Cooking the Bales

My 20-year old cat, Chloe (AKA Lomie, because she is the
reincarnation of my Mom), has discovered a new water bowl. 
I can put up with it for now, but after we plant, no!

Getting the bales nutritionally ready for planting is at least a 10-day process.  Most straw bale gardeners call this "conditioning" the bales.  They also call it "cooking" them, because the temperature inside the bales can get over 130 degrees.   

I wanted to start plenty early and make sure that by the time Mother's Day is here (May 12th), the bales have cooled back down and we are able to plant.  Watering is the biggest component to begin decomposition of the straw, and fertilizer can be traditional commercial varieties or organic.

After breakfast each morning, Dad and I have been going outside and adding fertilizer on top of the bales, then watering the bales to help work the fertilizer deeper into the bales.

Cooking the bales -- blood meal and urine. 
That Tropicana Orange Juice bottle has something "pure gold" in it,
but it's not orange juice!

When I mentioned in an earlier post that my Dad was going to be my water boy in more than one way, it's because most of the people writing on "best-practice" fertilizers for straw bale gardening recommended human urine.  It is very high in nitrogen.  So Dad didn't hesitate to contribute!  After I got past the "ick" factor, I figured if Dad could put aside his pride and pee in a jug, I would get it on the bales somehow.  

Our 10-day Cooking Schedule:
Day 1 -- water heavily
Day 2 -- water heavily
Day 3 -- water heavily
Day 4 -- 1/2 cup urine, blood meal (sprinkle liberally), water
Day 5 -- 1/2 cup urine, blood meal, water
Day 6 -- 1/2 cup urine, lawn fertilizer (sprinkle liberally), water
Day 7 -- 1/2 cup urine, fireplace wood ashes (sprinkle liberally), water
Day 8 -- 1/4 cup urine, water
Day 9 -- 1/4 cup urine, lawn fertilizer, water
Day 10 -- 1/4 cup urine, water

Getting the "pure gold" mixture just right!

To ensure that the urine was well distributed on the top of a bale, we measured the amount needed each day and put it in the white plastic jug shown above, then filled that with water.  Then one of us poured it all over the top of a bale.  After that, I would sprinkle the blood meal or other fertilizers on top, and we would water each bale.  I would suggest reading what some of the "experts" say about various fertilizer options (to get good amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) and how much to water on top of the fertilizers, because too much will potentially just wash it through the bottom, but too little will not work the fertilizer into the bale.  I have found that the blood meal and lawn fertilizer is still not dissolved after 2-3 days.  We watered pretty heavily after adding them to the top each day.  But it will work it's way in over time, I guess.  We had thunderstorms yesterday, so that should help too. 

Garden fertilizer getting watered in.