Cedar Experiment, Week Four

This is the fourth installment of me answering the question: do cedar beds really inhibit the growth of vegetable seedlings?  This experiment looks to see if cedar beds lined with cardboard will help veggies grow bigger and faster.

I've been doing research on companies that install raised garden beds and have found that several companies offer both hemlock and cedar beds.  The cedar beds come at a premium; no doubt because the cedar beds are thought to last longer in wet weather and the wood is more expensive.  No one has mentioned on their site that cedar can inhibit growth.  The extension service from Washington State University does not bleive cedar inhibits seedling growth per se, but they do mention that cedar can kill off beneficial soil fungi.

Here are images from the cardboard lined cedar bed:

And the unlined cedar bed:

The differences are becoming clearer.  The bed lined with cardboard has marked larger bean plants and more sprouted carrots.  On the other hand, the unlined beets are fairing better than their lined friends.  Only time which box has the largest overall yield.

Cedar Experiment, week 3

I'm a little behind posting this one.  Wet weather strikes again!  This is week three of finding the answer to the question: Is it true that garden beds made of cedar will harm plant growth?

Cedar Box with cardboard liner:

Cedar Box without cardboard liner:

The beans in the lined box are definitely taller than the beans in the unlined box.  Both boxes have about 4 carrots up, and it looks like both  boxes have quite a few beets up.  The lined box seems to have slightly more beets than the unlined box.  They are neck-and-neck when it comes to carrots.

Check back next week for more pics!

Saturday Visitor

Don't have much time to chat today, it was very busy in the garden.  I was transferring some brassicas out of the greenhouse when I found this little guy living in my Pok Choy seedling:

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) visiting my greenhouse

Sights like this make me so grateful I decided to be strictly organic in my gardening practices.  According to Josh he is known as a Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla) and is repsonsible for the froggie noises I hear at night.

I'll rest a bit easier knowing he's guarding my seedlings from any buggy predators.

Tomato Pruning Experiment, Week 2

I'm a day behind, because there was a big rain storm over the past few days in the Pacific Northwest.  Usually the tomato plants don't care for a lot of rain, but I let them get it this week since it was only for a few days.  At this point, they just appreciate the moisture.  as long as they get to completely dry out for a long while, that is.

I'm glad the heatwave broke because while tomatoes love the heat, it's been so intense that the blossoms fell off.  Now, all the plants have fresh blossoms.

Grandma Mary's Paste Tomatoes -  both the pruned and un-pruned plants did not produce red fruits this week.  it does appear that the pruned ones have breakers on them, according to the tomato color chart.

Big changes in the Oregon Springs!  One is definitely light red, so should be ready this week.  I"m so excited.  The unpruned Oregon Spring is ahead of the game.  I think this is to be expected, as Oregon Springs are determinate and bred specifically for the Pacific Northwest.  Territorial Seeds sells them, and I swear by them every year.

Another change!  The pruned Sungolds are producing finally.  Sungold tomatoes are indeterminate cherry tomatoes, very different than the determinate slicing tomatoes.

I am surprised to see that for one variety pruning helped it produced faster than it's unpruned brother, and vise versa for another variety.  I do not know if it's because one is determinate and one is not, one is slicing, one is cherry, etc.  I'll weigh the amount from each plant throughout the season and keep a tally so that we'll have a type by type comparison.  Go Science!

Tomato Pruning Experiment, Week 1

This year, I planted 16 tomato plants.  Eight (four Oregon Springs and four Legends) went out April 15th (under cover and  PacNW cold tolerant varieties) and eight more (two Sun Golds, two Green Zebras, and four Grandma Mary Pastes) went out May 17th (also under cover).  After I made sure they had everything a growing tomato plant needed, I pretty much left them alone.  This time last year, the Oregon Springs gave me their first tomatoes on July fourth.  This year is hotter, so I thought I'd get them ever earlier, but that is not the case.  July 17, and I have had not a single red tomato on any of my plants.

I started thinking about what i could do to remedy this, and I came to a decision.  Some gardeners insist that pruning off nearly all the leaves and all the side branches paradoxically gives MORE tomatoes than to a plant that has never been pruned.  This made very little sense to me in the past, because tomatoes produce just as many fruit on the side branches as their main branches.  And, since leaves photosynthesize, they should give energy to the plant, not take it away.  I have decided to prune 25% of my tomatoes.  I have so many healthy plants this year, I can stand to spare some of them to science.  And since I am growing so many different varieties, I can compare a pruned tomato to it's unpruned sibling.

Oregon Spring - Pruned

Oregon Spring - Unpruned

Oregon Springs side-by-side

Paste Tomato - pruned

Paste Tomato - unpruned

Paste Tomatoes side by side

Cedar Experiment, week 2

I went to check on the two experimental garden beds to see if cedar really does inhibit germination in seeds, and if so, if lining with cardboard prevents this phenomenon.  I planted 4 beans, 6 beets, and 8 carrots in each bed.

Here's the verdict after 7 days:
Cedar bed with cardboard:

And Cedar Bed without cardboard:

They look fairly similar right?  There are slight differences; in one of them, there are more beets.  An interesting thing to note about beets:  their "seeds" are not seeds per se, but dried berries that may have one or more seeds within.   So, often a beet seed will give 1-3 seedlings.  It appears that one of the bush beans didn't sprout, but I can see it just under the surface.


But wait!  What's this in the cardboard bed?  Could it be the first carrot seedling??!

Alas, no it is not.  It's a weed.  One of the downsides of home-made compost.

Tally for the two beds so far:
Cedar without cardboard:
Pole beans: 2/2
Bush Beans: 2/2
Carrots: 0/8
Beets: 4/8

Cedar with cardboard:
Pole beans: 2/2
Bush Beans: 1/2 (but almost 2/2!!)
Carrots: 0/8
Beets: 4/8

Plans Verses Reality

Last fall I created my first official garden plan. Years before, I would just draw it out on graph paper by hand and then lose the paper somewhere. This garden plan was created using Territorial Seed's garden planner and can be found here.

 This is my front yard plan. It's the main area of the garden. Every year we add about 16 square feet to it. Let's see how the plan stacked up to the reality as of July.

Tomatoes with their protective flower buddies.  The flowers nearby serve many purposes.  First, Marigolds repel man insects, and attract slugs to the marigolds, and not the tomatoes.  I also planted alyssium and borage near the tomatoes to encourage pollinators.  Originally I planned only borage and basil, but I honestly forgot the basil and I always had great luck with extra marigolds.  The alyssium is good for pollinators, and it's the first year I've grown it successfully from seed.  Last year I tried and planted it next to the potatoes but they quickly overshadowed and buried the alyssium.

The peppers and beans look good too!

I'm pleasantly surprised by the size of the beets and how many tomatoes are growing already.  The peas were amazing too!  I wish I'd thought about the best place to put the peppers and the carrots; some of the peppers are not doing well because water from the beans landed on the leaves.  I had to buy a different type of sprinkler and the carrots are overshadowed by the parsnips.  I had no idea parsnip greens could get 2 feet tall!  

Berries - final if not complete tally

I harvested the last of the berries on Friday. 2 pounds overall, mostly blueberries and currants. A few late strawberries too. I should have grabbed a pic of the strawberries but I forgot. I got six quarts of strawberry jam, enough eating strawberries to make myself puke, and a few gallons frozen in the freezer as well. We also have two honeydew berry plants, but those are pretty much Josh's only so I don't have claim to them. The white currants are on their 3rd year, the blackcurrants are on their second. The blueberries are on their fourth year. So far, I love the white currants the most. I think I'll get some more bushes. The south side of my house will soon be a perennial food forest, mostly including fruiting bushes and trees. It's been so hard to think about giving up that area, since it's been so productive the last two years, but I know it can't last. We left it as native meadow for two years to build the soil, but I've been using it for vegetables for the past two years, it ought to go to something sustainable next. The food forest will have currants, apples, maybe a pear tree, strawberries, and a perennial onion species of some sort. Of course I'll continue to put in side species of beneficial flowers to feed my local pollenators.

almost two pounds of berries and I'd already eaten a bunch? not too shabby...

Cedar experiment, week one

I'm testing to see if cedar really prevents germination in vegetable seeds, and if so, will a biodegradable barrier such as cardboard help the seedlings germinate? To test, josh built me two cedar boxes, a cubic foot in volume each. One is lined with cardboard on the inside, one is just soil against the planks.

In each box I've placed seeds for vegetables that grow best directly sown into the soil: carrots (8 in each box), beets (6 in each box), bush beans (2) and pole beans (2).  The seeds are new this year and are growing well in other established beds already.

If the seeds germinate at the same rate but poorly, i will know that cedar really does inhibit germination and a biodegradable barrier will not help germination.

If the seeds germinate well and at the same rate, i will know that cedar does not negatively impact germination and cardboard is not required.

If the seeds do not germinate at the same rate, i will know that either cedar or cardboard inhibits germination.

To control mitigating factors, I've filled each box with the same mix: homemade compost, coir, vermiculite, crushed eggshells, and the Solomon's fertilizer mix, recioe from the Territorial seed company book.  The beds are also next to each other so they have the same solar exposure and micro-climate. I will also keep them on the same watering regime.