Wheat Sprouts!

[DoubleDogFarm]

I don't know what your intent was with your hay bale, but it isn't good for animal feed after it starts "spoiling". It would work well in your compost though.

The hay, Island grass, is used for duck house bedding. While this bale was waiting it's turn, it was being used as a step. My old dog Jacob needs help get in and out of the truck.

I was kidding garden5. My feelings don't get hurt and I bow to Eric. I love his garden and he lives a lot closer to nature than I do. Plus the dogs in my avatar have much prettier smiles than Erics dogs.

Ted, no bowing, it's to hard to get back up. a handshake will do. Hope we are all here to have fun and maybe learn something.

Now lets get something straight, maybe your dogs teeth, you can pick on me, but Jacob says, "thems fightin words".
It was more like, roof- roof -rough, roof -woof- woof- ralph. I just translated.

Garden5, please call me Eric

Eric

[cynthia_h]

Ah...I wish I had ROOM for a bale or two like that. Potatoes keep calling my name.

Maybe it's just me, but...I can't see the wheat sprouts in the photo. Are they there yet, or will they be coming soon? If they're already there, I must be looking in the wrong place for them.

Is the advantage here the same as for potatoes; namely, that more air gets to the roots and the harvesting isn't as messy?

I can't get over the feeling that, once again--and probably *not* for the last time--I've been left behind at the starting gate!

Yer dum cuzzin,

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[farmerlon]

I don't think you can take the "organic thing" too far. I just think everyone has to decide for themselves how far is "far enough".
Ted

Well said, I agree with that.

[garden5]

Cynthia, that picture was before the sprouts came up. He posted it just to show us what he was talking about.


I can't speak for Ted, but I don't think an advantage is the main reason why he's doing it. Like myself, I'll bet he's just interested in seeing what happens.

Oh, and Ted, I'm a "he" not a "she."


OK...back on topic:

I would think that you would get mycelium in straw more-so that you would in hay since hay seems to be more of a bacterial food and straw slightly more fungal (dryer and higher carbon).

Eric, was your bale sitting just on the ground?

[tedln]

Gosh garden5, I am so sorry! For some reason I relate concise writing styles with females and irregular styles like mine with males. I guess some men are just good writers and some are not. You are.

You are probably correct about the mycelium on straw versus hay. I failed to remember many farmers in my area purposely grow, harvest, and store straw in large bales specifically for mushroom growers. They stack the large rectangular bales at the edge of their fields and allow them to rot for a year or two. The mushroom growers send large flat bed trucks to pick up the bales yearly. I would like someday to visit a mushroom grower to see how they process the straw bales into a growing medium for mushrooms.

Ted

[tedln]

Cynthia,

Garden5 is right. The bales in the photo haven't sprouted any wheat sprouts. It was taken the same day I put the bales out and started treatment. I will post some photos when the bales have a good covering of sprouts. Right now, they are about one half covered.

I'm also not looking for any advantage in straw bale gardens. I'm just curious if they work as well as some people claim. I do think they could have some advantages as portable raised beds. At $5.00 per bale, you could build a raised bed for a very low investment. I think the bales are supposed to be good for two years. After two years, the remains of the bed would be recycled through the compost bin and new bales planted. I know some people start new bales with a three or four inch layer of compost on top of the bales. I just haven't determined a way to keep the compost from washing away in heavy rains.

I also intend removing the plastic from beneath the bales soon. I want contact between the soil and the bales so microbes and organisms like earth worms will have access to the bales. I'm also curious if my very, very poor soil below the bales will have been improved in a couple of years by absorbing the nutrients from the decomposing straw and the microbial and earth worm activity. The nitrates from the original straw treatment should have dissipated in a couple of years.

Since I've never grown potatoes, you need to educate me a little. What is the advantage of, and how do you grow potatoes in straw bales. I thought the expansion of the potato tubers would be limited in the bales because they are so tightly compressed. I can understand how roots intertwine themselves into and around the straw, but it seems a little confining for tubers. I have stuck a few onion seedlings into the bales to see how well they perform, but the onion bulb should grow above the straw while the roots invade or permeate the straw. I've also planted some Swiss Chard about 1/4" deep with the intention of planting a couple of varieties of early, low growing tomatoes.

Ted

[DoubleDogFarm]

Eric, was your bale sitting just on the ground?

Yes, on the dirt driveway. Jacob was using it as a ladder into the truck bed. Jacobs Ladder

Ted.

You place a potato on the ground and cover it with maybe 6" of straw. Add more as the plant grows. Harvest time, you just pull the straw away.

Eric

[DoubleDogFarm]

Ted,

I finally up loaded the pictures of the spoiled hay. Simply sitting in the rain on my dirt driveway. When I cut the baling string this was inside.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DSC03110.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DSC03109.jpg[/img]

How is your little experiment doing?

Eric

[tedln]

Eric, at first glance; one would say "yuck". As an amateur mycologist, it looks like "nature at it's best". I love it.

My experiment? Nope, I'm just a curious person who does odd things to satisfy his curiosity. I expect to learn a lot from those straw bales this spring and summer. I'll post photos if I see anything interesting. We have had so much snow this past week with another blizzard coming tomorrow night, I think my bales are now in hibernation. I'm looking forward to spring.

Ted

[applestar]

Eric, that"s the kind of hay I was using last year n my hay experiment (thread in Permaculture Forum). Dry hot days, clouds of spores would puff up if the bale was disturbed/split into flakes. I used them to mulch my potatoes too.

-- In case anyone is wondering, yes, I worried that it might be bad for my health -- after the first time it happened and I instinctively jerked away and turned my head, I made sure not to bend too close and jumped away at each puff and stayed away until air currents dissipated the spores. I kept thinking of a House episode in which the patient had some kind of fungus growing in his/her... brain(?)

[Ozark Lady]

I see that mycellium and immediately think of mushroom growing videos that I have watched. I would be trying to bag that up and hanging it, hoping to get some great edibles!

In the video they sterilize the hay then innoculate. So likely it wouldn't work, but I would just have to try!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfpkPJw32f0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQhajyPFBCE

I don't know what they say, but can see what they are doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js82wyMExs0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_pzUPy3y8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihPzUsG_aM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5MxsqzzxEk

Next time you get mycelium, why not give it a try. Worst case scenario.. it is taken over by fungus. Best case scenario.... mushrooms for dinner!

[rainbowgardener]

Gosh garden5, I am so sorry! For some reason I relate concise writing styles with females and irregular styles like mine with males. .

Ted

Interesting! I would have thought the stereotype is the other way around, that men are the strong silent types, users of few words and women are the chattery ones who ramble on and on..

Not that I believe the stereotype, just that I think it exists...

[tedln]

RBG,

You may be right. In my life, I've found knowledgeable women able to express their thoughts in a more concise and accurate manner than most men. It doesn't mean I always agree with their thoughts, but I appreciate their ability to express them.

I have a question for you. In another thread, you mentioned how easily you have been able to germinate the Chinese Giant peppers. I really think I bought a batch of bad seed. I've tried four different ways to germinate them without success. I'm curious if you have found the variety to be worth the effort to germinate. Are they any good?

Ted

[rainbowgardener]

tedlin - I had missed this post until now. Sorry I can't help. The China Giants germinated just fine for me and have first true leaves. But this is my first year to grow this variety, so I can't say anything about how they turn out.

[rainbowgardener]

tedlin - I had missed this post until now. Sorry I can't help. The China Giants germinated just fine for me and have first true leaves. But this is my first year to grow this variety, so I can't say anything about how they turn out.