Fertilizer for new raised beds

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by b54red

I too think your ground could benefit from more organic matter and peat is relatively easy to add and it helps hold water; but this fall I would also add at least one bag of pine bark fines and if you can find and old bag that has started to rot that is even better. If you can find a local feed store that has cottonseed meal in the 50 lb bag adding 5 to 10 lbs in when you add the peat and pine bark will encourage earthworms and then prior to planting each season add some more a week or two before planting. It not only attracts earthworms the cottonseed meal is a great slow release fertilizer. I add it before planting in the spring fall and winter and till it into the top 4 or 5 inches of soil and water it well. I use the Urban Farm fertilizers to maintain good growth and production every week to ten days with most vegetables.

Bill

Bill, for garden I add pine bark mulch, either from WM or Lowes.
Cost is $3 per 2 cu-ft bag.If there are some sap wood in it try to get them out. I screen through 1/2" mesh to get rid of those and chunky pine barks. You can use that for mulching. With my sandy soil I find it a good amendment to improve moisture retention. With clay soil it can improve drainage. So it is a balancer.
I also make soil less potting mix with screened stuff, peat moss and floor dry.
about 3-2-1 ratio. I like floor dry better than perlite.

[SarahBeth]

Thank you so much, everyone, for the replies and all the information. I'm sorry haven't been back to this thread in awhile. I've had a bunch of sick boys in the house this past week with a summer flu.

The suggestion to add peat/pine bark fines to the beds is one I hadn't thought of. Do you add these every year or just the first couple of seasons? What if I have loads of homemade compost and leaf mold- would that be enough without peat? Incidentally, I don't think the soil in the bed is that badly compacted. I was digging through an adjacent bed yesterday and the soil was actually on the fluffy side, I thought. Theres a lot of undigested small pieces of wood, and maybe leaves from the compost (maybe this is a problem?). I also traveled around my area and collected samples of topsoil from different landscape suppliers before choosing the one I did. It was about 60% silt, 40ish sand and 3-5% clay. So not too bad a place to start from.

So it appears my problem could be any of a combination of lack of soil nutrition, soil compaction, bacterial/fungal competition, undigested compost.

As I mentioned, I transplanted with TT 5+ weeks ago and fertilized with 20/20/20 over a week ago. I also foliar sprayed as suggested with Neptune's Harvest Tomato Formula (which is the same as the fish/kelp with a little humic acid, molasses and yucca added) a few days later. None of this had ANY effect on the appearance of the leaves. Yesterday, I really drenched the bed with Neptune's and realized later I had accidentally only mixed it half strength. TTT and the vegetable formula arrived later in the day.

I will have to wait until the bed dries out a bit to try the Urban Farms fert, which will take days, but we are expecting downpours for 5 days starting Wed or Thurs! I'm not really sure what to do!

[SarahBeth]

I'm noticing a new problem on most of the new growth of my tomato plants: Curling and puckering. There isn't any wilting, and the older leaves aren't displaying these symptoms. The peppers in the same bed seem fine too.

Prudens Purple:



And here is Indian Stripe looking sad and pathetic, but without as much curling:




I did feed them with Urban Farms Vegetable a couple of days ago.

[RayR]

Your pictures aren't showing up. Try uploading them as attachments.

[SarahBeth]

Oh my. Not sure why the pics are giant sized!

[RayR]

That's the resolution of the pictures straight off of your camera (2592x1936). Never used image editing software..huh?

They look pretty stressed. The leaves are cupping and look very small like the plants are stunted. The leaf color is pale like you said in the beginning.

I don't see how anything you've done so far with fertilizing would have anything to do with those symptoms.

Possibilities that I could think of are:
Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV)
Traces of Herbicide in the soil (but I don't see your pepper leaves cupping)
Serious insect or mite infestation
Something seriously wrong in the soil, PH is way off? Roots are drowning in water, not getting enough Oxygen? Root pathogens?

[SarahBeth]

Thanks for the feedback. I am waiting for further signs of viral infection to occur. So far there is no distinct yellowing or wilting. I've seen no insects beyond caterpillars and leafhoppers, and yes, the peppers are doing well. There are also beans and eggplant in another bed with the same soil and compost doing well. So likely not ph or hebicide I would think. We did have several days of downpours last week (and are expecting several more later this week), and the odd growth began soon after that, so possibly they were waterlogged, but I've read that physiological leaf roll usually occurs on the bottom, older leaves.

Regarding the stunted, pale growth- one thing I hadn't thought of, is that for reasons beyond my control, the plants got quite overgrown in their solo cups before planting. They were at least 18 inches tall and were starting to get stressed. I removed most of the lower leaves and trenched them, but I'm wondering if the stress of being so root bound was just too much for them and they never recovered.

(And yes, I'm not too familiar with photo editing. I'm going to have to figure that out!)

[RayR]

That doesn't look anything like physiological leaf roll, your leaves are cupping, not rolling, and the growth is distorted and the edges look like they are crispy.
My first impression was those plants look like they are starving when they shouldn't be, as you said your other veggies are doing well in the same conditions, so I think it's safe to say this is a problem that is specific to tomato plants. My guess is that it's either a systemic infection like TYLCV or it's a root disease or pest which you can't determine without digging a plant out of the bed, washing off the roots and getting a good look at the root health.
A plant that is root bound can look pretty stressed out but once you unravel those circling roots and get it in a larger volume of soil with gentle feedings. they'll bounce back and within a weeks time it will be nice and green and growing vigorously.
Your plants have been in that bed for a month or so.