Outdoor Experiment: Straw Bale Grow....

Ok, so I'm going to grow 4 hemp plants outside this year. 3 of them will be in 15 gallon pots and one is in a straw bale. I conditioned the straw bales over a 2+ week period to begin the process of internally composting. Primarily I will be growing veggies in them, but thought I'd try a hemp plant to see if it will be good for cannabis. No thc, but that isn't the point of this grow. I just want a pile of CBD flower.

Anyway, one of the advantages to growing plants in a straw bale is the soil temps are elevated due to the internal composting going on. Right now the straw bales are about 85 degrees F and the pots are only about 60. I will have to feed the bale plant more, but otherwise they are the same plants. The other advantage is it's a much bigger "container" for less money. I even have some melons planted in the same bale.

Here are some day 2 pics. I'll update the post periodically sort of as a progress bar. It will be a long season, and who knows what will happen....

The 2 plants shown are about the same size currently.

Week 2 (outdoor) update. All the plants are doing well, even bale-gal. The bale plant and the control are tracking each other pretty closely so far. The other 2 plants had an earlier start and were always bigger.

Again, 1 hemp plant in a conditioned straw bale. 3 in 15 gallon buckets. I'm going to try to keep them as even as possible wrt water and nutes. Had a large fruit of ink cap shrooms pop up. I think it's likely from mushroom compost. Why anyone would intentionally farm ink caps is a mystery though.

But surviving 2 weeks is a good sign....

One month into this, the plant is going strong and is pulling away from its 15 gallon siblings. I really haven't done anything to this plant. I did top it a week or two ago, but that's it. No special food. No pest management other than the companion plants (marrigold plants, cukes, and cantelopes and water melons. All the plants are on the same drip irrigation system which I occasionally infuse with seaweed and fish emulsion, but nothing special and full organic.

So far a success. But the season is young and we have a week of 90 degree f wx coming......

Awesome looking plant in the straw bale. Inky cap shrooms are so disgusting looking, especially after a day. I got two bales for my gardening and one of them broke out all over in the inky caps. It's now in the compost bin. How did you prepare the bale?

potpimp said:

Awesome looking plant in the straw bale. Inky cap shrooms are so disgusting looking, especially after a day. I got two bales for my gardening and one of them broke out all over in the inky caps. It's now in the compost bin. How did you prepare the bale?

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I used standard 20-20-20 fertilizer per the instructions on the straw bail garden website. I was going to go the organic route but it would have taken me 40 pounds of blood meal and extra week or two. I can live with synthetics for specific uses.

The bails did get up into the 120 degree range for a week, so it seems to have worked. Plants I transplanted are doing well. Seeds I directly sowed have been hit and miss. Not a high germ success rate. And I have at least one volunteer tomato plant that sprung up which is interesting because I didn't plant any. Go figure.

Been a while since an update but the straw bale girl and her sisters in pots are really growing fast. Even my seed plants are popping.

This is the straw bale plant, along with her friends (cukes, cantelope, watermellon, and magnolias.....



Here are the plants in 15 gallon pots and my seed plants in front..... These are actually smaller than the straw bale plant right now.



And a few projects (tomatoes and strawberries). I have other stuff planted around the pool and orchard as well. But this was handy when I took pics...

this is really cool, can't wait to see how it turns out

This stuck at home thing isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Now if I could figure out how to not have a day jb and still get the money and benefits... Maybe I can get a wh job?

Anyway, my only regret this season is getting caught flat footed and not having my bee keeping gear ready. I have to wait till next year to get more bees. No swarms, and nobody has spare nucs. Oh well........

Infused cyser - it can't be all bad...

I was out of town for a week and things kind of blew up on me. The straw bale plant is definitely pulling away from the pots, though the pots need a good dose of nitrogen. I'll feed them this week. Maybe wait till after the storm.

If this thing bolts during flower, I'm in trouble.

greg nr said:

I was out of town for a week and things kind of blew up on me. The straw bale plant is definitely pulling away from the pots, though the pots need a good dose of nitrogen. I'll feed them this week. Maybe wait till after the storm.

If this thing bolts during flower, I'm in trouble.

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Looking good, yeah you may need some support this fall. I see they are stretching now.

Support, yeah, the straw bale tipped sideways. No harm though, I just righted it and added some poles to hold it up. The trunk is huge.

I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these cbd flowers though. I'm going to end up with pounds of the stuff if rot or bugs don't get them first. So far, no growth issues, and the bale girl is feet taller and much bushier than her 15 gallon sisters. Those green poles are 8 feet btw.

Been flowering for at least a week now. These have pretty much been on autopilot except for the very occasional feeding. I have them on drip irrigation with an occasional liquid feeder so they get what everything else gets (usually just fish emulsion or something similar) with the exception of one dose of N they needed a few weeks ago.

I chopped the plants down yesterday. The cold nights and moist leaves during the day are a recipe for mold or rot.

So would I grow in a straw bale again?

Possibly, but the only real problem I had was the plant got too damned big for the bale. At one point, the whole thing tipped sideways. No harm done, but after another storm a couple of branches cracked at the stalk. Still, nothing a few stakes and garden ties couldn't fix.

But the plant in the bale was a full 50% bigger than the ones on 15 gallon pots, and if I had more than one, they would have been a headache to maintain.

Yeah, I hear ya, "plants got too big is a problem?" So I guess if I was going to do a stealth grow I would bury the bales in the ground a bit to keep them from tipping. The straw definitely helps with keeping the plant watered. I had no issues with them being too wet, even though they got watered every other day via drip irrigation.

So I give it an A+ as a grow medium, and a D+ for stability. But to be fair, the straw bale gardening community does have a list of plants (like corn) not to grow for that reason, and I thought it might be an issue.

Anyway, back to my indoor season as soon as I get the outdoor chores done for winter.

Thanks for the great reporting all season long! Really informative. Happy Growing!!

I don't know how I missed this thread. But I like it.

A bale of straw and some 20-20-20 fertilizer. Cool stuff. As for the 20-20-20, if you wanted to stay organic what do you think of using something like a 4-4-4 from Jobe's or Dr Earth? Or even Alaska Fish 5-1-1. I know you want a high nitrogen fertilizer so maybe even an alfalfa tea? I'm not too keen on the blood meal in my yard as I have 3 dogs and I also don't want it attracting racoons or opossums.

I'm going to do some experimenting next summer with different growing techniques and straw bales were something I've played with before but didn't do the research to be successful. You obviously did.

xtsho said:

I don't know how I missed this thread. But I like it.

A bale of straw and some 20-20-20 fertilizer. Cool stuff. As for the 20-20-20, if you wanted to stay organic what do you think of using something like a 4-4-4 from Jobe's or Dr Earth? Or even Alaska Fish 5-1-1. I know you want a high nitrogen fertilizer so maybe even an alfalfa tea? I'm not too keen on the blood meal in my yard as I have 3 dogs and I also don't want it attracting racoons or opossums.

I'm going to do some experimenting next summer with different growing techniques and straw bales were something I've played with before but didn't do the research to be successful. You obviously did.

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There are organic conditioning methods, but they take longer. Would have to look, but people have used other fertilizers besides blood meal.