Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Pumpkin Tissue Testing

A week ago I sent in a leaf from my 1775 Starr plant to get some tissue testing done.  I've never done a tissue test although I get my soil tested every year.  Sometimes, even though you have more than adequate nutrients in the soil the plant can't get at them for a variety of reasons.  My tissue test came back with everything in normal range except my nitrates were high and my sulfur, zinc, manganese and copper were a touch low.  I'll give the plant some foliar applications of each to get them back into normal range.  Starting in August if my nitrates are still high I'll give the plant so foliar phosphorus applications to help with the nitrates.

This evening I gave the outer areas of my plant some kelp meal on the soil.  The kind I used had some beneficial bacteria mixed  in with it.  I also sprayed on the soil, under the leaves, some liquid seaweed with Life Hydroponics Vegetable & Fruit Yield Enhancer.  For the first time I went into the Hydro Store in Arvada today and began talking with the gentleman running the shop. I found him to be a super nice guy and I told him that I grow giant pumpkins.  He gave me a number of bottles of free samples including the Hydroponic Life products so I put some of it in with the seaweed.  If you are in Arvada stop by the Hydro Store off of Wadsworth.

The Life Hydroponics Vegetable & Fruit Yield Enhancer has humic acid, some benefical bacteria and myco in it so on paper it looks like some descent stuff.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jamie, i am growing giant pumpkins for the first time this year i have to vines that i planted in mid april right now the vines are about 3 feet long (one is more like 2 feet) the longer one had its first flower last saterday. what your advice?

Jamie said...

Thanks for your comment. It sounds like your plant is right at the point to start taking off. When did you plant the seed and what variety of pumpkin are you growing? Ideally you would want to wait on growing a pumpkin until the vine is a couple of feet father out usually.