Using Straw Mulch: Age Wheat Straw Bales Before Use Or THIS Happens!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ต.ค. 2022
- In today's 2 minute garden tip, I show why you must age wheat straw bales before use when using straw mulch in your yard and garden...or else THIS happens! Wheat straw is my favorite natural mulch to use in my yard, but it should be aged before use to avoid a potential negative side effect.
My experience has found wheat straw mulch to be the best mulch for your garden, fruit trees and yard for its superior suppression of weeds and moisture retention. However, a potential side effect is wheat seed germination from leftover seeds in the wheat straw bales. This straw mulch tip will prevent the germination of leftover seed in your yard and garden. These wheat mulch tips also go for hay bales, too, because hay often contains more seed than straw bales.
For the full video on why aging wheat straw bales is best, click here: • My SECRET TECHNIQUE: U...
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©2 Minute Garden Tips
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #mulch #wheat - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
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I mulched my beds in the fall with a few bales. Come spring, the beds were covered in wheat . Not too much of a problem, it pulls up easily and toss in the compost. or use it for more mulch during the growing season. It also kept a lot of the annual weeds from growing.
I let a patch grow and harvested the seeds to see what it takes to make flour.
I pick up decorating bales after Halloween from town folk and put them in the poultry yard. Poultry loves them and then it's good for the garden
That's a good idea. They've probably been sitting out for awhile and are partially rotting.
This is why I only mulch with chicken straw. Any loose seeds have been eaten by the chickens, and their poop helps fertilise whatever I'm mulching! I used chicken straw for no dig potatoes this year and despite a drought, they did wonderfully.
The thing about letting the bales sit out for a couple months first is that the seeds that are going to germinate generally do. When, when you break the bales apart to use as mulch, you're basically ripping out all the growing wheat grass, so they all die. The tearing apart of the bales basically does the uprooting for you. Doing it this way, I've never had any significant issue other than a couple blades of grass here and there every few weeks.
Ok Mr. Lol. I watched you use the straw in a video about a month ago and went out and bought my bale and used it. You didn’t mention aging it in that video but I’ve learned now. lol. No worries. I’m just plucking them out as I can. In a large raised bed. I’m going to continue to age this a few months and lay it down between my row of grow bags and my raised bed garden and hit it with the vinegar. Love watching you. ❤ take care! - Michelle from NE North Carolina
Adding to content that I love your sweet baby and his addition to your show. ❤
Layed out 15 bales of rye straw strait from the farm into my 3 veggie gardens. Saw all the seed heads in there and didn't think much much of it. It all germinated after about 2 weeks. It was sooooo bad.
Just got done today after 12 hours of removing ALL OF IT and used EZ Straw instead. I bought mine from menards but it sold and home depot, lowes ect. That stuff is nice. No seed heads or weeds. Ive had it in my raised beds for 2 months and no weeds.
Parakeets LOVE sprouted wheat greens!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you sooo much!!! You saved us from making a costly mistake, ❤
Glad I could help!
Hahaha!!! Loved the little Dale cameo and your "wear goggles" sign.
Thanks for sharing. Love 🐕❤️🐕💜
Dale could smell that vinegar a mile away. Everything was great until it blew back in my face. Lesson learned 😎
@@2MinuteGardenTips I watched twice, it was too 😍 it maybe the only way Dale will be included in your 2 minute videos🐕
@@2MinuteGardenTips
Hello, unfortunately I watched your video too late and now I have wheat grass coming up gangbusters amongst my garlic. 😩
I can't spray the wheat grass without also killing my garlic, can I? I've removed the straw and am now weeding out the wheat grass as best I can. Is there anything else I can do between now and when I harvest my garlic next July? Any suggestions are hugely appreciated. Thank you!
Exactly what I want on my garden path.. we basically live on a sand doon..looking for a root system to hold the sand together
Thanks for sharing! Loves the wheat greens 😍.
Thanks for watching!
Wish I watched this before...now there's a ton of grass in my garden
Thank you!
You're welcome!
I spread it out over a sizable area I have covered with black plastic, within a week or 2 all the seeds germinates and quickly dies from having no water and the plastic absorbs heat and quickly dries out the sprouts! When I use it I just load up a wheel barrel and take it to where I plan on using as mulch!
@sirskippy87 So do you only do this during a dry spell? I feel like we get rain every few days so I wonder if that would work for me?
@@stitchyreispeices I’m in central Georgia so I can do it from mid March through September and into October! If it rain the water puddles up on the plastic and when sunny again it quickly evaporates
@SirSkippy87 ok thanks! I'm going to try this!
@@stitchyreispeices what I’m going to do now is put down black plastic a 20’x20’ area to spread the straw out over. And to heat it up even faster and keep out moisture, place another 20’x20’ piece of black plastic over it and stake it down with garden staples so the sun can really bake it! When you first spread though make a thick layer so seeds will inevitably germinate over a week or two, then cover with plastic!
Thank you! 😊👍
You're welcome!
subscribed! love your other channel.
Thank you so much for subscribing! I do appreciate it!
I spend the money and use a heat treated cut up straw product from Lucerne Farms. I have had no problems with weeds
Many years ago, I bought a couple of bales of straw to try to use to grow tomatoes. A couple of weeks later the bales looked like Chia pets 😆. As a result, I no longer use straw to grow tomatoes.
My old neighbor used to grow tomato plants physically in the straw bales. It worked great, particularly for smaller determinate tomato types.
@@2MinuteGardenTips I tried that with my Chia Pet bales as a way to try to get around the heavy clay soil. The people in the article made it looks so simple. I have had better luck with heavily amended soil and mulch at my place.
Is Pennington wheat straw bag bale straw from Lowes safe to use for mulch in my raised beds and containers TIA
Good tips
Thanks!
Interesting!!
Thanks for watching!
I can tell you from experience that using Hay was a bad idea. I used a thick layer of Hay as mulch for my garden a few years ago and have been fighting aggressive rhizome grass ever since. I have finally had to give up on my 40’x40’ garden because the grass was too aggressive. Use caution using straw or hay.
if i have had my wheat straw bales sitting outside for 2 months and not a single seed has sprouted should i be concerned that were sprayed with a desicant? i have been activitly trying to get the weed seeds to sprout / encourgae to the wheat to rot prior to use in the garden. (a bit of background.. the wheat came in the hay loft in the barn of the property we recently purchased and has been there for several years i would guess)
I can use fresh cut grass as mulch and nothing sprouts, because I live in a desert and the surface of the soil is dry as Mars in a day or two under the sun. Just today I cut a bunch of African grass (I think is Bermuda grass?) and used it as mulch. I really don't think it will sprout there 😅
Wrapping and allowing it to process/ferment the way farmers do is very effective.
I'm sure the more rotted it is, the better it'll work. Wheat straw takes awhile to break down, but that's what makes it so good for weed suppression. The hardwood bark mulches and pine bark mulches I put down rot quickly, and the weeds can penetrate it, so it requires some maintenance. The wheat straw I use stays weed-free all season. It interlocks, so nothing penetrates it. It's by far my favorite mulch for weed suppression.
@@2MinuteGardenTips rotting and fermenting are a bit different. You want to get a controlled anaerobic reaction. It can occur pretty quickly if you get heat and moisture right
What about the herbicide used with wheat production???
Could kill your garden plants...
Ill take that over Grazon any day!!!!!!!
I made this mistake last year and had massive clumps of what I presume was wheat growing in my yard. Should I be worried about that coming back? Anything recommended to prevent that?
Just don't let it go to seed and it'll die out in one year.
I feel your pain. I didn't know I was supposed to "age" the bales first and now I have a fine crop of wheat grass growing amongst my garlic which is just coming up. Argh!
If the wheat is growing in the bales then it must be free of any harmful herbicides like grazon, correct?
Grazon is mainly found in hay, what you have to worry about with wheat is called 2,4-D.
where did you get the bails?
You usually have to find a local farm supply store - one that sells bulk fertilizer, seeds, etc. These bales were from a local farm supply store called Hudson Hardware.
Wheat grass looks nicer than my lawn.
You don't want it growing in your garden.
Do wheat straw bales have roundup residue on it? I want to start organic gardening and want to use them but not if it has chemicals on it.
It's possible, but it's not something I'd be concerned about. RoundUp breaks down quickly, and wheat straw is very old once you receive it (because it's a byproduct of grain production). Furthermore, RoundUp has to be sprayed on the leaves of plants to be absorbed, not the roots, so if there was some kind of tiny trace residue leftover, it's probably not going to harm your plants. You can also ask your store. My store sells it for straw bale gardening all the time.
Cheeky Dale! lol
Any time the strong smells come out, here comes the snoopervisor 🐕
What do I do now that I have a wheat field growing in my garden?
Get out your 55 gallon barrel of vinegar and get to work.
@@jamesdagmond doing what? 😂
@@jamesdagmond
I have this same problem from mulching my garlic with straw. I'm guessing that I can't spray the straw with vinegar though because I'll also kill my garlic, right? I've been out there today raking away the straw and pulling up the wheat grass. Is there anything else I can do before I harvest the garlic next July? Thank you for any suggestions you can offer.
The grass is from the wheat so I look at it as green manure
Yeah I just pull and drop it, it comes right out. But I can see why it would be nice to not have to pull anything.
Basically, once you tear the bales apart to use them as mulch, you uproot all those grasses, so they just become more mulch, and eventually turn into compost.
can you make Wheatgrass juice out of it? or is that something different?
I have no idea. I am not a smoothie guy. I know a lot of foods in the wheat family are allergenic or difficult to digest, so if I really wanted a green drink, I'd look for something else, like kale or spinach, personally.
@@2MinuteGardenTips I don't drink those things either, when you said wheat grass it brought to mind that expensive stuff people talk about.You should look into it.Maybe you can get good money selling those green sprouts.just a thought.
I made this mistake this year
Thanks for the info, but I already built my straw bale house and now it is sprouting. Should I pour 500 gallons of vinegar on my house?
I made this mistake and now going to pay for it this Spring...
Conditioning my straw bales for gardening seems to have destroyed all the seeds. It may be an option: th-cam.com/video/a3slJFt9RJk/w-d-xo.html
Hay and straw are not one and the same. Only straw should be used for mulch. It is best to wrap such straw in two large garbage bags so that it is not scattered everywhere and place it in a dry and dark place. I have an old house where I keep straw, but a barn is even better, and it can also be in the garage or basement, if you have nothing else. Wrapped in bags, it can stand for years.
I guess this would not be a good idea if you’re allergic to wheat.
I guess it depends on what part of the wheat you're allergic to. If it's the pollen, this would be problematic. If it's the proteins inside the wheat, I guess that would imagine on your sensitivity level.
Wheat straw shouldn’t have anything in it. You got screwed. Don’t clickbait because of it lol
Wheat straw contains a fair amount of seeds. They have less seed than hay, but they're still full of seeds. Germination is an inevitability in most cases, unless you condition them to begin the rotting process or allow for them to break down sufficiently first to kill the seeds.
Where was the clickbait? Unless it's heat treated straw you're going to have seeds.
Or you could juice the wheat grass and sell it for $8 a shot!