Straw Bale Gardening (part 18) - General Discussion

Groan grump go ahead rub it in. We are having a heat wave , it is up to 34F. But ice is melting.
We don't get pineapple express nor Chinook winds. Every so often tho, we do get the arctic express. BRRRRRR !!!!!! :>(
Russ

What is this???

Its growing out of one of my bales! right around the base of a sickly little Brandywine. All the other brandywines are healthy. Im begininng to think it may be harming to poor little plant.

Any ideas for fungi removal? Dont want to buy an antifungal if at all possible. The spores will be right inside the bale anyway, this is just the flower. Ooooohh nooooo........

Lena

I wish I knew what the fungi was called, then I could look it up. Kind of unusual looking

On a happier note, heres my little Black Krim. Still the only visibly set tomato so far, but its growing!

I don't know either as my bales had a much different mushroom growth. I am certain that mine were oat straw.. I am thinking that barley might support a different fungi. Mine had a thin stem and were a grayish color for a day or two then would melt into a black gooey mess.
I'm not sure if I have a pic with the mushrooms in it. If I find one I'll post it. I will try to make a match on the schrooms, see what I find. The mushrooms didn't hurt the tomatoes any but they were touching the leaves of my pepper plants the black spot remained on it. but didn't stunt the production.
Russ

You have some kind of cup fungus there Lena, They are ubiquitous worldwide and there are many different kinds - I once had some grow on some composted paper based kitty litter I was recycling into the garden as mulch! Here is a link for some more info http://www.mushroomexpert.com/cups.html I'm no fungus expert but you can probably get an ID by emailing your photo to your nearest botanical garden. I suspect that the fungus is growing where it is because that part of the bale is less aerated than the rest - the cup fungi tend to grow well in compacted, damp or "sour" soil in my experience of them.

If the bale is too compacted in that one spot the plant roots probably can't breathe, which would explain why that one plant is not doing as well as the others. The fungus is not causing the problem, it is just taking advantage of a situation which suits it's own requirements. I wonder if a little peroxide solution might help re-oxygenate the bale in that spot? Alternatively, you could try driving a few narrow air holes in around that plant, like they do when they spike a lawn to improve it's growth and water absorption

Let us know how you go, Kaelkitty.

Besides the fungi, you really have a crop of Barley or whatever that straw is from Lena. Maybe you could sell the grain it is so expensive here. Or grind it for flour to make bread.

Those are really ugly mushrooms. Have you tried sprinkling lime or soda on them? I would try poking holes like Kitty said and then give them a dose of sweetener.

The ones I got with my bales were like the ones Russ described. Kind of like shaggy manes, that turn to black ink after a while. Except for the shape. On tall skinny stems with a regular
mushroom shaped hat. gray to black.

Jeanette

Jeanette and Russ: I have exactly the same shrooms all over my bales as you described, lots of them, but as you said, relatively harmless. And they only last a day or two before the sun destroys them. Only this one bale (and another I have now discovered) is infected with the funny cup fungus.

I poked lots of holes into the bales, but they felt supprisingly soft and loose.Not tight at all. Then I watered the affected areas with a watering can full of organic antifungal foliar spray, a recipe I found in an organic gardening book, and scribbled into my notebook, a few years ago:

4.5L water, 1T baking soda, 1T cooking oil, 1T Palmolive hand soap or dish soap, 1T fish emulsion, 1T Nitrosol or other nitrogen based fertiliser. It has worked magnificantly for me in the past to control powdery mildew on pansies, peas, and cucurbits. Both the soap and the sodium bicarbonate should help sweeten (raise the pH) a little.

KaelKitty: Thankyou so much for identifying this fungi for me, and posting the link. And also for your very helpful advice. Im relieved to hear its not the fungus causing my poor wee plants misery. I will keep a close eye on it, and keep you all posted.

So you are in Adelaide, Australia, Hello neighbour! Are you growing in bales this season? How far into this unusually hot spring/summer are you? What are you growing? Your climate is probably alot warmer, but our seasons will be simelar. Glad to have met a fellow (bale) gardener on my side of the equator! :-)

Lena

Lena, let us know how it works. Interesting recipe you have there. Sounds almost like Jerry Baker. LOL

I meant to ask you what that scabby stuff is on those tomatoes you sent the picture of. Nice looking tomatoes. Good size!!

Jeanette

Jeanette: I think its still part of the blossom. It was a funny one, this one. It only half opened, then wouldnt fall off the developing fruit properly! Its about the size of a mandarin now.

Its raining!!! First rain in 3 weeks! Lovely lovely lovely.

Lena

Hi Lena,
I had no luck getting the bales here this season - the drought has driven the prices sky high and the availability just about down to zero, so I have been concentrating on getting my permanent plantings in around the edges of the garden for this season. All I have in in the way of veggies at present is in ground stuff. I have brown onions and leeks, pumpkin and zucchini, and one eggplant as an experiment. The pumpkins in particular are looking good, but I worry that the weather will cook them as we have already had several days over 35C/95F and no real rain since the first week in November. My mother has a Mr Uggly tomato at her place, but I am hanging out for a Le Gef grafted one. I feel a bit of a fraud at present, especially given the crops some of the others on the forum have been talking about, but I do read all the posts and contribute when I can.

Hopefully, now that I know what I want to do re the bales I can start looking a lot earlier next season and come up with better results. In the meantime, here is a sneak peak at my first ever eggplant starting its first fruit! TTFN, Kaelkitty.

Lena, you are probably right about the blossom. The tomatoes are beautiful. Congratulations on the rain.

Kitty, What is a grafted Le Gef tomato? Be sure to take pictures.

Your egg plant is beautiful. 'course, anything that is green and growing right now is beautiful. LOL

The best thing you can do right now Kitty, is to keep reading and taking notes for next year. And, NO FRAUD!! Don't even think that. We all are very interested in what you guys over there are doing. Across "The Pond" as they say.

Jeanette

Here's a link about the "Le Gef" Tomato. http://greenfingers.com.au/services/seasonal_tips/2001/september/24_september.htm I grew one a few years back - it covered a whole fence about 6 foot high and 12 feet long - Just the one plant! I made masses of sauce and relish, it was stunning.

I meant to mention my new permanent plantings in the last post but I forgot. The right hand back fence now has a thornless blackberry and a youngberry getting established, and the left hand fence has a passionfruit vine. My next door neighbours apricots and lemons hang over my fences and are ripening fast. The plum tree in my own yard is following them closely - this years fruit is fewer than last spring, but they are much bigger. I am hoping to make some plum sauce this year. Last year we had stewed plums in everything and they were delicious!

I took this picture on Wednesday morning, the colour is great but the fruit is still hard. Not long now though I suspect, Bye for Now, KK.

Neat info about the grafted tomatoes.

Lovely plum, good luck with your sauce.

Donna

Kitty, is there any way to get some seeds from that Le Gef tomato and then I can graft my own. It sounds wonderful.

Would love to try it in my hydroponics.

Jeanette

That is one that sounds Interesting. One or two would be all you would need, by the sound of it.
No idea of the size of the maters though.
I was trying to locate some. This side of the pond. I didn't have any luck.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`Russ

I will see what I can do too Russ.

Russ, I read something that sounds like you should have certain seeds for hydroponics. I need to look into that today too. I would hate to throw my little plants out.

Jeanette Yes I was thinking that should be a determinate tomato. That is unless you have an outside green house, to accommodate all the vines. Every thing I raised last year had a lot of vine , that just kept growing and producing.
I did put three Big Beef seeds, in little pots though. Thinking that if I have enough light they may have fat enough trunk. then prune the excess growth severely, keeping only a few branches with blossoms, it might work. Don't know. I guess that will be my experiment. lol

Well Russ, this experiment might just keep us from going bonkers from cabin fever this winter. I have been looking on ebay for hydroponics stuff. There is mostly new stuff on there. Might try Craig's list.

Jeanette

Guess I will have to agree with you on the experiment.
I would really like to get my greenhouse up for spring but it definitely will need to warm up some before I try that. At least I know where we want it. I'm hoping to have it up soon enough to run another experiment.
Using a raised bed, trying to raise some things with a poor mans hydroponic system. Also using that instead of the kitchen, for starting the little tender plants. LOL

Lovley plums and eggplant Kitty! Lucky you. I have given up trying to grow eggplant here after a few failed attempts. The plants were big and bushy with lots of blossoms, but they just wouldnt set fruit. My plums are still green, but theres alot of them! Alot of cute little apples too.

I just went for a little wonder (wander? sp) through the garden, and took some photos. Its not till I compare them with photos from a few weeks ago, that I notice how much everything has grown! Sunflowers have outgrown me by now, and one of the early volunteers is flowering already! Alot of things are flowering actually, its nice to see so much colour outside. Ill get around to updating my diary with pictures in the next few days. Right now I need to get ready to go out to dinner with my girlfriends.

Tomatoes are doing well. EVERYTHING for summer is planted now, all peppers, tomatoes, basil, etc etc the seedling fiasco is over for the year. Now I can sort my hundreds of little pots out and stack them away neatly in the shed. It can wait untill tomorrow though.

Heres one of the pictures just took, apples and plums.

Lena

Beautiful picture Lena. Are those in your yard? You must have a pretty big growing space. I just wanted to tell you that I think your Mr. Greenfingers is a bit of a crank. He wants to charge $12 just to tell me where to buy the seeds for that tomato?

Think he needs to get a job where he enjoys people. I don't think I have ever listened to a gardener on the radio here in the states where they weren't happy to help people out and tell them anything they wanted to know.

Oh well. I sent him an email so he will probably read it over the air and tell everybody what audacity this American has, expecting him to give out a little information and an address. LOL

Jeanette

Jeepers; Jeanette, for $12., He should have, at least send a plant and instructions as to its care and a little fertilizer; instead you just got B S ??
LOL Russ

:>( Oh well perk up kid, you just found a meany.

Lena, Hope you had a nice meal with your friends, Good shot of the plums and apples. I do think you need to thin the apples soon or they will be very small.

Donna

Thanks for the consolation Russ. What is the flower you sent me? Very pretty. It isn't blooming now is it? It is 16 degrees out here again. Nothing will bloom in this.

I was thinking the same thing Donna. A very nice shot. I wonder what kind of apples they are. Maybe crab apples so they wouldn't get very big? Altho, they aren't hanging like crabs normally do are they?

Jeanette

Ha Ha Ha I would love to tell you it is blooming now but since I don't want to be labeled a liar.
No that is an Asiatic lily. I am not certain if it is an Amarillo or not. It is one I picked up at the RU last spring. I don't remember a tag being with the lily. So I had to guess. It bloomed within a a short time after we got back. I was still planting garden. It is also possible that could be one just called Early Yellow. I thought it to be very pretty, even in the pot. Here is another Asiatic. I have had it too long for me to remember what it was. I like it too. It is beside the pond. which is beside our patio.

That is gorgeous Russ. Someone told me the other day that the Asiatics don't live very long??

Jeanette

I don't know about how long they live. I would think that it may have something to do with a disease of some kind, as the bulb seems to keep growing and even needing dividing every few years.
This year the reddish one had the little bulb-ets where the leaf comes out from the main stem. I put them along the edge of the garden. Now just so I don't forget and run the tiller over them and kill off the little guys before they even get to pop their heads up.
Wow I got the straight cutting edge on the skid loader. The snow was really coming down so hard. I decided to get rid of the old ridge that the snow plow left at the end of the drive. Done the same in front of the Church. Well I came back in with an inch of snow on top of my hat and the rest of my cloths were plastered with the white stuff. Decided I was in for the rest of the day.
Well keep warm~~~~~~~~~~`Russ

Interesting about your lilies Russ.

Glad you got your skid loader working. Just in time it sounds like. Bob just went down and started the wood furnace. That is the only way you can warm this house up. Then the electric can take over. It was 16 degrees this morning.

cold. Jeanette

Not sure what the Apples are called. That tree has big sour green apples, quite late and not very nice for eating fresh. The other tree (this one) is simelar to a Pacific Rose or something like that. Two years ago I had some lovely big apples off it. Last year I had millions of tiny little ones! I wasnt sure weather to thin them or not so I just left it.

So maybe I should thin the apples. I havent done it before. Any advice? Thanks for the suggestion.

Lena

It was cold here too I can't remember exactly, but it was in the single digits. It may have got up to 17F, and now is 10 F.
Guess that was why I didn't stay out very long. My toes hurt the most after I started to warm up. I had traded gloves for a dry pair when I finished with the cutting edge, so my fingers weren't too bad. I was definitely ready to stay in after that. I have a roll over cage for it. I'm thinking about attaching some plexiglass to that and fashion a door of some kind just to keep the wind off me. Then hope I don't need to use it more than once or twice. Ha Ha, Don't I wish.

This house must have been built without any plans. It is a story and a half. No basement, They put the furnace in the living room and lowered the ceiling to put in heat ducts. We have been insulating a little at a time The kitchen, bath the closet, and the big bedroom upstairs are done. Next major room will be the living room . Of course not in the winter and Barb hates the dark paneling there so we will need to decide if we want paneling or go with sheet rock and paint it.
That means save up $$. Oh well what else do I have to do.

I have added some more pictures to my Diary. It takes sooo long for each one to load!

Lena

Maybe Donna can give you some suggestions Lena.

Russ, that house sounds a lot like the one I had in Seattle. With the dark paneling. Mine was pine tongue & groove. I sheet rocked over the top of it. Even the ceiling. Wow!! what a difference. Also, I had them blow in insulation. That helped tons on the heat bill.

Jeanette

My other house, that was in the middle of our 80 acres of apple trees, was a two story house without a basement, no insulation, lath and plaster. The little kitchen, 12 x 12 had four door ways, 1 window and 1 small storage cabinet. We bought it and the orchard just after we got married. Lived in it for 50 years, 3 major remodels, in 1967 we built on a large livingroom and basement. Then a few years later tore off the entire upper story, at that time 4 small rooms. Added to it on the south and made 2 large bedrooms. When my husband died in 1994 there were 14 rooms and the whole house was well insulated. I hated living in the middle of the orchard so put it up for sale, took 3 years to sell it. In the meantime I bought the 5 acres up here in the hills, and love the view from all rooms in my house.

Donna

Sounds like most of us, We bought what what the paycheck would support. Then try make it more to our liking.
If renting weren't so expensive, we could have rented, saved up the money then bought. But it just don't work that way; does it ????

That's about it isn't it. Bet you really like it up there Donna. What did you do with the orchard when you had it? I imagine that was a lot of work. I can't think how many trees per acre? That's a lot of work.

What are your 5 acres like? I'm trying to think about your area. It has been several years since I have been in that area. Do you have trees? Bet you have a lot of those little sun flowers I just love. They are about the first things blooming in the spring. They probably aren't sunflowers but sure do look like them. Only about 15 inches tall.

Yes, Russ, it sure is something not only that house payments are so high, but rent is so much higher. 'course, I guess if you are paying for something plus maintenance and want to make a profit too, somebodies got to pay for it.

I think this particular area is considered High Desert. Not many native trees, mostly Ponderosa Pine. I planted trees here at my location before the house was even in place. Trees are very important to me. I have planted more than 100 trees, of course all have not survived. If I can locate a good picture showing the area I will send along.

Donna

Donna, your place is very beautiful. You did a good job. Are all those small things between your house and the road trees? Looks like it. If so, what kind.

Very, very nice.

Are there any places for sale around your area? I have wanted to move closer to Seattle. Not really close, but closer than I am.

Every once in a while I go in and look at real estate ads but I think anything even this side of the mountains is pretty pricey because the people from California are so used to driving so far to work that they buy things up.

I remember when I was working I talked to a fella in California who bought a house and moved his family into it 180 miles from where he worked. Just to get away from the city where the crime rate was so high. He didn't drive it every night, but rented an apartment to sleep several nights a week. I know, you think I was told a big lie, but it would not surprise me.

I understand that is what the politicians do. 4 or 5 of them rent an apartment in D.C. and have cots and a microwave. Red eye in and out of there on the weekends. Terrible life.

Jeanette. Sorry, this is a long way from strawbales.

Well it is winter and i am afraid gardening is not high on our list of to do things, Jeanette. No those small things are weeds growing where 2 years before there were apple trees which were removed and nothing else had been planted. Now it is an alfalfa field. thanks for the compliments. I do really enjoy the scenery from here. And it is amazing how many new homes have been built in this area since I moved here 12 years ago.

Donna