plants look dead after planting

by Jennifer
(Albuquerque, NM)

I planted in by bales yesterday after doing the conditioning for 11 days and then giving them 3 days of rest, and this afternoon all my plants are dead and look burned. What can I do? I'm considering running water through them, and rinsing them out in cast they are still to hot w/ fertilizer.

Doug says that if the problem was excess nitrogen then yes indeed flooding the bales will drive the nitrogen down and out of the bales. Nitrogen is water-soluble and that's the only way you can clean it out.

I don't know how you "conditioned" the bales - or whether they were still hot inside (cooking your plants) or whether there's been transplant shock or any number of issues that can create the conditions you're describing on plants.

But yes, flooding will drive nitrogen out of the bales. Here's the article on straw bale gardening I wrote some time back - it still stands