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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Sunday, August 02, 2026
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Matt D.
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Connecticut
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Entry 27 of 33 |
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2154 Sperry Plant Overview
Despite the pumpkin splitting this is an opportunity to get a full analysis of the plant to gain some insight on how the plant care was going. Sometimes things can look good on the outside, but inspecting vines, roots and petioles at this point in the season can reveal how the plant was set-up to perform for the end stretch of the season.
From an external look the plant overall is looking great with maybe some elevated nitrogen release in the older portion of the plant. This likely came from the natural heating of the soil and the release of residual nitrogen from the soil. Additions were made carefully after noticing this and the newer growth seems to have less of the nitrogen bloat.
The variable factors of natural soil microbe release of nitrogen is what makes it a difficult nutrient to manage in addition to the difficult method of getting an accurate test value. To do a nitrogen test properly, the soil should be sampled to a depth of 12" and the same should be brought to the lab in less than 24-hours in a breathable bag/container. This is the lab/science method of determining nitrogen levels, but the grower way is to look at the plant since pumpkins tend to show levels of nitrogen in the plant fairly easily.
However, nutrients like phosphorus does not visibly show elevated levels (or toxic levels) so many growers over add without realizing since there are no obvious signs of a toxicity. This is where the importance of a soil test comes into play to reduced the chance of having nutrient lock out for a nutrients that does not visually show well in the plant.
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