Thursday, July 31, 2014

Greening Up the Leaves

The rain finally stopped this morning.  2 1/2 inches in total on the pumpkin patch.  Lots of lime green leaves because the soil is saturated and the roots are having a hard time getting at nutrients.

I did a foliar application of magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts) and multi-mineral this morning.  I'll do this regularly to help with the deficiencies that the tissue test showed. I also did a granular application of nitrogen to get those leaves greened up.  The application rate that I did for the nitrogen is about 1/3 of what the soil scientist recommended.  I'm going to do those in divided dosages to the amount that the report said.  This soil scientist I know knows more about soil and what an Atlantic Giant pumpkin needs than probably anyone in the world, but he isn't a grower and my concern is that if I put down all of this nitrogen at once I could blow up the pumpkin.

I also put down with the nitrogen a little fulvic acid to help the plants get at the nutrients.

Note from the evening:  It is interesting what a little sun and fertilizer can do.  At dinner time the plants have greened up a lot.  Once that nitrogen kicks in over the next few days we should be in good shape.

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