Then, plant 3 small containers using just the potting mix. So, where can you find bales for sale? Joel recommends that you look for organically-grown bales. Nurseries and garden centers often carry straw bales, and they have usually vetted the supplier to make sure the bales are pesticide-free. Even the sides of the bale can be used to accommodate smaller plants such as herbs and flowers and a simple trellis can provide plenty of opportunity for verticle growth.
Straw bale gardening is easy, but there are some preparation steps that you need to do before you start planting. First — be sure to place the bale with the cut side on top, as the planting surface. The folded sides can be used, but the cut or prickly side will make water and nutrient penetration easier.
In a healthy compost pile , bacterial growth and activity are necessary for decomposition. The same is true in a hay bale. Joel recommends blood meal as the nitrogen source. Apply it to the bale by poking holes in the top and pouring the meal into those cavities. Next, add water and let the bacteria population boom begin. Bacteria multiply by splitting in half. As it prepares to divide, a bacteria will vibrate back and forth before breaking apart. Within 15 minutes, each of the two individuals are ready to split again.
All that vibrating creates friction, and the friction generates heat — a lot of heat. The interior of a bale can reach about degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is a good indicator that the bale is conditioning well and some of the internal material is beginning to decompose to be ready to support your plants.
During conditioning, Joel provides more blood meal or whatever nitrogen source you prefer every other day. By Day 18, the bale should be ready for seed sowing. A bale has the capacity to hold gallons of water. Anything beyond that amount will drain away. Unlike in-ground or raised bed gardening, water draining out of a straw bale is carrying with it some of the nitrogen you applied to feed bacteria growth. Early in the season, bales need no more than one gallon of water per bale per day to support plant growth.
Any more than that can be detrimental to the nutrient level within the bale. As the season progresses and plant roots take up more space within the bale, more water will be necessary, because the bale will just dry out more quickly.
Rather than watering more per dose and potentially washing away nutrients, Joel recommends increasing the frequency of watering instead. Laying soaker hose over a straw bale garden is an effective way to deliver water evenly, but constant exposure to sunlight breaks down the hose material quickly.
Joel recommends drip irrigation as the best option. The irrigation tube is more durable and easier to tuck out of the light. Plus, drip emitters provide better control for providing the right amount of water to each type of plant. It can provide the frequency the straw bale garden will require without overdoing it to wash away nutrients.
Crops like carrots, radishes, and lettuce will be better off if you lay a thin layer of sterile soilless mix over the top of the bale and cover the seeds with a light dusting of the mix. The larger seeds of crops like peas, beans, and squash can be inserted directly into the bale to a depth of around the second knuckle on your finger.
When planting seedlings, create a hole in the bale deep and wide enough to accommodate the roots, and insert the root ball directly into the cavity. If any of the roots are exposed to the surface, add a little soilless mix to protect them. Straw on the other hand, is much better for use as a garden mulch. Since wheat and other grain crops are so competitive in a field, they suppress the growth of many weeds. Farmers also will control weeds one way or another to ensure the highest yields they can get of valuable grain.
That results in straw with no or very little weed contamination. Granted, there are exceptions to the rule. Sometimes straw can be highly contaminated with weeds if it was grown in less than optimum conditions. Composting hay can reduce the number of weed seeds to a minimum but that has to be done the right way in order for the compost to reach a high enough temperature to kill the seeds. Tomatoes should be staked so they grow upwards and have plenty of air circulation around the leaves.
Tomato cages do not work with straw bale gardens. You will need to drive stakes into the ground. Use a hammer and set the wooden stakes into the ground. After that, you can cut old bedsheets into strips and use them to tie the tomato plant to the stake. If you have seeds for pole beans, you can still grow them in a straw bale, but you will need to stake them just as you would a tomato plant.
Cucumbers, squash, and zucchini can spread down, out, and away from the straw bales, but may be a nuisance if you have to cut the grass between the bales. You may wish to offer them a stake or another support so they grow upwards instead of down and onto the grass. Straw bale gardens can dry out easily, so keep them well-watered. The straw should hold up through one full growing season. Straw bales are held together by two to three strands of rope or metal baling twine, which holds the bale in its familiar shape.
Make sure you water your garden every day, except on days when it rains. Because straw contains no nutrients on its own, you will need to feed your plants frequently.
Straw bale gardens should be fertilized every two weeks while plants are young, and every week once they start bearing fruit. Working this volume of material into the bale can be difficult, but is possible. This will slow down or stop the conditioning process and crops planted into these bales will turn yellow and whither after germination from seed or transplanting. The garden will never look good and will not perform well in this circumstance. The most frequently reported problem is dry bales.
Again, water is the answer. Keep watering — especially during the heat of the summer months. Another problem with straw bale gardens is mushrooms. If the mushrooms bother you, you can pick them off and throw them out. Never eat mushrooms growing on a straw bale. Straw bale gardening offers gardeners a great opportunity to try their hand at organic gardening practices without spending a great deal of time or money on soil conditioners.
You can scale your garden up or down each year, depending on how many bales you buy and how much you want to grow. Best of all, once the garden is done for the year, you can spread the used straw on your compost pile so that all those nutrients can return to the soil to be used again.
Beginner's Guide to Straw Bale Gardening. Add to Cart. Add to Wish List Add to Compare. Choose a Location To build a straw bale garden, you will need space in your yard that receives bright, full sun. For an average straw bale garden, you will need: Sheets of newspaper or cardboard to place under the bales A hand trowel A garden hose Organic fertilizer — especially bone meal or blood meal Straw bales Soil or compost if you need to direct-sow seeds Straw Bale Gardening Instructions Place a sheet or two of newspaper or cardboard on the ground where you want your garden.
Days 1 to 3: Once your straw bales are in place, take the garden hose and water each bale thoroughly. Soak it with water. You need to do this once a day for three days to start the conditioning process. The bales begin to decompose. As the microorganisms start to work, the inside of the bale heats up. Days 4 to 6 : On days 4, 5 and 6, you will need to sprinkle the top of the bale with fertilizer.
Sprinkle each bale with one cup of ammonium sulfate OR half a cup of urea The numbers after the name of the material refer to the amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and potash in the fertilizer — an industry-standard measurement.
These are high nitrogen sources, and they also speed up decomposition and conditioning. After sprinkling the fertilizer onto the top of each bale, water it thoroughly into the straw.
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