Raised bed soil and poor vegetables

by Damien
(Tennessee)

Worst crop of radishes ever...I live in Zone 6, middle Tennessee; I have three raised beds, about 6 inches deep with bagged organic garden soil from Home Depot. One of the beds was begun with a three-way blend of topsoil, compost, and sand from a local nursery. In this bed I put my radishes, five rows, on April 7. I just ripped them out: none are more than an inch tall. The leaves are yellow and sickly. I cannot figure out what has gone wrong here. I suspect either black root rot, colder than normal temps, or a lack of trace minerals, as I water with filtered water, or a combination of all three. Perplexed also as to why my mescaline in another box, this one filled with organic garden soil from HD, is also merely an inch tall. Carrots and parsnip also useless. Any thoughts?

Comments for Raised bed soil and poor vegetables

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Jun 17, 2013
 Problems with raised garden beds
by: ~ Megan

My first thought is that your garden bed isn't very high, and if your radishes are long varieties they would need deeper soil and so would most plants. If your raised gardens are on a hard surface with no earth underneath, you are pushing your luck trying to grow good veggies in these shallow boxes.

Otherwise I wouldn't worry about trace minerals lacking in filtered water, it's the soil that should provide those.

You can do a test on your soil by putting some in a plant pot and planting a few quick growing seeds such as corn or beans. Place the pot in a good position, sheltered and sunny and in a different place from where your garden beds are, even inside. Keep it moist, and see if good strong plants grow. If they do, then your problem is not the soil, and is most likely some external factor, such as weather, spray drift, or too much or too little water.
Jun 22, 2013
 raised bed garden
by: mary L

I too had no luck growing lettuce and spinach, basil and parsley in organic bagged top soil from Home Depot. I mixed it with peat moss combined with organic compost. Do you need to add anything more to the soil?

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