The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: angie on March 20, 2017, 09:05:09 am

Title: Potatoes and straw bales
Post by: angie on March 20, 2017, 09:05:09 am

I can't find the link I read about growing spuds in straw bales. Can anyone point me in the right direction please
Many thanks in advance
Angie

Title: Re: Potatoes and straw bales
Post by: macgro7 on March 20, 2017, 09:26:54 am

Quote from: angie on March 20, 2017, 09:05:09 am

I can't find the link I read about growing spuds in straw bales. Can anyone point me in the right direction please
Many thanks in advance
Angie

http://strawbalegardens.com/blog/2013/02/youll-never-grow-potatoes-any-other-way-again/ (http://strawbalegardens.com/blog/2013/02/youll-never-grow-potatoes-any-other-way-again/)

Title: Re: Potatoes and straw bales
Post by: cloddopper on March 21, 2017, 09:56:11 am

accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=82100.15

 One of my posts in nthe thread give you a lot more detail ,. you only need straw bales & a gentle liquid manure to get theh bales breaking down / composting .

Wrapping the bales in plastic sheet astraight after givening them a good wetting will help  to get them sweating ,  Once you can see they are  rotting down intop compost it helps tremendously but you'll need to remove the sheeting when you plant up or you can  roll the sheet back down to the ground & weight it down   before planting & feeding with plenty of the same .

Many of the American guys In American sites thoughtthat they had to earth up on top of the bale ......There is no earthing up to do.

I used to use a long pointed 2x 2 2 length of pointed wood to poke a 15 " deep planting holes down into the composting bales then drop a chitted spud down each hole & push some composting straw gently down the planted up hole  .