1325 Johnson Pumpkin Plant

Yesterday we finally got all of the plants into the ground.  I'm hoping the 1325 in the outdoor patch shapes up as nicely as the one that is in the greenhouse.  It is a beautiful looking plant.  The weather yesterday was fantastic.  Mid-70s with little to no wind.  We spent the better part of the full Saturday working in the yard and pumpkin patches.

Gave all of the plants some alfalfa pellet compost tea, with the new plants getting the same nutrients at planting as the greenhouse plants got earlier in the week.  As I mentioned previously in this blog, aerated compost tea does not seem to add biology in the soil that makes a significant difference.  Tests has shown that the increase that should happen with addition of biology from compost tea should cause an increase in respiration in the form of CO2, but that does not appear to be the case in the studies I looked at.

So why add an aerated compost tea using alfalfa pellets then?  Triacontanol!  Triacontanol has been called "the most potent growth hormone ever used on plants." I'm not sure yet it meets that high of praise, but it can't hurt and an aerated compost tea I think is one of the best ways to give it to your plant that is in the soil.  Studies have found that triacontanol can increase root mass by as much as 26%.  These studies weren't done on pumpkins, but I like those numbers.