An experiment in Hugelkulture in containers


Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Messages
234
Reaction score
76
Hardiness Zone
zone 6b
Country
United States
HK clearly works in tubs. I have never tried growing cabbage as it is so cheap in grocery stores. how does it taste compared to store bought?
 
Ad

Advertisements

Meadowlark

Gardner, Angler, Adjunct Professor, and Rancher
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
1,434
Reaction score
1,107
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
8
Country
United States
I refuse to eat store bought cabbage...tastes like cardboard. Garden grown is an entirely different matter, however.

We love it steamed, stir-fried, in soups and in casseroles. It's a whole different veggie from the garden.
 

Meadowlark

Gardner, Angler, Adjunct Professor, and Rancher
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
1,434
Reaction score
1,107
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
8
Country
United States
Summary Report for Fall 2022 Leafy Vegetables

Leafy Veggie
HK Pro​
Gar Pro​
Pro Ratio​
Malabar spinach 8-8
16.2​
4.1​
3.95​
collards 9-2
8.1​
5.7​
1.42​
Swiss Chard 8-20
4.8​
2.5​
1.92​
Turnips 8-21 tops
78​
54​
1.44​
Bok Choy 8-20
45.3​
22​
2.06​
ButterCrunch lettuce 8-21
37.4​
15.2​
2.46​
Sylyestra lettuce 8-21
33.4​
13.3​
2.51​
Little gem lettuce 8-22
31.9​
12.8​
2.49​
Romain lettuce 8-22
6.8​
3.2​
2.13​
Total
261.9​
132.8​
1.97​



Across 9 different leafy veggies, a total of app 395 ounces of produce, the Hügelkultur container grown veggies outproduced inground veggies by an average of 2 to 1.

Three other leafy veggies not included in the above table are still in progress.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Messages
234
Reaction score
76
Hardiness Zone
zone 6b
Country
United States
I refuse to eat store bought cabbage...tastes like cardboard. Garden grown is an entirely different matter, however.

We love it steamed, stir-fried, in soups and in casseroles. It's a whole different veggie from the garden.
will try it. thank you. will do my research but assuming colder weather?
 
Ad

Advertisements

Meadowlark

Gardner, Angler, Adjunct Professor, and Rancher
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
1,434
Reaction score
1,107
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
8
Country
United States
I'll really be watching the carrots here. If your bed fill is anything like mine you'll get some crazy modern art sculptures the first few years as the roots fork around sticks and the like.

Results on the carrots portion of the experiment are in: No crazy modern art sculptures resulted in the HK carrot tub.

However, the in-ground carrots planted for comparison germinated poorly (this was back in Aug. which isn't a great time to germinate carrots here except the HK tub germinated just fine), what did germinate in-ground were difficult to pull and somewhat irregular shaped (see those on the left in the below photo).

The HK tub carrots were surprisingly uniform in length of about 8-10 inches and in shape. These were planted and harvested early for this area compared to my normal start dates in Oct and harvest in Feb/March. They could have been allowed to grow more but this size is what I prefer for fresh eating.

These results are surprising to me as most of the other root veggies, e.g. turnips, beets, radishes, etc. have not shown such positive results in HK containers.

I certainly will not be afraid to raise carrots again in the future in these tubs with these results.


carrots hk 2022.JPG


By way of addressing Mr. Yan's comments, these tubs are constructed 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 with the top layer of garden soil at 6-7 inches, then well composted utility mulch at another 6-7 inches and then the rotted/decaying wood below. That gives something like 12-14 inches before the carrot roots encounter anything of any size in wood particles. Seems to work.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Messages
234
Reaction score
76
Hardiness Zone
zone 6b
Country
United States
only bad thing that HK brought and it might just be coincidence. but I got bees nests in 5 of the HK tubs. strange
 
Ad

Advertisements

Meadowlark

Gardner, Angler, Adjunct Professor, and Rancher
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
1,434
Reaction score
1,107
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
8
Country
United States
Grand Summary:

Across 38 different vegetables planted in HK containers and duplicated in ground planting, across spring /summer/fall/early winter 2022, a total of 3077 ounces of produce (87,231 grams) was harvested from the HK containers and 1990 ounces (56415 grams) harvested from identical in ground planted veggies. There were no, zero, nada veggies that failed to meet the targeted goal of equal to or greater production ratio of .5.

The production ratio across the entire experiment was 1.6.



Details by vegetable type are shown below for the fall/winter veggies, some of which are still in progress.

Comments/questions welcome. This experiment is concluded.

SummaryLeafly Veggie Fall/WinterHK ProGar ProPro Ratio
1​
Malabar spinach 8-8
16.2​
4.1​
3.95​
2​
Spinach 10-20
7.5​
7.1​
1.05
3​
Kale 10-18
10.4​
9.6​
1.08
4​
collards 9-2
8.1​
5.7​
1.42​
5​
Swiss Chard 8-20
4.8​
2.5​
1.92​
6​
Turnips 8-21 tops
78​
54​
1.44​
7​
Bok Choy 8-20
45.3​
22​
2.06​
8​
ButterCrunch lettuce 8-21
37.4​
15.2​
2.46​
9​
Sylyestra lettuce 8-21
33.4​
13.3​
2.51​
10​
Little gem lettuce 8-22
31.9​
12.8​
2.49​
11​
Romain lettuce 8-22
6.8​
3.2​
2.13​
12​
iceberg 10-20frozen
#VALUE!​
sub-Total
279.8​
149.5​
1.87​
SummaryRoot Veggies Fall/WinterHK ProGar ProPro Ratio
1​
turnips bottom
44​
83​
0.53​
2​
Radish 8-22
13.5​
12.1​
1.12​
3​
Carrot 8-21
32.1​
5.7​
5.63​
4​
Parsnip 10-2in progin prog
#VALUE!​
5​
Parsley 10-10in progin prog
#VALUE!​
6​
sprouted onion 10-9
19.5​
20.1​
0.97​
7​
leeks 10-17in progin prog
8​
garlic 10-1in progin prog
#VALUE!​
9​
beets 9-14in progin prog
#VALUE!​
10​
leeks 10-17
5.1​
5.3​
0.96​
11​
Sweet potatoes 8- 16frozenfrozen
12​
Yukon gold 10-15frozenfrozen
sub-Total
114.2​
126.2​
0.90​
SummaryBrassicasHK ProGar ProPro ratio
1​
red cabbage 10-18in progin prog
2​
Aspabroc(brocolinni) 9 26
12.5​
8.1​
1.54​
3​
Broccoli 8-20
36.5​
22.5​
1.62​
4​
Cauliflower 8-26
113​
60​
1.88​
5​
Brussels Sprouts 8-26in progin prog
#VALUE!​
sub-Total
162​
90.6​
1.79​
SummaryOther
1​
Sugar snap peas 8-8 frozenfrozen
2​
Toad pumpkin 8-21
49​
12​
4.08​
sub-total
49​
12​
2.68​
Grand TotLeafly Veggie Fall/Winter (12) sub-total
409.5​
197.1​
2.08​
Root Veggies Fall/Winter (12) sub-total
373​
174.6​
2.14​
Brassicas (5) sub-total
782.5​
371.7​
2.11​
other fall (2) subtotal
782.5​
371.7​
0.30​
other spring (7) sub-total
729.70​
874.60​
0.83​
Grand Total (38)
3077.20​
1989.7​
1.55​
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top