Raised beds VS Containers
- Thread starter hotjohn9
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astetics of a rasied bed are the best benefit imo. someone on here had one made from concrete edgeing blocks that was astonishingly good looking imo.
raised beds - is much more than esthetic choise imho. its an adaption from farming technique to gardening. there is tremendous benefits from using them over pots, but also they need more work. the beds give space for the plants to grow as big as they can, with no limits in the root-zone.
i grow only in raised beds with amended soil. imho this is really helpfull for us who live in places with longer seasons since the plants keep producing well for a long time. more soil means more nutrient and humidity reserves and should in most cases increase also yields.
rasiedbeds make sure the root area of the bushes dont heat up as much as they would do in pots.
the amount of plants per raised bed depends on variety, plants that can grow big need to get spaced apart a bit more than small plants. for example i keep my TSMB's at about 1m distance from each other, since when fully mature they will all be reaching about 1,5m heigth and circumference about 1m. meanwhile the zanahoria triangulos who grow really tiny bushes, i plant at distance of about 40cm.
some baccatums grow huge in the soil and should be on good distance to other plants, not to shade them..
takes a bit more planning, since you will have to have in mind the potential size of varieties and their sun and watering needs, since once they are palnted in the ground there is not much left to do.
...also i make sure not to mix varieties in one raised bed to avoid to have plants with different hydric needs growing together..
hope it helps.
i grow only in raised beds with amended soil. imho this is really helpfull for us who live in places with longer seasons since the plants keep producing well for a long time. more soil means more nutrient and humidity reserves and should in most cases increase also yields.
rasiedbeds make sure the root area of the bushes dont heat up as much as they would do in pots.
the amount of plants per raised bed depends on variety, plants that can grow big need to get spaced apart a bit more than small plants. for example i keep my TSMB's at about 1m distance from each other, since when fully mature they will all be reaching about 1,5m heigth and circumference about 1m. meanwhile the zanahoria triangulos who grow really tiny bushes, i plant at distance of about 40cm.
some baccatums grow huge in the soil and should be on good distance to other plants, not to shade them..
takes a bit more planning, since you will have to have in mind the potential size of varieties and their sun and watering needs, since once they are palnted in the ground there is not much left to do.
...also i make sure not to mix varieties in one raised bed to avoid to have plants with different hydric needs growing together..
hope it helps.
I built raised beds out of cedar 2X6s for my cucumbers, zuccini, beans, peas, strawberries and rasberries. Along with all of the points chilifaninspain already made, using raised bed gave me the opportunity to grow the veggies vertically by adding bamboo poles on either end and running fencing in between. In practice, when compared to allowing them to grow outwards in a plot area I ended up with about 4 times the amount of cukes on the same number of plants and used a small fraction of the space. For those of us with small garden spaces this is a huge advantage.
I would go with pots in heartbeat. I tried a raised bed and it was a PITA, expensive, hassle, wasted tons of water and produced minimal yields. I had over 100 plants in a bed and currently have 20 in pots. Believe it or not my 20 potted plants gave me more fruit than the 100 in beds. Plus containers are cheaper, easier, and allow you to control what the plant receives as far as ferts and how often and it's this type of specific control that allows you to produce more fruit.
I can't recall who here tried it one year and found out having 100+ plants in pots along a fence was much easier and productive over trying to control a bed.
I can't recall who here tried it one year and found out having 100+ plants in pots along a fence was much easier and productive over trying to control a bed.
+1 for raised beds. This is especially good if you have OK soil to start with and all you have to do is add a few amendments to make it super-soil. The native dirt where I live is mostly red clay. Add 3-4 inches of mulch and other organics and a little bit of manure and I have dirt that will grow absolutely anything. If you are starting out with sand, you may have to spend a fortune fixing it, pots might be better. If your local dirt is good to begin with, nothing will out-produce a raised bed.
Raised beds are cool! You could control the soil that the plants grow in likewise with containers, but the raised bed will give the roots more room to roam. A 4ft x 12 ft seems to be the average. If someone were to go with a 4ft width I'd recommend building the bed so one could walk around it. Some folks make the mistake on butting the bed horizontally against a fence.
As far as how deep? That depends what your planting. Lettuce, certain root crops, squash, peppers can easily grow in a 12 to 16" bed. Tomatoes would appreciate 24" since their roots can travel down up to 5 ft if unobstructed. I have both beds and containers. In the springtime I run all the container(s) soil through a screen......its time consuming but I eliminate any roots that were not removed in the fall. Plus I can make sure that there's no grubs or other insects nesting. The raised beds get a thick layer of compost and garden lime in the fall. Then in the spring all I have to do is amend and turn over the soil, before planting. Its alot easier than dealing with the containers.
Pros: Containers you can move around and its easy to fully replace the soil if necessary
Cons: The soil mix thats used in the container needs to drain well by means of added perlite or a coarse torpedo sand.
Pros: Raised Beds warm up faster in the early spring . Water seeks its level so the beds drain faster. That's always a plus on those occasions when it rains for 3 days straight.
Cons: If the soil becomes infected with Fusarium or Verticillium wilt the whole bed gets infected and thats a difficult situation to correct...
Greg
As far as how deep? That depends what your planting. Lettuce, certain root crops, squash, peppers can easily grow in a 12 to 16" bed. Tomatoes would appreciate 24" since their roots can travel down up to 5 ft if unobstructed. I have both beds and containers. In the springtime I run all the container(s) soil through a screen......its time consuming but I eliminate any roots that were not removed in the fall. Plus I can make sure that there's no grubs or other insects nesting. The raised beds get a thick layer of compost and garden lime in the fall. Then in the spring all I have to do is amend and turn over the soil, before planting. Its alot easier than dealing with the containers.
Pros: Containers you can move around and its easy to fully replace the soil if necessary
Cons: The soil mix thats used in the container needs to drain well by means of added perlite or a coarse torpedo sand.
Pros: Raised Beds warm up faster in the early spring . Water seeks its level so the beds drain faster. That's always a plus on those occasions when it rains for 3 days straight.
Cons: If the soil becomes infected with Fusarium or Verticillium wilt the whole bed gets infected and thats a difficult situation to correct...
Greg
Just a photo reply to the comment that it is best not to put raised structures next to a fence. I think this depends on what you are growing. For my zucchini plants having them next to the fence actually works exceptionally well. I built raised cedar boxed that are six feet long by two feet wide by up to 12 inches tall (tapered due to slope of yard).
Pots can reduce costs from limiting water loss, reducing fertilizer used, and less soil required (unless your existing plot soil is fairly good already). Given equally good conditions pots will also limit plant size a bit unless the pots are quite large.
Then there's the issue of location, if you can put the pots where the raised bed would be it's a non-issue but in other cases your best location might be one where you don't want a lot of pots to be seen, OR it might be a location where a raised bed isn't practical as the location is a deck or patio.
Also consider distance. If you're the type to be cooking then want to go out and pick a fresh fruit or herb to put in a dish, you don't want to have to trudge any further distance to get it than necessary. With some plants and times of year it isn't an issue as you'll have already harvested fruit sitting around inside waiting to be used.
Then there's the issue of location, if you can put the pots where the raised bed would be it's a non-issue but in other cases your best location might be one where you don't want a lot of pots to be seen, OR it might be a location where a raised bed isn't practical as the location is a deck or patio.
Also consider distance. If you're the type to be cooking then want to go out and pick a fresh fruit or herb to put in a dish, you don't want to have to trudge any further distance to get it than necessary. With some plants and times of year it isn't an issue as you'll have already harvested fruit sitting around inside waiting to be used.
If you do go with a raised bed you should consider putting at least 1 10 gallon potted pepper next to the bed just for kicks and using some good soil like pro-mix to see what plants grow better.
I've seen it time and time again where potted plants simply do better than raised beds. In fact I just read a post here in the growing section where I guy can't figure out why the plants in his raised bed are only 4-6" and his potted plants are twice the size
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/31898-more-than-3-months-old-and-only-4-6/
I've seen it time and time again where potted plants simply do better than raised beds. In fact I just read a post here in the growing section where I guy can't figure out why the plants in his raised bed are only 4-6" and his potted plants are twice the size
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/31898-more-than-3-months-old-and-only-4-6/
I think all methods have their place in your garden. They all have pros and cons. I personally use all of them. I keep my herbs and some varieties of peppers in containers mainly for convenience. Mint spreads like fire so I keep it out of the garden in containers. Potatoes are also a nice thing to grow in containers just for the ease of harvesting them.
I use raised beds inside my greenhouse for tomatoes and cucumbers. I grow them both on trellises so it is much easier to attach a trellis to a raised bed than to a few containers.
Everything else goes in the ground. I have good soil so it is not an issue for me. Space is an issue since I practice what is called SPIN farming. I grow vertically anytime I can. I have 60 cucumber plants in a 200 sq ft area and they are amazingly prolific, not to mention less waste since the fruit isnt lying on the wet ground all of the time.
I use raised beds inside my greenhouse for tomatoes and cucumbers. I grow them both on trellises so it is much easier to attach a trellis to a raised bed than to a few containers.
Everything else goes in the ground. I have good soil so it is not an issue for me. Space is an issue since I practice what is called SPIN farming. I grow vertically anytime I can. I have 60 cucumber plants in a 200 sq ft area and they are amazingly prolific, not to mention less waste since the fruit isnt lying on the wet ground all of the time.
Capsicum
Banned
I grow most of my crop in ground, in rows. I have the rows on hills which is a form of raised beds so you could say most of my crop comes from a form of raised beds. I do this because it is free and my native soil is great. With that said, container culture yields more per square foot then rasied beds due to high air porosity of soilless grow media. Hydroponics outgrow conventional grown crops. Growing with a soilless potting medium in containers is soilless drain to waste hydroponics. Any time you increase air porosity your yield is improved-hydroponics.