Topic: Growing in straw bales?

[Digeroo]

I am doing very well with mine at the mo.  I have two planted up with courgettes though one is struggling but since the other three are particularly good I do not hink that is anything to do with the bale.  There is a slight problem with wind so I have put a row of plastic bottles along the edge of the bale.  Seems easy enough to stick canes into the bale to hold them in place.  I have another with beans in it and another two now ready to be planned up this week.

They are also acting as windbreaks to some more courgettes/squash and a couple of melons which like the gentle warmth very much indeed.  I love them.  I am looking forward to picking dwarf beans without bending down. They are now growing wheat as well so are starting to turn green. 

So far really impressed.   I am planning to buy some more.  Just so easy.  No digging, no weeding, no mess.    Only a slight issue with sourcing the liquid compost accelerator.   I think in future I will make the holes for planting before I apply this. 

Has anyone tried strawberries in them?  So much easier picking them.  What are they like after the winter?

Oh other only other downside, they make a terrible mess in the car.

[artichoke]

That's very good news, and thank you for the idea of a wall of bottles to protect the plants, and that of using the bales as  a windbreak for plants in the ground!

Do you think the bales would hold together long enough for the life of a strawberry plant (3 years?)?

[brown thumb]

this makes a interesting read using straw bales, part of my new plot [ 2ndt  one] [fruit next year]is covered with pond liner my son lent me    but to use straw to get crops from it would have been ideal

[Digeroo]

I planted some new strawberries last year and took runners off them which were grown in recycled compost in 1 ltr pots.  These are now cropping this year much better than the mother plants.  So was rather thinking of only having them one year and then scrapping them.  Might give it a go, after all it will only waste £3 for a bale and that could still be used as mulch.  The strawberry plants will be more of less free.

As windbreak they not only cut out the wind but are still gently warm with the decomposition.  At no stage have they got more than warm so I am hoping next year to plant them up sooner and use the warmth to good measure.

The dry weather however is going to make straw difficult to comeby next year and probably more expensive.  In most fields round here the cereal crops are half the height they usually are.

They certainly swamp most weeds brown thumb.  Though I would expect things like brambles and bindweed to grow through them, but you can put the bales on top of a plastic membrane.  So they could do a good job of holding a membrane in place, I doubt a black sheet would lift up at the edges with a large wet bale on it.

In fact you have given me a great idea.  I have an area in my garden which has got out of hand with bindweed, nettles, brambles: more or less a catalogue of nasties.  I did not want to give up entirely on growing on it.  But using straw bales I can kill the weeds and grow veg. 

I am still wondering though about the difficulties of dealing with a partly decomposted bale at the end of the growing season.




 

[artichoke]

<< I am still wondering though about the difficulties of dealing with a partly decomposted bale at the end of the growing season. >>

Spread it out over vacant dug ground to rot away and make worms happy and prevent weeds and stop nutrients leaching away in the winter rain/snow? That is my intention, anyway.

You make a good point about straw bales probably being harder to find and more expensive in the next season.

[brown thumb]

do you think they ll last only 1 year i wonder if any ones used them for more than one year may be by spreading directly on the ground and then planting some thing such as pumpkings etc through the straw i am looking forward to following your progress

[goodlife]

I'm sure bale would last longer than one year. Particularly if you haven't cut  any strings off so they keep together.
Now you've got me thinking of using bales again.. ::) I've got batch of land around my large bramley..usually I've got wild flowers growing  there..but it does look bit messy at times..and I would love to make that area in good use for myself. I've tried to use various crops there but it never does that well as the the tree is so large that it really 'suck' any goodness out of the soil.
But putting membrane down and using bales...hmmm... ;D ;D OH JOY!..choises choises..why didn't I never thought that before..and I used to store some bales on pallets on that spot.. ::) It was all there...but my brain never made the connection..instead I used the straw for mulching or for chickens..
Well..I'm having to do some calls now and trying to get hold of some small bales for next year..and excersise my bladder..I'll be needing lot of the 'stuff' when the time comes... ;D 

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I am still wondering though about the difficulties of dealing with a partly decomposted bale at the end of the growing season If you don't want to use it as mulch elsewhere..you can always just spread it 'flat' on the membrane and drop the new bales on top of that..after few years you could plant between the bales too..on the new 'ground'.  ;) ..that's what I think I'm going to do.. ;D

[brown thumb]

loads of ideas bumping to gether in my skull by the time i get  hold of some bales it  would  be most likely too late for this year i  must get organized for next year loads of farms by me surrounded by them shouldn't be any problem to get some do you think farm straw is safe ist there some kind of weed killer that could be infecting  straw and manure

[Digeroo]

Courgettes looking very bonny but dwarf french beans looking rather sick.  Presume straw may have been strayed with a few things. 

[artichoke]

They certainly need a lot of watering -  but here in East Sussex, everything does. I have cut fat courgettes (?5) and I can see winter squashes developing, and there is one Italian squash (Marina di Chioggia Winter Squash) that is romping across the bales, and also my other allotment, as if it wants to take over the world.

Does anyone know: is it a problem for courgettes etc to bear huge jungles of leaves? I ask because my neighbour has these, but my straw bales do not. Peering into his plants (by invitation), I cannot see much in the way of edible stuff.......

[green lily]

Sounds as if he's gone a bit strong on the nitrogen  to get the leaves and slow on the potash for the flowers/fruit..... A dose of tomato fertilizer might help get the fruit going.

[Digeroo]

Took this pic a couple of weeks ago, so they are much bigger now.  But as you see looking very bonny.  Pity about the beans.