RE: hydroponics and giant pumpkins

Did everyone buy their kiddie pools yet? I got all the detailed pics on
1 of these hard drives and am thinking of trying it since my 341 lber
was grown in a box anyway, how much worse can it be? I think it would be
very educational; maybe Kevin Smith will try it with some of the 594
Smith offspring seeds I sent him now that he's back from fishing. Plus
his location should provide less weather variables. Maybe he can grow
one in a pool in his driveway on blacktop like I did his 594 (on
blacktop.) And seeing that they float, maybe he/we can wrap the vine to
set a fruit over water--maybe no flat spots!

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Mark K
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 2:55 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: RE: hydroponics and giant pumpkins 


I know a guy in FL who uses a kiddie pool (about 4ft dia x 1ft deep)
outdoors to grow lettuce; he uses plain Miracle Gro at recommended rates
per gallon & fills the pool. Then he put a piece of styrofoam on the
surface, cuts holes for each plant about an inch or so & fills them with
a cotton ball & puts the seed in the cotton. He adds a fish tank aerator
stone & air pump. This provides constant oxygen. The seeds germinate and
roots grow down into the solution. This setup may work but obviously,
the plant vine would have to grow outside the pool. It would be
interesting to see if it would work, as well as seeing what the roots
would look like. If it worked to grow a vine, you can probably change
the solution to a hi-N for vine growth, hi-P to get blossoms, etc. Plus,
you can add Maxicrop to the pool for hi-K. The vine, once outside of the
pool, can be grown as normal, over dirt/grass, burying vines, etc. Don't
know how much temp changes would affect things but you can always add an
aquarium or waterbed heater. I'd assume that the plant, under the right
combination of water volume, nutrients, oxygen, etc would be healthier
than soil-grown, without many of the soil-borne diseases & soil pests.

I've been meaning to try this for lettuce, spinach, etc but never got
around to actually doing it; I even have pics but never bought the pool
(about $10.) If any experimenters are out there let me know.

Mark



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Smithhisler, Paul
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 12:58 PM
To: 'pumpkins@hort.net'
Subject: RE: hydroponics and giant pumpkins 


Chris,

 I believe it has been tried before, but by all means try it yourself.
From what I heard, the big problem was preventing rot on the fruit as it
sat half in and half out of the water.  But that is just what has been
handed down to me through several iterations of the story.  I personally
think it is a great idea and would try it myself if I had the resources.

-Gus

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Chris9137@aol.com [C*@aol.com] 
Sent:	Friday, May 09, 2003 12:07 PM
To:	pumpkins@hort.net
Subject:	hydroponics and giant pumpkins 

Is it possible to grow giant pumpkins using hydroponics? Would it be 
considered the same as any pumpkin grown in a weigh off ?  Has anyone 
attempted to do this yet?  What kind of resaults? What would i need to
try 
this? I got this crazy idea when i dropped some tomatoe seeds in my fish

tank. They are growing well i had some in peat pots and others on a wet
paper 
towel. The only ones that came up were the fishtank ones and after
several 
days they are several inches long. I put a jack be mini pumpkin seed in
there 
it also came up, but my puffer ate it =( I would love to hear some
feedback 
about this idea.

Thanks,
Chris

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