Strawbale gardening....Its workin.... - Page 3

kelleyville · May 27, 2008

I won't be using the triple 10, I did start a compost tea with alfalfa in it specifically for these bales though....my good compost tea can is still not here though, I have one of those garbage cans from school but a black one, and it heats up the tea better...also do not have a pump or with that darned black can and a pond pump I could pump out five gallons of tea a day!

I checked the pH today, mostly between 6 and 7 with a few spikes in different bales that went off my meter, but this is just one of those hand held jobbies you stick in the ground! Tomorrows water may take care of that....more pics of yours as they grow too!

Kelley

GIZZARDFARM · May 28, 2008

Sure sorry for the delay had to take a homicide this week taking new pics today post em up tonight...compost tea good.....I think im gonna plant some melons in my compost pile if i can keep the horses out as well....

Worth1 · May 28, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by GIZZARDFARM

Sure sorry for the delay had to take a homicide this week taking new pics today post em up tonight...compost tea good.....I think im gonna plant some melons in my compost pile if i can keep the horses out as well....

Are you taking pics of the homicide or tomatoes.

I have looked at your pictures and have not responded till now.

The place looks nice.

Worth

GIZZARDFARM · May 28, 2008

Thanks Worth means alot comin from you ive saw your patches and i know your the real deal. I have just now updated the photos check it out....

kelleyville · May 28, 2008

Awesome pics!
I need to set up a space somewhere and get to posting...ya'll gonna laugh at my garden really hard! The collection of junk I am growing in this year well it looks ok until you see it from entering the driveway hehehe!

Tomorrow is bale planting day! I got 8 good sized plants to put in four bales. All came from a friend -two pineapple, two black brandywine, and four Rainbow mix....If my bales are not right they are expendable because I have some potted and staked already and other spares in the wings!

Great garden!
Kelley

Worth1 · May 28, 2008

I'm gonna have to try the bale thing.
the pic's look nice I just looked.

Kelly I have a scrap iron farm next to one of my gardens.

All kinds of wire and lord knows what.
Looks like Sanford and Son around here.

The front is Ok though.

Worth

kelleyville · May 29, 2008

Ok I did it! Tomatoes are planted. Boy it is warm in those bales...especially warm compared to the potting soil the maters were in! They look so puny in those bales I hope they grow fast!

Blog with pictures here:
http://kelleyville-kelleyville.blogspot.com/

Worth, the scrap iron might be fun for me to play with, right now I am using scrap wood, and cutting up 55 gallon barrels... It is kind of scary looking to anyone not the one planting in it hehehe!

dice · May 29, 2008

[Kelley's blog]

Place looks like it will have lots of leaves in the fall.
You should be able to pile up a huge stock of leaf
mold for next spring.

GIZZARDFARM · May 29, 2008

Bales look great Kelley....You will be surprised at how quick the plants will grow...I dont know if you saw but Ive added recent pics to mine. Gene

kelleyville · May 31, 2008

Dice,
Working on getting the leaves raked up, but not in any hurry, got mostly trees and brush on 8.92 acres! I need to mow too, but my mowers are both in storage back where we moved from so that will have to wait!

Gene,
Saw your pics they look great! I am going to plant more things in bales next year, I really want to grow squash in them as everyones squash looks so great!

I got one tomato in a bale that looks pathetic. It was one of the larger ones and I am wondering if I damaged the roots when I put it in. It is just kind of limp. I am giving it a couple of days to see if it perks up. None of the rest of the maters wilted or drooped at all, all though I did get some nitrogen burn on some of the lower leaves.

The bales heated up so fast I wonder if it is necessary to continue to add nitrogen on days 7-9 when preparing?

I guess I need to fertilized with something more balanced in a day or so, I was afraid to put anything else on them when planting because of the high nitrogen I had been putting in the bales and because the dirt the maters were planted in had already been fertilized. I do have a fresh batch of compost and alfalfa tea straining now, and cannot imagine that could hurt anything too badly!

Kelley

dice · May 31, 2008

[Kelley's place]
I am thinking there may be piles of leaves around that
have been there for a year or more. You could use those
to fill your raised beds. As long as the plants in them get
some kind of fertilizer in addition to the leaves, they will
grow in them fine. (I had 3/4 oak leaves in one end of a
raised bed last year, with a little manure and compost,
and a couple of inches of dirt on top. It worked.)

They may have weed seeds, so you might have to pull a few
weeds over the season, but that's a small price to pay to get
free leaf mold, ready to go.

You could try spray feeding the wimpy tomato in the hay bale.
If you have something translucent to cover it with that won't
get too hot (allows some air circulation, like a plastic milk jug
without the top or a plastic grocery bag over a couple of sticks
with some holes in it for air circulation), you could treat it like
a plant that has not been hardened off yet: keep it covered
most of the day and all night, and gradually increase the sun
exposure until it can go all day without looking stressed. The
cover should keep it a little more humid around the plant and
reduce evaporation from the leaves until it grows some more
roots and takes off.

kelleyville · May 31, 2008

Dice,
Great Ideas! Waiting on husband to bring home some more scrap lumber for more raised beds, then I will start really raking my woods! Escpecially closer to the creek! My second batch of seedlings are looking ready to get planted soon, hopefully we will get paid (self employed - no one pays on time) and I can get the next batch of straw bales bought and started!

I am encouraged that the wimpy plant does not look any worse at this time, and is still quite green

Even though it is hot today we are getting a good bit of cloud cover with some nice breezes as storms roll over too fast to stop and rain on me! That may help too! who knows that may turn out to be the strongest plant in the bale

Kelley

GIZZARDFARM · June 1, 2008

We have had rain for three straight days, man are my plants loving that.....nearly all my squash (in the bales) have began to bloom and all of my maters are blooming..Im in day 6 on my last 8 bales and have ran out of ammonium nitrate, Im not going to buy another 50 lbs for a few more cups im going to treat them heavy with 6-12-12 for 3 days and plant maybe it will work. I have changed my mind and am going to put bannana,habenaro, and yellow bell peppers in the last 8. Im still stuck with another 16 cherokee purples,boxcar willies and Brandywines which ill scatter throughout the garden....a few more rows of cucks and okra and my planting will be complete...whew hope your sick one makes it kelley

kelleyville · June 1, 2008

Actually, I now have two more sick ones! I have no idea if they are sick, but I don't think it is the bales because I have 8 maters in four bales. The first sick one is on the left of bale three, the second sick one is in space one of the second bale, and the last one to get sick is the first one in the first bale. Did that make sense? The last sick one is not the same sick as the first two! I am confused! Since I really have no way to over water, I continue to really water heavy hoping to flush the bales a bit and keep the good maters growing.!

Kelley

kelleyville · June 2, 2008

WEll, after my doom and gloom last night, I woke up to find first sick plant better, the top leaves are fluffing out! I fertilized the bales with a compost/alfalfa tea and foliar fed with a weak mixture of same. It seems to have helped! So maybe my plants were all in various stages of shock! Maybe there is hope for all of them!

Either way I am getting more bales!

May 29, 2008	#38
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	[Kelley's blog] Place looks like it will have lots of leaves in the fall. You should be able to pile up a huge stock of leaf mold for next spring. __________________ -- alias

May 31, 2008	#41
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	[Kelley's place] I am thinking there may be piles of leaves around that have been there for a year or more. You could use those to fill your raised beds. As long as the plants in them get some kind of fertilizer in addition to the leaves, they will grow in them fine. (I had 3/4 oak leaves in one end of a raised bed last year, with a little manure and compost, and a couple of inches of dirt on top. It worked.) They may have weed seeds, so you might have to pull a few weeds over the season, but that's a small price to pay to get free leaf mold, ready to go. You could try spray feeding the wimpy tomato in the hay bale. If you have something translucent to cover it with that won't get too hot (allows some air circulation, like a plastic milk jug without the top or a plastic grocery bag over a couple of sticks with some holes in it for air circulation), you could treat it like a plant that has not been hardened off yet: keep it covered most of the day and all night, and gradually increase the sun exposure until it can go all day without looking stressed. The cover should keep it a little more humid around the plant and reduce evaporation from the leaves until it grows some more roots and takes off. __________________ -- alias Last edited by dice; May 31, 2008 at 11:15 AM. Reason: clarity

May 27, 2008	#31
kelleyville Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Covington, GA 30016 7b? Posts: 321	I won't be using the triple 10, I did start a compost tea with alfalfa in it specifically for these bales though....my good compost tea can is still not here though, I have one of those garbage cans from school but a black one, and it heats up the tea better...also do not have a pump or with that darned black can and a pond pump I could pump out five gallons of tea a day! I checked the pH today, mostly between 6 and 7 with a few spikes in different bales that went off my meter, but this is just one of those hand held jobbies you stick in the ground! Tomorrows water may take care of that....more pics of yours as they grow too! Kelley

May 28, 2008	#32
GIZZARDFARM Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: COMFORT TENNESSEE Posts: 300	Sure sorry for the delay had to take a homicide this week taking new pics today post em up tonight...compost tea good.....I think im gonna plant some melons in my compost pile if i can keep the horses out as well....

May 28, 2008	#36
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	I'm gonna have to try the bale thing. the pic's look nice I just looked. Kelly I have a scrap iron farm next to one of my gardens. All kinds of wire and lord knows what. Looks like Sanford and Son around here. The front is Ok though. Worth

June 1, 2008	#43
GIZZARDFARM Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: COMFORT TENNESSEE Posts: 300	We have had rain for three straight days, man are my plants loving that.....nearly all my squash (in the bales) have began to bloom and all of my maters are blooming..Im in day 6 on my last 8 bales and have ran out of ammonium nitrate, Im not going to buy another 50 lbs for a few more cups im going to treat them heavy with 6-12-12 for 3 days and plant maybe it will work. I have changed my mind and am going to put bannana,habenaro, and yellow bell peppers in the last 8. Im still stuck with another 16 cherokee purples,boxcar willies and Brandywines which ill scatter throughout the garden....a few more rows of cucks and okra and my planting will be complete...whew hope your sick one makes it kelley

June 2, 2008	#45
kelleyville Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Covington, GA 30016 7b? Posts: 321	WEll, after my doom and gloom last night, I woke up to find first sick plant better, the top leaves are fluffing out! I fertilized the bales with a compost/alfalfa tea and foliar fed with a weak mixture of same. It seems to have helped! So maybe my plants were all in various stages of shock! Maybe there is hope for all of them! Either way I am getting more bales!