Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 50 Entries. Thursday, February 14 View Page hope cut and past works soil test. #2 is city patch. i'm amazed my toic boron count is down. but even if I make perfect soil I realize now from reseach that the lack of light my patch gets will never let me get over 1000lbs here. :( growing her anyway fun! Soil test # 1 is from an old garden of my grandparents. that has only had grass for 20 years with hens and geese scratching. Amazing test for new soil. and 100 % of sun light. Will need wind breaks and overhead bird netting and my father's help to water through the week, but if he does water for me, for sure a new PB. and i will do it with a 380 turner Sample Number Lab Number Organic Matter Phosphorus - P ppm Potassium K ppm Magnesium Mg ppm Calcium Ca ppm Sodium Na ppm pH CEC meq/100g Percent Base Saturations Bicarb Bray-P1 pH Buffer % K % Mg % Ca % H % Na 001 42948 6.4 602 H 277 VH 275M 2400M 23 L 6.5 6.9 16.3 4.4 14.1 73.7 7.2 0.6 002 42949 4.3 355 H 256 VH 130 L 1840 H 13 L 7.5 11.0 6.0 9.9 83.8 0.5 Sample Number Sulfur S ppm Zinc Zn ppm Manganese Mn ppm Iron Fe ppm Copper Cu ppm Boron B ppm Soluble Salts ms/cm Saturation %P Aluminum Al ppm Saturation %Al Nitrate Nitrogen NO3-N ppm K/Mg Ratio ENR Field ID 001 21 VL 49.9 VH 30 H 133 VH 2.7 H 0.5 L 118 H 653 0.2 G 0.31 77 002 11 VL 21.5 VH 48 H 112 VH 3.6 VH 0.5 L 27 H 569 0.0 G 0.61 55 OE VL = VERY LOW, L = LOW, M = MEDIUM, H = HIGH, VH = VERY HIGH, G = GOOD, MA = MARGINAL, MT = MODERATE PHYTO-TOXIC, T = PHYTO-TOXIC, ST = SEVERE PHYTO-TOXIC SOIL FERTILITY GUIDELINES (lbs/ac) Sample Number Crop Yield Goal Lime Tons/Acre N P2O5 K2O Mg Ca S Zn Mn Fe Cu B 001 Giant Pumpkin 0.0 5 2 3 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 002 Giant Pumpkin 0.0 5 2 2 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 Monday, April 8 View Page Well time to decide what seeds I'm growing. for tomato, thanks to lookajook who wants me to try my tricks on these. 4.06 Johnston Butler 2012 4.32 Hunt 2012 Feild pumpkin, again thanks to joel but I will show little love to these likely may trade if I get an offer 94 lyons 2012 85 Eaton 2011 Watermelon again little love will be shown unless I get a good start may trade 239 Leonard 2008 260.5 Clementz 177 Delaney Squash My own seed only. 655 Turner 2012 To be crossed on 380 Turner This is 1002 jarvis crossed on Danny Dills 1002 Jarvis which grew his best 917 lbs Pumpkin Thanks Chris I look forward to growing yours. 1140 Finders 2011 croseed on Delaney 1381 Delaney 2012 Crossed on Finders 380 Turner 2011 Laugh, but I see something here. To be crossed on the one that looks the best out of these 3 as I think they are all great. Back ups 1684.5 Delaney 2012 1427 Jarvis 1532.5 Pugh 11 1019 Grande 08 1426 Wolf 10 Saturday, April 13 View Page tomatoes, watermelon and field pumpkin are in on the 3rd snow storm of april. Sob. Wednesday, April 17 View Page first up 2 - 94 lyons. no other life has broken the surface yet. Wednesday, April 24 View Page all in tomorrow Tuesday, April 30 View Page all up except my 655 squash seeds won't pop. planted a few 609 jarvis squash back ups today as they are the same cross 1002 x 1002. Tuesday, April 30 View Page side note: 380 turners are ahead of everything else i planted. Before I planted any this year I wieghed all my 380 seeds on a super sensitive scale picking the heaviest and 2nd heaviest. and the biggest so far is the heaviest seed. Sunday, May 5 View Page still cold here but had to plant my field pumpkins outside today as they were starting to vine. 380 turners are still in the lead followed by the 1427 jarvis squash are almost a bust but not quit yet. Wednesday, May 8 View Page went and caught a little lunch after cutting up fire wood for my father. The SOG knife is 12" in lenght. Cooked on the shore right where I caught them, that's how they taste the best. Wednesday, May 8 View Page Kline to the left, Jarvis to the right. Wednesday, May 8 View Page jarvis to the left delany to the right Wednesday, May 8 View Page jarvis to the left delany to the right Wednesday, May 8 View Page here is my 380 turner that was planted at the same time as the proceeding plants. nothing extra was given it yet. Saturday, May 11 View Page cherry tree blossoming today, about a month latter than normal Sunday, July 7 View Page Due to bad weather, poor greenhouses and lack of attention, I've decided to expereiment with my city plants. this is the 380 turner. early dose #1 configuration. Tendrils show signs of increased growth with slight hunching of fruit Sunday, July 7 View Page here is the kline early dose configuration #2 increased side vine growth next to fruit going straight up, even bigger than main. also hunching of fruit again. Sunday, July 7 View Page jarvis plant here. early spray configuration #3 This tendril was as long as my whole forearm and hand this morning when it was fully extended. again fruit hunching but in reverse. next I'll post my country fruit under my Mr-T account. Just using my already proven sprays on these as they are doing pretty good and taking care of them. Monday, July 8 View Page these 2 tendrils are just 2 leaves apart on the same main vine on the same plant. Just showing what my "Apple Juice" spray can do. also a nice 7 lober just removed. Found that my main on my turner plant rotted from the bottom up. Due to all the rain and some stupid kid sneeking in and breaking vines off my plants. Tuesday, July 9 View Page average looking blossom? Tuesday, July 9 View Page Not really. Notice how small the 5 lobe stamin is, also how small the seed cavity is. This is from formula #2. just might have discovered how to 1/2 seed cavity and double wall thickness. I will be setting one on next week with this formula. Please note that these city pumpkins will not get real big. But if I can get an OTT 300 lber to 600 lbs then I have succeded. Tuesday, July 9 View Page Not really. Notice how small the 5 lobe stamin is, also how small the seed cavity is. This is from formula #2. just might have discovered how to 1/2 seed cavity and double wall thickness. I will be setting one on next week with this formula. Please note that these city pumpkins will not get real big. But if I can get an OTT 300 lber to 600 lbs then I have succeded. Thursday, July 11 View Page again another blossum with extra extra small stamin. trying to pollunate this one 10' on the turner but plant is dying from vine rot. So if i get this one I will likely try to keep plant alive for 20 more day's and then dysect Saturday, July 13 View Page it seems like it will never open. This is my only fair shot for a city pumpkin. "Apple juice #2" experiment Monday, July 15 View Page Jarvis opened today, 5 lober crossed on the finders. Spray #3 only shrank stamina by about 10-15% Monday, July 15 View Page this I call the Jarvis bend Monday, July 15 View Page finder opened today. 4 lober crossed on 380 turner. for size of initial flower/fruit spray #2 shrank stamine by 15-20%. Monday, July 15 View Page spray #2 on finders has tendril continually shooting arms up 15 with no end in sight Monday, July 15 View Page Ok finders roll over. worst vine position ever for me but only shot at a pumpkin of any size this year in the city. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Day 1 Finders, went from a little bigger than a chicken egg to a little bigger than a goose egg. the stock is already as thick as some 600 lbers I had years ago but this only makes it harder to get proper positioning. P.S. you will see more photos of my poor city garden than country one as more time here and want records of experiments here. Wednesday, July 17 View Page day 2. big as a hardball. picture lies. fruit not quit as big as it looks but stock bigger than it looks. Thursday, July 18 View Page day 3 again picture lies but this time pumpkin actually bigger than it looks, just shy of softball size. a little worried over bubbly ribby look, as indication of steroid overdose, if it doesn't shake it in the next 5 day's it means I've over done it, and she will either be stunted or dye. But if does shake it before day 10 then I hit it just right. and it will become great like all athletes lol Friday, July 19 View Page day 4. slightly larger than a softball. Sunday, July 21 View Page day 6, bit bigger than small ball bowling ball. for a season I gave up on, for this garden, not doing to bad. my 841 the largest I grew here was pollenated on the same day as this one, Since I sprayed this baby with "apple juice formula #2" it should get bigger % heavier. Monday, July 22 View Page day 7. for some reason these pics don't show the true thickness of the stock. Back on day 3 the stock was already so thick that my hand, thumb to middle finger, would not quit touch when I would try and wrap my hand around it. now at day 7 I bet it is the same thickness as any stock I have ever had including my 900lber in the Bahamas. Must be my apple juice #2 ;) Tuesday, July 23 View Page day 8, no record pace but big day 10 even day 20 #'s mean very little in my opinion. Tuesday, July 23 View Page though I would change the angle I do pics on. Good stock but means very little as I don't have a big enough plant, only 125'sq right now. I doubt I will have a big enough plant to support her once she hits 100lbs. So I may hit plant with 20-20-20 just to keep plant growing while I can. Like I tell my clients, if you don't take care of your soil, plant and about 10 other things first, My "Apple Juice" hormone sprays will only help a little. adding 10-20% weight to a 100lbs pumpkin is not much, on a 1500lbs pumpkin this can make the difference on first and tenth place. Wednesday, July 24 View Page day 9. big growth on the bottom especially on the far side bottom which was the smallest and now likely the biggest. That's a side effect of my juice. where ever growth looks stunted, 9 times out of 10 it becomes the largest section of the pumpkin. that's why right up to day 20 your #'s should be a bit behind, then look out. Thursday, July 25 View Page day 10 finders 23"c 17.5"ss 17"fb = 57.5" ott a little small but that's what I wanted, was shooting for 58" ott. day 10 Jarvis 23" x 18" x 17.5" = 58.5" looks smaller than finders, but not enough plant to matter anyway. day 14 turner 23" x 18" x 18" = 59" not bad for a 1/4 vine diseased plant and solid through pumpkin Saturday, July 27 View Page no real growth since day 9. a few factors may have done this. I tried boosting my whole plant with some hormones, I also sprayed 10% bleach on blossom end to combat mold, also only rain for past few days, lastly my new configuration of hormones at initial spray may have done it. Today I resprayed the fruit hoping to reinitiate growth. Monday, July 29 View Page I DID IT, THE IMPOSSIBLE. After 3 whole days without a single 1/8" of growth I got her going again with a sever regiment of 3 different hormones she did 2" C Day 14 25" c 18.5" ss 19" fb = 62.5" ott But I still view her as a heart attack victim. and still doubt she will pull through. But for now I have a pulse. lol. Tuesday, July 30 View Page day 15 still alive but barely. As you can see the forced growth from my over doing hormones to restart growth, has caused some deformities. This tends to eventually be fatal. As it is similar to cancer growth and eventually causes damage to other cells then decay. Tuesday, July 30 View Page day 15 side view, as you can see from this and the previous pic, it almost looks like 3 pumpkins morphing out of this one. But still slowly growing (rain for past 24hrs) 25.5" x 20" x 19.5" = 65" You should be behind first 20 day bench marks but not by this much. Wednesday, July 31 View Page day 16 for Frankenstein. still growing but hard to measure 28" c 21.5" ss 21" fb = 70.5" ott This is not right, I must put an end to this experiment. I have one that will bloom in a week at 25'. This one I will only use my Hormone spray's in the levels and times I know produce the best result both in size and appearance. More is never better and timing is everything. Thursday, August 1 View Page Well I finally figured out what had shut my pumpkin off a week ago. she had split on the bottom likely around day 8 or 9. then when I forced her to grow again with hormones I figure she went all malformed due to certain section being completely dead. and to top it off my main broke in half yesterday 2 feet before my next set. Oh well. What did I learn this year. 1. the timing of my hormone sprays is more important than the dose. based on the stage of development as an embryo you can drastically shrink the seed cavity but this will shrink your stock as well, ultimately stunting growth. at another stage you can drastically increase your stock and significantly shrink your seed cavity but the smaller cavity is full of deep cracks. Lastly I found how to restart growth after it stops, but the growth is not pretty. Next year I will use my sprays only at the correct time I have already established for an overall growth increase. I may use my jumpstart formula If growth stops near end of season. Tuesday, August 6 View Page vine split in half 2' before last pumpkin experiment. Tuesday, August 6 View Page this is a 5 lober at 25'. I will set using hormones only. All pollen was kept out. Tuesday, August 13 View Page Day 50 for country garden. 104" fb 115" ss 181" c 400" ott = 1366 lbs at day 50. not bad not bad. Still doing 4-5" a day ott. a little slow. Saturday, August 17 View Page Last pic there was flower parts on mill fabric. This was from son learning to set on side vines. his success rate was only about 50%, likely better than me at his age. Anyway day 11 for no pollen fruit on 1/2 vine. Today I will introduce 2nd volley of different hormones. Now we will see what this can do. Sunday, August 18 View Page Day 12. 19.5" ss 20" fb 25" c = 64.5" ott. A little bigger than yesterday wouldn't you say. whish I had measured yesterday, but I did not expect such growth so soon after 2nd round of steroids. Friday, August 23 View Page gone away 5 day's come home to this foolishness. Well I learned that my 3rd steroid which is only to be sprayed on the stock at day 10 has adverse affects when sprayed on the whole fruit, as you can see. "Always follow directions" and "less is more" and "more is always worse than none" Now if I can just remember these simple things next year.