Organic Garden Soil / Raised Beds?
m1chael
12 years ago
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bi11me
12 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Advice on new organic raised bed garden
Comments (8)Start by contacting you counties office of the Alabama Cooperative Extension service (supported by Alabama A & M and Auburn Universities) about having a good, reliable soil test to find out the pH of that soil and the amounts of the major nutrients in that soil. You might also want to use these simple soil tests, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. to see what you have now and help you determine what you may need to do. Your plants could be having problems with nutrients because 1. they are not available, 2. nutrients are not available because of the soils pH, 3. the Soil Food Web is not yet working and feeding your plants. Spraying pesticides without identifying the pest problem is not organic. Keep in mind that Neem products are pretty broad spectrum poison just an most other organic pesticides and the synthetic ones....See MoreTips to raise organic veggies in my new raised beds
Comments (12)Thanks for your continuing suggestions! A couple of weeks ago, my Tomato plants' leaves started to change their color and become a bit brownish. I was really worried that the mild hale we had one night (roughly a week after they were planted) might have caused blight. I took a couple of samples (one bad looking old leaf and another newly growing one) to a local farming store (OC Farm Supplies in Anaheim, CA). The guy there was so patient and cooperative, he told me that he can't see any kind of disease with it and felt I might be watering them too much. Relieved, I came home and cut down on my watering routine of every other day to twice a week. It's been a week since and my plants are looking good already. Additionally, I went to the beach early Sunday morning and collected a couple of buckets full of Kelp. I soaked them in a big 13 gallon bin by filling it with water for about 12 hours. I took the thick juicy water out and added one part of this juice to an equal part of water and gave them to all my plants. There was enough left for me to give to my trees as well. This juice is THICK. Afterwards, I took out small chunks of this Kelp and laid it around my plants and covered them up with aged horse manure compost (which could double up as mulch, too). I am planning to repeat this process once a month throughout the growing season. From what I read, this thing is full of nutrients, so I am hoping this will help my plants to have enough of N-P-K. I bought Dr.Earth's Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer (5-7-3) but haven't fed them any of it yet. If I continue feeding them Kelp juice every other week, would that be enough or should I still be fertilizing more? I want to keep away from any store bought feed (like Dr.Earth's), if I can. Your expert advise will be grately apprecaited. Thanks, Telugu Raithu...See MoreRaised Garden Bed soil help
Comments (17)I know nothing about raised beds. Never cared for the concept so can't help. The concept of micro climates has been interesting. For years I'd heard about micro climates. They never made any sense in most climates I've lived in...San Jose CA, Pensacola FL, Rochester NY, Germany and even in TX and AK. Yes, a few obvious differences like south facing for earlier starts in cold climates, but nothing worth having a special term. Here in Phoenix that changed. Moving a plant even a few inches in a garden made a surprising difference. I've found management of sun to be really important for plants that can't take 100% in order to extend the growing season for vegetables, many flowers, etc. I see it the same as frost management. Move a plant under a house eve or tree and no frost damage. Unfortunately I've found it so subtle that it really isn't possible to give any precise advice. What I've done is plant in pots around the yard and see how different plants react. When I find the best spot I design around that. Takes a few years, but that's what I did. And I have to do that every time I've moved in Phoenix (3 so far). I do have hunches now so it's easier. One issue I do suspect is soil in pots becoming too hot. I was transplanting a potted plant once, mid day in summer, and the soil in the pot was so hot I could barely touch it. How any plant survives those conditions is amazing. Now I'm shading pots. Another thing I suspect is many places say stuff like vegetable X requires N hours of sun per day. More sunlight is always better, AK in summer is crazy good. In Phoenix in late spring, summer, early fall, sunlight = heat = death/dormant, so we have to deal with that. But we have one advantage, lots of sunny days. So I think I can get away with slightly less hours of sun per day and still get some reasonable result. For me, I'm more of a try everything to learn my yard. I threw away my Sunset Western gardening book, stopped watching gardening TV shows, reduce reading gardening info online after moving to Phoenix. It wasn't relevant, it was misleading. Even talking to neighbor gardeners often steered me wrong. People can have wildly different concepts of what "you can grow X here". For example tomatoes. I've heard many people say they grow tomatoes here and when I see the plants I see an almost dead plant and no fruit. When they say "tomatoes grow here" they were talking about the plant, not the fruit. It gets confusing. I have seen pictures of healthy tomato plants posted, pictures of fruit and lots of people say growing tomatoes is no problem...I don't doubt them. They lucked into a great micro climate spot I assume and they then assume anyone can grow the same lovely crop in any location. I haven't found that to be true. And for sure you can't asked any questions of most people because they're so insecure on the subject they instantly get super defensive. Only once in a great while will you run into a "gardener" that can carry on a civil in depth discussion. My view on vegetables is shifting to give up on summer and focus on winter. It's easier I think to raise the temp here in winter with a greenhouse/cold frame than deal with summer's sun/heat/low humidity. Look at our temps, sun, humidity right now...looks a lot like most of the country's summer values. Even a crappy cold frame/greenhouse can push today's temps even into prime tomato growing range. That could extend the tomato growing season from say Oct to June, 8 months. Seem like a better plan for me than the 2-3 month season we have in the spring and again in the fall at least for some vegetables. That's only what I've done. Not saying it's how anyone else should or that it's right. I'm still learning....See MoreRaised Garden Bed 4' x 8' Soil Amendments Recipe?
Comments (26)On another trip to Home Depot, The HD guy was kind enough to "carefully" situate eight 60# bags of Quickcrete cement (480# total) throughout the car! I used the same Toyota method of calculating five adults (approximately five 100# Japanese people -- maybe realistically 1 adult and 4 kids equating about 500#?) I figured I was safe for the 1-mile trek home. I shoved the Quickcrete out the door and it's still sitting in a lump -- thank God for gravity! I can't imagine that much laminate flooring in a Prius but given CBS 60 Minutes' recent expose on Lumber Liquidators China supplier problem of mislabeling its laminate flooring as CARB2 compliant when it clearly wasn't, I'll believe anything. I'm ready to rip out my LL flooring in favor of real wood or tile... That shall be my next project after I finish my garden beds and my new money tree starts to bear fruit......See MoreJon_dear
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