Where to put raised beds for Tomatoes...

[Timmah!]

To fill the bed, I'm having topsoil & partially composted mulch delivered tomorrow morning. None of the clay I dug out will be used for the bed. With delivery it is costing about $70; that's including an extra 'scoop' for the other plants I plan on setting in bottomless 5 gal. buckets in a row in the adjacent field. So the total cost of the blocks + soil puts the bed's price @ $100. Called my county government office & got forwarded a few times until I got ahold of the helpful person that told me where they dump all the leaves the county collects in the autumn. So this fall I plan on having a huge compost pile; will clear part of the adjacent field to make room.

Will definitely do the rebar thing. I started digging the bed out around 8pm last night & finished a little after 10:30. Now to go buy some conduit. =D

[geeboss]

I would place 10% of the clay soil into the mix as the clay has some nice properties which will be beneficial to your plants.

George

[Timmah!]

Almost done. The bed is 16" high, with an additional ~8" dug down from the base for a total depth of around 2'. Four feet wide by twelve feet long gives a total volume of around 96 cubic feet. The 52 blocks @0.97 cost a total of 55 dollars. The fill I had delivered consited of 1 part partially composted mulch @$24.00 & 4 parts topsoil @ $16 a scoop. Delivery was $16, making the total cost of the bed $165.

[Timmah!]

The raised bed is now home to 10 Brandywine, complete with guard cat. They should be much happier now that they're out of pots & have room to stretch. I planted them about 18" deep & started removing trusses, but had to stop as it was hurting my feelings. Thanks to b54red for the conduit idea; $2 for 10' sections: can't beat that with a stick. Now all I need to do is move that pile of hardpan & clear some of the field... for more tomatoes. =D

[geeboss]

Looking really nice and I agree that you can't beat $2 for 10 ft conduit pipe


George

[kath]

That's a really sturdy and inexpensive option for trellising in raised beds! Thanks for the ideas and the pics. And you have a very pretty and contented looking kitty, as well!

[Timmah!]

Thanks. =) Got the idea for the trellis from B54RED's post(s):
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...sturdy+trellis
Hope I didn't prune too aggresively, as I didn't want any leaves in contact with the mulch.
Reading how Brandywine is only a moderate producer, I'm surprised at the number of flowers it's developing so far.

[kath]

Oops, thanks to b54red for the ideas for trellis support. Somehow I must have missed that thread.
I wouldn't worry about overpruning the lower leaves; I think keeping the ones above the fruit set is more important.
As far as Brandywine goes, I tried growing it twice in the past and wound up with l or 2 fruits. But I decided to give Suddeth's and Cowlick's a try this year and I have 5 fruits on the Suddeth's just from the first flower cluster and 2 on the Cowlick's so far, so maybe we'll both have good luck with them this year.

[Timmah!]

Good to hear Kath! May you have a fruitful harvest. =) These Brandywine were bought at my local Frank Otte Nursery & garden center. Wish I had planted some from seed for comparison's sake.

[kath]

Thanks! If you'd like to do a comparison next year, save some seed. I'll hopefully be able to save seed from Suddeth's, Cowlick's and Brandywine Black and would be happy to send some your way.

[Timmah!]

Scweet! Bought the seeds I have a few weeks too late to really plant this season, but the ones I have are:

1 *Akers West Virginia
2 -Ananas Noire
3 *Andrew Raharts Jumbo Red
4 -Arkansas Traveler
5 -Aunt Gertie's Gold
6 -Aunt Ginnies Purple
7 -Aunt Ruby's German Green
8 -Beauty King
9 -Berkeley Tie Dye
10 Big Beef
11 -Black From Tula
12 -Black Krim
13 Black Mountain Pink
14 -Brad's Black Heart
15 -Brandywine
16 -Brandywine Black
17 Brandywine Cowlicks
18 Brandywine Purple
19 -Brandywine Red
20 -Brandywine Sudduth
21 -Brandywine Yellow Platfoot
22 -Carbon
23 *Chapman
24 -Cherokee Purple
25 -Cherokee Green
26 *Crnkovic Yugoslavian
27 -Cuostralee
28 *Dikaya Roza
29 -Dr. Lyle
30 -Druzba
31 Dutchman
32 -Earl's Faux
33 -Eva Purple Ball
34 -Gary O'Sena
35 *Germaid Red
36 *German Head
37 Gezas Strawberry Potato
38 *Giant Belgium Heirloom
39 -Gogosha
40 -Goose Creek
41 *Green Giant
42 -Grubs Mystery Green
43 *Heatherington Pink
44 -Hughs
45 -Indian Stripe
46 -JD's Special C-Tex
47 -KBX
48 -Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
49 -Lithuanian
50 Lucky Cross
51 Mama Irenes
52 -Mariannas Peace
53 -Maynel
54 -Mortgage Lifter
55 -Mule Team
56 -Narx
57 -Neves Azorean Red
58 *Omar's Lebanese
59 *Pamyati Korneeva
60 -Paul Robeson
61 Pineapple
62 -Pork Chop
63 *Prue
64 -Purple Haze
65 *Red Barn
66 -Royal Hillbilly
67 -Sherrill
68 -Stump of the World
69 *Tappys Finest
70 Thessaloniki
71 -Vera's Seed
72 Wapsipinicon Peach Tomato
73 *1884 Purple

The ones struck through are ones I added to list that I don't yet have.

[kath]

Nice list! I'm also growing 32 of those this year, most for the first time, and want to save seed. Have to hope that the late blight stays far, far away from our gardens this year and doesn't wreak havoc with those plans!

[Timmah!]

Late Blight, ugh. It's been spotted here in Kentucky already. Currently using Actinovate & MycoGrow Soluble as a drench & foliar spray. The MycoGrow contains:
Glomus intraradices, Glomus mosseae, Glomus aggregatum, Glomus clarum, Glomus deserticola, Glomus etunicatum, Gigaspora margarita, Gigaspora brasilianum, Gigaspora monosporum

Rhizopogon villosullus, Rhizopogon luteolus, Rhizopogon amylopogon, Rhizopogon fulvigleba, Pisolithus tinctorius, Laccaria bicolor, Laccaria laccata, Scleroderma cepa, Scleroderma citrinum, Suillus granulatas, Suillus punctatapies
Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma konigii
Bacillus subtillus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus azotoformans, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus pumlis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus stearothermiphilis, Paenibacillus polymyxa, Paenibacillus durum, Paenibacillus florescence, Paenibacillus gordonae, Azotobacter polymyxa, Azotobacter chroococcum, Sacchromyces cervisiae, Streptomyces griseues, Streptomyces lydicus, Pseudomonas aureofaceans, Deinococcus erythromyxa

Also have some Serenade on the way to add to the foliar rotation. Hopefully all those fungi, Trichoderma & bacteria will crowd out any Late Blight that finds it's way to my garden.

[kath]

From reading Ami's posts, I decided to use Actinovate and Excel-LG. Someone told me Serenade didn't work for them. I'm interested in the MycoGrow, though-where did you purchase it? Didn't use anything last year and had to pull all my tomatoes, peppers and potatoes by July 27th, which meant this far north we didn't taste a tomato from most of those plants.

[Timmah!]

Mycogrow: http://www.fungi.com/mycogrow/ Believe I saw the link from a post of Ami's some time ago.