Post by Compost Pharmer on Jul 10, 2005 12:14:45 GMT -6
Guys. I am in the planing stage for my 'punkin run' for next year. I have been tossing around the idea of making a raised bed 30 feet long. My question is, how deep do the roots go down? I was thinking of trying to till down, as far as I can, which won't be deep because of this hard black clay, then build a 6 - 8 inch raised bed on top. I want to mix together dirt, compost, dried molasses, horit cornmeal, and expanded shale. If there is anything else you guys can think of, let me know. My poor punkins are just about all dried up. The top soil/compost that I have been putting on top of the vines has mostly slid off the vines and down the cracks.
My 'punkin run' will only get morning sun, up to about 12:30 and shade in the afternoon. I am also gona build a misting system over the run. I am bound and determined to grow one of them giants.
Like Vince Lombardy would always say, 'Losing is not an option'. I will continue until I get one of dem giants.
Thanks Laura. Since the black clay gets so hard, like cement, down here, I was thinking of building a raised bed to give the punkins a fighting chance to put down roots. Yes it will be a chore, but growing them giant punkins is my task for next year. This year I let the vines grow out into the yard. Since we have not had much rain here. about 2 inches since April 1, the ground is cracking real bad under the vines. Most of the soil I have covered up the vines with is going down the cracks. I bought 400 lbs of top soil and compost, from Home Depot and have used most of it just trying to keep the vines covered. The run will only be 4 foot wide by 30 foot long. The width of my garage. Since I have to build up the dirt around the garage, why not build a raised bed for the punkins. I am also going to put in a misting system about 6 foot high for the punkins. Phil got me hooked on growing a giant punkin so I don't want to disappoint him. 
What is really neat is when you measure them about every 2-3 days & figure out how much weight they have put on. You can see them grow on a daily basis. It is amazing just how much work & energy people go through to get these giants. We were happy with what we got last year. But this year we are going for bigger. We had 5 to tend to last year. We also took them to a kids carnival last year after the weigh off..Boy did they like that. We even made it to the Newspaper with them. 
