Goodness

I've been keeping the most important things going in the pumpkin patch, but it has been a struggle.  My dear mother-in-law passed away a little over two weeks ago, so the whole family headed to Canada for the funeral.  The timing wasn't great for pumpkin growing.  Two days before heading out I finally had a window to get the plants in the ground, but for that first week the plants tend to be pretty sensitive to the wind, temperature and bright sun, so I usually baby them for the first couple of weeks while they wire up.

A good friend volunteered to take care of the plants while I was gone.  He basically turned the heat lamps on and off and opened and closed the doors each day.  The 2255 plants fared rather nicely, but the 2005 plants struggled.  The two days I was home before heading out of town the 2005 plants did very nicely, so I thought we were safe, but looking back it was cloudy and cool.  The sun came out the 2nd day I was gone and some of the leaves burnt badly.  I think that was due to the fact the plants were in the pots a little too long, so the plant had gotten bigger than its roots could fully support.

All plants seem to be growing nicely, but the 2005 leaf color is a little light.  Yesterday I gave the plants some 7-4-5.   Today I gave the 2005 a little cane molasses in the water and then did a foliar spray of multi-mineral on all of the plants with just a very small touch of nitrogen added.

Weather for the next 7 days looks like rain, clouds and cool temperatures, so not ideal.