Propagation: Plant Propagation Discussions- Jan 2020, 1 by kittriana

kittriana wrote:
Keith, I did throw some old wood in, at least it drowned the termites out, but I dithered about it. Mine are 30\" deep mostly. They are so tall I have to have step ladders to tie up tomato vines, to harvest beans, or do anything to those beds. I would have had better luck with 24\" depth. It took 5 gals of water a day to keep each mater plant watered first year. Just too deep. Part of the water thing may have been the 10 yds of soil I filled them with wasn\'t just soil- it appeared to be mostly finely shredded bark with a bit of sand. The soil level shrank 12\" to 18\" in each bed the first year. I have retopped with what we call \'Black Kow\' which is highly clayey and my plants need it to root better in the other soil. Those beds are low on nitrogen with the wood in them. Reminds me of having a water feature and having to buy cleaned clay soil for the water to stay clean and the water plants to have a good root system. 24\" hts would have been easier to work the tall plants, remember tho, because of our moles and strange rain amounts, my beds are separated from the soil with only metal fabric. No plastic bottom. My dad keeps trying to tell me to poison the beds before planting, but I do not. Worms eat decaying plant matter until they run out and then they eat the roots. My sisters beds and mine are fed compost, all the scraps from the house and trimmings, so we have no problems as he did with a controlled dirt bed in southern California. He didn\'t generate enough scraps to feed the worms. Weather turned windy and mid thirties tonite, so peppers and tender plants are covered. The plant nursery had the horse troughs without a bottom for Houston city folk beds.