Raised Bed Garden questions

[thedreamers]

down here in florida now is the time to start prepareing your beds for spring since we had a very mild winter. also check all your trees an see what needs pruning since some are already starting to bud or trying to start runners. everything we grow is in containers and raised beds at my dads house. i love growing this way cause if we have to move everything comes with me.

[trkarl]

I just updated my blog. All my gardening is pretty much raised beds. Several members of the local prepper community have since started gardens similar to mine after seeing the results. I am no expert but do get pretty good results imho.

There is a ton of info there throughout the many posts. Take a looksee if you so feel inclined :)

https://www.greenerground.blogspot.com

[Texas Patriot]

I believe we will do better with it this spring if we ever start getting rain again.

[Maid Marion]

I used to grow crazy amounts of corn in Maine. Dad was born in 1913 and showed me how to plant the rows about 34" apart. Old cow manure, a little fertilizer and some lime to sweeten the soil. The rows were 50 feet long and we would plant 7 or 8 rows each year. Just as soon as the corn started to show, about 2/3 inches we would hoe it up until it almost disappeared. Water the heck out of it and let it grow up another 5 or 6 inches...hoe it up again and it wouldn't fall over. Just water and sunshine from that point on. Sugar and Gold, Silver Queen are a couple of the ones I remember. The more corn the better for pollination.

[MustangGal]

I figured if I plant a 1/4 acre of corn it would help hold itself up and not blow down in the wind as easily. We also want to be able to store it for the winter and the 40 stalks we had only produced about 25 little pathetic ears. I've learned that the more you have the better it will do because of pollination.

It will also do better in a block as opposed to one or two long rows, you could do four half rows. As I understand it (not gonna try it to prove a point), a single long row of corn is an especially bad idea.

[Texas Patriot]

I figured if I plant a 1/4 acre of corn it would help hold itself up and not blow down in the wind as easily. We also want to be able to store it for the winter and the 40 stalks we had only produced about 25 little pathetic ears. I've learned that the more you have the better it will do because of pollination.

[610Alpha]

On corn, can't remember where I saw it... but they had cattle panels horizontally at about a foot off the ground and then again at about four feet. Might have been on Len Pense's site...

Yep Len Pense uses a cattle/hog panel placed horizontally. I will have to watch his video again but I don't think he uses 2 panels.

[MustangGal]

On corn, can't remember where I saw it... but they had cattle panels horizontally at about a foot off the ground and then again at about four feet. Might have been on Len Pense's site...

[tarheel]

We have had raised beds now for three years. Have had very good results. The only thing I have decided to do next year is move the corn out of a raised bed.(wind kept blowing them over) We are going to try a quarter acre plot for the corn. I was told that the more corn you can plant the better it will do.

I have had good luck with raised beds, but corn hasn't worked that well for me either.

[Texas Patriot]

We have had raised beds now for three years. Have had very good results. The only thing I have decided to do next year is move the corn out of a raised bed.(wind kept blowing them over) We are going to try a quarter acre plot for the corn. I was told that the more corn you can plant the better it will do.

[610Alpha]

I know this is an old thread but some of you had some ideas you were going to be trying. I'm curious as to how some of those things may have worked out. Had been accustomed to having a very large garden in Maine that was well seasoned with fertilizer, lime and cow manure. Things would practically jump out of the ground. Couldn't grow potatoes to save my soul. Bugs ate them. In our new location the soil is rocky/sandy and not one bit inviting to approach for a garden. Have thought about bringing in a well seasoned load of manure and turning it into the crap soil with the hope of maybe being able to grow something next summer. Raised beds might have to be the other option. This is New Hampshire so the growing season just isn't that long.

The guy I learned about raised beds from lives down by the Ozarks, clay and rocks. I use Cotton Burr compost, Rice Hulls, and Peat Moss in my raised bed. I add in some Azomite and some Fertilizer. I watered every night unless it rained. The compost mix I use allows for excellent root growth and it is so loose that I can wiggle my hand down to the bottom of the bed.

[MustangGal]

We fertilized with rabbit pellets. The don't have to compost and despite the drought and heat, most of our stuff did pretty well.

We won't put our watermelons in raised beds again though. They invaded everything. We are going to move them to the other side of the house and they can just go as crazy as they want!

We are putting some stuff in a traditional garden next year. Corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and probably turnips (turnips are mostly livestock fodder).

[Maid Marion]

I know this is an old thread but some of you had some ideas you were going to be trying. I'm curious as to how some of those things may have worked out. Had been accustomed to having a very large garden in Maine that was well seasoned with fertilizer, lime and cow manure. Things would practically jump out of the ground. Couldn't grow potatoes to save my soul. Bugs ate them. In our new location the soil is rocky/sandy and not one bit inviting to approach for a garden. Have thought about bringing in a well seasoned load of manure and turning it into the crap soil with the hope of maybe being able to grow something next summer. Raised beds might have to be the other option. This is New Hampshire so the growing season just isn't that long.

[Gwynmael]

Raised beds do lose moisture faster, mulch/straw helps a lot to retain moisture and keep the soil temp down in the summer. The trade off is the soil gets warmer sooner in the spring and you don't have to till it each spring.

Blossom end rot on tomatoes - an easy way to add calcium (did it this year for the first time & it made a huge difference) is save egg shells (rinse them really well & get the membrane off if you can), then grind them (I used a mortar & pestle, anything heavy will work), put that eggshell "dust" onto the dirt around the main stalk then water it in. It can take a LOT of eggshells. I think I used 5 dozen to treat 6 plants (all indeterminates) once when it first showed up in middle June. We are now the only one of our friends in the area (NE KS) whose plants are still producing and throwing new flower sets.

We did water almost every evening - at the roots only - during the heat and instead of using Sevin or something like that (not opposed to it, just $ this year) for the caterpillars, wasps, aphids, and other critters we sprayed almost nightly with a dishsoap/water mixture. You want it "bubbly", it coats them with bubbles or something and they can't breathe through it. Also had caught two "garden" spiders, the black ones with very bright colored stripes, elsewhere in the yard and put them directly into the tomato area. Every evening you could tell they were eating well because they were bigger.

Anyway, my 2 cents

[TyrannyUnleashed]

Where are you? You don't list a real location. If you are in Texas as an example the heat just killed everything. also lack of rain fall. If you are in Iowa you sure had plenty of rain. the low areas still have some of the water. did you put in new soil in the boxes? or did you use the clay in your area? I know here in Texas my daughter put in raised beds back in spring and it has been miserable for her to grow anything.

I'm in W. TN.,
I have put down some 10-10-10. That along with a little cooler temps have brought my garden back to life. In fact I just planted some head lettuce and Brocolli. I may not have as much of a harvest as I wanted, but something will be better then nothing.
Mike