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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Friday, June 07, 2024
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Garwolf
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Kutztown, PA
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Entry 1 of 18 |
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Purposely started later this year and got the plants in the ground May 7th. I seeded 6 but planted 3 for pumpkin growing purposes., then three for pollination flowers if I need them. One of my pollination plants, the 1679 Holland is a cross of the 2145 McMillan and the 2528 Geddes. Those are two great foundation pumpkins so I thought I might get crazy and pollinate a plant or two with that plant. I only had the cloches on for about 3 weeks this season and I didn't use heating cables. Didn't need to. I also did not till until May 1st. I usually do that April 1st. This year I used a 10-10-10 all over along with my standard dose of Merit. I also applied granular humic. I've committed not to use roundup anywhere. I also have wind barriers up for the first time. My plants all failed last year due to what looked like a mosaic virus, but what I now believe could have been some drift from the farming adjacent to my patch or my own use of roundup on my patch to control weeds. I pulled all of my plants in early August last year and planted mustard which I cut and tilled in the day after Thanksgiving. I also planted my plants at the end of my patch away from the farmers field. I think that combined with the wind barriers will help offset any drift (I hope).
My current plants have about 8' mains and all look healthy. No signs of disease. I noted my first cucumber beetle this a.m. on one of my pollinator plants and sprayed all plant with Bayer. I plant to spray again with seven (carbaryl) this evening. I know those damn beetles spread mosaic etc. so I want to make sure to stay on top of that. They attack every year at this time. A couple of my plants have split vines, but they've dried out nicely and I plan to cover them with something that allows some ventilation but keeps the moisture off. This year I'm going to go light on the amount of soil I put over my vines so to keep them a little drier. Also, my bury strategy includes some rootshield, azos, mycos, humic, 10-10-10, and a tad of merit at each leaf note. We'll se how it goes.................................
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