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Salem, Oregon

What part of the giant pumpkin plant do you submit for analysis? Western Laboratories says to send the "Petiole". Am I correct in thinking the "petiole" is the stalk...between the vine and the leaf? Also what area of the plant would be better to collect that sample?

7/1/2012 1:04:34 PM

canal winchester ohio

grab the leaves that are 5-6 back from the end of the vine. Since these leaves are'nt that big I just take 4-5 from different areas of the plant & put the whole thing in a brown paper bag & ship it out.

7/1/2012 1:31:28 PM

Salem, Oregon

Thanks Huff. I've tried to gleen as much information as I could find from older posts, and that's exaclty what I found. What I did find that was interesting was a post about not to use old leaves. They are sacrificing the nutrients to send to the newer parts of the plant, which makes sense.

Would it be correct to just cut off the leaf and not include any part of the stalk? Or is that whole part of the stalk included?

7/1/2012 1:39:56 PM

canal winchester ohio

Stalks on leaves the size you send in are only about 6" high so I just cut the stalk flush with the vine and send leaf and all in. My entire sample normally fits into a lunch sack. I use Western labs in Idaho and use the USPS " if it fits it ships" boxes. Shipped it Mon at 10 am and had results back by 3 pm Thursday.

7/1/2012 2:38:17 PM

Salem, Oregon

Sounds good. What kind of things should we look for when we get the results from the test back? I am assuming we should be looking to see if the plant is taking up enough calcium and potassium. It would make sense to aim for the same balance between calcium, magnesium, and potassium?

7/1/2012 2:52:47 PM

canal winchester ohio

They will send recommendations, what helped me was I was low in Calcium & magnesium as well I was high in nitrogen. I wasn’t feeding much cal or mag & nitrogen was still in my feeding rotation so I backed off nitro & upped the other. Result is normal size green leaves, not the hugely bloated blue things you see from too much nitrogen. Pumpkins are now 12 days old so I’m sending my next test in 13 days. First test showed a excess of potassium, I'm sure the next one will be much different.

7/1/2012 3:58:50 PM

Omaha, Ne.

I just took mine down to the lab (Midwest lab). they told me to 4 or 5 of the new adult leafs. I'll also am getting a soil sample to compare the two.

7/1/2012 4:27:25 PM

canal winchester ohio

some will say I'm wrong but feeding your pumpkin without knowing what it's actually using is like playing darts blindfolded...sure you can do it, but you'll do better when the blindfold is removed.

7/1/2012 4:39:47 PM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

Darren, your soil and tissue test wont even come near to matching.

7/1/2012 7:36:20 PM

Omaha, Ne.

That the kind of stuff I'm curious about.

7/1/2012 8:51:43 PM

Novar, Ontario

So when is the best time to take the sample, when you are getting small females or when you have pkins set and running. Also what is the approach to use in altering the nutrients in the soil, slow and easy or give it all at once?

7/2/2012 9:33:55 PM

canal winchester ohio

This year I'm sampling one week before my first pollination. Then again around day 25-30 of fruit development. And if the pumpkins are still kicking it at day 60 I'm doing one then as well. As for adjusting I think Tom Privitera would be the guy to ask on that. I bug the hell out of him.

7/2/2012 10:05:20 PM