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Veg bed seems to be knackered..

  • 24-02-2013 12:39pm
    #1
    Trotter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,362 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    I planted garlic and onions in october in my raised veg bed (3m x 2m) and oddly enough only 2 rows of the garlic have appeared. Nothing else. They're the top 2 rows in the bed.

    Im trying to figure out whether maybe thats the only bit that got decent sun, or whether something ate the bulbs. I didnt see any holes or disturbance on the surface. When I dug a section of it yesterday, the bulbs arent there now. Im wondering did they just rot away from the soil not having enough nutrients.

    Its a raised bed in the middle of a section of lawn and I havent changed the soil in it since it was put in 2 years ago, or put in any major fertiliser.

    I'd really appreciate any tips you could give me to get the bed going again because it was great when it started first. Stuff was growing really well. The last 12 months have been a disaster for anything that went in there.


Comments

  • #2
    nedsgarden
    Registered Users Posts: 76 ✭✭nedsgarden


    I planted 20 bulbs of garlic beginning of Dec, i know it's a bit late, but all are growing and stems about 4 inches high. I dug over the soil added a bit of compost and it seems to work fine - thus far.

    Contemplating a failure i put one bulb in a pot with only compost and it has been the most successful almost growing too fast which i read can be an issue.

    Not offering much help but explaining how simple the process did seem for me.

    If anyone knows is there anything else i should do not to lose my little patch, read somewhere about adding a fertliser and cutting the stems if they grow too energetically.


  • #3
    Supercell
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,458 ✭✭✭✭Supercell


    Top rows would also be the driest and warmest. Give it some time and wait for the weather to warm up a bit. Maybe throw some blood and bones fertilizer (cheap in Aldi at the moment) on top of the bed too if you are worried the soil is nutrient deficient.
    https://www.loughlinstown.ie/

    Have a weather station?, why not join the Ireland Weather Network - http://irelandweather.eu/



  • #4
    Trotter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,362 ✭✭✭Trotter


    Supercell wrote: »
    Top rows would also be the driest and warmest. Give it some time and wait for the weather to warm up a bit. Maybe throw some blood and bones fertilizer (cheap in Aldi at the moment) on top of the bed too if you are worried the soil is nutrient deficient.


    Ive mixed in some organic farm manure mix before I threw in some red onions yesterday. Should I get some of the Aldi stuff anyway and put it on top without mixing it in?


  • #5
    Supercell
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,458 ✭✭✭✭Supercell


    Throwing a little extra on top isn't going to do any harm, just spread lightly as the FYM should be enough to be honest in this case.

    Its been a fairly cold February, I'd be inclined to give it another month . Some of my garlics are only starting to poke through the soil now (and most not at all) and I'm only about one km from the sea, so the air here would be milder than inland at this time of year.
    https://www.loughlinstown.ie/

    Have a weather station?, why not join the Ireland Weather Network - http://irelandweather.eu/



  • #6
    TREVOR H
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭TREVOR H


    You might have been unlucky with a combination of bad weather/bad onion bulbs.
    Even if the nutrients level are low they should still sprout.
    At this stage I'd expect to see some life in the bulbs. Have you used this bed for onions last year?
    You shouldn't plant onions in the same spot for at least 2 years.

    You did what I would have suggested by digging up some of the bed. If the bulbs rotted you'd expect to see some sign of them. Maybe some birds or animals got them. I'd dig up the rest of the area where the onions are supposed to be.If there is no sign of any onions I'd buy some bags of soil improver (€5ish) and dig in and maybe feed with a liquid fertilizer (I find the sea-weed extract ones are good).
    If the soil is a bit heavy you could mix in a bit of sand to improve drainage.
    There's no need to change the soil in raised beds but they should be fed after each years harvest. I put some chicken manure pellets on my beds after I've dug up crops. Then the week before I plant I put a liquid fertilizer on them.


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  • #7
    Trotter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,362 ✭✭✭Trotter


    Well I decided to dig out the whole bed and found some of the garlic cloves I'd put in still intact exactly as I'd left them there. Some of the onion sets were there too but were rotten in the skin. I hadn't put much fertiliser in the bed before I planted them and had grown garlic the year before.

    I've put in organic farm manure now and liquid feed so I'll put in some late red onion and just see what happens.

    The rest I'll leave for some easy stuff like cos lettuce and spring onions.


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