Hi, trying out a 4x4 raised bed garden this spring primarily for tomatoes and peppers, and so far it has been a failed experiment. I began with a good crop of seedlings that were grown indoors under a grow light, but just a few weeks since being transplanted outside to the raised bed their growth has become stunted, the leaves yellowed, and some early flowering that doesn't look like it will yield much. The yellowing started from the bottom on both the tomatoes and peppers, so I suspect my soil mix must be wrong (poor drainage...compacted soil?). Some granular fertilizer was added when the seedlings were transplanted, and they've been given a little fish emulsion every couple of weeks. I should also point out that some of these same tomato/pepper seedlings are thriving in containers with potting mix. The raised bed soil is about an equal mix of your basic garden soil from Home Depot, peat moss, and composted manure. The top layer of soil dries very quickly and has a hardness to it, but underneath the soil always seems to be quite moist. The garden gets plenty of sunlight. I also have grown cilantro which has done fine, as well as basil which struggled at first but seems to be doing better recently. Please help me save this raised bed! I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!
Difficult to say. My peppers yellow through lack of water. If the fertiliser is too strong you can get rootburn and yellowing. Could be the transplant shock. Once pepper leaves yellow they won‘t green again. As long as the young growth is dark green your peppers should recover. Peppers like lots of water.
not knowing without a soil analysis is like a chemistry experiment..." lets see what this does or that does if we add this or that to the mix..." you can do that through a soil lab or the extension office if you have one. mail one in to a lab or maybe even those cheap little garden soil kits you can get at the garden center/dept. of a store. my first thought is you have a total lack of nitrogen in the bed. the plants look healthy not burned. have you added any fertilizer to the bed? whatever "soils" you put in there may still be breaking down and robbing the soil of nitrogen. compost or wood chips that aren't fully decomposed use up any nitrogen to complete the process. the Ph may be off too. it needs to be appropriately in a range for the plant to take up the nutrients it needs. they may be in there but locked up in the soil. https://harvesttotable.com/vegetable-crop-soil-ph-tolerances/
A few years ago there were problems with some of the composted manure being sold in garden centers, the cows producing the manure had been eating grasses that had been sprayed with weed killing chemicals. The cows ate the grass and those chemicals were in the manure that was sold and many people lost their veggie plants as a result. I do not grow many veggies but I lost what I did have, had to change the soil in the bed and start over the next Spring.
@toni, makes you wonder about the milk from those cows too. I had a friend who got soil for her raised beds from who knows where. Everything died. Literally. It was pretty spectacular. She concluded the same thing about the soil. @carolyn helpful posting. Thanks also for the PH link. I did not know potatoes like an acid soil....this said by a woman who has just limed her garden bed...twice (last fall & this spring!). Sigh.
I used a Vigoro All-purpose 12-5-7 fertilizer when they were transplanted. And in the 5-6 weeks they've been in the garden I've given them some 5-1-1 fish emulsion probably twice. Thanks for the response!
They should be green. much greener than they are. 12-5-7 should be an adequate amount of nitrogen but obviously there is something else contributing to the yellowing. check your Ph. how much rain have you had? that can leach all the nutrients out of the soil if it is inches of rain.
Hello Jbam-- There could be several problems here, but not everything. For instance the yellowing leaves on the bottoms of your plants could simply be normal. The lowest leaves were the first or second ones the plants ever had. These first leaves have only one job---to get the plantlet going; at a certain point they have done their job and so die, leaving newer leaves to carry the plants along into adulthood. Raised bed gardening is a totally different kettle of fish compared to traditional plot gardening. There are important things to do in terms of pre-gardening...the preparation of the soil inside the four boards. I won't go into my take on setting up a raised bed at this point, since you have already done that and have the raised bed in use. After reading what you have written, I am right away wondering if your soil isn't a bit too hot for new plantlets. The dose of fertilizer may be hinting at burning your plants up a bit. Normally I do not begin feeding my toms or peppers until the first fruit forms. Further when I make my soil I do that a couple of month before I actually plant my plants. This gives any manure time to change its character by breaking down. Further the layers of fungi and bacteria have a chance to develop it's sub-terrestrial layers. Further I would like to ask if you have "hardened-off" your plantlets before setting them out. The main contrast between a raised bed and a conventional garden plot is that it dries-out much quicker. This means that you must pay close attention to this and be sure that it stays moist enough, but not water-logged. Perhaps you are aware of all this. If so I apologise and hope that you do not feel insulted. Please keep us informed on how things are going with you and should your raised bed experiment fail this year, do not loose heart, we will be happy to give you advice in the fall so that you can prepare your bed correctly. BTW--what area do you garden in? Good luck, mate.
Thank you for the response! I'm in the north Texas area. Sorry, I do not know the region. Based on the feedback I am getting, I am starting to suspect over-fertilizing or the soil being "too hot" as you said. My soil mix sat in the bed only for about 3 weeks before I started transplanting some seedlings, and like I mentioned before some 12-5-7 granular fertilizer was added at that same time. I believe I hardened-off the seedlings properly because I put some of the excess plants in containers outside and they have been thriving in the Texas heat. Someone also asked about rain, and north Texas did have a crazy amount of rainfall in April and May. I was worried about over-watering and bad drainage so I have barely done any watering besides those heavy rains. If the problem is over-fertilized soil, I'll have to start looking into ways to correct the problem in the Fall and Winter! Thank you for the help.
Do a Google search for Texas Eco Regions to find yours. Texas has 10 natural ecological regions and each one is sometimes just a tad different than those next to it or sometimes one seems like a whole 'nuther world compared to the regions next door.. We have North Panhandle, north west, north central and north east growing conditions. And it is important to know which one you are in.
Too hot means the organics weren't composted enough...but, the plants can still grow in it. What do your other plants look like? are they as yellow as the peppers? the nitrogen is used to complete the decomposition of the materials especially if there is wood(chips/bark) or dried materials mixed into the soil. That and the amount of rain you have had could have leached all of the nutrients out of the soil mix. your plants don't look bad they look chlorotic (as if they have a lack of chlorophyll.) I would say SPRAY a liquid fertilizer right on the plant. make a light dilution of that fish emulsion fertilizer or a miracle grow ferilizer or even mix the two and put it into a spray bottle. spray 1/2 of the plants and see if you see a difference.
My guess is acidic soil with not enough calcium. I would put a pH stick meter in it the day after a good watering, and see. If the meter needle does not move, soak it in a acid wash of white vinegar for an hour to expose the metal better. Lime is too slow in this situation, but necessary, given that you have so much peat, which is acidic, and is probably a component of the garden soil to some degree as well. You did not say what kind of manure, so I assume cow. If not, the other manures will also tend to be acid. None of your comments lead me to believe much calcium is involved save the fish emulsion, but at the weight of one or two tablespoons per 25 feet of soil down 6 inches, it is not enough to move a needle, and nutrient uptake is best around 6.5pH. I believe I would use a powdered lime and try to itch it into the soil. Calcium nitrate is one of the only water soluble forms of calcium that would be quickly available. It is also a nitrogen fertilizer though. Next go round, bury 1/2 cup of Epsoma Tomato tone under all your plants. Its not a high nitrogen fertilizer, and has everything you need, once you sort out that soil.
I have some cilantro which has done just fine. And basil which seemed to struggle at first, but now looks fine. Correct, cow manure. Black Kow from Home Depot to be exact. I appreciate all the responses.
