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Brookfield, WI

First time grower - started late due to a delay in getting seeds. Plants went in the ground on 5/25.

I tilled in 7 yards of a compost/top soil/sand blend into my 500 sq. ft. patch before the start of the season.

The main vine seems to be doing great - currently 14 ft long and growing ~9in/day.

Unfortunately, I have not had a single secondary start to grow (1 in max). I lightly buried the nodes on the plant and made sure not to cover the secondaries.

The leafs look healthy and there is no obvious signs of disease or infection...just no growth of secondaries. I have been feeding the plant with RAW Grow (7-4-5) and supplemented with Nitrogen, Mykos, Azos and Cal/mag. EC was never above 1.1

I tested the soil with Western Labs:
PH of 8.1, Potassium of 888 (very high), Magnesium of 657 (very high), Sodium 281 (Too High) and Zinc 7.2 (Very High).

Iron, Manganese, copper, sulfate and Boron came in "Adequate".

I amended the soil per their recommendation last week...I know this can take some time to take affect.

Is this a case of the soil being too hot, or am I missing something here?

Any feedback/guesses would be helpful!

6/20/2024 8:59:47 PM

Syracuse, NY

You can, in the meantime, type or paste this into the
Site Search window at your top right of the page and see a few earlier posts about what that might be from years ago and even maybe recently. I would NOT follow those solutions verbatim without giving it a few days for others here and NOW to answer you, like, don't jump to conclusions, in other words.

secondaries not

GREAT JOB at telling of your soil report details.
Also, you can start a Grower Diary so that for this or any other problems or successes, you can
submit pictures from your desktop, let's say and others can answer questions and offer advice right there 4 U.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/bpweb/MobileDiaryAdd.aspx

You'll see an 'Old' and a 'New' heading somewhere - just use the 'New' one all the time, I guess.
No pressure, but it IS all the rage, lol---
Personally, I feel that the plant's gambling habit is outdoing its drinking habit and it'll
straighten itself out once the main has reached some biological limit, like a tree wood, lol.
There was one poster in my recommended Search result that said his plant was at 14 feet
and so on...cool timing---eric g

[Last edit: 06/20/24 10:16:02 PM]

6/20/2024 10:15:23 PM

Fullerton, California

Are you using a PH down for the water? Try adding a little bone meal along the main, don't bury nodes until secondaries are a few inches long.

6/21/2024 12:20:53 AM

Bethlehem CT

I would look to acidify your soil. A simple solution would be to buy a couple bags of Holly tone and get that into your soil ASAP.

6/21/2024 5:26:12 AM

Bethlehem CT

For a mechanical solution, at some point you may have to terminate the main vine and train a new one. The termination of the main will trigger a hormone response for the the other growing points on your secondaries to start growing

6/21/2024 5:28:33 AM

Brookfield, WI

Thanks for the responses! All is very helpful!

I have been PH balancing all feeding with a target PH of ~6.5 and have supplemented with some Epsom salt in drench and foliar feeding - based on this feedback and from others, I suspect the "Too High" sodium could be what is inhibiting nutrient uptake (I will remove the epsom salt from the feeding rotation immediately).

Our weather forecast is calling for heavy rain with a potential of flash flooding over the next two days (yikes!) - my thought was to spread out gypsum in high concentration around the patch and hope that the coming rain will help the gypsum penetrate into the root system and lower salt levels. I also read that soaking the patch with a lot of water can help drive out some of the salt.

How does this plan sound? Am I missing anything with this logic?

Really hope I can get the plant back on track and that my goal of a 500+ Lb is not completely lost this season.

6/21/2024 9:35:55 AM

Plymouth, MN

Your goal isn't lost by any means! Stop burying the main vine until the secondaries are ~6 inches long. If your spring has been anything like ours in MN it's been cool and wet. Sun and heat (60+ nights) really help push secondaries. Giving the plant bioavailable nitrogen will also help, given the rain. Couple of tablespoons of calcium nitrate in a couple of gallons at the crown would help once it dries out.

6/21/2024 1:49:44 PM

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=274196

Plus go to Henrys' 2019 diary about June 17th and see what Woody did for his secondary problem

those are 2 pretty decent growers. Phosphorus

[Last edit: 06/21/24 1:57:53 PM]

6/21/2024 1:55:10 PM

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/MsgBoard/ViewThread.asp?b=3&p=719065

6/21/2024 2:05:01 PM

Hadley Ny

I wouldn't add anything and let the heavy rains drench your soil and take out most nutrients that are high and hope for the best and reread soil. TO Much ain't good.

[Last edit: 06/21/24 2:19:26 PM]

6/21/2024 2:17:25 PM

Brookfield, WI

Got my tissue sample test back for anyone interested - low in a few things, high in others. Link: https://ibb.co/41XLwnk

Curious to hear reactions and if you think anything on the report might be the reason behind the lack of secondary growth?

I will get these missing nutrients mixed up and fed to the plant tonight - hoping to get these secondaries started as the main vine is already over 16 ft. long and not a single secondary has developed past an inch long!

6/24/2024 7:13:26 PM

Grittyville, WA

Interesting. I'm certain your plant will do amazing as soon as you add those nutrients... Thanks for sharing the results so that we can all learn something.

6/24/2024 8:25:27 PM

Grittyville, WA

Out of curiosity, does your soil have high organics/ wood chips?

6/24/2024 8:27:44 PM

Brookfield, WI

Soil sample test came back with an organic matter % of 11.5 which is "very high".

Hope to get some secondary growth within the next few weeks!

6/25/2024 10:37:44 AM

Grittyville, WA

The soil microbes can be hungry and compete with the roots for nutrients. They could be stealing away some of the nutrients you are adding. Its good you are watching the EC but on the other hand the plants do really come alive when there is an abundance of resources available. The EC might be more important during hot weather or to prevent aborts. When you can get away with it, dump the nutrients on, lol.
Good luck.

6/25/2024 2:31:02 PM

Colorado

Make sure you're not low in nitrogen.Water heavy to get that sodium down.

6/25/2024 6:09:55 PM

Brookfield, WI

Update for anyone that might have similar issues visiting this post - after the tissue test results, I hit the plant hard with nitrogen and phosphorus...within 48 hours, the secondaries took off! The first 9 nodes are not producing secondaries, but every other node is producing side vines. Pollinated a pumpkin that is 20 feet out with 11 secondaries behind and have another that will be pollinated 26 feet out with 18 side vines behind it. Fingers crossed!

7/6/2024 11:48:12 AM

Hadley Ny

Good to hear. Cojoe is usually spot on. Nitrogen is always needed through out the growth and drenching soil as I as well mentioned will get rid of stuff that is to high. Good luck to you.

7/6/2024 12:57:23 PM

Grittyville, WA

The upside is, the plants that struggle with top growth might have better than average roots... sometimes part of it has to do with how they choose to invest their resources. Hopefully now you've got the best of both worlds. Good job solving it.

7/6/2024 3:10:36 PM