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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
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Tony Pumpkin
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Abbotsford BC
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Entry 169 of 229 |
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Sprayed with fungicide yesterday. 7-10 LB gain from yesterday on the main fruit--putting the fruit at about 613 lbs. I think the main vine fruit may have gained 5 lbs or so the day before--not zero as I had indicated in my diary entry.
Stem split on the main fruit is getting worse--my attempt to decrease water didn't seem to slow the splitting down much--I will increase the water again tomorrow--almost to normal levels. If the fruit goes bust, then it goes bust, but I have cut back a lot on watering this year (and sacrificed a good deal of gains) to try to keep it from splitting, and it still seems to be splitting--so I am going to stop coddling it and just go with the flow. Whatever happens, happens.
The gardener was in the neighborhood today and he dumped about 400 lbs of grass into the pit I dug behind my pumpkin--which is next years planting site. I have probably put a couple of thousand lbs of organic matter in the (3.5deep X10long X5 foot wide) pit since the beginninbg of the summer. It is cooking really good. Come October I will seal it up with a 2 foot deep layer of regular soil and let the worms do the work. It will probably settle over the winter--so I will add more organic matter (probably a dozen or so wheelbarrows of leaf compost and chicken manure) in the spring and then plant right on top. Next year my soil will be better than this year as I will have a ton of old composted soil left over from this year. it takes a few years to build up the soil, next year should be better as I plan to test and adjust as well. Also, next years plant will be huge--I am hoping to go much bigger in square footage for the plant--at least double, so I have lots of leaves to power the fruit and get me through the season.
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