My Peppers New Home

O

obchili

Hi there. Just thought I would share a picture of my peppers new home. Just completed and filled today. It is 20' long by 2' wide. It is made of 2 layers of 2 x 8 spruce, for a total actual height of 14". It is a first raised bed for me, so I am interested to see my babies inside. Hopefully I did not do anything majorly wrong. It is in the north east corner of my yard facing south. It will get the daytime sun here, and a really nice shade with sun-view in the evening, so it will allow me to water as needed.
 
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My only concern with your setup is that the wood will eventually deteriorate.  Do a lot of deck work and often times I see situations like this.  Moisture and nasties in the soil will eventually find their way into the wood and speed up the deterioration of the wood - a problem you won't have to deal with for some years so nothing to worry about.  I'm a fan of lining planter boxes with a liner or liquid rubber to prevent the moisture from getting to the wood otherwise you've got prime real estate here - looking forward to seeing it full of peppers :dance:

Is that a liner poking out the back of the the top right corner?
 
Thank you.  As for the wood, I did a lot of reading, and stained, and or treated was not recommended, so I went with standard spruce.  Do you think that staining the outside may help save it some?  Yes, you do see a cloth liner in the back, as my ground is not level, so rather than lose some soil, I bought a roll of the fabric stuff to line the bottom and 6" up each side to maintain my soil.  What you see is the last foot of the 25' roll.  Thank you for the comments and advice.  Much appreciated.
 
Not so much to be honest - coating the outside will allow the wood to still be eaten from the inside.  If you want to stain the outside I suggest using a permeable oil based stain if anything to prevent it from peeling.  The cloth liner is great to prevent the soil from washing out and will lengthen the life of the wooden planter by wicking water away and allowing it to evaporate.
 
My friend, your planter will last for years, its wont die this year or the next, or the next or the next... by then you'll have upgraded to a larger one anyways ;)  Rocking setup - plant that sucker!
 
I'm wondering if, as the plants grow, they'll be squished up against the fence.  I've had scorpion plants that were wider than 2 feet and 3-4 feet tall in a 5 gallon bucket.  Other than that... I'm jealous. :D
 
FlameThrower said:
I'm wondering if, as the plants grow, they'll be squished up against the fence.  I've had scorpion plants that were wider than 2 feet and 3-4 feet tall in a 5 gallon bucket.  Other than that... I'm jealous. :D
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Well, ask me that question again later this year.  I was worried that they will not get all that big.  Now you got me worried! :rolleyes:   The pictures I will post may scare you as you just did me by that fence comment.....
 
 
Roguejim said:
Very cool. How many plants are you going to cram in there?
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Well, here are the pics and I have a couple more to go.  To date it is at 27, that includes the 2 Caribbean's from the other post not in the pictures at the time of taking.
 
Please enjoy, as I am worried that I had overdid it now. :mope:
 
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You chose right with the wood if you want to be as natural as possible. I did the same for my square foot gardens and would not have it any other way. When the time comes to replace the wood, I'll tackle the chore then no different than my wooden fence except I don;t grow food on the treated fence wood. Hopefully for you, you do not end up with the monsters I did last season or you will have a picking nightmare!
 
Very nice box there. My feeling is that they might eventually be a little cramped and the plants on the inside won't get as much sun as the plants on the outside. I usually stagger mine if they are confined instead of one in front of the other. Manitoba means you will likely bring them in for the winter right? So you could always reconfigure next season.
 
Looks great, happy season!
 
obchili said:
I am worried that I had overdid it now.
 
 
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     I think you may have. But that might not be that big of a deal. My advice would be to buy a good hand pruner. Like FlameThrower said, a lot of chinenses tend to have a very decurrent branching habit and will end up wider than tall. 
     But, they are your plants and it is your responsibility to "train" them. (Down boy!)  ;) Prune or subordinate the outer branches of plants that are growing into others' space. This will make it easier to harvest, promote air flow and light penetration and prevent larger plants from completely swallowing smaller ones. 
     Last year, I made the rookie mistake (one of many) of planting a cayenne too close to a bhut jolokia. I had to keep lopping huge branches off the bhut just to give the cayenne a fighting chance. Ultimately, the cayenne lost - I think it set maybe three pods all season. 
     Lesson learned - plant smaller, more upright plants like annuums closer together and give big, spreading chinenses more room to do their thing. If I had your garden, I would've planted annuums in a staggered pattern on one half of the bed, and planted chinenses in a single row about 6-8" from the edge that doesn't abut the fence. (about a foot and a half from the fence)
     Maybe something to think about - they've only been in the ground a day or two. One more transplant likely wouldn't set them back at all. Good luck!
 
Wouldn't even worry about the wood,.   Pine boards are extremely cheap.  Plus they won't need replacing for a long while.  Like said above,  cedar won't rot out but it is kinda pricey.  Your raised bed should be prime time.  Your peppers will love it.
 
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