• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Soil Preparation for 2008 Growing Season

AlabamaJack

AlabamaJack

eXtreme
Howdy Folks: I built an above ground bed last year that is 16" wide, 24" deep, and 40 feet long and the whole bed sits 8 inches off the ground. I filled it up with Miracle Grow Garden Soil (45 2 cu ft bags). My harvest this year from 26 pepper plants was not what I expected. Does anyone have an opinion on what I can do to augment the existing garden soil to make it more condusive to growing hot peppers? I was thinking about adding equal parts vermiculite and pearlite with the existing soil? Is this a good plan?

AJ
 
Hiya AlabamaJack, from what I've read on the forum Miracle Grow ain't what it's cracked up to be. How long is the bed going to be dormant for? What kinds of temps are you expecting?
 
Dormant

The bed will not be used until I transplant seedlings the end of March or first of April. I live in Fort Worth, Texas and the winters here are not that bad. I was hoping I could use what soil is there and just add to it to build a good pepper growing medium.

AJ
 
If it were me {well yup I did do this, but not for miracle grow problem} I poured a bag of blood & bone, to every 3 bags of horse, cow, chicken, sheep manure {it comes all in one bag} and mulch on top. Keep it moist if you can.
Scrape back the mulch & dig the soil through once a week or few during the off season, add vege scraps from the kitchen too. Throw in some earth worms a month before you plant.
Be prepared for every tomato, onion, chilli, bean, pumpkin, etc. seed from the kitchen scraps to grow.

It worked for me, but I'm a long way from a soil expert. I'm sure someone will say just spread {x?} over it and it'll be fine.
 
What kind of fertilizer are you using? I'd add a bunch of compost to you're soil. Perlite and vermiculite are good for loosening and aerating the soil if that is a problem. Raised gardens are great here up north but I would imagine in Texas they'd get very hot, but I really wouldn't know.
 
POTAWIE said:
What kind of fertilizer are you using? I'd add a bunch of compost to you're soil. Perlite and vermiculite are good for loosening and aerating the soil if that is a problem.
Click to expand...

The problem with Miracle Grow is that it's high nitrogen, so do you think manure would be the best amendment for this year? I know there's a limited amount of time that the fertilizer in the Miracle Grow soil is supposed to be good for, but it varies. I'm thinking that by next season most of it would *probably* be gone,but I don't know that for sure.

So, I'm thinking, and mind you, I'm just guessing; but I'm thinking that maybe the vermiculite and some plain top soil as an amendment for this season to break up and make sure the high nitrogen doesn't effect next year's growth. Then the next year go to a more natural cycle of manure and compost amendments.

You have more experience with container-type gardening than I do, though, so I am asking what you think. Do you amend your potted peppers with manure?
 
Doesn't the heat of the manure help breakdown the nitrogen? I realize you're adding more with the manure, but if you have the time to let it run it's course it will wind up being a better balanced soil.
 
I usually use pro-mix(no fertilizer) mixed with mushroom compost and/or manure. It would be different in a raised garden where you are reusing the soil every year. I would imagine most of the fertilizer is used up in a year and would have to be replenished somehow.

AlabamaJack, what did your plants look like? Were they tall and skinny or short and fat, or did they just not want to grow or produce?
 
POTAWIE said:
What kind of fertilizer are you using? I'd add a bunch of compost to you're soil. Perlite and vermiculite are good for loosening and aerating the soil if that is a problem. Raised gardens are great here up north but I would imagine in Texas they'd get very hot, but I really wouldn't know.
Click to expand...

I used a generic 10-10-10 fertilize and added some bone meal to each plant twice. The quality of the peppers (and heat) produced was good just the quantity was not. I have the bed against the fence (4 inches away from fence) on the west side of the yard so the bed is in the shade from early afternoon on. The late summer north Texas sun really burns between 2 and 5 PM.
 
I was trying to figure out how to upload a photo but can't. There is a picture of my raised bed and the pepper plants in my yahoo alabamajack profile briefcase, matter of fact, the only photo there.

AJ
 
bentalphanerd said:
Doesn't the heat of the manure help breakdown the nitrogen? I realize you're adding more with the manure, but if you have the time to let it run it's course it will wind up being a better balanced soil.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, but I just don't know how that would work with a chemical fertilizer that's time released like the one in Miracle Grow. My guess is that time and weather are his allies with the Miracle Grow soil.
 
AlabamaJack said:
I was trying to figure out how to upload a photo but can't. There is a picture of my raised bed and the pepper plants in my yahoo alabamajack profile briefcase, matter of fact, the only photo there.

AJ
Click to expand...

Host your picture somewhere like - LINK>>imageshack
 
Pam said:
Well, yeah, but I just don't know how that would work with a chemical fertilizer that's time released like the one in Miracle Grow. My guess is that time and weather are his allies with the Miracle Grow soil.
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends on what the "time" release is based on, is it moisture or heat, half-life or other?...does it carry a clock? I don't know enough about this stuff though or how long its active for. Probably best to take the safe road and burn out whats already there for this year.
 
AlabamaJack said:
I used a generic 10-10-10 fertilize and added some bone meal to each plant twice. The quality of the peppers (and heat) produced was good just the quantity was not. I have the bed against the fence (4 inches away from fence) on the west side of the yard so the bed is in the shade from early afternoon on. The late summer north Texas sun really burns between 2 and 5 PM.
Click to expand...


So, how many hours of direct sun do they get? It sounds a little like high nitrogen and minimal hours of direct sun are your problem. I would suggest a fertilizer that is made especially for tomatoes and peppers for the next season.

What blocks the sun where they are? Is it a tree that you might be able to thin the branches on so that it gets some filtered late afternoon sun?
 
The bed gets direct sun from about 9 am until about 2-3 pm and next year I definitely will use a fertilize specifically for peppers.

A 6' privacy fence blocks the sun so there is nothing I can do about the location of the bed.

I am going to grow a bunch in 5 gallon (or larger) containers this coming year. I have 63 different pepper types I am going to grow. Anything from Bhut Jolokia to Paprika.
 
I ended up with a decent crop for the year and really didn't know a thing about growing peppers. It had to because of luck. My ground consists of decent (not hard clay) dirt. However, I had a swimming pool in the area, so there was a layer about two inches thick of sand. I got a huge load of topsoil, and it was about three inches thick. (This is not a freeze-thaw thickness, though). It still was not high enough, so I hauled dirt from a local cemetary. Some of it - but not most - was decent but it had quite a bit of clay. I spread about three inches of this. While I did try to rotary till it, it still ended up - from the top down - as clay, top soil, sand, good dirt.

Early in the year, we had downpour after downpour. But even after two inches of rain, in two days I could walk in the dirt - the water soaked through. Then we had a drought. I watered the garden somewhat, but after a while it seemed futile. Yet, when I dug up my potatoes and got down about five inches, the ground was extremely moist. The only fertilizer was those blue Miracle Grow that is mixed with water and applied with a garden hose.

My guess it is not your soil or fertilizer, but lack of sunlight. I had a plot of ground down the side of the yard I decided to sow various and sundry flowers and plants in. The upper half was in direct sunlight most of the day, the lower portion anywhere from 3/4 to 1/2, because it was shielded by trees. The plants in the shade were half the size of the ones in the sun. If you are going to go to containers, I would find a way to raise them up at least three feet, a little more for the row cloest to the fence.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top