How to Plant a Tomato in Straw

Straw bale gardening can be an effective way to grow many plants. The plants do well with straw as a growing medium, and you can put a straw bale in many places where traditional gardens would take up too much space. Though large plants do not stand up straight, tomatoes do well in straw bales, and even seem to need less water than if they are grown in traditional soil. They vine and creep over the edges of the hay bales.

Straw bale

Water

Thermometer

5-10-10 fertilizer

Tomato plants

Trowel

Set your straw bale where you want your tomato plant. Orient it so that the stalks of the straw point up and down, rather than side to side.

Water the straw bale and let it sit for at least seven days. This starts the composting process for the straw, and during the seven days, the bale heats up internally. The heat can cook a tomato plant, so wait the full seven days. Use a thermometer to make sure the internal temperature of the straw bale is lower than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spread 2 1/2 pounds of 5 parts nitrogen, 10 parts phosphorus, 10 parts potassium fertilizer over the top of the straw bale. Let the temperature drop under 100 degrees again. Do not use too much nitrogen, or the tomato plants grow with lots of leaves and not much fruit.

Plant six tomato plants evenly throughout the straw bale. Use a trowel to push the straw apart and place a transplant tomato plant in the hole. Pull the trowel back out. Make sure you weed any grain or grass plants that have sprouted from the bale.

Water your tomato plants regularly. They may require more or less water than they do in the garden, depending on how much moisture the straw retains.

Use straw and not hay bales, because though you might get a few stray grain seeds that sprout in straw, hay has many more grass seeds for you to weed.