From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Australia

hey guys, I'm not exactly a new grower, but I feel like one.
I'm growing a hydroponic giant I've got 7 channels for the secondary roots.
This season I started with nutrients made locally and I"m starting to feel like something is missing.

I started getting some cracks and splits in the vine, and just before i got to the length I wanted on the main it completely popped off and I've had about 4 secondarys pop off near the end too.
I started pollinating flowers on secondaries just so I'd have a back up, and yesterday one of those 9 day old pumpkins blew its self apart.
What can be the cause of a pumpkin so small completely breaking apart like that, could it be lack of calcium?

Is it nitrogen thats making the vines crack? I dont feel like the main or the secondaries were growing that fast, they slowed down after some really hot days we had.
I trained more secondaries forward to replace the main that snapped, and those all have cracks in them too, one has completely popped off as well.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1MHTkk9RPmMEsFjc3ESfGYFIV3i-DrE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10t8uSGX8PjeuDci84O7ZwnUcmv8FXcbJ/view?usp=sharing


Thoughts?
Thanks
David

12/29/2018 2:20:15 AM

Syracuse, NY

NICE! The only plant that i've had blow up pumpkins like that in recent years was the 1756 Howell/Jolivette, and i also was not giving that plant anything at ALL other than probably-too-recent horse manure and Mycorrhizae in the soil; although others will chime in and i know NOTHING about hydroponics yet, this almost MUST be caused by too much good stuff in those nutrients made locally---if nothing else and with my lack of GOOD advice, i'd say 'back off' on whatever is being applied to one-half concentrations and scale upward from there----eg

12/29/2018 2:41:07 AM

Bethlehem CT

I have had my vines split in half when they curl upwards at the vine tip. I have always assumed that the vines were brittle because of the combination of excess fertilizer combined with too much rain. I am not sure what to suggest because you are growing hydroponically. You could back off the nutrients a bit. Make sure you support the vine tips as they curl up and you may be able to keep them from splitting in half. If you get a pumpkin to stick on this plant it will have lots of juice to go.

12/29/2018 10:18:16 AM

Australia

thanks guys.
once I have the vine blowing apart like that I dropped the ec, I used to run 2.2 to 2.4 for my previous nutrients, but for this one I've dropped it to 1.8, but the vine was still standing up at the ends.
I've changed back to my original nutrients and kept a lower EC just in case. I've got a few flowers pollinated so I guess I'll just see what happens.
I'm still curious to know what makes a pumpkin blow up like that.
Pumpkins do like to be hydroponic, they can get as much water as they like, but hydroponics are much more temperamental than soil. Season before last I grew a 684lb pumpkin that was cut short because of some bad nutrients. and that was only with 3 channels for secondary roots, this season I have 7.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwYzQFYHLzm7dm5uWFVhM3JiWFU/view?usp=sharing

12/29/2018 11:35:02 AM

Guelph, Ontario

What is your nutrient mix? What is medium?

12/29/2018 12:21:59 PM

Australia

the medium is expanded clay.
this is the nutrient mix.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OMiu1EqT03ltD4xDi_7MQXRfzPECGyC_/view?usp=sharing

the thing is that in the A part of the mix, I'm feeling solids in the container. I asked the guys about it, and they said its the carrier for the nutrients sitting around too long then going solid. But surely there is carrier in A and B parts of the nutrients. Which means to me, something in A is reacting with nutrients and making solids, which makes me think, I must be losing nutrients in some kind of reaction which makes solids.
The question is... which nutrient is reacting and turning solid? Which nutrient deficiency causes pumpkins to blow out in the early stages?

12/29/2018 2:48:20 PM

Australia

I swapped to my old nutrients, and all is good again, no cracking vines, no exploding pumpkins.
So far so good! closing in on basketball size.

1/4/2019 12:53:25 PM

Georgia

Post pics or it will be downsized to baseball size. lol

1/4/2019 7:39:04 PM

Australia

38 degrees celcius/100F day today!
The vine loved it.
https://i.imgur.com/VP7llJ2.jpg

not quite basketball
https://i.imgur.com/GINpFjE.jpg

Larger than basketball
https://i.imgur.com/XmH3g7b.jpg

1/6/2019 12:15:30 PM