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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I’m confused on the trace metals readings and guidelines presented. It appears you have 20x the guideline for iron, 4x the guideline for copper, 8x the guideline for zinc, and 4x the guideline for magnesium. I can understand shooting well above the recommended level for boron but is there no concern that these other trace metals are so high?? Thanks!

5/10/2025 12:23:29 AM

Lymington UK

That’s a great question to ask.
Some of the micro elements are high but that’s just our soil and we have never added any more.
We did add more sulphur last year as for some reason our plants were having trouble getting enough.
We used sulphate of ammonia in small doses which meant that when our nitrogen dips it had a back up.
Boron is a totally different kettle of fish.
Ron Wallace needs the credit for this answer and Stuart and I pushed the idea forward.
So if you take a leaf sample before the pumpkins are about the size of a beach ball your calcium will probably be fantastic.
If you do another sample a few weeks after the beach ball size you would probably want to cry because of the calcium levels.
So why is this happening?
Well at this point the pumpkins a going nuts and we have recorded them putting on 70lbs a day for 10 days.
They are using all of the calcium to fill that pumpkin with water.
Now here’s the thing, calcium is a lazy bastard and it relies on boron to move it around.
So to get more water in you need more boron. I wouldn’t want to be under 4ppm and 7ppm is not a problem.
I hope this helps Ian

5/10/2025 8:26:18 AM

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Ian, thanks but now I’m really thinking about all these micronutrients as your iron is just so incredibly high (which really is at an almost toxic level) but you are still one of the top growers in the world. In my reading iron toxicity can vary plant to plant but generally starts at about 100-200 ppm. It is very dependent on pH too as the higher the pH the less of the iron is available as it’s bound up so you can get away with a higher soil iron at a higher pH. You pH is a tad high, above the 6.5 recommend but certainly can not account for controlling iron toxicity. Maybe, just maybe it’s not just Boron we have miscalculated as too low at the standard recommend levels but many of these metal micronutrients. Let’s face it these plants are growth monsters and require an abnormally high metabolism especially during their exponential growth phase. Maybe it’s not just Boron we need at 5-10x normal but all of our micronutrients which are helping support the massive metabolism of these giants. That said you should probably get that Moly into normal range at the very least.

5/10/2025 10:08:28 AM