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Planting vegetables in straw bales can be a lot easier – especially on the back – than traditional gardening in the dirt, according to local master gardeners.
You don’t need containers and only a little potting soil, plus you’ll end up with fewer weeds and no soil-borne diseases such as tomato leaf spot that can come late in the growing season, according to a couple of Penn State master gardeners. Cathy Schwartz and Jim Dixon recently taught a class on the subject at the Monastery Gardens near Hollidaysburg.
“You don’t need a bunch of tools, such as hoes, shovels and rakes, just a little trowel,” Dixon said. “No soil testing or advanced training. You don’t need a big backyard. You can do three (bales) like I did (last year) at the edge of my driveway.”
Dixon said his favorite book on the subject is “Straw Bale Gardens” by Joel Karsten. Schwartz said she read several books and watched webinars before deciding to go with 30 straw bales last season to grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and more in her backyard.
“When my husband heard about it, he said, ‘If you don’t have to bend over, we’re doing it,'” Schwartz said. “You may have to water more than normal because of the drainage, but straw bales hold more water than you might think, especially if properly conditioned” in the beginning.
Generally, Schwartz recommends straw bales rather than hay bales. At $4 to $7 a bale, straw is more expensive than hay, but it holds up better to the manipulation so it can last for three growing seasons.
The exception is for potatoes, in which you might use hay because it is cheaper and you have to tear up the bale to get the mature potatoes. But also note, Schwartz said, that hay has seeds that could lead to pesky weeds. She said other root vegetables like carrots and beets can be pulled straight up without tearing up the bale at harvest.
Determining where to place the bales can save a lot of trouble later. They need to be close to a water source and get six hours of sun a day. If you decide to plant rows of bales, place them north-south for best effect.
Schwartz planted hers on gravel, four feet apart and said a slope is good because it encourages drainage.
The cut side of the straw goes up – you can tell because the opposite side is where the straw is folded. You can stack them for a tiered effect such as for herbs. And, it matters little what goes under the bales as long as it’s not plastic or in a container that prevents drainage that could lead to the spread of diseases, Dixon stressed.
Schwartz said she likes to reinforce her bales with twine and posts on the ends of her rows that helps later when she needs to stake up plants or to hold up a tarp in case of a late frost early in the growing season.
Schwartz encouraged her class not to skip any step in her directions for conditioning the straw bales (See chart). Traditional or organic fertilizer can be used, as long as it’s a fertilizer high in nitrogen to help break down the hay as a growing medium. She recomends fertilizer with a 29-0-4 nitrogen-phosoporous-potassium ratio.
“Don’t buy fertilizer with any additives, especially herbicides,” Schwartz said. “It should have a high nitrogen count because that helps speed up the decomposition,” a key element in this form of gardening.
It takes at least 12 days to condition bales with traditional fertilizer, another five days if using organic, Schwartz said.
Once the conditioning has been done – and keep in mind you only have to condition a bale the first season – planting may commence after the threat of frost has passed.
Schwartz said she started seeds in her greenhouse last year, prepared her bales in May and planted the first of June.
“This year with our weather, we may be able to start a little earlier,” Dixon said, before the recent cold snaps and Friday’s untimely snowfall.
Schwartz explained that straw bales are warmer than the earth which helps plants grow faster than in the ground, but fruit won’t come any earlier than air temperature will allow.
To plant in a bale, use a trowel to make a hole and loosen straw a bit “because you don’t want to squish the roots,” she said.
As in ground planting, be sure that roots are not exposed to air by filling in with potting soil; holes that are too big can cause air pockets.
“You want potting soil with no dirt; just peat moss and vermiculite,” Schwartz said. “Pay attention because Pennsylvania doesn’t regulate what is in garden dirt and there could be herbicides and weed seeds in it.
“Don’t be afraid to plant flowers nearby so you can lure pollinators in,” she added.
Schwartz planted three tomato and eggplants per bale and “they weren’t crowded by any means,” she said. Don’t plant perennials, though, because the bales are only going to last three years.
Once fruit appears, treat them as if they were in the dirt, with fertilizer and water as necessary: water every 2 to 3 days in the spring, up two twice a day in summer:?”You still will get some insects, which you deal with the way you usually would,” she said. “But you’re not likely to get ground crawlers.
“I harvested until the first of November last year.”
Schwartz said newspapers, mulch and pallet slats can be placed between the rows of straw bales to cut down on weeds there. That is why she just let her tomato plants cascade down over the sides of the bales rather than staking them.
If the bale gets tipsy or threatens to topple, secure it with more twine or boards or stakes, she said.
“My potatoes were picture perfect, just beautiful,” Schwartz said. “Usually they’re misshapen because they grow up against a stone. But last year mine were this long and perfectly round.”
One class attendee was concerned with the expense of paying for city water to garden with bales. Schwartz said she has a well. Dixon said he does not, but heard where one gardener placed his bales on top of – not inside – water troughs and recaptured the runoff to re-water his bales. Using rain barrels was mentioned as another way to save money and resources.
Jackie Wright of Hollidaysburg attended the class and was excited to learn about a new way to garden. She said she has repurposed her children’s sandboxes and other items into raised beds, makes her own compost, and plants vegetables and sunflowers in them. She homeschools her children and gardening is part of their curriculum.
“I’m definitely going to try it this year,” Wright said. “Maybe I’ll start with four bales.”
Mirror Life Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.