From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Aurora, IL

I live in Chicago Il. and it is still cool here. I wanted to use soil heating cables but do not know how to place them. I would like to order them tomorrow. I will have 3 plants in a smaller than recommended area. Two plants will be adjacent to each other, approx. 10' apart (I'll determine at a later date which to keep). In the magazine I was looking at, the cables come in lengths of 6' to 48'. How do you place them and how deep do you dig the hole?

4/30/2010 6:27:30 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

try www.extremepumpkinstore.com and get the heavy duty 40' ones.

I dig down 6", put them in in a looping back and forth and NO touching, bury them, then raise the area another 6" (I use 6x8' hoops and one cable covers the area of one hoop). I lightly ramp my main and secondaries down to the rest of the patch level as they get that big and the hoop comes off, and it helps me with at stump drainage as well.

4/30/2010 11:19:22 PM

Aurora, IL

How do you make hoops?

5/1/2010 8:00:59 AM

Joliet, IL

another illinois grower is always a great thing to see yorunk. welcome aboard my friend.

here is a nice pic i pulled from buddy g's 2008 diary for you.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=79132

trust me, you are in for some winds again like we had this last week and also in last nights storms. however you decide to build it, make it as sturdy as possible to hold up against winds.

you can go to the "How to section" here on the front page of bp.com that shows how to make one with electrical conduit if looking for a little more stability.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=53

or you can google how to build a hoophouse or cold frame and there are numerous designs and methods.

the easiest way is to drive rebar on a slight angle into the ground, slip pvc pipe over it, and bend it in a hoop and see where you have to drive in the opposite piece of rebar. then put that rebar on an angle tilted back towards the other side and then slip the pvc onto that piece. this gives you one hoop. continue down the line and aadd as many hoops as you see fit. then stabilize the hoops with a piece on top like in the first pic from buddy g's 2008 diary i posted on top. you can then get clear plastic and drape over. make the plastic piece big enough to drape over the arched hoophouse and have 3' of room to to add brick weights to all 4 sides or use soil as the plastic stabilizers on each side. on hot days you will want to vent each side. by simpling lifting the plastic off each of the shorter sides and rolling or folding it up and securing it so both short sides of the hoophouse are wide open for good air flow. i am sure there are more people here that will help out with advice with their own proven methods. just make sure that you make them strong enough to stand up in the Windy City otherwise they can get blown apart in the wind and damage the plants. best of luck.
shazzy

5/1/2010 8:51:34 AM

Bristol R.I. USA

You get 6 pieces of rebar at home depot that will cost you about 1.86. 4 3/4 inch 10 foot pvs pipe and some heavy plastic and some cheap clamps. You take the the rebar and nail them into the ground, bend the pvc pipe over the rebar put some pvc in the center and secure it with some string or twine.(thats what i do) Drape the plastic over the pve and bury the outer edges while pulling the plastic tight. clamp down the plastic so its tight and slowly clamp. done! works awesome and its cheap...

5/1/2010 8:54:13 AM

Greene County, Pa.

wow someone reads my diary. Thanks

5/1/2010 9:09:06 AM

Joliet, IL

lol buddy. i read everyone's diary. keep them steers away from the plants and if they do damage, i will have to see how the taste after becoming barbie-Q!!!!

5/1/2010 12:10:27 PM

Webster, NY

Heating cables can look like this.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=127895

5/1/2010 5:12:27 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

You will find a lot of the great heavy hitters never ever use soil heating cables. One of the best grower in the whole world Quinn Werner doesn't use them. Jerry Rose doesn't use them either and the list goes on and on.

5/1/2010 8:28:21 PM

nOVA sCOTIA

The list goes on and on because they grow in a climate where there spring temperatures are warmer than most growers summer temps.No disrespect but i would challenge any heavy hitter to grow on a piece of property next to mine.

5/1/2010 8:49:35 PM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

yorunk,
If you shoot me an email at [email protected], i'll send you a picture showing you how far they are set apart and how we keep the cable from touching itsself and burning out.
Tom

5/2/2010 8:41:34 AM

Aurora, IL

Shazzy, when do you plant? Like you said, the wind with gusts to 40 and 1.5+ rain last night would have been a disaster if I had already planted.

Steeleydave, I didn't realize you needed such a big hole. I figured they buried a couple of inches surrounding plant.

5/2/2010 5:51:49 PM

Joliet, IL

yorunk, i start my seeds around april 19th every year. i used to start closer to may 1st when i first started. to start early i use a combo of sturdy portable greenhouses and space heaters. the greenhouses go up at least 3 weeks prior to transplanting to warm my soil up and to increase the 21 day cycle of corn seed maggots so they do not chomp my transplants. the space heaters are needed cuz we had a 29 degree night last week and the low temp in my greenhouse was 54. cold wet soil will lead to yellowing of leaves and nitrogen deficiencies. this can stunt a plant early that never quite pulls back out of it to full strength later on. this happened to my 1306 some years back when it did not have a hoop house or space heaters and it got stunted. pics of the plant are back in my diary. with the sustained 40 mph winds last week in that whole day wind event, a homemade greenhouse in my yard would have struggled to stay together. this is the reason i pay the cash for peace of mind with the sturdy, well staked greenhouses i use. i use better rope and heavied stakes then what comes with them and have witnessed them withstand an 80 mph gust when a tornado hit close by some years back. i am right on the I-80 corridor and i tend to be right at the heart of of the clash of cold fronts and warm fronts. you are not too far away and i am sure you can attest to the winds we get in this area. if you use a greenhouse, make them sturdy. i have not used a soil heating cable in over 6 years, but i am sure they work great and can only help your situations since your hoophouses have not been over your planting spots warming your soil for a couple weeks.

5/2/2010 6:43:26 PM

Aurora, IL

How large does a hoop house need to be? Do I just build small ones over each pumpkin plant? The one's I have looked at online seem to be quite large and cover alot of plants.

Shazzy - do you think it is too late to build one and get soil cables? I haven't started my seeds yet since I am waiting to do it right this year.

5/2/2010 10:11:31 PM

Joliet, IL

yorunk, my advice would be to start your plants this week as this should be the last week of cool nights or the chance of frost in our area. you can transplant them the following week as our soil temps from this unusually warm april are still higher than normal. you won't need the soil cables or the hoophouses and you can just make sure to use a 3' tall silt fence you can get at home depot to encircle your plants. this will protect them from wind and snapping off in this delicate sprout stage. you can take a 50' roll of th silt fence and cut it into 2 for smaller sections or just roll up the unused portion and keep adding more as the plant gets bigger encircling the plant for wind protection until the main vine is down and anchored with bamboo sticks or cut sections of coat hangers. a small sprout will take a good rain pounding in stride as long as it is not flooded out in pooling water. but the wind is the biggest enemy to the small plants until the main vine has laid down. you will find that the spaces in between the stakes on a silt fence are pretty wide to make a small circle around your plants. to take up the slack, use rebar or other sturdy stakes between the stakes attached to the silt fence where needed. if you want to warm your soil in each section further in the mean time, use some clear plastic visqueen over each individual planting spots. if the forcast shows for a lot of heavy rain for the days prior to transplanting, you can just lay a 5'x 5' piece of plywood over each individual planing spot and this will keep the soil dry enough so when you do transplant you are not putting the sprouts into wet cool saturated soil.

5/2/2010 10:41:22 PM

Aurora, IL

Do you think the soil will be warm enough to plant in the next couple of weeks? I agree about warming the soil first, but will it stay warm enough once I plant?

5/3/2010 1:03:38 PM

Joliet, IL

depends on the weather yorunk. you have the info and access to a site like tom p's extreme gardening for cables if you want them and you can still build the hoophouses if you want them. they will definately help keep the soil temps up. i think it's time to make a decision based on your money and how much you want to put into it. i believe this is the sink or swim moment. jump into the deep end and see what happens. lol. all i am saying is the choice is now yours at what you think is the right thing to do.

5/3/2010 8:01:28 PM