The idea is basic: As the straw starts to decompose it transforms into a rich, compostable grower that is perfect for developing vegetables.
Advantages of straw bales
- The ability to place an instant garden wherever the sun shines
- An approach to keep away from ineffective drainage, hard-to-work or infected soil
- A far less relentless gardening knowledge, eliminating digging and weeding
Think about the straw parcel as a large container with a volume of 40 gallons. Not at all like a grower loaded with fertilized soil, the bale starts life as a basically clean medium. By season’s end, it is changed into a somewhat treated the soil mass of natural matter that is overflowing with life. After the crops are harvested, the material makes a perfect top-dressing to garden beds or a valuable addition to the compost pile.
Start small!
That way you can check whether the method works for you. You can plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, cucumbers, lettuce and different greens, leeks, garlic, carrots, beets, radishes, herbs etc.
You can find bales at garden centers. Wheat-straw bales are best, though different vegetables, such as hay and buckwheat, are reasonable substitutes. Avoid hay bales, which are often quite a bit cheaper. They frequently incorporate dried grasses with bunches of seeds. Moreover, they brake down too rapidly and end up plainly weedy. Pine straw does not function admirably either. It isn’t absorbent and it composts too slowly.
Vegetable crops require no less than eight hours of sun a day. More is better. Ensure you have easy access to water, as well. You can develop crops from seed or plant seedlings — as you would in a raised bed or in the ground. For seedlings, consider tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and spring greens. In case you’re planting from seed, begin with beans, cucumbers and squash. Carrots, beets, sweet potatoes and potatoes can be grown, however are somewhat trickier.
How to prepare the bales
Before you can plant in the bales, they need some special preparation, so buy the bales at least two weeks before you want to plant. Place the bales where you want to grow; once they are prepared, they will be too heavy to move.
The first week
- Water the bale thoroughly, until water runs out the bottom of the bale. Sprinkle the surface with a nitrogen source (Conventional lawn fertilizer (29-0-4 NPK). Make sure it doesn’t include pre-emergent weed-killer. Use 1/2 cup per bale, per application) , applying at the recommended rate.
- Every other day, add more of the nitrogen source; water thoroughly. Do it a total of three times during the first week.
- On the days you don’t apply nitrogen, just water the bales thoroughly.
The second week
- For the next three days, apply the nitrogen source daily at half the original rate. Follow up with thorough watering.
- After three days of adding nitrogen, water daily.
- At the end of the week, sprinkle each bale with 2 cups of balanced fertilizer, such as organic 5-5-5. Water thoroughly.
The nitrogen jump-starts the composting process and creates an ideal environment for plant roots. Over the course of the two weeks, the bales heat up considerably and can reach temperatures of 125 degrees F or more.
After the two weeks of treatment, the bales are ready for planting. The internal temperature should be about 75 to 80 degrees F, which you can verify with a compost thermometer. Probe from side of the bale, about halfway down. Low-tech option: Use your finger. The interior should feel warm, but not hot. If the bale still feels too hot, wait another couple days and check again.
How to plant
To plant seedlings — tomato, pepper, eggplant and greens — make a gap or divot in the top of the bale and set the roots in place. Fill in around the roots with a good-quality, peat-based potting soil, ensuring that the seedlings are well-seated and level with the surface of the bale. Water gently and, if needed, add more soil to fill gaps and stabilize the seedling. Plant no more than two tomato, pepper or eggplant seedlings per bale.
To plant crops from seed, spread a 2-inch layer of moistened, peat-based potting soil on the top of the bale. Avoid bagged “topsoil,” which is too coarse for good germination and can become waterlogged. Tamp it down, make it smooth and water lightly. Plant seed at the recommended depth and spacing. Be sure to water regularly during germination.
Care for the bales
Bales can dry out quickly because they are above ground and permeable. Be sure to water regularly. Drip irrigation or a soaker hose, draped across the top, works well.
Similarly, regular feeding is important, because frequent watering will lead to nutrient loss more quickly. Feed your crops once a week with a balanced, water-soluble plant food.
By the end of the season, the bales will break down, the extent depends on the crops grown in them and the weather. Some hold up well enough to plant garlic in the fall. Others collapse into a rich mound of compost, perfect for adding to containers, amending garden beds or tossing in the compost pile.
Source: www.gardeners.com
