Straw bales

Straw acquired, these are bottom layer bales used as mulch to cover Jerusalem artichokes (for the luck of leaves that were used elsewhere whole 30 something bags of it...)

2 known origin bales are used here.

Nice bales are already on newer pallet and covered with the tarp. So that's 'before' , now it's all cleaned up, all the leaves and stems are recycled and cut into that bed and if any seed comes up, ok, that's my chickens hide out and dedicated sunchokes wicker bed. It did not have a drop of irrigation water, had occasional chicken water bucket dumped in there (like 2 gallons which is nothing for a bed of that size)

Behold chicken play ground :)

These are bottom layer straw bales, granted these gone bunkers digging and scratching (yep, kill that remaining bindweed, rip it all good, not going to complain at all)

These are not set into anything particular, only into a U like shape of sorts because there was part busted bale in there, really there was one in the middle when one of the strings became loose... my mini velasoraptors broke that down and had good fun with it in no time... so it was good I put it into that shape... do not like the idea of flying straw in my dry creek... nope, not happening.

So, folk do straw bale gardens.
Physics and agro techniques of that are very simple. Straw is low nitrogen but very porous material, and it will readily compost granted. What folk do is inoculate these bales with nitrogen and jump start composting activity in there.

Important: placing bales on the ground the way so the straw is up-down not side to side and those ties are tying the bale on sides holding it in shape.

Steps to start straw bale garden are:

  Step 0)  select the location. shapes differ, many cases are row based

•       single straw bales row, solid of with spaces between bales. these often have t-posts at the ends as trellises. Depending on types of vegetables and space in many cases bales rows have  about 1 meter in between them so wheel barrow passes and they are oriented north to south. 
• double row of bales (2 bales side by side form wider row, dual trellises, sometimes cattle panels are bent into tunnels 
• Single row U-W shape aka empty keyholes or joined keyholes shape
• Double row U or W shapes with access on both sides
• Reinforced raised bed style straw bales clusters, kind of looks like raised bed with straw inside
• Square shapes (kind of like raised bed made of straw bales, usually 4 of them with empty or Filled with garden soil space in the middle
• Straw-bales-walled raised beds with soil in the middle

Some shapes I did not come across yet 

 triangles... not impossible but not practical

 true keyhole with composting center hole where actual compost is working in the middle

 spirals... I guess that would be interesting but not sure how that would work

Step 1) Jump start composting process 
about 2 weeks before planned planting using urea or about 3 week before using organic fertilizer.

1. By adding water (it's a very dry material , so will need to be soaked for some days depending on the climate). It's very similar to sheet composting when one waters the layers (if can) or waters the whole lasagna pushing tea into the layers for several days in a row (I did 3 times 3 days in a row on all my new layered composting beds and terraces)
2. Straw is low nitrogen (aka it's browns in composting terms) in composting, so one needs nitrogen (aka greens) to start bacterial activity. Straw does not have that. So folk would add high nitrogen tea (aka cow poop tea, manure tea, greens tea, but there are not many in spring...) or god old urea or even high nitrogen fertilizer (common is lawn fertilizer, but one does not want weed suppress or any of those additives because they will kill your broad leaves garden plants for good or at least damage them enough, and you do not want to eat that anyways).

References say regarding fertilizer ~2-3 cups per bale total using application formula for granules.
With organic fertilizer the formula seems to be 1/2 or urea= 3 cups or organic fertilizer.
Hm... that's a lot of blood meal... It seems urea is most economical jump start. At least it was for me in my composting...


The jump starting process of the bacterial activity is called bales conditioning.

One of typical formulas is about 2 weeks doing 3 days x 4 series of activities:

• day 1,2,3: soak the bales (water a lot)
• day 4,5,6: spread 1/2 cup of urea or (20,0,0) fertilizer on the bale and water in that (urea is a fast release fertilizer, so do not get one of those lawn slow release fertilizers...), some books do suggest applying a solution, most go for dry method
• day 7,8,9: cut down nitrogen fertilizer to half amount 1/4 cup per bale and water in 
• day 10, 11, 12: water bales

Temperature inside should be warm, About 90F... not too hot because if it is that is not really good. And one needs to wait till bacterial activity drops (do not want to burn starts)

I'd wait till it drops into 65-70 range.

There is a similar formula in some other sources that alternates fertilize-water
Sources say 1-5 gallons per bale... Am I going to count... possibly no :) the water coming out the bottom of the bale, it has enough water :).

Day 0 - pre-water your bale, aka soak. Or soak in morning and fertilize and water in evening on day 1.

• days: 1 - 3 - 5: Add, 1/2 cup of fertilizer per bale, water in well. 
• days: 2 - 4 - 6: Water the bales, no fertilizer. 
• days: 7 -8 -9: Add; 1⁄4 cup of fertilizer per bale, water bale. 
• day 10: Use 10-10-10 fertilizer 1 cup per bale water in good. 
• day 11, 12: Leave them alone
• day 12: Check temperatures in different places of each bale. If the temp is not down to 105° that's too hot, wait. Water each day after day 12 till ready to plant or sow seeds. 

What if one does not want bagged granulated fertilizer... There are high nitrogen organics (blood, bones, feathers...), there is manure. Here is the activation times for all these, cause I'm a geek
From that chart one wants 2 things: lots of nitrogen, fast release (yeah, go have your man pee on bales, by the way healthy pee is stero...)
Blood meal would take longer than 2 weeks... and cost lots more.
Manure - nay for most animals, only dry chicken or turkey poop would have enough (meaning no bedding and that's not my case) and hot composted, fresh does not work :).
Most USA sources do not like manure because of ecoli risks. I use manure only in long composting beds (meaning a year of cooking).
To jump start the bale one needs 5% nitrogen minimum, others are mostly slow release.
I'd go for horse bedding manure tea if one has horses and has to clean it anyways... if one can stomach it per say...
For me personally... nay... urea... because I've tested that on straw already (that's where I found my initial wild worms colony).

About that urea... at farm stores that's not uncommon to see more that 34%, most of the formulas use 30% nitrogen 1/2 cup per bale (or 3 cups of 5% organic nitrogen fertilizer... ). Some suggest to cut urea over 34% in half... I wonder if there are 2-3 books circulating and there is edition 1 and edition 2... of a guru book. On my count after day 16-18 that bale would be high in nitrogen in urea is used. that should be good to plant if temperatures are 90F inside or lover (like lover... but for seeds I do not mind 90F that bad at all... free bacterial heat mat as ordered :) ).

How would I water those bales... I do not like 5 gal buckets, I like 2 gal and that's what my chickens drink from :). So mark the buckets, dissolve urea 2 times per bucket, water 2 bales.
That should do it... And will not wash the bacteria. I think I'll go for pre-soaking method in my dry climate... May need more water on sides of the bale so... hose those buggers on the sides a bit, that water should not go deep enough to bother bacterial activity...

Now some sources suggest plastic under the bale an reuse of water... That one... Because I have worm colonies I'd rather water with worm castings tea after jump star every week... I would not do plastic because why would I limit the roots to just straw bale height... My soil s alkaline, where I put straw bales that's 2 feet of wood chips composted already to 1 foot, not too bad and changed the soil a bit

I want the roots to go down, ones that are more acid loving will stay on the surface and stay away from alkaline soil.

I can see 2-3 layers of card board under bales (for that bindweed...)

Also important to mention all these 2-3 weeks methods are listed for 45F average temperatures.
If it's colder it will cook a lot longer.
Ideal composting outside temperature is 65-85F (and at 85 I do not like it outside but bacteria does...)

Water once a day I believe is reasonable. Why water more, in dry climate... possible, outer layer will dry, but one does not want that to compost fast anyways. When one waters with nitrogen lots of water will get all that into the ground and that's not what one wants. Cold water does stop bacteria and slow it down... because that's what water does.

Slow release commercial fertilizers... Everyone knows nitrogen will be released first, so those slow release do create some coating of the granules... Think marketing and those lawn pro people that one calls 1-2 times a season to apply that. about is the most expensive in that business and insurance, fast release nitrogen will burn the lawn... customer complains, company has more trips to property... market wants slow release because in USA labor and come to site fees cost the most, not that fertilizer...
So find yourself in agro coop cheap fertilizer, that's right :) go shop where farmers shop by 50 pound bags. Ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate, but these are usually sold at the farmers coop. That's the one, white or brown bags :). Not unusual to find 36-0-0 or even 41-0-0. Those are your conditioning fertilizers.



Organics... from what I have found will cost more. will it be test worthy on couple of bales... why not...

• Day one soak bale with water. Sprinkle organic product on top of the bale, it looks like 3 cups per bale and water lightly.
• Day 1, 3 & 5 add 3 cups organic product in water (most sources say 1 gallon per bale which goes with by 2 gal bucket method) and water. 
• Day 7, 8 & 9 add 1.5 cups organic product in water and water. 
• Day 10 add 1.5 cups pot ash (wood ash) or kelp meal for potassium and 1.5 cups fish meal or bone meal for phosphorus. We  are looking for 50/50 of P & K on day 10. 
• Days 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 water only. 
• Test on day 18 if bale is 105F or less. 

That counts to 3 weeks range...
I think in dry climates like mine side watering bales would be needed... But spring is mo humid so will see.

Here is another organics prep, UK based
I like that one because it does describe how to use what I already use in my garden and surprisently in same 1/10 diluted solution.

•  Organic home-brew is simple to make and apply. Preparation should be done a few days before you are ready for the bale. Add a few good handfuls of grass, stinging nettles, or borage which has been cut into pieces, to a pail of water. Weigh it down with a heavy stone or brick, then leave for 7 days to infuse. The resulting liquid can be diluted at roughly 1 part feed to 10 parts water, then applied to the bale. The remaining liquid can be topped-up over the season with more plant material and water, and applied as necessary.

That's my bindweed, thistles and salsafy brew right there, Mine cooks longer for 'bloom' fertilizer and only several days to a week for 'green grow' fertilizer.

• Compost feed can be produced by taking a few handfuls of compost and adding to water and left to infuse as previously described.

That's my compost tea

• Manure feed is especially rich in nitrogen which your veggies will love, however it is the ‘stinky’ option! To make this tea place a shovel of manure (horse, sheep, rabbit chicken, or goat is ideal) into a hessian sack and put inside a deep pail of water for 5-7 days. Squish the sack up and down a bit before removing from the pail (you can add it to the compost heap). The resulting tea should be watered down about 15 parts water to 1 part tea. Be aware however that using fresh manure does carry an element of risk with regard to E.coli and other harmful bacteria and worm larvae that may be present.

That's my manure tea, I use 1/10 and also do not use fresh manure, I leave it in buckets overwinter or in pile to overwinter. Fresh manure I cook in composting bed for 9 month to a year+ in layered lasagna beds.

• With that in mind do take precautions when handling fresh manure, or alternatively (and safer) use well composted manure that has been composting for at least 1 year. Also, do not use manure compost on any low-ground vegetables that may come into direct contact with it such as cucumber or courgettes for instance.

I do not do that either, my manure is under 6 inches of wood chips or entire foot of material like wood chips, hay grass, green weeds, last layer is wood chips.

• Fish meal, bone meal and seaweed also are great sources of  nitrogen, potassium and other nutrients that will benefit your vegetables.

Priming The Straw Bale:

• Day 1: Soak the bale completely with water infused with nutrients, or prepare the bale by scattering some store-bought fertilizer over it before soaking.

• Day’s 2-5: Continue with the soaking and feeding process. Monitor the internal temperature with a thermometer (a compost or meat temperature probe is ideal), and watch for the rise in temperature as the ‘cooking’ process begins.

• Day’s 6-14: Water every alternate day, checking to see that the bale does not dry out. As the process of cooking out comes to an end, the bale will cool down to reflect a temperature just a little higher or equivalent to, the ambient external temperature. If the reading is still high then wait till it drops before attempting to plant, otherwise it will be too hot for the roots and the plant will likely suffer a premature death!

I like that method... it uses what I have on site already and what I used in my kitchen garden for years.


Step 3). After 2-3 prep weeks folk are ready to plant.

One can use both top and sides (unless it's reinforced by not straw sides raised bed style construction) of the bales.

Soil is used to start plants. Starts are put on top of the bales into holes made with a garden knife (make hole, put that plant in there, water).

In some applications entire top of bales is covered by compost and in some plus wood chips or some kind of mulch on top of the compost.

When one plants seeds they plant it into compost on top (some applications talk about garden soil)

2 inches about.

Water, wait to grow...

Step 4). The method does requite routine fertilizing 
Often books tale about 10,10,10 is needed.
Most sources rely on every 2 weeks schedule. Or 1/4 cup per bale monthly.
One would have to deal with deficiencies. Multiple sources mention luck of magnesium and use of epsom salt to fix  it: l  tea spoon per gallon, 1/4 gallon per plant (keep it at least 2-3 inches from pant, do not poor right at the base it's not soil after all.
I'd say that's a good method to sell some starter plants in containers and some fertilizers.
I look at straw bales as a form of container gardening.

All that does rely on routine watering and fertilizing of the bales. Bales after 2 weeks of nitrogen drenching would start fast release of nitrogen, but not any other nutrients to make them plant available. 

Straw bales often produce fungal activity, usually just a typical composting mushrooms (they are not edible per say). Depending on straw type fungal activity can be lower can be higher. It seem to depend.

Mice, yes have mice... hopefully feral cats find that hide out, mice also have to come out.

Not doing mice barrier, not happening :), too expensive I can use that fine galvanized mesh for my chickens...
And bakes for garden are outside... If mice have idea of making hotel in there I have just the right cement and plaster of paris treats for them... (because I have chickens and wild birds of prey I do not use mice poisons), water bucket traps do freeze in winter so...

Now about hay. Hay... I do not see why not do that after killing the sprouts. Alfalfa our grass hay is much higher in nitrogen that straw, so that one will compost hotter...
And my chickens would literally eat that bale...
Turn out straw bale guru also said hay can be used, I do not see a big need for it, hay is a lot more $ compared to straw. https://strawbalegardens.com/blog/2015/02/i-cant-find-straw-bales-can-i-use-hay-bales-instead/

Step 5). Plants management.
Now because all that sits over actively composting medium some plants need to be tied up (like tomato, peppers, beans) on trellises. Some can tolerate being hanging (some blight and mold tolerant herbs), zucchini, pumpkins and some other types of summer and winter squash.

Second year straw bales would do potatoes and some other root crops. Folk plant carrots first year.

Different brasacas would do well with adequate fertilizing.

Straw bakes are narrow, so t-post trellis, cattle panels, Florida weave... For tomato, pepper, beans one goes up, means trellis, here go things like mini melons, spaghetti squash, acorns and plants of that nature.
Pumpkins, banana squash and other wide monsters - not straw bales unless I place 4 in the middle of nowhere :). I have plenty dirt mulched I can use these as ground covers so no need to use bales for that, does not mean one can not... Mini pumpkins can do ok, I can even see small banana squash in that setting... nay that's a big maybe... but one did get stuck in my sunchokes that were 8 feet ...
I'll stick to smaller plants :).

And chicken fence, that's me because my birds know garden means FOOOOOODDDDDD...

Step 6). Bugs.

Bugs and things that would follow moist straw would be... among myriads of others

slugs (because they like wet, copper for them), roly-poly (composters), earth worms and flies (at the bottom of the bale feeding on bacteria), different composting mites (through the bale), fungus gnats (just because it' the type of the medium they love), flies (because it's composting), there will be wondering bees in spring (for mucky water and for composting smell of it, they wonder about composting wood chips just the same).

Step 7). Mineral deficiencies.

One thing not to forget... this set up will need mineral powder just the same, in straw that is not plant available. 

At end of season straw can be reused as bales or composted.

Step 8). About sourcing straw bales. and the ugly 

Now the ugly parts... just like any other contaminated compost that straw can be so called weed free kind. That would mean long lasting herbicides 

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sfn/wtr11Aminopyralid

https://www.the-compost-gardener.com/picloram.html

• Picloram - sold as Tordon, Access, Surmount, Grazon, and Pathway.
• Clopyralid - sold as Curtail, Confront, Clopyr AG, Lontrel, Stinger, Millennium Ultra, Millenium Ultra Plus, Reclaim, Redeem, Transline.
• Aminopyralid - sold as Milestone, Forefront, Pharaoh, Banish

All these are sold in agro and farm stores to a contractor with a license. The same deal will happen if animals were fed certified weed free not organic hay, that stuff caries over into manure and when composted into compost itself.

Cases of failure of these types of gardens due to herbicides and pesticides contamination contribute to problems. Contaminated bales and compost will damage crops.

When folk talk about straw bales destroyed my garden, that's no straw that was what was sprayed on the plants in the first place. And that one was not just glyphosate  aka monsanto roundup. That one is nasty, but the ones referenced above are worse, they stick around much longer, meaning for several years they will keep damaging.

So source straw with caution... really do.

Step 9). Mold, mushrooms. Normal natural but ugly looking
That's perfectly normal, spores are there and when environment is provided they will grow.
Will that harm your seedlings... Toxic molds are way less common, most likely one sees just normal composting activity. Molds will be gray, green. White - that's mushrooms. One will come across normal composting mushrooms, knock those over they will contribute to soil and that's it...


Step 10). Troubleshooting. Bales are not getting hot. 
It means bacterial activity did not kick in yet, they breed, they feed, they heat. Can add some extra helping of urea, can jump start week or 2 earlier... They will heat.
If the air outside is 40 degrees and the temperature inside bales is 45 degrees, this is a sign of bacteria development.  If the air temperature is 75 then the inside of bales may be 130 degrees or hotter, that's hot compost at 160... means turn... and with straw bales one does not want that.
so... spring for me...
If bales not getting hot enough ... row covers and plastic can be use to drape over and get green house going.

Step 11). Row covers.
If there is t-post and tension wire trellis that plastic can be tied to t-posts, draped over the wire and
cover bales and have some drape (rocks, logs etc... to hold to the ground).
My main wind is North and West.
I have winter row covers low to the ground both directions. North wind is stronger, so bales will go 'follow the wind' North-to-South.
Will be an easy hoop. Too bad I have only 6 feet row covers on hand, 10 feet are more expensive, will see if I want to go that route...

Summary and other...

Do I want to mess with straw bale garden... Why not as a small experiment with free seeds for nothing major and see how that goes.

I'm not a big fan of constant fertilizing... I like my worms do that job for me with occasional bindweed killing in my good old barrel in water...

Did not decide yet. Straw bales turns out can be used as weather break...

Maybe I'll do that instead and test bales as they were sourced from 2 places (with free peas... those will react on nasty stuff and fast... and they are cheap... one can use organic whole peas from local ethnic store (go to Indian market or Russian market, Russian market may have both whole and split peas, buy green whole peas ) and if I find something like that at the very back down wind that straw goes for several years till bacteria break down and clean all that mess... into high bio activity area... Many a things can be cleaned up from soil, that contamination too, takes about 5 years so, that's why usda puts that many years as transitional period in the first place (3 to be exact, but they have 5...)

With all the straw bales ides I kind of feel like it's more like when I started my lasagna garden and had to deal with deficiencies in plants first year (lots of attracted worms and lots of coffee grounds sis fix that by August)...
I had to fertilize, not every 2 weeks, but I had to correct issues and things like zucchini were fine because they do grow on compost piles where our family is from, they are soil building plants after all
Here is how I've built my first year kitchen garden over bone dry pasture... had to water that lot 2 days straight to break pasture and till in some manure to build some mounds, tiller would not go more than 5 cm (2 inches) and that was good because most of my worms were intact this way and were deeper and were not chopped so there was the reason in the madness...
I did go up and then in several years that soil was transformed by worms and humic acid deeper.
That's mid June update from that first year and tomatoes are clearly stunted and do have some purple wines (that's luck of phosphorus and potassium) and some beans also were stunted and taken by iron clorosis, later I've corrected that with chelated iron.
That's when deficiencies and transplant shock were corrected, urea was also added to speed up the things, not whole lot and granulated kind... No I did not have my own teas set up in enough quantities, and good bindweed brew does need 2 month... So unless I have very warm autumn that fertilizer sort of does not exactly time and I need me plants that go deed and can extract from clay soil aka weeds with tap roots that are still alive, they only evil ones I can use are thistles :) they sort of do not brew that fast...
I did get some comfrey plants so, that one should help if they produce :) and it does smell... gotta say ... love gardening love gardening...really love gardening where is that respirator :).
So I do not blame folk who use granulated fertilizers on straw bales.
Maybe I will as well, I had leftover somewhere from my pasture application I've bought one tear to jump start wood chips pile...

Do I expect lots from straw bales? Not really whole lot, I'll test it and see how does that go.
Will I use that as main method? Probably no... it does need micro management.
Will see... Step one decide on the shape and location. Because no one here moves wet straw bales, those are HEAVY.
So may as well try. Worst that can happen I
ll use these bales for my chickens pens bedding to poop on and they will turn that into compost. Granted all that will be tested for residue...
In fact I'll start one sacrificial bale and see what can germinate.

Now social media and forums... Some forums do have clear evidence of being particular authors and books marketing forums even if they do not say so. They way that cane observed... say someone does ask specific question about bale conditioning (that's very common according to the data scans I did) and the answers from particular folk that monitor these groups will be see book so and so or plaid state buy the book so and so. I've observed very similar marketing-sales behavior in some permaculture forums just the same where some members extended their understanding of permaculture to particular financial points... aka you can not say permaculture or heavens forbid teach permaculture till you pay us 1200-1600 and more for a permaculture class... Or some landscapers that come with pretty high labor and materials fees because they use so and so term the customer is interested in.

I get it, folk who paid high fees and do not have generations of land owners land stewads and not so much of a free funds (except of those who make their permaculture course a special vacation trip) try to make return on the investment and fast.
I look at it a bit differently... Say what are the folk who turn to these methods? Do they have $ to hire build raised beds or skill and tools to DIY those? Straw-bales are temp and cheap (free in season, $2 for bottoms, $5 for top more for organic). That's a lot cheaper than compost, planting mix and raised beds. Permaculture will use on site resources and/or as much free resources as possible.
These folk do not have whole lot of funds. Anyone can use 1k +:).
Book is not much. When forums say buy book buy book, that's for selling the book.
 Did I buy straw bale gurus book. No I did not. I pulled available on internet data. In USA many scientists in many states do research sustainable farming. There are many articles and references.
There are forums with members notes about what worked what did not.
I pulled here method I believe would work in arid USA Midwest. finding a local who did something or a student project would be a good thing.
Look at this post as a method summary. I pulled probably in range of 50 different sources which is not whole lot for a research, but for a blog post that's good enough and gives me reasonable starting point to decide do I want to give this method a test run.
I guess doing y research being a geek with doctorate degree I never base my work on one and only book or source. There is plenty sources and improvement of the methods is always there, there always the old and the new


Addition regarding bales and compost testing: this link is about all things composting, quote below s how to test bales.

To screen grass clippings, hay and straw you are thinking of using as a compost or mulch material

    Fill 6 clean pots with commercial potting mix. Three will be for your tests and three will be controls.
    Place each of the pots in a separate saucer to prevent water from on pot reaching another.
    Water the pots and leave to stand for 24 hours.
    Plant each pot with three pea or bean seeds.
    Soak the clippings, hay or straw in a clean bucket making a tea colored brew. Use this brew to water your three test pots and regular water for your control pots.
    Observe subsequent growth for four-week period and note any ill effects in the pots containing the possibly contaminated mix, such as cupped leaves, fern like growth on new shoots or twisted stems. These symptoms may indicate picloram, clopyralid or aminopyralid residue in the hay, grass or straw. Signs of other kinds of damage will most likely indicate other issues such as damping off or bacteria-infected soil, etc.
Here are pictures of affected plants