Re: soil make-up
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: soil make-up
- From: L* <L*@aol.com>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 19:23:22 EST
Joe:
If I were an expert my name would be Chris. I have not grown a 1000 pound
pumpkin. I have read a lot about soil, a lot for me. There are several good
books you can buy at most book stores which could be very helpful to you. From
everything I have looked at, no one recommends that more than 10% of you soil
should be organic material. Many people herein have talked about adding tons
of organic to their garden and what their results were and they felt their
pumpkin size was fantastic etc. However, I believe they probably would have
done better with 8 to 10% organic matter. Chris Anderson likes the 8 to 10%
range. Early in the season he may be at 10 and by season end down to 8%. I
think Wayne Hackney said that one year he added so much organic material to
his garden that the temperature of the soil rose to around 100 degrees and
what he had was a huge compost pile rather than a garden. The Zehrs add a
small layer of cow manure to their garden in the spring and grow a cover crop
in the fall and thats' it. I would till your organic matter into the soil
below and I believe that would grow you a larger pumpkin than you will ever
get with 100% organic material. The amount of water and oxygen in your soil
are important and these are directly related to your soil type. Wayne, Chris,
Ray, George--what do you think?? I wrote about this awhile back and no one
said yea or nay.
Marv in Altoona PA
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