Can you do it organically? How many plants per bale??

I sure this has been asked many times before...
But please have mercy on me

1] Can you prepare your bales organically using:
A. Steer Manure
B. Blood Meal
C. Fish Emulsion
D. Alfalfa Tea

2] If your bales sit in the garden for 6 to 8 weeks prior to planting, do you still have to cook or cure them?

3] Is there a guide for the number of plants per bale?
I.E. 2 tomatoes per bale... 3...4...1?
What about cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli?

Thank you in advance for your help
Cheers
Dove

DOVEY:

all of your questions are answered in the threads - if you would only take time to read them:

Well - aren't you just a little ray of sunshine :-p

"if you would only take time to read them:

Funny that you should say that Perry... as I mentioned, I was sure the subject had been discussed before and that I requested mercy.
I even said "please".

Perhaps if I said pretty please...

The fact is I have been wading though the posts all morning, none of the questions are addessed in an organized or labled thread.
Gleaning a bit here and there all willy-nilly was consuming more time than I could afford and making my head spin.

If you happened to know the answers to any of my questions a simple yes or no would have taken you less time to write than you snippy reply and would have made my day a little sweeter too.










This message was edited Feb 6, 2008 11:00 AM

Dove: if you say pretty please WITH a tomato sandwich on top, I'll play with you! :-)

1. Anything that has some nitrogen in it should work. I love ammonium nitrate. It's easy to get in my area.

2. 6 - 8 weeks should be more than enough to prepare your bales without any additives as long as you keep them moist. I'd check the bales after 3 weeks to see if they have soften up some in the middles and have started decomposing.

3. 2 to 4 tomatoes, 2 - 3 peppers, 2 hills of okra, 2 hills of squash, 4 to 6 hills of cukes; no experience with the others.

Kent

P.S. - here's a link to the basics: http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march07guide/StrawBales3.07.pdf

Also, start a diary here. You'll thank yourself for it later. Plus we want to see some pics.

This message was edited Feb 7, 2008 12:40 AM

Kent
How about a sandwich with heirloom tomatoes and home made mozzarella cheese?

I do appreciate the reply, I've read conflicting statements about absolutely having to use ammonium nitrate and using organic nitrate sources. Getting it straight from the horses mouth is great.

I showed your article to my husband Matt and he was impressed with the tomato arch... oh my gosh that's fantastic. We plan to copy that little trick.

In a couple of weeks, when winter prices recede, we will get all our bales set up and I'll start a thread documenting my organic process. (with pictures)

Thanks again for the info.
locavoricly
Dove

BTW your collards look beautiful, I hope ours turn out as healthy.

Dovey,

I didnt use the ammonium nitrate to cook my bales either.
I used about 3 applications of blood and bone meal (1cup per bale, about 5 days appart) and some strong home made horse manure tea, chunky bits and all.
It took about 3 weeks untill I could plant them.

I put 3 tomatoes/peppers per bale. And about 4 cucumber sets per bale. So far so good. I am half way through my growing season at the moment, everything is getting pretty big and ripening by now.

I do all my gardening strictly organic, and intended to do the same with my strawbales. After planting I continued to feed with b&b meal and the manure tea. I gave an application of store brought organic seaweed tea, which was great. But very costly. I couldnt keep up. I think Kent said to feed about 3 times per week!

I have since given a few additional applications of comercial general purpose fertiliser to only my bale tomatoes, because they just werent keeping up with the others in the ground, and I didnt want to see them do poorly and go to waste because I was to stubborn to feed them. Home made organic preparations (in liquid form) take alot of time and effort as you will know. Feeding my soil with compost and manure every year is alot less complicated.
For a universtity student, I possibly took on a little much by growing 115+ heirloom tomato plants, organically! About 50 of them are in bales, as well as a few peppers and cucumbers.

I think it is possible, but alot more work. Maybe ill grow a few less next year and get it right... Let me know how you go!

Lena

Lena that was a very good comprehensive instruction you gave Dove. I think we all could use some of that advice whether we are going completely organic or not. I used to use manure tea, also alfalfa tea is good.

Be sure to take pictures Dove. Lena's are wonderful. Especially this time of year with the snow for most of us.

Here are a couple of pictures I took today from my windows.

We finally got a neighbor to plow the driveway.

Jeanette

These are icicles hanging from the eaves but I couldn't get clear to the bottoms.

Jeanette

One last one, this is my planter on the deck. Looks like I won't be planting it tomorrow does it? LOL

Jeanette

Dove: how soon can you get that sandwich down to NC? :-)

Lena: as Jeanette said, great post back to Dovey.

Jeanette: man, look at that snow! We've had just 1 dusting so far this year. Temps have been at record highs. I guess it'll eventually get cold here. I've been riding around with my patrol car windows down all day for the past 2 days, and even had to put the a/c on a few times.

Kent

This message was edited Feb 7, 2008 11:50 PM

Lena
Great outline, very helpful.
I have always prepared my garden beds using the lasagna method and, with a little patience, had fabulous results.

Now I can't wait to try straw bales. During the summer I pretty much have a continuous batch or Alfalfa Tea brewing, depending on the plant, I water with it once or twice a week. If I plan on using the whole batch at once I add Fish Emulsion, kelp meal and other stinky stuff right before "serving" the tea.

Thank you
Dove

It's not easy being a locavore