My straw bales won't cook! (NE Wis./Zone 5a)

Hey all :)

I am starting to feel extremely frustrated. :(

We've had our straw bales for about a month now. I let them sit out in the sun for about a week, then started watering them daily -- religiously -- and have only missed 2 days total (one of those days it rained, the other was just cloudy).

Most of the first week I watered with just plain water. The last two weeks I have been watering in high-nitrogen fertilizer. I started with MG lawn fertilizer (whoever knew that was high in nitrogen??) and have been applying 46-0-0 commercial fertilizer every day since. Based on Kent's 2006 article, I was applying about a 1/4 cup of the 46-0-0 commercial per bale, per day.

When the internal temperature of the bales didn't increase after a week, I increased that to 1/2-3/4 cup of the 46-0-0 commercial daily (per bale), and have been watering that in for a week now.

The internal temp STILL hasn't gone up!! Not even a teeny, tiny bit! :(

It's not "that" cold here... highs in the upper-60s to mid-70s, lows in the 40s. We had a short stretch of 2 days in the mid-80s. The bales never dry out during the day, not even remotely, and not even when it was so warm. Those 2 days I skipped watering? -- the bales were STILL WET inside. We have had almost all clear blue sky, sunshiny days... very little rainy weather.

Most of the bales get about 8 hrs of full sun. 3 or 4 of them get about six hours. There is no difference in the grass sprouting, temperature, nor amount of decomposition in any of the bales -- they all look exactly the same regardless of how much sun each gets. They are on the sunniest patch we have on the property. We live just north of the 45th parallel, around 45.2°N (to give you an idea of the intensity of the sun).

I've had 3 of the bales sprout a couple blades of grass in the past 2 weeks. Literally, a couple blades... one here, two there. They died off and I haven't had any new sprouts in 3 or 4 days now.

The center strip of the bales (which gets the most fertilizer) is looking a little darker compared to the rest of the straw, like it is aging or starting to break down. When I stick my finger in the bales (hard to do!!), it is cool and wet, and a little slimy. I have no mushrooms anywhere.

Oh! And I have the world's biggest SPIDERS living in my bales!! Spiders! Every time I water, several big creepy spiders go running out of the bales. Seriously folks, that right there is enough for me to stop this little project right now. *shudder*

So today I got PO'd at the lack of any progress at all, and poured Miracle Gro 15-30-15, a liberal helping of Osmocote, and 1 cup of the 46-0-0 commercial fertilizer on each bale. And I watered with LESS water because I was REALLY worried about just flushing the MG through. If this combo doesn't get 'em cooking, or at least growing in SOME way, I don't know what on earth will??

(Well, I suppose I could try lighting them on fire, that would be warm, right?)

Am I missing something here? According to Kent's instructions, I'm not supposed to need any more than 1/2 cup of 34-0-0 for THREE DAYS, then 1/4 cup of the same for FOUR DAYS, to make the bales all magically cooked and prepped. Yet I am applying more 46-0-0 than that, for 3x as long, and my bales aren't budging even a tiny bit over "cool" on the inside.

Ideas? Thoughts? Secret handshakes? Decoder rings?

Thanks so much for your help!! =)

:) Karin

Well........ absolutely no change today. Still wet inside, still cool, and not a sprout of anything, anywhere. Obviously they just aren't breaking down. Reminds me of Jeanette's bales last year!!

So, this fall I will buy our bales for NEXT year, so they are ready by spring... like that fellow in Alberta in Zone 2a. I guess that's what it's gonna take. *shrug*

In the meantime, I'm doing my final prep watering today and I'm going to plant tomorrow. Enough is enough! =)

:) K

There you go! When I first began here in 3b/4a I never got a temp rise either - but when they got slimey inside it was time to plant - Getting bales in the fall and leaving them out all winter is the way to go for us northerners - then they act/look/etc like those of the southerners posting here - another thing you will find is that by fall when you are finished this year the bales will not have decomposed much either - but they will have decomposed sufficiently that keeping them for a second year is not a good idea.......mine go into the compost pile and are totally broken down by spring....You may have a problem with the amount of fertilizer you put on while frustrated - so if your plants die off - soak the bales and rinse out the excess nitrogen:

My bales never did heat up either. But they did break down and have sprouted and all kinds of shrooms are popping up. I think in colder weather everything just happens slower.

Awesome =) thanks for the feedback!! And thank you for letting me know what to expect as far as decomposition through this summer -- that helps a lot, I won't panic when they don't fall apart. =) LOL!!

I will water them again today (plain water/no nitrogen) and then maybe plant tomorrow. That way the bales will have been watered 2x with plain water, which hopefully will flush out the excess nitrogen.

THANK YOU again! Glad to know I am not the only one experiencing this!

:) K

garden2heaven: I think Perry is right on the money with his suggestions for the colder-climate gardeners.

I don't follow my 2006 instructions any more. I haven't added ANY nitrogen to my bales during the initial preparation for 2 years.

Just moisture and time.

If your bales are sprouting, that's a good indication that they are ready for transplanting, but the longer they decompose, the better plant hosts the bales get.

I have 40 bales doing nothing but biding their time for 2011.

Kent

I absolutely second Perry's suggestion as well for us northerners. This year I used only new bales rather than letting some sit out all winter. In the past the weather has cooperated so that the bales did follow Kent's original 10-12 day schedule. But this spring has been cool with a couple of intermittent hot days and cool nights. Like Karin, I thought the bales would never heat up. I didn't get the hose hooked up until two weeks after putting them out (May 2) and Mother Nature was not helpful in watering them sufficiently. But once I thoroughly wet them I added more urea and blood meal in alternate succession. Still the bales did not heat up until we got a couple of sunny days with temps in the high 80's. Only then did things start cooking but the high internal temps (120 degrees plus) were in the hay bales (I'm trying a few this year) not in the straw. Some of the straw did go over 100 but most only hit the mid 90's. When I checked a couple of bales that had not had any fertilizer added they had reached the same temps (high 90's) as those with fertilizer! So it seems that the fertilizing wasn't a major factor and one can save a lot of money just letting the bales sit and do their own thing! The important thing for this area is finally getting some hot, sunny days! Most of the bales have finally heated up somewhat, cooled, softened and are sprouting mushrooms. But it has been a chore on some of them cutting holes for planting since they didn't soften enough. I will finish planting them tomorrow, which is late for me.
This fall ALL my bales will be set out in place for spring planting! In this climate the bales decompose enough by fall that I can combine two bales to equal one plus I get good compost or mulch from them. I should have to buy only 10 - 12 new ones to set out.

Well, things are moving along with the Osmocote + MG Blooms that I applied last week. I'm FINALLY getting grass growing straight out the sides of the bales... not a lot, but about 12-18 blades on a couple of the bales. I also have far fewer spiders!! Hooray!! =)

(Although I did chase another fat spider w/ an egg sack out of the one bale as I was watering, YUKK!! I pray that's my last one. I've had enough of those!!)

I got five of our bales planted this afternoon. All of our tomatoes are in + 1 pepper plant. I did some bales with 2 tomato plants/bale , and others with 3 plants/bale.

I'm going to plant some of the peppers 3 per bale, and maybe some of the green peppers @ 4/bale. We have 2 x Big Daddy Yellow pepper plants, an Anaheim, a Pinot Noir, a couple of large green/red mix (can't remember the name) and then eight - EIGHT! - plain ol' green peppers. Yeesh! I have a feeling I'm going to be eating a LOT of stuffed peppers later this summer.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I hope to plant the rest of our veggies. I don't remember all the exact varieties, but we have broccoli, zucchini, and yellow squash for sure. We also have celery but I'm going to plant that in a container instead so it can be watched more closely.

Now that we have the bales and I've got them all watered and ready to go, Mom's new fascination is with CONTAINER gardening. *rub eyes* I want to give her whatever she wants, but yikes! I don't even have the bales planted yet, let alone really growing things in them or maintaining them, and now we're jumping into container gardening! I seriously need a bigger brain, and at least 2 bodies to get everything done. =) LOL!!!!!

Thanks again, everyone, for the feedback about the bales. It helped TREMENDOUSLY. I'll post pics as soon as the rest of the bales are planted & we get a decent/sunny day again.

:) K

K - So what did you end up doing about the containers. I look at my bales as a form of container gardening, lol. Then, you could always use large containers and fill them straw - I have seen folk on DG use milk crates as containers filled with hay, or even trash cans with holes. Of course she may be thinking more decorative....

How did your bales work out in your northern climes? I am guessing your season is about to close down soon.

I bought a bunch of white styrofoam containers at Wally's for $1.88 ea. and filled them with soil & lined them up in a row along our front deck (one layer on the ground & a second layer up on the deck). The plants in containers are producing better than our plants in bales. I think this is because the nutrients run through the bales faster than they do in the containers.

They ALL would have done better if I had fertilized more often. A lot of days it was just too darn much work to mix up & apply fertilizer (I am sick or have a migraine many days) so our plants under-produced as a result. I mean, we are still getting a nice harvest :) but it would have probably been double if I had been spot-on with the fertilizing. But I did the best I could, and learned a lot, so that hopefully next year we can do better.

We were also hit pretty hard by powdery mildew and cabbage worms. The cabbage worms have completely stunted our brussels sprouts and I keep forgetting to mix up & apply the Bt to kill them. : The powdery mildew is treated easily enough with a Neem Oil product in a spray bottle, but again follow-through is my stumbling block.

Finally, the biggest problem entirely was my ignorance regarding fertilization of squash! I didn't realize there were male & female flowers and that the bees weren't doing their jobs! LOL!!! :) So now I am out there nearly every morning helping the squash & zukes make babies. :-P Even so, we've only got 2 acorn squash on the vine, and have harvested 1 yellow squash & 1 zucchini each. Kind of a disappointment. The whole squash/zucchini thing has been such a frustration this year that I am not at all sure I will even bother with them next year. I am rather amazed by people who have harvested dozens of them this year. I had to bend over backwards to get 1 of each so far, and my subsequent efforts at the plant porn have failed in rather epic fashion. :( Our cucumbers are also completely under-producing and are generally a waste of space.

No matter what, I GREATLY prefer planting in containers & bales rather than the ground. I realized that raised gardening requires a lot more watering, but I love not having to kneel, do any major weeding or bend over to maintain the garden. Just the accessibility of it has made it possible for both me and my Mom. We're looking at getting 36 bales next year. I have learned what does/doesn't work for trellising (namely that what I built this year DIDN'T work) and now I know what I need to build for next year. Next year's trellises (which are already mapped out in my head) will be free-standing & will work perfectly for both bales & containers.

I don't mean to leave the impression that this project was a failure -- not at all!! We have several bowls filled with tomatoes, and soon will have to start freezing them. We ARE getting a nice harvest of tomatoes and will have a bunch to preserve for winter. This has been good therapy for me and I learned a lot. And I feel very proud for having accomplished something and contributed something so valuable to my family. I wish it was more, but again, I did the best I could. :)

Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful suggestions & support!! :) :)

Ditto that. Although I may feel frustrated at times, I am learning so much along the line. A lot of what we fight are no so easily controlled by us, like insects, 2 legged and 4 legged invaders and the weather. We have to learn to work around and with those adversaries. Even though DH talks about us moving (he has said that for several years), I continue to plot different layouts and plant/veggie additions for next year. We are blessed here to be able to work in the garden and continue to plant just about year 'round. Although we can get some freezes that can kill some plants, the ground never really freezes. We lived in WI as a child (Milwuakee, Stevens Point) and I remember long winters, so you have lots of time to plan - in your head and on paper.

Well you 2 you've done good. You have some tomatoes etc. and some to freeze yet!! My tomatoes are hanging like green croquet balls on the plants. With 55 degrees today and most of the "summer?" has been like this. We actually had one and a half months of decent weather that got the plants to grow. So? Where are the red tomatoes?

Now there are sections in the area that have actually had freezes already. Guess I may not get any of them to turn. Oh well, this was a LOST summer.

So fried green tomatoes are the order of the day?

How many can you eat?

Never tried them, and could technically make my own what with the number of green ones I currently have. But here, we are still hot (100*+) and are likely to have hot to warm for a couple more months. I found a rash of little green triangular shaped bugs (crunchy-beetle looking) feasting on my Brandywines. They were not on all the maters. Brandywines are very prolific in foliage, but not in tomatoes.

Well, you will have a lot of nice red ones soon. I am green with envy.