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| This was my first year gardening. I did the square foot gardening method, invested in that pricey Mel's mix. All of my plants grew beautifully. They produced tons of fruit...but all of it was tiny. My melons and winter squashes all grew to about 4 inches and then totally stopped. I left them for weeks and weeks afterward and they never got bigger. Beets never got bigger than about 2 inches. Same thing with my San Marzano tomatoes and all my peppers (jalape�os, banana peppers, and bell peppers). They look like miniature play versions of the real thing. They're adorable, but not exactly what I was going for when I invested all this time and money into gardening. I didn't fertilize until about halfway through the season, when I realized that the growth was stunted for whatever reason. SFG says the compost in the soil mix should be sufficient, right? So I started using fish fertilizer. The San Marzanos got a little bigger, but nothing changed for the squashes or peppers. What the heck?!? What did I do wrong? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by theforgottenone1013 5b/6a MI (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 10:05
| From some of the things I've read, what you experienced isn't all that unusual in the first year of square foot gardening. Rodney |
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| I used Mel's mix from the first edition of Square Foot Gardening years ago and don't recall a problem. Did the beds get enough water and sun? When my veggies seem to be growing too slow, I realize that they need some water and I water deeply. Although I still like the small bed, intensive planting method, I now use the lasagna method to build new beds and top each off with a yearly application of composted horse manure that also contains composted kitchen scraps. Found the source on craigslist. |
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- Posted by rivettijensen 7 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 11:33
| Really? Well, that's frustrating. Why is SFG prone to small produce? :( I live in Virginia and we had quite a bit of rain this summer, but maybe I didn't water enough. So frustrating. Could it be the quality of the seeds I planted. I started everything from seed. All of them were either Ferry-Morse or Burpee, except for the kohlrabi, which was a $0.50 cent packet and actually did really well. Go figure. Next year, should I fertilize more or what? I guess I'll water more, too. |
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| How much sun does it get? 6 hours is generally considered the requirement for optimal growth of fruiting vegetables. Square foot gardening is kind of advanced for a first year garden... I imagine those crowded raised beds need a lot of amending throughout the year, I'm glad I didn't try it. |
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- Posted by rivettijensen 7 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 18:03
| It gets plenty of sun, more than 8 hours. |
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- Posted by shayneca25 8 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 21:26
| check the PH balance...may be out of sync with what yoou are growing....check what the ph needs to be for the plants that did good vs bad and you will have your answer...also how deep was your soil |
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| I don't know what it is, but it shouldn't be the quality of the seeds. Is the bottom of the box open to the native soil? You could try mixing it with the native soil for next year. There is a lot of life in real soil that you miss when using bagged goods. |
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| you might want to visit the Square foot garden Forum at the link |
Here is a link that might be useful: Square foot garden Forum
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Fri, Sep 26, 14 at 1:07
| I'm in Ca where we're in year 3 of a drought, but I have a deep well, so I can carefully water as needed. We were gone the last week of May and the first week of June, so though I showed my daughter how to do the watering, it might not have been done properly, but there was plenty of time to catch up when we got back! Our tomatoes are usually 5-6' tall and produce tons! This year they are barely 3' tall! Our purple cherokes were close to a pound each last year and this year are the size of golf balls! I got 2 peppers out of 12 plants (that could be the fault of the soil in the huge raised up beds we bought) Eh! I won't go through it all....everything was OK, but not so great! I'm going to really work on my soil this year. I have moved some of the compost bins right on top of the beds that will be vacant this winter, and I'm going to finally meet the lady that raises rabbits! Nancy |
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| Elisa makes a good point about the native soil beneath the beds. Your soil mix is probably too light, without enough gritty soil particles, plus you need to fertilize. Time will help cure the first problem as along as you do a deep digging (to mix in actual soil) and keep adding compost every time you plant. Also get a balanced organic fertilizer and use it according to the needs of the crop you are planting. Plants make best use of fertilizer when they are young, so fertilizing should be a pre-planting thing. |
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