I am trying for the first time and so far I'm loving it. Everything I've planted is doing well and Who wouldn't like knowing you're going to have wonderful compost in the end. Id say it's a win.👍
I am trying something completely new this year for my fall/winter garden. I laid down a thick mat of straw, then soil in a long row. I closed it all in with straw bales and I planted my fall/winter crop of cabbages, bok choy, and lettuces. Once it gets cold enough I will bend 1/2” PVC pipes to make it an enclosed hoop house for winter. I figured that straw would make a great insulator to hold in the heat. Hopefully it works!!
This sounds like a great idea! The straw bales should provide a nice insulating warmth and extend your garden well into the winter. I'd love to try something like this-- may I ask what Zone you're growing in? Thanks so much for sharing this!
Just I have watched your one year old video ,Growing vegetables in straw bales , in fact it is very very informative video , I have too , collected a lot of straw for example wheat straw , risdue of rice & dry grass . Now I ,m binding them into bales ok thank you for knowledge of benefits of straw bales
Glad to hear you're able to collect some straw, Akhtar. Even if you don't do straw bale gardening like this, straw has lot of other uses in the garden. Take care!
Since I moved to AZ, it's been a little difficult to do any gardening, work and all. But now that I am retired and have plenty of time, I'm going to try this straw bales. Thanks for the tutorial :)
I did straw bales and hay bales last year for first 2 growing season. It was a big success for beans and tomatoes along with marigold! Also my bok choy,salad greens,herbs as well. I was amazed by how everything turned out! I did big hay bale for 1 long row for my potatoes, Ruth stout method, it was pretty good considering I have clay, poor soil. I loved it, I think this gardening style are brilliant by using leftover hay/straw bales for growing and then add to compost or ground cover especially when the soil conditions are not that good! We did get a lot of rain in eastern KY, it also helped with drainage! Looking forward to see you do this again and share with us !
I am so glad to here that this method worked well for you! I definitely agree with you- I loved being able to reuse the bales once they were done growing as mulch, soil amendment and/or addition to compost! Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you'll be using bales again this year?
@Growfully with Jenna I still have few bales still in good shapes. I put them into four 2x8 raised bed for some extra garlic and onion. They sprouted, now I'm waiting to see how they do when spring come. I will grow potatoes in couple towers fill with straw because I don't have a good spot since my chickens are free range now. I will do strawberry same way next year if potatoes went well. I'm excited!
I think you hit it on the head when you observed some things take better to this than others. It is a very handy approach, and as you shared, some parts of a garden may be better suited to this approach. Food for thought :)
I did 3 separate inorganic straw bale gardens 3 years ago, they did OK. The thing that really bothered me is after I stored the straw over winter, in the spring there was not one worm in that straw. I also had bags of leaves stored at the same time and they were full of worms. As it turned out, all the salts from the inorganic fertilizers, wiped out the natural fauna. I am going to try using straw in 25 gal grow bags for sweet potatoes this year. I picked up a couple bails from neighbors decorations and I bought one last summer to let sit for a year. I am composting some chicken manure for nitrogen and have worm castings and compost for the other good stuff. Plan on doing a video. Stay Well!!!!
One of these days I'm gonna give this straw bale gardening stuff a try. For the effort you gave your bails shows just how well they can do not matter if it is not by the book. Oh by the way no book for me. I was challenged by two certified straw bale gardeners that my setup would never work as it was totally against the book. I was so happy to see Mr. Joel himself stopped by to say how amazed he was on my straw bale gardening. Awesome job done my friend on giving them a try. Stay safe and have a wonderful weekend!
Maybe one of these days 😆. You may not be ‘by the book’, but you’re still an expert! That’s why I linked to your straw bale conditioning video at about :30. How do you feed your tomatoes in straw bales (I’m guessing you may have a video about it)? Thanks!
Yes Mam I have shown how we do it in lots of videos. I side dress with 10-10-10 once every couple months but the main fertilizing comes when I dump my hydro tanks once a month. All that old nutes gets dumped on the straw bales. For normal fert I just tell folks to use something like a tomato blend fertilizer and spread some around the base of the plants then hose it in. Tomato Tone is a good brand. Nothing strong and works very well.
@@CBsGreenhouseandGarden thank you! That's a great idea- repurposing those old nutrients! Hearing what you're doing makes me realize that I was definitely not providing enough fertilization for mine. Thanks for much!
@@GrowfullywithJenna You are most welcome. Looked like a little under watered to but hard to tell. Fertilizer and water makes those bales rocket! Stay safe my friend!
First year straw bale gardening in New Hampshire I didn’t pay attention to the temperature and I may have planted a day or two early but after those failures the re-plants are going like crazy I have onions I have potatoes I have pumpkins and squash and now I’m going out to put in some tomatoes and peppers thank you
Thanks Jenna for the video. I've never grown anything in straw, but a friend of mine was telling me about it. Looks very interesting. I live in Southern Alabama and it might be a good idea for my area. We have a garden in the back yard and our soil is not the best. I might give this a try in the future. Thanks for sharing.
Michael Marchione thanks so much! You are right, it is fun to try something different- I try to do at least one little gardening experiment each year. Have a wonderful evening!
I am trying a couple of bails this summer--will try the bell peppers--I also heard that you can put the straw (after it has been conditioned with urea 4600) and put it in grow bags--I will try it and let you know how it did!
After seeing your peppers, so huge, i cant believe you arent going do more,more, more.lol i let my bales sit out and weather year before last. Then planted in spring. I mostly had cucumbers and delicata squash.they did great. Then over this last summer i used the hay in a big pile for cucumbers and planted tomato romas on both shorter ends. I got more than i could eat. Right now, i have 17 bales, im building beds around. Again, i will let them winter over. I am using reflective insulation to hold them together, and stakes on all sides for form. In spring, will plant. Peppers, squash, melons,tomato.im not much an eater. Except i love bell peppers. Will try a few of what i know i will consume.for me, its the watch it grow. See what works, for the experience. Good luck on yours, and take care.
Glad to hear the bales are doing great for you!! My biggest challenges with the straw bale garden are finding a good source for the straw and keeping them watered! Once I overcome those challenges I may consider doing more bale gardening at some point in the future. I do have to say- I like being able to add all that half rotted straw to the compost pile when the bales are spent, it's a great source of organic matter for sure! Thanks for watching & I hope you have a wonderful week!
@@GrowfullywithJenna prices go higher and higher. I spent a hefty 9.00 or so a bale, had delivered. Didnt want to go big box store for bags soil i had to cart. Didnt want to shop around best deal. I like the bale gardening. Gives you bulk all at once. Get more for the buck, feeds the rest soil. I also use for weed surpression. Ruth Stout gave me the idea in her videos and book. Its great.take care
Ok im very late getting started because it took me a while to convince my husband but will it still work if i don't do conditioning for as many days as recommended ? Plz help me 😭 and ty i enjoy your channel you have given the best explanating
Hi Nancy- Every thing I've read gives the same timeline- just shy of 2 weeks. The main thing is, if you start the conditioning process you have to wait till the bales cool down before planting or it will likely kill your plants.
I have done a modified straw bale garden. I used thick straw at the bottom of my beds and covered with rabbit bedding and rabbit poo. Then I planted into the top layer. Now I'm curious how it would work with the straw surrounding all sides. I think I will always use rabbit poo where I can.
Not sure if you can answer my question. I did 3 separate straw bale gardens last year. I used the conventional way of conditioning the bales with inorganic fertilizers. My concern now is all of the soluble solids(salts) left behind by all of the inorganic fertilizers. If I understand correctly, these soluble solids interfere with the soil life. Not sure if I can plant into the soil where the straw bale gardens were and regain healthy soil life to feed my plants. I also have concerns over using the left over straw as mulch or in my compost pile. I may be over thinking this but I do not want to set myself up for disaster. One of the straw bale gardens was over a large silver maple stump I had ground down, I plan on doing a raised bed in that location. One other is in my most sunniest spots in the garden, I was planning to plant into the soil. If I do not get a definitive answer I figure I will just use large grow bags in that location this year. The straw bales did just fine. Harvested 60 bird house gourds plus tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and sweet potatoes. Like you noticed, my tomatoes and sweet potatoes did much better in my beds. I have an Aug garden tour posted if you would care to take a look. "Brian Seybert garden tour"
This is a very intriguing question Brian, and I apologize, I don't have a definitive answer for you. I will say that soluble salts tend to be of most concern in a contained system (think greenhouse growers- growing in containers) where they can become very concentrated. I would be less concerned about them in an open system like you've got. If you didn't see any negative effects on your plants in the straw bales, I doubt you'd have any issue growing in the soil underneath. I do understand your concern about the salts interfering with soil life, but I suspect the best thing you could do is grow something in that soil-- even if it is just a cover crop for this year. Again- sorry I don't have a definitive answer, but if it were me, I'd throw the straw in my compost and go ahead and plant as planned. Thanks for sharing the garden tour- I will check that out soon!
@@GrowfullywithJenna What I should have done was pull the straw bales sooner and do a cover crop last fall but I was waiting for the darn birdhouse gourds to finish, ended up with 60 of em. I have already decided to do grow bags and raised bed where the bales were last year. Going to try luffas in the front trellis in grow bags. Being in zone 5, I already know I will be cutting it close do not want to fight a battle with the soil. Thanks Jenna, you are the only experienced gardener that gave me a thoughtful reply.
Boa Noite amizade tudo bem. Muito boa ideia plantar em fardo de feno . Pode me indicar os adubo a serem usados. Por favor se possível obrigado. Que pena seu canal não é traduzir pro português ou legenda mais dá pra intede pra praticar
FV Jenna. We've never done it. I got a question though. Did you notice ants after heavy rain? We had a bale for mulch this year, left half there, went back to it a few weeks later. Ant condo was found. Just curious. No plans on trying that.
Jules Small Gardening well, when I wrote it I meant the ants in your bale. However, a quick google search revealed that this is a fairly common problem... so I guess the odd thing is that I didn’t have any ants in mine!
The patatoes have to have more room. The bales are to tight for them to grow, it should be los hay to grow in. , did you let the green grow for 3 weeks up to one feet en then put straw over them with a bit sand sow they can grow tubilars . If you dont cover the green plant for one feet you can not have tubulars ware the patatoes grown on. 😉
I am trying for the first time and so far I'm loving it. Everything I've planted is doing well and Who wouldn't like knowing you're going to have wonderful compost in the end. Id say it's a win.👍
I am trying something completely new this year for my fall/winter garden. I laid down a thick mat of straw, then soil in a long row. I closed it all in with straw bales and I planted my fall/winter crop of cabbages, bok choy, and lettuces. Once it gets cold enough I will bend 1/2” PVC pipes to make it an enclosed hoop house for winter. I figured that straw would make a great insulator to hold in the heat. Hopefully it works!!
This sounds like a great idea! The straw bales should provide a nice insulating warmth and extend your garden well into the winter. I'd love to try something like this-- may I ask what Zone you're growing in? Thanks so much for sharing this!
Just I have watched your one year old video ,Growing vegetables in straw bales , in fact it is very very informative video , I have too , collected a lot of straw for example wheat straw , risdue of rice & dry grass . Now I ,m binding them into bales ok thank you for knowledge of benefits of straw bales
Glad to hear you're able to collect some straw, Akhtar. Even if you don't do straw bale gardening like this, straw has lot of other uses in the garden. Take care!
I plan on doing this with cucumbers, Swiss Chard and onions. I'm so excited. I live in Southern Michigan so we have the same climate
Since I moved to AZ, it's been a little difficult to do any gardening, work and all. But now that I am retired and have plenty of time, I'm going to try this straw bales. Thanks for the tutorial :)
You are welcome and best of luck!
I did straw bales and hay bales last year for first 2 growing season. It was a big success for beans and tomatoes along with marigold! Also my bok choy,salad greens,herbs as well. I was amazed by how everything turned out! I did big hay bale for 1 long row for my potatoes, Ruth stout method, it was pretty good considering I have clay, poor soil. I loved it, I think this gardening style are brilliant by using leftover hay/straw bales for growing and then add to compost or ground cover especially when the soil conditions are not that good! We did get a lot of rain in eastern KY, it also helped with drainage! Looking forward to see you do this again and share with us !
I am so glad to here that this method worked well for you!
I definitely agree with you- I loved being able to reuse the bales once they were done growing as mulch, soil amendment and/or addition to compost!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you'll be using bales again this year?
@Growfully with Jenna I still have few bales still in good shapes. I put them into four 2x8 raised bed for some extra garlic and onion. They sprouted, now I'm waiting to see how they do when spring come. I will grow potatoes in couple towers fill with straw because I don't have a good spot since my chickens are free range now. I will do strawberry same way next year if potatoes went well. I'm excited!
Hi Jenna! I loved your straw bale gardening tour! I am curious about gardening in this straw bale gardening style! Thanks for sharing!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I think you hit it on the head when you observed some things take better to this than others. It is a very handy approach, and as you shared, some parts of a garden may be better suited to this approach. Food for thought :)
I did 3 separate inorganic straw bale gardens 3 years ago, they did OK. The thing that really bothered me is after I stored the straw over winter, in the spring there was not one worm in that straw. I also had bags of leaves stored at the same time and they were full of worms. As it turned out, all the salts from the inorganic fertilizers, wiped out the natural fauna.
I am going to try using straw in 25 gal grow bags for sweet potatoes this year. I picked up a couple bails from neighbors decorations and I bought one last summer to let sit for a year. I am composting some chicken manure for nitrogen and have worm castings and compost for the other good stuff.
Plan on doing a video.
Stay Well!!!!
And sadly, it's getting harder & harder to find sources for good straw!
One of these days I'm gonna give this straw bale gardening stuff a try. For the effort you gave your bails shows just how well they can do not matter if it is not by the book. Oh by the way no book for me. I was challenged by two certified straw bale gardeners that my setup would never work as it was totally against the book. I was so happy to see Mr. Joel himself stopped by to say how amazed he was on my straw bale gardening. Awesome job done my friend on giving them a try. Stay safe and have a wonderful weekend!
Maybe one of these days 😆. You may not be ‘by the book’, but you’re still an expert! That’s why I linked to your straw bale conditioning video at about :30. How do you feed your tomatoes in straw bales (I’m guessing you may have a video about it)? Thanks!
Yes Mam I have shown how we do it in lots of videos. I side dress with 10-10-10 once every couple months but the main fertilizing comes when I dump my hydro tanks once a month. All that old nutes gets dumped on the straw bales. For normal fert I just tell folks to use something like a tomato blend fertilizer and spread some around the base of the plants then hose it in. Tomato Tone is a good brand. Nothing strong and works very well.
@@CBsGreenhouseandGarden thank you! That's a great idea- repurposing those old nutrients! Hearing what you're doing makes me realize that I was definitely not providing enough fertilization for mine. Thanks for much!
@@GrowfullywithJenna You are most welcome. Looked like a little under watered to but hard to tell. Fertilizer and water makes those bales rocket! Stay safe my friend!
First year straw bale gardening in New Hampshire I didn’t pay attention to the temperature and I may have planted a day or two early but after those failures the re-plants are going like crazy I have onions I have potatoes I have pumpkins and squash and now I’m going out to put in some tomatoes and peppers thank you
I'm very glad to hear your replants are growing like crazy- how fun!
That is awesome I might put a a few bale's along side of my Garage not for sure what I'll plant yet
Have fun!
Thanks Jenna for the video. I've never grown anything in straw, but a friend of mine was telling me about it. Looks very interesting. I live in Southern Alabama and it might be a good idea for my area. We have a garden in the back yard and our soil is not the best. I might give this a try in the future. Thanks for sharing.
You are so welcome! I'd love to hear how it goes if you do give it a try!
I will try this in the summer lord willing. I'm only getting four bales though I don't need much.I do mostly buckets and grow bags.
I hope all goes well for you! Take care!
@@GrowfullywithJenna 🙂
I've been watching a lot of straw bale gardening videos because I want to try it. Yours is one of best and you have beautiful toes! 😜
Thanks and best of luck with your straw bale garden- hope it goes well for you!
Like your videos. It is always fun to try something different. Good info! I'll be waiting for the next one.
Michael Marchione thanks so much! You are right, it is fun to try something different- I try to do at least one little gardening experiment each year. Have a wonderful evening!
I am trying a couple of bails this summer--will try the bell peppers--I also heard that you can put the straw (after it has been conditioned with urea 4600) and put it in grow bags--I will try it and let you know how it did!
Oooh, I’d like to know how that works for you!
Going to try this.
Best of luck!
After seeing your peppers, so huge, i cant believe you arent going do more,more, more.lol i let my bales sit out and weather year before last. Then planted in spring. I mostly had cucumbers and delicata squash.they did great. Then over this last summer i used the hay in a big pile for cucumbers and planted tomato romas on both shorter ends. I got more than i could eat. Right now, i have 17 bales, im building beds around. Again, i will let them winter over. I am using reflective insulation to hold them together, and stakes on all sides for form. In spring, will plant. Peppers, squash, melons,tomato.im not much an eater. Except i love bell peppers. Will try a few of what i know i will consume.for me, its the watch it grow. See what works, for the experience. Good luck on yours, and take care.
Glad to hear the bales are doing great for you!! My biggest challenges with the straw bale garden are finding a good source for the straw and keeping them watered! Once I overcome those challenges I may consider doing more bale gardening at some point in the future. I do have to say- I like being able to add all that half rotted straw to the compost pile when the bales are spent, it's a great source of organic matter for sure! Thanks for watching & I hope you have a wonderful week!
@@GrowfullywithJenna prices go higher and higher. I spent a hefty 9.00 or so a bale, had delivered. Didnt want to go big box store for bags soil i had to cart. Didnt want to shop around best deal. I like the bale gardening. Gives you bulk all at once. Get more for the buck, feeds the rest soil. I also use for weed surpression. Ruth Stout gave me the idea in her videos and book. Its great.take care
@@bobbiwest6625 You do get more bang for the buck, that's for sure! And yes- I love that it helps with weed suppression too. You take care as well!
This is so cool.
I was pretty happy with how it turned out! I really did not expect it to work for me like it did.
That is prepping the bales
Ok im very late getting started because it took me a while to convince my husband but will it still work if i don't do conditioning for as many days as recommended ? Plz help me 😭 and ty i enjoy your channel you have given the best explanating
Hi Nancy- Every thing I've read gives the same timeline- just shy of 2 weeks. The main thing is, if you start the conditioning process you have to wait till the bales cool down before planting or it will likely kill your plants.
Great video. Just started using straw myself so can’t wait to see how it turns out! Cute feet by the way
Thanks & best of luck with the straw bales
I have done a modified straw bale garden. I used thick straw at the bottom of my beds and covered with rabbit bedding and rabbit poo. Then I planted into the top layer. Now I'm curious how it would work with the straw surrounding all sides. I think I will always use rabbit poo where I can.
Nice! I bet your plants love that rabbit manure!
Not sure if you can answer my question. I did 3 separate straw bale gardens last year. I used the conventional way of conditioning the bales with inorganic fertilizers. My concern now is all of the soluble solids(salts) left behind by all of the inorganic fertilizers. If I understand correctly, these soluble solids interfere with the soil life. Not sure if I can plant into the soil where the straw bale gardens were and regain healthy soil life to feed my plants. I also have concerns over using the left over straw as mulch or in my compost pile. I may be over thinking this but I do not want to set myself up for disaster.
One of the straw bale gardens was over a large silver maple stump I had ground down, I plan on doing a raised bed in that location. One other is in my most sunniest spots in the garden, I was planning to plant into the soil. If I do not get a definitive answer I figure I will just use large grow bags in that location this year.
The straw bales did just fine. Harvested 60 bird house gourds plus tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and sweet potatoes. Like you noticed, my tomatoes and sweet potatoes did much better in my beds.
I have an Aug garden tour posted if you would care to take a look. "Brian Seybert garden tour"
This is a very intriguing question Brian, and I apologize, I don't have a definitive answer for you. I will say that soluble salts tend to be of most concern in a contained system (think greenhouse growers- growing in containers) where they can become very concentrated. I would be less concerned about them in an open system like you've got. If you didn't see any negative effects on your plants in the straw bales, I doubt you'd have any issue growing in the soil underneath. I do understand your concern about the salts interfering with soil life, but I suspect the best thing you could do is grow something in that soil-- even if it is just a cover crop for this year. Again- sorry I don't have a definitive answer, but if it were me, I'd throw the straw in my compost and go ahead and plant as planned.
Thanks for sharing the garden tour- I will check that out soon!
@@GrowfullywithJenna What I should have done was pull the straw bales sooner and do a cover crop last fall but I was waiting for the darn birdhouse gourds to finish, ended up with 60 of em.
I have already decided to do grow bags and raised bed where the bales were last year.
Going to try luffas in the front trellis in grow bags. Being in zone 5, I already know I will be cutting it close do not want to fight a battle with the soil.
Thanks Jenna, you are the only experienced gardener that gave me a thoughtful reply.
I like that shirt. Lol
Haha... thanks, Chris. I got a kick out of it too!
Should have added bone meal to your bales for the potatoes
Thanks for the tip!
Boa Noite amizade tudo bem. Muito boa ideia plantar em fardo de feno . Pode me indicar os adubo a serem usados. Por favor se possível obrigado. Que pena seu canal não é traduzir pro português ou legenda mais dá pra intede pra praticar
Lamento não ter legendas em português nos meus vídeos.
FV Jenna. We've never done it. I got a question though. Did you notice ants after heavy rain? We had a bale for mulch this year, left half there, went back to it a few weeks later. Ant condo was found. Just curious. No plans on trying that.
Nope- no problems with ants that I could see. That's very odd!
@@GrowfullywithJenna What my ants? Or you didn't have any?
Jules Small Gardening well, when I wrote it I meant the ants in your bale. However, a quick google search revealed that this is a fairly common problem... so I guess the odd thing is that I didn’t have any ants in mine!
The patatoes have to have more room. The bales are to tight for them to grow, it should be los hay to grow in. , did you let the green grow for 3 weeks up to one feet en then put straw over them with a bit sand sow they can grow tubilars . If you dont cover the green plant for one feet you can not have tubulars ware the patatoes grown on. 😉
thanks
Mine are not growing
Do you put out new bales every year?
Yes
Waterlogged area no problem
Good to know!
Your potatoes are too close to each other. You need to have them 3 feet apart if you want a bigger harvest.