I’m looking for advice for improving my garden. My family installed a garden in our yard two years ago and the plant growth has been minimal (barely any tomatoes and very low yield on everything and plants remain small). We made tall raised beds because the natural soil is poor in our yard (we live on a rocky cliff edge in upstate NY). I’m wondering if the raised beds might be so tall that the soil dries out quickly, but we do water daily. Or if there’s too much direct sun. I use a mixture of topsoil and humus to fill the beds and I use weed fabric to keep the weeds down. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!
by lanie77
45 Comments
Topsoil and humus might need more nitrogen, either in the form of fertilizer or “greens” compost
Do you feed aka fertilize the soil??
definitely mix some compost in there. i usually just throw a bunch of stuff together and keep it 50/50 compost/topsoil but you can also test your soil to see exactly what you’re needing. usually the state/county/town has free soil tests.
i’d personally ditch the weed fabric for a couple inches of mulch. it’ll be better for the weeds and help significantly with water retention in my experience
Dries out quickly because of the black plastic
Fertilize your soil. I would get rid of the weed fabric for many reasons, but in this case, I would ditch it so you’re soil gets oxygen to it, and doesn’t mold after you water.
I would lose the garden fabric and replace with mulch. The fabric is detrimental to healthy soil. Gardening is as much about caring for the soil as it is the plant.
Tomato roots love water, agree with others lose the fabric. Don’t water the foliage. When planting tomatoes dig a hole deep enough to go to the first leaves the stalk will root stronger. As much as people love beautiful garden boxes (myself included) plants love the ground. Dump compost right on the ground let those babies spread their feet! 😆 After my boxes rotted away my veggies have thrived. Good luck!
My one area that has been a garden the 25 years Ive had the house plus how ever many years the previous owner had it does great every year but I added two more gardens and two raised beds so this year Im going to try mixing in coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, earthworm castings, kelp meal. Also bought several different fertilizers. I also have my own compost pile that I mix into the gardens each year. Im not sure if watering daily is a good thing. Ive heard its better to do a heavy watering every few days and you dont want to get the plants wet just the ground. You’ll have to research what type of fertilizer is best for your vegetables as it changes from plant to plant and also can change from which stage the plant is in. Like for a tomato plant it might be good to use 10-10-10 when it’s younger and switch to 5-10-10 when its flowering/fruiting. For corn maybe use 10-10-10 when planting and then switch to urea or blood meal.
So many things: I would put way more than two tomato plants in that bed. I would companion plant some marigolds and green onion and peppers.
Lose that black fabric entirely. I would mulch with something else.
Tomatoes and peppers suck the nitrogen out of soil. You need to put a lot of compost in it to help encourage growth. I know some professional growers that basically do heavy nitrogen feeds until they’re a certain height and then switch to potassium feeds to get more fruit.
Compost , fish emulsion drench or spray, bat guano .
Blood meal watch out your dogs will dig it up
On top of the advice you’ve already received…it’s early April and you are in Upstate NY. It looks like it’s freezing right now, 33 degrees. You won’t be producing any tomatoes right now.
Also yes on the watering situation, not sure I saw any answers there. Make sure there’s something in the soil that holds onto the water like coconut coir.
fertilize
Yes please get rid of the plastic/fabric on top and replace with straw mulch! This will help the plants retain water and nurture a microbial environment where the soil and mulch meet.
After mulch is added I would water less frequently but for a long time to get a nice, deep soak and encourage good root growth. If you record the amount of water you’re putting into the garden you can then have a more reliable idea of the water needs of your garden and can adjust accordingly! 🙂
Add some mulch over the top to hold in moisture at the very least.
Get a soil test!
you say you live in a cliff?
So, amongst all the good suggestions below, i would also say that you’re plants are probably also catching a lot of wind. Wind chill is a thing with plants and they don’t like it.
I would also say get rid of that plastic and use mulch instead.
We have enough microplastics in our balls – no need to add more.
consider calling your local extension office (if it exists)! they will have advice for your specific area.
Are you feeding them any nutrients? You usually have to re-amend soil after every year
That soil looks dense and packed down. Even though roots are underground, they don’t want to be packed tight.
I am going to guess none of the people blaming the weed fabric grow anything for a living. Black plastic mulch is the industry standard for vegetable crops. I just bought a new mulch layer last week and a 4,000′ roll of plastic.
Plants do great on weed fabric, too. Here’s a pic from last year of a garden I had mostly covered in woven poly.
https://preview.redd.it/vbmfc7e8fitg1.jpeg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6e0d022f6d4cb8ebca1451d5cedddf015962c46
You’re probably just not fertilizing enough. I use a lot of composted horse manure to improve soil. But I also inject calcium nitrate and masterblend 4 18 38 into the drip irrigation if I think the plants need it.
Could be low nutrients, or coupd be too wet from the weed lining, leading to low nutrients. By the looks of ot, it isnt too much water, probanly just lack of feed/mulch/fertlizer. Leaves arent yellowing or anything? Thats normally a sign for too much water, if they look okay just not as much then its most probably food.
Im not sure whether mast years would have an affect on this like it would trees etc, not sure where you are but UK and Europe had a mast year, so i think trees and shrubs can go into recovery the year after (going off on a tangent)
Get rid of that black plastic and read up on companion planting, you need to encourage all the pollinators. You can get loads of vegetable plants in those raised beds. You should get a great crop with that amount of space.
The black plastic, banish it to the depths of hell and use a nitrogen rich mulch like pea straw.
Does this spot actually get good sun? I think we are all assuming it is a full sun spot but does it get significant shade from trees?
You gotta fill it all up
Top soil and humus isn’t a good mixture for raised gardens. You need looser and more nutrient dense compared to growing in ground. Mix in compost to the soil and add fertilizer or new compost once a week.
Next, remove the tarps and go with mulch instead. The tarps cook the plants, while the mulch protects them. And be consistent with watering, same amount, same time of day.
Plant wildflowers around the garden to attract pollinators. Just get a couple of seed mixes and spread them around every 6 to 8 weeks so you have constant blooms. Look into companion planting. Especially beans and other nitrogen fixers since they enrich the soil as well as plants like marigolds and nasturtium that repel pests.
Add some compost and a granular fertilizer like Espoma, change from weed barrier to using a mulch like straw that will break down over time and add to the organic matter in the beds. Tomatoes sometimes need a phosphorus boost to bloom their best, so adding some powdered bone meal around the roots when you plant them can help. They’re also heavy feeders and should be getting some liquid fertilizer every couple weeks while growing. They like being watered deeply but infrequently, once or twice a week. Really soak them but make sure they drain well.
You would also do well to plant some flowers with your veggies. That will help attract pollinators. Marigolds are easy to grow and have other benefits for being planted near tomatoes.
And, you may want to look at the varieties you’re growing. Determinate tomatoes will grow all their fruit at once and then they’re done. Indeterminate will grow fruit all season.
The ones that produce big heirloom slicing tomatoes, can take a long time to produce those big tomatoes, and may not give very many fruit. If you can, look up what varieties do best in your zone and growing conditions. You might do better with different ones.
Good luck! And if in doubt, plant some cherry tomatoes. Those are hardy and in my experience, easy to deal with.
The ground looks pretty lush to me. How deep is the weed fabric?
plants are finicky bastards.
it’s always a combination of heat, water, fertilizer, pest control & oddities to balance out.
– tomatoes don’t like to be wet, so you must water at the base of the plant and keep dew off
– tomatoes need fertilizer every 2 weeks (i use liquid fertilizer)
– tomatoes need heat – so greenhouse that thing up depending on climate
– tomatoes like companion plants: marigold, basil etc.
– tomates like supports and pruning
all that and you should probably either get red ground covers instead of black (helps with ripening) or even better companion plants & mulch.
Ok, this might sound weird, but that covering you have needs to be removed. And i know why you think you need it there. So the soil doesn’t dry, and it keeps some grass out. But it is blocking the air flow it needs. Because the roots need oxygen. While the top of the plant needs co2. Try to put mulch.
Everyone else is talking about nutrition and hopefully you will sort that out, so let’s talk about water. What does your daily watering look like? You want them watered deep with as long as possible between watering for tomatoes. For containers that still might be daily but in-ground that might be a long as once a week only for established plants. Basically you want to get it really wet and then a bit dry before watering again. Avoid getting unnecessary water on tomato leaves.
Other vegetables are similar but not quite to the same level as tomatoes- basically less often and deeper is better than more frequently and shallow as it encourages deep strong roots.
Is there any chance the humus or top soil used to fill the beds could have been contaminated with pesticides/herbicides? Do you know the source of the humus? A lot of people are having similar issues in their gardens these days when they use compost that was made using straw or yard waste that was treated with herbicides or using manure from animals that were eating plants that were treated with herbicides. The long lasting herbicides that are getting used these days are then contaminating people’s garden soil and stunting the growth on anything they try to grow there for 5-10 years.
There could be a lot of causes for what is going on for you, most seem to be covered in the other comments here, but this was one I didn’t see brought up and your plants look really similar to the stunted growth plants I saw in videos of gardens dealing with this herbicide issue.
Did you fertlize? I use an organic like dr earth pure gold or planttone
U need better soil
Toss the weed fabric, add compost to your beds, and use your space better. You need companion plants and pollinator attractors.
You need to create biosystem. Weed fabric kills weeds , but also beneficial bugs from overheating. Plants don’t like to grow alone. Look into companion planting to prevent some weeds. And weed are part of gardening you need to accept;)
It looks like your beds are flooded. Is that the weed fabric?
If you brought in soil it’s ‘dead’ essentially, soil you buy in bulk doesn’t have any microorganisms or fungi in it. You can help it by adding compost, manure and planting green manure. Even just planting a bunch of plants will improve your soil.
I’d definitely recommend green manure as it’ll improve your soil structure really cheaply and quickly! You can buy seed mixes or I do peas, beans and rye grass. You just let it grow and then cut it down, leave the roots in the soil and leave the plants as mulch.
The first bit of improving soil health is the hardest then it’ll get better every year as long as you keep gardening!
Compost. Compost. Compost. Compost Tea. Compost.
Is the weed fabric a solid layer of plastic or does it let water through? It should be more like cloth than a solid sheet to let you water through it. It also shouldn’t be visible. The weed barrier is best when it’s hidden under a layer of mulch. The fabric doesn’t help retain moisture in the soil like the mulch would. It only blocks weeds from taking root. With a thick enough layer of mulch you could remove the cloth entirely.
You say you water every day, but at the point these plants are at without any fruit, you shouldn’t be. You should be giving them a lot of water so it penetrates deep into the soil and then not watering for a few days. This encourages the plants to root deeper into the soil to reach the water as the upper layer of soil dries out. You might feel like you’re drowning them, but with enough natural drainage and such a deep garden bed that won’t be a problem.
You also will definitely have a really low yield with so few plants. You’re wasting a ton of space in these garden beds. Plants need some room to grow, but you’ve given them way too much. Those beds look like they could fit 8 plants in a 2 by 4 grid.
Specifically with tomatoes, when you plant new ones or move these ones, you can plant them deeper. Remove the leaves and branches from about halfway up the stem and bury it. Being buried deeper helps them absorb water and nutrients from the soil better since they’ll grow more roots. All the little white hairs on the stem can become roots if they touch soil.
I assume this is last summer? Did you fertilize at all? Could be the soil you purchased was low in nutrients
I assume you just had a heavy rain. If not, that is an issue, especially for tomatoes.
So many things can bring yield down. Sometimes it’s something missing in the soil composition, soil ph, too compact or loose, etc. One safe add is compost, it is ph neutral, adds loam to soil, and feeds plants. Some counties have this for free or low cost. It can also be bought and or made at home.
It’s trial and error for most of us. I finally started adding a tiny bit of bone meal and that solved my issues for low yield. I found that out after 15 years of working the same plot and soil testing.
I’d remove the black plastic, get some compost in there. Also you can plant some other things in there as well. Lettuces, spinach, radishes, carrots etc etc.
Instead of using plastic to try to limit weeds, use other smaller plants.
Another thing to consider is the amount of pollinators. Do you see lots of bees and bugs on the flowers? Any chance you spray your yard for mosquitoes or other treatments that repel/kill bugs?