Monday, April 27, 2015

Conditioning the bales: Day 6

Last night I bought a 50 foot soaker hose (it was less than $10) and set it up on the bales. I let it run for about 40 minutes and this really got the bales wet. I don't think that I would have been able to soak the bales enough watering by hand, so I think this was a necessary investment. Perhaps the bales haven't started composting yet because they have not been wet enough.

This morning I turned on the soaker hose for another 45 minutes or so. Tonight I am going to check the temperature in the bales to see if they are starting to break down. According to Survival HT's video they should be around 120 F today. She says in the video that it's important to keep the bales very wet so they don't start on fire! I will water again tonight, just in case.

Tomorrow I will add another 1/2 cup of nitrogen fertilizer to each bale, and wash it in with the handheld nozzle. On day 9 and 11 I will add 1/4 cup of fertilizer, and on day 13 I will add a cup of general fertilizer to each bale.

And after that it will be time to plant, yea!

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