I will get some, but I wonder do it have to be fast release nitrogen only? Will slow release work? I'll probably get the fast release anyway.

maxjohnson wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 10:36 am I will get some, but I wonder do it have to be fast release nitrogen only? Will slow release work? I'll probably get the fast release anyway.

Quick release is what you want. 28-0-0 or something similar. The cheap stuff is actually preferable, as you don't want anything extra in there that a premium lawn fertilizer may have, like crabgrass preventer.

EDIT: you can also supplement with pee, as [mention]rossomendblot[/mention] mentioned in their post below!

We got some old bales for free from the local horse stable so will be trying straw bale gardening this year. Unfortunately by the time I got around to conditioning them, all the garden stores had closed, my preferred online stores were closed or struggling to fulfill orders and independent sellers had ramped their prices up massively. This means I couldn't get anything like ammonium sulphate or urea, so had to use what we already had which was a mixture of chicken manure pellets, fish & blood meal, soluble 18-18-18, prilled 15-9-20 and *ahem* lots of urine. Hopefully it works!

rossomendblot wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 4:07 pm We got some old bales for free from the local horse stable so will be trying straw bale gardening this year. Unfortunately by the time I got around to conditioning them, all the garden stores had closed, my preferred online stores were closed or struggling to fulfill orders and independent sellers had ramped their prices up massively. This means I couldn't get anything like ammonium sulphate or urea, so had to use what we already had which was a mixture of chicken manure pellets, fish & blood meal, soluble 18-18-18, prilled 15-9-20 and *ahem* lots of urine. Hopefully it works!

I think you'll be in good shape! Organic fertilizers won't be as fast as the NH4SO4 or urea, but they'll get you there in the end. Ultimately, the bale temperature will dictate to you when it's ready to be planted. I think that the nitrogen in urine alone is enough to trigger the process, and the heat helps to catalyze the process during the cool spring days

Welp, here goes nothing. Let the fretting and obsessing begin! 16 transplants yesterday, 5 days earlier than last season. 5 remaining plants are going in grow bags around the yard. Root dip with BiotaMax and Myco Grow--couldn't find any cheap Actinovate. Watered with kelp extract at the end.
The 2 buckets are blueberry bushes that haven't found a permanent home yet.

Wow, looking really good [mention]heirl00m[/mention] !

Grow, little plants, grow!

This is exciting. I am so glad that you are giving us the opportunity to watch this happen.

Nice plants.

Beautiful photos of some very nice looking plants. Photos really show how well it is progressing for you, thank you for posting them

Tomatoes look really happy with their growing conditions. Excellent start to the season!

Introducing the clavate tortoise beetle.
https://extension.umaine.edu/home-and-g ... e-beetles/

Magnificent photos of that unusual little critter

I never even considered fire ants.
The very thought of a fire ant hotel is enough for me not to attempt it.
Last time I bought hay it was weed hay full of grass burrs.

Thanks for the information on the Tortoise Beetles. This is the first that I have ever heard of them.

What, if anything, do you feed your tomato plants while they are growing in the straw bales?

Always wondered what those insects were called. Have had them for only a few years but must really keep an eye out and destroy them. Love eggplant leaves as well as tomatoes.

MissS wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 3:12 pm Thanks for the information on the Tortoise Beetles. This is the first that I have ever heard of them.

What, if anything, do you feed your tomato plants while they are growing in the straw bales?

Oh, I feed. The prevailing school of thought treats the bales as modified hydroponic media, because the auto-digestion of the bale doesn't provide a spectrum of macro/micronutrients. To that end, the potting mix that encircles each root ball within the bale has Tomato-tone and Mykos mycorrhizae mixed in at planting. Then I water them on Wednesdays and Saturdays with Urban Farms Vegetable Fertilizer (their baseline watering is via drip irrigation every day at 6 a.m., for roughly a gallon of water per bale). Over the past week, as plants have begun to show fertilized blossoms, I switch over to TTF. I also added just a trace of Epsom Salts during my last fertilizing.

I'll have some new pics later today. Big Beef, Sungold, Eva Purple Ball and Cherokee Purple all have fruit! Cowlick's, Anna Russian, and Prudens are very close behind.