Re: Cross Recommendations

Mike,

Thank you for taking the time to pound this into my skull. You're
absolutely right. It is sometimes too easy to get caught up in the
pursuit of the perfect seed, and admittingly, when I saw bidding slow
down on the hester, the fever got me. I am working diligently on my soil
though, although I'm sure I'm still several years away from decent soil.


We have clay here in Omaha. I tilled under sod in our backyard to make
my patch for 2004. I then added 15 cubic yards of composted cow manure
and 60 lbs of gypsum. Once a month I gather coffee grounds from
Starbucks and till it in once a month. I tilled in this months coffee
grounds from Starbucks this morning along with 10 lbs of a 28-2-4
granular fertilizer in preparation for snow tomorrow and then gathered
my soil sample to take in to the lab. The soil has not previously been
tested, so I'm anxious to see what the results are. If I can get a
decent day next month, I'm going to rent a skid steer and trench the
area where the plants will go. I didn't get it trenched earlier because
I was trying to hire an excavating company to do it, and couldn't find
anyone wanting to dig a 5'x16'x3' deep hole for pumpkins. Imagine that.
It also cost me my cover crop. I had the seed and innoculant and was all
ready to go, but was trying to wait until the hole was dug, and waited
too long. I'm hoping the sod helped add organic material, and if the
organic content comes out low, I'll add in some city compost (which so
far hasn't had a problem with Clopyralid). I also have a good amount of
molasses which didn't get applied as early as I had hoped. It was
donated by a cattle feed company who receives liter lab samples from its
suppliers with each truckload. Apparently the garbage collectors won't
take it, so it is a pain for them to dispose of it. They were thrilled
to give it to me. At any rate, more than I'm sure you wanted to know,
but I do appreciate you taking the time to get me back to earth and on
the right course.

Thanks,

Matt

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index