Straw Bale Gardening: Conditioning Straw Bales

Straw Bale Gardening: Conditioning Straw Bales

This is article two in my series about Straw Bale Gardening- in this article, you'll learn all about conditioning straw bales for a straw bale garden.  See my first article on Straw Bale Gardening to learn how to find straw bales and how to lay out a straw bale garden.


If you want to learn all about straw bale gardens, you can learn everything from planning through harvest:

• Starting a straw bale garden
• Conditioning the straw bales
• Straw bale garden timeline
• Does a straw bale garden work?
• Straw bale garden harvest

Steps for Conditioning Straw Bales for Straw Bale Gardening

The following steps for conditioning straw bales is from Joel Karsten who wrote the book Straw Bale Gardens Complete.

• Day 1: 3 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 2: water
• Day 3: 3 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 4: water
• Day 5: 3 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 6: water
• Day 7: 1.5 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 8: 1.5 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 9: 1.5 cups composted fertilizer per bale and water
• Day 10: 3 cups bone meal/wood ash mix (supplies phosphorus and potassium), and water

Here is a link to an article in Modern Farmer that describes this method for conditioning straw bales.

During the conditioning process, the straw bale will heat up to over 100 degrees, which kills most of the weed seeds that may be mixed in with the straw.  Some people use hay bales instead of straw bales, but I would be a little concerned about weed seeds even with the heating of the bales.  Since the bale heats up, you will need to wait until the bales cool down to plant your seeds or plants that you have started in the bales.  I am not sure yet if I will just stick my hand in the bale to see if it is warm, or if I will use a thermometer.

We should be ready to plant some of the hardier vegetables after Day 10, which will be April 18.  The last frost date here in southern Iowa is around May 10, so we'll have to be careful what we put out early.  Our straw bale garden is located on a hill facing the south and is sheltered by the garage on the north, so we should be safe to put plants out pretty early.  I am looking forward to seeing some plants growing in these straw bales!

Day 1:  3 Cups Fertilizer per Bale and Water

Conditioning Bales for Straw Bale Gardening, Day 1
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Last weekend, I brought home 25 bales of straw for my straw bale garden.  My wife and I figured out a layout for the garden, put down landscaping fabric, and put the bales in place.  I used some metal stales to keep the straw bales in place.  My earlier post describes the benefits of straw bale gardening, starting the plants from seeds in planting trays, and laying the bales out to start a straw bale garden.

Straw Bale on Day 1 of Conditioning with Fertilizer
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The next step after getting your straw bales in place is conditioning the bales.  This is a 10 day process where you keep the straw bales wet and apply fertilizer to the bales.  This starts the bales breaking down so that plants will be able to grow in them.  You can use "standard" high nitrogen fertilizer or organic fertilizers.  My wife decided to go with organic fertilizer.

Organic Plant Food Used to Condition Straw Bale Garden
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For the first treatment, she placed 3 cups of plant food (fertilizer) on top of the bales and then ran water on top of it to start washing it into the bales.  We had some plant food left from last year's garden but needed to buy more to have enough for all of the bales.  Since the organic plant food is sort of expensive, we may use compost for the next treatment with fertilizer which is on Day 3.  On Day 2, only water will be applied.  Later in the conditioning process, we will add some bone meal and wood ash.

Day 2:  Water Bales

We watered the bales today, plus it rained quite a bit, so they should be good and wet now.  Watering the bales will wash the fertilizer down into the bale and also keep it damp inside the bale so the bacteria can do its work to break down the bales and get them ready for planting.

I don't see much difference in the bales since we started, except they are now dirty and wet...

Conditioning the Straw Bales, Day 2
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Closeup of Bale on Day 2 of Conditioning
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Day 3:  3 Cups Fertilizer per Bale and Water

Day 3 of conditioning the straw bale garden calls for adding more fertilizer and watering the bales.  I picked up a few 40 pound bags of compost to use as fertilizer at Earl May.  I got 2 bags of plant leaf compost and 2 bags of cow manure compost.  The composted leaves was $4 for a 40 pound bag.  The composted cow manure was $7 for a 40 pound bag.

I added about 1.5 cups of each type of compost, for a total of 3 cups of fertilizer per bale today and soaked it in with water.  As I worked on conditioning the straw bales tonight, I realized that this is really like starting a compost pile.  The difference is that I will be planting things in this compost pile and letting plants grow while it composts.

Day 3 of Conditioning the Bales- Before Adding More Fertilizer
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Composted Leaves and Plant Material- $4 for 40 Pounds
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Composted Cow Manure- $7 for 40 Pounds
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Watering the Bales to Soak In Fertilizer
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Day 3 of Bale Conditioning, After Adding More Fertilizer and Soaking with Water
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Day 4:  Water Bales

Day 4 of straw bale conditioning  is watering only.  The purpose of watering the bales is two-fold.  First, watering the bales will wash the nitrogen from the compost or fertilizer that you apply on top of the bales down into the bales.  Second, watering the bales keeps them wet inside so they can start to break down and get prepared to be a good growing medium for plants.

Here are some photos of the bales on Day 4 of conditioning for straw bale gardening.

Straw Bales, Day 4, Before Watering
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Straw Bales, Day 4, Before Watering, Side View
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Straw Bales, Day 4, After Watering, Close-up
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Straw Bales, Day 4, After Watering
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Day 5:  3 Cups Fertilizer per Bale and Water

I get to add more fertilizer today.  Today I finished up one of the 40 pound bags of plant compost and one of the 40 pound bags of composted manure.  Watering the fertilizer into the bales must be working, because there isn't that much stuff on top of the bales.  I don't know if the composting is going very fast due to low temperatures- it is getting down into the 40's at night.

The bales do not look that much different to me yet.  They are waterlogged and dirty.  It is probably too late to try to return the bales if I were to change my mind now...

Here are some  photos of how the bales looked on Day 5 before fertilizer was added.  It was raining today, so they were already wet.

Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, Before Adding More Fertilizer
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Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, Before Adding More Fertilizer, Several Bales
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Next, I added about 3 cups of compost fertilizer on top of each bale.

Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, with Fertilizer Added
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Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, with Fertilizer Added, Side of Bale
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Then I used the "shower" setting on my garden hose sprayer head to water the fertilizer down into the bales.  Here is how they looked today after watering:

Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, after Watering in More Fertilizer
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Day 5 of Straw Bale Conditioning, after Watering in More Fertilizer, Side of Bale
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Day 6:  Water Bales

Today I just watered the bales.  I also put up my rain gauge near my garden.

Day 6, Before Water, Top of Bale
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Day 6, Before Water, Side of Bale
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Day 6, After Water, Top of Bale
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Day 6, After Water, Side of Bale
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Rain gauge, Attached to Deck Rail Next to Garden
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Day 7: 1.5 Cups Composted Fertilizer per Bale and Water

The plan for Day 7 of conditioning the bales is to add half the amount of compost that we have been adding, and then water it into the bales.  This will also be the plan for Day 8 and Day 9 as well.

I put my hand against the side of a bale today to check the temperature and I did feel some warmth.  It is hard to say if this is from the bales heading up inside from the fertilizer and composting process, or if this is simply passive solar heating since the bales were out in the sun today.

Day 7, Before Fertilizer, Top of Bale
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Day 7, Before Fertilizer, Side of Bale
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Day 7, After Adding Fertilizer, Close-up
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Day 7, After Adding Fertilizer
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Day 7, After Fertilizer and Water, Close-up
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Day 7, After Fertilizer and Water
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Day 8: 1.5 Cups Composted Fertilizer per Bale and Water

Day 8 is the same plan as Day 7: add 1.5 cups compost per bale and water it into the bales.  Today was a long day, so I was working in the garden after dark tonight.  I can get some light through the windows in my shop if I turn on the lights.

Day 8, Before Adding Fertilizer
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Day 8, Before Adding Fertilizer, Side View
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Day 8, Fertilizer Added
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Day 8, Fertilizer Added, Side View
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Day 8, After Fertilizer and Water
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Day 8, After Fertilizer and Water, Side View
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Day 9: 1.5 Cups Composted Fertilizer per Bale and Water

Today, I decided to stick my hand into a bale and see if it is heating up noticeably.  The air temperature was about 75 degrees.  The inside of the bale was definitely warm- I would say maybe 130 degrees.  With my hand not far into the bale, the tips of my fingers were uncomfortably warm.

Checking Temperature Inside Straw Bale- It Is Definitely Heating Up!
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Today's recipe is to add 1.5 cups of compost per bale and soak it in with water.  Here's what that looked like:

Day 9 Conditioning, Straw Bale Before Fertilizer Added
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Day 9, Straw Bale with 1.5 Cups of Compost Added
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Day 9 Straw Bale Conditioning, After Fertilizer and Water
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Day 10: 3 cups bone meal/wood ash mix (supplies phosphorus and potassium), and water

It's graduation day for the straw bales today!  Today is the final step of bale conditioning.  I'll add some bone meal to supply phosphorous and wood ash to supply potassium.  Then I'll add some more compost to supply nitrogen and soak all of that into the bales with water.

The next step is to check the temperature inside the bales to make sure it is not too hot, and then plant when we are ready.  Since it is only mid-April, we may plant some things right away like lettuce and wait awhile to put some of the plants we started inside in starting trays.

You'll see from the photos of Day 10 that I added some foam covers to the metal stakes that I used to hold the bales in place.  The other day, I bent down to pick something up and almost hit my head on a fairly sharp stake.  I decided to put some padding on before a kid or small dog gets hurt.  I bought some swim noodles that are used for floating in a swimming pool for $2 each and used a hack saw to cut them to length.  I slid them over the posts, with a couple inches of extra length to absorb any blows and prevent impalement.

Here are the photos from Day 10 of conditioning the straw bales:

Wood Ash from Fire Pit- Adds Potassium
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Organic Bone Meal- Adds Phosphorus
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Day 10, Bales Before Adding Anything
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Day 10, Before Adding Anything- Closeup
Dr. Penny Pincher

Bales with Wood Ash and Bone Meal
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Bales with Wood Ash and Bone Meal- Closeup
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Day 10 Straw Bale Conditioning- After Watering
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Day 10 Straw Bale Conditioning- After Watering, Closeup
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The bales are heating up inside, and conditioning of bales for the straw bale garden seems to be going well.  Next, I'll wait until the temperature inside cools down a bit and then go ahead and plant.  You can spread a bit of topsoil on top of the bales and plant seeds right on top.  You can also dig into the bales a bit and plant small plants right into the bales, adding some topsoil in the hole to cover the roots.

So far, straw bale gardening is going well.  Find out how the straw bale garden turned out- here is a link to my straw bale gardening journal for the garden this year.

Straw Bale Garden- Ready to Plant!
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I Got Gas for Under $1 a Gallon Today with Hy-Vee Fuel Saver!

Wow- Gas for Under $1

This Receipt Shows That I Got Gas for Under $1 Per Gallon!
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Gas Under $1 per Gallon- Price at the Pump
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This morning, I was almost out of gas and stopped at Casey's to fill up.  As usual, I swipped my Hy-Vee Fuel Saver card at the pump.  Hy-Vee Fuel Saver is a program that provides fuel discounts when you buy certain grocery items at Hy-Vee.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saved $19.48 on my gas today!  With my discount, my gas was just under $1 per gallon!

I Saved Nearly $20 on Gas Today!
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I often save a little bit on gas with Hy-Vee fuel saver.  My wife does most of the grocery shopping at Walmart or Target, so the few things I buy at Hy-Vee don't add up to much savings.  But today was different.  How did I save so much on gas this time?

I told my wife about this at dinner, and she said she bought groceries at Hy-Vee and had them look up my Fuel Saver number since she doesn't have a card.  That was a good move- it saved us nearly $20 on gas.

Here is an article that describes Hy-Vee Fuel Saver in more detail.  Hy-Vee stores are mostly in the Midwest, so you won't be able to find a Hy-Vee if you live on the coast.  The fuel saver discount works at Hy-Vee gas stations and also at Casey's gas stations which are abundant in the Midwest.

Hy-Vee Fuel Saver Works at Casey's and Hy-Vee Gas Stations
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Tips to Save on Gas with Hy-Vee Fuel Saver:

• If you shop at Hy-Vee at all, you might as well sign up for Fuel Saver.  You will save some money with almost no effort.
• Buy only things you need- don't buy extra stuff just to get the fuel saver discount.  You won't save money if you do.
• As my wife discovered, you can have the cashier look up an account with a phone number if you don't have your Fuel Saver card with you.
• Groceries at Hy-Vee are fairly expensive compared with Walmart, but with the Fuel Saver discount, you might still be able to shop at Hy-Vee and not spend that much more money.
• When you get a good discount built up, buy as many gallons as you can.  Luckily, my tank was almost empty when I got the big discount so I maximized my savings.

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Straw Bale Gardening- Easy Raised Beds

What Is Straw Bale Gardening?

In this article, I will cover how to get straw bales and how to layout a straw bale garden.  My next article is all about how to condition straw bales to get the ready for planting.

Straw Bale Garden- with Bales Staked in Place
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

If you want to learn all about straw bale gardens, you can learn everything from planning through harvest:

• Starting a straw bale garden
• Conditioning the straw bales
• Straw bale garden timeline
• Does a straw bale garden work?
• Straw bale garden harvest

A straw bale garden is a type of raised garden where plants are grown in straw bales.  The straw bales decompose, so plants can grow in the straw bales rather than in soil.  Straw bale gardening has several advantages.  The straw bales provide a raised surface for plants to grow, which makes working in the garden easier with less bending.  There is almost no weeding with a straw bale garden.  Wheat or oat straw contains almost no weed seeds, and the decomposition process while conditioning the bales heats up enough to kill most weed seeds anyway.

So if you want a raised bed style of garden, but without the trouble of building raised beds and filling them with soil, a straw bale garden might be a good way to get a quick and easy garden going.  I recently moved to a new house and with spring coming around it is time to start the garden.  I decided to try straw bale gardening as a quick and easy way to get a garden going without the need to break sod or build raised beds.

How Much Does Straw Bale Gardening Cost?

Of course you'll need to get straw bales to make a straw bale garden.  I went down the list, calling local home improvement and landscaping supply stores looking for straw bales.  Earl May had straw bales, but they were $9.99 each.  Yikes!  I found that Thiesen's, a farm supply store, had straw bales, but they only had 15 and they were $8.99 each.  I did see some straw bales selling on craigslist for $5 each, but some of these were pretty far away.

Finally, I thought to call a nearby farmer who has a shop selling vegetables to ask if he had straw bales for sale.  He did, and the price was $5.  I asked for 25 bales.  So the cost of straw bales was $125 to get my garden started.  You can have a much smaller garden- if you have a small space, you can use a couple bales on your patio to grow some tomatoes or other vegetables.

I bought a pickup truck load of 25 straw bales for my straw bale garden
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It is recommended to put down landscaping fabric under the straw bales to prevent weeds from coming up.  I had a bunch of landscape fabric that was in the garage when I bought my house, so I got this for free.  You could use cardboard that you can get for free if you ask for boxes at grocery stores.  I used cardboard under the raised beds at my last garden.

Another supply that you'll need is a way to stake down the bales and to provide a trellis for some of the taller plants.  I got a bunch of wire fencing and fence posts of all sizes that came with the property, so this is free for me.  You can buy wooden stakes at home improvement stores for about $1 each, or you can buy metal fence stakes for about $3 each.

You also need to use fertilizer to condition the bales before planting.  I have not bought the fertilizer yet, but I don't think this will be very expensive.  It is recommended to use high nitrogen fertilizer like ammonium nitrate (34-0-0) or ammonium sulfate.  I'm going to guess this will cost about $15.

You will need something to plant in your straw bale garden.  We have started plants growing from seeds in indoor growing trays.  We also plan to plant some things from seeds on the straw bales.  You can put some soil on top of the straw bales and start seeds right on top of the bales.  I think we spent about $40 on items to plant in the garden including the seeds and the starting trays.  You could get by for less, depending on what you plant.

You can plant seeds on top of straw bales
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Starting plants from seeds to plant in straw bales
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If you have rabbits or deer around, you may need a fence around your garden.  We have placed the garden close to the house and we have several dogs, so hopefully we can get by without a fence.

It looks like the cost of our 25 bale garden is going to be around $200.  I hope to get a lot of fresh vegetables from the garden- much more than $200 worth...  We will compost the straw as it breaks down and use it in future garden projects.

Materials Required for a Straw Bale Garden

• Straw Bales
• Landscape fabric (or free cardboard)
• Stakes or metal fence posts
• High nitrogen fertilizer
• Trellis material
• Plants and seeds
• Fence- optional

Straw Bale Garden- Before Planting
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Steps to Start a Straw Bale Garden

• Plan your garden layout.  Straw bales are about 3 feet long and about 18 inches wide.  Determine how many straw bales you need.  Choose a sunny location.
• Find straw bales.  Check local stores, farmers, and craigslist.
• Put down landscape fabric or cardboard to block weeds.
• Arrange the straw bales.  Set the bales so that the strings are on the side.

Straw Bale Garden- Rough Layout Before Staking the Bales Down
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• Stake down the bales.
• Condition the bales- soak them in water and apply high nitrogen fertilizer.  Conditioning takes about two weeks.
• Plant in the bales.  You can dig small holes in the bales to plant seedlings, or coat the top of the bale with soil and plant seeds.

I plan to add some taller metal fence posts on the ends of some of the rows of bales to make a trellis for taller plants.  I'll wait to see where we plant things before installing this.  I may use some fencing or wires to make the trellis.

In conclusion, a straw bale garden can be a quick and easy way to get a garden going.  Plus, you get the benefits of working with raised beds, but without the trouble of building raised beds and filling them with compost and soil.  Check back to see how our straw bale garden turns out.

Next Step: Conditioning the Straw Bales before Planting

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