Concealed Contraceptive
Every year I grow pumpkins I run into a new troubling problem
that taxes my poor aging brain's faltering function. This year
it is the mystery of why one of my two plants was losing all
it's male flowers but the females appeared to be developing
normally.
The plant (1048 Companion) suddenly snapped out of it two weeks
ago and all new males are now flowering normally, (although the
first few male flowers had an abnormally small stamen.)
Anyway, I am now assuming that the problem was caused by an
imbalance in the soil like too much nitrogen rather than some
problem with the genetics of the plant itself. When the problem
first cropped up I stopped all fertilizing and within a few
weeks it went away.
I did do a soil test in the spring and found that the nitrogen
was on the high side (90 ppm) So I didn't add any nitrogen
fertilizers during my spring patch prep. The clover cover crop
I grew apparently fixed more nitrogen in the soil than I
needed.... Anyway, I did do another soil test when the
fertility problem surfaced so I hope this will shed some light
on the concealed contraceptive in my soil. We will see when I
get the results.
So now I'm left with the troubling thought - Will the pumpkin
develop normally or abort when it reaches a certain size? I
will soon find out because Little Lilu, a pumpkin set 11 days
ago 13.5 feet out on the main vine is 27" in circumferance
today and is now estimated at 7.8 pounds. This beats out even
the good Pirate's young 'un.
You can watch Lilu grow at:
http://www.zunino.net/diana/chronicles/of_lilu.htm
vince
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