How many bales of straw for 1 acre?

[Daren]

Going to seed 1 acre exactly in the morning and wanted to know how many bales of straw everyone reccommends? Any suggestions ?

Daren

[PAPS]

You're in the ball park of about 140 bales or so... figure about (1) bale for every 300 sq. ft.

[paul]

Most DOT and Goverment jobs call for 2500 to 3500 bs per acre, we use 2500 lbs per acre as a rule of thumb, now not knowing the weight of bales you deal with it's hard to guess but here bales weigh around 35 lbs per bale. So.......... 71 or so should be ok.

[PAPS]

so paul... your approx. saying a bale per 600 sq. ft... I usually go much heavier with the hay... like a bale for every 300-400 sq. ft. Which puts me on an acre about 120-140 bales. Maybe I am going a little too heavy... and should cut back...

[stslawncare]

be sure not to put it on to heavy, i have made that mistake in the past. id say about 100 bales sounds right.

[LawnLad]

I'm sure some of the site conditions and after care dictate to some degree if you should use more or less straw.

We shoot to use about 1 bale for every 600 to 700 sq ft of seeded area. This isn't too heavy that you hinder new growth - but might be too open for some.

I haven't used a straw blower - but I'd assume that there may be some difference in application by hand vs. blower.

[MWM]

We figure a bale to cover 400# or an area 20x20

[PAPS]

Thats what i always figure....

[paul]

I should have been clearer, we blow all our straw and use a tackifier to hold it down. By blowning it we get a more even coverage and the finer peices seem to reduce the amount needed. Tackifier keeps it in place so the wind doesn't move it as much.

[little green guy]

I generaly figure about 500 sq ft a bale.

[GroundKprs]

Old rule of thumb: cover with straw so 1/2 of soil is showing. This gives you the erosion control and moisture retention to help seeding get started. At this coverage rate, you can get 600-900 ft² with one bale.

But then, if you are seeding a non-irrigated site in the spring, and you wish to have success with your seeding, you could apply straw 6" deep (after soil is warm enough for germination). Then after first rain, your seed is on it's way to germination, no matter what weather does. Of course, you must return at appropriate time and remove most of straw, so sprouts get the light to survive. This coverage will probably only get 50-75 ft² per bale.

Many other regional and site specific conditions will dictate coverages in between these. Choose the best for your specific situation.