Washington update
- To: "'Pumpkins'"
- Subject: Washington update
- From: M* C*
- Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 18:38:09 -0700
Well here it is! The first of the Washington updates. Some big changes
will be made this year.
I have moved into the year round plots at the county pea patch garden where
I have been growing
the past three years. This means I will have more control over my soil
amendments and timing in
patch as I can do things to it in the off season. I also doubled my space
to 2400 square feet with
a 30' X 80' plot. So far the patch has gotten 3 yards of poop, 40 lbs. of
dolomite lime and 1 tbs. of
Boric acid powder diluted in 1 gallon of water sprayed onto the soil. pH
tested at 6.6 Boron tested
low last year and was at the low end of the normal range this year so I
decided to supplement. I will
get the tiller in there Saturday along with another yard or two of poop. I
plan to add Calcium Nitrate
and kelp meal at the same time. I will move my equipment, water tanks,
hoses, cloches, etc. as time
allows. I'm targeting May 1st as my transplant date.
This years plants?
Well, there will be three instead of two.
916 LaRue 97 (567.5 Mombert 92 X 697 Ciliberto 94)
769 Mettler 98 (697 Ciliberto 94 X 567.5 Mombert 92) See where I'm going
with this? I will also start a
720 Hester 98 ( 697 Ciliberto 94 X 567.5 Mombert 92) A backup to the
Mettler seed.
One of these will not make the cut but will be passed on to someone else to
grow.
The third plant for my patch will be the 563 Geerts 95 if it is in todays
mail or, I will have my daughter choose
from the 909.5 Lloyd 96
761 LaRue 97
759 Mombert 97
871 Richart 97
My plans changed several times over the winter and when my vacation plans
firmed up it was
decided to go with the cross of the LaRue and the Mettler seeds. I have a
theory that certain features of
a plant are more likely to be passed on by the male parent and other
features passed on by the female parent.
Some would say that given these two seeds have the same parents they would
be the same. I think that
if you want to get all of the genetic potential out of a cross you need to
reverse the parents and cross the offspring.
I do not believe it would be the same as self pollinating the 916 plant. As
they will be growing side by side it
will be interesting to observe the differences in the two plants. I also
like the 916 as it gave me my largest pumpkin
last year that had good color, smooth skin, and weighed heavy. So I'm off
to file and soak some seeds and
get started on the 99 growing season. Moon signs favor today for planting
and Saturday May 1 for transplanting.
I'm hoping to double my weights from last year and be competitive in
October. Good luck this year everyone.
Chris Michalec
Covington, WA
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