
Hope this helps!
My raised beds at a former home were about 12" above ground and a similar amount underground. Because of the quantity of rock in our weathered granite soil, we put the native soil through a sieve to remove rocks and then added composted manure and top dressed with composed or shredded leaves. It was a great garden!
In order of best IME - beans, carrots, potatoes, broccoli. Agree with what jeff said about the carrots need to be left longer, the broccoli heads will be smaller (1/2 size) the potatoes will be less and smaller. What does better than any of them in shaded areas is leafy greens - lettuces, spinach, chard, kale. even some cabbage.
Dave
Certainly worth experimenting to find out what the partial shade area will do. I have a strip along the west side of the house that gets an absolute maximum of four hours of sun per day (approx. Noon-4pm). I usually always have chard, kale, chives, and catnip in this area, but have also had success with tomatoes and pickling cucumbers.
The tomatoes were quite acceptably productive, although probably a bit less than they would have been in sunnier locations. I staked them and they ended up growing almost a couple of feet higher than the gutters – the pic below was taken standing on step ladder close to gutter level. I eventually ended up with tomatoes resting on the gutter guards!
Pickling cukes did quite well and I think the bee-attracting catnip nearby may have helped them along.
Bush beans have done well in this area. Multiple attempts with peppers failed (as I expected they would). Oddly, lettuce and spinach production was a bit of a disappointment and I’m not sure why.
I’ve never
considered trying potatoes in that area but might try that this year.
Soak the seeds in water for about 36 hours and allow to dry for another 24 hours.
Fill a bucket with 6 inches of a mixture of soil and compost.
Add about 5 inches of water to cover the soil.
Evenly spread the seeds in the bucket and place in a warm, sunny area.
Dave
Doing sq foot with what mix? Mel's Mix? If so it is often too acidic and needs the pH adjusted. A soil test as suggested will tell you what and how much to add. Plus it can be too high in N for some crops or you may be adding too much fertilizer for root crops. Excess N causes heavy top growth with minimal root crop development.
Something eating the carrots is a whole different issue.
Dave
The broadforks at Johnny's are junk, don't bother with them. I own one. It is cheaply made and flimsy. I had one tine break off completely and they will all bend if you catch a root or a rock. I subsequently bought this one:
This one is vastly sturdier. It is however, almost impossible to sink to the hilt into my heavy, sandy loam soil, which is actually relatively soft. Even as I jump my 190 pounds on top of it with both feet. But I have surely never broken or bent a tine on this monster.
Oddly enough, when I really want to deeply break up my veg garden soil, I use this:
This bad boy plunges 15" into the ground pretty easily. Then I just pull the steel handle backwards until the huge chunk of soil breaks free. I'll also use this tool to turn over an area of sod in the fall to prepare for a new Spring veg garden bed. It's also great for chopping through roots.
Truthfully, I never use my broadfork simply because I cannot drive it as deeply as I like, whereas my spade goes deeper easier. The spade ends up being less work even though I'm going 5 inches deeper. It is all hardcore steel construction and seems like it will last into the next millennium. This thing is a beast.
I sometimes wonder if there are broadforks available that are both sturdily made and easy enough to drive deeply into the ground.
Hi everyone, I have been thinking of concrete beds also. But have moles, so not sure how 2 rid my land of japanese beetles. How do I find the youtube I keep reading about? I love love pictures, still daydreaming here in NW Texas and have not even begun with gardening. Wanted to say hi.
"All seeds require some form of soil heat and soil heat is normally 5-10 degrees cooler than ambient air temps indoors."
This is an important comment by Dave, and often under-appreciated. The surface temperature of wet soil is *not* the ambient air temperature, but will move closer to the the dew point. That's why you feel cold when you get out of a shower! For 70F air temperature and 50% humidity, the dew point is 50F. Now, the soil at depth will be warmer, because there isn't much evaporation going on down there, but seeds start near the surface, where there is evaporation. Wind will increase evaporation, and drive the temperatures even closer to the dew point. That being said, sticking a thermometer an inch or two into the soil isn't measuring the temperature where the seeds are germinating.
As to light. I agree. Except to the extent that it heats the soil, an ungerminated seed doesn't care about light.
The thermostat I have has a small probe on a wire to stick in the soil. You put it to the seed depth and leave it there. Therefore, I am able to get a consistent read at the proper depth. If used in conjunction with a heat mat, you plug the heat mat thru the stat and it cycles on and off based on the temp read. Works well with that, but also works when I just use it with lights to measure the temp--I can then manually adjust the distance to control.
You might ask over on the Greenhouses and Garden Structures forum. I know they are sold "as is" several places including Sears and Walmart but replacement parts for them don't seem to be available anywhere in the US. They are imported from China by Mengheng Ningbo, LTD so contact them might provide a lead.
Don't know what a 5 B and 3 C are or what they are made of but you may be able to find some sort of make-do repair parts from one of the US greenhouse suppliers like Charley's or Greenhouse Megastore as they carry all sorts of parts for many other brands.
Dave
Hi we've found this extremely helpful. We have used the pellets since buying a 48 cell propagator kit with the pellets already in 5 years ago.
Since then we now buy them on-line in 2000 unit boxes and have found propagator boxes, lids and inserts suitable for the 3 sizes of pellet. It suits us because only a percentage of seeds germinate and we don't want to left with 1/2 empty propagators on our limited windowsills. Also the cleanliness suits us in our kitchen with a toddler running about.
I'm open to all suggestions and haven't historically checked whether rooting has been ideal after growing. We will definitely be making a number of incisions top to bottom before planting on, and will do this early on before the roots grow excessively out of the pellet.
I would say this though the germination success varies depending on what's to be grown, tomatoes, chillies and peppers seem to love the Jiffy 7C, Kale, Cabbage, Brussels all seem to be growing too fast and are leggy (is this bolting?) And so my question is has anyone actually noticed whether the Jiffy7C (which contains 20% peat and not just coconut coir) may be too rich for certain veg? The Jiffy7 seems much better for certain veg thus accounting possibly for some of the irregularities described above?
I also note that John Inne's potting composts get stronger as you go up through the range 1, 2, 3 etc. to feed larger plants. Clearly potting compost is less rich for a reason?
I would welcome any input and and wish everyone the best for the coming season xx
I've had good germination rates with the peat pellets. I too, learned from trial and error. What I do now is after the peat pellets are good and wet and have expanded, I cut off the bottom netting before planting the seeds. Once the seeds have germinated and I'm ready to pot up, I cut off as much of the netting as I can without disturbing the roots.
Also keep in mind that peat does not have any nutrients for the seedlings. You're either going to need to give them plant food and or repot them in potting soil.
No sweat box. I soaked them overnight first and then put them on my potting soil, and then a little soil over the top. I left them on my counter before, and then I moved one to above my UPS since it's warm, but still nothing. The rest of them I moved to a west facing window, still nothing. Top of my fridge is stone cold, so can't put them there. Mine seeds are also Ping Tung. I will restart this weekend.
Would you recommend putting them in a moist towel and in a ziplock and then put that ziplock on top of my warm UPS until they germinate then them move them to soil?
When there is uncertainty on a later than normal seed germination, I will usually plant a second box/container.....Having too many plants is a lesser problem than not having any or enough.
And, FWIW, last year I had problems getting eggplant to germinate due to low temperatures. The second planting had excellent germination.
Thanks, this has been very helpful. I will be running all my beds east to west and just take extra time planning so nothing gets shaded, that doesn't want to be shaded.
In the past before heavy amending, I had to make sure that I had good drainage. This meant going up and down the slope and NOT impounding water. Still, my slopes are very gentle...actually perfect degree...maybe 1 or so percent. Now with sand and peatmoss amending into the good but slightly heavy topsoil, the beds absorb like a sponge.
I have beds and rows in e/w in one garden and n/s in two gardens. Both are fine.