Re: Jon - patch work
Gordon,
Sorry about going over old topics my system has been down at home and have
been having a hard time keeping up.
This year I used a new patch at a local garden nursery. So patch prep was
very important.
I first sampled the soil and found it was low in organics, mag., pH 5.7,
and calcium. We added 45 yards of composted green waste from the city
corp. yard, 20 pounds of epsom salt, 350 lbs. oyster shell lime, and 20
lbs. 16-16-16. This was tilled into the soil at the end of May. I planted
the plants in the first week of June. I would have liked to have
everything in the ground during the winter but I didn't have the patch
until then.
The nursery had fertilizer injected water so every time the sprinklers came
on the plants were fertilized. They had a 200 gallon tank with nitrogen
and a 200 gallon tank that had some type of potassium mix in the water.
They couldn't tell me how many ppm were being delivered but it couldn't
have been much because they were using it on all of their potted plants.
I also used misters that were hooked up to the same injected water so the
plants got a small amount of fertilizer all day during the hot days that
required mist.
I have to make a few comments about the compost that we used. It was the
same type that Chris Andersen used to grow his 977 with. This stuff was
well composted but still had small twigs or pieces of branches that kept
the clay soil from re-compacting. This allowed for air spaces to remain in
the soil after all season of watering. I originally thought it might rob
the soil of nutrients but all seemed to be ok. If it was lacking in
Nitrogen the injected water took care of any reduction. I also used a
foliar feeding program of 20-20-20 during the vine growth period. Once the
plants started to show small female blossoms I discontinued the 20-20-20.
This was about 10 days before fruit set. About 10 days after fruit set I
started with a real light dose of 10-15-36 foliar feeding. Once the fruit
got to about 100 lbs. I bumped up the 10-15-36 to about 5 Tbs. in a miracle
grow hose end feeder every four days. This seemed to increase the fruit
growth on the second day after application. I would have 3", 3", apply
10-15-36 and I would see 4", 4", then back to 3" for weeks this was going
on. Even when the pumpkin was over 700 lbs. it was getting 3" in
circumference a day. Now I couldn't tell you if it was fertilizer,
genetics or both all I can say is I had steady growth all season long.
Jon
At 11:29 AM 12/16/99 -0800, you wrote:
>
>Jon-
>We kind of got into this last week - but we (I) can
>always use more information. I would be interested in
>your thoughts and your thought process on how you
>prepare your patch and then water & fertilize it
>throughout the season. Short question - long answer.
>Thanks for helping us out this week.
>Gordon Tanner
>Maple Valley WA
>
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