The Little Known Secret of Mycorrhizae

If you haven't heard of mycorrhizae (myco), beneficial fungi, microbes or beneficial bacteria then you might be missing out.  In a teaspoon of soil there are more bacteria and fungi than all of the people on earth.  Most plants couldn't live without them.   By building biology in your soil with a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria and fungi you can grow bigger pumpkins, healthier lawns and have a better garden.

One of the better known beneficial fungi is called mycorrhizal fungi.  These microscopic guys can produce a symbiotic relationship with the roots of your plant and as a result bring extra water and phosphorous to your plant.   You could literally double what the roots alone could do with myco.

What many growers don't know is that it can take a month or so for your myco to mature to the point that they are providing much benefit to the plant.  One prominent myco producer somewhat quietly once told me that there may be some benefit in starting myco in pots three to four weeks prior to your planting of your actual plants.  Because of this, each year I start a test planting with a couple of seeds in a pot that I have pre-added myco and other beneficial bacteria to.  In two more weeks, when I start my pumpkin seeds, I'll pull these plants out of their pots and mix the soil from this pots in my pumpkin pots.

This year I used NPK Industries' RAW Microbes Grow Stage.  It has four different types of myco along with five different types of beneficial bacteria.  One of the reasons I'm using RAW Microbes is because if you were to test some of the different popular products on the market you would find that in some cases the spores aren't viable or you aren't buying what is on the label.  NPK Industries double tests their product.  Let me know if you are interested in this product.

Protecting the Pumpkin Leaves & Battling Powdery Mildew

The first week of August I always recommend an application of Actinovate and RAW Silica to the pumpkin leaves to help battle powdery mildew and other leaf diseases.  At this point of the season older leaves become vulnerable to diseases as they lose their resistance due to age.  Once these leaves get infected they become the base camp to spread spores to other leaves and then you can start getting problems.  Actinovate is a biological fungicide that I've found to be effective in helping keep powdery mildew at bay.  Once you have powdery mildew it can only help minimally, but if you start applying the end of July and beginning of August you'll find your leaves do considerably better to the end of the season.  You'll still get some powdery mildew, but it will be controlled much better than without it.

RAW Silica is a biogenic silica that works as part of the systemic resistance of the plant.  The plant takes the silica to the points of infection and crystalizes the cells around the infection to make it more difficult for the disease to spread.  Unlike most silica products on the market, the RAW Silica is Ph neutral so it isn't as high in Ph as most products which makes it more friendly to beneficial bio organisms.  You can't over use a biogenic silica, like you can a potassium silica, because the plant can only take in so much, so you can use it every week to get the multiple benefits of silica.

The Actinovate I applied earlier this week I noticed was past its expiration date so I reapplied from a new bag today along with the silica.

Biotamax in the Garden

Today I sprayed the entire pumpkin patch, garden and lawn with Biotamax.  Biotamax contains trichoderma harzianum, trichoderma viride, trichoderma koningii, trichoderma polysporum, bacillus subtilis, bacillus laterosporus, bacillus licheniformus, bacillus megaterium, bacillus pumilus and paenibacillus polymyxa.  These soil probiotics can help eat bad fungi in the soil, produce plant hormones and help feed the plant.  I'm not sure that the effervescent tables will actually allow some of the benefical bacterial and fungi to survive, but I believe a good portion of them could live and the cost of a tablet is cheap (around $6) being able to treat an entire acre so I like to put one down every year.

I noticed that mushrooms were popping up in the lawn.  That is a good indicator that the environment in the soil could be right to produce bad fungi, so I figured now was a good time with the rain to spary down the Biotamax under the leaf canopy in the pumpkin patch.

A Bunch of Biology for the Pumpkin Patch

This evening I sprayed some Biotamax, Rootshield, azos, myco and Myko Grow on the entire pumpkin patch.  It looks like it is going to be two days of rain in Colorado so that rain will wash at of that beneficial bacteria and fungi down into the patch.  Some of the micro organisms are nitrogen fixing.  Others will help eat bad micro organisms.  Others still will help provide nutrients to the plants.  Overall, I'm trying to help build a healthy soil foil web in the soil.  Some people say you don't need to add this kind of stuff in order to have a healthy soil.  To that I would agree.  But adding a little more typically won't hurt.

Vines are Down, Time for the Plant to Grow

I went out of town on Friday and got back today.  Plants are looking better, but a bit off color still.  A little sun today and a few days of sunny weather to come should help with that.  Both the 1415 and the 1985 plants have their vines on the ground now and are just over 3 feet long now.  At this point I would have liked to see the vines about a foot longer, but a month of no sun and cool weather has slowed things down.  Today I gave the plants a little foliar fish to help push it a long a little.  Also did a drench of Biotamax, Actinovate with iron and Myco Grow.  Next week we will add some nitrogen to the mix to start pushing those vines along.

It has been interesting to watch the plants in the yard.  At the end of April we were about 2 week ahead of schedule in plant growth.  We are now about 3-5 days behind because of the weather in May.  I'm guessing that when thing warm up everything is going to explode.

Pictured below are the plants.

1985 Miller

1415 Scherber

Secret Giant Pumpkin Fertilizing Program

The following is my "secret"giant pumpkin fertilizing program.  This fertilizer program will be modified during the season, depending on what the plant is telling me.  In addition to what is listed below, I'll also be putting down a little Azos, myko, kelp and Rootshield to each leaf node.  What is listed below doesn't include what I amended the soil with in the Fall and Spring.  The Fish & Seaweed is Neptune's, foliar multimineral is Albions' Metosolate multimineral and most of the other products are NPK Industries' RAW fertilizers. 

If you would like to see a great video that not only explains how and when to use fertilizers, but why, watch this video:

The Giant Pumpkin Fertilizer Program

Please note that the quantities of different fertilizers being applied here are very small. You want to spoon feed the plant to push it along and don't want to pour on the fertilizers which can sometimes do more harm than good.  Fertilizers should be applied in the early morning or the evening.  Most of these fertilizers, bio-stimulants and nutrients are available at a discount at http://seeds.giantpumpkinman.com/fertilizers.

May planting outdoors in hoop houses:
Week 1	B-vitamin, liquid seaweed/kelp, compost tea. With mykos, myco grow, Rootshield and Azos in the planting hole.
Week 2	phosphorus, compost tea, fulvic acid, yucca, silica
Week 3	compost tea, foliar seaweed, foliar humic acid
Week 4	compost tea, fish & seaweed, Azos, Biotamax, Actinovate with iron, Rootshild, omina, silica
June vine running:
Week 5	blood meal (for nitrate nitrogen), compost tea, yucca
Week 6	TKO, foliar multi-mineral, foliar fish & seaweed, fulvic acid, Omina, cal/mag
Week 7	foliar humic acid, compost tea
Week 8	foliar multi-mineral, foliar seaweed, foliar humic acid, yucca
July fruit (assumed that pumpkin pollination will be around the last week of June):
Week 9	foliar potassium, Omina
Week 10	foliar fish & seaweed, foliar multimineral, B-vitamins
Week 11	potassium, foliar fish & seaweed, biotamax, actinovate
Week 12	cane molasses, foliar multi-mineral, fish & seaweed on the soil, foliar humic acid
August
Week 13	Omina, foliar fish & seaweed, foliar multi-mineral, compost tea, silica, foliar actinovate, B-vitamins
Week 14	potassium, Actinovate, Biotamax, azos, yucca, foliar fish & seaweed, foliar humic acid
Week 15	foliar multi-mineral, foliar fish & seaweed, foliar humic acid, silica
Week 16	TKO, cane molasses, fish & seaweed on the soil, foliar seaweed, fulvic acid
September
Week 17	foliar multi-mineral, foliar fish & seaweed, foliar humic acid, B-vitamins
Week 18	TKO, foliar fish & seaweed, foliar humic acid, cane molasses, silica
Week 19	potassium, foliar seaweed, foliar humic acid
Week 20	foliar potassium, foliar seaweed, foliar humic acid