My First Haybale Attempt

[Mike Belt]

I saw and liked the idea earlier this spring and decided to try it. I used 15 bales and only planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and pole beans. The beans didn't want to sprout at first. It took 3 plantings to get them going but they're looking good now. It took 2 plantings to get my bell peppers started. They grew at first and then seemed to stop and just hang in there. I had to replant a couple of my tomatoes and they look fine now with a few small tomatoes on them. I had a couple of tomato plants left over that I planted next to a couple of my pepper plants that seemed to be going nowhere.

What I've noticed so far is that some of the bales seem to deteriorate to the point that there's not much solid for the roots below the plants to hang unto or get a hold of in order to do much growing. I compressed the bales trying to give the root system a more solid foothold. We'll see what happens. Because of this "looseness" I'm sort of at a loss as to how much and when to fertilize. I figure there's less nutrient in the bale than in the earth and that fertilization will leach out of the bales at a faster rate thus needing more fertilizer more often but I don't want to burn my plants up either. Any ideas?

 

[trealtree]

Miracle Grow is magical . Get a small stick put it behind the bailing twine and start twisting until the bale is tight. We had a few plants fizzle out also, but I believe it had to do with the internal temp of the bale. Daily watering seems to be the key.