Time for a new chapter.
Let's see who will be first!
Oh, Jeanette, where are you? :-)
General Discussions 2009 - Chapter 27
LOL, right here Kent. It has been a long time since I have been first.
Thank you Lulie.
Gotta hang up before someone beats me. LOL
Jeanette
Next ! digger
Eufalla is sitting next to me , so she's third . Digger
I decided to get back into gardening this year with the idea of expanding my old garden plot. There is no way to grow decent veggies in my lime stone rock and caliche. Years ago I imported a little soil for row gardening. It still exist but needs to be revived. This is hard work. After tilling I make rows with a shovel and garden rake, then I take two days to get my back working right again.
I retired in April of '06 and now have time to do some serious gardening. I am trying a few straw bales and some 5 gallon grow bags filled with straight coconut coir. I also have a 2 X 6 cinder block raised for some onions, garlic, chives, and shallots.
I am excited about the straw bales. I have eggplants, broccoli and the tomatoes planted in them. The eggplants look healthy, but they probable need warmer temps to really thrive. The broccoli is doing great. The maters are doing well. They are not putting on a lot of plant growth, but there a lot of blooms and the fruit is setting well.
I am looking forward to mixing the spent bales into the old dirt garden after this season. It looks like this straw bale thang is a win-win situation....easy on the back too.
Jerry
Roma
This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 12:30 PM
Another...for plant height compare to bale height.
Hey Jerry & Roma, (is that your name, or the tomato?)
you can't eat that foliage on the tomatoes anyway. However, just curious, are the tomatoes determinates or nons? That might be why they are not getting big.
Roma tomato pictured and determinant ones in the straw bales.
Eufaula:
I used your bottle method to make my holes in the bales this year.
It works great!
I used my garden trowel to make a slight crack in the bale and then pushed a 12 oz. drink bottle down in the bale to make my hole.
I sat on a stool as I worked my way down all 60 bales.
If the bottle was too tight to easily push down in the bale, I just took my heel and tap, tap, tapped down to the depth I wanted.
Tamped a little potting mix down in the bottom of the hole, set my plant, and added about 2 good handfuls of mix around the plant.
I'm about 2 weeks early in planting than I normally like to do, but I couldn't wait!
All these discussions got me too excited.
- - - - - - -
Jerry: great pics. Looking good.
This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 9:06 PM
Well Jerry, that is probably why the plants didn't get any bigger. They are determinate. So now they will put all their strength into making produce. Lucky you!!
Jeanette
Yaaay!!!!! Oh Kent that makes me sooo happy! I came up with an idea that finally works! SIXTY bales...Whoooooosh! Just reading that made me tired!
Oh Yeah, Im sitting here with Digger reading the forums and we are enjoying the company immensely. We have our coffee and are sitting side by side reading our Sunday Daves Garden....this is just too much fun. I will be going back home this morning..I hate to leave , My Sally is the bestest! Eufaula
This message was edited Apr 19, 2009 9:10 AM
wow 60 bales !!!
well i got my straw , its not in bale form ,but it was rotting in a old manure pile. So i scraped off the layer closest on the manure ?
mixed it with a 2 small shovel 's of manure . So i m thinking of layering for the spuds . Work ?
havin't yet to read everything , just wanted to pop in and say "hi " to everyone.
best to you all
sue
Well I'm like Digger and Eufalla finishing my coffee and checking out Dave's place, being a newbie I only tried 10 bales and have just started planting them. I lost 2 bales that collapsed into themselves, I don't know if I can push them back together and save them but I think I'll try. I cut 2 1/2 " holes into the bales and am using composted horse manure mixed with rotted leaves to plant in. Weather forecast says rain today so I want to get the rest of my 'maters and peppers in. I'll post some pics toward the end of next week when I get closer to being finished.
Freddie
Broccoli in Straw this am.
Another - started to form heads a few days ago.
Here is a picture of my bales shot from the end of a 30' row of snap beans (soon needing to be thinned).
I am already thinking more bales for next year.
Jerry
Jerry; Your making me hungry already. I didn't get any bales yet, due to having an accident with a tire and rim. I'm still seeing double, so not driving yet. I may not have bales this year. I do have tomatoes started in a flat in the house, as well as some lemon cucumbers. Just nothing I can plant out yet. I'm afraid every thing will have to be in the dirt this year. I am used to that though. And I do have a friend helping with the garden this year, Hopefully it will pan out, to where he can help keep it clean. We still have nights that drop down in the 20s at night so we are not quite ready to set any of the tender things out yet. I haven't been able to get out into the garden anyway. I will have to be happy with what ever The earth will provide. I will have to revert back to my older methods of mulching good between the rows. And that will mean some weeding and some stooping, I always till some any way for the root crops. I also have a tiller mounted on a garden tractor, so it won't be too bad.
Just looking at your garden, is making me anxious to see something sprouting up.
Sorry Kent I won't have any news about bale garden this year.
Russ
Does anyone know if straw bales would work for growing sweet potatoes? Or, would sweet potatoes grow under straw?
Hey ,Russ, Kent won't care , except feel sorry that you missed the bales . I'm sure he want's to hear , and keep up with you anyway .We all do . digger
mewms; I think you could be the first. I would only try one. I would think loose straw and some sand, might be better. I have always hilled the rows and planted the S/P in the hill. My experience has been, some of the tubers go out wider than the width of a bale. Although last year I had one hill that stayed tightly compact. See photo.
Wierd.
That is my 2 cents worth.
Russ
Russ: your main job is to get well and take care of yourself so you can make up for it next year!
mewms: if red potatoes do well, I don't see why sweet potatoes won't do well. I did it in old straw, though.
Russ, take care of yourself and Barb. That is the most important thing you have going for you right now.
I wish we all were closer that we could help you with your garden this year.
Take care, and be good. Don't try to do too much.
Jeanette
Thought I'd post some pics of my neighbor's garden.
Anthony and Beth Cottelese are in their 2nd year of bale gardening and have a small one next to their house.
Here's Romaine lettuce.
Beth said she hasn't put any fertilizer on her lettuce bales.
Romaine, Red leaf, and Butter Crisp lettuce
Red potatoes planted in last year's bales.
They didn't bust them up, but just planted $1 worth of seed potatoes directly into the old bales.
Tomatoes in the back row. Lattice work made from twine.
Looks nice Kent. Did they use hay or straw? I finally got my hay bales yesterday. Between my daughter and Bob, who has a bad hip, they got them, 40% alfalfa and the rest orchard grass. I hope I am as pleased with them as Suz and the others have said.
I paid $6 for them. One other had them for $5 but they weren't going to be home when we had the time. The feed store in town wanted $12.99 for them. Same size. Little bales. Rip off. She will probably still have them when the haying starts this summer.
Jeanette
Jeanette: my friends used wheat straw. Got them from me when I had mine delivered. Most of them have the regular twine which is great. It will just rot and not be a pain like the plastic twine.
Always love to see the first set of 'shrooms pop out of my bales.
Kent my bales are covered with those same 'shrooms. I assumed that was a good sign and just let them grow, they dry and are gone by the late afternoon.
Hey! Maybe we ought to start a new thread , Just for Shrooms! Mine are completely different looking than yours Kent! Kind of cute too! Yours look like little umbrellas, Mine are just different with elongated caps! Lets see how many different ones there are!
fremar: 10-4 on the sun taking care of business. The mushrooms don't last long.
Eufaula: you'll liable to see several different varieties.
That is funny Eufaula yours look ALMOST like Morels.
Jeanette
This is what grew out of my bales a few years ago. I had plenty of the small short-lived brown ones too.
Lena
That looks like a good one too Lena. LOL, too bad we aren't mycologists.
I wouldn't trust my own judgment on mushrooms other than Morels, Shaggy manes, Chantrelles, and a few others, Portabellos, Criminis, and that's about it.
Jeanette
I'll buy mine in the store . Jnette, glad your getting yours started . digger
Jeanette, do you farm your own mushrooms? I would like to give that a try one day. We dont really have any edible wild mushrooms here, just plenty of poisoness and hallucinogenic ones.
Lena
No, just pick them in the wild. Gotta know what is what tho.
Jeanette
I added two sections to my tomato rows over the weekend. I had some extra tomato plants and needed the space.
Instead of buying more concrete wire, I went to Tractor Supply and bought two, 16 ft. cattle panels. They were on sale for $18.99 each.
The cattle panels, also referred to as feed lot panels, use much heavier gauge wire and won't rust.
They work great as a trellis for tomatoes.
Although they are only 4 ft. high, that should still give me plenty of room to tie my tomatoes up. Since I don't have more bales I plan to transplant the tomatoes into 3 gallon containers and sit them under the trellis.
Jeanette and others have been using cattle panels from the very beginning, but I'm must now getting on board. I love 'em.
