Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 12 Entries. Monday, March 10 View Page IT HAS BEGUN! Alright so no pics, but upon seeing someone else doing test seedlings, I figured I better do so as well because I've had issues the past couple years starting my plants. So I used of my 746 seeds from two years ago, promix BX, and one of those cheap heating mats from amazon. Now, based on last year, this seed takes a couple more days to sprout than some others and this one was no different as it was a solid five days before I saw anything. That doesn't deter me from wanting to grow it, but I may start this one a couple days earlier than the rest. My two issues have been heat and the intensity of the grow light. Last year I believe I overcooked the plants with both. So I've backed the light off to about 350 ppfd after the cots were fully out. I've also just put the heater on the floor of the garage and the plant up on a cardtable with no mini or anything. Turns out, my heater is heating the garage air to about 80 degrees when set to 75. So that tells me last year when I set it to 80 or higher in the mini, it was probably too much. Also I believe I had the grow light much closer to the plants than necessary. My meter was over 500 ppfd at that distance as I recall, and it would seem that's too high. So....so far I know I won't be using a mini, and the light will probably be at a greater height so I can get 300-400 on the meter.   Tuesday, March 11 View Page Here's the test seedling. It's a little taller than I'd like but that's because there were a couple nights I didn't have the light on it. Everything looks good so far! In the meantime, the patch has been tilled and I'm getting the soil sample ready to send off. Also my 2493 Wolf arrived that I won at the auction.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page FYI - I have found two squash bugs in my garage. Both in the past two early evenings sitting right on the plant. When I start my actual seeds I'm going to have a bottle of peppermint oil spray on hand as a repellent and I would recommend others in areas where these little b*st*rds are known to be do the same so your season doesn't end before it begins. They can carry the yellow vine disease and if your plant contracts it, it will not set a fruit. Whether or not they pose a threat to seedlings I don't know, but I'm not taking any chances.   Thursday, March 13 View Page It would seem I'm getting conflicting readings when using the ppfd meter on my phone with the built in sensor. I'm now considering that method useless and I would have to get a bluetooth sensor for more accurate readings. So I have gone ahead and resorted to the grow light's manual, which probably should have been the first method. It says that the light should be 24-30 inches up with seedlings so I have moved it into that position. This is higher than I've had it and so we may see some light burn symptoms on that first true leaf coming out. Also I'm using a temp probe to get a better reading on the actual temperature of the garage. Setting my heater to keep it around 80 is proving difficult.....haha. BUT, that's why we do these things. Definitely a good thing I've run this test to find out what doesn't work.   Saturday, March 15 View Page Leaf is looking much better now so it looks like I may have nipped this issue in the bud before it got too bad. This is a 2000 watt light after all so I suppose it shouldn't come as a shocker that it doesn't need to be right in the plant's face to be effective. I'll do another test seedling here in a couple weeks after I get back from spring break.   Tuesday, April 1 View Page I must have gotten lucky the past two years with Western Labs because my soil test usually came back within a week. It's been a few weeks this time and I still haven't gotten the results. I know they cashed the check I sent them though....   Wednesday, April 2 View Page Just got the paper version in the mail and when I messaged them about the email, they said it was just forgotten since they were on vacation. ANYWAY finally got the numbers. Looks like I don't need to add sulfer anymore..... With some help from our resident state record holder, Steve Strickler, I think we came up with a plan. Gonna have to add some calcitic lime to get that pH up without adding magnesium because I don't need more of that. Then a bunch of gypsum to bring the calcium saturation up. Also will be shooting for Boron somewhere in the 3's. The ratios are just going to be what they are for the most part.n the mail today,   Sunday, April 6 View Page We just had our spring meeting yesterday and got some really good information and tips from Joe Ailts. He basically went through the same thing he presented at the GPC conference but I feel like there was general agronomy stuff in there that some of us just either forget or just ignore entirely. In my case it was basically all new information. One thing that stood out to me was how nitrogen can be naturally generated by the organic matter already present in the soil once the temperature warms up. We tend to take our soil tests in late winter or early spring when it's still cold. The bacteria aren't active at that time so N levels are low. If you have a decent number of organic matter on your soil test, adding the hundreds of pounds of nitrogen products (alfalfa, etc) may not be necessary as nitrogen will be made available as the soil warms up and bacteria begin to work. The was a recent post from someone (can't remember who) about boron levels in the soil. Joe talked about boron as well and apparently Boron leeches out faster than just about anything else so it may actually be a better idea to add the Boron in a root drench before and after pollination rather than adding it dry to the soil when adding the other amendments. We just got a LOT of rain here in Indiana and I'm willing to bet now whatever Boron was left in my soil is probably gone now. This would probably also explain why we're able to put high levels of Boron into the soil amendments without toxifying it and many growers are shooting for higher PPM. Our club president, Mikkal Hodge, also talked about biologics a bit. He pulled up a recent study showing that the majority of Mycos products currently on the market may actually be ineffective, and in some cases detrimental. Since it isn't considered a fertilizer or any sort of control product, they aren't required to have any quality standards or certifications. I see a lot of growers here posting pics of the XG Mycos product. If you take the information in this study to be factual, I would leave that product out of the mix. There is a greater risk of root eating microbes colonizing the roots than there is of benefical ones. I apologize I don't have a link to the study but I'm sure someone here can dig it up if you want the source. He also talked about some other things like adding humic and fulvic acid to the mix in your fertilizer. It's not very expensive and has the ability to benefit and maintain organic matter in the soil, which, going back to my first thing, can help the soil naturally generate nitrogen so we don't have to be caking on layers of alfalfa every year so it actually ends up potentially saving you money. I currently use a fertilizer tank with a siphon that sends it through the overhead sprinklers, so I'll be adding that (probably the WOW product) to the tank with the master blend. Now all of this being said....I'm only a third year grower and have grown exactly 1 giant pumpkin...lol. This is all informati   Sunday, April 6 View Page Continuing from previous post since it got cut off....didn't know there was a limit. This is all information I've taken in and it helps me to assimilate it by putting it here.   Monday, April 7 View Page That's it.....it starts now. Sanded, soaked, and in the dirt. I'm honestly pretty nervous because last year, losing two plants in July, was a nightmare I don't want to relive. Anyway my 746(yes also the one that's like over a week ahead) are up top. Then we have two 2054 Stricklers and a 2493 Wolf . The other trays are where I've started marigolds and nastertiums as part of the squash bug defense perimeter. Hope we all have a good season!   Friday, April 11 View Page All the little guys popping up! A bit curlied on the 2493 there in the bottom right but it's already starting to sort itself out. The way ahead 746 was a bit leggy and decided to lay down. My plan is to put that one outside earlier than the rest, of course because it's 12 days ahead, but also to see how it does under those conditions. If it goes bad then it's no problem because I have the backup already underway.   Monday, April 14 View Page I got the lime and amendments all put down today. I ended up adding in a little bit of Milorganite which is just a slow release nitrogen product. The langley sheet has it down as 5-3-0 but it's actually 6-4-0 now so I changed it. Perhaps they've changed formulation over time. In any case it's one of those things all the stores have so it's easy to get. It probably isn't as naturally effective as alfalfa meal, but when you can't seem to find an easy way to source it you just use what's more available. Meanwhile the plants are doing fine. In fact it's kind of crazy how much they've grown in just three days. Looks like 2493's cots were damaged by something and that's why they came in so curly. It doesn't seem to be a big problem as the true leaf is coming out fine. Going into the later part of the week, the forecast is calling for lows in the 50's at night. To me that means it's all clear to transplant, which is earlier than I've done it in the past. So far it looks like my decision to start earlier was correct. This year I've got mini huts for the plants mainly to protect against excessive wind or severe weather, as well as possible herbicide drift although the farmers haven't even tilled the fields yet. I'm going to LIGHTLY till the patch again after I get the huts up. I've done quite a bit of walking over it and probably compacted a little. Also it hasn't rained at all lately and the lime is just sitting on the topsoil probably partially blowing away in the breeze. Plants will hit dirt on Thursday!