A little experiment

[schism]

This year I tried something different. I took half of my plants and put them next to my house in the ground.Full sun. The others in a raised bed behind my wifes "bird" garden. It gets sun mid-day till evening. The ones next to the house are nowhere near as big as the others, and didn't really produce as soon as the ones in the raised beds. I know where I'll be planting again next year!

 

[geeme]

I am wondering about the full conditions of each group. For example, most likely when you built the raised bed, you brought in gardening soil, which the plants likely are happy with. What is the condition of the soil in the other group - did you give them gardening soil, or is the soil full of clay (or such)? What is the pH of each bed? Also, knowing some varieties really thrive in full sun, while others tend to want some shade ( or at least, less heat ), do you have the same varieties in each bed, so that you know it's truly the conditions of the bed and not just variety differences impacting the results? To summarize, it might not just be more sun vs. less sun causing the differences.

 

[schism]

I have the same kinds of plants from the same batch of seeds in each bed. I have never checked the ph though. Also, the raised bed was filled with topsoil, but not a gardening type soil. In both beds, I dug a shovel full of dirt out and fill the hole with Pro-Mix for veggies. After posting this I looked at my log from last year, and my potted plants last year were a lot bigger than the ones next to the house. I did till both beds this year.

 

[SuperHot]

I am wondering about the full conditions of each group. For example, most likely when you built the raised bed, you brought in gardening soil, which the plants likely are happy with. What is the condition of the soil in the other group - did you give them gardening soil, or is the soil full of clay (or such)? What is the pH of each bed? Also, knowing some varieties really thrive in full sun, while others tend to want some shade ( or at least, less heat ), do you have the same varieties in each bed, so that you know it's truly the conditions of the bed and not just variety differences impacting the results? To summarize, it might not just be more sun vs. less sun causing the differences.

+1

Once I got my irrigation problem worked out my superhots in the ground are now outperforming the ones in the pots…both in size and pod count. Soil composition, climate, irrigation are your key elements. I would think the plants with the most sun exposure would perform the best. I suspect the raised beds have the better soil composition, thus producing much better than the other group.

 

[geeme]

.... and drainage.

 

[kauaidundee]

I have some in full sun and some in partial day sun (same strain) that I did as a test as well and the ones in full sun are much fuller and are producing better while the partial day is stretching out a bit. I'm interestd to find out which ones may do better with partial sun.

 

[SuperHot]

.... and drainage.

+1

 

[Avon Barksdale]

I dug a shovel full of dirt out and fill the hole with Pro-Mix for veggies. After posting this I looked at my log from last year, and my potted plants last year were a lot bigger than the ones next to the house. I did till both beds this year.

I've done that before as well (filling the planting hole with potting mix), but I don't think it is a good practice.

It seems like common sense to add the rich, well-drained potting material to the planting hole to give the
plant a head start. In actuality, this contributes to one of the leading causes of post-installation plant
death. The potting material is always more porous than the surrounding soil: hence, it dries out faster
and needlessly stresses the roots of the plant. Next time you are inspecting a newly installed, suffering
plant, stick your finger in the planting hole. It’s probably pretty dry. Furthermore, even well-watered
plants in these situations are slower to establish roots outside the planting hole because of this textural
barrier.

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Instant%20landscape.pdf

from another article on that site...

A second problem with containerized materials can also be avoided during your root inspection. In
general, the media in the container is a soilless mix with a large proportion of organic matter and pumice.
If transplanted with the plant as part of the root ball, this material will inhibit root development outside
the planting hole. Furthermore, the porous texture of this planting media will often lose water more
rapidly than the surrounding native soil, resulting in increased water stress to your new transplant. It is
much better for root establishment to remove as much of the container material as possible before the
plant is installed. The best use for the discarded container mix is as a topdressing over the disturbed soil.
When covered with wood chips or another mulch that will reduce weed colonization, the container media
serves as a nice source of slow-release nutrients.

 

[Avon Barksdale]

+1

Once I got my irrigation problem worked out my superhots in the ground are now outperforming the ones in the pots…both in size and pod count. Soil composition, climate, irrigation are your key elements. I would think the plants with the most sun exposure would perform the best. I suspect the raised beds have the better soil composition, thus producing much better than the other group.

^^^I agree with this. Full sun is better than partial. Check out AJ's cousin's gigantic Trinidad scorpion trees, they're out in an open field in full sun and they're enormous.

 

[SuperHot]

Nothing better than a sandy loam with sufficient organic matter!!