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Northern Arizona

Ok so this will be my fourth year growing veggies in this spot. I have a very very clay soil that. The first year I brought in a bunch of compost and everything grew great. Next year some compost and like 6" of coconut husk from a large tomato farm. Everything grew good green but the cantaloupe, water melon and pumpkin had little fruit that was small did not ripen well and the pumpkins aborted a lot. Next year I added a couple truck loads of mostly composed horse manure and got basically the same result except I planted some winter squash and it was crazy how much squash I got. This year I got another truck load of purchased compost. Any Ideas on what might be causing the inferior fruit but good greens and good corn, tomatoes ext. I live in zone 5-6 and is colder tell mothers day then get to 90's to 100 by June with summer rains coming in July to keep things in the 80-90's. Sorry about the long post but am tired of growing lots of "plant" and no fruit.

Thanks

4/16/2009 10:46:26 AM

Berlin,mi.(zuhlke2@hotmail.com)

soil test?

4/16/2009 12:19:27 PM

Going Green

It is anyones guess without a soil test and Steve Zuhlke is right when he suggest that that be your first step! No one ever tells everything when posting and it causes me wonder that you have inferior or small fruit which would lead me to believe that you are concentrating on nitrogen and neglecting Phos. It the truth be known you are probably changing things up every month and don't know what to do next. Get a soil test and make small changes rather than big ones. Also you can take a few leafs from the plant and have them analysed and the lab will tell you what the analysis says your plants need!

4/16/2009 10:36:09 PM