How to Warm Soil in Beds

Good mornin Shoe. I just took some photos of my greenhouse with the repurposed stuff- don't know where to put it so maybe I better start a thread?

Greats! Would love to see the pics!

Shoe

I posted them here- http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1234649/

Mary, I did not see this old fashioned method of heating garden beds posted above. This works really well in a "hot box". I used to deliver fresh horse manure to an old neighbor lady in the town where I grew up. She showed me how to do it in open beds too. Dig a trench about two feet deep (now this lady was well into her eighties and tore into the bed like a bull dozer, I finally convinced her to let me help as I said I would learn better that way), and dump in the fresh manure. Then cover with the dug out garden soil. Plant seeds over the top. She swore by this method and said if you put a "hot box" over any section of the bed you could germinate lettuce in the winter (Central Illinois). Her entire back yard was veggie beds and she fed herself and her husband from them. Her son filled the freezer with meat from their farm every so often. They had moved into "town" from the farm as said her husband was getting too old to do heavy work. I don't know what she thought heavy work was after watching her tear into that bed. But I have tried this method and it does work.

Bless her heart! I love stories like that. What's a "hot box"? Sorry, you lost me there. It seems the tomato seedlings will burn though if I put them in the fresh horse manure. I don't need to start seeds, I've got those going indoors. I will need to warm the soil to add the tomato seedlings that have been hardened off. They like the soil temp to be about 75° in order for the roots to grow.

Thanks Terri.

She called it a hot box, really a cold frame. And the seedling don't go in the manure. The manure (fresh/hot) is burried approx. 2 feet deep, garden soil over the top. Not mixed in, soil acts as a blanket over the hot manure. The decomposing/composting manure creates bottom warmth through the 2 feet of soil on top. Just right for starting lettuce, etc. Does not need cold fram after last frost. I think this is a old French method.

Oh I get it now. Thanks for clarification. Bury the hot manure deep enough so the roots don't touch it yet but the heat will warm the soil. Great idea....I'll see if I can get that to happen but with two Cavalier spaniels who think stinky stuff is great to rumble in, I may be too shy to try. :-)) Maybe they won't smell it that deep.

LOL! My dogs do the same. Two Corgis--expert diggers--with a Catahoula and a sheppard mix to back them up. They particularly love Mills Magic. I've had to stop using or face having my roses dug up and strewn all over the yard. They seem to ignore the sea kelp fertilizer, at least for now.

Terry, we use a combination of kelp, alfalfa, cottonseed and dry molasses.........our neighbor's yellow lab loves it. He also loves the beer I use for snail bait.

Having dealt w/a former neighbor's yellow lab, I've come to the conclusion that a lab will eat anything! LOL. This lab was a retired show dog (I don't know why they let it roam) and he once ate a basketball and had to have surgery to have it removed. Dog was fine. Also had to go to the vet because he was going through another neighbor's trash and, while licking out an empty can of cheese sauce, got the can jammed onto his muzzle so tight he couldn't get it off. Went running through the neighborhood with a troup of kids chasing after him trying to catch him so he could be returned home. The lab clearly thought this was fun. The owners couldn't get the can off either so they had to take him to the vet and have it cut off. Only a couple of this dog's various adventures. The owner's used to joke to me that the dog cost more as a house pet than he ever did as a show dog! I never once saw that dog looking unhappy.

That says it all right there.....that guy knew how to have fun. I just found this greeting card the other day and love it....hope it comes through okay.

=D! It sure is!

Yesterday I picked up a load of compost/manure mix (one yard) and shoveled it into my beds. Guess what? The temp of the manure mix is 70°. Nice. The landscaping company calls it Sandy Loam mix and it's designed for gardeners. The manure is well composted so it's not too hot to plant in. It was an Advil day....a few more of those coming up as I get the beds ready and then get the plants in. Temps are coming up and it's the perfect time here. yayyy.

uhhmm
Are you sure it is finished compost?
Should finish compost be cold to the touch?

I am speaking by experience ...
A few years ago (very new at composting) I trew the compost I made straight into my vegetable garden ... and woila' I had millions of bugs (like pill bugs and others) trying to break down my compost in my vegetable garden ..... aaaahhhhh and they ate my new baby seedlings in their way ....

Since then ... I got a little better ...

Keep posting ... I am curios to find out what will and will not happen.

I've used this mix before, last fall, and everyone planted in it was happy. I watered it down well (to discourage Lily the Cat who loves to scratch and poop in fresh soil) last evening and this morning the mound of compost/manure is back down to 50°. I didn't think soil temps changed that fast. Maybe the watering. Here's a description from the vendor:

SANDY LOAM

33% screened fill dirt, 33% mulch, 33% manure. Sandy Loam is a great medium for vegetable gardens and other applications that utilize the warmth and micro nutrients of manure.

Too funny! I've had to quit using a couple of favorite organic fertilizers that contain peanut or soy meal as nitrogen sources. The local wildlife (possums, racoons, squirrels) are sure there's something good buried there and dig until everything is out of the ground. I replant - they dig it up again. Until the smell is gone, I suppose. There's something else that will tear open bags of bone meal and strew it all over the carport looking for whatever. Even the blood meal is fair game! It's enough that I've been forced to use chemical sources of nitrogen.

I just put up 164 feet of electric chicken fence (attached to a fence charger). You can actually hear it snapping when the bottom strand gets too close to the stray weeds. That should at least keep the larger critters out of my greens and peas, I hope!

-Rich

MaryMcP

I hate to admit it but you seem to think a little like me. Dang, my tomatoes may cost me $10 each with all I have spent on raised beds, soil, amendments, fancy tools, etc. but I'm not about to let that slow me down.

hrp, I'll do almost anything for a tasty tomato! It's a hobby mostly although I am making a few dollars selling tomato starts to my local home gardeners. I've made back everything I spent on Roots Organics potting soil for the seed germination and the two pot-ups I did so that part of the hobby is paying for itself, and then a little. The soil I just put in the beds should be good for several seasons with just some added ferts along the way. And we've got good eatin'. DH made the beds and used plain old pine planks. Hey, I don't gamble, not even the lottery, take luxurious vacations, drive a fancy car......why bother putting up with working for a living if I can't have fun with some of the money? I mean really!!

Temps in the 70's next week, nightime lows in the mid to hi-40's. Should be perfect tomato planting weather.

MaryMcP
I know this is a scary thought but we might have been "separated at birth". Only I've not yet turned to selling some of my tomato seedlings to help offset some of my costs of production but it is an excellent idea. My downfall is that due to my altruistic nature I'm more likely to give them away.

You are right! We *were* separated at birth. I would have made a lot more money if I had not sold each plant for a mere $2 to friends AND THEN threw in one 'extra' for free! Crikey! Price increase next season. Actually, I sold lots of plants to a church group with a community garden and tomorrow someone who is coming by to take the rest of the tomatoes (5 @ $2.50) is a well known local organic grower and farmer. One or two contacts that will buy all the plants would be great.

rjodgen, DH installed electric fencing two or maybe three years ago. Best investment yet!

I have a few scattered, tiny, raised beds so I never considered electrified fencing. Tazers, yes, I thought about remote-control Tazers, but the closest I came to that was a Super-Soaker squirt gun.

However, odd pieces of chicken wire thrown over recently-sowed beds works until the sprouts are about to become too entangled in the chicken wire. Sometimes I draped thorny blackberry branches around the border.

When seedlings get a few inches tall, I try too prop up the chicken wire or "hoop it over" until the plants can fend for themselves.

My biggest pest turns out to be cats looking for a litter box, and they are not aggressive about burrowing under wire to get at turned soil.

Squirrles that eat bulbs, however, are more persistent. Either they disliked soil flavored with chili powder, or they eventually found other things to eat.

Is there anything squirrels won't eat?