Grow in dirt or raised beds?

This year, I planted some Stump Of The World tomato plants in the hard, rocky, dry dirt along the fence surrounding my garden. I also planted some in raised beds My fenced garden is full of raised beds comprised of organic material. The raised beds are watered by soaker hoses on a timer on a regular basis every day.

The tomato plants in the dirt were only hand watered once per week even in one hundred degree plus weather.

The dirt planted tomato plants significantly outperformed the raised bed plants in tomato quality and production.

I'm thinking of lowering the depth of my raised beds this winter in order to insure the root balls of my tomato plants are planted in the dirt beneath my raised beds next spring and reducing the amount of water they receive.

Any thoughts?

Ted

[Worth1]

I think too many people put raised beds of top of soil that is just fine.
Tomatoes dont need high dollar potting soil to grow in.

Worth

When I pull the dead tomato plants from the raised beds in the fall, the small root ball usually hasn't changed much near the bottom of the beds. Most plants have produced horizontal roots about one inch below the soil surface. The horizontal roots usually extend out a pretty good distance.

In really hot weather, the surface of the beds seems to dry out pretty quickly while most of the moisture has dropped from the top of the beds to the bottom of the beds in the soft organic medium. The plants in the beds seem to go through a high moisture/low moisture cycle pretty quickly. The dirt below the beds seems to retain moisture longer than the organic material about the dirt.

I suppose I will find out next summer if the plants perform better with the roots planted firmly in the dirt instead of the medium. I'm thinking about planting the tomato plants directly into the dirt with only a couple of inches of pine bark above the dirt in the beds to keep the dirt and roots out of the direct hot sun.

Ted

[Worth1]

I used to grow in a garden and will this year too that is sandy loam and gravle on top of clay soil.
This is what is happening.'
The more clay like soil holds more moisture but cracks when it dries out and looses the moisture.
The sandy type soils will retain moisture because it doesn't shrink and crack.

If you put a sandy type soil on top of the clay it will stop the clay from drying out and it will retain its moisture.
With this type of set up I have not had to water until June.
The plant gets it nutrients from the more loose sandy soil and its water from the clay soil.
The wet clay covered with sand is what the mound builders did in the Mississippi valley to build the Monks mound in Illinois.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monks_Mound

Worth

[Ed of Somis]

T...you bring up an interesting scenario. You say your soil has two problems: hard and rocky. Does that mean you have clay soil...or is the hardness more from a rocky/granite structure? In any case...it is a poor medium. Your choices are: 1. raised bed 2. Improve garden area soil. Were you happy with the results of the native soil plants...or were they simply "better" than the raised bed? I noticed my raised bed roots tend to go horizontally, also. Last season was my first year with it. I notice with all the organic material (manure, etc) I added...the water does not leach through the soil as easily as I thought it should. I am thinking the organics need to break down more...and then the mix will not "repel" the water as much. Maybe yours is the same??? Just a few thoughts...

[AKmark]

Tomatoes love something in my soil too, so much so, I am adding a touch of garden soil to my container mixes next season.

[ChiliPeppa]

Well, I'm no expert, but in my area (hot and dry with poor soil) a raised bed = oven.

[UFXEFU]

This is just my opinion, but a raised bed is like growing in a container. I've never had much luck with growing in pots. I like to till a garden spot and make raised rows with the sandy loam dirt. I usually mix in compost to the planting hole and plant deep. Tomatoes like lots of water, so I soak the soil well with the bottom up method. Rain and dew is the only water the foliage gets.

[Father'sDaughter]

I started with the intention of just growing garlic and knew it wouldn't do well in our very rocky, sandy soil so I installed a 12" deep raised bed and filled it with compost. When I expanded to include a whole variety of veggies as well as the garlic, I just added another raised bed next to the first. Mulched leaves and grass clippings applied in the fall are helping me keep the level of the soil up where it needs to be and so far everything seems happy grown this way, but I've never tried growing anything in my native soil so I have nothing to compare it to.

[Ed of Somis]

Originally Posted by ChiliPeppa

Well, I'm no expert, but in my area (hot and dry with poor soil) a raised bed = oven.

If you live in the Mojave Desert...I bet containers and raised beds do become ovens. I think folks in Texas know about that too. I have always said that you growers that have this brutal weather...really have to be good farmers. For me, if I can't grow stuff...I am really an amateur. My container maters have been really good, but it has been a learning curve. I think there are some similarities there to raised beds.

[Gardeneer]

When I first built my raised beds I purchased a mix called "Special Garden" It had too much clay and sand , too little compost. The next load I got 50% SG and 50% compost.
On top of those I got bagged manures/compost and added. That was 3 seasons ago. Ever since then every year I add more compost/manures and lately some pine bark fine (under 1/2" - dust). This has been my new discovery from 5-1-1 potting mix experiment.

My thought: If your fill has a lot of compos/OMt and you use organic fertilizer, then the chances are that your plants are not getting sufficient nutrients in the short term. Compost and organic material , poor in available nutrients, will initially suck in any fertilizer. This will continue until the material is fully broken down and has turned into some thing called top soil. So if your native garden soil consists of good old "Topsoil" it is probably better than new mix in your raised beds.

Gardeneer

[AlittleSalt]

I use the soil from our property in our raised beds and it works really well. I like raised beds because I don't have to bend so much and they can be built on red clay.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I use the soil from our property in our raised beds and it works really well. I like raised beds because I don't have to bend so much and they can be built on red clay.

Yes, Robert... One of the advantages of raised beds is ergonomic convenience.
But for most of us it offers a solution to flooding and waater logging problems. That is the reason I built them. We get an annual rainfall of over 50". So if you have flat lot with clay native soil, it will stay water logged most of the time. With raised beds , with well draining fill you can solve that problem.

Gardeneer

[Worth1]

Speaking of harsh weather right now it is almost exactly the same weather in Panama city Panama.

70's, wet, mosquitoes, humidity in the 90's.
I'm running the AC to keep cool.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

There are a lot of reasons for raised beds, a whole lot of ways to use them...what to fill them with, etc. I try to use local and organic.

Worth, those mosquitos are a nuisance. I'm actually hoping for lows around 20F ASAP. Every time I try to work on the new raised beds - I have to use Off and that isn't good enough. The forecast for the next 3 days is for record setting yearly rainfall and lower 40s for highs. That just means the surviving mosquitoes are more desperate for blood.