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Roanoke Il

My Question Is to the growers that don't folar feed during the season and have grown a pumpkin over 1000 lbs.
What do you do other than get a soil test done add recomendations of N-P-k. I have added 4 tons of compost 2 tons of cow manure two each space. Soil type is sandy loam Growing style which is the best x-mas tree flag two mains. Cut every other vine ect. Any helpe would be great.. Big Mark

11/12/2003 6:04:37 AM

Ontario

Let me start by saying that I did grow a pumpkin well over 1000 lbs. this year but I lost it to a small hole. So I'm only on this thread by a technicality ;0) I water all my pumpkins using buried sprinkler hoses. I like to keep the leaves as dry as I can to discourge diseases. I keep track of my growth rates and when I start to notice a fall off in growth (the pumpkin has used up available nutrients) I start to feed minor amounts of fertilizer through my buried hoses. With the amount of nutrients you've added, it may be the middle of August before you need to add anything. I was at a growers seminar once where a grower asked a chemical Rep. about foliar spraying. He stated that what the pumpkin takes in through the leaves was minimal. 99.9% of nutrients are taken up through the roots. The pumpkin leaf is designed to channel moisture gathered on the leaf, down the stem and onto the root directly under each stem. By foliar spraying you are getting nutrients to the roots where they're absorbed, but it's by no means an efficient method of fertilizing. It's far better to fertilize at the root. I don't know about you but I find that kelp fertilizer is awfully expensive and it seems to me a bit of a waste of money to not use it efficiently. Are there benefits to foliar spraying? Definitely. It can discourage powdery mildew, but aren't there other cheaper products availible that work better? I've also heard about kelp used as a natural hormonal controler. Great. But does it have to be used as a foliar? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong. There's a ton of guys that swear by foliar spraying. What works for other people may not work for you. That's all I'm saying. For me however I find foliar spraying a wasteful use of time and money. Feel free to disagree but no hate mail please. I'm just stating what works for me.

11/12/2003 11:30:16 AM