Grober Green

Hay or Straw Bale Gardening is a method of gardening in which plants are grown in straw bales, usually wheat or oat straw, rather than in soil. Because it is a mostly soil-less method, it is sometimes considered a form of hydroponic gardening. It is suitable for many types of annuals, and is especially used for vegetable gardening.

Advantages of Straw Bale Gardening

There are many reasons why gardeners turn to straw or hay bale gardens.

1. Probably the most common is poor or difficult soil.
2. A straw bale requires no tilling or mixing of soils to allow for drainage.
3. Because the plants are a couple of feet off of the ground, it also makes gardening much easier for the disabled, older gardeners, or just for those who want to avoid back pain.
4. Bales are far, far less prone to weeds, and Bale Gardening devotees report fewer pest problems. This means that straw bale gardening makes organic or low-chemical gardening all the easier. 

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Choose the Bales

• Most straw bale gardeners recommend wheat straw, success with oat straw as well as mixed grass or alfalfa bales. Do not use pine straw.
• When choosing your bales you’ll want them bound with synthetic twine, which won’t rot and allow your planting bed to collapse (if you cannot find synthetic twine, you’ll need to use some sort of stakes as support).
• Try to find older bales that have already begun rotting when you can, though not those that are so far gone as to have lost some of their structure.

Before you start the curing process, place your bales.

• They will be constantly wet once you start curing, and will be very heavy and difficult to move.
• Most bale gardeners prefer to have the bales oriented with the straw vertical for better root penetration, but this is a matter of preference.

Cure your Bales

The curing process will take about ten days, or longer if you are not using chemicals.

• First, soak the bales and keep them wet for three days, using fine water spray.

Organically

• Use blood meal (2lb per bale), fish fertilizer – or Digestate from Manure Digester .
• Wrap the bales in plastic.
• Soak the bales every day for 4 – 5 days with water and fertilizer.
• After the 4- 5 days, the straw is softer.
• After 10 days ready for planting
• Remove the plastic.

Regular

• Wrap the bales in plastic.
• Soak in water
• On the fourth day sprinkle the bales lightly with about five ounces of ammonium nitrate.
• After the 4-5 days, the straw is softer.
• Continue soaking, and on the seventh day add another two and a half ounces of ammonium nitrate. Continue soaking, and on the tenth day add one cup of 13-13-13 or 10-10-10 fertilizer and water in.
• After 10 days ready for planting
• Remove the plastic

To cure without chemicals, you may to keep the bales soaking for around three or four weeks to allow them to start breaking down. When you start to soak them, they will become noticeably warm or even hot. Do not plant until they have cooled down.

Tomatoes, peppers pop up in straw bale gardens

 Grow and Enjoy

• Depending on what you’re growing and how much fertilizer and compost you use on the bales, you may need to fertilize lightly throughout the growing season.
• Small amounts of artificial fertilizer , or a compost tea..
•  Unlike traditional gardening, your plants will be getting next to no nutrients other than what you add to the straw (though over fertilizing is often more dangerous for your plants than under fertilizing is).
• It is also very important to keep the bales moist throughout the growing season.
  • The bales should retain water surprisingly well, and many gardeners report that they actually use significantly less water with straw bale gardening than they did with traditional methods, but you will certainly need to keep an eye on your plants to make sure that they don’t dry out between waterings.
• One great thing about hay bale gardens is that you will probably not be able to overwater them, as they will allow the excess to drain right out.
• You should be able to reuse your wheat straw bales for one year.
  • After that you can compost them, or just break them up where they sit and put new bales over them.
  • This will enrich the soil below and encourage worms to come in and improve it.

Plants to Plant

• Annuals of vegetables, herbs or flowers will love it.
• Bales will be history in 1-2 years.
• Young plants can go straight in. Pull apart or use a trowel and depending on the state of the straw, put a handful of compost soil in too, then let the straw go back into place.

1. Seeds can be planted on top if you put a layer of compost soil there first.

2. Top heavies like corn and okra, are not so good, unless you grow dwarf varieties. With straw bale gardening it’s hard to put solid stakes in so big tomato plants are out, although they will happily dangle over the edge.

3. Each bale should take up to half a dozen cucumbers, trailing down. Squash, zucchini, melons — maybe 3 plants, or a couple of tomato plants per bale with one or two herbs and leafy veggies in between. Four pepper plants will fit or 12-15 bean or pea plants.

4. There’s no limit and why not poke in around the side a plant or two of some flowering annual for colour and companion if you like.

5. Once every 1-2 weeks water in a liquid organic feed, such as compost tea or fish emulsion. Tip some worms on top if you want to use your bales only one season.

6. It’s simple to pull out any wayward grain seeds with straw bale gardening, but with hay bales you may need to occasionally give them a haircut rather than try and pull the tenacious new sprouts out.

• Not recommend bale growing with root crops, as the roots will be compressed by the straw and will be difficult to harvest.
• Very tall crops, such as corn or pole beans, will tip the bale over without some sort of support system. Smaller plants are easier to transplant into bales, so bale growers often transplant somewhat younger than soil gardeners.

Spacing of Plants

• 2 Tomatoes
• 2 Yellow Squash
• 4 peppers
• 6 -8 cucumbers
• 12-15 beans
• space lettuce 6 inches apart

Tips

1. Use one or or as many bales as you need and in any pattern.

• Because straw bale gardening is raised, it’s easy to work with, so make sure you allow for handy access.

2. Wheat or oat straw is best as it’s the stalks left from harvesting grain with very few seed left.

• Hay bales are less popular as they are made of whole plants with mucho seeds and often other weeds in. Use what you can get locally — it may even be lucerne or pea straw bales.

3. Put the bales in the exact place, because it’s too hard to even nudge these monsters once you’ve got your little straw bale garden factory in full swing.

4. You’ll get one good season out of a bale and usually two, albeit with a bit of sag.

• It makes for great compost or mulch when finished with.

5. Lay them lengthwise to make planting easy by just parting the straw.

• Make sure the string is running around each bale and not on the side touching the ground in case it’s degradable twine.

6. Keep the twine there to hold it all in place and if it does rot, bang some stakes in at both ends, or chock up the ends with something heavy, like rocks, bricks, boxes or plant containers.

7. Starting off with slightly aged bales of about 6 months is best, but if they’re new, thoroughly soak with water and leave for 5 or so days whilst the temperature rises and cooks the inside, then they will cool and be ready for planting.

• They won’t be composting much inside yet, that takes months, but you don’t want that initial hot cooking of your plants.

8. Some sneaky people speed up the process of producing microbes and rot by following a 10-day pre-treatment regime of water and ammonium nitrate on the top of each bale. But, hey, organic gardeners are a patient lot aren’t we, so let’s follow nature?

9. Keep watered. That’s going to be your biggest task.

• Straw bale gardening uses more water than a normal garden, so set up a system now. It may be that swilling out the teapot on it each day is enough in your area, or you may need to keep the hose handy.
• Plant flowers around the base for a fun look to your bale garden