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River Valley, Arkansas

What ppm do you shoot for in a fertilizer drench? If fertilized daily with a trickle feed, and do you bump it up as the plant and pumpkin get larger?

6/30/2022 8:51:24 PM

Torrance, Ca.

I spoon feed every day so just a couple hundred ppm every time I water. I'd love to hear the Paton's response to this?

6/30/2022 10:48:35 PM

Torrance, Ca.

As the season progresses and the fruit start to slow or my tissue or soil test says I'm low in something, I bump it up a little.
My oldest fruit hit 35 pounds a day on day 23 and is now in the 40's a day. With the disease I have this year I'm pretty happy!:)
I know it will fall off quick but for now I'm enjoying it!

Very little feeding and keeping things balanced is the key to your growth success.

6/30/2022 10:52:44 PM

Lymington UK

PPM is great when you receive your eagerly awaited soil sample results but the opposite when you want to feed your plants.
The most important tool in any patch should be an EC meter with a cup, (get the best you can afford)
As a rule of thumb don’t go over an EC of 2.2 so if you need to feed divide what you want to give them over a week and use the meter every time.
The lower you keep the EC the happier your plants will be.
Stuart and I feed only what the plants need based on twice weekly soil tests. So this gets me to the interesting bit. When the plants hit the corners of your patch they rarely require any more food up to the end of the season.
So many people ramp up the feed when the pumpkins start to grow but when you think about it they only want Boron and Calcium to fill up with water.
For us all soil samples and feeding has stopped.
Loads more information on past diaries
Hope this helps Ian

7/1/2022 1:03:25 PM

Lodi, California

I don't know if you can trust that Ian guy, he doesn't seem to know what he's doing.

My well water is grossly hard, coming in at an EC of about 1.1, which doesn't give a whole lot of headroom for fertilizer. We've had several hoses get cemented together that were unable to be persuaded by pliers. Been pushing the envelope on the EC, trying to figure out what works best. Anyone else have similar problems/insight?

7/2/2022 2:16:58 AM

Watlington, UK

@pg3(Ashton) we have hard water too, pH 7.8 when it comes out the tap EC 1.0.
If you add nitric acid then you will reduce the pH and as a bonus you will convert some of the calcium and magnesium salts to nitrates ie fertiliser.
If you don't want any nitrates, like later in the season, just use sulphuric acid instead.

7/2/2022 1:20:07 PM

Lodi, California

Cool thanks for the tip

7/4/2022 3:20:45 PM

Lymington UK

Excellent tip Gerald.
Ian

7/4/2022 6:54:53 PM

Lloydminster/AB

You can buy sulphuric acid down at the auto parts store. Nitric acid may be hard to get without documentation. Rain water is best. If i don’t have rain water I’ll tune the city supplied river water to about 6.5 Ph with sulphuric acid. Our well water is very high in sodium and thats what causes its high EC. Acid does nothing to fix that. Gypsum helps.

7/5/2022 1:42:16 AM

Lodi, California

Oh we have an ag supplier down the road. They sell fertilizer by the 275 gallon tote, including sulpheric acid. I'll look into it. As for nitric, if it's a product that's commonly used in agriculture, I have a red neck friend who can probably get it lol

7/7/2022 4:57:05 PM

Roseville CA

I have a venturi fertilizer injection system set up. How do I use the EC meter in a system like that? Also, can the EC meter be useful with foliar feeding?

7/12/2022 1:04:59 AM