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Hamilton, MI

Hi all - I've been growing for five years, but have been having trouble getting anything larger than 500-600 pounds. This year I've started to wonder if maybe I've been over-watering, and if has been the cause of all my problems. Let me know what you think!

One big problem I've always had is tons of problems with disease: I typically get them all. I sometimes wonder if my patch is infected with something that is holding me back.

For fungicide, I alternate between Daconil (chlorothalonil) and Immunox (Myclobutanil), spraying every week. I mix the fungicide with the pesticide (Bifentherin), and apply with a sprayer.

My soil is sandy, but I typically bring in a bunch of the 50/50 compost/topsoil mix you can buy for $25 a yard, and compost leaves over the winter.

This year I noticed something strange:

When my plant grew beyond my watering zones (soaker hoses 12’ apart, just under the soil surface), and into dry, super-sandy soil, the leaves tripled in size. They went from 10-12" diameters to almost 24" diameters. I couldn't believe it. Small leaves in the watered portion of the patch, and large leaves outside.

Due to this, I wondered if maybe I could be over-watering my plant. I purchased some more soaker hose and measured the output. I calculated I was putting 800 gallons of water per day on my 25'X25' patch. That seemed like a lot. I cut my watering by 2/3, and in several weeks began getting large leaves in other places.

This raised a ton of questions:

How much water is enough?
How much do you put on your patch in the heat of the summer?
Could the amount of water be the cause of my disease issues?
Am I bringing in disease with the compost mix?
How can I know how much water to apply?

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you can provide!

-Joe
My grow diary (of sorts) is here: https://www.facebook.com/DGPumpkinPatch/

10/14/2018 9:53:42 PM

stoughton WI

hi joe, let me just start out by saying im no expert, but i have been growing for 12 years. it looks like you have the basic principals down. if your soil is sandy you may need to water every day. for 1 plant it could be any where 50 to 100 gals of water a day. 800 gals a day is way to much for 1 plant.you will have to find what works best for your soil conditions. i also looked through your pics on facebook. and you might want to bury your vines at each leaf, they root on top and bottom of the vine at each leaf. also you may not want to mix insecticide with fungicide, cucumber beatles and squash bugs can take out a plant pretty fast by transmitting disease, a systemic insecticide may also help. water early mornings or later in the day so water does not scourch leaves. to much water can be a good place for disease to get a foot hold. you may want to have your soil tested for disease or change your patch area if possible, if diseased. check your soil the day after watering to see how wet it is staying, if fairly dry you may want to water. that is something you will have to get a feel for. the further away from the stump and the pumpkin the bigger the leaves will get. i hope this helps somewhat and im sure other growers will post there ideas as well. good luck.

10/14/2018 11:18:27 PM

Grittyville, WA

How long are you running the water? Is that an hour or two per day? Curious... thanks. I am pretty sure I can get 400 lbers on 20 gallons per day. Sandy loam. Not saying thats ideal. Just making a comparison...

10/15/2018 12:37:07 AM

Stanwood, Washington

800 gallons per day on 25x 25 is the equivalent of 2.05 inches of rain per day. I don't care how dandy your soil is. The fact that you got anything at all to grow with that much water is pretty amazing. That is waaaay too much. No one can tell you exactly how much to put on your soil. You have to learn to read it and tell when it has enough. Personally I am usually putting somewhere between 30 and 100 gallons per day per plant depending on the time of the season and the climate conditions. I am thinking I may need to back off a bit on that as it is. I can't even imagine putting 800 gallons per day on a plant.

10/15/2018 2:28:52 AM

Westmoreland, KS

microTree, before I grew in a green house I watered a ton 150-300 gallons per plant per day. This worked for me to help cool the plants. However, my temperatures during the summer range from 90-110 degrees a day. I'm guessing your temperatures are much more moderate than mine so i would shoot for around 100 gallons per day. And Take Rick's advice a soil test right now gives you tons of info

10/15/2018 9:31:43 AM

Germany

I found out that if you have to much wood in the ground there will be nemathodes and they are attacking the twines.

10/15/2018 9:35:12 AM

Colorado

Get some kind of moisture meter.With sandy soil youll have to water daily on non rain days.How much is the question!! I used a buried moisture sensor-expensive -but gives accurate info.

10/15/2018 11:36:21 AM

Hamilton, MI

Thanks everyone for the great info! It's pretty clear that I was over-watering. :)

Anyone have a recommendation for where I should get my soil tested?

rick j: I usually bury the main vine out to 20 feet, but then lose track of things when stuff gets out of hand. Access to the plant is difficult; I try to keep it in an organized Christmas tree shape, but still it gets crowded. I've heard of people pruning off every-other secondary for this reason. Anyone do that?

Glenomkins: 800 gallons a day was 45 minutes (15 minutes per zone over three zones). I lowered it to 15 minutes total, and growth was much better, but the year was all but over at that point. :(

Colorado: What soil moisture sensor do you have? I've considered it, but they seem prone to error, especially the resistive types.

Thanks everyone!

10/15/2018 7:05:26 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Wow, how are you getting 800 gallons in 45 minutes? Is that pumped from a well at high pressure and thick pipes?

At best we get 5 gallons per minute from our water system so 45 minutes is 225 gallons or enough for 2 plants in August.

10/15/2018 8:23:16 PM

Grittyville, WA

Fifteen minutes does not sound bad but maybe its a lot of output because his lines are spaced tight @ twelve inch spacing.

10/15/2018 8:52:24 PM

Hamilton, MI

North Shore: Yup, it's from a well. I get about 9 gpm per 50 feet of soaker hose. It was actually a surprise to me too, which is why I was putting down 800 gallons before I measured it!

10/15/2018 8:53:33 PM

Hamilton, MI

Glenomkins: Is 12 inches too tight? It's a lot of work to set them up, so if I can get away with less, that would be great.

Also, do you guys run them parallel to the main vine or perpendicular? I can never decide which is best for weeding, etc.

10/15/2018 8:55:41 PM

Grittyville, WA

I am not well qualified to answer I should defer to someone else... But in theory a wider spacing could allow the roots some advantage if you need the water to go deeper without drowning or total de-mineralizing the root zone. Unless your water is perfect temp and ph then applying excess could work against mineral uptake. I ran a soaker hose on my tomatoes and left it running too long a few times. The only ones that got blossom end rot were those which were totally surrounded by hose or where it broke. The others were saved by the fact that I ran the hose on only one side of the plants. One side got overwatered but the roots on the other side were still dry and could access enough calcium. In terms of mineral uptake in tomatoes... It was a small success to have some of the roots dry when the other half got overwatered. Anyhow I cant say what is totally optimal for your patch but hopefully you see how a very crude balance of wet and dry worked...
You can be like the pros and get your watering to a near perfect balance.

10/16/2018 12:33:39 AM

Colorado

Spectrum technologies. Team pumpkin has some info on them under downloads on team pumpkin website.

10/16/2018 12:35:01 AM

Hamilton, MI

Glenomkins, that makes total sense. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience!

cojoe: Nice sensors. Thanks!

10/16/2018 9:02:38 PM