Potassium for the Pumpkins

This evening I did a foliar and ground application of NPK Bloom (3-12-12), yucca, humic acid and seaweed.  The pumpkins won't ramp up in growth for another week, but I want to make sure the plant has what it needs to keep them growing.  Also did some organic insecticide on the plants this evening as well.

2017 Giant Pumpkin Fertilizer Program

The following is a modification of my "secret" giant pumpkin fertilizing program.  The soil requirements for this new pumpkin patch is much different than my old patch, so I've made some changes.  In addition to what is listed below, I'll also be putting down a little Azos, myko, kelp and Humic acid to each leaf node.  What is listed below doesn't include what I amended the soil with in the Fall and Spring.  Most of the fertilizers and nutrients products are NPK Industries' RAW fertilizers.

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

We Have a Pumpkin Patch in Utah!

It has been over a year since I could say I had a pumpkin patch.  With the move, I didn't grow last season and it was a little sad to see my neighbor cover the old patch with piles of dirt.   Yesterday evening I tilled about 3 yards of compost into the new patch along with some nitrogen, sulfur, humic acid, peat moss, manganese and iron.  Last night I also took a bucket full of sand and put in a little humic acid and liquid seaweed with some winter rye grass seed and wetted it to help pre-germinate the seed.  I then put that seed down at lunch today when things warmed up and racked it into the soil and then gave it a good watering.  I'll then cover the patch with plastic to help warm it up and which will increase the germination rate.

Weather here in Utah lately has been relatively warm.  Early mornings lately have hovered right around 32 degrees, but day time temperatures are forecast in the 60s and low 70s for the next week, which will be ideal for getting that cover crop going before the first hard freeze.  That winter rye cover crop will be tilled into the soil in the spring which will add organic matter and nutrients that will be available to the pumpkin patch next year.

Compost for the New Pumpkin Patch, Dump Trailers & A Big Thanks

Today I got about 20 yards of compost for the pumpkin patch and new yard.  This house is a brand new build, so I tilled the entire front yard to get the soil loosened up because it was very compacted from all of the heavy machinery.  My new 8hp Troy-Bilt tiller worked great.  The compacted soil was hard to work, but after few passed it started to dig deep.  It will work very nicely in the patch.  Not as powerful as the Barreto tillers I've been using, but in loose soil it will till the patch faster.

A big thanks to everyone at Power Equipment Rentals in Heber City, Utah.  They hooked me up with a dump trailer, truck to haul the dump trailer and a front loader to load up the compost.   They also gave me some very nice finished compost that looked to be 2-3 years old.  My soil at the new place is relatively nutrient rich, so this fully finished compost will be a very nice amendment to the pumpkin patch to get the organic matter increased in my sandy loam soil.

What to Do When Your Pumpkin Isn't Growing As Fast As You Would Like

This is one of the things that all growers struggle with when a pumpkin isn't growing as fast as they like.  There are a number of factors that can contribute to slow growth.  Some can be fixed and others cannot.  Genetic factors of course can't be fixed.  Some pumpkins just want to grow slow.  The smallest pumpkin I ever grew was right next to the pumpkin plant that grew my biggest pumpkin ever and both plants got the same amount of water, fertilizer, etc.  

If you don't want to go to the expense of doing a tissue test to find out what the plant has and needs, then trying to give the plants a little more fertilizer isn't a bad idea.  These plants are heavy feeders and they can "bonk," because although there might be a lot of nutrients in the soil sometimes it is locked up or just out of the reach of the roots. 

Doing small, divided doses of additional fertilizer may not be a bad idea, but spoon feed and see how the plant reacts.  Be patient with it.  Over doing it, even slightly, can sometimes have a negative effect on the growth of the pumpkin.  Doing it this way will probably give you better results.

To figure out what the plant needs take a look at the color and growth of the plant.  Potassium can help push the pumpkin along, but low nitrogen or other nutrients can also limit pumpkin growth.  Slow and steady wins the race in pumpkin growing.  So look at everything that could be a limiting factor and do small tests to see what yields you the best results.

Fertilizer Moving Sale; Everything Must Go

As we prepare to move to the new house, I'm going to offer a 25% off discount code on all fertilizers at http://seeds.giantpumpkinman.com/fertilizers.  This means an extra 25% off the already lowest prices you'll find on the internet.  Just enter the discount code of 'moving' during checkout to take advantage of this great deal.  This offer will end on July 12th, so stock up now.  Limited quantities of some items are available, so you'll not want to wait.  Place you order today!

Don't Plant Your Pumpkin Plants in Cold Soil

If you haven't already, put your hoop house over the area that you will be planting your pumpkin plants or put down some clear plastic on the soil to help heat it up.  You don't want to take your plants from the pots in put them in a cold soil.  Cold soil has less biological activity making it harder for the plants to get at nutrients.  This will sometimes stunt the growth of the pumpkin plant and possibly put it into shock.  Warm soil, a little B-vitamins and a touch of kelp will help the plant transition to the soil faster, making for better growth.

RAW Phosphorous Test Results on Giant Pumpkin Plants

When I can, during the off season, I love to try to test different things to see if what the scientist say and if what the marketers say is true.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to test to see if adding a very little RAW Phosphorous to the giant pumpkin plants would increase root mass as advertised.

I should note that if these were plants that I was going to actually grow pumpkins on I would have done things a little differently.  I would have gave the phosphorous to the plants once they were in the ground rather than in the pots and I would have got these plants in the ground with hoop houses covering them about 4 or 5 days earlier.

I wouldn't say these tests were scientific, but adequate enough to find some results.  The most definitive results that I have is not about the RAW Phosphorous but on the 747 Johnson seed.  Both of the plants pictured below are from the 747 I did not start them in ideal conditions.  Temperatures were never over 71 degrees and I didn't give them much care.  However, they were aggressive growers with big leaves for only being 3 weeks old, as you can see. The root systems on both plants were also above ordinary.

The science says that RAW Phosphorous will produce a 15% larger roots system.  I gave both plants the same amount of water and both where in the same environment.  Looking at the pictures below I would say visually it looks like the 747 that was given the RAW Phosphorous on the left has a slightly bigger root system on it.  More tests would be needed, but it looks like 15% could be possible. I wish I had taken the plants out of their pots about a week earlier when the roots weren't quite as developed.  It would have made it a little easier to visually see the differences in the root mass.

It should be noted, that if you look at the pictures of the plant when I gave it the phosphorous I purposely gave the plant that was smaller than the one that didn't get phosphorous and it clearly caught up to the other plant.

RAW Phosphorous Testing on Atlantic Giant Pumpkin Plants

You may have seen me post here previously that the RAW brand phosphorous has been shown in tests to improve root mass by 15 to 20%, so I decided to do a little test.  I planted two 747 Johnson seeds about 10 days ago and today I gave the smaller plant on the right a touch of RAW phosphorous in water and to the plant on the right I gave it just water.  In two weeks or so, we'll take the plants out of their pots and compare the roots on each plant to see how it has done.  I'll post the results here on the blog.

Some Fertilizers for the Pumpkin Plants

Today I gave the plants some cane molasses, omina and humic acid on the soil.  This is in keeping with my former post on how to keep the pumpkin growing in September.

Kelp for Tired Pumpkin Leaves

Do a little test with some liquid kelp (aka seaweed) on a pumpkin leaf and you will see some of the power of kelp.  Put a drop of the kelp on a leaf and then pull that leaf from the plant and watch what happens were the spot of kelp was applied.  Over a number of days you'll see the majority of the leaf shrivel and dry out, but the spot were the kelp was applied will stay green longer. 

I personally have never done research as to why this happens, but I would guess it is a combination of nutrients and cytonkins in the kelp.  I know kelp can help pull nutrients into the plant, so my guess is that the hormones in the kelp along with the many nutrients it supplies gives it the ability to keeps the cells alive longer.  If you have a more scientific explanation, please let me know.

I like to use kelp on my plants.  I think tired old leaves that have been beaten up in the wind and hot sun during the summer can get a number of benefits from kelp this time of year (for that matter, all year around).  Healthy leaves late in the season add a lot of pounds to a pumpkin.  My biggest pumpkin had the healthiest looking leaves I've ever had later into the season.  The vast majority of the leaves were green and shiny right until we got a very big rain storm for a week in September and only after that did the plant start to show some age.

This evening I gave the 1985 Miller plant a foliar application of 2 tablespoons of liquid kelp, 1 tablespoon of liquid fish, with some fulvic acid and yucca.   I also sprayed some of it under the leaf canopy onto the ground.  Humic acid and/or fulvic acid enhances the benefits of kelp, so when doing foliar applications always apply a little of one or the other or both with the kelp.

I used to buy the bottle so liquid seaweed, but I found it cheaper to buy the dried, concentrate kelp and mix it with water.  The price is about the same for the two, but with the dried kelp you get gallons of product rather than just a small bottle.

Compost Tea Recipe for Giant Pumpkins

There are many great "recipes" for compost tea, but here is one that I like giant pumpkin plants: 

1/2 cup alfalfa pellets
2 dried leaves
1/4 cup compost
1 tsp RAW Silica
1 tsp liquid seaweed
1/4 tsp RAW Cane Molasses
1/4 tsp RAW Humic Acid

Put all of that in a mesh bag and then suspend the bag in a 5 gallon bucket of de-chlorinated water.  Aerate that water with a fish tank pump for about 24 hours and then pour the compost tea over the leaves and on the ground under the leaf canopy.  Your plant should love you for it.  The beneficial bacteria and fungi that you will be adding will help to feed and protect the plant and you will also get the benefits of the seaweed and alfalfa hormones which will help with the growth of the plant (and hopefully the pumpkin too.)

To Potassium or to Not Potassium the Pumpkin, That is the Question

A grower recently sent me a message about wanting to add a fair amount of potassium on his pumpkin plant to really get the growth going.  This was my reply:

"Adding additional potassium won't necessarily increase the growth rate of the pumpkin, unless it needs it. At this point of the season potassium can start to get depleted, because of the high demand of the pumpkin.  The soil may have ample potassium, but the rhizosphere around the root hairs may have a descent portion of the potassium used up.  So supplementing (i.e. spoon feeding) the plant with potassium can help that out.  However, took much potassium will lock up calcium in the soil and cause other problems so pouring it on my actually decrease growth rather than increase it."

I knew this growers feeling, however.  I've got a pumpkin that isn't growing the way it should and I've been tempted to give it a descent dose of potassium to push it along.  The best bet however, is to spoon feed it and see how the pumpkin reacts.  Potassium may not be the issue and jacking up the soil for not only this season, but possibly even next season isn't the way to go. 

Watching the Vine Tips to Figure Out What the Plant Needs

Over the last week or so I noticed the the vine tips on the 282 Scherber plant hasn't had much mass.  Often times that indicates that the pumpkin is sucking the life out of the plant (which is a good thing) as the plant starts putting all of its energy to growing the pumpkin.  In this case, the pumpkin is only the size of a football because of the late pollination, so I knew that wasn't the case.  In most cases I would have given the plant some nitrogen earlier, but I didn't want to do anything that could cause the fruit to abort so I've held of on giving it nitrogen. 

Today I have it a foliar spray of RAW Nitrogen with some liquid fish fertilizer.  The RAW Nitrogen will give the plant an instant nitrogen fix, while the nitrogen in the fish will be a slower release and also give the plant some phosphorus and potassium as well as micro minerals along with it.  In the next couple of days I should see the vine tips on that plant perk up some and see more leaf mass in the head of the vine tip.

Cane Molasses for the Pumpkin Plants to Get the Biology Going

Interesting thing starts happening to the pumpkin plants this time of year.  It isn't something you can actually see, but an opportunity if you know what to do.  Plants and the soil biology have a symbiotic relationship.  The plant roots give sugars to the biology in the soil and in return the biology gives the plants nutrients in a form that they can use.  However, as the pumpkin starts kicking into gear and demanding a lot of the plants energy, the plant can start getting stingy with giving sugars back to the biology.  The opportunity at this time of year is to give the plants some RAW Cane Molasses which can give the biology the sugars they need, while they continue to feed the plant.  This keeps the soil activity going late into the season.

Nitrogen for the Giant Pumpkin Plants

This evening I did a soil application of nitrogen.  Most of the application was to the 1985 plant since I just recently pollinated the 282 plant.  On the ground I sprayed a mixture of RAW Nitrogen, RAW Cal/Mag and RAW Omina in spoon feeding quantities.  I saw how fast acting the RAW Nitrogen was this spring and I don't want a big spike in growth at this stage.  However, I do want to make sure the plants have adequate nitrogen to power growth for the pumpkins and I've given the plants very little nitrogen over the last month.

To the right is a picture of both plants.  In the far distance you can see the tarp that is covering the 1985 pumpkin.

Some Grandular Kelp for the Pumpkin Plants

This morning I gave both plants some granular kelp (0-0-1.5).  Kelp is a great source of hormones, potassium and micro nutrients.  Application rate was fairly small.  About 1/2 pound for the 1985 plant and 1/4 pound for the 282 plant.  I have some kelp mixed in with my myco that I put down at each leaf node as I bury the vines, but vine growth is pretty minimal these days as most of the vines are terminated and majority of the kelp application was done in the areas of the earliest buried vines.

Loading Up the Pumpkins

I'm going after a big pumpkin on the 1985 Miller plant.  Ada the pumpkin is growing nice, but I gave it a little nudge this evening with a foliar application of TKO.  I haven't used TKO in the past, but one of the RMGVG club members gave me some during the off season and I've wanted to try it for years, but it is kind of expensive.  TKO is a good source of potassium, but also contains phosphites that can help ward of disease.  The 1985 will be getting into its rapid growth phase so the extra potassium should help satisfy the pumpkin as it starts ringing the dinner bell.

I discovered last night that the 1985 plant has been getting under watered.  A setting on the under the leaf canopy irrigation system on that line was off so it wasn't getting nearly the water that it should have.  I'm impressed with the growth of the pumpkin on that plant knowing that.  It will be interesting to see how it does, now that it is getting more water.

The 282 female may be opening tomorrow morning.  Might finally be getting a pumpkin on that plant.   I sure hope so.  In preparation for that, in the fertigation bottle I put some calcium, RAW Full Up, RAW Humic Acid, just a little RAW Omina and RAW Yucca.  Like I previously mentioned, the goal with this is to help get calcium into the fruit in the first 10 days after pollination.

Compost Tea for the Pumpkin Plants

This evening I gave both pumpkin plants a drench of compost tea.  This compost tea was mostly made from alfalfa pellets which is a good source of hormones. I also put in a teaspoon of liquid seaweed and RAW Silica.  Just before application I put in some RAW Omina into the brew.  That should make the plants happy.

Feeding the Pumpkin

This evening I gave the pumpkin plants some RAW Omina, potassium, B-vitamins, Full Up and Humic Acid.  I'm using fertigation now for these kinds of fertilizers so I can give a small trickle of fertilizers to the plants through the irragation.   That allows me to fertilize more evenly and saves me some time.

After all the rain the 1985 pumpkin has really shined up and started to grow.  With warmer weather ahead, I'm hoping it will really put on some weight this next week.

Also sprayed some insecticide on the plants.