This one is about to ink-out!
I haven’t planted anything in the straw bales yet, but something is growing! I have a big crop of mushrooms in one bale and a smaller crop of grass popping out of some of the other bales. Both of these are expected events, though still a bit surprising. The mushrooms are “inky cap mushrooms,” which are mushrooms that dissolve into a black goo after a day or so — I noticed the goo pretty heavily on one of the bales.
One bale is covered with mushrooms.
Cornell University’s mushroom blog has an interesting post on inky caps and their tendency to destroy themselves. In addition to sprouting mushrooms and grass, the bales are definitely heating up and I expect to be planting them out within a week or so.
I’m excited to follow your adventures in hay bale gardening–I can’t believe the temp was up to 100 degrees. Wowsa!
I’m buying a straw bale today. I’ve had grass growing in some, but not mushrooms. I get mycelium growing in my wood chip mulch though.
Hello again
I posted a few weeks ago and thought I would check back in. I finally resolved to cover my 8 straw bales in plastic to help heat them up. I left the plastic on for a little over a week and when I took it off it was steaming. I never had the chance to actually measure their temperature but everything I had read said it would take 10-14 days with the method I used. I didn’t plant them until close to 30 days and finally started planting them this week. I laughed when I read your post though! I had several bales that turned into chia pets with grass like wheat sprouts and when I removed the plastic I had one that looks just like your picture with the mushrooms. I was totally shocked! I will say the wheat sprouts died off with the plastic on them and the mushrooms died in a couples days. (I pulled a lot of them manually too). My boyfriend started seeds this year but they haven’t turned out very well, so, out of of the 4 bales that I have planted so far – 3 have been seeds. I planted lettuce, cucumbers, and green beans with seed. I planted 3 tomato starts in the 3rd. (not sure if that is to many! this is my first attempt) I want to start my peppers from starts so I will probably do that this week. Not sure what I will do with the remaining 3. herbs maybe? Good luck to you! I look forward to reading how it all turns out 
I will try and post pic’s of mine as they start sprouting. How exciting! lol
Beth — Glad things are moving along. I found that covering the bales with plastic does really fire up the decomposition. I’ve planted some zinnia seeds, a few tomatoes and potatoes in my bales. We’ll see how they do! The biggest advantage I’m seeing so far is that it’s tricky for the rabbits to get at the bales, so they are not bothering them. Good luck with your bales!
I said I would post some pics so I thought I would uphold my promise but it doesn’t look like I can on the reply…
Mine are doing pretty well.
I hope yours are going well!!! Can’t wait to hear an update. Those darn inky cap mushrooms are sprouting crazy just about every morning when I go out to check on the bales. They are worse on the ones that I planted seed and the ones I have not planted yet. My tomato bales only gets a few!
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I am doing my first straw bale garden this year and I too got the mushrooms and the grassy chia pet LOL I wanted to put pictures but can’t seem to figure out how.