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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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Farmer Ben
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Hinckley MN
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Entry 6 of 7 |
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I got busy planting Strawberries and forgot to pot the pumpkins up to 7 gallon grow bags. I started the seeds April 21st and my 1404, 1419, 1495, 1488, 1464 and 1544 stayed in their 5 inch pots till May 21st. oops. the 2 early plants, 980 klinker and 906 Watkinson were potted up, and and are off to the races. It is always a challenge planting a 3ft long vine into the patch, but it is fun being that far ahead. I tried some pots cut in half with my watermelons, but none of the plants came out nearly as easily as plants come out of the bags.
I fertilized the center 1/3rd of the patch with 70 lbs of wood ashes, 30lbs of fish meal, 30 lbs kelp meal, and 40 lbs poultry litter compost pellets (5-4-3 w/ 10% calcium). Each planting site got 5 lbs more pellets and 5lbs of a mix of bone, blood, fish, and kelp meals in a 7ft diameter circle. each planting mound got 2 cups of pellets, 1 cup ground oystershell and 1 heaping cup of the bone, blood, kelp and fish mix at planting time. all that is in addition to the 100lbs of lime and 10 yards of aged manure that went on the entire patch.
I found that my pH actually dropped when I plowed this spring. I brought up the acid subsoil and dropped my pH from 6.2 to 5.6 so I added another 100 lbs of lime. I've always said getting the soil right takes 3 years. This is only year 2.
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