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Re: milk feeding

In a message dated 97-08-18 02:55:16 EDT, vmarsden@postoffice.utas.edu.au
(Vanessa Marsden) writes:

<< Subj:	Re: milk feeding
 Date:	97-08-18 02:55:16 EDT
 From:	vmarsden@postoffice.utas.edu.au (Vanessa Marsden)
 To:	pumpkins@athenet.net
 
 All this talk of exploding pumpkins and calcium deficiencies has reminded
 me to ask-
 
 does anyone here subscribe to milk feeding their pumpkins? I read about it
 as a child in a Laura Ingals Wilder book. (she wrote stuff like Little
 House on the Prarie). It says that you cut a small slit (my scientific
 knowledge tells me to use a wet blade) in the feeder vine of a fruit,
 insert a candle wick and submerge the wick's ends into a bowl of milk,
 which the pumpkin apparently slurps up quite happily each day, and grows to
 be a whopper.
 
 I tried a similar thing last season, but with sugared water instead of
 milk. Unfortunately the experiment was aborted when a rabbit decided to
 maul that fruit, but the pumpkin did seem to be growing quite fast.
 
 Does anything know anything more about the subject? (Or is it a terribly
 improper thing for competitive pumpkin growers to do?)
 
 cheers
 
 vanessa.
  >>
Vanessa,
   Plants do need calcium, however much of the splitting is due to rapid
growth or genetic problems. Calcium will increase cell wall strength over a
control sample that is calcium deficient. Calcium is not the magic bullet to
stop splitting, but is an important element that needs to be in the fruit.
Milk feeding is an old wives tale and slitting the vine to introduce it will
damage or kill your plant. None of the top growers do it to my knowledge.
                                pumkinguy@aol.com
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