Strawbale Gardening - no weeding, no hoeing, no tilling

Well, my zuccini plants have died already it appears. The are shriveled up and appear dead from todays sun. My cukes have large white areas on the leaves. Not sure yet if this is a bad thing or not.

Kent, do you water the bales daily?

 

Sounds like your cucumbers got sun fried,they might have been kept in a shadier spot before you got them,they should grow back more leaves shortly.

 

I think you're right. The zuccini bounced back and look ok this morning. There is new growth on the cukes. Most of my plants appear to be taking a little stress from the sun.

 

Rick, I do check my bales daily at the beginning since the plants are so young. I don't necessarily water the whole bale on a daily basis but do make sure I get some moisture around the plant roots.

Plus, cukes and squash aren't planted that deep in the beginning like tomatoes, so it's easy for them to get dehydrated.

This sun has been pretty tough the last several days on any young plants.

Several of my buddies got fried, too, last weekend while working traffic control at some off-duty sites!!!

 

Glad to hear it!
Maybe next time you could apply some sun block on them first

 

NC Tomato Man at Farmer's Market Fri & Sat

Reminder: For those looking for some great heirloom tomatoes, Craig LeHoullier, will be at the Farmer's Market this Friday and Saturday.

NC Tomato Man link: http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/nctomato-news.html

I picked 40 plants (10 varieties) up from his house last night.

That will put me at 30+ varieties this year with a total around 160.

Here' some:

Delicious
Kellogg's Breakfast
Lemon Boy
Cherokee Purple
Golden Jubilee
KBX
Galina's
Cherokee Chocolate
Casey's Pure Yellow
Burgandy Traveller
Black Cherry
Anna Banana Russian
Aker's West Virginia
Mexico Midget
Boxcar Willie
Orange Heirloom
Mortgage Lifter
Celebrity
Super Fantastic
Better Boy
Red Georgia
Lucky Cross
Earl of Edgecomb
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Brubaker's Favorite
Amana Orange
Sweet 100 Hybrid
Burpee Big Boy

 

Thanks Kent. I will at least give each plant some water. The bales seem to stay damp inside for the most part.

 

Got plenty of wheat grass but still no mushrooms-I'm going to give it another week,by then it will be four weeks that I've been watering the bales.
Kent,will it be ok to plant even without any mushrooms there?
Thanks!

 

I hope so because only two of my bales had them at planting time. But those two are covered in them.

 

You betcha!!!! Those 'shrooms love company!!! LOL

 

but there are no 'shrooms' to keep my tomatoes company!

 

We have to travel to the valley (Willamette) for a SB double header tomorrow. Found a place up there with 75's for $2, so the stock trailer 'gets' to go too . Think we're pickin' up about 24, most for me (18) and the rest for friends that I've 'talked' into trying it this yr I'm really thankful for your thread (and pictures), It has hepled me 'show' what I'm talkin' about....( have talked about 5 friends around 'my' state to give it a shot, I'm interested to see what they 'come up' with......).

 

I'm thinking I have a failure on my hands here. I don't know what is wrong. Nothing is dried out or anything but most of my stuff looks like it will die. Only thing that look decent is the eggplants and the tomatoes. I may have to take them out and try again.

 

What a bummer!!

I'm still not seeing any mushrooms on my bales but I'm still going to plant the tomatoes this weekend,we'll see what happens...

 

Excellent. Glad to have you and your friends on board this year. Keep us posted.

Kent

 

I've had to replant squash and cukes b4, mostly because I probably put them in a tad early with very small roots and the sun/wind/low night temps did a number on them.

Don't despair. It happens to the best of us.

Since the night temps look a little low in the coming days, give it a little longer and replant.

Plenty of time.

It's all a learning experience.

Kent

 

I'm thinking that may be what it is. The cuke plants I got were very small.

 

Looks like I lost one squash and one cuke plant. The rest are taking off. I have millions of mushrooms too ha ha

 

Lucky you!

 

Rick: got a lot of tomatoes transplanted this morning. Will get everything in over the next 2 days, including 48 cuke sets.

Annette: hang in there, those 'shrooms will make an appearance.

Kent