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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Thursday, August 17, 2017
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Matt D.
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Connecticut
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Entry 60 of 91 |
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Under Seeding Cover Crop
With pumpkins it can be a challenge to get a cover crop established before the cold weather is established (at least in my area). As a result, I have experimented with the idea of under seeding a cover crop while the plant is still growing with good results. While I know this is still August and the weather is still very favorable my first test went very well. Here is what I did…
Selecting a pumpkin for an early weigh-off about a week before I planned on pulling the plant I tossed some grass seed under the plant. Then for the rest of the week I continued with my normal routine. The picture below shows the very recently germinated grass seed located under my plant. Then I harvested the pumpkin and removed the plant. While there is some soil disturbance during this process, I still have a jump start on getting my cover crop in for this plant site. All I need to do is over seed some more seed and it will be all set to go for the off-season.
Only downfall is that it helps to have a well weeded plant site to aid in the establishment, but even in areas that has some weeds there was still some germination, it just made getting the grass seed to contact the soil more difficult.
This is something I highly recommend to other growers as the germinating cover crop does not take anything away from this season and improving establishment can benefit the soil and long term vitality of the patch. For pumpkins I plan on harvesting later in the season I plan on under seeding my cover crop 10 to 14 days before harvest since I am expecting slower germination times as the season progresses.
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