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Dayton OH

Last year I had one plant and it aborted in mid August at 260#. This year I had four plants, three aborted by mid August with weights between 250# and 400#. The fourth did just fine and weighed in at almost 700#. Any ideas on how to get more of these rascals to go full term? Paul

12/16/2007 3:13:18 PM

[email protected]

Without knowing your particular situation several ideas come to mind. What of these details can you also supply? Knowing more would help.

Moderate fertility.
Moderate moisture.
Shade the developing fruit.
Get the fruit onto sand & mats.
Get vines pruned to terminal shortly after fruitset.

12/16/2007 4:32:35 PM

Dayton OH

Tremor – You might be on to something with some of those points.
Fertility could have been low. I did add some kelp meal, alfalfa meal, dried molasses throughout, but manure only in the “pit.” This fall I added 11 cubic yards of mushroom compost to my 1700 sq ft patch. So 2008 should have better fertility. Also I plan on using the Agro-K program in 2008.

Moisture is a difficult one to assess.

Shade: I used towels and sheets after the fruit got beachball size but not before.

The fruits were on mats so I think we can rule that one out.

Vine management was about a C+. Didn’t terminate early. Quite a few tertiaries snuck in. Didn’t bury them either (my bad.)

Thanks

Paul

12/16/2007 7:04:12 PM

Rhode Island

paul

without a tissue test at time the fruit went down its difficult to say what may have happened.

i would not be surprised if there was some sort of imbalance in your soil.

high levels of one thing and not enough of another can cause fruit to stop growing.

mushroom compost is very high in salts im told. could be part of the problem?

12/16/2007 7:51:57 PM

Dayton OH

Dick --
Do you test the tissue of the plant or the fruit? I'll have to try that next year if the same problem show up.

Also, any suggestions on how to deal with the salts in mushroom compost? Try to leach the salts out?

Thanks
Paul

12/16/2007 7:56:17 PM

[email protected]

Tissue tests are performed only on the most recently expanded leaves.

Gypsum & time spent outdoors will leach out the salts

12/17/2007 12:01:03 AM

Dayton OH

lol

12/17/2007 1:53:15 AM

Ontario, Canada.

I agree with Dick. Soil salinity is one of the leading causes of reduced Calcium uptake and eventually poor fruit growth.

There are a host of other reasons for fruit abortions.

They range from COld temperatures to hot.

Moisture in the blossom.
Low relative humidty casing high leaf transpiration.
Ammonium nitrate ferts.
Poor calcium flow into the fruit.

12/17/2007 7:19:12 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

To all, is there a difference between what causes aborts early and late....I dont mean lack of pollination aborts, but after, what most of us (I would think) consider a good polination...30 days or so of growth, and then pkn failing? The later scenario has been my prblm the last two years!! All info appreciated!!! Although I think I already know what the problem (that I started) is!! Peace, Wayne

12/17/2007 4:23:10 PM

"Moisture is a difficult one to assess." ????

12/17/2007 5:34:43 PM

Dayton OH

Dan --
Maybe you can help fine tune moisture assessment. It's easy to tell if the soil is bone dry or dripping wet, but "moderate" moisture has got to be more than just "not too wet and not too dry." Thanks, Paul

12/17/2007 7:30:56 PM

Consistant moisture throughout the root zone is what I shoot for. The old "when a handfull balls in your hand and feels moist not wet" is a perfect guideline for this.

When these fruit are growing they require far more than the guideline of 1" per week as was once thought,,,IMO. That coupled with some of the other ideas expressed above could be the problem.

12/17/2007 9:04:09 PM

Dayton OH

Thanks all!
Maybe with these ideas I can lick this thing!
Paul

12/17/2007 9:48:50 PM

[email protected]

The Calcium issue is very real but as Dan said moisture is critical. EVEN moisture is the key as these plant have trouble with slowing down then picking back up again.

12/18/2007 12:01:31 AM