Dirt that won't grow anything? even weeds!

[kelleyville]

I have a friend who has all raised beds that were all filled with the same "dirt". Last year one bed nothing grew in. He never attributed it to the bed. This year however nothing will grow in that bed still, this bed does not even have weeds in it! My only suggestions were that there was some chemical in the groung there and to test the soil with the county extension. In the meantime does anyone else have any ideas why a bed wont even grow weeds? I also suggested he plant some beans there...in my experience beans will grow anywhere! Oh and he did have beets planted there last year that just mostly died producing only a couple of beets. So sounds like it has some redeeming value ....

Thanks in advance! Kelley

[Lee]

I wonder if the soil is saturated with a pre-emergent weed control....
That might explain why nothing is growing in it from seeds.

You could try planting a seedling in it while waiting for the county extension test
results to check this theory.

Lee

[kelleyville]

I k now my friend has used a lot of a chemical that kills wild violets, but in that area it has been over a year. Just confusing because it is not off by itself somewhere but next to other beds that produce just fine and all with same dirt mix. How long does something like a pre-emergent stay in the ground?

He already planted seedlings from big box store there and they have already died

[grungy]

Sounds to me like his violet killer is still on the job. Just because they say it dissipates rapidly doesn't make it so. It's one reason I won't have anything like that on the property. Think about it, it's a poison, and I wouldn't take anyones word that a poison would stop being a poison in any short timeframe. If you take the word of any self serving corporation for anything that they say to sell their product, you are far more trusting than I.

[grovespirit]

My experience with weed killers is that they can remain in the ground for over four years, even if used as the label suggests.

I once used grass clippings as a mulch, not realizing that the place I scrounged them from had used weed killers on their yard.

It killed off every annual or veggie I wanted to grow for 2 years, then about half of the ones I tried to grow for 2 more years, and was still killing some sensitive annuals during years 5 and 6!

I have since sworn off all weed killers and I avoid any grass clippings that I don't know the history of!

[kelleyville]

I guess he is lucky then that all his beds are not contaminated and it is just that one! I think I would probably have let the violets take over the lawn and just mowed them! The violet killer is only killing the new growth anyway because several times a year he is still spraying for violets!

[organichris]

Sounds like he just needs some new dirt in his beds.

[dice]

Yeah, tell him to dig all that dirt out and spread it around
on the violet-infested lawn (hopefully it doesn't kill the
grass, too; maybe do a little test on a 2'x2' section of lawn
back in some corner somewhere before spreading it all
over). Then put new dirt in that raised bed. Since it has
been raining on it, he might want to dig out a foot or so
of dirt underneath it, too, and add that to the anti-violet
dirt from the raised part of the raised bed.

(If he doesn't want to spend all of that money on commercial
dirt again, he can look around for someone giving away
composted horse manure for free. Check Craig's List's free
category for the nearest good-sized city. Usually you will find
half a dozen sources of free horse manure from out in the
suburbs. One can use just that, at least for the first year.)