This time of the year we get bombarded with questions about using straw vs hay for a given task. Straw is plant stubble from a harvested crop. It’s called straw because it’s hollow. Straw is also a regional product. In north Texas, 99% of the straw is from wheat. The other 1% is typically made from oats. Straw is mainly used for decoration, bedding, erosion control, mulch, and archery backstops. It can also be used as a building material and in composting operations.

Hay is grown as food for livestock. It can be used like straw but is expensive for the task. Most of the hay grown in our area is one of the several types of hybrid Bermuda.

Straw is cheaper than hay. Neither should be considered organic or all-natural. The “why” to the last statement comes up often. The majority of wheat and hay crops are grown with synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and for wheat, fungicides. Organic or all-natural straw and hay are available but scarce and expensive. Both will have seeds in the bales. Straw will grow mainly wheat but it will not be enough to make a sandwich. Anything growing from a bale of hay should be considered a noxious weed. The bottom line is that you would use straw for everything but feeding livestock. The fun part of having bales of straw that are left outside in the weather is, they grow. Remember the Chia Pet?

I keep having this tune running through my head but it was, absolutely nothing. By the book, dirt has no nutrients and soil is rich in nutrients. Most every gardener knows or has heard of hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. These methods grow plants without soil. The first time I saw an aeroponic operation was at Epcot Center in Disney World. The plants were suspended on a moving conveyor that ran in a loop. The root system was exposed and was sprayed with the nutrition they needed at certain points within the loop. The operation and plants were a sight to behold. They were the most gigantic vegetable plants and root systems I have ever seen.

While some garden with the hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics methods, most grow in soil. You can garden in the dirt but it must be amended to get the most yield. Before you start making a list of amendments that are needed, take a good (honest) look at what you are going to amend. What we have in our black clay is different than what is in the red clay of East Texas and the old duck poop in Houston. Remember that no matter the type of soil or area of the planet, it is deficient in some nutrients. Over time all soil will become sterile and that’s where amendments become the difference between success and failure.

The most common soil amendments in our area include compost, topsoil, peat moss, hamate, molasses, lava, and green sand, sulfur, manures, vermiculite, azomite, gypsum and mulch.

By the way, all of these are available at Wells Brothers!