Re: you are correct sir!!
In a message dated 8/24/99 10:10:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
rocky.r@cyber-quest.com writes:
> . I believe that when we got our first 2 days of all day rain for a great
> deep
> drenching, (our first since the season began) , the feritlizer had been
> absorbed by the plant, but without all the rain, alot of it laid in the
soil
> waiting for something like this drench. Well, we got the huge rains and it
> had
> to sort of activate the dormant fertilizers that were laying deeper than
the
> water usually leached with my daily watering, and possibly kicked the
plant
> in
> the ass and got it to promote a growth psurt that killed my pumpkin. My
> theory
> is backed by the fact that I was only getting 1 inch a day in
circumference,
> and the two days following the rain, I went from 121" to 124. then to 127,
> then
> to 129.......... Tell me, what do you think? I assume that during drought
> conditions, lower fertilization rates are going to be a necessity,
> especially
> with the heavy propgrams of fertilzers we use. Oh well, It is back to the
> drawing board for 2000. Good luck this year..
Rocky, you know, I think you are right on this. This is exactly what I was
posting about before, my "imbalance" theory on causes of splitting. You are
probably right about the fertilizer building up, then after a drench of rain
it was dissolved into the water in a very high strength solution that surged
the plants.
I theorized that splits got caused by a water/fertilizer/temperature
imbalance. When water is low and not as deep, the fert should be cut back to
keep in balance. Same with temperatures, in cooler weather, fertilizer also
needs to be cut back. Most people fertilize on a calendar schedule rather
than "nature's" schedule. If you think about it, that doesn't make much
sense. Water soluable chemical fertilizers are risky to use, and tricky. But
of course we all use them, since these plants do demand probably more
fertilizer than could be supplied with a only a slow release organic
fertilizer. I don't know, I wish I was good enough at chemistry and
mathemetics to be able to work some sort of formula out, but that also might
take a lot more research, anyway. Maybe if the fertilizer was dissolved in
ALL of the irrigation water at a fixed weak dilution, that way it could not
get out of balance with the amount of water. And when it rains, a rain guage
could be used to determine how much fert to add to the next batch of
irrigation water. Another idea is to always water deeply and mulch, instead
of watering more shallow more often. That way there would be no layer of
unused fertilizer, all the excess unused fertilizer would leach below the
root area at each watering instead of all at once.
>
> By the way, it is info like this that stimulates this list, creates
> informative
> conversation, intelectual debates, and most of all, comradary between the
> best
> and up and coming growers. There is no such thing as a dumb post, and if
> anyone
Uh....well my "squirrel" posts were at LEAST bordering on it, I have to
admit. Ha ha!
Anyway, i agree, this is supposed to be FUN, everyone gets all "irritated"
over everything, or because they get "too many" emails. And then they put you
on "email block" because they can't stand reading anything you write anymore
because it might cause them severe mental stress. Man oh man....
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