{"id":17271,"date":"2015-12-14T03:11:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T10:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=17271"},"modified":"2015-12-12T04:06:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T11:06:17","slug":"help-growing-on-straw-bales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/help-growing-on-straw-bales\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Growing on Straw Bales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Get it right and you can grow bumper crops on straw bales.\u00c2\u00a0 It is clean, cheap and environmentally friendly.<br \/>\nThe principle is that decaying straw generates heat to form a &#8216;hot bed&#8217;encouraging healthy roots.<\/p>\n<h3>Preparing a Straw Bale<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Watered bales are heavy so get them in the right place first.<\/li>\n<li>A polythene membrane will help retain moisture and prevent soil contamination.<\/li>\n<li>Water bales thoroughly. If it is very dry soak over 2 or 3 days.<\/li>\n<li>Apply 6 oz of dry blood or other nitrogen rich fertiliser over the top of the bale and water in<\/li>\n<li>The fermentation will start and the bale heat up. Cover with black plastic to speed up the process.<\/li>\n<li>After 4 days remove the polythene and the bale should be warmer than the air temperature<\/li>\n<li>Add another 6 oz of nitrogen based fertiliser.<\/li>\n<li>Cover for another 4 days then add 12 oz of general fertiliser. The temperature should\u00c2\u00a0 peaking at 50 degrees or so.<\/li>\n<li>Allow to cool to 38 degrees before planting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Planting up a Straw Bale<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>With a bucketful of compost make and fill a small hole in the bale. It should be easy to make a small hollow.<\/li>\n<li>Add you plants and water carefully.<\/li>\n<li>New roots will grow through the compost into the decomposing straw.<\/li>\n<li>Chillies, Peppers Tomatoes and cucumbers do well in bales. 2 or 3 plants per bale will give you a good crop.<\/li>\n<li>Tall plants need staking but tumbler tomatoes can be allowed to fall over the bales edge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/ornamental-gourds.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-3741 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/ornamental-gourds-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"ornamental-gourds\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/ornamental-gourds-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/ornamental-gourds.jpg 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Advantages of Straw Bales<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Bales are easy to water and retain moisture longer than a grow bag.<\/li>\n<li>Drainage is good and ity is hard to over water.<\/li>\n<li>At the end of the season the bale can be recycled as a mulch or added to a compost heap<\/li>\n<li>Rotting bales give off carbon dioxide which can be beneficial to crops.<\/li>\n<li>Ornamental plants as well as vegetables will flourish.<\/li>\n<li>Bales are generally cheaper than grow bags.<\/li>\n<li>Straw is better than hay the tends to go mouldy.<\/li>\n<li>Liquid feeding is required as straw is low in nutrients.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get it right and you can grow bumper crops on straw bales.\u00c2\u00a0 It is clean, cheap and environmentally friendly. The principle is that decaying straw generates heat to form a &#8216;hot bed&#8217;encouraging healthy roots. Preparing a Straw Bale Watered bales are heavy so get them in the right place first. A polythene membrane will help retain moisture and prevent soil contamination. Water bales thoroughly. If it is very dry soak over 2 or 3 days. Apply 6 oz of dry&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/help-growing-on-straw-bales\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}