do Alfalfa pellets add Nitrogen to the soil?
and how high/deep do you need to make raised beds?
The soil in the soon-to-be-mine plot is quite clayish, so I'm considering digging 1 spade deep,
amending the soil and making raised beds above it.
Does that sound as a good plan?
Sounds pretty similar to what I did except I went two spades deep. The daylilies seem to like it there even though I planted them all about 6 inches apart!
Name: Sabrina Italy, Brescia (Zone 8b) Love daylilies and making candles!
Mine are all tight together. Except for poor blooming I don't see any problem, they grow fast and big. But foliage makes a mess leaves from one DL touch the others, so I'm planning to move some anyway.
I do not think Alfalfa adds Nitrogen, if so its very little.
0ne spade deep is plenty, deeper will also be fine, my boxes are 9.50" deep and I have never seen roots come out the bottom.
My baby seedlings are 8" apart, but I only keep them two years then destroy all but the few keepers.
That is good to know about the depth. I have heard that you shouldn't plant daylilies deeper than the top of or 1" below the crown (where the roots and the leaves meet). Too deep and they don't bloom very well and can get crown rot.
Fred - My newest two beds are about 12" deep, I was wondering if that was going to be deep enough. Thanks for mentioning about your roots never growing deeper than your 9 1/2" depth.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us. Garden Rooms and Becky's Budget Garden
I wish I had enough room to space out my daylilies! But they have to make due with my limited space. I only started fertilizing them on a regular basis last year so they stayed at 2-3 fans for years. Now they are starting to multiply so I have started to divide them. If they grow too much I can always go back to not fertilizing them as much. They get plenty of worm castings anyway since my yard is overrun with earthworms.
Yes, but only a relative little. Alfalfa pellets typically contain 2% nitrogen. This is presumably mostly in organic form which plants can't use until it is converted by soil microorganisms into plant usable forms. According to one source the N in alfalfa pellets releases over 1 to 4 months but the start of that would be dependent on the activity of the microbes, which is also dependent on other factors like temperature.
That makes me feel better to hear some of you grow yours close together. I have to space mine close together due to limited space. I haven't seen the massive growth to become one large daylily clump in any of my raised beds .... yet.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us. Garden Rooms and Becky's Budget Garden
