Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tea Time & Pumpkin Vine Maintainance

I gave both plants some compost tea this evening. No fertilizer this week since there are new pollinations on both plants. The 1236 pollination at 11' seems to have taken. The pumpkin is shiny and still growing. Hoping that the new pollination on the 1161 will lay down tomorrow. The first 5 vines on each side of the 1161 will probably be terminated by the end of this week. The main on the 1236 will be at the end of the patch probably this week as well. I'm ready to be done with vines and start growing some big pumpkins.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job on your blog, it looks like it is going to be a huge help for me again this year. Couple questions for you. First off I am a local grower (Parker)in my 2nd year. I have 2 plants going strong, but a 3rd that has issues. I planted a seed from my rookie pumpkin for fun. Well, the leaves are turning yellow and drying up? It's getting the same water/fert as the others, but it is in a new growing area. Any ideas? Vine and new leaves all look good, but it looks like they may fall to the same fate. Second, do you make your own compost tea or is there a place in Colo that carries it? Ok, I lied 3 questions, what is a safe bug repellent and what kind of bugs are a problem in colo? Wondering if a grub of some kind is killing that plant.

CP

Jamie said...

There are a few different things that could be causing your plant trouble. My first guess would be a ground fungus. The best grower in Colorado had that happen to him last year. Plant looked healthy. Then when it started warming up in late June the leaves started getting pale green. Then by early July the leaves were more yellow and by the end of July the plant was gone.

The other thing that could turn the leaves a pale green or even yellow would be a nutrient deficency. That is less likley however if you are fertilizing and the other plants are happy.

I make my own compost tea. Use a 5 gallon bucket, water that has sat for 24 hours so the chlorine has evaporated, a mesh bag with compost (typically my own earthworm castings) and a fish tank air pump to areate the compost tea.

I rarely use any insecticides. Just haven't needed them. Almost did this year for cucumber bettles but they haven't seemed to cause any problems so I held off. Last year I got some aphid eggs early in the season so I used insecticidal soap and that worked. Just don't see a lot of bugs. The main ones are typically aphids, squash bugs and cucumber bettles but for the most part growers doesn't seem to have big issues in Colorado like they do other states.