I've heard alfalfa pellets are very good but since I'm in the suburbs with about 6000 sq ft of lawn I just bag grass clippings and put them around plants, add a light sprinkle of organic fertilizer. It's cheap, breaks down in one growing season and the clay soil becomes very dark and soft and it holds moisture very well. I've had absolutely no weed issues or insects from it. The worm population increases. I'm just an amateur but I like the results.
That's a good thing. I'm kinda an amature but only in the compost and amending soil, but I'm learning. Have you ever tried rice hulls. They seem to break up clay soil too. I'm Fortunate to live by a few very large rice farms and I can get it really cheap
@@garyflowers6116 never tried rice hulls, but I'd think any organic carbon material is good. I have 2 large sycamore trees and I use the leaves, shredded in the toro mower and spread them around the shrub beds along the house, also great and free!
@@barbaragoodman1789 I had the same fear but an old time gardener said it doesn't and I've had no issues with weeds, in fact it's been an excellent weed suppressant. I keep it no deeper than 1" or it mats and causes rain runoff. Apparently the clippings slowly release nitrogen and return other nutrients and minerals to the soil. You may want to research it yourself as there are may videos and articles about it.
The topic of Nitrogen has been sufficiently commented on. However, there is one important consideration about using straw or hay as a mulch or even as a Ruth Stout style growing medium… and that is “herbicide carryover”. It’s important to know how the hay or straw was grown, or you may end up with no crop at all.
I bought organic straw from a local farmer. However, I’m suspicious of how “organic” it really is since almost all plants mulched with a thin layer of this straw is doing poorly now.
I use chopped straw for mulch purchased from Tractor Supply in a zone 10b garden every spring. Yes, there are a few errant wheat seeds, but after a month of picking them out they’re gone for the year. In the following spring, I cover the remaining straw mulch which is mostly broken down with several inches of compost and plant directly into that. I’ve had zero issues.
I do the same thing, about 2 inches thick on top of the soil. It breaks down and becomes part of the soil. My garden is fantastic! He is acting like gardeners don't also amend their beds with compost, manure, fish etc. Straw is a fine mulch, ditto shredded leaves. If you have built a good soil and you add back every season, everything will grow well.
I’m using Dumor straw that I bought from Tractor supply for mulching in my container gardening, and it’s sprouting. Did yours cause a long term problem with sprouting?
@@LaRa-youknowit I've used that too, but prefer the Standlee Chopped Straw for bedding. Yes, you will get weeds, but I found them to be very easy to remove once the sprouts are large enough.
Alfalfa hay is the best garden mulch. Its high in phosphorus, which your veggies need alot of and no herbicides are needed on alfalfa, plus it breaks done much faster than straw and adds great organic matter.
I surround my garden plants with newspaper, then spread straw over that. It gives me a clean surface to walk through, and suppresses weed growth. I’ve had success with this method for many years. It also keeps moisture in the soil. When gardening is over, through the fall, winter and spring, most of the newspaper and straw decompose. I simply till all this matter back into the soil when preparing for the next year’s garden.
It's a misconception that straw or woodchips remove nitrogen from the soil. What he's leaving out is the fact that the bacteria take up nitrogen in form of ammonia->nitrite and then nitrite->nitrate in a process called nitrification. Only ammonia and nitrate are biochemically available to plants. This means, creating an active environment on top of the soil and thus encouraging aerobic bacteria to grow and take up nitrogen to form nitrate actually betters the nitrogen content for plants instead of worsening it. The only way nitrogen could get lost is if the soil grows anaerobic bacteria as they turn nitrate back into elementary nitrogen which is a gas.
I grew up on a market garden farm. We had acres of strawberries. My dad always used straw to cover the strawberries for the winter. The only issue I discovered as a boy was, yellow jackets like to make the straw into their nests. I know because I stepped off the tractor right onto a nest of yellow jackets. A very painful experience.
may i ask you a question ? im in Tennessee (in the mountains) and the other day i was mowing a hill with my push mower . (it was too hilly to use my rider ) . I ran over something that i think was baby yellow jackets but im not sure if this was them . i had shorts on and they stung me over and over from my ankles to my knees and each sting felt like a hot needle . They chased me and i couldnt get away . i ran screaming . It happened so fast that i could not see exactly what was attacking me . They were smaller than a bee . Like a small fly. there was no stingers in my legs like bee or wasp stings . there was no swelling at all . however , the pain of the burning needle feeling lasted me 10 hours . separately over the 10 hours , i put ice on my legs , then vinegar, then tea bags , then baling soda . everything worked for around 10 minutes or so and i felt relief then the pain came back . this went on for 10 hours . I dont know what what stung me 100 times . i seen your comment and does this sound like yellow jackets or perhaps you might have some idea what these insects are ?
@@time2cclear I have only been stung 6 times in my life (I'm over 60) and the 6 times happened in the first year I moved to Tennessee. The wasps that stung me did not leave their stingers in. Four out of 6 stings were the orange or reddish wasp the other 2 were the yellow ones. For whatever reason Tennessee has very aggressive wasps IMHO.
I have used straw as a mulch on my garden beds for a couple years now. It mainly is to keep the compost moist because the summers are pretty hot here. I have not had any issues. Mulching it up with a bag mower makes it so much better to apply.
Sitting on the soil surface, dry, as a mulch, there is no nitrogen issue. There is a very small interface of actual decomposition at the soil surface. Virtually no chance of nitrogen depletion unless and until it is tilled in or covered with soil/compost. Wood chips do exactly the same thing. Not much of an issue unless it's incorporated into the soil.
Yes for the most part, however? If layered thickly, I have notice a drop in nitrogen levels for a season. If nitrogen levels are already low then you can end up with a depletion even with a surface application. Atleast in my experience.
@@gardenguychannel What do you mean by depletion? Nitrogen simply does not dissappear from the soil unless you remove organic matter, have excessive soil erosion or it is anaerobic as then bacteria convert nitrate back into elementary nitrogen which leaves as atmospheric gas.
I use fresh straw to insulate my strawberries over winter in my raised bed, then in the spring I put it all into my small compost bin. During the winter, we pile in coffee grounds, banana peels, and eggshells, along with other vegetable scraps. Mixing in the straw aerates and loosens the whole lot, and I can usually get a few fresh lawn clippings in there. I mix it a couple of times per week. By the end of June, I have a nicely balanced compost for top dressing! Also, high straw ratio can safely be used around potatoes because of the nitrogen fixing activity of potato-soil-microbe-fungi relationships. Depleting nitrogen around them is pretty harmless.
I love using a small layer of hay for mulch. It's cheap and goes a long way. Now I'm afraid to use it after hearing horror stories about hay from fields treated with Grazon. It's a broad leaf weed killer. The grass can take it up but doesn't die, so cows and sheep can graze on it. That crap stays in the hay forever and goes right through the cows into their manure. Put some Grazon-treated hay or contaminated manure on your garden and it's dead dead dead. I understand one way to get rid of it is to grow a crop or two of corn. The corn will take up the grazon, but you have to throw away all parts of the corn. As far as I know, there's no way to determine if hay is contaminated with this latest gift from Big Ag.
I heard the very same thing. You have to plant cover crops to suck it out of the soil but I've also heard worse nightmares. Be aware and let's all help each other when we can.
Is Grazon another brand name for Glyphosate aka Roundup? I never buy soil amendments from the big box stores. I scouted for a nearby farmer (Craigslist) who I can buy square bales of hay from who never sprays any herbicides. We've become friends and talk ad nauseum about permaculture and organic gardening so I trust him. I've had very good luck using this hay as a deep mulch year round to prevent weeds and retain moisture, which eventually composts in situ so I refresh it every spring. Just call me Ruth Stout :)
Tip: Search out organic oat or wheat straw if possible. Most farmers spray wheat once per season with herbicides and oats need to be sprayed twice. Those farmers who don't spray have an enormous crop of weeds that go to seed in their fields, so you most likely will have weed seeds to deal with in your bales and into your garden. Bottom line: wood chips are a better mulch.
I add thin layers of untreated cut grass under my straw, seems to work great and it’s free. Just don’t add too much or it gets mucky. Good information!
Which is why I make a Tea by the bucket out of my fresh grass clippings and use that every two weeks on my plants... I use straw at the very bottom of my planters to aid in drainage, but don't mix it with the Soil.. I also use fish emulsion, or fish guts in my soil... I don't care to spend great deals of money on fertilizers, and I compost .. In the fall, when all the crops in my beds are done, I really load up the soil with all the above, and a potting mix, and Horse Manure which I get from a friend, but any place that boards Horses will be glad to give you some... Use what you have creatively! There are also many ways to control pests, and treat the soil that won't cost an arm and a leg... Good luck and Happy Farming! ♥️
I am so glad I found this. I’ve used it in the fall with no issues and was going to put it down for weed control now in June. That makes complete sense. I was going to go out yesterday to get it. I’m so glad I didn’t.
Perfect and timely assistance! We are in a high mt. desert and the straw helped the soil to retain moisture (not be naked). Your explanation of outcomes w this approach is spot on, now to get out there and do something about it!
Great video! And I agree completely. One other possible danger with straw that I realized after doing my first bale garden. I did about half with straw bales, and the rest with grass hay bales. The hay bales vastly outperformed the straw. My first thought was that, like you said, the hay contained both carbon and, being greener, some nitrogen. The straw was almost completely carbon. And this might be the only real difference here. But later I remembered that when we lived in Montana, a huge wheat growing state, I had often witnessed crop dusters spraying Glyphosate (like Roundup) on ripe wheat fields to kill the crop so that it would all dry down consistently. I wonder how much residual chemical remains in the straw (and the wheat) in straw treated this way?
Thank you for the prompt response. The good thing about the hay we use is that it's our hay from our 10 acres and we wouldn't dare put anything like that on our hay, but some people do. We have our hay cut, he gives us a couple because they weigh 1200 lbs which last us forever since we use it for our chickens . But the guy that cuts our hay sells some and feeds the rest to his cow and he has many but when somebody does buy our hay, he always tells them it's pure with no incetecides. We already have enough for two or more years so this year I'm going to beat him out of some chickens. I think that's fair enough, don't ya'll? I've heard of people using hay and straw that has been crop dusted with chemicals that destroy their gardens and they have a terrific time getting the chemicals out of their beds. I'm sure you guys and gals have heard the same thing. Let's keep it going because who knows when what we do in our gardens could keep our family's afloat, being large or small. Thanks again everyone for your input.
@@randallwall2745 Hey there. Good thing about my hay is that it's my hay and we never spray anything on it but I know people who do and like you said, if you get that type it can ruin your garden. Have a great weekend.
Truly Thank you. I tilled my maneuer in the spring. Did a second till before planting. You have enlightened me on the carbon aspect. I hope I have kept my nitrogen up. Plants look healthy. A little weeding is to be expected.
Thank you!! Ive decided against using a straw bed because of the possible chemical exposure. My garden has neutral soil and I dont want to have to spend more. My problem is I made a large garden area in an old mugwart weed garden and didnt discover till later....so even with removing all roots...i still dont trust the Invasiveness of the Mugwart
I ACTUALLY USE THE STRAW I HAVE FOR BETWEEN MY ROWS SO IT DOESN'T GET MUDDY IF IT RAINS. OH, EXCUSE MY CAPS PLEASE. I CAN'T SEE THE SMALL LETTERS WELL ENOUGH TO USE THEM ON THIS CHEAP PHONE.
I put straw down with cow manure before I put cardboard skirts around my perennials and cover with topsoil. It seems to work well. Thanks for the video!
I used to mulch with straw but my chickens would pull it off so I started doing the wood chips that the chickens don't knock off so easily. It looks better with the wood chips instead of the straw too. The straw looked messy all over my vegetable beds.
Here's the best scoop I know. Take your hay/straw/clippings and put them in a clear contactors bag. Dampen the contents, close, and let the seeds sprout. Open the bag, spread contentrens on ground and let all the seedling perish. This gives you the added advantage of promoting photo and hydrolyzation decomposition of any herbicides that may have been present.
Hey Gil. I'm very interested in formulating my own organic fertilizer for soil, NPK sources using best practice fertilizers and whatever works best. In AR. Would love a great resource on this and or book? To many theories on this out there. Is there a person who is the hands down expert on the topic?
I've got a chicken manure / straw compost going... it has actually sat last fall and all winter. I'm digging into it to start moving up some soil, and yeah I can still see a lot of straw, but it has really darkened up, black in some areas with some gold striations of straw mixed in. I feel pretty good that a significant amount of carbon is already gone from the straw.
Remember to add the appropriate amount of nitrogen when adding all types of carbon. Straw, wood chips, compost and any other high carbon ratio amendment added to the soil will need extra nitrogen. Straw is not even the highest carbon ratio soil ammendment.
from my experience straw works great, just don't till it in until it is completely decomposed. laying it on top of the ground doesn't upset the nitrogen ratio
Trust me. My first year I started my garden at my girlfriends home I tilled the hay before any breakdown and the plants did great for about 3 weeks then everything died. I felt like an idiot. I had to dig up everything in my 4×20 raised garden and basically start over. It was pitiful
We use about a 1.5 Inch layer of straw otherwise we use landscape fabric to control weeds also I always add a little bit of foxfarms tomato n vegetable fertilizer and half a cup of bone meal in the hole when I transplant in a plant otherwise I just broadcast spread and till in a basic 10-12-6 fertilizer all purpose type down to earth makes some amazing organic fertilizers
after planting in the spring I put a 1 inch layer of composted manure top dressing then 2 inches of straw. It has provided great protect from the extreme hot and dry weeks we get.
Thank you Garden guy! I was just using last year's tall dead ornamental grass plant from my mom's front yard it literally looks just like that straw. So glad you posted this!
Now I was thinking of the glyposates often used in wheat crops . As far as weed supression goes , taking the nitrogen from the weeds is a plus . Blanket the straw on top of weeds , dead or alive helps break down the straw .
I'm new here! And to further expand on what was said in the video, soil microbes generally have around an 8 to 1 or 8:1 Carbon to Nitrogen ratio, where as wheat straw has around an 80:1 Carbon to Nitrogen ratio, which is why the microbes have to scavenge Nitrogen from their surrounding environment when wheat straw is put into the soil system. Looking up the C:N ratio of various things you're adding to the soil directly, or to your compost pile and aiming for a good balance can be helpful!
I will admit that my initial comment did leave out one important part, which is that a 20-30 C:N ratio is generally what's good for microbes! They chow down on some of those carbon containing compounds too after all. Soil, and what lives in it is amazing stuff!
In our orchard and vegetable gardens we first weed as heavily as we can, we then feed heavily with Compost. Finally, we apply deep mulch of either Rice straw or bark. Excellent results. The first two steps are time consuming, yes. But the reward is well worth the effort.
You are correct. There is a big fad of telling people to plant into a deep bed of straw. They want to build up the organic matter, but there is little nutrients in straw nor in wood chips. A thick layer of straw will kill the weeds, but it can hurt your vegetables too. Deep straw will keep the soil cold and the plants may suffer.
The process you are talking about is nitrogen drawdown which occurs when organic matter is incorporated into the profile. Often occurs when people dig in compost that hasn't finished breaking down fully. Mulch is fine so long as it remains on the surface. A good approach is to mass plant legumes as a green manure and then cover with a blanket of straw once the legumes reach 8 - 10".
I’m curious about another potential about using wheat straw.Was it grown with herbicide? Does it retain any chemicals ? I’d just advise viewers of the potential and for them to seek out sources that are organic
Around where I live in W. TN, I can't use straw or hay. I have yet to find anybody that will not say they haven't sprayed "something" on it. Sad really. Great video!! I had some time this morning so I have watched a weeks worth of your videos back to back. Hope it helps push your videos up so more will see them.
I have learned fresh straw bale's full of seeds. If I can move straw from neighbors decorations. They get soaked. But I throw blood meal & water them every so often. Coming spring. Less seed problems
Gardenguy, I ran across a study (cant find it now to share here) that said the same about Nitro loss when using wood chips. However, the study said Nitro was only taken from the very top layers of the soil for the process. Many plants have their roots down deeper than the level that the Nitro is being used by the microorganisms to break down the carbon. I am not 100% so do more research on your own to see how deep the Nitro is being used for carbon breakdown by the micro organisms and at what level the plants pull their Nitrogen.
Here in ky I've been using straw around tomatoes for a weed barrier and have no problems buy the time next spring roll around its all but detearated. But i do till in hourse manure and add in some blood meal and 10 10 10 before i cover it with straw, i always have great success. Just thinking theres probably different outcomes with different soil types
Also be careful using saw dust especially, it will cake up and cut off oxygen getting to any plant life and kill everything. I learned that the hard way myself! Maybe if it was rototill into the soil might help but adding compost or other materials for nitrogen certainly a good idea too! Btw, if adding saw dust be sure the saw dust is from hardwood and not plywood or chipboard materials being it has glues and other chemicals not good for your garden. Saw dust will compost really fast into the soil though, especially being mixed into the soil. Where wood chips will take a lot longer to decompose. I’ve used large amounts of saw dust in areas where I wanted to get rid of weeds where I don’t plan on planting anything in the area anytime soon and used it to build up or fill in lower areas
Benj, The seed head that you picked up in this video looked like rye. I revisited your entire vid to hear the word "rye". None. I can remember planting mega-acres of rye in WNC and ET. This was some sixty years ago. "girl walks with goats" used the expression "combined off" and I will bet you a nickel half the people reading this don't know what she is talking about! I gave her a thumbs up and you should caution her about Justin Rhodes and Brian Fellows. lol The straw you held up probably had been baled. However I did see distinct marks of a combine! Carroll
Straw is the carbon source in my hot compost operation especially in the growing season when there is so much green matter. It's the best! It's better than shredded leaves because it's hollow and provides some air deep within the heap..
I'm almost seventy years old I have used straw for weed barrier and holding moisture in my vegetable garden my whole life you'd be hard-pressed to convince me it causes a nitrogen problem. I don't turn it into the soil I rake it up at the end of the season and lay fresh down in the spring.
So we planted trees near a wall and the idea was to place straw at their feet, leaving a straw free ring around their base to look prettier and water them and get rid of the weeds all around them, for that, would it be OK????? I'd even add woodchips before hay, after seeing your video or do you think that in this case, the Cedar trees growth would be affected negatively also??? 🙏
Hello Mia! Thank you for commenting. Trees will generally acquire nitrogen from further down in the soil. So you shouldn't run into an issue with the straw for them. The risk is usually with veggie crops since their roots are closer to the surface. I have found wood chips to be the optimum mulch for trees since it is closer to what would naturally occur in creation. Just apply on the surface (no tilling in) and you should be good! I hope this was helpful. God bless!
Thats a great idea. Any compost combination needs green matter and dried or brown materials. I used it just as a mulch for weeds and the straw bales I got were loaded with seeds. I had a bumper fall wheat crop that I cut with weedeater to mulch adding to straw.
Thank you for this information! I just started using straw as mulch this past summer to cool the soil temps. I was curious if turning the old straw back into the soil would be beneficial to the soil or not. This helped me understand I would need to add more nitrogen if I do that. Also, one thing you didn't mention about using straw as mulch was how it eventually sprouts wheat, so this adds to garden maintenance issues. Lol!😁
Right! I used straw one year and, in the Spring, I found I was growing wheat from all the seeds that were in it. They were 2-3 feet tall in no time. What a mess I had to clean up before I could get my garden started.
@@bryanbennett972 exactly! Last season when the wheat popped up in my garden from churning in the straw previously, I transplanted it all into my chicken run and my chickens loved digging around under it and eating the seeds that fell off of it! made nice shade for them also as it grows very fast, also kept them entertained :-) free chicken food you can't beat it. I call it a win-win situation 👍🙌
Straw mulch does not remove nitrogen from the soil as it simply increases nitrification. It's good to encourage aerobic bacteria to take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia and nitrite to convert into nitrate as especially nitrite isn't biochemically available to plants. The issue of nitrogen loss only happens if the soil is anaerobic as then it will convert nitrate into elementary nitrogen, a gas.
According to you then adding wood mulch would create a similar issue and I’ve never experienced that in 40 + years of gardening. As long as you layer the material on the surface and don’t incorporate the material into the soil you should not have a problem. Better still, as with wood mulch, make sure the material has aged a bit before application to ensure it has composted a bit
Luckily I have enough room for a large garden and my rows between plants run approx. 3 1/2 feet wide. I put down the black weed prevention rolled out between the planted rows and only use straw to cover the space between my rows where we walk. We keep it about 2 feet wide where the crop rows run so there is only dirt and good air circulation for the plants. It has worked for us for many years and at the end of each season I rake up all the straw and use it for other things around the property.
I used flat rock to line my paths. Within a year the rocks were covered by thick mats of grass :( Probly should have laid that black weed cloth first,.
I have a few questions about this. Im a green biotechnician, I alter plant DNA. Bacteria get their nitrogen from the air in gas form. They convert this nitrogen eventually to nitrate (NO3-), this is the only source of nitrogen what plants like, as they cant handle nitrogengas. Why would they take the nitrogen from the ground, and therefore taking nitrogen from the plants? The chickenmanure contains high sources of ammonia (NH3), which in turn gets fixated into NO3- by the bacteria. Btw: If its true what you are saying you can solve this problem by planting legumes the first year, they have their own type of nitrogen fixating bacteria called Rhizobium Next, the carbon gets converted in the process of biological decompostion. This is mainly cellulose that gets decomposed (around 50%). To break down a sugarchain, the bacteria use hydrolysis. This means breaking the hydrogens (H+) of the chain to convert cellulose into glucose. The other compounds that get broken up are less hard to break up, which are other sugars and proteins. These processes dont need nitrogen, ammonia or nitrate. So these bacteria are good for your soil. This also agrees with Gil Shelley, the actual soil scientist :P The denitrifying bacteria, the ones that are not good fo your soil, only live in very anearobic (no oxygen) environments, sometimes oxygen even kills them. Unless its a swamp or literally submerged in water most of the time, they wont live in the straw. What I am getting at is; The straw is not the issue, or at least not the nitrogen in combination with the straw.
Nope. Nitrogen in fertilizer comes mostly from ammonia in the soil. Bacteria metabolize the ammonia with enzymes that catalyze the process of NH3 to N02- to NO3-.
You got it right. Air is the best insulator, and straw is way to go. Side note: My great-grandfather was a cow herd man (a cowboy basically) deep into the mountains of Eastern Europe. He survided winters by sleeping in straw. I was little when he told me many stories, but waking up in freezing temperature and needing to dry your clothes from sweat of how well straw isolated stuck into my mind.
I wish you added a caution about herbicides, especially grazon, kills your herbaceous garden, mostly the annuals we all love to grow...learned the hard way! David the Good hasxaeticles on it.
Wheat straw is my recently discovered garden rocket fuel for tomatoes. Not so much peppers. I put down a layer of kraft paper first. Used to use our local filthy rag newspaper before it got small. This is followed by copious amounts of wheat straw. No weeds and it retains moisture. I dig a shallow trench around each tomater and add a generous sprinking of 13-13-13 which feeds for the whole season. But before that comes the oak leaves. Been gardening in the same spot for 40 years. Each year I put all my leaves in the garden. Some years after leveling out they have been knee high. This is done in Dec or January. A couple of months later when I get around to it I go over it with the lawnmower. At that point the pile is reduced to a quarter to a half inch. At least a month before I plant I put pelletized lime over the whole garden. In all times past until this year this was followed with 13-13-13. (Well, that's gone by the wayside.) Now the rows only get the treatment. When I till the garden up I have the finest richest juiciest worm filled mulchy dirt you ever laid your eyes on...and this in a heavy clay area. My garden works great. No comparison at all to soil that hasn't been primed. None. We're talking concrete.
I have the opposite problem. To much limestone so I have to add sulfur. My garden is like a gravel pit, but I put my maple leaves in it in the fall and throw some car tires on top so it doesn’t all blow away. I add aged manure but only directly where I plant, I don’t believe in fertilizing the weeds, lol. Stuff still grows, and I am always amazed.
@@mightywind7595 Well that's smart. I wish there were a way here not to add grass seed attached stickily to the leaves. I have the MOST beautiful stand of yard grass in the garden. Best in the whole yard. Alas, the whole thing gets the leaves with the planting rows getting their share. Ha. We reserve our limestone here to our drinking and toilet water only.
The way to use straw is as a surface mulch. Great for that purpose. I have it around my raspberries. Keeps the weeds down and helps retain the moisture... no nitrogen added required.
You can also add a lot of herbicides that was put in by the farmer when the straw was grown....I'm not using straw or any bales of anything in my garden.
Buy your straw a year in advance. Allow it start to decompose into compost, add that to your soil along with livestock manure that has been composted. The only time you should add it uncomposted is as mulch in and around growing beds and plants.
After the straw is gone, the nitrogen is returned to the soil though so its only temporary. What I do is before I add any straw, I mow my lawn and sprinkle grass clippings down first THEN straw. The clippings are full of nitrogen .That helps a little.
Небольшое дополнение к древесной щепе или опилкам которую используют в качестве мульчи, нужно будет добавить в землю грибную микоризу чтобы щепа и опилки лучше разлагались в почве.
Any advice on how much of the alfalfa pellets to use on tomatoes, squash and cucumbers? I have used straw as mulch and fill for the raised beds underneath the soil so id like to supplement the soil. The squash are a little yellowish all of a sudden. Thanks for the info!
Yeah if you do straw bale gardening..I’d do potatoes. Just lay the potatoes on the ground and then cover with straw thickly but not too thick so that they can’t punch through. Essentially it’s a thick mulch. Your plants need access to the real soil. Only straw doesn’t do the trick in my experience!
Hi Elena! Good question. That is an option, however, if you do that you will need to lay it down thickly since the reason for that lowest layer is to smother out the weeds and prevent them from pushing through to the surface. Blessings!
That worst thing about wheat straw is most of the time. At least in Alabama where I live. The straw is full of seed. And that stuff grows everywhere you drop it. It was all in my garden this year after i thought it would be a good idea to use instead of hay... really bad idea. Ive pulled so much wheat from my garden. So much! Bad idea! Very bad.
You spoke about the difference between stray and hay. However I guess there wasn’t enough time to clarify. Could you please let us know is hay is better Thanks
Well, well, well… One man’s nitrogen loss is another guys over abundance, or something like that. I thought you were going to talk about the propensity of straw and even hey to become problematic because of the seeds that drop out of the dried plant material and invade your garden or grow ing space. But when you mention the nitrogen issue my ears perked up because I have a problem that I brought on myself of having too much nitrogen in my garden soil. But before I tell that sad tale, we always try to use salt Marche here in New England. I don’t know about the nitrogen problem but salt marsh is a beautiful thing because we don’t have any problems with seed. Unfortunately, as more and more of the one percenters snap up the farmland on the North Shore up towards Plum Island and parts north, there’s less less unless salt marsh! So as a result Sault Marche is more and more expensive every year. So here’s how I screwed up. Every year our Community Garden gets a couple of tons of really nice compost. Now even though I’ve been gardening for 30 years, starting about 18 years ago I would take some of the compost and just work it into my garden to make up for soil loss from various sources and reasons. Then one summer about four years ago I had the big tomato plants, lots and lots of green; and out of 20 enormous tomato plants I had not one single tomato. Now experience gardeners know why. I was really upset. Because I brought that shit on myself. Anyway my extension service recommended that I plant green manure, but instead of letting it come to fruition and then falling back into the soil to increase nitrogen, they told me to completely pour the entire plant out before seed set, matured, and then dropped into the soil. Well I did it once and then I got cancer, and so forth. Now I am better but my garden is still screwed. I noticed the gentleman named Gil said he was a soil scientist. So Gil! What do you think I should do? All of the landscape people here in Central Boston are selling loam with compost fold it in to enrich it. It’s a 50-50 split. Now under normal circumstances that makes sense, but all I really need is loam. I am trying to get through this season by just using raised beds and adjusting my soil accordingly but two days ago I pulled some carrots that had been planted last fall and they look like science-fiction monsters! They were rotten and they had what looked like canker sores on one side. Now, I don’t know if that’s because I left them in the ground too long and they wintered over and got hurt or whether that’s a symptom of too much nitrogen fixation. And in general ladies and gentlemen anybody that’s got any advice on how they would fix my over nitrogen problem permanently, please reach out to me. My email is guitaruniverse2013@gmail.com thanks!
Wow! Some folks would probably wish they had your over-nitrogen problem! Thank you for sharing @guitaruniverse. I would recommend adding in wood chips to the surface of your soil this fall, let them decompose over the winter, and then you should have a nice balanced soil. With all that nitrogen in the soil your plants will have an over-abundance of greenery and little fruit set. My first guess is the carrots are being "eaten" by soil microbes due to the extreme levels of nitrogen in the soil. Decomposition is encouraged and fostered by nitrogen. So just add in some quality carbon (wood chips is the best option around here) and let it decompose over the winter. I hope this helps! Blessings
nice... so i'm trying to get a consensus on if I can or should mix in hay to amend clay soil. I will use chicken house hay at same ratio as I would perlite :) already used up the perlite, will be interesting to do a control study comparing results. --also as someone else noted, maybe the hay u got that did bad was treated w chems since it was dominantly just wheat, vs a mix. hay i get is a mix and I'm not complaining :)
@@gardenguychannel although almost any type of growing vegetation can be called "hay", and a few farmers will bale anything to feed their cattle, I believe a good grass or grass/alfalfa mix hay is much more likely to be "weed free" than straw (and it contains much more nitrogen, etc). Consider this: hay is cut while it's still green, not yet producing seeds. Farmers, if at all possible, will cut their hay before any seeds are ripe enough to propogate - either hay seeds or invasive weed seeds. So hay is just inherently less likely to spread weeds. They don't want to feed hay to their cattle if it's full of weeds and seeds as all those seeds will now be sown into their pasture - not good. In most states you can even buy hay that is "certified weed free". With straw on the other hand, it is not harvested until after the grain heads have been combined - after all seeds are ripe and viable to reproduce. So any seed, be it wheat, oats, or weeds, that is retained in the bale with the straw is ripe, and just waiting to be deposited in some nice garden soil where it can grow.....
Not just straw, but any vegetable matter that is not thoroughly composted will deplete nitrogen. A good dose of 10-4-4 will fix it, and so will well-composted manure. Dilute ammonia is an excellent way to quickly put nitrogen into the soil.
Straw will make a huge benefit to most gardens. It is not a fertilizer, its a mulch. Ensure you manure your garden well, then heap it on. No weeds, reduced compaction, better moisture profile, less pests, more earthworms and your squashes, tomatos, strawberries, etc stay clean. Don't hesitate to try it out. Youll be pleased.
If putting down straw only on the surface and its tieing up nitrogen where it is hurting the growth of your plants, your soil is poor and doesn't have enough nitrogen to begin with. If you get your soil tested and you already have low nitrogen, then you know when putting down wood chips or straw you need to add nitrogen. Personally I load my garden up with straw and would chips on poor soil and all I do Is add compost to help them produce. The slow release in compost seems to do the trick.
Nearly all straw contains Glyphosate (aka Roundup). It can poison your soil FOR YEARS. Only easy way to remove most of it is to plant more wheat. That will draw out the poison - at least some of it anyway. Note: Not sure about paraquat. Presumably that too will be problematic.
That looks like Oat, (Avena sativa), straw, you can also buy barley, rice, rye and wheat straw. Straws keeps birds off broadcasted seed and moisture in, it protects soils from the Suns rays and heat. Heat dries and sterilizes the top few inches of bare soil, where beneficial bugs and Earth worms leave. I remove straw at end of season and compost it. You can use hay, but it contains grass seed that often sprouts. You can buy straw that’s chopped finer, but it’s more $
The reason you loose nitrogen is just a temporary effect from an overgrowth of the organisms at the top of the soil food chain. There is plenty of nitrogen but it is locked into the microorganisms bodies. This is actually a great thing because it acts like a storage reservoir of nitrogen that will get released later when the organisms rebalance. Some plants do not like any grass or hay anywhere near them. I have had this experience with cabbages. Some plants like the surface of the soil around their base to be sunbaked and they will get very spindly and yellow if over mulched such as hot peppers or tobacco. Some plants such as zuchini are prone to mold and should not have damp straw all around. If its a really wet year you might breed alot of slugs in your hay. Other than these problems, I have had great success with using straw and hay to reclaim my garden from thick grass mat without any tilling. I have gone years with no other fertilizer and my soil is rich and crumbly with great granular texture. The first year I always grow potatoes by first scything the area then just dropping the seed potatoes on the ground. I put a small handful of pine needles( they like acid ) on each potatoe and then cover with 3 feet of fluffy hay. As soon as the green starts to poke a through the hay, add another foot or two. In the fall, peel back the hay and your potatoes will be all over the surface. This is not as abundant as digging them in but definately less time spent/ potatoe. Next I plant garlic (in the fall) straight into the soil where the potatoes were. Still no digging. Except a small trowel to part the soil enough to stick the cloves in. Recover with the hay that is starting to break down to at least 2 feet deep. Weed in midspring only if weeds are interfering with the garlic growth. After you harvest the garlic in the fall, use a hay fork to lift the hay so that anything growing through it gets pulled out or left behind and then drop the hay back on top of the soil and any remaining weeds/grass. Add some more hay if necessary to create a thick mat. Ready to plant anything by the following spring.
I am an actual soil scientist. Straw is fine on the surface of the soil. No nitrogen issues unless you incorporate it into the soil.
How about dried grass incorporated into the soil? Will it have the same effect? Just did that yesterday when transplanting my tomato seedlings.
What about glyphosate all over the straw?
@@veronical3135 Yes, but you can offset nitrogen drawdown by just sprinkling a bit of blood and bone or chicken manure
@@shadytreez Just buy organic straw.
@@rennnnn914 Good point.
I am presuming most straw bails at the feed store has glyphosate...
Lots of critics need to keep in mind there are LOTS of variables in play. This young man has lots to teach and share ❤
Imbalance of Nitrogen?! This is the last straw!
Hahaha! nice one Austin. Great pun
😆😄
🤣😂
🤩🤩👌👌😂
Tu du du dum
Tss
I've heard alfalfa pellets are very good but since I'm in the suburbs with about 6000 sq ft of lawn I just bag grass clippings and put them around plants, add a light sprinkle of organic fertilizer. It's cheap, breaks down in one growing season and the clay soil becomes very dark and soft and it holds moisture very well. I've had absolutely no weed issues or insects from it. The worm population increases. I'm just an amateur but I like the results.
I’m very NEW to gardening, so putting fresh grass clippings under my garden plants won’t cause weeds ? ( I have super clay soil).
That's a good thing. I'm kinda an amature but only in the compost and amending soil, but I'm learning. Have you ever tried rice hulls. They seem to break up clay soil too. I'm Fortunate to live by a few very large rice farms and I can get it really cheap
@@garyflowers6116 never tried rice hulls, but I'd think any organic carbon material is good. I have 2 large sycamore trees and I use the leaves, shredded in the toro mower and spread them around the shrub beds along the house, also great and free!
@@barbaragoodman1789 I had the same fear but an old time gardener said it doesn't and I've had no issues with weeds, in fact it's been an excellent weed suppressant. I keep it no deeper than 1" or it mats and causes rain runoff. Apparently the clippings slowly release nitrogen and return other nutrients and minerals to the soil. You may want to research it yourself as there are may videos and articles about it.
@@barbaragoodman1789 Don't do it if the grass has seed heads or stolens. Those will start a new lawn in your garden.
The topic of Nitrogen has been sufficiently commented on. However, there is one important consideration about using straw or hay as a mulch or even as a Ruth Stout style growing medium… and that is “herbicide carryover”. It’s important to know how the hay or straw was grown, or you may end up with no crop at all.
YES! Just found out about GRAZON ...5 yr life of killing vegetables
I bought organic straw from a local farmer. However, I’m suspicious of how “organic” it really is since almost all plants mulched with a thin layer of this straw is doing poorly now.
That is very true. I should have commented on that. Maybe I will in a future video.
I thought it was going to be the topic, so that was a deception. I warn people everywhere but they don't believe me.
@@christineloz1686 there are worse ones than that . I was told it was one of the shorter residue life weed killers
I use chopped straw for mulch purchased from Tractor Supply in a zone 10b garden every spring. Yes, there are a few errant wheat seeds, but after a month of picking them out they’re gone for the year. In the following spring, I cover the remaining straw mulch which is mostly broken down with several inches of compost and plant directly into that. I’ve had zero issues.
I just used grass clippings from mowing the yard............
I do the same thing, about 2 inches thick on top of the soil. It breaks down and becomes part of the soil. My garden is fantastic! He is acting like gardeners don't also amend their beds with compost, manure, fish etc. Straw is a fine mulch, ditto shredded leaves. If you have built a good soil and you add back every season, everything will grow well.
@@theresedillon6717 Yep and the worms love it!
I’m using Dumor straw that I bought from Tractor supply for mulching in my container gardening, and it’s sprouting. Did yours cause a long term problem with sprouting?
@@LaRa-youknowit I've used that too, but prefer the Standlee Chopped Straw for bedding. Yes, you will get weeds, but I found them to be very easy to remove once the sprouts are large enough.
Alfalfa hay is the best garden mulch. Its high in phosphorus, which your veggies need alot of and no herbicides are needed on alfalfa, plus it breaks done much faster than straw and adds great organic matter.
I surround my garden plants with newspaper, then spread straw over that. It gives me a clean surface to walk through, and suppresses weed growth. I’ve had success with this method for many years. It also keeps moisture in the soil. When gardening is over, through the fall, winter and spring, most of the newspaper and straw decompose. I simply till all this matter back into the soil when preparing for the next year’s garden.
i do the same thing, i have been using newspaper with straw on top for 30 years.
It's a misconception that straw or woodchips remove nitrogen from the soil.
What he's leaving out is the fact that the bacteria take up nitrogen in form of ammonia->nitrite and then nitrite->nitrate in a process called nitrification. Only ammonia and nitrate are biochemically available to plants. This means, creating an active environment on top of the soil and thus encouraging aerobic bacteria to grow and take up nitrogen to form nitrate actually betters the nitrogen content for plants instead of worsening it.
The only way nitrogen could get lost is if the soil grows anaerobic bacteria as they turn nitrate back into elementary nitrogen which is a gas.
I grew up on a market garden farm. We had acres of strawberries. My dad always used straw to cover the strawberries for the winter. The only issue I discovered as a boy was, yellow jackets like to make the straw into their nests. I know because I stepped off the tractor right onto a nest of yellow jackets. A very painful experience.
Here in the south straw can harbor fire ants.
may i ask you a question ? im in Tennessee (in the mountains) and the other day i was mowing a hill with my push mower . (it was too hilly to use my rider ) . I ran over something that i think was baby yellow jackets but im not sure if this was them . i had shorts on and they stung me over and over from my ankles to my knees and each sting felt like a hot needle . They chased me and i couldnt get away . i ran screaming . It happened so fast that i could not see exactly what was attacking me . They were smaller than a bee . Like a small fly. there was no stingers in my legs like bee or wasp stings . there was no swelling at all . however , the pain of the burning needle feeling lasted me 10 hours . separately over the 10 hours , i put ice on my legs , then vinegar, then tea bags , then baling soda . everything worked for around 10 minutes or so and i felt relief then the pain came back . this went on for 10 hours . I dont know what what stung me 100 times . i seen your comment and does this sound like yellow jackets or perhaps you might have some idea what these insects are ?
@@time2cclear There are species of wasps/hornets, which do not leave their stinger. All bees lose their stinger and die when they sting something.
@@time2cclear I have only been stung 6 times in my life (I'm over 60) and the 6 times happened in the first year I moved to Tennessee. The wasps that stung me did not leave their stingers in. Four out of 6 stings were the orange or reddish wasp the other 2 were the yellow ones. For whatever reason Tennessee has very aggressive wasps IMHO.
@@time2cclear maybe fireants
I have used straw as a mulch on my garden beds for a couple years now. It mainly is to keep the compost moist because the summers are pretty hot here. I have not had any issues. Mulching it up with a bag mower makes it so much better to apply.
Sitting on the soil surface, dry, as a mulch, there is no nitrogen issue. There is a very small interface of actual decomposition at the soil surface. Virtually no chance of nitrogen depletion unless and until it is tilled in or covered with soil/compost. Wood chips do exactly the same thing. Not much of an issue unless it's incorporated into the soil.
Yes for the most part, however? If layered thickly, I have notice a drop in nitrogen levels for a season. If nitrogen levels are already low then you can end up with a depletion even with a surface application. Atleast in my experience.
@@gardenguychannel I had exactly the same experience as yours after laying a thick layer of straws in my garden.
I garden in pots and use a 50% bark chip 40% compost 10% sand mix and everything grows fabulously, I add coffee grounds and urine as fertilizer
@@gardenguychannel What do you mean by depletion? Nitrogen simply does not dissappear from the soil unless you remove organic matter, have excessive soil erosion or it is anaerobic as then bacteria convert nitrate back into elementary nitrogen which leaves as atmospheric gas.
@@neonice Actually nitrogen can "just disappear". It is highly volatile especially in soil with low CEC. It is also easily leeched.
I use fresh straw to insulate my strawberries over winter in my raised bed, then in the spring I put it all into my small compost bin. During the winter, we pile in coffee grounds, banana peels, and eggshells, along with other vegetable scraps. Mixing in the straw aerates and loosens the whole lot, and I can usually get a few fresh lawn clippings in there. I mix it a couple of times per week. By the end of June, I have a nicely balanced compost for top dressing!
Also, high straw ratio can safely be used around potatoes because of the nitrogen fixing activity of potato-soil-microbe-fungi relationships. Depleting nitrogen around them is pretty harmless.
I love using a small layer of hay for mulch. It's cheap and goes a long way. Now I'm afraid to use it after hearing horror stories about hay from fields treated with Grazon. It's a broad leaf weed killer. The grass can take it up but doesn't die, so cows and sheep can graze on it. That crap stays in the hay forever and goes right through the cows into their manure. Put some Grazon-treated hay or contaminated manure on your garden and it's dead dead dead. I understand one way to get rid of it is to grow a crop or two of corn. The corn will take up the grazon, but you have to throw away all parts of the corn. As far as I know, there's no way to determine if hay is contaminated with this latest gift from Big Ag.
I heard the very same thing. You have to plant cover crops to suck it out of the soil but I've also heard worse nightmares. Be aware and let's all help each other when we can.
@@garyflowers6116 Worse nightmares than getting Grazoned? Yikes!
@@garyflowers6116 Planned Obsolescence should be a Criminal act.
How much do you use? I can ship you a big sack of mine depending on the cost, and it's crystal clear of anything
Is Grazon another brand name for Glyphosate aka Roundup? I never buy soil amendments from the big box stores. I scouted for a nearby farmer (Craigslist) who I can buy square bales of hay from who never sprays any herbicides. We've become friends and talk ad nauseum about permaculture and organic gardening so I trust him. I've had very good luck using this hay as a deep mulch year round to prevent weeds and retain moisture, which eventually composts in situ so I refresh it every spring. Just call me Ruth Stout :)
Tip: Search out organic oat or wheat straw if possible. Most farmers spray wheat once per season with herbicides and oats need to be sprayed twice. Those farmers who don't spray have an enormous crop of weeds that go to seed in their fields, so you most likely will have weed seeds to deal with in your bales and into your garden. Bottom line: wood chips are a better mulch.
Yes! I basically planted more stinking grass when I was trying to smother it...🤦🏽♀️ The Glory of gardening 🌿💚 🧑🌾 blissfully learning as I go!
Straw works good for animal stalls! Don't use in the garden. Or use it for a straw bail garden!
Where do people get the idea that organic means they don't use herbicides, pesticides, and toxic levels of fertilizer?
I switched from straw to wood chips few years back and it’s so much better 👍
@@ShojoBakunyu because people have no idea how farming works.
I add thin layers of untreated cut grass under my straw, seems to work great and it’s free. Just don’t add too much or it gets mucky. Good information!
I like that idea! Thank you for commenting.
Which is why I make a Tea by the bucket out of my fresh grass clippings and use that every two weeks on my plants...
I use straw at the very bottom of my planters to aid in drainage, but don't mix it with the Soil..
I also use fish emulsion, or fish guts in my soil...
I don't care to spend great deals of money on fertilizers, and I compost ..
In the fall, when all the crops in my beds are done, I really load up the soil with all the above, and a potting mix, and Horse Manure which I get from a friend, but any place that boards Horses will be glad to give you some...
Use what you have creatively!
There are also many ways to control pests, and treat the soil that won't cost an arm and a leg...
Good luck and Happy Farming! ♥️
Yes! Well said Deborah!! Use what you have creatively. Thank you for commenting.
I am so glad I found this. I’ve used it in the fall with no issues and was going to put it down for weed control now in June. That makes complete sense. I was going to go out yesterday to get it. I’m so glad I didn’t.
Perfect and timely assistance! We are in a high mt. desert and the straw helped the soil to retain moisture (not be naked). Your explanation of outcomes w this approach is spot on, now to get out there and do something about it!
Great video! And I agree completely.
One other possible danger with straw that I realized after doing my first bale garden. I did about half with straw bales, and the rest with grass hay bales. The hay bales vastly outperformed the straw. My first thought was that, like you said, the hay contained both carbon and, being greener, some nitrogen. The straw was almost completely carbon. And this might be the only real difference here.
But later I remembered that when we lived in Montana, a huge wheat growing state, I had often witnessed crop dusters spraying Glyphosate (like Roundup) on ripe wheat fields to kill the crop so that it would all dry down consistently. I wonder how much residual chemical remains in the straw (and the wheat) in straw treated this way?
Thank you for the prompt response. The good thing about the hay we use is that it's our hay from our 10 acres and we wouldn't dare put anything like that on our hay, but some people do. We have our hay cut, he gives us a couple because they weigh 1200 lbs which last us forever since we use it for our chickens . But the guy that cuts our hay sells some and feeds the rest to his cow and he has many but when somebody does buy our hay, he always tells them it's pure with no incetecides. We already have enough for two or more years so this year I'm going to beat him out of some chickens. I think that's fair enough, don't ya'll? I've heard of people using hay and straw that has been crop dusted with chemicals that destroy their gardens and they have a terrific time getting the chemicals out of their beds. I'm sure you guys and gals have heard the same thing. Let's keep it going because who knows when what we do in our gardens could keep our family's afloat, being large or small. Thanks again everyone for your input.
The problem with hay is that it often has chemicals in it from spraying fields and that can effect your garden.
@@randallwall2745 Hey there. Good thing about my hay is that it's my hay and we never spray anything on it but I know people who do and like you said, if you get that type it can ruin your garden. Have a great weekend.
I heard 5 - 7 Years - even using hay is a bummer if you use livestock manure as fertilizer - really wrecks garden - especially tomatoes - leaf curl
@@kingscairn I get tomato abd cucurbert leaf curl from microbes I thought I was a virus. Using no mulch and organic fert. in containers.
Truly Thank you. I tilled my maneuer in the spring. Did a second till before planting. You have enlightened me on the carbon aspect. I hope I have kept my nitrogen up. Plants look healthy. A little weeding is to be expected.
Thank you!! Ive decided against using a straw bed because of the possible chemical exposure.
My garden has neutral soil and I dont want to have to spend more. My problem is I made a large garden area in an old mugwart weed garden and didnt discover till later....so even with removing all roots...i still dont trust the Invasiveness of the Mugwart
Yikes yes weeds can be an issue. You may think about using a large silage tarp or similar tarp to kill off the weeds for a season.
I ACTUALLY USE THE STRAW I HAVE FOR BETWEEN MY ROWS SO IT DOESN'T GET MUDDY IF IT RAINS. OH, EXCUSE MY CAPS PLEASE. I CAN'T SEE THE SMALL LETTERS WELL ENOUGH TO USE THEM ON THIS CHEAP PHONE.
I put straw down with cow manure before I put cardboard skirts around my perennials and cover with topsoil. It seems to work well. Thanks for the video!
I used to mulch with straw but my chickens would pull it off so I started doing the wood chips that the chickens don't knock off so easily. It looks better with the wood chips instead of the straw too. The straw looked messy all over my vegetable beds.
Pee is very good and nitrogen-rich. Straw bale urinals are excellent broken up and used as mulch.
Here's the best scoop I know. Take your hay/straw/clippings and put them in a clear contactors bag. Dampen the contents, close, and let the seeds sprout. Open the bag, spread contentrens on ground and let all the seedling perish. This gives you the added advantage of promoting photo and hydrolyzation decomposition of any herbicides that may have been present.
Hey Gil. I'm very interested in formulating my own organic fertilizer for soil, NPK sources using best practice fertilizers and whatever works best. In AR. Would love a great resource on this and or book? To many theories on this out there. Is there a person who is the hands down expert on the topic?
I've got a chicken manure / straw compost going... it has actually sat last fall and all winter. I'm digging into it to start moving up some soil, and yeah I can still see a lot of straw, but it has really darkened up, black in some areas with some gold striations of straw mixed in. I feel pretty good that a significant amount of carbon is already gone from the straw.
Yes you should be good! Chicken manure is great for bringing that C-N ratio down. Keep it up FTATF!
Remember to add the appropriate amount of nitrogen when adding all types of carbon. Straw, wood chips, compost and any other high carbon ratio amendment added to the soil will need extra nitrogen. Straw is not even the highest carbon ratio soil ammendment.
from my experience straw works great, just don't till it in until it is completely decomposed. laying it on top of the ground doesn't upset the nitrogen ratio
Trust me. My first year I started my garden at my girlfriends home I tilled the hay before any breakdown and the plants did great for about 3 weeks then everything died. I felt like an idiot. I had to dig up everything in my 4×20 raised garden and basically start over. It was pitiful
We use about a 1.5 Inch layer of straw otherwise we use landscape fabric to control weeds also I always add a little bit of foxfarms tomato n vegetable fertilizer and half a cup of bone meal in the hole when I transplant in a plant otherwise I just broadcast spread and till in a basic 10-12-6 fertilizer all purpose type down to earth makes some amazing organic fertilizers
after planting in the spring I put a 1 inch layer of composted manure top dressing then 2 inches of straw. It has provided great protect from the extreme hot and dry weeks we get.
Thank you Garden guy! I was just using last year's tall dead ornamental grass plant from my mom's front yard it literally looks just like that straw. So glad you posted this!
Glad to help!
Now I was thinking of the glyposates often used in wheat crops . As far as weed supression goes , taking the nitrogen from the weeds is a plus . Blanket the straw on top of weeds , dead or alive helps break down the straw .
@lincoln- I didn’t even think about that!!!
I'm new here! And to further expand on what was said in the video, soil microbes generally have around an 8 to 1 or 8:1 Carbon to Nitrogen ratio, where as wheat straw has around an 80:1 Carbon to Nitrogen ratio, which is why the microbes have to scavenge Nitrogen from their surrounding environment when wheat straw is put into the soil system. Looking up the C:N ratio of various things you're adding to the soil directly, or to your compost pile and aiming for a good balance can be helpful!
Thank you for this comment! Very informative.
I will admit that my initial comment did leave out one important part, which is that a 20-30 C:N ratio is generally what's good for microbes! They chow down on some of those carbon containing compounds too after all.
Soil, and what lives in it is amazing stuff!
In our orchard and vegetable gardens we first weed as heavily as we can, we then feed heavily with Compost. Finally, we apply deep mulch of either Rice straw or bark. Excellent results. The first two steps are time consuming, yes. But the reward is well worth the effort.
You are correct. There is a big fad of telling people to plant into a deep bed of straw. They want to build up the organic matter, but there is little nutrients in straw nor in wood chips. A thick layer of straw will kill the weeds, but it can hurt your vegetables too. Deep straw will keep the soil cold and the plants may suffer.
Thank you, Dave. Everything in balance. I hope this video helps folks know what to avoid.
Wow very professional explanation. Carbon/Nitrogen ratio of various manure and animal bedding is listed in extension pamphlets.
The process you are talking about is nitrogen drawdown which occurs when organic matter is incorporated into the profile. Often occurs when people dig in compost that hasn't finished breaking down fully. Mulch is fine so long as it remains on the surface. A good approach is to mass plant legumes as a green manure and then cover with a blanket of straw once the legumes reach 8 - 10".
Great tip, adding more nitrogen so the microbes don’t steal it from the soil and affect your plants. 👍
I’m curious about another potential about using wheat straw.Was it grown with herbicide? Does it retain any chemicals ?
I’d just advise viewers of the potential and for them to seek out sources that are organic
Around where I live in W. TN, I can't use straw or hay. I have yet to find anybody that will not say they haven't sprayed "something" on it. Sad really. Great video!! I had some time this morning so I have watched a weeks worth of your videos back to back. Hope it helps push your videos up so more will see them.
Use old swamp cooler pads
I have learned fresh straw bale's full of seeds. If I can move straw from neighbors decorations. They get soaked. But I throw blood meal & water them every so often. Coming spring. Less seed problems
i use straw by its self to keep humidity only. or mix it with nitro grass clipping.. make sure to turn it, great video
Gardenguy, I ran across a study (cant find it now to share here) that said the same about Nitro loss when using wood chips. However, the study said Nitro was only taken from the very top layers of the soil for the process. Many plants have their roots down deeper than the level that the Nitro is being used by the microorganisms to break down the carbon. I am not 100% so do more research on your own to see how deep the Nitro is being used for carbon breakdown by the micro organisms and at what level the plants pull their Nitrogen.
Here in ky I've been using straw around tomatoes for a weed barrier and have no problems buy the time next spring roll around its all but detearated. But i do till in hourse manure and add in some blood meal and 10 10 10 before i cover it with straw, i always have great success. Just thinking theres probably different outcomes with different soil types
Also be careful using saw dust especially, it will cake up and cut off oxygen getting to any plant life and kill everything. I learned that the hard way myself! Maybe if it was rototill into the soil might help but adding compost or other materials for nitrogen certainly a good idea too! Btw, if adding saw dust be sure the saw dust is from hardwood and not plywood or chipboard materials being it has glues and other chemicals not good for your garden. Saw dust will compost really fast into the soil though, especially being mixed into the soil. Where wood chips will take a lot longer to decompose. I’ve used large amounts of saw dust in areas where I wanted to get rid of weeds where I don’t plan on planting anything in the area anytime soon and used it to build up or fill in lower areas
I lost 20 arborvitae after using saw dust around their trunks to keep the grass back.
Benj,
The seed head that you picked up in this video looked like rye. I revisited your entire vid to hear the word "rye". None. I can remember planting mega-acres of rye in WNC and ET. This was some
sixty years ago. "girl walks with goats" used the expression "combined off" and I will bet you a nickel half the people reading this don't know what she is talking about! I gave her a thumbs up and
you should caution her about Justin Rhodes and Brian Fellows. lol The straw you held up probably had been baled. However I did see distinct marks of a combine!
Carroll
Straw is the carbon source in my hot compost operation especially in the growing season when there is so much green matter. It's the best! It's better than shredded leaves because it's hollow and provides some air deep within the heap..
I'm almost seventy years old I have used straw for weed barrier and holding moisture in my vegetable garden my whole life you'd be hard-pressed to convince me it causes a nitrogen problem.
I don't turn it into the soil I rake it up at the end of the season and lay fresh down in the spring.
So we planted trees near a wall and the idea was to place straw at their feet, leaving a straw free ring around their base to look prettier and water them and get rid of the weeds all around them, for that, would it be OK?????
I'd even add woodchips before hay, after seeing your video or do you think that in this case, the Cedar trees growth would be affected negatively also???
🙏
Hello Mia! Thank you for commenting. Trees will generally acquire nitrogen from further down in the soil. So you shouldn't run into an issue with the straw for them. The risk is usually with veggie crops since their roots are closer to the surface. I have found wood chips to be the optimum mulch for trees since it is closer to what would naturally occur in creation. Just apply on the surface (no tilling in) and you should be good! I hope this was helpful. God bless!
Thank you! That is exactly what I'm experiencing. I've been using it to mulch bc the sun was just baking the bare soil. So good to know!
Thats a great idea. Any compost combination needs green matter and dried or brown materials. I used it just as a mulch for weeds and the straw bales I got were loaded with seeds. I had a bumper fall wheat crop that I cut with weedeater to mulch adding to straw.
Thank you for this information! I just started using straw as mulch this past summer to cool the soil temps. I was curious if turning the old straw back into the soil would be beneficial to the soil or not. This helped me understand I would need to add more nitrogen if I do that. Also, one thing you didn't mention about using straw as mulch was how it eventually sprouts wheat, so this adds to garden maintenance issues. Lol!😁
Right! I used straw one year and, in the Spring, I found I was growing wheat from all the seeds that were in it. They were 2-3 feet tall in no time. What a mess I had to clean up before I could get my garden started.
@@Stampcrafter1
The way things are going these days you may need the wheat that is growing to make your own Flour. : - )
@@bryanbennett972 exactly! Last season when the wheat popped up in my garden from churning in the straw previously, I transplanted it all into my chicken run and my chickens loved digging around under it and eating the seeds that fell off of it! made nice shade for them also as it grows very fast, also kept them entertained :-) free chicken food you can't beat it. I call it a win-win situation 👍🙌
Straw mulch does not remove nitrogen from the soil as it simply increases nitrification. It's good to encourage aerobic bacteria to take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia and nitrite to convert into nitrate as especially nitrite isn't biochemically available to plants.
The issue of nitrogen loss only happens if the soil is anaerobic as then it will convert nitrate into elementary nitrogen, a gas.
@@neonice thanks for the explanation! Have a great day. 🌻
According to you then adding wood mulch would create a similar issue and I’ve never experienced that in 40 + years of gardening. As long as you layer the material on the surface and don’t incorporate the material into the soil you should not have a problem.
Better still, as with wood mulch, make sure the material has aged a bit before application to ensure it has composted a bit
Very helpful ! Thank you for sharing this vital and valuable information ! 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️😊😊😊
My pleasure 😊
Luckily I have enough room for a large garden and my rows between plants run approx. 3 1/2 feet wide. I put down the black weed prevention rolled out between the planted rows and only use straw to cover the space between my rows where we walk.
We keep it about 2 feet wide where the crop rows run so there is only dirt and good air circulation for the plants.
It has worked for us for many years and at the end of each season I rake up all the straw and use it for other things around the property.
I used flat rock to line my paths. Within a year the rocks were covered by thick mats of grass :(
Probly should have laid that black weed cloth first,.
A soil wetting compound works great to keep the straw moist, not to much just enough for the water and nitrogen to work.
Great tip!
Thanks Gardenguy ! Quite Interesting and I am Happy to Have Learned Something New Today . Stay Blessed and Bye
You’re welcome!
I have a few questions about this. Im a green biotechnician, I alter plant DNA.
Bacteria get their nitrogen from the air in gas form. They convert this nitrogen eventually to nitrate (NO3-), this is the only source of nitrogen what plants like, as they cant handle nitrogengas. Why would they take the nitrogen from the ground, and therefore taking nitrogen from the plants? The chickenmanure contains high sources of ammonia (NH3), which in turn gets fixated into NO3- by the bacteria. Btw: If its true what you are saying you can solve this problem by planting legumes the first year, they have their own type of nitrogen fixating bacteria called Rhizobium
Next, the carbon gets converted in the process of biological decompostion. This is mainly cellulose that gets decomposed (around 50%). To break down a sugarchain, the bacteria use hydrolysis. This means breaking the hydrogens (H+) of the chain to convert cellulose into glucose. The other compounds that get broken up are less hard to break up, which are other sugars and proteins. These processes dont need nitrogen, ammonia or nitrate. So these bacteria are good for your soil. This also agrees with Gil Shelley, the actual soil scientist :P
The denitrifying bacteria, the ones that are not good fo your soil, only live in very anearobic (no oxygen) environments, sometimes oxygen even kills them. Unless its a swamp or literally submerged in water most of the time, they wont live in the straw.
What I am getting at is; The straw is not the issue, or at least not the nitrogen in combination with the straw.
That's fantastically informative and confirms my own visible experiences as someone who's mulched with straw for a decade.
Nope. Nitrogen in fertilizer comes mostly from ammonia in the soil. Bacteria metabolize the ammonia with enzymes that catalyze the process of NH3 to N02- to NO3-.
Oat straw.. I worry more about the chems sprayed on the crop before it was harvested.
If it was a seed thing from the straw, I think you'll find a plethora of seeds in hay! Probably more.
I use it as mulch, no problem. It's actually a far better insulator then any mulch out there because of air pockets.
absolutely right.
You got it right. Air is the best insulator, and straw is way to go.
Side note: My great-grandfather was a cow herd man (a cowboy basically) deep into the mountains of Eastern Europe. He survided winters by sleeping in straw. I was little when he told me many stories, but waking up in freezing temperature and needing to dry your clothes from sweat of how well straw isolated stuck into my mind.
I wish you added a caution about herbicides, especially grazon, kills your herbaceous garden, mostly the annuals we all love to grow...learned the hard way! David the Good hasxaeticles on it.
Wheat straw is my recently discovered garden rocket fuel for tomatoes. Not so much peppers. I put down a layer of kraft paper first. Used to use our local filthy rag newspaper before it got small. This is followed by copious amounts of wheat straw. No weeds and it retains moisture. I dig a shallow trench around each tomater and add a generous sprinking of 13-13-13 which feeds for the whole season.
But before that comes the oak leaves. Been gardening in the same spot for 40 years. Each year I put all my leaves in the garden. Some years after leveling out they have been knee high. This is done in Dec or January. A couple of months later when I get around to it I go over it with the lawnmower. At that point the pile is reduced to a quarter to a half inch. At least a month before I plant I put pelletized lime over the whole garden. In all times past until this year this was followed with 13-13-13. (Well, that's gone by the wayside.) Now the rows only get the treatment. When I till the garden up I have the finest richest juiciest worm filled mulchy dirt you ever laid your eyes on...and this in a heavy clay area. My garden works great. No comparison at all to soil that hasn't been primed. None. We're talking concrete.
I have the opposite problem. To much limestone so I have to add sulfur. My garden is like a gravel pit, but I put my maple leaves in it in the fall and throw some car tires on top so it doesn’t all blow away. I add aged manure but only directly where I plant, I don’t believe in fertilizing the weeds, lol. Stuff still grows, and I am always amazed.
@@mightywind7595 Well that's smart. I wish there were a way here not to add grass seed attached stickily to the leaves. I have the MOST beautiful stand of yard grass in the garden. Best in the whole yard. Alas, the whole thing gets the leaves with the planting rows getting their share. Ha. We reserve our limestone here to our drinking and toilet water only.
Rye is sometimes used as a cover crop. That also produces straw.
I use hay for on top of veggie plants, & for my chicken bedding..
The way to use straw is as a surface mulch. Great for that purpose. I have it around my raspberries. Keeps the weeds down and helps retain the moisture... no nitrogen added required.
You can also add a lot of herbicides that was put in by the farmer when the straw was grown....I'm not using straw or any bales of anything in my garden.
Can I use pine straw instead of hay on grass seeding?
Buy your straw a year in advance. Allow it start to decompose into compost, add that to your soil along with livestock manure that has been composted. The only time you should add it uncomposted is as mulch in and around growing beds and plants.
Cheer~~~dried stalks of grain, used especially as fodder or as material for thatching, packing, or weaving.(and related to fire??)😅
I suspected this was my problem thanks for describing it so eloquently .
After the straw is gone, the nitrogen is returned to the soil though so its only temporary. What I do is before I add any straw, I mow my lawn and sprinkle grass clippings down first THEN straw. The clippings are full of nitrogen .That helps a little.
You just made a lightbulb come on. Thank you so much! Do you think the ground also loses calcium?
Небольшое дополнение к древесной щепе или опилкам которую используют в качестве мульчи, нужно будет добавить в землю грибную микоризу чтобы щепа и опилки лучше разлагались в почве.
Yes! The fungi would definitely help! Thank you
Any advice on how much of the alfalfa pellets to use on tomatoes, squash and cucumbers? I have used straw as mulch and fill for the raised beds underneath the soil so id like to supplement the soil. The squash are a little yellowish all of a sudden.
Thanks for the info!
What about straw bale gardening where you start with baled straw and begin to compost the straw and grow in the bales SD a raised garden bed?
It's a Facebook hoax. I mean you can pour gallons of miracle grow on the straw. But really?
Yeah if you do straw bale gardening..I’d do potatoes. Just lay the potatoes on the ground and then cover with straw thickly but not too thick so that they can’t punch through. Essentially it’s a thick mulch.
Your plants need access to the real soil. Only straw doesn’t do the trick in my experience!
What do you think about putting straw down first for a sort of no dig version in place of cardboard?
Hi Elena! Good question. That is an option, however, if you do that you will need to lay it down thickly since the reason for that lowest layer is to smother out the weeds and prevent them from pushing through to the surface. Blessings!
That worst thing about wheat straw is most of the time. At least in Alabama where I live. The straw is full of seed. And that stuff grows everywhere you drop it. It was all in my garden this year after i thought it would be a good idea to use instead of hay... really bad idea. Ive pulled so much wheat from my garden. So much! Bad idea! Very bad.
You spoke about the difference between stray and hay. However I guess there wasn’t enough time to clarify. Could you please let us know is hay is better Thanks
Don't use hay. Too many weed seeds. Use straw.
Well, well, well… One man’s nitrogen loss is another guys over abundance, or something like that. I thought you were going to talk about the propensity of straw and even hey to become problematic because of the seeds that drop out of the dried plant material and invade your garden or grow ing space.
But when you mention the nitrogen issue my ears perked up because I have a problem that I brought on myself of having too much nitrogen in my garden soil.
But before I tell that sad tale, we always try to use salt Marche here in New England. I don’t know about the nitrogen problem but salt marsh is a beautiful thing because we don’t have any problems with seed. Unfortunately, as more and more of the one percenters snap up the farmland on the North Shore up towards Plum Island and parts north, there’s less less unless salt marsh! So as a result Sault Marche is more and more expensive every year.
So here’s how I screwed up. Every year our Community Garden gets a couple of tons of really nice compost. Now even though I’ve been gardening for 30 years, starting about 18 years ago I would take some of the compost and just work it into my garden to make up for soil loss from various sources and reasons. Then one summer about four years ago I had the big tomato plants, lots and lots of green; and out of 20 enormous tomato plants I had not one single tomato. Now experience gardeners know why. I was really upset. Because I brought that shit on myself. Anyway my extension service recommended that I plant green manure, but instead of letting it come to fruition and then falling back into the soil to increase nitrogen, they told me to completely pour the entire plant out before seed set, matured, and then dropped into the soil. Well I did it once and then I got cancer, and so forth. Now I am better but my garden is still screwed. I noticed the gentleman named Gil said he was a soil scientist. So Gil! What do you think I should do? All of the landscape people here in Central Boston are selling loam with compost fold it in to enrich it. It’s a 50-50 split. Now under normal circumstances that makes sense, but all I really need is loam. I am trying to get through this season by just using raised beds and adjusting my soil accordingly but two days ago I pulled some carrots that had been planted last fall and they look like science-fiction monsters! They were rotten and they had what looked like canker sores on one side. Now, I don’t know if that’s because I left them in the ground too long and they wintered over and got hurt or whether that’s a symptom of too much nitrogen fixation. And in general ladies and gentlemen anybody that’s got any advice on how they would fix my over nitrogen problem permanently, please reach out to me. My email is guitaruniverse2013@gmail.com thanks!
Wow! Some folks would probably wish they had your over-nitrogen problem! Thank you for sharing @guitaruniverse. I would recommend adding in wood chips to the surface of your soil this fall, let them decompose over the winter, and then you should have a nice balanced soil. With all that nitrogen in the soil your plants will have an over-abundance of greenery and little fruit set. My first guess is the carrots are being "eaten" by soil microbes due to the extreme levels of nitrogen in the soil. Decomposition is encouraged and fostered by nitrogen. So just add in some quality carbon (wood chips is the best option around here) and let it decompose over the winter. I hope this helps! Blessings
Carbon important mix in compost just like nitrogen… balance important. You need both and it is great to decrease water needs especially in the desert
My straw is inoculated with goat poop and pee and all the hay that they waste....probably 5 parts hay to one part straw or better....good video!!!!
nice... so i'm trying to get a consensus on if I can or should mix in hay to amend clay soil. I will use chicken house hay at same ratio as I would perlite :) already used up the perlite, will be interesting to do a control study comparing results.
--also as someone else noted, maybe the hay u got that did bad was treated w chems since it was dominantly just wheat, vs a mix. hay i get is a mix and I'm not complaining :)
Yeah it's more about weed seeds when it comes to hay for me. Out here the fields are rarely sprayed but they do contain some very invasive weeds.
@@gardenguychannel although almost any type of growing vegetation can be called "hay", and a few farmers will bale anything to feed their cattle, I believe a good grass or grass/alfalfa mix hay is much more likely to be "weed free" than straw (and it contains much more nitrogen, etc).
Consider this: hay is cut while it's still green, not yet producing seeds. Farmers, if at all possible, will cut their hay before any seeds are ripe enough to propogate - either hay seeds or invasive weed seeds. So hay is just inherently less likely to spread weeds. They don't want to feed hay to their cattle if it's full of weeds and seeds as all those seeds will now be sown into their pasture - not good. In most states you can even buy hay that is "certified weed free".
With straw on the other hand, it is not harvested until after the grain heads have been combined - after all seeds are ripe and viable to reproduce. So any seed, be it wheat, oats, or weeds, that is retained in the bale with the straw is ripe, and just waiting to be deposited in some nice garden soil where it can grow.....
Thank you for that fabulous tip,you saved my garden..
Not just straw, but any vegetable matter that is not thoroughly composted will deplete nitrogen. A good dose of 10-4-4 will fix it, and so will well-composted manure. Dilute ammonia is an excellent way to quickly put nitrogen into the soil.
We use straw but after it’s been covered in duck poop 💩 best organic garden I’ve ever had
Sounds like a wonderful combination!
How do you clean the herbicides fungicides etc. Off of the straw??? Please and thanks.
Straw will make a huge benefit to most gardens. It is not a fertilizer, its a mulch.
Ensure you manure your garden well, then heap it on. No weeds, reduced compaction, better moisture profile, less pests, more earthworms and your squashes, tomatos, strawberries, etc stay clean. Don't hesitate to try it out. Youll be pleased.
They use Roundup as a method of harvest for wheat, so you may contaminate your garden with herbicide (glyphosate) if you use straw on your garden.
If putting down straw only on the surface and its tieing up nitrogen where it is hurting the growth of your plants, your soil is poor and doesn't have enough nitrogen to begin with. If you get your soil tested and you already have low nitrogen, then you know when putting down wood chips or straw you need to add nitrogen. Personally I load my garden up with straw and would chips on poor soil and all I do Is add compost to help them produce. The slow release in compost seems to do the trick.
Add coffee grounds n ground up egg shells 🙋🏼♀️ Hi I’m new here, from Far North Queensland Australia 🧉🥭🌴☀️
I use the straw as bedding for my animals. From there I move it to my gardens and till it over. Works well for me.
I have an almost unlimited sourse of rotted streaw. It is litterly black , almost dirt. Is it safe to use?
Yes that’s a much better source since it’s already been breaking down!
As a chicken farmer with an abundance of chicken manure (nitrogen), straw is wonderful for keeping things balanced in my compost pile.
Yes! You have a great source of nitrogen!
Have missed seeing you since after your marriage. Missed you, and your content.
More to come! Thank you!
I think that wood choice deplete nitrogen . Straw is a good mulch to help keep moisture.
Mulch up your straw with a lawnmower to chop it up really fine you get much better surface coverage and it breaks down faster
Nearly all straw contains Glyphosate (aka Roundup).
It can poison your soil FOR YEARS.
Only easy way to remove most of it is to plant more wheat. That will draw out the poison - at least some of it anyway.
Note: Not sure about paraquat. Presumably that too will be problematic.
That looks like Oat, (Avena sativa), straw, you can also buy barley, rice, rye and wheat straw. Straws keeps birds off broadcasted seed and moisture in, it protects soils from the Suns rays and heat. Heat dries and sterilizes the top few inches of bare soil, where beneficial bugs and Earth worms leave. I remove straw at end of season and compost it. You can use hay, but it contains grass seed that often sprouts. You can buy straw that’s chopped finer, but it’s more $
The reason you loose nitrogen is just a temporary effect from an overgrowth of the organisms at the top of the soil food chain. There is plenty of nitrogen but it is locked into the microorganisms bodies. This is actually a great thing because it acts like a storage reservoir of nitrogen that will get released later when the organisms rebalance.
Some plants do not like any grass or hay anywhere near them. I have had this experience with cabbages. Some plants like the surface of the soil around their base to be sunbaked and they will get very spindly and yellow if over mulched such as hot peppers or tobacco.
Some plants such as zuchini are prone to mold and should not have damp straw all around.
If its a really wet year you might breed alot of slugs in your hay.
Other than these problems, I have had great success with using straw and hay to reclaim my garden from thick grass mat without any tilling.
I have gone years with no other fertilizer and my soil is rich and crumbly with great granular texture.
The first year I always grow potatoes by first scything the area then just dropping the seed potatoes on the ground. I put a small handful of pine needles( they like acid ) on each potatoe and then cover with 3 feet of fluffy hay. As soon as the green starts to poke a through the hay, add another foot or two. In the fall, peel back the hay and your potatoes will be all over the surface. This is not as abundant as digging them in but definately less time spent/ potatoe. Next I plant garlic (in the fall) straight into the soil where the potatoes were. Still no digging. Except a small trowel to part the soil enough to stick the cloves in. Recover with the hay that is starting to break down to at least 2 feet deep. Weed in midspring only if weeds are interfering with the garlic growth. After you harvest the garlic in the fall, use a hay fork to lift the hay so that anything growing through it gets pulled out or left behind and then drop the hay back on top of the soil and any remaining weeds/grass. Add some more hay if necessary to create a thick mat. Ready to plant anything by the following spring.