Wednesday, September 26, 2012

How to Blow Up a Pumpkin

Monday I decided to take a risk with my pumpkin to add on some final weight.  On Monday evening I gave my plant about a cup of liquid seaweed (0-0-1) both as a drench and foliar, along with 1/3 cup of Big Bloom (.5-.5-.7) and a tablespoon of Sol-Po-Mag (0-0-22).  On Tuesday between watering and the most rain we have seen in weeks I gave the plant got a healthy dose of water.  This is a good way to slit your pumpkin open wide if you aren't careful.  Particularly if you were to do that during the rapid growth stages earlier in the season.  However, I did this as a calculated risk.  This pumpkin has only been putting on 4-5 pounds a day at this point and it seems to be thick.  A bit of a spike in growth I think it could handle and this pumpkin isn't going to break any records for me so I figured I would do a little experiment.  The fertilizer was evenly spread  over the whole plant so I don't have to worry about jacking up the soil.  I don't expect a lot of extra growth but since potassium helps regulate water movement in the pumpkin plant it could help hydrate the pumpkin and add a few extra pounds that way.

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