Beans and Mushrooms

It was unseasonably cold this morning when I went out to check on the garden. The temperature was somewhere in the mid-40's, but I didn't mind because I saw the first bean plants poking their seedling heads out of the straw bales.

Dolloff Bean

I may end up transplanting the pole beans somewhere else in my yard and plant more tomatoes on the straw bales.

Mushrooms are growing on most of the straw bales and they look really cool. I think these might be shaggy mane mushrooms, which are edible. I will leave some of them to see if they mature into shaggy manes, but I don't think I will eat them because I am not confident in my mushroom identifying skills. Maybe a mycologist, or one of my Polish friends will read this post and let me know.

 And we also have the first tomato of the season! I don't know what kind it is, it is one of the plants that I bought from the Communiversity Garden sale at NIU.


More mushroom images...

Cucumbers and mushrooms

Kale and Mushrooms

Maybe you have guessed by now that there is a maple tree shading my straw bales. These stupid whirlygig seeds are also edible, and if I end up eating them, it will be out of spite. http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Maple-Seeds

 In other news I harvested some radishes from the traditional garden (not straw bale). We will be having these for dinner tonight (and yes I saved the greens too.)

Radish, red onion, salt and lime juice.

It's really working!

Nasturtium seedling

Every morning I have been checking on the bales and watering, but I kept forgetting to bring my phone/camera with me to take some pictures. Then today I was so excited I had to go back inside to get my phone in order to document the first seedlings to emerge from the bales.

In my last post I mentioned that I pushed some nasturtium seeds into the front sides of the bales. Well they have germinated!  I didn't prep the seeds or anything, and I didn't think they would be able to emerge so quickly but they did. Since I bought the soaker hose, the bales remain very moist all the time, which may have something to do with it.

This past weekend I finally was able to plant the rest of my plants in the straw bale garden.  In April I had started tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and peppers from seed. I also purchased some plants from the NIU Communiversity gardens student group.

My seedlings are still small but they seem to be doing well these past few days.

To plant the seedlings I stuck a spade into the straw and moved it around in a circle to make a hole, then I put a little potting soil in the hole, and stuck in the plant. Then I put potting soil around the plant to help keep it upright.

I also sowed (shoved) some seed directly into the bales. I planted some bush beans called Dolloff and some purple green beans, summer squash, and some corn! Hey, I live in DeKalb.


I hope that next week I will be reporting that some more seedlings have emerged, we shall see.

Three tomato plants from Communiversity Garden Sale

Bale in the foreground: seeds planted directly in straw

Kale and cilantro

Cucumbers (and hostas holding up the bales on the hill)

So far so good.

Top: tiny tomato seedlings, Mid right: cilantro, Lower front: basil and cilantro

Summary: Actual Conditioning Schedule and costs for 2015

Here is a summery table of the fertilizing schedule for the straw bales this year. I used pellet fertilizer. After each application I watered in the pellets with the spray nozzle set to "jet", then ran the drip hose for 1-3 hours. On non-fertilizing days I just ran the drip hose for 1-3 hours. Ideally one should fertilize the bales every other day, but because of life, sometimes there was more than one day between applications.   Day Fertilizer Amount 1 30-0-3 0.5 cup/bale 2 water only 3 water only 4 water only 5 30-0-3 0.5 cup/bale 6 water only 7 30-0-3 0.5 cup/bale 8 water only 9 30-0-3 0.25 cup/bale 10 water only 11 30-0-3 0.25 cup/bale 12 water only 13 water only 14 6-10-10 (or 9-12-12) 1.0 cup/bale Notes: Most websites/blogs/videos about straw bale gardens report that the straw bales "hot compost" during conditioning. They heat up to 120 F or higher during this time. They also warn that the bales could catch on fire if not kept wet, and tell you not to plant until the conditioning phase is over and the bales have cooled. I did not experience the bales heating up anywhere close to this temperature. On the last day of conditioning I was able to detect a little warmth (maybe) on the inside of a bale with my hand, but I would guess it was still under 80 F. The reason for this may have been my erratic fertilizing schedule, or the cool weather combined with the fact the bales are not in full sun. I do not think that it will matter in the long run, as long as the nutrients are added to the bales the microbes will decompose the straw and the plants will have plenty of food. Costs: $ $5 per bale x 11 (I got 1 bale free)  55 Lawn fertilizer 30-0-3 8 Plant food (tomato and general)  8 Soaker hose  9 Seeds 35 Plant sale 5 Total 120

Conditioning the bales: Days 10-14

I watered on Friday, then on Saturday (Day 11) I added 1/4 cup of the 30-0-3 fertilizer and watered it in well.

The bales still have not heated up but they are starting to compost (decompose). There is evidence of some mold or fungus, there is growth from grass or some plant on them, and there are a lot of flying bugs and ladybugs on them.

I watered the bales on Sunday and Monday. Today (Tues) I added 1 cup of tomato fertilizer 9-12-12 to the first 5 bales starting from the alley (then I ran out) and I added 1 cup of general fertilizer 6-10-10 to the rest of the bales (because that's what I had).

I will water in the fertilizer in tonight with the hose nozzle on jet, and will test the bales to see if they heat up in the next few days. If they remain cool, I will be done with the conditioning process and will be ready to plant Friday!

On other website/blogs some people plant on multiple sides of their straw bales, so the other day I opened a pack of nasturtium seeds an just pushed a couple of seeds into the front of each bale without soil or anything. I hope the seeds germinate, we will see.