Apologies if this is old news to most of you. I found this tonight and found it pretty helpful. Not sure if I can afford all of this, but interesting nonetheless. I will probably stick with blood meal and bone meal for financial reasons.
http://thisfamilyof4.blogspot.com/2011/04/organic-straw-bale-garden-conditioning.html
organic recipe for conditioning bales
Forget the bone meal for prepping the bales.
You need something with a high nitrogen content for the "quick cook" method.
Blood meal is good, but ain't nothing like the 34-0-0 ammonium nitrate, if you can find it.
Ammonium sulphate will work, too.
Urea is good.
Otherwise, just set your bales out at least 30 days prior to transplanting/planting, water them down good for the 1st couple of days and then just keep the bales moist from then on out.
Kent
Thanks, Kent!
It's times like these I really wish I could pee standing up. I guess I could get out there and hover once it gets dark enough!! : ) : ) : )
That's a dedicated gardener!!!
Doug
Hi dbanks,
I advocated saving pee at a school in Haiti for fertilizer. If you have your family save it, you can dilute it 10/90 with water. It wouldn't
take too much to treat a bale.
It sure worked great in Haiti. We had 450 little peeers in the school so we could get quite a bit of free fertilizer. Pee comes from the body very pure with few of the problems associated with stuff from the other end.
I know you were joking, but in some areas this is an overlooked source of fertilizer. I advocate using what is around us without shelling out hard earned $.
Sorry for being so serious.
Paul.
I used Blood meal last year, it works fine.
Paul
Quote from dbanks :
Apologies if this is old news to most of you. I found this tonight and found it pretty helpful. Not sure if I can afford all of this, but interesting nonetheless. I will probably stick with blood meal and bone meal for financial reasons.
http://thisfamilyof4.blogspot.com/2011/04/organic-straw-bale-garden-conditioning.html
dbanks, I'm in Gainesville too (a few miles outside city limits, actually). FYI, Alachua Seed & Feed on 6th either has or can get your choice of ammonium nitrate or urea, both "high-proof" sources of nitrogen. Strictly in terms of the amount of nitrogen per dollar, they are hard to beat.
I would stay far away from Milorganite. It is treated urban sewage, and is only recommended for lawns and ornamental plantings. It may be safe from a bacteriological standpoint, but as municipal sewage it contains whatever gets flushed down toilets or poured down sinks throughout the city. That includes everything imaginable - heavy metals, drainage from automotive centers and car parks containing the contents of broken batteries and petroleum spills, latex paint, organic solvents, old pesticides, leftover out-of-date prescription medicine - anything that anyone wants to get rid of and doesn't want to pay to have treated or hauled away. A real witches brew.
-Rich
This message was edited Apr 8, 2012 1:28 AM