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United States

My pumpkin was pollinated a week ago, and is about cantaloupe sized. The soil lab test says my phosphorous is 18.1ppm, and my potassium is 187ppm. Those are both way too low from what I understand. Most of the high P&K ferts at my local garden stores are potassium chloride, which I've read is not ideal due to the salt content.

Can anyone recommend a quality, high phosphorous, higher potassium fertilizer, that won't take months to become available to the vine? My patch is only about 1,400sqft, but price is important.

7/20/2023 9:48:39 PM

Colorado

master blend 4-18-38

7/21/2023 12:58:08 AM

Anchorage Alaska

yup , love the master blend , my best pumpkins were grown off it

7/21/2023 1:20:36 AM

Prairie Du Sac Wi

I just bought that same master blend. Do you guys follow the instructions on the bag and add epsom salt and calcium nitrate when mixing it?

7/21/2023 5:58:39 AM

Syracuse, NY

Does anyone have a certain fruit size at which they begin using any high-potassium fert(s) to increase fruit size more rapidly?
I had three of my 178 direct-seeded to replace a failed one last year and the volleyballs on 2 of the 3 blew up without any added ferts as such just yet.
Just wonderin'---eg

7/21/2023 8:13:25 AM

Torrance, Ca.

Make sure to do a tissue test first. I tissue every year and didn't add K once last year and had my best fruit ever. She got up into the 50's a day and stayed there for weeks. Once disease set in, I did do my final tissue and my number had dropped from all the growth down to 8. If disease didn't take over I would off spoon fed at that point.
To much K to early can cause the fruit to ripen to quickly and you don't want that.

If Dale and cojoe like master blend, I'd go with their recommendation. These 2 know how to grow massive fruit and keep things balanced.

Dale, sorry about your crap weather this year...:(

7/21/2023 1:00:05 PM

Grittyville, WA

Kelp is mostly potassium. Not sure if its better or worse than other sources. I'm sure So Cal is correct that its not always beneficial. We do lots of knee jerk assuming, which might be just as bad as guessing.
But I think potassium could be up in the 600-1200 ppm range for a well fed plant... If you really are low in potassium, then adding potassium or correcting a manganese deficiency (it has some link to the plant getting the correct potassium levels) will help the plant.

7/21/2023 1:39:06 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Catond, I posted recently about the nutrient lockout with the Masterblend, calcium nitrate and Epsom salt as it warns on the label. Have a look here,

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewThread.asp?b=10&p=731831

So for me, I didn’t bother mixing it and just it by itself.

7/21/2023 8:23:19 PM

Lodi, California

If you use kelp today, it might break down into something the plant can use in 2-3 months.

7/22/2023 12:33:50 PM

Lodi, California

potassium nitrate is usually what most fertilizers use, including masterblend

7/22/2023 12:34:52 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Ashton, liquid kelp that is foliar fed is immediately available but the granular does take time to break down.

7/22/2023 1:38:22 PM

United States

Masterblend says their potassium is a mix of potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and potassium chloride. No percent breakdown of each as far as I can tell.

I thought potassium sulfate was supposed to be the best.

7/22/2023 3:17:10 PM

United States

The instructions on Masterblend say dissolve 12 grams into 5 gallons. What area is that supposed to cover, and how often should it be applied?

7/22/2023 3:21:01 PM

Grittyville, WA

Yeah, I meant liquid/ foliar kelp.

7/22/2023 6:32:41 PM

Prairie Du Sac Wi

Thanks for the info North Shore. So from what I got out of reading that is, as long as you let each ingredient completely dissolve and add them in the correct order then using the recommended on the bag formula is fine but only if your plant is ok with the extra nitrogen from the calcium nitrate.

I also thought about just using cal-mag instead of the epsom salt/calcium nitrate.

I'm feeding the bag recommended Masterblend mix at 1/4 strength every other day as my main drench and the off days I do a little kelp, micro nutrients or compost tea. If I switched to using cal-mag I would feed it on the off days from the Masterblend.

But don't use what I'm doing as a recommendation, Im just kinda guessing since it's my first year using Masterblend.

7/23/2023 3:02:40 AM