Saturday, May 31, 2008

Fertilizer Time

It is about time to give a little nitrogen boost to your pumpkin plant. By about now your plant should be showing some signs of growth. In the next 4 weeks it is really important to add some salad (vines and leaves) so you can set a pumpkin about 12 feet out from the base. June 28th to July 4th is the perfect time to pollinate and get a pumpkin growing. In order to get your pumpkin out 12 feet you probably have a lot of growing to do over the next few weeks. That is where the nitrogen comes in. Nitrogen will help the plant grow just like it helps your grass grow. You don't want to give it to much and you want to add it in the morning before the heat of the day and water it well in. I'm going to give my plant an organic 10-5-5 next Saturday. Two weeks later I'm going to give it a small amount of organic 5-8-4 with mycorrhiza fungi to help bring on the flowers and support tap roots. I will then not give it any more fertilizer until 2 weeks after the fruit is set. Hopefully that will be around July 14th. At that time I will give the plant a weekly or bi-weekly folier spray of Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed 2-3-1. About once a month I will replace the Neputune's with a very small amount of green sand 0-0-6 and 5-8-4 with mycorrhiza fungi to give it a little boost. You have to be very careful with the fertilizers. The right amount will add pounds to your pumpkin. To much will literally blow up your pumpkin (seeds can fly as far as 5 feet on a big blow out where the pumpkin has out grown it's own skin).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info.....5th year trying to grow these bad boys on my farm....first year I even got any female flowers! So now its "game on" and I need info! Thanks again