A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 growing tomato plant in bale of straw

I have recently been told that you can have fantastic tomatoes by digging out a hole for a tomatoe plant inside a bale of hay just fill the hole with good planting dirt and water. I would like to use a pine straw bale. no seeds to pollute the rest of the garden, so wondering if anyone has tried this method...

Sounds funny But i think my mom would have sent me to live on my own if i had even just tried to get a bale of hay into the garden...so I just HAVE TO TRY IT Would have been great with some more details, before I tried though.

Littlemudbug,
I haven't done it myself, but it is possible,
and pretty much as you just said it...
Bale of hay, cut a planting hole out and fill with dirt, plant tomato plant deeper than it came in the pot/container to give it a good root system along it's stem...
And water...

The only thing I know would be you have to use a bale of hay that has sat out for at least one full season..
DO NOT USE A FRESH BALE..
When items decompose and break down, that process steals away nitrogen from the plant growing...
Which won't be good for your plant..

And a really fresh bale of hay would also probably burn your plant, by being so hot the first year because it's wrapped so tight!!
(same heat like when a barn burns down from too green of a bale of hay, combusted and the heat inside is unbelievable for a bale of hay!!!)

Also, I've read that pine straw will not work!
***I do not know why??****

If you do do this process, I would LOVE to hear or bad that's how we learn new things around here...

Hope this helps some!!!

Weezie

Thanks Maybe I'll try this year..I'll have to wait and see, don't know if I can get my hands on a bale of hay that easy

Make sure it's not a fresh bale...
Has to sit out into the "elements" one year.

Weezie