Straw Bale Gardening - Part 2 - Planting & Maintenance

Kent,

Copying a few words from Big_Red

How 'bout "Gardening in The Straw?"

~* Robin

Great journal Big Red!

We're using urea and have just started on Thursday night. Doing the same at the in-laws retirement community. Gotta tell you, the gang out there are gung-ho gardeners and they are all watching and discussing this with great enthusiasm :)

It's an absolute delight to be able to share this method with all of them!

Dea

Big Red: thanks for the info; I had forgotten you were keeping a journal. I'll be starting mine next Thurs or Fri.

Note: Big Red mentions in his journal about the value of keeping your bales moist. This is VERY IMPORTANT, especially in the early stages until the plants get a solid root system going.

Zeppy: I see in the archives you got your bales going around 3/26 with some 5 Nitrogen and fish emulsion; your bales are probably doing fine but just doing the slow dance to decomposition; I'd plant whenever the weather permits

Note: Keep those bales moist, experiment, keep good notes during this shake down cruise, and we'll all continue to learn from each other.

Any of ya'll ever seen miniature straw bales? I hadn't until recently. (2 inches, 5 inches, 10 inches)

I wonder if you can grow anything in these little gems? :-)

Here's a pic along with some links for some artificial peppers and strawberries that might make an interesting addition to a centerpiece for a table or mantle. I couldn't find any artificial tomato plants.

http://rentonww.com/stores/1/product.cfm?&product_id=52470

http://www.afloral.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=378&Page=2

http://www.crafta.com/vkp067.html

http://www.amazingproduce.com/DetailsList.cfm?ID=VZC300-RE-RE

This message was edited Apr 15, 2006 12:43 PM

Kent,

You have to buy those things "in season" at the local ACMoore store here. PS: they're a whole lot cheaper at ACMoore.com, and the local place nearby.

~* Robin

Robin: 10-4 on "in season"; shows you what I know; anything to do with straw/hay bales now catches my attention; I'll try to contain myself on the adhoc projects; besides in just another few days I'm gonna be alot busier

I've got some seedlings that are doing well, and will probably be ready for planting out soon. I would like to know what WON'T grow in the straw bales.

I've got several varieties of tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, watermelon, and pumpkins.

I've got lettuce and broccoli going in some soil, but I wonder if they would grow in the bales.

Are you sure that corn won't work in the bales?

Thanks.

Salem: Last year my tomatoes, hot & sweet peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers thrived in my 1st attempt at bale gardening. No experience on the other vegetables.

You're going to have to secure with stakes or a trellis the tomatoes and peppers, anything that has a stalk or a good thunderstorm will blow them over, especially a corn stalk. A good root system develops but the straw just can't anchor the plants like a traditional garden row. The bales get less and less firm as the summer wears on.

Thanks y'all! Hope more of you start one so we all can share and 'steal' ideas. ☺

Shoe, I tucked them in between tomato and brocolli or cabbage plants. I wasn't sure how far to space them apart so I allowed about 4" each way. I think onions will really do well with this method. Thanks Melinda, for the idea!

I may stick in a couple of pepper plants also, just to see how they do. Again, I wish I had gotten more bales! If this works well, I can see many more bales in my future!

Kent, yup, I found out real quick that you can't ignore the watering!

I just put 2 sweet green pepper plants in one of my bales today. I plan on either watermelon or 2 tomato plants in the other real soon.

BigRed, I was thinking onions would do especially badly with this method, because of their shallow roots which need to stay moist. No?

I'm doing tomatoes, cucumbers, zukes, melons, and possibly a pumpkin.

Ok, you were right, the store employees went into overdrive when we asked for ammonium nitrate. All but started yelling Oklahoma. Said they would have to special order it with our names, addresses, I.D.s, you name it, and could not get less than 50#. So, I ended up with Greenlight Stump Remover. Pure potassium nitrate. The bottle has absolutely nothing on it for ingredients. I got that out of google. It tells how to use it by sprinkleing it on the stump and watering it in good etc. Says it will not hurt surrounding vegetation.

What do you think?????

Jnette: the store employees at my agri-supply store don't even bat an eye at the mention of ammonium nitrate, and the storage building behind their store was full of ammonium nitrate w/out any armed guards in sight. But I'm hearing more and more from those who got the same reaction as you did.

Since I'm no chemist, I can't advise on the Potassium Nitrate, other than Uncle Sam fed enough of it to me in Boot Camp in 1980 that I'd probably still test positive for it.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2006 9:19 PM

Zeppy,

I really don't know, but I stuck them down deep in between the layers of straw where it's plenty moist and already started to turn brown from the decomposition. Just have to keep them watered good. I'll let you know how I make out with them. ☺

Just out of curiosity, I stopped at our local Southern States feed store and asked about ammonium nitrate. No problem getting it here, just need a driver's license and sign for it. It comes in 50# bags at $12.75 each.

So what are you saying? I take it that it will decompose the straw, it won't put something in the tomato plants that would kill me, but will it kill the tomato plants? Just because it will not harm the surrounding plants, to me that does not mean that it won't kill the tomato when planted in it. Like is it going to be too strong for the plant?

I know you are not a chemist so I can't expect you to know I guess. So, I guess I can only try it. I looked at the blood meal that Big Red is using and it was not very strong in nitrogen. What the farm store had. But then this stuff is not strong in nitrogen either.

Oh well.. . . . . . . .

I special ordered it from a local Ag (read chemical) supplier. I had to get a 50 lb bag and they asked me what it was for. I told them and a couple of people seemed intersted. I did call around a lot and no one offered any help, just said they didn't carry it. Same with the corn gluten - but that is a differnt story. I should be getting my bag this week AND the corn gluten (for weeds).

Happy Planting
-Kim

what about corn gluten kim? Did I miss a thread?

I was going to ask the same thing. Jeanette

edited to add that I guess the people on the West Coast are just either too cautious or not into trying different things. Not sure.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2006 10:32 PM

No, you didn't miss anything. The corn gluten is not for the bales but for the flower beds and yard - for weed control. You can read more here http://www.gluten.iastate.edu/

Back on the subject of bale gardening - my FIL & family are coming over today and I am sure I will get some eye rolls about the straw bales. Come August won't they be surprised!

-Kim

Hey Zeppy, I have very tight bales and they are not heating up either. It has been sooo windy in my part of Kansas the last week, I think the evaporation of the water may be cooling the bales.
(I remember when I was a kid we had an old window unit "water cooler", I always loved going out and watering the straw, then the fan pulled the outside air through the cooler into the living room. It seemed a lot cooler to us, but Arkansas summers can be so hot and humid that any relief was welcome.)

I started using MIracle Grow for tomatoes mixed up strong on Friday, because it had the highest nitrogen percentage (18%) of any fertilizer I could find at the local discount store. I am getting wheat sprouts in my straw today for the first time, but still no heat that I can feel with my hand.

I am going to stick a candy thermometer deep into a bale tommorrow and see if maybe I am just not getting my hand in deep enough, those bales are very tight.

Sorry I am so long winded, but I am from Kansas now... :-)

Three of my ten bales are an orchard grass/straw mix. They are *much* looser and are cooking nicely. The tight bales we are going to help along by poking some holes in them with a stake in a few places. I'll water them some more, top dress with a bit of compost, and wait to plant in those until May 10 or 15th. My cooking bales I'll plant in when they cool a bit.

(Corn gluten: use it as a pre-emergent herbicide that keeps weed seeds from germinating. Bluekat gave me the idea of putting it over the asparagus bed when we plant b/c it doesn't hurt seedlings, just seeds. Thanks, bkat! We spread corn gluten on the lawn when the forsythia blossoms drop as that's usually the time weed seeds are wanting to germinate.)

I may have missed this bit of info so I hope I am not being redundant with this question. When you plant in the bale, how much, if any, extra soil do you put in with the plant. What size plants are you planting in the bale? When I say plant, I am referring to the size cell pack or pot it came out of. Thank you. I am looking forward to trying this. I cannot plant in my yard as it is so small and I only have an inch or so of soil before hitting rock. Also, erosion is bad here and I don't want to add to the problem by tilling my soil up. I planted in pots last year but I could not keep them wet enough. I hope this is the answer.

Cajun: I transplanted all of my vegetables last year from flats of little 4-packs. Other than the compost attached to the little root ball that comes out of the packs, I didn't use anything else. I used a spatula to help make a crack in the straw, inserted the plants down to the first leaf, and gently pushed the straw back together. It was that simple.

Some folks are "chinking" the crack in the bale with different compost mixtures, but that's your choice.

This method lends itself to alot of experimenting.

Just keep those babies WATERED. I can't preach that enough.

We watered well yesterday, and the skies have added their share again today; I plan on letting them cook until the moon turns around to the first quarter again in the first week of May. No sprouts in these bales yet, and they're pretty tight.

We did get visiting mallards the day after we moved them around, I guess the slugs and worms were happy below in the wet muck that's kept us from (ahem) mowing for about a month of these over 39 days of rain, a dry day, then more rain...

Have you ever wrapped the bales in black or clear plastic to get an early start?

Well, I think I got the best deal of anyone on straw. We couldn't find any around here for less than 4 dollars a bale, so I called a couple of people where I'm originally from to see if they had any. It's worth it to drive the 60 miles if the savings was enough. Well.... the first one told me 2.00 a bale, the second 1.50 a bale. I explained what we were doing with it.... he called back a little later, and said he'd trade me 50 bales of straw for 50 tomato plants.... how great is that!! :-)

Definately the best deal - that's fantastic !!

Dea

Melissa, that's great!
I'm going to have to see if I can connect with someone next fall to either set aside bales or carry them off then, and see what we can save in costs.

SalemSunshine, I'm thinking about wrapping the sides of our bales, to keep them "solid" longer in to next season, and perhaps for water retention come our dry season, but I haven't yet. They're heating up nicely on their own, this week, and there's a first wheat sprout in there!

I found these mushrooms in my bales yesterday, so I guess they're composting o.k.

This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 9:43 PM

Big Red, don't forget to check the temp in the bales before putting the vegies in. I planted some in warm bales and they fell over. Bought one of those deep frying themomerters. Some of mine were 60 degrees while others right next to it were 100 + degrees. Said I would take some pics. Well here goes. This is one of the trellis with tomatoes, peppers, flowers and more. I will try to do a journal and put up more photos.

Started a diary with several photos don't know how to make a link to it. Still exploring this wonderful site and all of its great places. Oh, here is another photo this is the bush beans planted in compost sprinkled ontop of the bales. The beans are sprouting and so is the wheat grass. Will cut the wheat grass after the sprouts are better established.

Good evening, ya'll; just getting back from a short, but very pleasant, trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I'm loving the photos and I'm glad that some of you are planting from seeds.

I finally got my bales lined up and watered and will be heading to the nursery for my plants over the next few days. I am stoked!!

Motto suggestion from my wife: "Eat well from a bale!"

Melinda, great pics, keep them coming. I checked out your garden diary, please let us know how those beans make out. Thanks.

Dang, Melissa! I thought I got a good deal at a buck a bale. :)

Going to go pick up my bales this afternoon and get them cooking this weekend...will try to post some pictures as I go along! (Perhaps one will include DH shaking his head and muttering, I dunno about my wife...)

pam

It looks like I may be the only one going the "chicken" route !?! I lined up my bales end to end, and I notice that some of you are lining them up side by side, and I have three rows. I opened up the 55 gal. drum with the chicken manure tea and filled up 4 (5 gal.) buckets which I poured down the middle of each row of bales. Hmm... that would be about 20 gallons of tea per 20 bales. (It seems pretty strong - looks like old coffee.)

Yesterday we got a good bit of rain during the day, so when I got home from work I went out there and stuck my hand in a couple bales - no heat. Maybe too soon? Ah, the anticipation! I have tomato sprouts in the cold frame, and yellow squash, and cantelope sprouts in the laundry room window - all waiting to be planted in the bales.

I was thinking that I would try a little companion planting in the bales - since 2 tomato plants in one bale sounds a little top heavy to me. I was thinking of putting one tomato plus something short in each bale.

Any one else out there using the chicken nitro?

I picked up 13 bales yesterday from an old farmer back in the hills (which is a story in itself, but perhaps another time :) ) and lined them up on one side of the garden. I'm probably going to need about 30 or so to fill the garden. It poured down rain last night, and today I'm going to add some bloodmeal and give them another good soaking. Whoo! :) Pictures to follow...

Now if only my tomato seeds would sprout!

pam

Alert Alert

My straw bales were in a spot that just doesn't get enough sun, no matter how convenient that spot was.

Anyway, I moved a couple today. Yeah they were heavy, but I managed to roll/drag them into a more sunny spot.

If anyone is having trouble with their bales taking an excessive time to compost, turn them over. I swear the bottom of my bales were PERFECT.

I expect to have ripe n tasty cucumber in no time. ;)

Ok, Here we are the tomatoes are jumping out of the bales. Our weather here is perfect for this. Will have more pics in the diary.

Melinda: Good looking 'mater plant. I'll be there, soon!
I went to your diary after I posted this; good pics at different stages; there's nothing like a photo to go with the story; I especially liked the "haircut" pic.

Salem: that's an idea, turning your bales over; can't hurt

The map is starting to grow.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2006 8:48 PM

Melinda, you lost me. On the 18th of April, this month, I can hardly see your plants. 4 days later on the 22nd, they are huge. What happened? Almost looks like Jack and the bean stalk. Maybe the first picture on the 18th wasn't the same plants?