Has anyone tried "straw bale gardening"?

The conditioning recipe copied from your link

Straw bale gardening
Wheat oats rye or barley straw - not hay
First lay down galvanized wire bird netting. Lay bales on top string side out and cut ends up (OR THE OTHER WAY W/Plastic twine so water doesn't run through)



Conditioning recipe (or start 6 months B4 w/o fertilizer)
Day 1 Sprinkle 1/2 cup per bale Ammonium nitrate (AN)(34nitrogen-0phosphorus-0potassium) fertilizer then water, water, water until it runs out the bottom
Day 2, water
Day 3, 1/2 cup AN and more water
Day 4, water
Day 5, 1/2 cup AN and more water
Day 6, water
Days 7-9 1/4 cup AN and more water
Day 10, 1 cup 10-10-10 per bale and more water

Keep watered 2/day if necessary. Soaker hose over top

 
Straw Bale Gardening Data Sheet W.Virginia U.

Simple explanation with a slightly different conditioning recipe and planting suggestions

Preparing Your Bales - It takes 10 days to prepare your bales.
Days 1–3: Water the bales thoroughly and keep them wet.
Days 4–6: Sprinkle the bales with 1/2 cup of urea (ammonium nitrate 34-0-0) per bale per day, and water it well into the bales. I didn’t have any trouble finding ammonium nitrate from my local ag-supply store. They sold it in 50-pound bags. I have heard, however, that some people have had difficulty finding it in more urban settings. Ask around. (See more about ammonium nitrate at the bottom of this page.)
Days 7–9: Cut back to 1/4 cup of ammonium nitrate per bale per day and continue to water it in well.
Day 10: No more ammonium nitrate, but do add 1 cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer per bale and water it in well.
Day 11: Stick your hand into the bail to ck for warmth. If they are cooler than your body temp, plant. Transplant your plants into the bales. I used a spatula to make a crack in the bale for each plant. Place the plant down to its first leaf and close the crack back together as best you can.

http://assets.slate.wvu.edu/resources/295/1305558704.pdf

 
Organic conditioning straw bale gardening recipe

From "4 the Love of Family" Blog. Substitute the following recipe for the 34-0-0 conventional fertilizer

In a bucket combine,
2.5T of Bloodmeal 12-0-0
1.77 cups of Dr. Earth's 5-7-3
1.25 cups of Milorganite 5-2-0
.68 cups of Milorganite 6-2-0

To reach the 10-10-10 ratio I use:
1.77 cups of Dr. Earth's 4-4-4
1.77 cups of Dr. Earth's 5-7-3

"Using organic nitrogen sources means it might take a few extra days for the bales to be 100% ready for planting. Use your best judgement - if it's been cool, you probably want to condition a few extra days - it can't hurt! We set our bales out over a week ago so mother nature could give a few extra soakings before we officially start conditioning."

http://thisfamilyof4.blogspot.com/2011/04/organic-straw-bale-garden-conditioning.html

 
thanks Marilyn and Colleen! can't wait for Joe to add his thoughts. I think this would work up here

if straw bales aren't prohibitively costly. Must check it out.

 
In the 70s I gardened in bushel baskets of mulch- worked great. Same principal

I used dried grass clippings, dried leaves then I tried mulched tree branches and it worked the best. Ang, I'm sure you could find something that will work for you in AK. Bales of straw or hay are prohibitive cost-wise here in HI too. But just try to find bushel baskets these days smileys/smile.gif Wooden crates would do fine. Not plastic- would hold the moisture too much.

Another popular gardening method at the time was to just take large bags of potting soil, cut an "X" in the bag and plant tomatoes or whatever right in the bag.

I'm actually thinking of doing something with mulch here as our soil is very hard red dirt clay.

 
I saw a demo of this at Sunset Magazine and considered it, now considering Sq Ft Garden...

They had a demo garden of this a couple yrs ago when I went to Sunset Magazine's yearly open house celebration weekend. I thought it looked cool and considered trying it, but getting the bales home (from I know not where) would be a challenge. I thought, well if I put the top-down maybe, but...wait, woops - bad idea. I could just see it flying down the freeway! Also, I will say, it seemed to take up a good chunk of space and use more water from what I've read. Sunset had them double stacked so there was no bending - really liked that.

I got the Square Foot Gardening book from the library a couple of days ago. So am considering that. HD has 4x4 raised bed no nail kits for $39 making it seem pretty easy to get started. Put down some cardboard/good soil/compost mix right on top of my clay soil.

The garden center had these fabric bag containers (Smart Pots) that looked really interesting too. They loved them because they air prune the plant roots - they come in all sizes, but here is a pix of the big one.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLGhk8dH0HMEF-p51xloFXCF39vZMXlYSYuX9bOD0sUpyV-OLmnQ

 
I've never tried it or seen it tried directly, so I don't have much to add, but I've read that it

works well. My own bias is that it is easier in the long run to amend the soil you have. I've seen the worst soil possible be turned into good topsoil after a few seasons of compost and TLC.

 
our garden bed is in a patch of tundra near the river---the river that flooded over last summer and

deposited all kinds of good river silt and fish(which are now good and rotten---the doggies let us know this fact). so maybe it won't be so hard to amend that soil. raised beds in an 8 foot high fenced plot is what we are dreaming of.

 
gardening in AK fascinates me

because of all of the champion sized produce I've seen pictures of. Here in NorCal even I can grow stuff but I had the toughest time gardening in Maine and gave up. Between the weather and the pests of various sorts that attacked the veggies and that attacked me - black flies, mosquitoes and ticks.
The corn we'd buy from a local farm in Maine was spectacular though as was the milk.

 
thanks from me also

I've bookmarked all of these links and hope to try this soon.

 
I am putting in some of these cement cinder block gardens for the kids this spring.

Well, they are going to build them, I am buying the cinder blocks. You need to scroll down the page about half-way to see them. They cost about a 1.50/each. It will take about 18 blocks for each garden plus the soil. We will dig some up and bring it in, but some I will buy some compost too. I like the idea of planting strawberries and herbs in the holes too. Very efficient use of space. I had a square foot garden in San Diego. It was wood framed and was L-shaped. Each leg measured about 8'x3'. I grew so much in that garden, it was amazing. I amended the soil for a few years and then it was so rich, I barely had to do anything to it. I measured and sawed the wood frame every foot, so I knew the planting squares (not everyone is that anal about it). My friend would tease me that my plants looked like little soldiers. And she was right. I can hardly wait for spring!!!

http://www.almanac.com/blog/gardening-blog/raised-bed-gardening-cheap-and-productive

 
dawn, thanks for the link. I think cinder blocks would be ideal and affordable for our raised beds

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top