Category Archives: Pests

Raised Bed Designs – Part 2

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It’s time for another round of raised bed designs here in 2012, where raised bed gardening seems to be as popular as ever. The benefits of using raised beds are (according to Wikipedia):

  • Higher yield
  • Creates a micro-climate in which weed growth is suppressed
  • Moisture is conserved
  • Extends the growing season
  • Plants grow easier due to loose soil
  • Easy on your back due to tall building height

Below you’ll find examples of raised bed designs:

A circular raised bed made from round pressure-treated wooden poles:

Circular Bed
Photo by Karen Blakeman. (Barracks Lane Community Garden, Oxford, England, GB).

I think rounds beds are definitely the most beautiful, but also least efficient when it comes to yield, because you waste grow space in the ‘corners that are not there’, compared to rectangular beds.

There may be a health issue when using pressure-treated wood – take a look at this post for more info: Raised Garden Bed Plans

If the poles have the same length below ground as above ground they are be able to support themselves, held in place by the weight and pressure from the soil.

The next two photos show lots of ordinary raised beds but they are special because they are built on the property of an elementary school:

Classroom Plots
Photo by Billie Greenwood. (Casa Alegre, Santa Fe, NM, US).

Elementary Classroom Raised Beds
Photo by Billie Greenwood. (Casa Alegre, Santa Fe, NM, US).

I haven’t seen anything like that in my country, and certainly not a kitchen garden of this size (although I’m wondering what the grass like plants are, but I’m pretty sure I see lettuce in one of the beds).

Working with raised beds in school is a great way to teach kids about food and energy, and certainly an improvement from my time in school, where the teaching was limited to cress growing in a windowsill ;-)

I’m not sure if the next one qualifies as a raised bed:

Finished Garden
Photo by R Berteig. (Monrovista, Monrovia, CA, US).

I guess it depends on whether you took the few steps down into the middle or you’re standing on the normal ground level.

I’ve seen this type of bed used beneath a greenhouse, where the greenhouse is placed on top of the outer wall, although this was in a smaller scale. It probably has to do with the building height of a greenhouse, to be able to get more headroom when working inside, so you lower the “floor”.

Raised beds made out of concrete and stone will last a lifetime, so make sure you get the design right the first time, or be prepared to bring in the heavy machines to clean up any mistakes.

This is the basic raised bed as mentioned by John Seymour in his book about self-sufficiency:

Cameroon Nursery Shade, Raised Bed
Photo by Trees For The Future. (Cameroon).

On average your soil should be warmer since it’s raised above ground (although cold soil shouldn’t be a problem in Cameroon…)

While taking care not to walk on the raised bed soil the members of the Njimacob farming group are building a support to create shade against the burning sun (about 1,000 km / 620 miles from the equator).

The planks in these raised beds look like they are made out of expensive, long lasting wood, because of the dark color:

Raised Bed Designs
Photo by Poppet with a Camera.

A more dark type of wood is probably going to last longer that a light colored type. If it has been treated with oil for preservation it will also be darker, and last longer.

If you want low maintenance aisles between your raised beds you can lay out sheets of plastic for weed suppression between the beds as show in the picture above. I find an aisle width of 50 cm / 20 inches to be sufficient.

I like how tall this next one is:

Raised Bed Designs
Photo by Mike McCune.

This is actually the minimum height every raised bed should have in order to be easy accessible. The challenge is to find enough extra soil to be able to fill it up, but you’ll get fantastic root crops with this height. You can also place a raised bed with this much soil in it on a hard surface like concrete tiles, since the plants already got the room they need and don’t need to dig further into the ground.

The above one looks like it has been painted which will make it last longer. Just make sure the paint is environmentally friendly.

You don’t even need mortar to build a raised bed from stones, if you use strip stones that fit together very well:

Browning Residence, Raised Bed
Photo by Jay@MorphoLA.

This is one of the most robust raised beds I’ve seen – made of bricks and mortar which means it will last a lifetime – or four:

Backyard Raised Bed Designs
Photo by Choking Sun.

It has a good height too, but the only problem is the width, at least for kitchen gardening – it’s impossible to reach the weeds popping up in the middle of the bed without crawling into it and compressing the soil and getting dirty knees, feet and palms. I prefer a raised bed with a maximum width of 1 meter ~ 3.3 ft.

This particular raised bed was most likely built as an ornamental bed for flowers etc., and it matches the house well.

Backyard Raised Bed Designs
Photo by Choking Sun.

A nice looking right-angled raised bed made out of planed timber:

Farm Soil Amendments, Raised Bed
Photo by Milton Taam.

Ordinary raised beds, but with a tall fence around them to keep out animals – or kids ;-) Toddlers don’t know the difference between weeds and vegetables, so if you’re serious about kitchen gardening you might want to consider setting up a fence around the “other babies” (= precious homegrown vegetables ;-) ). This will save you a lot of stress.

Notice the border between the raised bed in the middle and the lawn – the grass grows taller here because the lawnmower is not able to cut that close to the planks:

Fenced Raised Bed
Photo by Amanda B.

You’ll need either a grass trimmer to remove this last line of grass, a pair of scissors and a lot of patience, or perhaps a line of paving stones around the beds, if you don’t want this perfect habitat for slugs right next to your lettuce.

A beautiful garden with a mixture brick and mortar and wooden raised beds:

Bricks, Raised Bed Designs
Photo by PermaCultured. (Newtown Community Garden, corner of Longdown & Stephen St, Newtown Sydney)

A collection of different types of raised bed designs to get ideas from, and perhaps you already know how you want to build yours? Project photos with comments are welcome – please send them in and we’ll do a showcase post here on HappyFarming.com. Contact details are here: Contact HappyFarming.com.

Are Your Tomato Plant Leaves Showing These Symptoms?

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Photo by jayneandd.
We all want great tomatoes from our tomato plants, but often the plants are hit by diseases or pests and although some fruit develops wouldn’t it be nice to maximize the yield from each plant to get a killer crop, by curing the diseases or getting rid of the pests?

The first thing to do when you notice a not so healthy looking plant is to find out exactly what is going on, so that you can begin you search for the cure. Below is a list of symptoms together with possible causes to get you going on your quest to grow the best possible tomatoes. Try doing a Google image search once you get an idea of what your tomato plants are trying to tell you, and see if it looks like what you’re seeing on your own tomato plant leaves.

Discolored leaves

Yellow

As you can see below, a yellow coloring of your tomato plant leaves can be caused by many different things. The color yellow either covers the entire leaf, is limited to patches or limited to just spots, depending on the cause:

  • A lack of nitrogen affects the lower leaves. It spreads to the upper leaves.
  • A lack of calcium affects the upper leaves
  • A lack of manganese is rare, but will result in dead patches on the leaves, ringed in yellow
  • Wilt diseases can cause a shortage of nutrients, which will then result in a discoloring of leaves
  • Fusarium Wilt affects older leaves
  • Verticillium (Verticillium dahliae)
  • Leaf spots (Early Blight or Target Spot)
  • Root rot
  • Mosaic virus results in mottling
  • Aphids
  • Spider-mites can cause a white-yellow speckling

Light green

  • Too much nitrogen
  • A lack of manganese

White

  • A lack of iron
  • Powdery Mildew results in powdery patches

Black

  • Fusarium Crown Rot

Curling leaves

  • A lack of potassium affects older leaves
  • A lack of iron
  • A lack of copper is rare, but results in blue-green flappy leaves
  • Curly Top virus affects upper leaves and results in a purple-like color

Spots on leaves

Brown

  • Early Blight or Target Spot (Alternaria solani)
  • Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans)

Dark

  • Bacterial Speck (Pseudomonas syringae)
  • Bacterial Spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv vesicatoria)

Purple

  • Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans)
  • Tomato Spotted Wilt/Impatiens Necrotic Spot Tospoviruses

Wilting leaves

  • Fusarium (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici)
  • Fusarium Wilt
  • Fusarium Crown Rot
  • Verticillium (Verticillium dahliae) can result in wilting at midday but recovery at night
  • Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum)
  • Root rot
  • Tomato Spotted Wilt/Impatiens Necrotic Spot Tospoviruses (TSWV or INSV)
  • Nematodes causes the plant to wilt prematurely
  • Walnut toxicity if the plants grow near a walnut tree

Drooping leaves

  • Fusarium (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici)
  • Fusarium Wilt
  • Fusarium Crown Rot

Flies on leaves

  • Whitefly (1 mm), more often seen in a greenhouse than out in the open
  • Thrips (1 mm), onion thrips (Thrips tabaci) and flower thrips (Thrips obscuratus)
  • Fruit fly

Removing some of the leaves

If the problem is that you have too many tomato plant leaves then here are some tips on removing some of the leaves to provide the plants with more sunlight and oxygen:

  • Single vine variety: All ‘suckers’ can be removed and staking should first be done after the first flowers appear to create a strong plant.
  • Multi-stemmed variety: All stems should have the same size. Any side stems below the first flower cluster can be removed to create a strong main stem.
  • Determinate variety: ‘Suckers’ below the first flower cluster can be removed.
  • Sterilize knife or scissors between plants, or use your fingers to pinch of unwanted leaves and branches
  • Remove branches during dry days to avoid bacteria getting into the ‘wound’ because of rain
  • Remove sick leaves and branches to reduce spreading of diseases
  • You can reuse any clippings – they will grow into new plants if you stick them into the soil!

Cucumber leaves

I haven’t been able to find any evidence saying that tomato plants can’t rub leaves with cucumbers. I think it’s a myth and more a question about space. Cucumbers grow big leaves, and they could overshadow a tomato plant if the plants were standing close.

While it should be safe to grow cucumbers near tomatoes, there are some plants that are even recommended companion plants for tomatoes, like French marigolds (Tagetes patula), because they deter nematodes. Other plants that act as pest control are:

  • Basil
  • Chives
  • Parsley
  • Onions

Source:

How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes by Lucia Grimmer and Annette Welsford

Aquaponic Tomato Plants

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I took a break from my aquaponics project as I was getting discouraged by seeing the previous batch of seedlings dying a slow death on top of my aquaponics plant tank. It seemed like I had missed some important point in the process of growing aquaponic plants, so I actually drained the whole plant tank, cleaned it, and installed a traditional filter in the fish tank / aquarium to keep the pet fish happy. That’s how fed up I was with my aquaponics problems.

… But I soon got too annoyed with the empty plant tank and my unreached goal of bringing this beast into production mode, so I went outside an started cutting side branches off my large tomato plants that I’m growing in self-watering containers beneath the south facing wall of the house. I learned from the ebook “How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes” that cuttings from a mature plant will easily grow into new plants if you stick the cuttings into the soil. Fortunately it works with aquaponic coconut fibers too:

The cuttings grew into tall plants, actually a bit taller than I have room for beneath the ceiling. The maximum grow height available in this system is small since the fish tank must be placed beneath the plant tank, and the fish tank in this case is an ordinary aquarium which you what to place on an aquarium table to be able to enjoy the fish without having to lay down on the floor ;-)

A quick look at the new tomato plants gives you the impression that they are healthy, and the stems and leaves have a healthy color:

But if you take a closer look at some of the largest tomato plants you’ll find that some of the leaves have wilted:

(WARNING: Oldest aquaponic joke coming up: “I’m sure I gave them enough water…” Ha. Ha.)

I have to find out what’s causing this, and even the small developing tomato flower stems are affected by this too. The leaves turn dry and crispy and turn into dust if you squeeze them.

I wouldn’t say that the submerged roots look particularly healthy:

Rasmus noticed the same brown stuff on the roots of my previous batch of aquaponic plants and recommended adding air bubbles directly to the plant tank. I think it helped back then but I forgot to reinstall the air pump after I cleaned up the plant tank.

Lots of challenges still with this relatively new aquaponics home system in the corner of my living room. And I’m still having wet dreams about adding automatic electronic measurement of pH and conductivity.