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Sunday, March 27, 2011
Doing the Final Spring Soil Pumpkin Patch Prep
In the next three weeks (weather permitting) I will be doing my final pumpkin patch prep before planting. My soil tests came back looking really good except for my potassium which still has numbers through the roof. My calcium and magnesium numbers are about where I want them to be but my soil is out of balance in the base saturation so when I till the soil in the coming weeks I'll be adding some additional calcium and magnesium to get the ratios back into line. When I till I plan to add some Epsom salts (magnesium), gypsum (calcium), a small touch of blood meal (nitrogen), a little manganese and sugar to the patch. That will all be tilled in about 8 inches deep. After that I'll wait a week or so and then put my hoop houses on the patch to help warm up the planting area. I plan on starting my plants around April 15th this year indoors and hope to put the plants outdoors in the soil the first week of May. I saw a press release this last week from NBC stating that The Marriage Ref will begin this year's episodes on June 26th. There might be a pumpkin man on this year's show. Stay tuned for details.
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2 comments:
Jamie,
The high potassium may be a regional phenomina. The Arvada Community Garden is also very high (the heavy metals are another issue altogether.) Here is a link to my soil report.
http://www.arvadagardeners.org/documents/SoilTestResults2010.pdf
No pumpkins for me this year - again. Too much of our limited space is going to vegatables. Sad...
You need to rip out those vegetables and get your priorities straight. Pumpkins is where it is at. Lol
Higher potassium soils is a regional phenomina. But I know what my soil had when I started this patch three years ago and it has gone way up since. I suspect some poultry compost and a bag or a particular humic acid may have caused most of my troubles. It should go down after this season but I won't need to put on any potash in the next year or two.
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