Re: soil make-up "Cation Exchange Capacity"
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: soil make-up "Cation Exchange Capacity"
- From: G*@aol.com
- Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 19:05:46 EST
Subj: Re: soil make-up
Date: 98-01-28 19:53:57 EST
From: Lubadub@AOL.COM (Lubadub)
Sender: owner-pumpkins@mallorn.com
Reply-to: pumpkins@mallorn.com
To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
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
Organic Matter: I grow Winter Rye and till it in each Spring, additional
compost, leaf mold etc. is also tilled in when I can get it. Beside each
Pumpkin Plant I have a small compost pile and let the plant roots grow to it
and take what they want. This is detailed in Compost feeding Your Pumpkin at
http://www.athenet.net/%7Edang/OPP/brooks/compart2.html . At the end of
the season I till this compost in. As far as how much compost to add, I let
my soil test tell me that. This is in the "Cation Exchange Capacity" reading
in the soil test results. This tells me how much organic matter is in the
soil and it’s ability to hold nutrients. I couldn’t find the paper from the
university that explains this in detail. My soil samples just went out and
when they come back I’ll give more details on the "Cation Exchange Capacity"
from the documentation that comes with the results.
Other Additives: As I mentioned before I’m testing some strange soil
additives that I hope to help my old Pumpkin Patch and I will share that info
at a later date.
George
N. Tewksbury, MA USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
