Hi,

I think I have an overwatering and/or nutrient deficiency problem in my vegetable raised beds. My beds are in their first year, 11" tall, turf covered with newspaper or cardboard, then leaves, then compost, then grass clippings, then compost, finished with a blend of probably 80+% compost and I am pretty sure I am overwatering as a result of forgetting I had my soaker hoses going (I dug a few test holes in between some of the wider spaced plants and the soil is nearly fully saturated). Besides the fact that the compost holds a ton of water, I think the cardboard I used on some of the boxes was too heavy duty and is slowing down drainage. But from reading some posts here, it sounds like I may also be short nitrogen or various micronutrients. I thought the compost would provide everything the plants needed but maybe its "too mature" to be used exclusively and there isnt much immediately available to the plants.

I definitely plan on drying the soil out but if I do have a nutrient issue, I'd like to go ahead and first water some type of fertilizer in. Any thoughts how likely I need to fertilizer? Is the list of plants doing well and doing poorly indicative of some particular nutrient that is low? I thought potatoes were nitrogen hogs so the fact that they are thriving seems to suggest its not short nitrogen? Then again, they were buried deeply and may be feasting on the N in the grass clippings.

And besides not watering, is there any other corrective action for overwatering? I have seen some mention of hydrogen peroxide to add oxygen but seems like that could be rough on the plants. Would poking small and deep holes into the soil help aeration or drying?

Thanks!!!

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