Maintaining raised beds

[garjobo79]

I have several raised beds. Wooden troughs if you like,some 8ft length by 2-3foot width height being 2-3foot. Quite sturdy if I say so myself. So they are a little shady but plants growing, bit of a hedge in one, a few shrubs, olive tree, oil plant in another..keen tk grow high as possible. So, maintenence.. I was just going to throw in a load of chicken pellets to be honest...what about some of those polystyrene balls...fig a few in...aerate soil...obviously won't hit the roots...so..a waste of time doing that? Any tips...fig in some potash...top up the soil....again your thoughts welcome.

 

[garjobo79]

cricky this forum isnt very active it is? reducing to replying to my own threads!

 

[YumYum]

Got a picture of what your talking about?

I think I would skip the polystyrene balls. Chicken manure is fine but it tends to raise the soils pH if used in abundance, which may not be a bad thing if your pH is way low. If the pH is high then I wouldn't use manure. A soil test can tell you what you need if you want to dive that deep into it. Fresh chicken manure can burn plants but you said chicken pellets so I'm not sure exactly to what you are referring to.

If you can post a picture of the beds, measure the sizes of them, and get the NPK rating of the chicken pellets or link to the product, then I can estimate how much to use if you are going to use them.

 

[DirtMechanic]

A lot of folks cross the line from potting soil and those processes that support containers to soil based concepts like manure. The internet advice usually does not point out the context that makes the different methods useful in the different situations.

Raised bed is much more akin to potted plant maintenance than soil gardening, and aeration, drainage and adding available nutrients follow a slightly different reasoning. If the beds are open bottom, then farming techniques for hill row planting work well as the access to the fungal hyphae network in the soil is then allowed.

That bottom and whether it exists or not will greatly influence your successful support techniques. Something is working, since plants are growing. You seem to have in mind that they are effectively pots when you mention "polysterene balls". Also your "trough" description points me that direction. I assume they are pots in effect.

You might consider leaf mold and hardwood bark mulching rather than manure. Organic fertilizers rather than basic amendments that require further breakdown might be the better path for a potted plant. @Meadowlark has some fun with hugelkulture in pots, which points to the use of wood as as amendment. The bark and leaf suggestions I made are a shortcut to that goodness.

 

[MamaHawk]

A lot of folks cross the line from potting soil and those processes that support containers to soil based concepts like manure. The internet advice usually does not point out the context that makes the different methods useful in the different situations.

Raised bed is much more akin to potted plant maintenance than soil gardening, and aeration, drainage and adding available nutrients follow a slightly different reasoning. If the beds are open bottom, then farming techniques for hill row planting work well as the access to the fungal hyphae network in the soil is then allowed.

That bottom and whether it exists or not will greatly influence your successful support techniques. Something is working, since plants are growing. You seem to have in mind that they are effectively pots when you mention "polysterene balls". Also your "trough" description points me that direction. I assume they are pots in effect.

You might consider leaf mold and hardwood bark mulching rather than manure. Organic fertilizers rather than basic amendments that require further breakdown might be the better path for a potted plant. @Meadowlark has some fun with hugelkulture in pots, which points to the use of wood as as amendment. The bark and leaf suggestions I made are a shortcut to that goodness.

Amazing breakdown of information I never knew I needed. Would you recommend open bottoms or closed "containers" for this sort of trough set up (e.g. long and narrow rather than a square foot box)?

 

[DirtMechanic]

Amazing breakdown of information I never knew I needed. Would you recommend open bottoms or closed "containers" for this sort of trough set up (e.g. long and narrow rather than a square foot box)?

I mainly plant in amended clay ground unless it is necessary to rise up (talking basil here) but @Meadowlark and others have extensive experience. The context of what types of plants and where and so forth are all part of it. What are your plans?