From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Harrisville, Pa

my pumpkin I have already planted? It has rained almost 7 days in a row and there is no end in sight to the rain. Also, the temp is in the low sixties. How will this effect the pumpkins?

5/15/2006 11:53:50 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

If your soil has good drainage, it probably shouldn't hurt too much. 2 years ago I had a heavy rain and the creek flooded my patch in May. The plants were on mounds and above the flood, but the soil was saturated for a long time. I still managed a 633.5 and a 449 on one plant, and several others in the 400# range. It was my first year growing with decent seed. My soil is silt over a sand/clay mix, and drains fairly well.

What the moisture and cool temps will do is leach out or tie up the nitrogen. If plants look yellow, you may need to add a little nitrogen fertilizer. If you had used a lot of manure on the patch, you might be OK as organic sources of nitrogen don't leach out as fast as commercial fertilizer. We saw that in Iowa corn fields in 1993, when it rained for nearly 2 months straight.

I have had similar conditions to your this last week, only colder. A couple of days the temps didn't make it out of the 40's and the lows were in the upper 30's. The plants aren't growing much, but I am sure they will take off once we get some heat and sunshine.

5/15/2006 1:33:47 PM

Harrisville, Pa

Thanks for the reply.

5/15/2006 1:39:30 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Patience, time & cloches help to moderate the moisture & tmperature. Once the sun comes back the color & growth will return. SMALL amounts of Nitrogen fertilizer will perk the plants back up but wait for the soil to dry out some first. This May won't go down in the record books as being a very good one in this neck of the woods either.

But it could be worse. We could live in New Hampshire.

5/15/2006 10:02:19 PM