Organic Farmer Network: Network Discussion Summary

Topic: Straw Mulch

Ken wants to know about growing and baling mulch: “I haven't done any mulching directly around plants for a good many years. Seems awfully labor expensive and material costly, yet it does have obvious benefits….Have toyed with the idea for several years about buying hay making equipment and baling mulch. We only have a few acres we could devote to mulch crops, would probably have to rent some land to justify the equipment. As it is I buy 3-500 bales of straw a year, getting it for $1-1.25 in the field at wheat harvest time. Of course I have labor costs in getting it up and getting it here. This year there is none available in my neighborhood as nobody was able to plant wheat last fall due to wetness.”

Nicolas responds: “I grow rye grain/clover and millet for mulching purposes. It is true that grasses are not as easy to lay down but the fact that they are weed free makes up for it. We purchased the haybine and hay baler or $3300 and we store them in a barn. I used to pay over $2.00 a bale before. I produce ca. 450-500 large square bales a year and then mulch thick around as many summer plants as possible -- Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, basil, garlic and leeks, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes. It adds a lot of organic matter into the soil, which is something that disappears fast around these parts. I also use bales as erosion control when needed.”

Charlie likes straw mulch for controlling weeds: “Weeds are a big issue for us… I mostly rely on hand tools and hand weeding for the shorter season crops, but I really prefer to mulch all that I can. I have a great source of clean wheat straw from my neighbor, and I use 4-500 bales a year. Most of this I barter labor for the straw. I apply it heavily around the longer season crops, particularly tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, garlic and onions. It is a challenge to get it in place, but it saves lots of weeding time on the other end. I also see great advantages with the conservation of moisture and the addition of organic matter. My soil is always improved by the use of straw mulch.”

Wiedigers respond: “In the past we have used wheat straw, but it brought it s own problems. The straw is full of both weed seeds and wheat. The sprouting wheat is just like a weed, and we introduce weeds we never had before. We have mulched with second cutting hay that got rained on. It was relatively weed free and added lots of organic matter to the soil. We could see the difference in the field where we did this for 2 years.”

Mark responds: – “We rely very heavily on straw mulch to suppress weeds. In the past we've used fescue hay in round bales (the most common available), and we began using wheat straw about 5 years ago for it's advantages of slow decomposition and relative purity. But by last spring I was getting pretty discouraged with the amount of time we were having to weed out the wheat that would periodically come up in batches that did not combine cleanly. This wheat was coming from Oklahoma or Kansas to us in 300 bale loads (our mountainous terrain makes it a rare commodity), for which we paid $2.75/bale delivered. Last year we located a guy nearby who is putting up wheat hay, which is cut after the heads form but before the berries ripen. We're pretty happy with the results so far, and are hauling it ourselves in 100-bale runs at $3/bale. We use about 500 bales per year on the 2.5 acres of raised bed crops, and close to 100% will be mulched during deep summer, including the paths. For any crop that can be transplanted, we prepare the beds, lay down drip tape, mulch over, then transplant through the mulch, avoiding subsequent hoe-cultivation. We will have to hand-weed a couple of times during the season thereafter. A few crops are direct seeded that resent transplanting or are unwieldy managed that way. Also, in early spring and late summer, many of the veggie crops are direct-seeded and kept clean with scuffle hoes.

This management works so well for us--the mulch is drought insurance and substitutes for the labor it would take to keep it clean otherwise. Our soil is very gravelly and porous, so drip-tape cannot keep up with water requirements without mulch.

I sabotaged an area of cover-cropped beds last December to try an experiment...We had gotten around to planting the wheat/winter pea cover only in mid-November, after having spaded in previous crop residues and tilling in the cover seed lightly with the tiller. The crop was not up yet, and I decided to try mulching over the entire area with enough straw to keep the wheat and peas from coming up (we broadcast pelletized chicken litter over the beds before mulching.) Not much came through the straw during the winter, and what did we were able to easily pull by hand prior to opening holes and planting statice in late April. Talk about CLEAN! We have a bit of sedge poking through in spots, but otherwise it was so easy to plant. It would be much easier for us to spade in fall residues, fertilize, replace drip tape, and remulch for the coming season--than to plant green manures and go through all the retilling, shaping, mulching, etc, during the very busy spring period, dancing around with the weather, wet soils, etc. I know we would lose the value of the incorporated material, but then we're incorporating a tremendous amount of mulch...I'm under no illusion anymore that any technique will work in all circumstances, so we'll just see what happens this season.”