Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 22 Entries. Saturday, March 6 View Page LanTerra Update > Nothing like a nice sunny late winters day to bring out the very best in a gardener. The sky is so high today you can see for miles and miles. The birds are starting to return just as I have returned to the garden. I have welcomed the Jays and Chickadees all winter but it sure would be nice to spot a red breasted robin out there. Today was a match in pushing the spring envelop to arrive much earlier than the calender suggests. I set fourth today and purchased a few things for some very early spring applications. Worried about my ever creeping and high pH problem I bought some aluminum sulphate. After a brief trip around the edge of the patches with the snow blower to remove 18" of heavy wet snow. I ventured out to spread 2.2 Lbs of aluminum sulphate to white and reflective snowy covered parts of each thousand square foot growing area of patch # 3. The sun was shinning brightly as the warmest air of the season to come (40*f) has me beaming with energy. Trudging ahead I step gingerly in snow drifts up to my waste. I have never before started spring patch work so early. This season I am declaring a gardeners war on high pH water and soil conditions. All of my winters reading points to an extreme problem with calcium tie issues at LanTerra. Despite an over abundance of the diminutive dull gray element in my soil the plants just cannot seam to uptake enough of it. Soil tests confirm that LanTerra contains in excess of 7200 ppm of Ca but it remains tied up for the most part in insoluble compounds of bicarbonates. My spray regime and tissue testing of the past several years suggest that no amount of topical foliar sprays of Ca work to alleviate the condition. So here I am at a cross roads, ever eager and ever enhanced with a winters worth of knowledge starting once again on another year of mega effort in the quest to grow the worlds largest pumpkin. Tuesday, March 16 View Page LanTerra Update > this must be summer...The garden tractor fired right up yesterday and I got out and fixed the cutting deck as the grass is getting green here in Ontario. I started a batch of seeds for my 2 gallon competition pots this week. The Niagara convention has me amped up large now that spring has sprung from the cold depths of winter. I have potted up 5 sacrificial seedlings in each 2 gallon pot to help host the RTI Myco for an early start-up. I hope to continue the seed starting for a few more weeks and have lots of little myco host plants going all season long. Here is the mix I have decide to use this spring. Into a good potting mix of about 40 liters of 1/3 peat, 1/3 soil and 1/3 perlite I have added. 1 cup alfalfa meal 2 cups 2 year old coffee grounds 1 handful RTI MYCO 1 small part GVGO special space sauce mix a dash of 5-15-5 with IBA 3 teaspoons RTI AZOS 1 smattering of molasses 3 liters of H2O Throughly mixed and let stand for 24 hours or so. Pot when seed roots are throughly emerged from the shell. Each potted seed is getting another 1/2 teaspoon or so of RTI myco as it hits the soil. Thursday, March 18 View Page LanTerra Update > Warm and very sunny all week long. Here at home in rural Central Ontario I can honestly say its time to get started. This could truly be the nicest and earliest run of spring weather ever. Daytime highs have been approaching 20*C each glorious bright and shinning day. At nearly 15C above normal all the snow has gone and been replaced with brown carpet of expectant green to come. I have been busy about the yard each evening puttering away. Between trimming the shrubs and trees I do manage to squeak in a few rest periods and take it all in. Robins and Geese oh MY! Birds and Singing oh MY! Spring is here and its darn well extremely nice and very early. Some how the urgent need to repair that pesky lawn mowers, cutting deck has struck me as though the head lights on my Ford F 150 just went on. Tonight's chore was soil samples as the new homes of the 1385 Jutras, 901 Hunt, 1236 Vincent & 1330.5 Johnston/Butler demand the highest quality of increasingly fertile pumpkin soil. I am taking advantage of the soil and tissue testing regime that Western Labs is offering. Its now time to rest my slightly sore and weary back. Writing this evening in a sort of silly calm with the windows open and the birds merely chirping along. The key strokes are very easy this evening as the days dying sunlit rays fall within an eyes glancing blow toward LanTera. Its days like this that draw me outside year after year, ever deeper into this amazing hobby. The air is so clear and fresh, nature is so ready and ripe. I am pointed my shovel earthward in the most earnest way possible as another season begins. Friday, March 19 View Page LanTerra Blog > Critters by the shovel full. Q: Could you, would you, might you say our soils are full of it? A: What is Flora and fauna. I did the Canada Blooms show this week and heard Jeff Lowenfels talk about his new book and compost tea. Such a popular man giving an amazing lecture of bacterial and fungal masses in the rhizosphere. He is like EF Hutton to a gardener. When he talks I listen. His new updated book is a terrific compilation of what is new in teaming with mycorrhizae and your favourite Bacteria and Fungi. My evening excursion to the garden produced a remarkable number of worms and little critters. As I forked deeply, each section contained a robust example of something new scurrying about. Healthy and different my soil has a hearty look. Its kinda like beef stew, meaty yet juicy and tasty at the same time. My thoughts drifted to wondering what the total population of critters in my patch might be. I came up with a rather inquisitive puzzle. The thought of each cubic foot of soil filled with beneficial critters had my head spinning. Jeff's comments often drifted to the population of bugs within our soils. He reasoned that if you have things you can see in the soil you have plenty of the smaller things too. The food chain of my soil this year seams to be teaming with little critters. Seeing by eye yields an astonishing collection of critters from beetles to larva and multi legged creatures too. If you estimated that there may be as many as 50 bug types in each block of soil and 5 or more of each type. Conservatively that works out to 250,000 little wiggly and scraggly things playing the LanTerra lunch bucket. I wonder just how many there really are? With everything eating each other it must be a feeding frenzy. Yikes, Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! It's a jungle down there! Wednesday, March 24 View Page LanTerra Update > Construction begins on an expansion plan to add a water storage capability of 2000 gallons of rain water or treated well water. Elevated drip barrel storage of between 300 to 500 gallons and an extensive rainwater collection system of up to 1900 gallons will tie it all together. All this in hopes of putting a thick walled progeny into into monstrous shelled fruit. Wednesday, April 21 View Page LanTerra Update > Jennifer comes home today...Happy here at LanTerra. I've been so proud of her, getting married this summer, so proud, because she as a youngster put all her effort into studies and sport. Where other kids were not doing it, she was out there doing it. She played. She focussed. She learned. She worked hard. And that makes the difference. That's the only way you're going to make it life. Everything is extremely good so far including the weather. I have several seeds started, potted and planted and some waiting to germinate. I have decided to start a bit earlier this year and run a phased in germination schedule. The first round was the batch of hosts then followed by two rounds of potential competition plants and then the weather warms the many generic seeds I often start for friends. Saturday, April 24 View Page LanTerra Update >....Searching for this today...anybody got some to spare? Used all mine up this morning!!!! 1236* is now well past first true leaf stage...Time to get growing... 1236* is in this morning...soil temp was 81*F @ 6" deep used moving blankets from U-Haul to keep in heat...They allow the soil to stay warm but also breath a bit more than Styrofoam insulation... Sealed her in hoop house with Tuck tape on the seams...Vent opener is working fine.... Infrared gun works like a charm...was a great investment...Thanks to Chris for the idea....Bryan's idea to cover the surface works great....Heating cable is laid in a stratified 3' circle around the plant from 12" deep to just below the surface. I gave her everything but the kitchen sink...rain watered in 2 gallons with handful of RTI Myco, 1/4 teaspoon Azos, 1/4 teaspoon Actinovate, 1/8 strength 5-15-5 with IBA, 1/8 strength Phortress, 1oz Molasses and some very hard to find unobtainium too... I even used all my magic incantations. "Grow Squash Grow" Sunday, June 6 View Page Co2 time returns this week.....cool temperatures had me skip spraying Co2 the past weekend....I will spray again on Friday or Saturday morning with a dose of 3/4 strength Co2 as hotter air moves over Ontario on Saturday to Tuesday.... My spray mix this week was focused on Micro nutrients and adding a bit more Nitrogen to each plant to boost vine growth just ahead of blossom time. I have halted IBA applications to my double vine plant as I fear there is a hormone imbalance in the plant. I tried heavy pruning and heavy drenching to leach out nutrients specifically nitrogen and salts.... Awaiting the results later this week.... Sunday, June 13 View Page LanTerra update > very wet and drizzly here today and very hard to work in the patch. The 1236* is still growing great and a pollination attempt begins today. I got a male flower off the 800* Neily 2007 yesterday but I am not sure of its quality. There are some grains that look to be ok. I have left it to warm up in kitchen this morning. A modest bit of dry heating might help to take the moisture out of the pollen. I have some pollen from a couple of pumpkin flowers I can go with also. This is the earliest I have ever pollinated a female here in Barrie. My previous best was June 23rd. The plant is out about 17 feet with the female at about 12'. A weird and very rare intermediate side vine female at the next junction 13' and another female 14' out ready in a few days. Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is the 901 claw vine. I let it grow to develop the two females on the ends. The is about 9 feet out has now been terminated a couple of days ago with two still developing females on the end. Sunday, June 13 View Page 1236* looking South East....John this is a great plant....lots of females and a very powerful grower that easily shifted gears while producing numerous females... The 1236* has been great ever since it hit the ground. This plant has endured a 2" spring snow storm! During the storm high winds damaged the power lines. Electricity was out at my home for 3.5 hours that morning on May 9th. If not for ground insulation, kept in by heating cables and the hoop house she would have surely died in the frigid 28*f temperatures outside. Then I did a rookie mistake the next day May 10th and left a heater blowing directly on the leaves and frying a couple of them. The end result has surprised me greatly. Sunday, June 13 View Page 1236* Vincent/McGill 09. Aurora, June 13, 2010. 12' Main Vine, 5 huge perfect lobes x 924 Landry 09. Used three males and closed at 8:15am. Game time temperature 16.5*C. Cloudy and wet. Taped her up and plastic bagged loosly. Not the best cross but the 800* pollen was not yet good enough to do the job. Wednesday, June 16 View Page LanTerra Update females not a problem for the 1236*WR Vincent McGill 09...here on the evening of day three Aurora sits expanding nicely. On the the next node up is another female parked firmly on a very rare side vine at its first node and then on the next node is another waiting female ready to open on Thursday Morning. There is another female yet open in a week or so two nodes further out. Lots of pollination opportunities for a squash. Thursday, June 17 View Page Second pollination on the 1236* this morning. Choose Binford after the Tim the Tool Mans TV show, because this plant grows so fast it requires all of the tools I have to keep up with it. Binford, 1236* Vincent/McGill 09 WR X 800 Neily 07. 6 Lobes, 1 male, 14' main vine. Game time temperature 12.5*C. Cloudy and wet winds steady and breezy. Closed back up at 6:15 am. Saturday, July 31 View Page LanTerra Update > Wedding photo of me walking my daughter Jennifer down the aisle. Saturday, July 31 View Page LanTerra Update > The new couple Justin & Jennifer will begin growing pumpkins only 30 minutes from Windsor, Nova Scotia. Road trip to follow and a long journey home today for them. There could be a long trip for the Kahuna come the Fall Saturday, September 18 View Page Back from Halifax yesterday and raring to go and test out my new tractor with loader bucket and rototiller. First job today is to remove about six yards of over burden from patch two and place into patch 1. Patch 2 is going to back to grass for a few years as I cut back to 3 plants at home from 4. The past several years have been a challenge in this patch due to drainage concerns. In a very short time playing with my new toys I have moved all of the materials, tilled up the soil raked and compacted the surface. Ready for grass seed. Tuesday, September 21 View Page Patch two is now completed and put to bed for a few years. The grass seed is spread down and waiting for rain. Saturday, September 25 View Page Patch one has now gained about 4 yards of good loamy soil for patch two. I spread it out today despite the wet and rainy end to the day I manage to do a light rototilling of the patch. Tuesday, September 28 View Page Grass seed is up and growing, patch two is now becoming a sea of green. Friday, October 8 View Page Warm & Sunny weather today has patch 1 modifications moving right along. Plans for Patch 1 include. Digging in two runs of weeping tile 24 to 30" deep lined with sand and a 40 foot long drainage header running downhill to the swale. Add 6 yards or more of coarse sand. Add up to 10 yards of horse & chicken compost. Deep sub-soiling using a back-hoe to mix all of the parent soil up to 30" Deep with all of the coming amendments. Monday, October 11 View Page Thanksgiving Holiday weather was a pleasant treat as one patch is nearly completed this morning. All that remains is soil testing to determine pH and sub-soiling to be completed in a couple of weeks. Sub-soiling will be accomplished using a backhoe to dig up and mix all of the additions with the parent soil to a depth of about 18 to 24" just above the weeping tile tha was installed two years ago. I might add a bit more sand as I have 20 yards coming this week and may have some left over. Today's Patch 3 Additions & Supplements completed and tilled in in about 2 hours. 10 yards compost horse & chicken with shavings 4 months old. pH 7.2. Patch may require Al sulfate of pelletized sulfur to lower pH. 25 pounds Humic Acid 50 pounds Alfalfa Meal 50 pounds Kelp Meal 40 pound Beat Shreds with Molasses. 50 pounds Corn Meal