Monday, June 2, 2014

Tilled the Patch & Put Up the Hail Netting

This evening I tilled the pumpkin patch to get the cover crop tilled into the soil. I've never had so much biomass from a cover crop before.  The rains we've had the last three weeks made the rye grass just grow like crazy.  I tilled into the patch 2lbs of kelp meal (not nearly enough) and about 15lbs of gypsum for the calcium.

After tilling the soil I put the hail netting up over the patch.  If you are wondering why you would put up hail netting over 1,000 square feet of pumpkin patch you haven't lived in Colorado the last two weeks.  Hail capital USA.

Both pumpkin plants seem really happy right now.  The 335 plant I've noticed has really come on the last few days.  The 1791 side vines are now growing quickly.  It is past the end of the hoop house but I'm going to try to keep it in the hoop house for a couple of more days.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love all your comments and pics. Just curious where you can buy and how you set up your hail netting. If you get a chance can you post a picture of the net set up?

Jamie said...

Thanks. The hail netting came out of Italy but they don't sell to the public anymore. My hail netting structure is held up by a series of post that have string running between them that I've attached the hail netting to. You can see photos on this old post at http://denverpumpkins.com/2013/06/hail-netting-over-patch-pumpkin.html