Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 8 Entries. Monday, April 7 View Page Hello everyone! This year I�m actually hoping to have a proper diary, although I have a later start this year I think Il be able to push through to a new pb. I am currently planting a 2650, and thinking about my second plant. Looking at a 1707 which I have, but I would like to acquire a 1727 Jocobus or a 2554 Andrew�s as my second seed. (If any of yall have one and are willing to trade please lmk) I got my soil sample and shipped it off to western today. Il be doing a lot of things differently this year. � Friday, April 11 View Page Well, seems like I have a few entries I gotta catch up on, will get 'em all outa of the way right now! I got my soil test back a few days after the sample was sent out, and most of the numbers were fine except the magnesium! What the hell is that, with it being so low, I need to add like 500 pounds of epsom salt! � Friday, April 11 View Page So, here comes the Langley. This year, I�m switching things up a bit�focusing less on ratios and more on the actual PPM values I�m aiming for. After going through the soil tests and comparing them to the goal PPMs of the best growers in the world, like the Patons, I realized most of the ratios were totally out of whack.Not only that, but I also realized that due to the margin of error in soil testing�and the different rates at which nutrients leach out of the soil or get absorbed�it�s almost impossible to actually "balance" your soil. It never truly stays balanced anyway. As for what I�m adding: the main thing is a whole bunch of Epsom salt to bring the magnesium level up. I�ll be putting about three-quarters of it on the ground and keeping the rest to water in later, since I don�t want it all to leach out right away. � Tuesday, April 15 View Page I soaked the seeds in hydrogen peroxide and then set them on the grow mat at 90�F. They�ll sit like that for about 12�14 hours. I forgot to file the sides of my seeds this year, so germination might be a little slower than usual. � Tuesday, April 15 View Page I also laid down a couple of tarps to kill the weeds and hopefully warm up the soil a bit. Not totally sure how well it�ll work, but I�m a little hopeful. Either way, it probably won�t matter too much since everything's getting tilled in anyway. This year, I�m just going to use Roundup because I�m way too lazy to weed everything by hand. I�ll still weed around and inside the plant itself, but for the rest�Roundup or some other weed killer is the move. � Wednesday, April 16 View Page I totally forgot we gave away our space heaters, and I needed a last-minute way to warm up the soil since the heat mats weren�t cutting it. So I just threw on some hand warmers�desperate times, right? � Friday, April 18 View Page Got another 62 cubic feet of perlite, and it was somehow the same price as in 23, so that's just great! Gonna spread it out. � Sunday, April 20 View Page After about 4 years of starting giant pumpkin seeds, somehow this year got me the most nervous. Even though I�m using about the same amount of nutrients in my seedling mix as I did in �23 and �24, it just feels like a lot. Most of it is biologicals and seaweed, but still. I just hope the mix isn�t too hot. That said, from my experience, pumpkin seedlings are pretty resilient. I mean, I once hit a test batch with 80 ppm of boron and they still kept chugging along. Anyway, these are the seedlings 5 days after soak (or 5DAS, as some are calling it). They feel like they�re going a little slower than they should. What do you guys think? Maybe it's because I didn�t sand the edges this year� �