This year I'm trying to grow tomatoes in six straw bales, as per Craig LeHoullier's book. On 4/1/18 I started his regimen for prepping the bales: basically, watering each day and spiking with granular fertilizer about every other day so they compost inside. Being the science geek I am, I diligently recorded daily internal temperatures in the bales. They are "supposed" to warm inside to 120˚ or more, then cool down, over the course of a few weeks. Well, I never really saw internal bale temperatures over 80 degrees. However the bale temps were consistently above the ambient air temperature, even on cold days. And we had kind of a cold April with one or two nights down to 35˚ or so. Anyway, from what I've read it seems that the increased internal temps, though not spectacular, do indicate microorganism activity was consistently doing its job to break down the bale. By the first week of May I started seeing some mushrooms popping out of the bales. They always died within a day. This is exactly what one is "supposed" to see with conditioned bales!
On 5/2/18 I put 9 transplants in the bales, and 3 more transplants a few days later. 12 total in 6 bales (2 per bale). Soaker hose in place. As of 5/13/18 the transplants are thriving.
Transplants: CA+MS ; WB+BC; HC+HC; FL+FL; SG + F4 #55A-7; plus 2 each store-bought basil and cilantro in one bale.
5/16/18 update: Good growth so far.
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