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Cummington, MA

You read that correctly...2 out of the 4 patches are already empty due to diseased plants. The kids and I are of course still on pumpkin mode, so I want to use this energy while it lasts. What would you do now to prep these patches for next year? This will be a good way to comfort ourselves since we lost those 2 plants. Thanks a bunch!

8/6/2013 10:35:41 PM

Minnesota

Get on a program from extreme pumpkin store or hollands giant, have supplys ready before the season starts, prepare for the squash vine borers. Read a few books on pumpkin growing.

8/6/2013 11:31:47 PM

Minnesota

Make it to a weigh off this fall, pick the brains of the growers there.

8/6/2013 11:36:27 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Soil Test.
Add Ammendents at recommended amounts
Plant a cover crop.
Relax a few minutes
start planning for next year

8/7/2013 8:28:51 AM

Lakewood, Colorado

I agree with Linus. Take this as a blessing. Test soil, add amendments, till them in and plant a cover crop. Ron Wallace planted mustard as a cover crop for biofumigation in the soil. Read his "how I grew 2009" story or get the DVD from SNGPG. If there is something bad in the soil, the biofumigation will help. Read and absorb as much info as possible. Get your soil in order and you will be getting ahead of the curve. Talk to people in the know about soil nutrient ratios. That is really important.

8/7/2013 10:59:09 AM

President - GPC

SoilMinerals.com will help you alotZ

8/7/2013 1:40:52 PM

Deerfield, Michigan

Try and find a compost program in your area or a local farmer with some manure and start collecting as much as you can. If your on a limited budget put an ad on craigslist looking for manure. You will be surprised how many people just give it away. I found a guy in my area that pays me for every load I take away from his place. Just enough to cover the gas but it's ok.

8/8/2013 5:15:17 AM

Cummington, MA

Manure! We have chickens, pigs, sheep, and a cow. So that won't be a problem. The question is how much? I really like that guy that pays you to take away manure, keep him happy!

Thanks for all the good ideas! We collected soil for a sample yesterday and will send it off to UMass asap.

8/8/2013 9:51:50 AM

Germany

What I would do in your case, get a shit load of manure (sheep and cow) into the patch now and till it into the first 4-6 inch top soil layer, have a mustard cover crop for the next weeks, and then till it in and have a rye cover crop during the fall and winter months. Then take a soil sample in spring and adjust the levels of Ca,Mg,K,P,S,B and maybe Fe,Mn. If you need to add alot of nitrogen next spring, you can use some chicken manure (but not too much).

What I wouldn´t do: trying to adjust the levels of Ca,Mg,K,P,S,B first and then adding any manure, because it will shift the other levels.

8/8/2013 10:12:20 AM

Try to compost it if you can. Turning it will help speed things up.You will end up with about 30% of what you started with. Some of these folks can tell you how much to put on before you till it in.

8/8/2013 4:29:24 PM

Germany

Agree with spudder, composted manure is better than fresh manure. Hence, as an update to my above mentioned suggestion I would now suggest the version of things in the following order:

- mustard cover crop for the next weeks, simultaneously preparing a good load of compost from sheep and cow manure.
- mowing and tilling of mustard cover crop and at the same time addition of composted manure
- sowing of rye cover crop (perhaps a week or two weeks later, because the tilled in mustard might inhibit germination of rye)
- soil test in spring, addition of other amendments

8/9/2013 3:58:13 AM

Cummington, MA

Sounds like a plan. I am sending in a soil test today just to see what kind of soil I was trying to grow in. The kids got it all ready to go yesterday anyway and they want to see the results. We'll get some mustard seed at the farm store on Monday.

I've often wondered what the difference is between adding and tilling in fresh manure in the fall or adding that same manure composted in the spring. (Or in late winter when all the pens get cleaned out, it is so tempting to throw that on the gardens because it will still be about 8 weeks before anything is planted.)

Thanks for the great help!

8/9/2013 8:25:28 AM

Germany

There are some differences between getting fresh manure into the patch and composting manure prior to adding it to the patch.
- Nitrogen: As organic matter decomposes, the microorganisms need some of the nitrogen contained in the manure, hence some of the nitrogen is locked during the process of decomposition. If your patch soil is already pretty high in nitrogen, then it probably won´t hurt too much to have some low-N matter (like straw) added, which locks some of the nitrogen during its biological decomposition, but in other cases it is better to add compost, which has the nitrogen available to the plant.
- Weeds: Manure contains straw, hay and other stuff which might contain seeds of weeds, and in a compost pile you reach much higher temperatures than in your patch soil, hence the process of composting will help deactivate many weeds seeds.
- Diseases: As for the weeds, similar is true for some diseases (bacteria, fungi), which get killed by the heat within a compost pile.

It is important to turn the compost pile occasionally, it will speed up the process of composting and will enhance quality of the compost, because good access of air into the compost pile is important.

If the compost pile doesn´t heat up, you could add some layers of fresh grass clippings in between the layers of manure.

Do a site search on Bigpumpkins for composting, I´m sure this topic has been discussed more than once, and you will probably find many helpful hints.

8/9/2013 8:40:01 AM