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Post by BestoFour on Apr 10, 2013 21:08:41 GMT -6
squash in a straw bale some of them have sprouted a nice stand of grass. I covered these with wet newspaper today.
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Post by jack on Apr 11, 2013 3:05:41 GMT -6
Gidday
What sorta straw is that? I have only ever seen hay or oat feed straw sprout like that.
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Post by BestoFour on Apr 11, 2013 19:16:02 GMT -6
I think it's wheat straw. I've looked it up and all the sites say if wheat sprouts it will die out quickly. They looked really good today but no more have come up yet.
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Post by jack on Apr 12, 2013 1:45:05 GMT -6
Gidday
I had some feed oat feed straw that and it caused a few problems for a while so I hope your info is right.
I would suggest that while the squash is still small only water immediately around them. I believe that you will get a hellava good crop out of that the way it looks now.
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Post by BestoFour on Apr 12, 2013 19:29:57 GMT -6
Thanks for the advice. I'll keep you posted.
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Post by BestoFour on Apr 20, 2013 20:22:19 GMT -6
So far so good. We've had rain and the plants are growing right along in all the bales at this point. I'm thinking of putting a plant or two in the ground to see if the bugs attack again.
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Post by ChileFarmer on Apr 21, 2013 6:49:54 GMT -6
Looking good, when I tried the straw bale planting the fire ants took them over. CF
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Post by BestoFour on Apr 21, 2013 14:31:42 GMT -6
Oh gosh. I hate to hear that because we have a lot of ants around here.
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Post by Penny on Apr 22, 2013 6:39:24 GMT -6
Looks good, Sheri.
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Post by BestoFour on May 10, 2013 7:42:42 GMT -6
The straw bale squash is growing great but I don't have a single bloom. Who said they'd had trouble with ants in their straw? One of my bales has an ant hill. I put Neem Oil on it yesterday. Hope it works. At least the squash bug hasn't been spotted.
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Post by kansasterri on May 10, 2013 16:58:56 GMT -6
An update on my straw bale garden: I have NOTHING!
It looks too dry: I have tried capping the top with soil and without: it still dries out in the blink of an eye!
Yesterday I drove a dibble in to get seeds in more deeply. We will see if that helps!
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Post by BestoFour on May 10, 2013 18:55:12 GMT -6
kansasterri, I can't remember where you live. I think I remember you planted carrots. Maybe? Has it been too cold because the rain should help rather than hinder straw bales I would think. I dug out holes and put in cups of fertilizer for a few weeks before I planted my seeds. Hope they work for you.
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Post by jack on May 11, 2013 3:03:05 GMT -6
Gidday
The one thing that you really must do is keep the straw moist or anything planted in it will die.
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Post by spuds on May 11, 2013 6:36:41 GMT -6
Good luck.
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Post by BestoFour on May 22, 2013 8:55:52 GMT -6
Looking lovely but I've had 2 squash rot on the vine. This is happened before in the garden and I think I added calcium. Is that right? Actually I think it was lime that adds calcium to the soil or something like that.
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Post by jack on May 23, 2013 2:22:02 GMT -6
Gidday
What was your weather like? It could have had something to do with a vine rotting off.
The most difficult thing is the amount of water, the straw must never dry out and it is easy to have it too wet too. But apart from that I reckon it's the easiest way of gardening there is.
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Post by BestoFour on May 23, 2013 9:24:35 GMT -6
We've had lots of rain and I think, after looking at the squash again, it's a pollination, or lack of, problem rather than blossom end rot. I went out early this morning to hand pollinate and the flowers were full of water from last nights rain. Oh dear.
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Post by BestoFour on May 24, 2013 6:54:35 GMT -6
I did a little hand pollinating this morning. There aren't any bugs around those plants, not one. Where are all the bees?
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Post by BestoFour on May 27, 2013 9:41:36 GMT -6
Yippee harvested me some squash today and there's lots out there. I've been hand pollinating though because there's not a bug in sight. So strange for this time of year.
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Post by jack on May 28, 2013 2:44:17 GMT -6
Gidday
Brilliant!
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Post by BestoFour on May 28, 2013 12:09:23 GMT -6
Jack or anyone for that matter, do I need to do additional fertilizing? I did all that fertilizing before planting and then when the plants were tiny I watered with Miracle Grow.
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Post by jack on May 29, 2013 3:48:52 GMT -6
Gidday
Why?
You have healthy looking plants that are now cropping and you say that looks good, so why risk adding anything else to the equation.
Why fix what ain't broken?
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Post by BestoFour on May 29, 2013 14:40:33 GMT -6
cuz I'm OCD Thanks.
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Post by jack on May 30, 2013 1:41:39 GMT -6
OCD? ??
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Post by BestoFour on May 30, 2013 13:00:14 GMT -6
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which I really don't have - except maybe when it comes to growing squash
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Post by Compost Pharmer on May 30, 2013 17:01:29 GMT -6
If your plants are doing good and look healthy, don't add any extra fertilizer. It will cause you to have all plant and very little, if any fruit to harvest. I learned this with tomatoes. One year my plants were almost 10 feet tall with very few tomatoes. The only thing I do is foliar feed with compost tea.
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Post by jack on May 31, 2013 4:16:49 GMT -6
Gidday
Yep.
You caint do better than healthy plants and good fruit.
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Post by BestoFour on Jun 3, 2013 8:06:43 GMT -6
Tastes good too.
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Post by BestoFour on Jun 3, 2013 9:03:32 GMT -6
I have a question. Just gathered a bunch of good looking squash but I noticed that some of the leaves are turning yellow. I inspected everything pretty good and there aren't squash bugs and no evidence of bores so I'm not sure what it could be. The plants don't need water - in rained last night and the bales aren't too wet. Any thoughts???
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Post by BestoFour on Jun 14, 2013 11:11:03 GMT -6
This is a sad day. I found an adult squash bug and eggs on my plants. There are also a lot of lady squash beetles which I've never had before. Why would squash bugs go to the trouble of crawling up the straw bales to eat my squash? Last year I tried everything to control them and nothing worked so I'm thinking of setting these bales on fire and never growing squash again.
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