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Williamsburg,KY

I started my plants on May 5 and transplanted when it had two nice leaves. They are growing good and Im pruning the vines that come off the secondarys..my question is how does a person broadcast dry fertilizer, amoung the plants or just at the stump? How much 19-19-19 should a person use per plant. My patch is 20X60 ft total. thanks. I am also using fish/seaweed mix from Nitron Ind about 2 gallons per plant and 2oz of molassas for my whole patch as a foliar weekly. How am I doing, any advise is welcomed.

7/6/2005 4:36:21 PM

Montoursville, PA

One school of thought is to use no manufactured synthetic chemicals.

If you started the year out with a good application of manures and a cover crop last fall you could, in my opinion do just fine without application, of any synthetic ferts.

By your own assessment if you feel you need a bit of a lift consider Liquid Ironite per the label instructions. This applied foliar is less likely to get over applied and cause a growth spurt which is not good anytime.

7/7/2005 9:53:22 AM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

If no soil amendments, an application rate of 10-12 lbs /1000 ft2, 19-19-19 should be adiquate, however you may not want to apply a fertilizer this high in N this late in the season. Nirtogen basicly fuels plant growth and by now we are concentrating on pollination and fruiting. Addition of something like 6-24-24 may be a better choice.

7/7/2005 9:58:08 PM

Williamsburg,KY

Sorry to say I did not apply manure this year, but I did have a cover crop of winter wheat that was tilled in and in each hole, I added some compost and refilled hole and planted. I will not use much of the 19-19-19, I just thougt according to How to grow big Pumkins, II that now was the time for a balanced fertilizer.
Thanks docgipe for your input, my local store does not carry Ironite...I live in a rural community and Lowes is about 20 miles away and dont get the often. What kinda of numbers should I be using now...what CountyKid says...thanks everyone..

7/8/2005 12:18:04 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

The reference to "balanced fertilizer" in HTG BP II is to use a water soluble i.e. 20-20-20 as a soil drench. This will supply highly available macro and micro nutrients in very small amounts on a weekly basis. I apply about a handful of 20-20-20, this time of year, per plant, per week, in about 5 gal of water. If you think about it a handful weighs what? a 1/4 lb? as apposed to applying granular 19-19-19 at the beginning of the season at 10-12 lbs / plant. I recommend using the water soluble on a weekly basis but the addition of a high phos/pot granular may be a good idea as well, being that no manure is added. Pumpkins remove large amounts of P and K from the soil. It has to come from some ware. If it isn't available they just won't produce.
If we look at plant removal, field pumpkins remove 4.57 lbs of actual P205 and 9.71 lbs actual K per 1 ton produced. Most manure is much higher in K than P and by using composted manure we "burn" most of the N out of it before application. A granular fertilizer high in P and K (last 2 numbers) is a good substitute.
Using this plant removal formula, and shooting for 1 X 1000 lb AG on every 500 ft2 plant, without a soil test, we have to assume there are some nutrients available, if you were to try to supply 100% plant removal for a 1000 lbs pumpkin you would need about 20 lbs / plant of 6-24-24 to make it happen. By taking into account some nutrients already in the soil and the use of some water soluble you can probably reduce this by half, therefore my recommendation on 10 lbs.
The organic approach is all wonderful, but the science says you need the nutrients to grow em big!
John Vincent
Certified Crop Advisor

7/8/2005 3:02:31 PM

Montoursville, PA

Geese wizz did I miss something or was not one of the four largest ever grown raised totally on manures, compost and remineralization?

Geese wizz I wonder why the country, of Spain, totally outlawed the use of non-biodegradable soil treatments?

Time is, on the side, of biology. There will be a time when we will have, to recognize this and put it back into practice. We have proven time and again that common practice may not be the right thing, to continue. Practices that are not sustainable hopefully will not have nuked the soil beyond biological recovery.

7/19/2005 2:41:59 PM