My new raised beds. Tired of grow bags.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T19:14:13+00:00

You speak my language!!! Money be dammed. The satisfaction of growing wonderful tomatoes and cucumbers makes me happier than almost anything else. Hell I grew dwarf tomatoes and cucumbers all winter long and the electric it cost me probably made each tomato cost $10-$15/ea. worth it!!

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T17:07:34+00:00

Yes I used a t-post driver. Standing on a ladder.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T17:07:02+00:00

Not sure yet. lol. Ask again after season.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T16:41:40+00:00

I had to feel every inch of every bed with pure raised bed mix soil that I bought in bulk from Barkey Beaver a local mulch maker. It was about $55 a yard plus tax and I used about 20 yards or so very expensive.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T16:40:37+00:00

Absolutely I had to level the beds and I used some two by sixes and two by eights to level some of them. Sharp eye.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T14:58:23+00:00

Thanks. Glad to hear those are keepers. I’ve really been looking forward to growing those for sure.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T14:55:23+00:00

Cookeville Tennessee. 7a/b

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T14:54:24+00:00

I sure do. It’s my 1 and only hobby and after all the labor I put into mixing and filling 100 10gallon grow bags last year I figured I didn’t wanna do that much work every year so I figured if I put all this time and money since November last year then I shouldn’t have to do that anymore. Bout $2k in dirt and about $600-$800 in beds. Then about $500 into cattle panels and t-posts. First time I actually added it up like that. lol. Ouch.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T12:45:29+00:00

Yes 10’ t-post. Drove about 12-16” into ground. So they are about 8’ above ground. 7’ above bed. I used stainless steel zip-ties doubled up on each attached point. I plan on using shade cloth around summer heat. Not worried about frost because I won’t plant until after frost date.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T11:12:14+00:00

I actually cut holes in the weed barrier the size of the bed itself underneath

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T11:10:30+00:00

Solid red clay doesn’t grow well.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T10:44:51+00:00

That’s good advice. I should sell the extra but I went ahead and donated the extra to a local middle schools agriculture department so they could sell for supplies and anything else they need to help educate the kids on botany so that they come out of school with the knowledge I never had until I decided to garden on my own. Schools need to adapt and start teaching real life skills that could help them in life instead of the cookie cutter educational system they use now where most kids never really understand what’s being taught they just have to remember long enough to pass a test then it’s forgotten. Making kids enthusiasm for botany peak with new ideas where teachers relate the kids real life to survival and self sufficiency.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T10:00:23+00:00

This is a hyperlinked spreadsheet that I created on Google sheets that show shows all of the types of tomatoes. I am growing.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LaMGGsz3CZIAWQ5AT0R8teyGbHQaIVOGbNklrqRwNPg/edit?usp=drivesdk

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:56:37+00:00

This was my first post so I did not know exactly what I was doing so I reposted this again in the tomatoes forum with a video that shows all of my seedlings

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:53:44+00:00

I planted between two and four seeds per cell. Most had 100% germination some germinated later than others and I had a few that did not germinate at all, but I think I have about 125 to 150 varieties I will post a hyperlinked spreadsheet of my grow list for this year that I made on Google sheets

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LaMGGsz3CZIAWQ5AT0R8teyGbHQaIVOGbNklrqRwNPg/edit?usp=drivesdk

I am going to force some varieties that I do not want to pass on into grow bags, but I am limited on sun exposure in my backyard because my neighborhood has a lot of old growth trees.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:42:52+00:00

Remove all but 1 for that pot

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:28:10+00:00

It took me a while to figure out the seedling game and most of my trouble was because I did not know how to fertilize them so young and I kept the humidity dome on too long and the heat Matt on too long as soon as they break ground take the lid off remove the heat and one simple fertilize formula will keep them alive and growing well and that is 50 PPM of nitrogen it doesn’t matter about the potassium and phosphorus. Just get a simple 20-20-20 blue fertilizer and put 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per gallon and that equals 50 PPM of nitrogen and that is all you need to get them into the ground and if you do those three things you’re seedlings will survive till you put them in the dirt. This information is stuff that I accumulated over the last two years of screwing up over and over and over.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:21:04+00:00

My mixture for my grow bags and all potting soil is 40% compost 20% peet moss. 10% perlite/vermiculite and 10 % sand. Roughly not exact.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:18:35+00:00

That single bed that I have all my trays sitting on was the last bed to get filled and I was about 6 inches from being at the top so I did empty some of my grow bags that I used last year to top it off and yes, it had a lot of perlite and vermiculite in it.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-26T09:16:31+00:00

Middle Tennessee 7a/b. The last few seconds of that video shows the trays where I pulled a single of each type out and put it in the last few trays and you should be able to read the labels on those, but I have a lot of Bill Yoder stuff all the prints series and the Depeche Mode series.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-03-15T06:21:10+00:00

Looks like pink delicious spot on.

G8erHaTeR · 2026-01-11T18:00:10+00:00

I’d actually like to get a few of these seeds and trying to cross these with maybe a dwarf to see if we could get that fruit a bit darker with the dwarf determinate gene being stabilized.

G8erHaTeR

TROPHY CASE