Problem with Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

[phillygardener]

I need advice for my raised bed vegetable garden. I'm having difficulty growing things successfully. I have 4 containers three 4 by 4 feet and one 4 by 6 feet all about 12 inches deep made out of recycled pallets. I'm having difficulty growing salad and hot peppers and herbs. Zucchini starts well and then gets killed by vine borers. I can't get the carrots to grow well either. Tomatoes and snap peas did pretty well. It could by that my first mistake was using Lowe's container soil !?! I lined the containers with 3 mil plastic sheeting and drilled holes every 10 inches for drainage.

Any advice would be welcome. Should I do something to improve the soil?

Thanks, Harold

 

[Chuck]

What are you fertilizing with? What is the container soil composted of? Squash vine borers can be difficult but a lot of folks have success with DiPel dust. Or you can do what I do and daily inspect around the base of the plant and to about 18" along the vine for what looks sort of like sawdust. This stuff is frass, the excrement of the caterpillar of the borer. When you find it you will see a hole in the vine and inside that hole is the caterpillar. If you get a turkey baster, mix up some Bt (Bacillus thuringensis) and inject it into the hole and viola, no more caterpillar. But you have to do this every day or the caterpillar will cause too much damage and your plant will fold up and die. Your drainage may or may not be adequate. Just periodically dig down to the bottom and and see how wet it is. It should be moist, not wet.

 

[DirtMechanic]

So all of this was last year, your first attempts? Welcome to the what the heck club. Pictures, an 12 inches is not enough to even bury you in so lets get to know your setting in a more detailed way.

 

[phillygardener]

This will be my third year attempt. The soil is Lowes generic container soil with fertilizer. I used water soluble 24-8-16 sta-green (also Lowes generic) fertilizer. Last year, the second, I added black cow manure to the container beds as well.

 

[phillygardener]

 

[Chuck]

Basically soil is soil but from the pictures what you are growing in is potting mix. There is no soil in potting mix. Potting soil has some soil in it. It says there is fertilizer in the mix but what is it? It could be fast acting like that Plant Food. It says nine months but who knows what is available to different plants at different times. I do not believe in a one time fertilizing of vegetable plants. What you want is a steady complete feed of the plants and your fertilizer should state "slow release" somewhere on the package. No where that I can find do the products say anything about micro-nutrients. The Black Kow added last year is the best thing you have done but was it just manure or was it a manure based compost. Both are excellent but the manure has a longer plant feeding time so be sure to add more this year.

Now having said all of this and please don't get mad at me but why don't you do this? Add actual gardening soil to your beds. This year a couple of 40lb bags to each bed each year. Do not use that Plant Food. Get a 40lb bag of a good organic fertilizer such as Fox Farms or Espoma. A big bag will last you quite a while if you keep it dry. But if you have to use a synthetic fertilizer make it a slow acting granular one and incorporate it in the soil before or at planting. Liquid fertilizers are for containers and yes you are planting in a container albeit a great big one. I also use a liquid fertilizer but I also use granular. I use the liquid every 2 weeks on my ground and container plants.

 

[DirtMechanic]

@Chuck I do not believe that composted cow manure is that long lasting. while I am sure there is a lot of goodie in it, it is after all a compost,and almost by definition a lot of easy Nitrogen is gone. The continued breakdown of protiens surely is a source but when I use it to seed grass there is a time after a month or more where I must fertilize in addition.

 

[Chuck]

@Chuck I do not believe that composted cow manure is that long lasting. while I am sure there is a lot of goodie in it, it is after all a compost,and almost by definition a lot of easy Nitrogen is gone. The continued breakdown of protiens surely is a source but when I use it to seed grass there is a time after a month or more where I must fertilize in addition.

Yes, you are correct. It isn't a LONG lasting fertilizer but it is longer lasting than a synthetic water soluble fertilizer. And it adds to the planting medium of which nothing the poster was doing, did.

 

[phillygardener]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer my request for advice! One other thing I realized after speaking with someone at a local non-chain nursery and garden center, is that the drainage isn't happening properly. So I will move the dirt to one side and restore/ add more holes in the bottom for drainage. When I took a handful of dirt all the way from the bottom of the raised container beds and squeezed, I was able to squeeze out water.

 

[harrylee]

If your beds are right on the ground, I would not have put plastic on the bottom.