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My achocha hasn't seemed to start setting fruit yet, and was wondering what tricks I should start trying in order to get fruit from the plant.

black thumb
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2 Answers2

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There are two primary methods to force flowering; shorten the day length of light to 12/12 average...and do not over do the nitrogen.

Your fertilizer is important. N-P-K a balanced basic fertilizer is critical. If these numbers are out of balance you aren't in 'control'. N-P-K with N as the largest number meaning the percentage of that chemical in that bag is higher than Phosphorous and Potassium. This combination promotes vegetative growth not flowers and reproductive growth.

For flowers and fruit that Nitrogen needs to be lower in relation to the Phosphorous and the Potassium or you will not get flowers or fruit. When people start using a little of this and that and compost they need to keep track of the amounts of these chemicals (some erroneously call them nutrients...) so they know what these percentages are. Check out your Nitrogen ratios to P and K. Manipulating the day/night hours is tough out of doors so the N-P-K ratio is where I'd start. What have you been using? Chicken poo? Grins! Too high in Nitrogen.

stormy
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  • woodchips, and grass clippings :D – black thumb Sep 06 '18 at 04:41
  • The day and night cycle and then lowering the N in relation to P and K is how one pushes reproductive growth. You gotta know what you've done to talk to your plants and help them help you. I mean, not really talk to them but understand what it is they need and what it is you've done. Woodchips use up nitrogen, grass clippings add a bit of Nitrogen and chicken poo raw adds too much nitrogen. Just a little math and it seems you've over done your Nitrogen. Lots of vegetative growth with little reproductive growth. – stormy Sep 06 '18 at 06:06
  • I'd like to know what it is about wood chips you've fallen in love with. I know why you've fallen in love with chickens! I even have a chicken named after ME! I don't have them now because I am dealing with cats and bunnies galore. A friend got chickens and one of them reminded him of me; how I growl, put my chin down and stop my foot! Too funny! – stormy Sep 07 '18 at 22:28
  • Back to Eden, as well as composting right into the soil you want to put the nutrients in. – black thumb Sep 09 '18 at 00:40
  • @blackthumb Composting right in the soil does not add the chemistry plants have to have for photosynthesis. Nutrients infer 'food'. Plants make their own food via photosynthesis and the only way this process can take place is with NPK the macro elements and minute amounts of the micro elements. Nature doesn't allow much of that stuff to just lay around. Nature does a population control so you will not find proper chemistry to add more plants to the ecosystem. Gardens are totally artificial, plants depend on humans so we get what we want. Harvesting is actually 'mining' the soil of chem. – stormy Sep 09 '18 at 01:55
  • that is only partially true, some nutrients come from the air, and some come from the soil. I've been brainwashed partially by The Grass Fed Exchange. – black thumb Sep 09 '18 at 03:11
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    O2 and CO2 come from the air; what else are you calling nutrients? The chemistry has to be added in the proper amounts to the soil, chemistry (normally called nutrients or food) for us humans to grow the plants we want to grow, on the scale we want or need and when we want to grow it. Our gardens are artificial. We have to know enough to work with the plants and soil. There are no free lunches in the natural world. – stormy Sep 10 '18 at 05:05
  • nitrogen also is in the air along with other air born nutrients. – black thumb Sep 10 '18 at 05:44
  • Yes, Nitrogen is in our air. The largest part, actually. Until it is converted in the soil, it is not usable by plants just hanging around in the air. What other air born chemicals (nutrients)? You do understand my thing about 'nutrients' and 'feeding' plants, don't you? Plants do not up take nutrients, they uptake chemistry. They use CO2 and the roots use O2 out of the air to MAKE their own food. Plants make their own carbohydrates to use for growth and reproduction and storage in the roots. Nitrogen 'fixing' plants like the legumes are able to use nitrogen out of the air...not enuf. – stormy Sep 10 '18 at 06:38
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Sometimes all that is necessary is patience. One way to look at these plants is to compare them to an engine starting up. Coughing, spluttering, lumpy running, stop, restart, slowly warming up to a state where it runs smoothly and happily producing fruit. The plant needs to get some leaf area established, a critical amount of biomass established with all the plant hormones and other internals running harmoniously. You don't say how old/large/where the plant is, light conditions, type of soil and so on, so this may not apply but is sometimes the case.

Colin Beckingham
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  • mn is a usda zone 4a, it's outside, and I started it on mothers day weekend. It's covering most of a remesh fence. Soil type is kind of sandy with woodchips/grass in the trenches (1'X1'). – black thumb Sep 06 '18 at 03:52
  • So my suggestion does not apply in this case. It sounds rather like heat - my luffa vines also at similar latitude have produced about half the usual crop this year. Lots of flowers, both male and female, visits from ants and bumblebees, but fruit set not good at all. It was a hot summer here this year, with much humidity. Sweet potatoes doing well. – Colin Beckingham Sep 06 '18 at 04:27
  • I like how you write, Colin! Fun and colorful analogies. – stormy Sep 07 '18 at 22:23