We produce content about the STRAW BALE GARDENS® method, developed by Joel Karsten. We cover the basics needed for success and some more complex explanations and details, so you can go as "deep" into the science surrounding the topic as you'd like. We want to help you understand the best methods, and save you from making mistakes which can cost you time and money. Our objective is not to convince every person who comes to check out this method they should stop gardening any other way. Rather we encourage folks to try a few bales, and see how it goes. Usually people will convince themselves that this is a great way to garden. In 29 years the method has spread far and wide around the world. We hope to provide transcripts in several languages for people to get the maximum usefulness from our videos. If you have any questions on a specific topic pertaining to Straw Bale Gardening, let us know. Plant an extra bale to help out a neighbor this year, kindness is food for the soul!
Hi 👋im starting out flower farming in uk and want to try straw bale method. My question is is this method viable for larger scale flower farms? And is there a reason you would kick the bales over following year instead of just replanting in them? Could i use perennials? Thanks
Yes very viable. What you spend on bales you will save on labor from weeding. And harvesting from raised height is really nice and easy on your back. Remember that the bales are going to last only two seasons, at which point they become "soil" or a little raised hump of lovely compost. If you plant perennials, they will be fine, but they won't really be in a "bale" after two seasons they will be growing on a little hump of soil. You may want to look around to find large squares or big rounds that are rained on or spoiled, and then cut these in half. These would last 3+ seasons, and make much larger beds for a commercial operation. Try a dozen or so bales to start out, and I think you will find really great results. We have some images that were sent to us of a lovely woman who also has a commercial flower operation in bales. I think she did a program for engaged couples to come and plant some bales and pick out seeds, then she grows them, harvests, and has flowers ready for the wedding. I think this adds an "experience" activity that of course adds lots of value, and makes the flowers for a wedding much more special. It also gives the growing more streams of revenue, more to promote and a unique selling position verses other flower growers or providers. Of course the grower always has some back up flowers they can use if the ones picked out are too early or too late for the proper timing, and I'm sure when flowers are ready and the wedding is a month off, the bales planted by one may get used for another. It is a romantic experience but lots of flexibility is available from one to another.
I live in central Missouri. Is it too late to plant seed potatoes? I'm reading that they should be planted before the end of April, but if potatoes are ready in 90-100 day, shouldn't I still be able to plant in early June? Fairly new gardener here.😄
I love straw bales for growing potatoes,. carrots, and beets. The only problem is that in MA you cant get them free. at $13 per bale, with the bloodmeal needed to condition them, the price out-weighs the amount they produce. Thats the only draw back. If you can get them free, or really cheap, its a great option
a long time ago we could buy rice straw but today everything is shredded and spread back over the fields to turn into compost or to feed crayfish if they flood the field to rest it before replanting. There are no straw bales within a 200 mile drive for me so is there any changes I need to consider when using field hay. yes I know there will be seeds in the bale but my back yard already has many of the grasses found in local pastures so that isn't the end of the world but will a bale of hay work similar to straw for growing plants.
I'm finding it very difficult to make a hole for my potato piece. Do you think this means the bale hasn't broken down enough? (I've been following a 10 day prep regime from another site.)
It is possible the bale has not been completely colonized by bacteria. Has the interior cooled down completely from the flush of heat it had during conditioning? It needs to drop down to air temp before you plant potato cuttings, or you'll end up with cooked potatoes. Note that they will take a long time to emerge, like all of three weeks, so don't panic when you don't see them emerge quickly.
Hi Colleen, Thanks for reaching out with your question. Unfortunately BaleBuster is not available in the UK. One day maybe we can find a distributor there, but for now the cost for shipping and testing to enter the market there is prohibitive. Look for any inexpensive lawn fertilizer with at least 20% nitrogen content and no more than 20% Slow Release nitrogen content. You then also need to find a balanced product like a 10-10-10 garden fertilizer. If you'd want to recreate the BaleBuster you'd also need to find a source for Bacillus subtilis bacteria spores and Trichoderma reesei fungal spores. You can certainly get by without those however. So sorry we cannot help you out with BaleBuster.
I am a master gardener in nevada county and giving a class on bale gardening February 17th. Do you have any slides I can purchase to help with the presentation. Thanks
thanks! I saw you at the West Bend WI Mother Earth Fair about six years ago. Then we moved to Alabama 2 years ago and my clay soil garden was a disaster. So, last year 2023 I did a six bale test and it was a success. My peppers and cabbage got slugs and either were very stunted or died, but the cukes and tomatoes were a sight to behold! Very successful and cant wait to expand it by double this year.
What can you add to the straw bales to stop flies from laying their eggs in it? This drove me crazy last year when I did the straw bale gardening for the first time. I ended up using an insecticide, but then the birds were eating the larvae and one of our resident bluebirds must have eaten one and we found her dead next to the straw bale. I'm wondering if I should add an insecticide when I add the fertilizer.
It is because you used an organic nitrogen source. The flies are attracted to the protein in the "fertilizer" usually blood or bonemeal based sources. You can instead simply change to using a natural but not necessarily organic source. We offer BaleBuster4 or BaleBuster20 which are simply different sizes of the same product, which is our traditional formula. It uses UREA as the main nitrogen source, and you won't have that issue with flies. Keep in mind that before a plants roots can absorb any nutrient molecules, they must always become the same molecule, whether they are sources from manure, blood, or something like urea, the nitrogen molecules are absolutely identical when the roots absorb them. All sources are decomposed eventually into Nitrate or Nitrite molecules. Don't get too caught up in "organic" when it comes to nutrients, but avoiding herbicides and insecticides is much more beneficial.
I only used Urea fertilizer to condition the bales (Days 1-3: Water the bales thoroughly and keep them damp. Days 4-6: Sprinkle each bale with ½ cup urea (46-0-0) and water well into bales.)@@gyrokite What is the difference or benefit of using the BaleBuster formula?
@@summerbaby9379 Thanks for the info on your protocol. You'll discover the BaleBuster also contains 200 million colony forming units of Bacillus subtilis and 200 million colony forming units of Trichoderma reesei fungi spores. As well as nitrogen at 38%, phosphorus at 5% and potassium at 7%. The bacteria and fungi help kickstart the decomposition process quickly. I don't think you will get the flies again with the BaleBuster. Be careful that you don't overwater during this conditioning period. Adding one gallon of water per bale per day is suggested. Too much will saturate the bale too much and this replaces all air spaces inside the bales and this causes a shift of the TYPE of bacteria changing them to anaerobic instead of aerobic bacteria. This will cause a sewer like smell, and slow the overall rate of decomposition. However this can cause the bales to get very warm verses the aerobic bacteria which will only get to about 140-145 degrees maximum. Use less water and you'll actually get better results.
I live in a zone 7b area that does get a killing frost but the ground does not freeze. Can these be overwintered without harvesting , re; Piedmont North Carolina , Charlotte area.
You can overwinter potatoes in the bales, I do that here in MN. I’ll go out much of the winter and dig up a few potatoes here and there. They stay nice inside. But it is easier to just harvest and store them all in a box in my garage. The snow was deep last winter.
During the conditioning process, yes indeed you would fertilize them to begin the decomposition. Once conditioning is done, it is likely you won't need any additional fertilization for the season, for potatoes, however on other crops that are higher nitrogen users you may need to do some additional fertilization.
Sweet potatoes are planted from slips, and they are planted rather shallow, like you'd plant a cabbage plant. Not deep like a regular potato. The sweet potatoes do love the bales though. If you want to learn how to start your own slips, try a search here on RU-vid, because there are dozens of great videos with two basic techniques, in water or in soil, and both work.
Usually two weeks but it can take longer. Shove a hand down inside and check for warmth. If warm, wait, if it feels cool, plant. Make a hole to shove the potato down inside then leave it open. It will help keep it cool and will fill in on its own over time as stem grows up.
Hey Joel have another question I'm setting up my watering system. Is it better to have a line to each plant or just make like 4 holes in the plastic tubing and water the whole bale?
PEEFECT VIDEO! I’m so glad this came up on the home page of RU-vid, such a diverse variety of plants, I’m super excited to add this style to my gardens. Thank you
When you water the top, the water trickles down into the interior and waters the roots of the basil. One key is to make sure you plant the basil plug deep into the bale. Make a hole with your shovel handle and put the root deep inside, so just a leaf is poking out the hole. The plant will grow out and up on its own, but the roots will get plenty of moisture from the core of the bale. Remember that a bale can hold 5-7 gallons of water inside all of those hollow tubes. They get HEAVY and that's all water weight. Good luck Kimberly, enjoy your garden and have a beautiful summer.
Joel, what are your thoughts on capturing and using human urine to condition bales? I'm (to some in my family, infuriatingly) zero-waste, and I'd like to close the loop.
This helps avoid crop shading and also remember the plants often get very large, so to allow room to still walk between rows, they need to be spaced at least 4' between rows, but 5' better and 6'+ is optimum. My zucchini got 7' wide last year, so it hangs way into the space between the rows. It's like a jungle by mid-July in my garden. No weeds just lots of big plants.
This is great info thanx so much. I'm about to start my straw bale garden. I have put an inch of sand in base and will use diluted sea water to moisten sand and will see how I go. Already have tomatoes in sea sand and they taste beautiful with a slight hint of sea salt when I eat them. 🙏
I tried to grow potato and Jerusalem artichoke in straw bales this year, but obly the potato at the end of a bale came up, and that was not very strong looking. is it possible that we planted in the hot part of the bale and killed some of the seeds. what is your recommended temp for planting?
I wonder about the nutritional value of the fruits from plants growing in straw. As we know many vegetables that are grown commercially do grow, but without the minerals and things from the soil the vegetables are not nutritious.
All soil on earth is derived from decomposed organic substrates, plants or animals that have decomposed. The bales BECOME soil on the inside very quickly, we accelerate the process by feeding the bacteria which do the work of metabolization and decomposition. So the answer is, the vegetables growing in bales ARE growing in soil. You'll see identical or better vegetable growth when compared to any traditional garden bed with traditional soil. Healthy and ripe vegetables of the same cultivar will give almost identical micronutrient content analysis, no matter the media. Here is an interesting article you might like to read. www.rothamsted.ac.uk/articles/fact-or-fake-news-our-food-becoming-less-nutritious
Would love to try this but I am in UK. So Balebuster mix not available here. But I'm keen to try and have watched the conditioning videos on your website, so will try with lawn fertiliser! I assume my bales need to be organic to work?
in most cases it is t necessary to use strictly organic bales, the bacteria that colonizes them will metabolize any hydrocarbons that may potentially remain in the bale. Don’t get sidetracked looking for organic bales, ultimately it won’t matter.
Most ants won’t bother the live plants, they eat dead tissue and also can eat some larva of things like white flies, which will help your vegetable plants. if ants begin to be an issue, fire ants for instance, there are a number of effective drenches that can be used on the bales. Hot water, orange oil and dawn dish soap make a great drench that many swear by.
I’m on the North Shore, and just completed 12 days of conditioning. It’s been pretty warm during the day (~60°) and above 35° at night, but my bales are still COLD inside. The straw within the bale is squishy and has some of the black specks that would indicate decomposition. My concern is that I’ll sew my transplants/seeds, and then the temp in the bales will shoot up, suddenly, and kill my plants. Is that a valid concern??
The temp may go up, but won’t get above 105 which is the danger zone. If you’ve finished the protocol you an safely plant. No worries about the temp of the bales as long as it is not too hot to plant at the end of the conditioning process.
You can knock them off but they will stop coming soon. If they are spreading spores onto your plant leaves you may need to rinse leaves. Put down some cardboard or wood boards to keep them away from effected plants. Paper plates with a hole and slit around plants can help protect them. Usually they go away in a couple weeks.
I started conditioning my bales and then we had a spat of really cold and wet weather as well as the inability to warm up our water while conditioning. I continued to fertilize through the cold, but now I’m worried. Do I wait and continue conditioning or should they be good to go? Also, bales have been sitting out in the garden space for over a month. Husband opened one up for other purposes and it was slightly slimy inside.
