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FYI, if you live in an area that has terrible winters -- like you, Chiro -- here's a fun tip. Get your bales in late fall. Year before last, I got 24 of them and piled them up around vulnerable plants that weren't as protected as I liked. I also made a wall of straw bales against the open side of our screened porch to keep out the snow! Okay, we had no snow that winter, but it was still a good idea! The dogs hate it, though. They couldn't see out the porch for months!
FYI, if you live in an area that has terrible winters -- like you, Chiro -- here's a fun tip. Get your bales in late fall. Year before last, I got 24 of them and piled them up around vulnerable plants that weren't as protected as I liked. I also made a wall of straw bales against the open side of our screened porch to keep out the snow! Okay, we had no snow that winter, but it was still a good idea! The dogs hate it, though. They couldn't see out the porch for months!
Well snow in winter is a given here.
I like that idea - plus won't have to prep the bales as long as they have about six months to settle in.
What I have planted in my six straw bales: Several types of tomatoes. Bush beans, okra, eggplant, cilantro, two types of basil (sweet and Thai) and marigolds.
Tomatoes: amazing. One four-pack of heirloom tomatoes was an experiment: one in a nice big container, one in a straw bale, two in a friend's garden. The one in the straw bale is not as big as the one in the container but on tonight's inspection, has more blooms and is darker green and sturdier/bushier. The ones in the ground are just sort of stumbling along.
My "Mr Stripey" tomato plant has some baby tomatoes now! So does my yellow pear/sweet cherry tomatoes.
Every tomato plant in the bales is thick, dark green and bushy and either has lots of blossoms or is already starting to produce baby fruit.
Bush beans: Growing like crazy and starting to blossom. The leaves are being nibbled on by something; I cannot see any bugs or slugs so I don't know what.
Okra: have two in straw bales and two in big containers. The container ones are doing better. I understand okra can be finicky and likes very well-drained soil so I wonder if that's why they are doing better in the containers. Also, something is nibbling away at the bales ones. Suggestions for DIY bug repellent welcome! Dish soap and water?
Eggplant - only planted one plant but I have lots of purple blossoms and some marble-sized baby fruits!
Cilantro is going insane. I snipped off the tops last night to prevent it from bolting and flowering. I can't keep up.
Basil is also very happy. I've been adding it to everything.
Marigolds apparently LOVE straw bales. The ones in the bales are flowering like crazy compared to the ones in containers or flower beds.
Three and a half weeks since planting and a record-breaking wet and cloudy Michigan spring but we are definitely making progress nonetheless!
Bug repellent? Probably not. I don't know of anything that repels them. You need a contact killer, and dish soap can burn foliage if it's too strong. It's pretty much used as a surfactant anyway. Get some horticultural oil and mix it to the growing-season dilution, provided your pest will succumb to it. Or a product thatis neem based. I always use neem or hort oil as a first line of defense against chewy insects. If you have caterpillars, you'll need something with Bt in it. First, ID the pest. You know that.
Your progress sounds tremendous and I am so glad you're enjoying this so much!
I went out early this morning and again this evening turning leaves and trying to figure out what is eating away at the foliage but saw not a single thing. I didn't know that about dish soap. I'll stop by Wojos tomorrow and see what they have for Random Local Bugs LOL.
Tina is right concentrated dish soap can burn some plants and cause problems on others, however very dilute dish washing soap (note this means not a detergent) is often used for solutions to spray on some pests. How that for hedging? LOL
In all honesty you need to know your pest in order to have a way to treat it. Insecticidal soaps (homemade or commercial) work well with specific hard bodied insects from aphids to Japanese Beetles and leaf hoppers if you can spray them directly, but don't touch things like scale, slugs and insects hiding away while you spray.
The fact that nothing was visible when you looked in the daytime and it has been fairly rainy would make me suspect one (of several) okra pests; slugs. You can check for several organic to not as organic ways to approach these pests but because it is a hay bale and I don't have experience doing this I will defer to Tina's tips.
Another common pest in the south (home of okra growing) that I suspect may be in your area is the stinkbug. The newest pest to be spreading to you is the Marmorated Stinkbug and it is a nasty critter on several veggie plants and is not easily deterred by organic methods, including insecticidal soaps.
It also could be a cabbage worm although I would suspect you would see these caterpillars. Insecticidal soap and Bt are the most effective, after that the bigger guns need to be brought out.
For slugs? Copper barrier! Any copper will do: tape, strips. Mesh, all marketed for this purpose. I get them from the Lee Valley Tools website, and they do work. I prefer the copper mesh: Copper Blocker.
Slugs!
I found a couple this morning. Interesting about the copper, really? I will look into that today.
It electrifies their slime. Then ZZZZZAP! Some people shake salt on them. It's the most disgusting death to watch, plus it isn't great for your plants. Years ago, I'd go out at night with a salt shaker and a flashlight. I was soooo careful to only get a few grains on each slug. They fizzle!
Meanwhile, my husband would stand on the porch with the dogs and laugh his butt off.
And that was nothing to what I looked like when I applied beneficial nematodes to the lawn at night. In the rain. It's the only way to apply them, so I gave up on that.
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