RE: Cross Recommendations-Soil
Between the coffee grounds, cow manure, green manure, city compost, etc and
the the 28-2-4, you should have the most greenish-blue leaves and longest
vines in town!
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf Of
J. Matt Wickless
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 10:25 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Cc: a_g_g_c@hotmail.com
Subject: 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
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