The Pumpkin Season has Begun (Kind of)!

This time of year for years I've done the same thing.  As the weather starting warming up and you start seeing some of the crocus and daffodils peaking through the ground, my pumpkin growing fever starts to rise.  To curb the cravings I like to start something off that can be productive.  I've talked on this blog a couple of times about getting myco going in pots before you start your actual seeds.  I won't be start my plants for a couple of weeks, but it takes a while for myco to become mature enough that it is actually providing some benefits to the plant, so it is good to start it now. 

At the Niagara seminar Neil Anderson of RTI, whose company makes more myco than probably any other company out there, stated (somewhat quietly), that it may take a couple of months for the myco to get to the point that it is bringing back nutrients and water back to the plant.  I stuck around after his seminar and asked some additional questions about that.  He suggested during the seminar that "pre-starting" some myco before you started the seeds and then transferring that seed starting mix to the pots may be a good idea.

Typically I would have started some seeds a week ago, but I only got these started two days ago, because life has been very busy lately.  Using the paper towel method I started two 747 Johnson seeds.   Those sprouted and I then put them both into one pot with two different brands of myco, Azos and some other beneficial bacteria.  I also put a pinch of a WOW Super Start Pack in the seed starting mix.  The day or day before I start my actual seeds I plan to grow this season, I'm pull the plants from this pot and mix the soil in the seed starting mix of my other pots, so each pot will get some of this more mature myco.

I'll still put some additional myco and microbes in the pots of the plants I'll actually be growing this season.  

The other benefit of doing this is that it forces me to get my stuff pulled together in advance of when I start my actual plants and gives me a little practice.  For example, in the pot I put the seeds in today, I should have put a little humic acid into.  Hopefully this will help me remember when it becomes more important.

In about 3 days I suspect I'll start seeing the plants popping through the soil.  I start two plants in the soil to get more roots going throughout the pot quickly.  I figure more roots means more myco getting fed.  

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.

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.

A Little Secret About Myco and Pumpkin Growing

I think most growers wouldn't know this, but the myco that we put into our pumpkin patch takes months to mature to a state that it is providing full benefits to the pumpkin plant.  There are three stages in mycorrhizal growth to maturity:  spore germination, hyphal growth, host recognition and appressorium formation.  There are studies that show that it can take 6 weeks to 2 months for myco to mature enough that the benefits of infection can be measurable on a plant. 

Neil Anderson, President of RTI, stated this fact at the Niagara growers convention some years ago and he suggested that starting your myco in a pot weeks prior to starting your pumpkin seeds could prove beneficial.  If you start a pot with a pumpkin seed in it a month before you start your seeds you want to grow and then break up the seed starting mixture and roots from that pot you can capture the mature myco in that pot.  You then just mix the pots seed starting medium with the seed starting mixture that you want to grow you actual plants in.   The myco in that pot can survive for up to two weeks without being attached to roots and will actually "call" to the roots of your plant.  You can then get inoculations to form with the roots of your plants much earlier and start getting benefits much faster using this technique.

In the pumpkin patch I'll be using just one variety of myco, but in this pot I'm using eleven endo varieties of myco.  Make sure you use endomycorrhizal for pumpkins, grasses and vegetables because the ecto variety will not work on anything but trees and bushes.   

If you are not familiar with mycorrhize fungi there are some very extensive studies the have found the following benefits from using myco:

• Increases nitrogen, water and phosphorus uptake
• Increases crop yields
• Protects plant roots from pathogens
• Improves plant resistance to a wide array of soil toxicities
• Salt tolerance