Giving it a go in 2010

Hello all you straw balers!
I've been lurking in the area for a while now and have decided to give it a go this year. I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions to throw at everyone's way, but for now I'll leave it at I'm going to give it a shot this year. Thanks everyone!
Mike

Mike, if you get snowed in start reading from the first of the strawbales in what? 2006, or 2007? Not sure. You can learn a lot from that. Like reading a book.

Welcome aboard!!

Jeanette

Jeanette,
Thanks for the warm welcome! I've been reading that stuff for a few days now. I have learned tons from it already. Looking forward to sharing and learning with you all this season.

Mike

Mike, welcome aboard, "neighbor"! LOL

I'd give $5 for a home-grown tomato about now!!! :-)

Keep the info coming folks, I think there is a lot of us new bale gardeners this year! How many bales you planting Mike?

Hello Mike, and all. I'm gonna just tag along here because I'm giving strawbaling a go too.

Looking forward to learning more.

Great! New talent. Just remember that everyone likes to try their own thing and there is no right or wrong way. Whatever works!

Jeanette

Jnette, you underestimate us...
There is always a wrong way, and I am determined to find it.

Cheers~

Well, if you are determined to be wrong then you might be wasting your time. Because it just might work and give you a lot of tomatoes if you planted squash seed.

Thanks Kent!

Rat,
I'm planning on 12 to 20 depending on how ambitious I get. I am still trying to track down a local source for the bales. It may be a few more weeks for me.

Allwild, Give yourself more credit. You'll do fine just reading here. I've learned so much since I joined this site.

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome and sharing your successes.

Mike

Kent, are we bidding on a home-grown ripe tomato? I will go $7.50.

Thanks Mike!

I'm rather non-conventional at gardening anyway, so getting pretty excited about trying this method. I've already got 13 wheat straw bales in place. (I got them from the local Farmers Coop) Will be trying bonemeal to warm them up when it's time. Probably going to get some seeds wintersown soon too. I don't drink milk or sodas, so have to make do with my imagination and whatever kinds of containers I can use. Having fun so far!

Jeanette: my bidding fluctuates based on my desire level. Since Lena posted about her garden, I'll raise your bid to and even $8, if it's a Golden Delicious tomato!!

I can't wait to plant!!!

But I know I'm going to have to just focus my energy on something else, like building those "troughs" to put my bales in.

That's right. what is your weather like this year? Our weather right now is more like April or May. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. We have had no snow this year. Maybe 2 inches the most at one time. And that is if we shovel it up in a pile. I don't understand. It was in the 50s today.

Allwild, what do you wintersow?

i am a newbe this year got one bult 48ft long and lumber for one more. i have two beds with dirt 48ft . can"t buy some of the things to put on the bales. the man at m f a told me 20 10 10 would work what do you folks think? good nite for now jim cv45

jim cv45, sorry I don't have the answers you seek but I'm pretty sure someone will !


Hi Jnette, last year I wintersowed a couple of tomatoes that really produced for me; they were heirlooms which take longer to fruit (I think) and the tomato seeds that I planted in May, when the temps warmed up were barely fruiting at the end of Sept. Soooo. this year I am going to try wintersowing more tomatoes and some of the cool temp veggies and probably some herbs.

http://WINTERSOWN.ORG

I'm in, too, for the season ahead.

I'm in SW Missouri, zone 6. Haven't figured how to get that info in the heading, yet.

It's snowy and blowy here today and I'm longing for spring. Looks like some folks are ready to set their bales out in the weather, but I was thinking that maybe I should wait a little while. What do you think, Kent and everyone? And should I post questions here or go to the general discussion for that?

I've been reading all the posts from 2006 or whenever up to the present. Now that's a task! But very interesting. I'm hoping this will work for us...and even have convinced my wife it's worth a good try.

Lee

hi irn39. jenette and others will help you out i am new allso. see you latter jlmcv45. jim.

Lee, are you talking about the zone info? I will look in a bit and get back to you. It is in your preference and I thought it was under "my info".

You are rushing the season. I would wait until March, or April. (Per Kent's schedule, it only takes 2 weeks at the most if you stick with it). Depending on your frost date etc. Which by the way, Dave has added a great calculator to the site. In the right hand column on most of the screens.

Unless you have no place else to put them, I would wait. I don't even get mine until late March or April. Our last frost date is late May. Zone 6 probably March or April.

When you go into "my info" at th top of this page, on the bottom of the list is "manage my preference", you can fill in this info. Now I thought your zone info was in there but I don't see it. I will ask Admin where it is.

Am new to DG and have found the information on straw bale gardening something I would like to add to my garden this year. Have spent the last year establishing raised beds (I have a bit of a slope to my garden) but think the use of of the bales will help me grow better tomatoes and open up some of the space in my beds. Although I am in zone 7 near the Virginia coast, I will be planning my new adventures in gardening as I wait and watch the 12" of snow that is predicted tonight. For those who are shopping for cheaper hay bales, you should call any barns or stables in your area. Many times they have "old hay" from a year or two before that they will sell cheaply just to have it removed from the barns before the new hay is bought in late spring. I look forward to reading about everyone else's experiences this spring and letting everyone know how my experiment works out. Have attached a photo from the past year's garden.

nini, looks like you have a good start on gardening. It is very nice that you have access to the bales. Good luck with the bale gardening and please do keep us posted, and we love pictures.

Jnette

Thanks for the comments. Wish the garden still looked like that, at the moment we are buried under 12 inches of snow (and still falling) with drifts. Looking at 18 degrees this evening. Am still trying to figure out where I will put the bales as I have only a certain area in the back yard that gets enough sun for good vegetable growth. I will doing this organically so I will be using fish emulsion as my nitrogen agent. Will keep the group posted how it works out this summer... which at this moment is only a dream.

Hi you all,

I sent an email to admin about the zone info and here is the response I got:

Click My Info...select Manage your preferences...'location' will be in the column at the side of the page. You can select your zone there.

Jeanette

Thank you, Jeanette.

Has anyone tried this in Alaska? I intend to try this spring, but was wondering how well it worked?

AllWild wrote;"Will be trying bonemeal to warm them up when it's time."
Allwild, I've always used bloodmeal to season my bales, will bonemeal work too? It's certainly cheaper. I do prefer to avoid the chemical fertilizers when possible.

And now I'm off to look up Golden Delicious tomatoes, with which I am unfamiliar....

bookie: I think you're our 1st Alaska rep!! Welcome aboard.

catmad: I can't WAIT to plant more Golden Delicious and a few other yellow varieties!!!

Okay, I can't find Golden Delicious :(. I'm very fond of the yellow/gold varieties, almost as much as the Bi-Colors, which are my faves. I do plan on Kellogg's Breakfast and Earl of Edgecombe this year, but still vacilating on some others. Somehow some 'Mater seed ordered themselves, and there are just not enough bales for them all.....

LOL, cat, don't you just hate it when those darned seeds do that? Just jump into your cart? Or show up in the mail, all on their own? They just insist on being planted whether you have room for them or not. Guess that is how they get crowded into too many in a bail.

Cat, have you tried the yellow Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes? If not you really need to.

Now that's not fair. I have avoided finding the Golden Delicious in a search, so was able to be strong, and walk away.
Now, you've forced me into another search, one I fear will be successful. That will lead me to a Dreaded Tomato Site, with those very tricky Shopping Carts, which somehow snag anything one even LOOKS at and makes it impossible to remove them.....
Sigh
Enabler.


Buddy:)

ooohhhh Sun Sugar Cherry tomatoes... just found those this year and ordered my first package. Cannot wait. But I agree, I had told myself that I would only plant 3 tomato varieties and somehow I find myself with 5 varieties and a pineapple tomatillo. I just ordered 3 new Styrofoam inserts for my seed starting and low and behold what did I get free with my order, two complimentary packages of seeds... the tomato Black from Tula and a purple tomatillo... imagine... guess I will need to fire up another strawbale or so for these new unplanned volunteers... imagine my salsa this summer, purple and yellow.. should be interesting.

nini, you will love the Sun Sugars. plant one a little bit away from your tomatoes. That is what they normally do, take a bite out of each one, looking for the perfect tomato I guess. However, when they found the Sun Sugars they sat and ate the whole tomatoes and never bothered mine. Guess they decided they had finally found the perfect tomatoes.

Ok...so I've sat here at the computer all morning reading....reading....readihng....now, the rain has started and I'm off to see if the truck will start so I can go ad get my bales. Hmmmm...I.m a newbee to this and have avoided gardening because I'm nerry a "stooper" or "bender"....got enough of that while growing up in northern Maine and participating in the fall harvesting of potatoes. Humph... $.25 per barrel...thanks to all, pictures to come later..
Jane

Update...

Picking up my bales tonight. 20 of them. With all the seed my wife picked out I would have needed 30 bales to get it done. So we're gonna cut back on the 'maters and just roll with the 20 bales. Anyhow, $2.00 a bale vs. the $5.00 to $7.00 I've found so far at the two stores here that sell em.

I'll get some photos up this weekend maybe after I've put them in place.

Mike

You know Mike, that is awfully tempting to get as many bales as you can at $2. Cripe, I'll take a bunch too. LOL,

But remember, you are going to have to fertilize these plants a lot because the straw has very little nutrients. So, if you are mixing up Miracle Grow fertilizer for, how many plants are you going to have in those 20 or 30 bales? And how often are they going to need that fertilizer? Can't remember, guess we need to ask Kent.

Kent???

I may put in a few bales this year too. I may have to use straw as hay is as rare as hen's teeth in these parts right now. I prefer hay but there are a few straw bales up and down the road in people's yards left over from fall decorations. I may be able to get them for free. Getting them into the truck in one piece after sitting out through the winter will be the challenge. I'm hoping they used nylon baling twine. I have moved and don't have my beds in so bales may be the answer. they did really well for me before.

I am a newbie and just getting started this year I have 5 bales with strawberries now and just purchased 13 more. But of course as usual the way my luck runs I chose a year to start where we have had so much rain that there were no bales available. I wound up driving an hour away and paying $9 a bale for the 13 bales but I am determined. I have started heating up the new bales with a tea made of cow manure and fish emulsion and some medina fertilizer. It stinks but I am hopeing it'll work I have only gave them one dose so far I'll give them another today then check the temps in a couple of days and we'll see how it works....rucky

New folks: welcome aboard.

Don't forget that straw doesn't have any natural based nitrogen; it's mostly carbon. So, you'll have to monitor how you feed your plants. If they start turning yellow they are probably low in N.

Also, don't let those bales dry out. As the bales decompose, they will hold more moisture, so water them regularly at the beginning.