this is my first time trying Straw Bales...I live in New Hampshire. I watered the bales for a month prior to planting anything,and waited til memorial day to plant. My tomatoes look like crap, they have early blight i was told at the grain store,and my pumpkin seedlings turned yellow right away after I planted them. I also have eggplants peppers,and zuccini. the only thing that looks ok,are the peppers. the eggplants looked good at first, but now the bottom leaves are turning yellow. we have been getting rainy cloudy days here,so I dont water them much.i fed with some of that fish fertlizer when I first planted,just a little. any help? can early blight be beaten? I was given some spray to use every 7 days.
ugh.
early blight,yellow punkins!
mistresst: I'm doing battle with Early Blight, too. 1st time. Using some copper-based fungicide. We'll see. I feel your pain.
Kent
i wanna hang myself. last year I got late blight,and even tho the tomato plants grew,all the fruit was disgusting.the only thing I got from my garden were gourds! Then I read about straw bale gardens,and now blight...grrrr....heeelllppp!
A buddy brought me some Cabrio, made by BASF:
http://www.agproducts.basf.com/products/cabrio-eg-fungicide.html
I applied 2 days ago.
I had applied a copper fungicide earlier.
We'll see.
Grrrrr is right!!
Kent
What about spraying with neem oil?
:D K
I ripped the dam tomato plants out.......I saw that all the plants left at the grain store(where I got them) were also looking like mine. I put in new healthy plants.Crossing my fingers. My pumpkins are totally yellow tho. dont know if its the straw,or just crappy plants I bought. I fed them twice some fish stuff.I figured that would green them up. but no. My zuccini plants are following in their footsteps.
The things I planted in soil look healthier than whats in the straw...(potatoes, and beets,and the squash seeds I plnated in a few inches of dirt on top of straw.)
mistresst, honestly it sounds like you have a nutrient deficiency.
Pumpkins have high nitrogen and potassium requirements. While fish fertilizer has a higher nitrogen component (5-1-1) yellowing of older leaves is symptomatic of a nitrogen deficiency. Straw bales have NO nitrogen in them. We must add all the nitrogen that our plants need because the bales themselves cannot provide it.
I would recommend doing a few things.
One, I would start fertilizing more often -- even 2-3x/wk for the first couple of weeks, then back off to weekly at a minimum. Since you are not using something as strong as Osmocote or Miracle Gro (which is what Kent is using) the fertilizer you are adding will be depleted more quickly. That means you have to replace it more often.
Two, if you decide to stick with the Fish Fertilizer, that's fine, but you will need to add a second fertilizer than is higher in potassium. (The "K" of N-P-K) I would also recommend adding a Tbsp. of Epsom Salts per gallon of your fertilizer solution. The Mg in the Epsom Salts helps the plants take up the potassium in the fertilizer.
Another option would be to supplement your current fish fertilizer (applied perhaps 1x/wk?) with Miracle Gro Tomato Food and Epsom Salts. I have been *astounded* at how fast and beautifully my plants are growing -- noticeably so, like day-to-day -- when I am good about fertilizing w/ MG Tomato Food. When I added Epsom Salts this last time, I noticed my squash, cucumbers and peppers looked MUCH stronger the next day!! And they are continuing to thrive with new vigor.
:-)
Hope this helps!! I am off to wash my plants down with Dawn dish detergent, LOL... I am battling aphids throughout the garden, and am trying to avoid popping for the neem oil ($$). We'll see how the dish soap works. :-)
Please keep us updated! I'd love to hear how your garden responds to whatever changes you decide to do. :)
:) K
I would say if the feed store's plants,where you got them, look like yours that it was probably their lousy plants. I hope the new plants (you didn't get them at the same place did you) do not get whatevers from the ones you ripped out.
Did you put them in the same place?
If you should have to opt for the Neem Oil check out the Co-op presently in progress for 100% Neem Oil.
well, so far my tomatoes (i bought them at a new store) look green, but they arent growing. My pumpkins and zuccini,and eggplants are just yellow,and stunted. I will try the feeding garden2heaven suggested. i planted spaghetti squash seeds into 2 inches of dirt atop a bale, they came up, but they are gonna fall out of the dirt soon....:( some rougue corn from last year sprounted from under a blae. watch...that will be the only thing I get!,and yes I stuck the tomatoes in the same bales. had no choice.
this has to work. people think Im a boob for doing it. no one around here has even heard of it!
thank you for your help.
Fertilize, fertilize, fertilize! They are definitely not being fed enough. My plants also did not grow when I was not fertilizing enough; I felt so frustrated, thinking, HOW are people getting such big plants??? Well... they're feeding their plants. I was not. ;-)
I've since also discovered that my watering can was bigger than I thought, so I was feeding them Miracle Grow at HALF strength, and I was only feeding them once every 2-3 weeks which is nowhere near enough.
I changed to the correct strength of solution of Miracle Grow AND am now feeding 2x/week -- every Wednesday & Saturday so I don't forget -- and you would not believe how my plants have exploded! It is wonderful. :) :) I had a pepper plant grow literally six inches overnight... two tomato plants popped five tomatoes between them overnight... and I have 2 tomato plants that have gone from scraggly single-stem 4" pots to veritable BUSHES in under 2 weeks. I'm not saying this to brag! ... trying to explain what a difference ample fertilizing can make.
In hindsight I am sitting here thinking, sheez, no wonder my poor plants weren't growing! They were starving. :-(
Good luck!!
:) K
LOL, K, sounds like you are lucky they are alive.
I thought I said at the very beginning of the season, WATER AND FERTILIZE, WATER AND FERTILIZE, WATER AND FERTILIZE??
No? You didn't hear me? We had several threads going at once, maybe that explains it. But, there are NO nutrients in straw!!! WATER AND FERTILIZE.
K, So glad you got it before your poor little plants croaked.
Mistresst, WATER AND FERTILIZE. In that order.
Jeanette
ok,ok! i just fed them the MG tomato food. everything out there. I will report back with my results. thanks!
LOL, ok, we want to hear those plants singing!
mistresst, I doubt that you'll have much success with the beets and root veggies in straw, but squash and pumpkins should be doing great! I use hay, and mine are NUTS! But, as Jnette said, the straw doesn't really offer you anything other than a weed-free raised venue for your plants. So you need to fertilize regularly and according to the needs of each individual vegetable.
That's one of the great things about bale gardening, once you get the hang of it - you're only watering/fertilizing the actual plants you're growing, rather than a large expanse of soil (and accompanying weeds). I personally highly recommend the hay bale method, since it offers both many of the nutrients that your plants will need and much better water retention. I garden organically, and so am just using fish emulsion (in addition to the nutrients in the hay) and epsom salts every now and then for my tomatoes. Next year, I hope to get set up to keep manure/compost tea by the garden to supplement the feeding.
Good luck to you! As with anything new, you need to get the feel for it, but you'll be happily and abundantly bale gardening before you know it!
(squash plant below)
wow.....! the plants have totally perked up since Ive been feeding the Miracle grow every week, with a little of the epsom salt. they are greener,and actually have sprouted some little tomatos. Is there anything else I should feed them? They are still kinda small for tomato plants. my friends are like 5 feet tall!(regular garden)
Its funny I planted corn last year and it came up deformed, this year some came up by itself, and its coming out good. also have a surprise gourd,thats healthier than anything I planted on purpose!!! pshhh!
thank you for your help!!!
Sounds like you have it dialed in.