Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 229 Entries. Friday, April 14 View Page In the image you can see a picture of this yearfs pumpkin patch almost ready to go. Above the dividing line I will plant some basil, or cilantro (since I grow a large regular garden as well). The patch of soil where I will grow the pumpkin is a raised bed about 7 feet wide by 4 .5 feet deep. The vines of the pumpkin I will grow over my lawn. The slope is relatively steep and southern facing. The picture that you see is the end result of my composting efforts. To prepare the patch in the fall I dug up the original soil to a depth of about 2 feet (the actual soil itself is 3+ feet deep). Along the sides of the pile I buried a whole bunch of old garden clippings, salad stalks, corn, and of course last years 250lb pumpkin all cut up into little pieces. On top of this I dumped about 3 wheelbarros full of black dirt (from very old leaf compost) that I found in the back of the lot under my large laurel hedge where the neighbor has been dumping excess leaves and clipping for many years. I then added about 6 inches of maple leafs and mixed them in with the soil. On top of this heap of soil I planted winter rye in December until it grew about 18 inches high. Just yesterday I got some good year old chicken manure and I dropped 4 wheelbarrows (300+lbs) on top of the rye so that it would rot the rye in time for planting. I then proceeded to mix up the leaves from fall, the rye with its roots, and the manure with a pitch fork. I will deeply till the soil one more time before planting and when I do this I will add generous amounts of 18-18-18 balanced blended fertilizer. Hopefully my efforts will provide a good growing medium for this yearfs pumpkin plant. I will only be growing one plant. Friday, April 14 View Page This is a picture of the seeds I have lined up for this year. Many thanks to grower (Cam) for coming through with some fine seeds for me to try out. Unfortunately, I only have room to grow one, so I think it will be the 1446 Eaton. If this fails to sprout I will try the 1124 Hester or the 1195 Vankooten. Have to do some serious consideration soon on how best to go about sprouting the seeds, and whether or not I will buy and bury some soil heating cables. On a side note: The neighbor just had some gardeners weed around his entire house. It was very wet outside so they pulled up a lot of his top soil with the weeds. I walked down and asked them if they needed a place to dump the compost/soil. Seems like the guy was more than pleased to dump his one heaping truckload right on my driveway. He also gave me one large wheelbarrow full of grass clippings which I dumped right on my pumpkin patch. Now I just have to wheelbarrow the compost/soil up to the compost bins for next years use. Amazing how much leaf and garden clippings I can get from the neighbors. It's funny, when you ask them for their refuse at first they think your joking. Monday, April 24 View Page This post is not directly realted to giant pumpkins, but I think you might appreciate the connection. The attached picture is of a "Moso" (Phyllostachys pubescens) giant bamboo plant that I recently bought and planted in the front yard. This is a bit of an experiment to see how large this bamboo can grow. It has been know to grow to 75 feet high in Portland oregon with 7 inch columns. However, unlike pumpkin season, this little horticultural experiment will take considerably longer than one season (if it lives that long) Moso doesn't mature for 15 to 20 years. Seems my obsession with large pumpkins is becoming more generalized--I am starting to like huge plants of all kinds. I also recently purchased a Gunnera Manicata (look it up if you are interested--it is also known as "dinosaur food"). The one I have is about the size of a golfball right now--I am not expecting much success right now. Anybody know where I can get a giant beanstalk seed? Monday, April 24 View Page Well, here is the 1446 Eaton placed in my basement window. I placed it in a thin 4 inch black plastic pot (to hopefully absorb heat) and I used the best "Miracle Brand" potting soil I could find. This window gets outdoor light all day, and at night I turn the light on. I'd leave the light on 24/7 but no one is at home during the day, and I'd hate to burn down the house because of my pumpkin (the light gets pretty hot). Underneath the pumpkin is a baseboard heater that should keep my seed warm enough to sprout. On top is a 60 watt grow-light that I purchased from the local hardware store. Maybe not the best sprouting conditions, but then, I am no expert. After talking to the legendary local grower Cam(era), I realized that I should probably grow a back-up seed in case the 1446 does not sprout, or dies etc.--what was I thinking! I'll go home today and get a back-up going--probably the 1195 VanKooten. At some point this week I will head out to Aldergrove or terralink in Abbotsford and get me some heating cables. I have to make sure this little puppy is warm aand cozy when I put it in the cold garden. Tuesday, April 25 View Page Update: I just planted the 1195 Vankooten as a back-up seed. I also moved the 60 watt grow light a little closer because it was a little over 12 inches away (too far). We have been getting some great sun these last two days so I feel like it was a great weekend to start the seed. No action on the 1446 Eaton yet--it is about 30 hours old. Right now I am white-knuckling it waiting for these little guys to sprout. I'd hate to waste one of the seedlings, because they are both such great seeds, so I am trying to line up my sister as another possible home for one of my pumpkin plants if they both sprout and take root. I just hate to waste the potential of such great seed (thanks again Cam!). My sister has a good sized garden, with a decent amount of sun, so I may be able to pawn one seedling off on her if they both sprout. Soil cable update: After phoning around to every green house in the Lower Fraser Valley I finally secured a heating cable that didn't require a thermostat. At all the greenhouses the sales people were telling me a cable would be $50.00 and then another $180 for a thermostat--well, I wasn't about to spend that much. I finally secured a 33 footer with an automatic thermostat for $75.00. I still can't believe I spent that much, but 33 feet will give me good ground coverage and warm the little pumpkin toes quite well to the standard 21 celcius--I think this will make a big difference in the growing potential of these little babies. I ended up buying them at the local hydroponic store. I couldn't help but think that the store was totally geared towards marijuana growers--and I was a bit uncomfortable walking in, but there is a lot of stuff (foliage ferts etc.) that I may be able to purcahse and make use of this season. The guy seemed quite helpful and told me they could order anything I needed--I mean they had 5 gallon pails of kelp solution etc., 1000W bulbs, it was nuts. Tuesday, April 25 View Page So far this pumpkin is drinking better water than I am--I am using the filtered chlorine free drinking stuff in plastic containers--too bad I can't use this tuff once it gets outside in the garden! I have heard of peopple draining their hot water tanks to feed these things. Compost update: I recently added 7 bags of grass clippings from my lawn. It seems my lawn was in dire need of trimming (about 4-5 inches high), and I thought, why not bag it and use it to feed the pumpkin. I buried it along the sides of the trench (in the first picture up above). Right now, I have a ton of organic matter in that soil--it will be really fluffy. It's really deep (brown loam 4 feet, maybe 5, now that I raised it). I have a ton of manure, and I extended it a couple of feet so that it measures about 5X8 feet. With the addition of the cables and some ferts I think I will have a decent growing medium--but I have to mix it better because some of the rye is still not rotted. I will try to secure a 200 liter blue food barrel to fill water into so that I can prefill and warm the water in the sun that I will use for the pumpkin. The water from the hose is soooo cold! I have to make the time to do this. Last year my soil and water were always too cold. Too cold= less growth. Tuesday, April 25 View Page Looks like tose guys at the hydroponic store didn't know what they were talking about. The soil heating cables I got were not really meant for outdoor use. I had to phone around until I got a rep in Indiana who told me not to use them outside--so back they went (Sentinel brand). I have a 36 footer on order now from another nursery--for outdoor use--heavy duty. I have to get them sent UPS so they will be here in time--extra $20--all told it was $93.00! I will pick them up on Friday and start setting them up. I think I got ripped off, but time is running out, and I have to prepare my greeenhouse. I tilled the patch again and added a little 18-18-18 so it will dissolve prior to planting and help rot the existing materials--although, I still don't have any seeds sprouted yet. Have to remember to be patient here--seeds were only put in the soil on Sunday and Monday. Besides not having a sprouted seed, I am way better prepared and equipped than last year. Thursday, April 27 View Page Well, I was very impatient to see what was going on with my seeds, so I scraped the top of the soil off very carefully with a tooothpick last night. So far it's been almost 4 days and the 1446 Eaton has not emerged from the soil. I am starting to lose hope with this seed, it still seems to be as deep as I planted it. The 1195 VanKooten that I planted a day later is almost up, and I have high hopes for it--now that my other one is most likely a no-show. The nice thing about this, is that I won't have to decide which one I want to grow--that decision can be excruciating, it's nicer when nature decides for you. Bamboo update: Looks like my little "moso" is very unhealthy. I called the bamboo specialty nursery where I bought it and the lady said I may have overwatered it. I maintain that it was sick when i bought it--the leaves were already drying at the tips bigtime. The two new shoots dried up, so my expected growth for this season is finished (once the top of a bamboo shoot or culm goes, it stops growing). The regular garden is doing great. Garlic is huge (good thing i planted in October--has made a big difference in growth). Shallots are up and out very well, and potatoes are sprouting as well. When I was weeding the garlic I found several potatoes sprouted from the previous year--so I just transplanted them to my potatoe bed. Friday, April 28 View Page After another anxious night nothing has busted loose yet. I came home yesterday to find my soil on the two seedlings a little dry. I gave them a little drink and when I checked two hours later I swore the seeds were getting closer to popping out. I was sure that this morning I'd see some more movement, but nothing yet! The tip of the 1195 is out, so I think she will make it, but it's the 1446 I am worried about (although it seems to have moved slightly). Right now I am a little upset that I rushed the seeds into the soil without getting the right soil-mix/lamp/heat set up in place. I got 4 wonderful seedlings from direct starting in the patch last year so I figured I was doing more than enough. Well, the heating cables are supposed to be in today. I'll phone to check and hopefully dig them in on the weekend when I construct the greenhouse. Next years soil amendments will have to include some kelp. I may go down to Whiterock or somewhere along the coast and spend a day gathering some. This weekend I will mow the lawn and bag the grass clippings for the patch. I used to recycle lawn clippings, but they are becoming too precious to waste--all that free nitrogen! I think I will add some to my tomatoes as a mulch later this season as well. If I could say anything to my seeds it would be "move towards the light!!! Saturday, April 29 View Page Looks like the 1446 Eaton is not out afterall--finally showing signs of life. I can see that the seed has split and there is green inside, it has yet to lift itself from the soil--maybe it is a sleeping giant afterall. Time will tell. The 1195 is still sitting on the surface. Soil cable update: I went to pick them up today and they were charging $107 instead of $93. Not only that, but the cables hardly looked "heavy duty"--they were very thin. I will talk to the distributor on Monday about price and the cables in general, see if I can get something a little better. Still have a few days before the seedlings will hit the soil. Sunday, April 30 View Page Picture update: Here is the 1446 Eaton after 6 days--it's out! Slow to emerge, but perhaps not the best conditions. Next year I will definitely make changes to the germination stage. The 1195 VanKooten has the tip of it's seed out (other picture). Probably was a blessing that these seeds have sprouted slowly--I mean I still have to purchase and bury the soil cables and construct the mini greenhouse. Today I had to seed lettuce and carrots and dig up the rest of my regular vegetable garden. Still early, lots of time for growing. Slow and steady wins the race. Bamboo update: The bamboo distributor agreed to replace my Moso plant with another one--it was perishing at an alarming rate. When i dug it up to return it the lady said it would survive--but she gave me another anyway. This second one is more robust and in better health generally. I am glad I returned it as the plant was $50 and I want it to get some good time in the soil before its first winter. Monday, May 1 View Page Well, today was a busy and interesting day. I woke up to find the 1446 Eaton still half covered by the seed pod. I loosened the soil around the seed a bit and tried to nudge it off--wouldn't go. So I came back 20 minutes later and it came off easily (??). Once the seed pod was off I was amazed at how quickly it was growing. The cot tops turned from yellow to green, and went from a closed position to almost fully open with the first true leaf showing in under 12 hours! So from Friday evening to Sunday evening I went from a fully covered seed to two cots and a leaf! Aside from that I mowed and groomed the lawn and surrounding yard all day today. The neighbor dropped off an orange plastic garden bag stuffed with grass clippings--so into the patch it went. I mowed my own law and got another two bags--so I used some of it for my squash and zucchini beds. Can't believe I was wasting all those good lawn trimmings by recycling my grass! What was I thinking, that stuff is a great mulch. It also breaks down quickly and is loaded with nitrogen. I will mow the lawn often this summer to feed the patch. The next few days will be busy getting the greenhouse and heating cables in order--unfortunately I didn't get that done today as I needed to do weed control and trimming in the yard. Hopefully the 1446 will see good Fraser Valley soil in a short few days! Tuesday, May 2 View Page Here is a picture of my soil cables. UPS delivery was supposed to be $50! for a total of $107! I told the guy this was ridiculous since he only quoted me a delivery charge of $25, what's more, the cables were not the "heavy duty" kind he told me they were. At any rate he gave me the cables at a discount--well. . .if you consider $75 a discount! To late in the year to argue, I want to get the 1446 Eaton into the soil after tomorrow, so I bit the bullet and had to pony up the money. I had a heck of a time arranging this cable. In the end, I don't think I crossed any of the loops, but at 15 inches below the soil I can't see it ever heating the soil to 20c as it states on the package. Oh well, total energy consumption is 126 watts--basically like putting three 60 watt light bulbs in the soil. . .just don't dig into it with a spade. Of course, I do have moles--hope no moles think that the cable is a tasty root! P.S. the circular bits in the photo are clumps of manure, not rocks--for some reason the clumps look like rocks. Tuesday, May 2 View Page Here is the second photo of the patch after I finished burying the soil cables and erected the supports for the greenhouse I will build over the patch tomorrow. I got off work very late today (5:30pm) and I was not pleased knowing how much I had to do--usually I get home at 4:00pm. I had to move fast--you can imagine with all that earth to move I was diggin like I was possessed. By the time I was done in the patch it was 8:39! My wife was not pleased, as you can imagine. The good thing about all the time I spent figuring out how to bury the cables was that in my frustration I mixed the soil up very well. The rye is almost completely decomposed and the soil is deep, black, and fluffy. I was able to sink a pry bar into it with ease to a depth of 4.5 feet. I hope all the time I spent composting over the past year pays off--my back is killing me right now. In the back of the photo is my regular garden (right now I have garlic, shallots, and I just seeded lettuce and carrots). Tuesday, May 2 View Page Here is another shot of the contraption I have built. I was just looking at a picture of it when I realized how ridiculous it must look. LOL. It hasn't been nailed yet, or very well thought out for that matter, maybe I'll modify it--afterall, it doesn't need to withstand hurricane force winds. I know what you're thinking. . .aren't the 4x4's a little overkill (LOL). The reason I used all these thick posts and landties is because I had a whole bunch laying around the yard. Right now I just don't want to spend any more money or time on this. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Here is the picture of my completed greenhouse. I decided that the land-ties on top were totally overkill—if one got loose and fell on my head as I was fussing about in the patch it might be the end of me. One’s gardening endeavors must not be dangerous eh? So I bought a couple of 2x4’s and slapped the thing together. Last year I told myself I would take my time and build a decent structure, but this one is the same clunker--I always feel like just throwing it together at the last minute. I turned on the soil heating cables last night and readied the space heater. I will turn it on this evening when I get home from work and plant the 1446 Eaton. Right now I am a little concerned about the steepness of the mound and the “tightness” of my greenhouse (4X4feet). Not sure the pumpkin vines will have much to grab onto as they travel down the mound—and I get a good deal of mild wind—I may have to set up a wind break. At any rate, my seedling is ready to go in. The first true leaf is about ¼ developed, but I get the sense it is just itching for more room and ready to take off. Update on the 1195 VanKooten—it was a total no-show. I pulled it up last night and threw the potting soil and seed into the patch—it had no roots at all. If the seed won’t germinate I might as well utilize those good genetics in my compost ☺ Right now I feel like all my eggs are in one basket. It’s boom or bust with the 1446. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Here is another picture of my patch showing the steepness of my lawn—in real life it is steeper than it looks here. It is great for increasing the sunlight hours, and drainage, but last year I had to support my pumpkin as it began to twist on the vine from the gravity of the hill. Next year I will move the patch further back I think. At any rate, I need to set a fruit close (maybe 10 feet out on the main max). That area at the far left of the picture where you see that small log is a rock wall drop-off. My sundeck/house is at the bottom of that drop-off. If a monster got loose from the vine and rolled it could seriously damage my sundeck, or even injure someone. Nobody told be growing pumpkins would be dangerous ☺. Right now I have the 1446 in the greenhouse acclimatizing in its small pot. At 4:00pm (after a brief prayer) it goes in the soil. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Looks like the smiley faces in my posts are coming out as digits (above) ☺ Must be some quirk. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Well, the 1446 Eaton has now hit Lower Mainland soil! I carefully cut the thin plastic pot with a pair of scissors and took out the seedling. The roots were starting to hit all the edges of the pot, there was no mold, but it looked like it had obviously outgrown its small home. Of course I was so excited as I planted it that I forgot to direct the main vine down the hill--so I had to do some repositioning after I had it pressed in the soil! Stupid me, not sure if I ripped a few roots or not, but I think it was okay. Once in the soil I seated it firmly with my hands again and gave it a good drink of warm water. I checked it two hours later and it had noticeably grown--the greenhouse really keeps the moisture and heat in. I keep thinking about all the edible squash I could grow with this set up (sigh). As you can see in the picture the first true leaf is almost out and the next one is on the way. Note to self to buy those thin black plastic pots again last year--very good at encouraging heat absorption and air flow, and very easy to cut off without disturbing any roots. The heater is set, not too hot--I don't want to waste too much electricity :) right now I just have to sit back and watch it grow. I may set up some soaker hose, but I wanted to gravity feed the little guy with warm water from a food barrel. I was also thinking about inserting some pipes into the soil for deep watering and fertilizing. Still have to get some idea of what kind of foliage fertilizer to use. If anyone has any suggestions please email me. Wednesday, May 3 View Page OOps, almost forgot the picture. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Here is another picture. As far as I can tell, the cots are quite nice and large, and the stem is short and stocky. I really "mounded" up the soil behind the seedling (2 feet +) and I plan to add leaf mold, grass clippings, and soil as it grows during the season. Now if I can just figure out a good watering program--anyone with any advice here please email me. Much appreciated. Friday, May 5 View Page The 1446 Eaton seems to be enjoying its new home. I think I will start feeding it with soluble fert drinks tomorrow. I am a bit amazed at the size of seedling that a good seed produces. The plant itself is at least 6 inches wide and looks really strong. The first true leaf is almost fully out and the second is on its way. Hope the weather holds! Sunday, May 7 View Page Well, here is a picture of my 1446 Eaton at 14 days old. So far it is looking pretty healthy and vigorous. I have included a tape measure to get an idea of the dimensions of the plant. I couldn't get the picture centered because I was taking it from the back so as not to step on the soil. The cots are quite nice and large, and the first true leaf is out and growing--seems to be leaning quite far back, I am not sure why--maybe I have too much heat in the greenhouse. At any rate the second true leaf looks to be on its way. I can't believe how far it has come since the May 3rd picture (above) when I planted it (four days). I am giving it about a half gallon of nutrient water every day, and a half gallon of rain water. Hopefully we get some sun and real heat next week. Tuesday, May 9 View Page Well, looks like the 1446 Eaton is progressing at a very good rate. It has been two days since the picture above. Since then the first true leaf is already extended and 4+ inches across. The vine has begun to extend itself slightly and 3 more leaves in various stages of development have appeared. I am amazed at how quickly this plant is growing compared to my generic seed/plant of last year. It seems to be enjoying regular watering, and it gets quite hot in the greenhouse, so I am still watering it everyday with 2-4 liters of water. I have noticed that having the heat on at night makes quite a difference in increasing growth (compared to when I have turned it off). The stem is nice and thick (not leggy at all). I have a good feeling about this one--might have a pumpkin for weigh-off afterall, but we’ll see. Already making plans for extending my patch next year. I will go look at a used rototiller today as I have been doing all yard/garden work with a shovel so far—no easy task! With a little luck and hard work next year’s patch will be 4-5 times as large. Thursday, May 11 View Page Disaster has struck. As far as I can tell my 1446 eaton has a split vine--and it was growing so fast! Any experts out there have any ideas. I sure would appreciate some comments on this. Can I get a a good fruit set on a secondary? Will the vine also be flat?? Any use in letting this plant mature, or should I just abort??? Any suggestions/comments much appreciated. This is a sad day for me. Thursday, May 11 View Page Still open to suggestions re: split (double) main vine that appears to be developing in the image of my 1446 above. Any ideas from some other experts? Please read previous post and email me if you have a minute. Saturday, May 13 View Page Well, looks like my plant may be in the clear afterall. I guess it was more a case of the "newbie nerves" than anything, but it really looked like I was starting to get a double vine. At any rate, thanks to all those who emailed with their advice. Now that the plant has grown a couple of days I think it has a normal vine--but, (and as many who emailed me thought) it did look like a double for awhile. So anyway, as you can see the 1446 seems to be growing really well! I took the picture above next to a beer bottle for scale--that beer is Vancouver Grandville Island--excellent stuff, and much deserved after a hard days work in the yard. Today--she is 19 days since the seed hit the soil. The leaf closest to the camera is the first true leaf--pretty huge eh? I think it has around seven leaves in various stages of development right now--and it is starting to vine--beginning stages--nice deep green in all the leaves. Tomorrow the forcast is for hot weather (26C!!!) so I will water deeply in the late morning with the soaker hose I set up around the plant today--and also make sure I open the greenhouse to let the hot air escape. I think I'll have to get another 100 feet of soaker once the plant grows (Costco has a great deal on $17.00 for 100 feet). Also, I added anotehr huge orange garbage bag of grass clippings from around the yard--sort of scattered them about the pumpkin mound and put about 1 lb of granular 18-18-18 around the perimiter of the plant. I will move in a few hundred lbs of topsoil later on in the summer to increase the size of the mound. So far so good I think! Thanks again to all those who emailed! Sunday, May 14 View Page Here is a picture of the interior of the plant--you can see it is starting to vine normally (as far as I can tell). Still can't believe how fast these things grow compared to my squash and zucchini. But then, I don't have a heater and a tent over my zucchini or squash either. Finished planting my tomatoes today also--33 plants in total--there will be a lot of time spent here also--but I love tomatoes--good thing my wife does too. Monday, May 15 View Page Here is a picture I took this morning from the top view (that piece of wood is a 2X4--only thing I had available for scale). As you can see the plant has begun to vine out quite nicely (it has its first tendril about 2.5 inches long). A couple of the leaves are drooping slightly, maybe it is too hot in the greenhouse--I have been opening up the back every morning, but I cannot mist because I am at work. Yesterday the main vine was quite high, but today it looks like it has lowered itself quite nicely overnight--so I may not have to train it down. Yesterday was really hot, so I gave the entire pumpkin mound its first good soak in the morning. The 100 feet of soaker was able to go around my pumpkin mound about 5 times. Boy, these things seem to like lots of water. with traditional garden plants there seems to be the possibility of "over-fertilizing" or "overwatering", but not so with these things. I gave it a gallon this morning to close to the plant because we are expecting another 32C day today. Tuesday, May 16 View Page Well, yesterday was hot (33C) and today is supposed to be just as hot! The 1446 seems to be continuing to vine out nicely. I inserted a stick to redirect the plant slightly to the left so it anchors itself down the center of the mound. I edged the front two small plots of lawn around the house and got 2 wheelbarrows full of grass/dirt strips. Rather than heave it into the compost bins I dumped it alongside of my pumpkin mound to make it less steep at the bottom (it will break down eventually). I added some fertilizer and water to help begin breaking the stuff down, and then I covered it with more dirt. I also dug up a wheelbarrow of old leaf/grass compost from one of my last year’s compost bins and added that to the back of my pumpkin mound—I wanted to give the back of the mound a little more dirt—now some of my soaker hose is covered by a few inches of dirt—I think this will help get the water to the roots as they continue to grow and extend. The mound is about 10X10 now. Next year I may try burying layers of hose. The picture above shows (to some extent) the nice uniform depth of the topsoil. Yesterday I dug down about 3 feet to try and find the “hardpan” and I was met by a few weird small (1 foot length) chunks of old petrified roots. When I was pulling them out of the soil they felt like old bones. Judging by the trees still around, and the deep soil, I think there must have been an old Maple/Birch forest here at one time. For next years pumpkin mound I will try to find the “hardpan” to amend/mix the soil from there up. Wednesday, May 17 View Page Here is a picture of my 1446 at 23 days old. I have drawn in a white circle on the photo to indicate where the main vine is (right under that part of the leaf). I have inserted a stick in the soil to try to direct the large leaf at the right of the photo to the right so that the main can extend out underneath it with ease. Right now the main vine seems to be going almost straight up, but I think the gravity of the hill, and the size of the vine as it grows should pull it down soon--if not I will start to train it down in a few days. There are couple of tendrils out that are not grabbing onto anything yet. The leaves are a little less droopy than they were a couple of days ago, I have started watering more (1 hour per day with the soaker hose) to see if this was the problem. We have been having a lot of heat--so maybe it needs wetter soil. I also have a fan in the greenhouse in the day to circulate the air--it was getting really hot in there. I will see if the watering and the fan makes a difference--seems I get way better growth after a good soak. So far so good, but still a long way to go. Thursday, May 18 View Page I came out this morning to find that the main had grown about 2-3 inches and was now pushing out the top of the leaf (see last entry). I am still amazed at the growth rate of these things. I think watering everyday will definitely help. I was considering future pollination for my plant today and I was talking to Camera (another local grower) about a potential cross for the 1446. I could cross it with itself, but he said that if the timing works out he might have some pollen from a 670 Daigle. He figures that might make for a neat cross. We’ll see. Still a long way to go, but you gotta make plans eh? Today I will probably dig up some of my old compost and make the mound a bit larger. Yesterday I convinced the neighbors gardener to dump his grass clippings in my compost bin, so now he gives me all his maple leaves and grass. I already have another neighbor giving me his grass clippings--one man's garbage is another man's treasure eh? Friday, May 19 View Page The main seems to be growing right up and over a large leaf (as indicated above). So yesterday I bought some cheap 4’ bamboo sticks to use to try and train the main down a bit, and to the left (lower to the ground and down the center of the mound). As it turns out, these bamboo sticks have some sharp edges (around the joints). As I was going to stick one in the soil next to the main a piece shot off the side of the bamboo and right through the side of my main vine! I had to pick it out with my fingers! Luckily it did not go through the center, but just grazed through it on the side (half the size of a small fingernail). Just a warning to others using bamboo sticks, you might want to sand down the rough edges before sliding them next to your important vines. I dug up some nice black compost from one of my bins and dumped it around the plant and mound. It was nice stuff, resembled store bought potting soil (light, fluffy, and dark). The huge amount of grass my neighbor dumped into one of my bins has already started “cooking”. Wow, it sure gets hot when it starts to cook! Other than the above mishap, which I think is quite minor, so far so good. The main is a couple of feet long (maybe over 2 feet) and I think the beginning of the secondary vines are starting to appear--though, looks like we have some cold rainy weather on the way. Sunday, May 21 View Page Will post another picture tomorrow. 1446 seems to be growing well--a couple of leaves are at least 18 inches across by now, and the main is extending nicely in spite of the bamboo incident (see previous post). Seems that gravity may be pushing the main closer to the ground (whew!) I will have to extend the sides of the greenhouse already since the leaves are rubbing up against one side of the 4X8 structure. Tomorrow will be good for that task--as well as more compost work. Looks like growers closer to the coast might be a couple of weeks behind the valley--of course all the praying going on out here might be making the plants bigger :) Sunday, May 21 View Page Here is an updated picture of the 1446 at 27 days old. Still continuing my compost efforts continuously, and when I have time. I saw my neighbor mowing his lawn and asked if he wanted me to clean out his compost bin. I had been eyeing his compost bin for quite some time as it is about 5X5 and he fills it every weekend with grass trimmings/and or leaves from his huge lawn. It hasn't been cleaned out in a few years. He agreed, of course, and when I went down ther I found about 18 inches of black mud-like soil filled with red wigglers underneath about 1 foot of grass. I loaded up about two-thirds of the compost bin (12 wheelbarrows) and spread it around the pumpkin patch--and especially behind the plant. The stuff was so black and sticky that some loose grass clippings stuck to it (as you can see in the picture) I may load up the rest when I have time, or clean it for him next year again. It was hard work as I had to pack it about 200 meters in a wheelbarrow and up my steep backyard. Really happy to get this kind of compost though--I mean, you can't buy stuff like this. I think the soil amendments are almost done and I believe I have enough to power a good sized fruit sould everyting else fall in line. Gave the patch a little soak--40 minutes--we are expecting rain. Also bought another 100 feet of soaker to wrap around the mound again (as some hose is buried, and I will need more for the vines) Sunday, May 21 View Page Here is another picture of the 1446. As you can see the leaves are already pretty big (18+ inches across). A couple of minor problems have developed--something ate a few small holes through one of the large leaves and the stump has a small split in it at the base near the soil. The split is not across the stump, so I think it is okay (it travels lengthwise for about an inch and is really shallow). Also, when I tried to train a large leaf to the right so the main would not go over top of it I think I snapped the leaf--it is all twisted at the base but continues to grow fine. The main vine seems to be about 3 feet long now and getting closer to the ground. I still have not extended the sides of the greenhouse as I should have. So much work, so little time! Tuesday, May 23 View Page Today was rainy, but I didn't let that dampen my spirits. I got about an hour of work done on the patch with a rain jacket--my wife now thinks I am officially crazy. Mainly I was covering the thick nitrogen filled grass compost with some deep compacted soil to inibit the nitrogen in the compost from evaporating into the atmosphere and enrich/break-up the more compact deep soil in my mound. Once it is exposed to air you would be surprised at how quickly the nitrogen evaporates from compost. I was also extending the sides of the mound in the process so the vines have more to cling to. I was a little worried that all that thick muddy compost made almost exclusively from grass clippings would cause my plant to "burn"--I mean the compost was the consistency of fresh manure (I may make some compost tea from it). All in all, I think the plant is large enough to utilize the nitrogen rich compost--afterall, the compost was filled with roots from virginia creepers and red wiggler worms when I dug it up, and there is plenty of average topsoil around the base of the plant--I don't think it will burn. I may cut back entirely on the miracle grow and other fertilizers depending on how the plant responds--right now I have so much compost in various stages of decomposition that I don't think I need ferts at all right now. I have nudged the main so that it is resting close to the ground--looks to be doing good. The top leaf is massive (must be around 24+ inches across). No watering today as there was excessive rain--hopefully that draws the roots deep. Wednesday, May 24 View Page Lots of rain and nothing but. Low temperatures too. Still, when I go to work I have to open the back of the greenhouse so the sun doesn’t come out by fluke and burn my plant. I wish I was home to adjust the greenhouse according to the immediate conditions, but work is work eh? I am seeing the first sign of males appearing on my main vine, they are very small—about the size of a small fingernail, I haven’t been able to verify if any of them are small females, but I don’t think so. The main seems to have traveled over a large leaf and that (in conjuction with the slope) seems to be keeping it floating up high. It is about 4.5-5 feet long at the moment. I used a couple of bamboo skewers to try and train it down a bit, part of it is touching the ground—sure hope I don’t kink it! Yesterday I spent about 1.5 hours wrapping another 100 feet of soaker hose around the plant—takes time to get it right. I think I have a good watering setup. 100 feet of soaker is buried slightly, right around the immediate mound and the other 100 fans out around a 20 foot radius from the sides of the plant. I may add another 100 later on for the surrounding long vines or water the long vines by hand. Soon I will have to contend with growing a pumpkin on the steep hill of my back yard (if everything goes right). I sure wish I would have pushed the mound further back to where my lot was more flat. Not sure how I will grow a pumpkin on a slope—I am thinking of rigging up a piece of rigid plywood and putting a bunch of sand on it. Any ideas, please email me. Wednesday, May 24 View Page Here is the 1446 Eaton at 30 days old. I included a pop can and a tape measure set at 5 feet for an idea of scale. Males are definitely starting to shoot. Today I saw several (3 to 4) that were about 2 inches in height near the base--I missed these yesterday when I saw some sprouting near the end of the main. Two vines are shooting off the stump and are a little over 1 foot long. Other secondaries are starting to shoot off the main. I will start pruning third growth vines soon. Today was full of all kinds of weather. Rain, severe wind etc. I ran into a gardener on my street after work and he gave me 6 huge bags of grass clippings--last week he said he had 1700lbs of grass he hauled to the dump--he told me to call him (gave me a business card) whenever I wanted grass clippings—no kidding, this way he doesn’t have to pay the pound price for dumping. I told him to bring me all the maple leaves he can find in Autumn. I threw the 6 bags into the compost to help the many leaves on the bottom start to cook. The grass trimmings were from lawns that had herbicide (scott's turf builder) put on them, I don't know if I will take more of these grass clippings as I have heard that residual herbicides can be quite the problem for some leafy plants--although I think most of that herbicide is killed in the heat of composting. I will do more research to try and find out more before I start accepting huge quantities of grass clippings from him (like 1700lbs!). I put a couple of wheelbarrows of soil close under the main to decrease the incline and support the main vine as it begins to settle. Underneath the vine by one of the leaves that was a foot off the ground I saw a tap root about a quarter inch start to develop. Boy these Atlantic Giants are aggressive--starting tap roots before the vine even hits the soil! This weekend I will hopefully work on extending the front and sides of the greenhouse to accommodate the growth. Friday, May 26 View Page Yesterday I spent about 3 hours digging up more of our lawn after work so I would have good soil to bury the vines on the 1446 as they grow. There is an urgency to get this done right now as the plant is growing really fast. Last year I let the vines grow onto the lawn and the tap roots did not root very well. I sure wished I would have pushed the patch a little higher, I would have had way more room—but I thought I was going to grow some beans on the 10X10 mound behind the pumpkin (this idea was sacrificed for the use of the soil for a bigger pumpkin mound). Oh well, if I can’t dig up enough of the lawn in time I will have to bury the vines right on the grass—I have heard this is satisfactory. I don’t mind getting rid of more lawn since it means less mowing. My wife is not pleased about losing more lawn though, or at the amount of time I spend out there in the patch—and I still have tons more lawn to dig up tomorrow as well as expansion of the 4X8 greenhouse to accommodate the growth of my plant. Oh well, she’ll forgive me at some point :) I have a pretty sedentary type job and look at yard work as a way to get exercise, so it isn’t really labor for me as much as a fun way to spend energy and stay healthy—though so many things to juggle at the moment with work, family, and higher education. Good thing vacation is on the way. More time to concentrate on everything. Saturday, May 27 View Page Well, today I finished extending the greenhouse by about 4 feet. I did a really quick job of it, and it still took a couple of hours. Next year I will consider constructing something more permanent. I only extended the bottom where the main is growing. I will have to extend the sides at some point next week to accomodate the side vines. The main vine is about 6.5 feet long right now. I had to trim 2 vines about 2 feet long and a leaf (the second leaf that emerged a few weeks ago) close to the stem. The leaf was starting to look wilted and I thought it better to leave room for a new more productive one. The two vines were shooting from the stem and really crowded up the area. I want to be careful about how crowded I let this plant get, and I only want two other vines shooting from the stump, I already have these picked out. Pictures will come when I have the energy. Sunday, May 28 View Page Two days of digging like a madman to increase my patch to lawn ratio--I now call it the "pumpkin hole in the yard project". My wife will know it as the plant that took over our yard. Who needs a lawn anyway :) Check out the growth over 4 days from May 24 pic above. Here is the 1446 at 34 days old. I don't think the extension on the greenhouse will last more than a couple of days at this rate. The two secondary vines I left off the stump are already touching the sides of the greenhouse. I will have to remove the greenhouse soon, or construct some sort of makeshift workaround contraption that extends the sides slightly. I snapped a long tendril off the plant near the tip (as you can see in the pic there is one missing from the third to last leaf from the tip). I did this while trying to train the vine closer to the ground with a couple of bamboo sticks--the main just seems to want to grow straight up, even wanting to turn over. At any rate, I am running out of time with this greenouse. Monday, May 29 View Page I was just looking at the growth from my May 21st pic (above) to my May 28th pic (last post)--still can't believe how much it has grown in 7 days. Still cold and rainy, but I must continue to open the greenhouse on my way to work for fear of a sudden change in weather. Finally figured out how I will extend the greenhouse. The yard will be a right mess once I am done with this expansion project, and my wife will be even less pleased than she currently is. I’ll post pictures once I am done so everyone reading can have a good laugh. My wife is convinced any helicopters flying over the area already think there is some large archeological dig going on in my yard. Next year I will certainly build a hoophouse with pvc pipe--it will be cheaper, more roomy, and nicer looking. For now I will continue nailing 2x4's to my ugly but effective contraption. Will continue my composting efforts when time allows. I have read about Vancouver growers using a variety of methods (Agro K, seaweed teas, eye of newt, etc.) but have not seen any convincing results yet : ) Tuesday, May 30 View Page The plant seems to be growing at a great rate still. Looks like we'll get a couple of warmer days before more rain. I have my first confirmed female at between 8.5 to 9.5 feet on the main. Right now she is a little smaller than a marble but definitely a female. Since I only have one plant I may stay with 2 fruit this year as an insurance policy if something goes wrong with one (provided I can set two good fruit). I was just talking to Camera (a local grower who generously donated the 1446 seed I am now growing) and he was telling me that his Mombert(sp?) last year grew two fruit--one 842lbs and one 768lbs!!! Wow! Over 1600lbs of pumpkin on one plant! This has convinced me that two large fruit are definitely possible from one plant--and if something goes wrong with one you still have a season left. By the way, thanks to Camera for all the tips and tricks provided to me so far this year. Wednesday, May 31 View Page Here is a picture of the alien space craft that has landed in my back yard. Laugh if you want to--I did. I bet Vancouver city types don’t see this kind of creativity in the city patches : ) Surprising what folks from the valley can do with $40 of plastic, a few 2x3’s, and a stapler eh? I sure wish I would have taken the time to buy pvc pipe and build a real hoophouse. One a positive note, if I uncover the back during hot days I should get plenty of air inside to cool things down. Also, when it gets really hot the south-west facing side will deflect the wind up and over the plant, so I can uncover the opposing side and deflect intense heat nicely. In this way I can probably use it for a windbreak for some time. I think growth will start to slow down now that I have a larger greenhouse and more cool air circulating through all the joints at night, I may have to crank heating slightly. Should be good for 1 week or more. Some other interesting developments. I came home to find a second main off the stump pressed against the plastic (hence the urgency to expand). Three tendrils and two leaves at the end! I could have sworn it was normal the day before--pretty sure the barrier of the plastic caused it to mutate as it was growing. At any rate I trimmed two tendrils and a leaf off the end and as I was contemplating whether or not it was a flat vine a small gust of wind comes up under the plastic and I hear a snap--that was the end of it. So I lost it at 3 feet--pretty sure it was going flat. Too bad I trimmed the other remaining 2 secondary shoots on that side off the stump a long time ago--got hasty. Now I only have one more vine shooting from the other end of the stump along with the main. To make matters worse, as I was watering with a gallon I dropped a bunch of water on a leaf and broke it--same side and same spot I had just busted the vine on. Setbacks are all part of the game I guess. Wednesday, May 31 View Page Definite setback has arisen. I would appreciate any advice over email. I came home today to see the main vine laying nice and low. I was excited as I figured it had finally settled the way I wanted it to. On closer inspection I noticed a small kink further up the vine. As I made my way down the length of the main vine I was horrified to notice a decent sized tear that ran the length of the vine by a leaf node for about 2.5 inches. The tear is definitely deep enough that you can see the cavity. In fact the cavity tear is wide enough that you could insert the end of a rolled up 5 dollar bill into it! To make matters worse further down the vine there is a horizontal tear by a leaf node--this one is only on the surface (about .5 inches long) and does not penetrate too deep. Should I cover the cavity tear with soil? should I keep it dry? Any advice would be much appreciated please email if you have had a similar experience or have advice. Thursday, June 1 View Page This picture represents the first of three series of tears along the main vine (other pictures posted below). It is located at about 6 feet out on the main. Any advice on this or the other series of tears (below) please email me. Is it worth trying to set a fruit on a main this damaged??? Should I abort and try to concentrate on a couple secondaries??? Should I let the main carry on??? Opinions, advice please email me. Thursday, June 1 View Page This is the second tear on the main at about 7.5 feet out. This one runs both ways and the cavity is visible. Opinions, please email. Thursday, June 1 View Page This is the third tear that seems to have gotten worse since yesterday. This one is particularly annoying as it runs across the vine. Advice, or opinions please email. Is this vine still worthy of growing a fruit, or is the cumulative damage enough to teerminate it and concentrate on the other secondaries above??? Thursday, June 1 View Page This is the female at the bottom of all these tears at about 10-12 feet. I would not have set her anyway as the plant is not big enough. The main is still growing, but it has slowed down noticeably. In compensation it seems that the secondaries have picked up quite a bit--they seem to have started to grow faster. Again, any comments please email. I am interested to hear what experienced growers would do in this situation. Thanks Tony Friday, June 2 View Page Still eager to hear more opinions on the tear. Thanks to Glen who responded with some sage advice and observations re: the tears. In other news, looks like the NSB are picking up the pace—a bit—must be that rich North Shore air those plants are breathing—or maybe that witches brew of secret ingredients is starting to take hold. In any case, I have included a picture of my plant so they can compare progress in the “Country vs. City”. This picture was taken yesterday, 38 days after the seed hit the soil—that would put the NSB’s plant at about day 25 on my growth chart. I guess that means the NSB planted their plants around May 9-10th, but that seems awfully late, okay, maybe that means they are still a couple of weeks behind : ) I’ll take more pictures this weekend when I extend the greenhouse for the third time--of course if the main vine goes “boom” a few more times, I may have more gruesome photos : ) Sunday, June 4 View Page Here is a picture of the 1446 at 39 days old--there is a beer can at the far left of the photo to provide scale--the hammer is not quite accurate since it is a a huge 36 oz hammer. The main vine is at about 12-14 feet long (I have not measured it). I had a chance to lift the greenhouse as I had to extend it for the third time--hence a photo opportunity. Hopefully the weather turns hot and I can take the greenhouse off next week--at this point I don't think I can extend it much more--I am running out of plastic and patience. I will probably leave the right side of the plastic attached to the poles as a wind break. In spite of the 3 significant tears along the main vine it still seems to be growing at a good rate. I will not set the first female--the plant is too small, I will wait until the next one or maybe the one after that. Most secondaries are around 4 feet long right now. Today I trimmed a couple of tertiaries and I moved a lot of soil along the vines to support them and prevent any more tears. Sunday, June 4 View Page Well, after extending the greenhouse yesterday I decide to water and feed the plant with a soluble fert treatment. Of course I left the water on a little too long and it was hot yesterday too. Today it was rainy and I went to have a look at my plant and it had grown tremendously in all directions. The greenhouse extension I thought would last a week looks like it might not last more than a couple of more days at this rate. In fact I had to get out in the rain and mud and rig another small extension to prevent a couple of secondaries from growing into the plastic walls. Hopefully the weather cooperates--looks like it is supposed to get a lot nicer this week and I can start dismantling some of this junk-house contraption I have built in my yard. Also, spotted a large leaf that fell over under the weight of itself(but it is still growing well). Also, spotted another female near the end of the main. Tuesday, June 6 View Page Looks like the weather is finally turning better. We should have 22-28 celcius days for about a week now. Just in time for me as I will have to do away with the greenhouse soon. Looks like the main and most of my secondaries have finally fell—they are now running nice and low to the ground—finally, and after much coaxing. I have an annoying slug eating at a couple of my largest leafs—at least two of them are peppered with small holes—nothing too serious yet I hope, I looked and could not find him. As to the splits I think the majority of the splits has ceased, most seem to have healed up quite nicely, but I am worried about slugs getting inside my vines at the splits—I have already pulled two small ones out —I don’t have access to “captan paste”. Anybody know what else I can use to cover holes/splits on vines, or where I can get this paste??? I am thinking of putting some of that slug dust around my vines to attract slugs—can I also dust some of the leaves with this stuff?? The two females are still quite small, one appeared more than a week ago and still seems quite tiny—not sure how long it will take to mature—but I don’t have males yet so no worries. Yesterday I was moving dirt and threw a whole bunch of dirt on the female by accident—you should have seen me trying to fix that! Tuesday, June 6 View Page Day 41 for my 1446 Eaton. I just finished measuring the main vine and it is at 16-17 feet--longer than I thought--puts the two females at about 13 and 15 feet. Most of the secondaries are between 5 and 8 feet long as well. I did not trim every second one as I had planned because they are pretty widely spaced, and I wanted to get good coverage on my mound. I will probably trim more of the secondaries beyond the fruit set. Spent about 2 hours moving more dirt and trimming tertiaries. Also, looks like my greenhouse will last about 2 more days--yet another addition. i am now preparing the wind break for when I absolutely must pull apart the greenhouse. 3 more females appeared on two other secondaries. These ones are unusually small compared to the ones on the main vine--and two of them are quite closely spaced. Looks like I may get my first male today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, pictures are a no go because it is to impossible to take a good shot underneath my greenhouse. I will post an updated shot when I rip apart some of the greenhouse. Wednesday, June 7 View Page A slow day at the library has prompted me to wonder what type of secret weapon the NSBoyz have lurking under that small green one-man tent on the good side of Vancouver--hope it’s not some Wile E. Coyote style pumpkin plant that detonates once you lift the greenhouse off! At any rate, if I have a pumpkin, and it isn’t embarrassingly small, it might be fun to bring it to the North Shore weigh-off and meet all the like minded individuals growing gords near the coast. And besides, I would like to see the variety of pumpkins submitted—especially those from the Lawman’s “North Shore Nightmare Plants I & II”! Thursday, June 8 View Page Today was another day of trimming tertiaries ( I am pinching them off when they are really small) and moving dirt under and around vines--as well as a quick greenhouse expansion. The main has grown almost 4 feet since Saturday and I ran out of room again. I still cannot believe how robust these plants are and how pervasive pumpkin roots are--I dug at the bottom of the mound to get some extra dirt (about four linear feet from the main stem) and the thick black compost I laid under a couple of weeks ago was riddled with bright white pumpkin roots! And here I was thinking the roots would likely not make it that far to the compost I laid down! Wow, amazing plants indeed! So far I have 8 females (most are very small). 3 of them are on the main between 13-17 feet--most of the others are paired up close on a couple of secondaries. Funny thing is that the female that appeared 1 week ago has still not matured very much--might be the large secondary sprouting from underneath it--or maybe these things have some internal clock that functions regardless of plant size. I mean it is weird that my plant is huge now (about 10 feet wide by 17 feet long) and loaded with males and females, yet neither males nor females have blossomed yet (though they are close). No worries, I am in no rush to get a pumpkin on yet. In fact I am trying to time one just right. I cut the secondary vine under the third female on the main (the one that just appeared at the end). My hope is to get this one pollinated--the plant will be very strong by then, and the pumpkin won't be set too early, and the placement seems good. Of course, anything can happen between now and then. Friday, June 9 View Page Yesterday was a cool and rainy day—I got soaked working outside for 2-3 hours. I finally lifted part of the greenhouse and erected a perimeter fence around my entire pumpkin patch. I have had raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels going through my yard for a long time, and this was a precautionary measure—don’t want them getting the taste for my pumpkin blooms. Also, there is a neighbor who consistently lets his dog out at night and he often journeys to my yard to defecate and tramp wherever he sees fit. Not taking any chances, I weighed down the fence on all sides and will weigh it down more to prevent problems with wildlife. Got my first male yesterday—cut him off and froze him just in case—a couple of my other males had blossoms that rotted off—hope this does not become a problem. Moved more dirt under the vines as you can see in the photo, and also around the mound where pumpkin roots were literally shooting out of the soil on one side. Tomorrow I dig a resting spot for growing the pumpkin (I am on a hill) and possibly remove more of my greenhouse. Some tendrils near the end of the main and secondaries are splitting wide open—happened after I gave the plant a 30min water after a hot day—not sure why, but it seems every so often when I water the plant I get tremendous growth, or something blows or splits the next day??? Sunday, June 11 View Page 4+ hours of yardwork today. Had to mow the lawn and tried to fix my leaf blower. Bagged all the clippings as usual— the neighbor also gave me his clippings (2 large orange garbage bags). Have to start composting early for next year. Yesterday 3+ hours in the yard working the regular garden and moving soil over the pumpkin vines wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow. I am burying my lawn more and more each day—my wife and family think I have totally lost it—Autumn will be one heck of a cleanup job. Dad showed up for a visit the other day and just shook his head—said it looked like a bomb had landed in the yard (and he’d know, having seen plenty during World War II). I still have no idea how I am going to grow a pumpkin on this steep hill, or move one out if it weighs a considerable amount. Anyway, picked up a good water wand at WalMart for watering the vines that have grown beyond my soaker hose—it is really cool—extends to about 6 feet and has an adjustable head with different settings—very nifty. Plant really seems to be taking off, main and secondaries are growing between 4-6 inches a day--have hardly watered at all this week. Must be at least 8-10 females around the plant—cut the leaves under some of them to help them lay down better. Main is at about 20+ feet, secondaries are mostly 8-12 feet long. Will begin cutting the ends on some of them soon. Tuesday, June 13 View Page Here is a rooftop picture of the Eaton plant at 47 days old. You can see the wind break/perimeter fence I have set up. I think i will have to expand the fence. The white arrow shows the location of tip of the main vine. As you can see the hill is quite steep--this offers excellent drainage and heat/light hours are increased dramatically--but it also makes growing a pumpkin on a hill more challenging. I had to train the main sideways otherwise it would have gone right over the retaining wall--even still it is steep terrain. Another interesting development--this morning I saw half a leaf eaten up! When I turned over the leaf I almost didn't see the large green caterpillar underneath it ( I was in a hurry). As you can imagine I became very angry that this creature was feasting on my plant--I usually don't kill critters, but I stepped on him very quickly and with a vengence. When I squished him he was full of pumpkin plant juice. Tuesday, June 13 View Page Here is a picture of the retaining wall I have built along the main vine in hopes of setting the female (located at the tip of the white arrow) about 17 feet out on the main. The part of the picture that I have circled in white will be back filled with dirt if/when it is needed and if/when I set the female to give a nice flat surface for her to grow onto (by the looks of it she will open in a couple of days). I dreamt this up last night as I was contemplating digging a hole--it would be too hard to dig a hole under a set fruit, much easier to add soil and build a small retaining wall. I had several 4x4's to use laying around the yard and so I put 4 together to create bulk and eliminate the need for too much soil--then it was a matter of finding old pipes to nail into the ground to support the weight of the wall. If this female fails there is another female 2 feet in front and about three feet behind the one pictured (the one behind may be a no show as it is still very small and has not progressed. If this fails there are about 10 other females on secondaries at the moment! Also did more compost work and moved more soil today--will not fill the trench until I know what will happen--this will make the wall easier to move should I need to reposition it. Wednesday, June 14 View Page Here is another shot of the Eaton from a couple of days ago--it has grown considerably since then. The female is about 1-2 days from opening up--we'll see what happens--lot's of males are popping up too. The female at 13 feet is a no-show--it has started to rot. All this rain is causing lots of growth. I am moving soil on a daily basis to bury vines and give them something to root over on the lawn. I am using soil from behind the patch--which serves a double purpose as it allows me to dig a nice big hole behind the plant for next year (8 feet X 8 feet). This will allow me to move all the compact topsoil to a depth of 4 feet and I will begin to ammend it in the fall--and next year I will move the pumpkin back to grow on that spot--moving the soil from where the pumpkin is currently growing to cover the compost. This will give me a large pit to bury clippings etc. I will cease composting and begin burying all clippings and trimmings. It would seem that a lot of nutrients escape during the process of composting--but if they are underground they would be "locked" in better. Wednesday, June 14 View Page OOps! The picture didn't load, here it is now. Friday, June 16 View Page The Eaton is considerably bigger than it was a few days ago, but I don't think the cool weather and constant rain is helping accelerate growth any. I didn't water it for three days (even though much of the plant is covered from the rain--the soil does absorb the rain as it moves down the mound). I have a female on the main that has been ready to open for a few days now--she might open tomorrow. She is not in the greatest position--certainly not 90degrees to the vine. I hope I can set her though as it looks like I may have lost the other two on the main. Nothing else has appeared on the main and it is at about 25 feet now (lots of females on secondaries though). I dead-ended two secondaries at 10 feet, and will dead-end a couple more probably this weekend at the same length--seems long enough, don't want the vines to become predatory to the plant. Trimmed tertiaries--much easier to pinch them off when they are tiny. The other main (at 90 degrees to the main-main) is at about 11 feet as well, and it has a couple of females too--vine is nice and thick--we'll see what happens there. Still very early, and I seem to be well ahead of the game, so I have some options yet. Friday, June 16 View Page Here is a picture of the female I pollinated on the 1446 Eaton at about 17 feet on the main vine (self-pollinated with three of her males, no other siuitable males were available in my area for this one). I covered her this morning and then pollinated her just now when I got home (and covered her back up). Anybody have any ideas on why these lobes are so massive and engorged looking? I was expecting to be able to count them, but when I opened up the plastic bag to look inside the flower they were grown into each other and really huge (like a good sized meat ball!) The lobes on my last years plant didn't look anything like these and were much smaller? The fruit underneath these odd lobes is regular sized (maybe even a bit smaller than I thought it would be)? Weird. Sunday, June 18 View Page Tough day yesterday--windy like all heck. In spite of my windbreak (see previous photos) and the fact that my yard is surrounded by trees, I get a wicked south-easterly that blows over the house and hits my plant head on. The toll (at last count) was 9 huge mature leaves blown over. I cut a couple out (the ones lying over each other). The other ones I will leave until they get eaten and ratty--or others replace them. In other news, I think the pollination may have took. The day after I pollinated she stayed open all day (underneath the bac), but today she is closed and the bottom appears to have swollen ever so slightly. Keeping fingers crossed. It is early in the season, so I am hoping to grow a couple of pumpkins off this plant. Today I will add several more wheelbarrows of compost from the neighbor around the base of the plant. Monday, June 19 View Page Added another 6 wheelbarrows full of good black compost from the neighbors compost bin. Dumped it on the back of the mound. It seems you can never have enough of the stuff, and it is funny how the plant will send out roots no matter where you put it. Hard work wheelbarrowing it uphill for about 200metres--good excercise though. Will have another female to pollinate today about 9 feet out on the second main. This one is not on a hill and looks to be perpendicular to the vine, so I am hoping it is a fast grower--I'd like to set it and keep this one as one of the two pumpkins I'll grow to maturity. Hard work is just about done on the patch--now I'll sit back and water and prune and watch em grow--hopefully! Pictures to follow soon. Monday, June 19 View Page Just wanted to add that I snipped the secondary that was holding the vine from being perpendicular to the pumpkin. Now all is well and I have a really perpendicular fruit. No problems yet with the stem or blossom end splitting etc. Also, sulphur seems to have worked like a charm on some of the rot I had--thanks NSB for the tip. Stump is fine (getting even thicker) cleared it of any excess leaves and let the sun beat down on it--as I said before it is also protected from the rain by the plastic--which I left up over the center of the plant. I think this will help me tremendously once the rain sets in over the fall--keep the crucial parts of the plant from rotting (stump and main vine all the way to the fruit). Only problem right now is some of the younger leaves on a couple of vines are looking washed out and a little "yellowy"--could be the foliar ferts are burning them? The one or two vines that it is happening on are hanging over the retaining wall and have little soil under them--so I was thinking maybe the large fruit (which is very close) is starting to starve them--who knows. Also, had to add another 25 lbs of sand around the pumpkin. I can't believe how it is spreading out so quickly. Good thing I built that retaining wall, or I'd be in big trouble right about now. Right now the placement of that wall is perfect--unless this thing grows absolutely huge. All my efforts putting it up are now paying off as I have a level surface on my steep back yard for growing the main fruit. Probably be at least 20 inches off the 30 day total for being on track for 1000+ lbs. Right now I'll be lucky to hit 90 on day 30--nevermind the 108-110 in the ailts-landry benchmarks--but I am determined to hit it next year. Of course as my good friend Cam has pointed out, the pacific northwest has a pretty special growing climate--it is very long--so anything could happen. Tuesday, June 20 View Page Another explosion in the patch--this one is a bad one. Main is split wide open for about 8 inches--then joins for another four inches only to split wide open again for another 4 inches. I mean wide, I could put my thumb right into the hole--no wonder the main seemed to slow down right around 25 feet. The split is within 3 feet of my best female--don't see how I can grow a monster on the main now after all these problems--and to think, I was hardly watering at all, and no fertilizer for the past two weeks! Oh well, hopefully the pumpkin I set today at 8 feet on the other main (which has no blow-outs yet) will take well--but it was only a 4 lober. Pruned the ends off most secondaries--trying to concentrate on fruit now. Two more to set tomorrow, one at 18 feet on the main, and one on a secondary--a whole bunch more females to go at the end of secondaries, but setbacks are mounting. Seems that other growers near the coast are having setbacks of their own--like the Lawman for instance. Of course if all else fails for the lawman maybe his mom up in Creston will be able to grow him a pumpkin he can take to the weigh-off. : ) Other city growers like the NSBoyz seem to be talking about following the "George Castanza" method of pumpkmin growing--but last I checked George Castanza never grew any giant pumpkins. : ) Tuesday, June 20 View Page Pollinated the other two females this morning (5 lobes each, and much smaller than the first one I pollinated on the main). The female on the secondary is also plagued by a split vine that runs about 3 feet. The other one on the main is in a good spot, but like I said, that main vine is full of blowouts too. Right now I am convinced the splits are happening due to the wind and the angle of the vines on the hill with the leaves pulling downward and laterally on the vines (which are built up on mounds). All the splits seem to happen where the leaves are big and weighty--this, coupled with the wind, and the steep angle of the vines are causing the splits. This could have been remedied had I buried the vines a little deeper instead of building up the soil underneath them--hindsight is 20/20 eh? My best bet might still be that second main I left off the side of the plant--no wind on that side and the vines are at a much less steep angle than near the bottom of the plant. I might put in some leaf supports on that vine to prevent a blowout. Still have a great chance at about 14 feet out on that second main with a new pumpkin to come soon and one at about 10 feet (4 lobes) already pollinated. Tuesday, June 20 View Page Just doing a little diary review of interesting events (or lack thereof) over in the city patches. I noticed the NSBoyz have what looks to be a large tree or shrub about 8 feet away from the base of the 1016 (June 13th pic in the back). I bet that shrub is just loving all that Agro-K the NSBoy has been feeding his plant--not to mention the other expensive soil amendments he's put in his yard. Of course while the NSB' s are inadvertently wasting dollars by feeding their yard shrubs with expensive soil substitutes (maybe they'd rather grow nice shrubs than pumpkins) I'll be collecting other people's yard trash and compost feeding a giant. Wednesday, June 21 View Page This is a picture of the 1446 Eaton in my yard at 54 days old--just under two months of growth. The vines are full of splits--but if you compare the rooftop picture to a week ago it has grown considerably in spite of this. It is slowing down however, and I have been dead-heading secondaries at about 9-11 feet. Running out of room, so I will begin pruning heavily and whatever happens, happens. Good news and bad news today. The bad news is that the other main I figured had no splits actually had a huge split near the stump where the vine was completely flat! Yes, the vine was split wide open to the point that it was lying flat like a piece of cardboard--funny thing is this main seems to be growing quite good. Other bad news is that no noticeable growth on any of the pumpkins I have pollinated so far. Good news is that I have pollinated 4 pumpkins with a few more to go in a couple of days--and one should make it at the very least. Other good news is that I have another main growing off the other end of the stump--it is about 6 feet long and has 2 females that will open soon--this one has absolutely no splits--yet! I actually thought it was a secondary off the main, but it connects right to the base of the stump. Problem is I trimmed off all the secondaries on this main. Have cut back even more on the watering. Watered today for 10 minutes with the soakers. Funny thing is I have never drenched the stump once since planting with a hose and even water minimally every second day in spite of the heat and wind, and no ferts--and it still grows and splits. I am convinced it is the weight of the leaves on the vines. Wednesday, June 21 View Page Pollinated my 5th female this morning--but left it uncovered afterwards--might be one more open after work today. The plastic bags on my other post-pollinated females are causing a lot of condensation and wilt to the flower, and I am a little worried that it might be inhibiting to some extent. Lots of females, so I have to try different things and hopefully something will work. Nothing to cross-pollinate with as I picked all the males off my squash plant, and maybe a couple of bees in there would do some good. Still no noticeable growth on the first pollination that took place 5 days ago--that pumpkin has a lot of growing to do in five days to hit the magic 23 inch circumference over 10 days--don't think that will happen at all with this one. Others are too early to tell. On last look there were more vines busted everywhere it seems, but the plant is strong with a stump almost as thick as a coke can now, and the weather is picking up--I think the pumpkins will get their grow on soon. Seems that coastal gang (aka the NSB—“B” stands for babies) have been heard trash-talking the valley boys again. In fact, a lot of hot air seems to rise up through the valley from the north end of the city. Of course, when the hot air settles my country grown “yard-trash-ladden-ditch-dirt-fed-plant” will be pitted against the NSB’s more pretentious city-grown “Agro-K-infused-George-Castanza-highfalutin-foliage”. Let the turf war begin NSB’s! Thursday, June 22 View Page Pollinated 2 more females this morning (6 lober and a 4 lober). This time I pinched the flowers and tied them shut with some twist ties after pollinating. I was covering them with plastic bags, but I think the heat and the condensation generated may have been interfering with fruit set. That makes 7 pollinated within the last week--however, still no noticeable growth on the first three that were pollinated 5 and 6 days ago. Also, many set fruit are on split vines. At this point I am just burying the split vines (I don't want to look at them). Part of me thinks that burying them might actually help them root better, and i am almost certain that many of the vines that are buried are already split anyway--and they seem to be fine--or as good as a split vine can be. I wonder if I will have trouble setting fruit on this plant? Still tons of females popping up all over the place in various stages of development--some have to take. I'll keep setting them all and then when/if I spot a fast grower I'll start favoring it and slowly cull from there. Some burnt edges on a couple of leaves, and I lost another couple of leaves to the wind. This weekend should be hot. Friday, June 23 View Page Extended my fence today so the main had more room. Also came home today to find the tips of all my secondaries and main bent skyward for the hundredth time again--this problem is even more magnified when you are on a hill like me. I am tired of coaxing them to the ground inch by inch on the steep slope every other day and burying them by hauling dirt in buckets. All that impatience didn't serve me well as I was coaxing my second main to the ground I split it slightly and handled it a bit roughly until it broke right off. It was already about 15 feet long, and I had a pumpkin pollinated on it at about 8 feet, as well three secondaries that look like they have nice fruit at about 6 feet each, so I didn't sweat it too much, but I lost two females on the end that may have been in good positions. Also 2 more females to pollinate tomorrow (will make a total of 9 so far). My third primary is the best bet right now. Tomorrow a 5 lober will open up (I peeked in it today). It is about 5 feet from the stump, but this primary vine has no splits, and the roots are incredibly thick on that side. I busted the first primary from that same spot when it started to go flat (it was 3 feet long at the time). This one is second growth, but it is strong and at about 7 feet now. There is another female to set at about 7 feet sometime in the future, and the hill is not steep here. I am hoping this vine grows the big one. Saturday, June 24 View Page Oops! yesterday should have been marked as the 22nd. not 23rd. I hope my double posts are not getting annoying--this is the only diary I am keeping, so I wanted to make sure it is thorough with details for myself next year. After pollinating 2 females today it looks like the first pollinated female from 7 days ago may have taken. It is small--10 inch circumference, so three days for it to reach the magic 23—I doubt it but we’ll see. Still tons of females left to mature and pollinate—good thing I have been having at least 2 males open up every day—things are really clicking with pollination (having males and females at the same time). Good thing the weather is getting hot this weekend! The timing on the weather could not be better to help these babies start growing. There seems to be at least 2-3 females on every vine in various stages of development. I’d say every secondary has one at 6-8 feet and then another one further out—some have 3 even 4! A third female on the main at 27 feet might hit the first week of July perfectly for pollination, but that seems a little far out as the main seems to be slowing down considerably after 17 feet—and the hill is so steep I’d have to build another retaining wall—no way that’s gonna happen—but I’ve said that before and then spent a whole day sweating over plastic or dirt etc.. Sunday, June 25 View Page Well, today was definitely hot, and tomorrow is supposed to get even hotter. I got some major leaf burn on one side of the plant--found that strange because it doesn't get that hot in our neck of the world. New young leaves hit pretty hard--cut out about three, and there is about 10 affected. I watered a bit heavier today and will set up shade for tomorrow. Most of the pollinated pumpkins (9 so far) look like they are beginning to grow. The one that is growing noticeably faster than the others is also in the worst spot on my hill. I'll wait until they get volleyball size to begin culling. No new pollinations yet, and none tomorrow as far as I can see. Sunday, June 25 View Page The following is the first in a group of photos I have of my pumpkins. Please e-mail me if you have any thoughts or comments. Here is the best fruit I have right now. it is 5 days old with a circumference of 11.5 inches. It is round and a nice long oval shape. Problem is, it is in the worst position of all my pumpkins (on a steep incline) and as you can see the vine is maor split--what you can't see is that the vine is split further up too. Comments on this one? is it worth keeping? Suggestions? Also, please take not of the leaf in this shot--a little yellow on the inside edges--is this a result of very nitrogen rich compost??? Is it a problem? Sunday, June 25 View Page Here is a shot of the first fruit on the main at about 15-17 feet. It is a little blurry--it is 8 days old with a circ of 10 inches. This one has some deeper set ribs and is a nice oval shape. Are the deeper set ribs a good or bad sign??? Comments on this fruit??? Sunday, June 25 View Page Here is the second fruit on the main at about 17-20 feet. This one is 5 days old with a circumference of 10 inches. This one looks like it will be a classic wheel shape. Are wheel shaped pumpkins problematic??? It seems to be growing faster than the one further back on the main, but is the wheel shape a problem??? Comments on this one?? Sunday, June 25 View Page Here is a picture of the top left of the plant with three pumpkins on 3 different vines. There are three other pumpkins that I have not shown in pics because I didn't have time to take anymore pics--I was getting eaten by mosquitos! Notice the leaf is a little yellow in the photo--as I mentioned I have several leaves yellowing slightly--and many of the young ones are burning in the heat. Nothing special about these pumpkins except the one on the top left has a really nice long vine--but it is on a weak secondary and it has an odd green strip/ball protruding from it. These ones are between 5-6 days old and have a circ of 9-10 inches. Please e-mail me with any comments re: what pumpkins look good at this stage and regarding leaf yellowing. 2 more pumpkins to pollinate on this plant tomorrow (my 10th and 11th pollinations on this plant!) Like I said, any comments on what looks good at this stage, please let me know. I will probably keep pollinating pumpkins (there are tons more females) and start culling when they reach volleyball size. Any other stragegies people have please let me know. Monday, June 26 View Page Pollinated 2 more females today—a 4 lober and a 6 lober. The 6 lober is about 4 feet in front of another pumpkin that I pollinated 6 days ago (see above, my biggest one so far). The other 4 lober is on a side secondary. I woke up early in the morning to water before I went to work, and the females had not opened up yet—and I was in a hurry. So I quickly plucked a male and manipulated the females open and used the one to pollinate the two females. I don’t plan on keeping these two new pollinated pumpkins, so I was not too fussy—and the mosquitos were killing me! Right now I am experiencing a major mosquito outbreak in the patch—probably because the soil is always wet. I got stung about 6 times yesterday and about another 6 times this morning—they are everywhere. I am wearing a long shirt and pants in the patch now. At any rate, when the sun goes down they are literally eating me alive—even biting through my shirt. I will have to do most of my irrigation, pruning etc in the heat of the day when they are not out in full force. I am also experiencing a bad allergy rash on my arms from all the yard work I have been doing over the past couple of months (happened last year too—got so bad I could not sleep last year). I have been diligent by wearing rubber disposable gloves every day, but my wrists often come in contact with the huge leaves of the pumpkin. Imagine, a pumpkin addict who is allergic to pumpkin plants. Tuesday, June 27 View Page Here is my fastest growing female of the 9 females I pollinated over the last week. Pollinated 2 today (one further down the same vine as this one pictured) and will have 2 more tomorrow (on other secondaries). She is growing much faster than the others. The photo is from today, day 6 for her. Yesterday her circumference was 11.5, today it was already 14.5 inches! Still 4 more days to hit the magic 23 inches--it might happen!. Of course I had to cut the tap root beneath her so we'll see if she slows down over the next couple of days. She is in the worst spot on the whole patch and on a secondary filled with splits. Today I labored in the sun until I nearly got heat stroke to get a platform for her to grow onto. I had to dress in long sleeve shirt and pants because of the mosquitos--apparently the mosquito problem has hit the whole lower mainland valley. In other news, I aborted the first female I pollinated on the main because it had grown little, and the one further down the main seemed to be growing well (it is my second biggest). I thought if I cut it, maybe the other one would take off. I will cut the tip of the main soon, it is between 27 and 30 feet. All the other pollinations seem to have taken, but nothing is growing as fast as the one in the photo above--she is just exploding compared to the others. Tuesday, June 27 View Page Here is another shot of my fastest growing fruit. This morning I went to give the patch a sprinkle before work and she had grown noticeably since yesterday--I'll post measurements when I get home today in the evening. A six lober I pollinated a few days ago about 3 feet down from the one in the photo has also started to swell quickly--it has a really long thick stem, and the vine is not so busted up, but is in an even worse position on the hill--don't think I'll keep it--I dunno. Other 3 pumpkins on the far back of the plant are starting to swell too--but slower--and the one I pollinated several days ago on the back main is slow to swell (as is the one on the other back main)--I think I will cut them in a couple of days. I pollinated 2 more females today on the other side of the plant on secondaries, and 1 more female below the 6 lober--did a quick job and tied them shut. 2-3 more females to pollinate tomorrow. Also, the pumpkin on the main is growing well--second fastest, and maybe a bit faster since I chopped off the one further up the main. Have to keep track so I know how fast they grow. Looking to keep 2 fruit. Wednesday, June 28 View Page Came home yesterday and measured my fastest growing pumpkin. It had grown from 14.5 to 17.5 inches at the end of day 7. It might definitely hit 25 before the 10 days are up. Other pumpkins (6 or so—I am losing count) are also starting to pick up—all set as far as I can tell. I pollinated 3 more little ones today—one below a six lober already pollinated on a secondary that has started to take off, one on a secondary off the back main behind the plant, and one on the third main at about 9 feet (3-4 feet past one that is already pollinated and growing on that vine). Also, terminated this main at about 10 feet. Already 2 fruit on it. Also, I cut another set female off on the back main at about 10 feet—it just wasn’t growing fast enough. Also, terminated the main vine at about 30 feet—one more chance at about 27 feet with a female soon. Time to start shifting the focus to fruit and some secondary growth to regenerate leaves for later on—and besides, I am running out of room inside my fence. Woke up early today to give the patch a little soak before work. I have been doing a lot of thinking regarding how much/ when to water. Last night I gave the plant a good soak and I am met with a whole bunch of growth today. I have really good drainage, so I don’t think I can over water too much—I guess I’ll find out. Thinking I might go with 3 and then weed down to 2 later on in the season. Thursday, June 29 View Page Here is a picture of my fastest growing pumpkin. Day 8 at a circumference of about 19.5 (I could not hold the tape tight and take the picture because I had to hold up a leaf). Seems to be growing 2 to 2.5 inches a day in circumference. Two more days should put it at a 10 day measurement of 23-24 inches--this would be pretty good. Check out the split on the vine--blown wide open eh? Thursday, June 29 View Page Here is my second fastest female. 6 days in and she has a circumference of 17 inches. She is a very tall pumpkin with a long stem and she is almost perpendicular to the vine on a secondary--and she is on relatively flat ground compared to the others. I just culled another one further up the vine today (you can see where it was cut off--this one was around 15 inches on day 7, but it had a weird green streak on it and was oozing earlier on). Maybe this cull will increase the growth on this one? I will be looking to keep this one, depending on what she does in the next few days. Thursday, June 29 View Page OOps! That last post was wrong--that was the one on the main vine at 17 feet, and she is 8 days old. I am thinking of culling this one, because it is pretty slow. Really wanted to keep one pumpkin on the main, but so far both are duds. One more chance at about 26 feet out. The other pumpkin I was describing in the previous post is in the photo above, it is 16 inches on day 6, and looks promising. Thursday, June 29 View Page This is the one on the third primary about 5 feet out. It is about 14 inches on day 5. Will be watching this one. One more pollinated about 4 feet further out on this vine. This is a good vine--strong, and one of the few without splits. Thursday, June 29 View Page This is the one on the third primary about 5 feet out. It is about 14 inches on day 5. Will be watching this one. One more pollinated about 4 feet further out on this vine. This is a good vine--strong, and one of the few without splits. Thursday, June 29 View Page I have been wanting to post a picture of the stump for quite some time now. It is pretty thick as you can see (plant is 61 days old right now). That thing in the picture that looks like a piece of string is the dried remnant of the first true leaf. Some new leaves sprouting off the stump--I thought I would leave them to grow to regenerate some large ones that have grown so big the have fallen over. Busy day, had to work on the squash and tying tomatoes. Regular garden is full of weeds--oh well--priorities. Thursday, June 29 View Page Pollinated six more females this morning, including the one that is about 26 feet out on the main--I almost missed seeing the open flower as I was so preoccupied with mesasuring the other pumpkins yesterday I didn't even check. Also, I think there is about 2 others this morning that I did not pollinate because I did not have time before work--and they were'nt open yet--I will likely cull these ones anyway. So far about 24 pollinations on this one plant--including a couple of open pollinations! I have already culled 3 pumpkins, and will start culling others soon. Still looking for a really fast grower--not too late to set a pumpkin in a week or two from now, will be looking to see if there is a special one that just grows like crazy--hopefully it is the one on the main at 26--we'll see. Friday, June 30 View Page Pumpkins are really swelling. I have about 6 that are almost the size of volleyballs. My biggest one yesterday measured 22 inches in circumference on day 9. I won't measure it today because it is getting heavy to lift and I am scared I might break the blossom end by lifting it to get the tape under it. It will definitely be 24 inches on day 10 though--I am pretty pleased about that. Pollinated another 3 this morning--why not. Don't think I will be keeping them (that makes 27 pollinations on this plant). Got up late today 6:30am. No water yesterday, watching for rot. Saturday, July 1 View Page Pumpkins growing very well. The one on the main has picked up with a circ. of 24 just after day 10 this morning--and the blossom is really thick, and the pumpkin is quite long. The other one, my fastest grower was 26.5 this morning after day 10 yesterday. Bought some more sand and will build proper shade structures this week. Also, I guess I will start to cut off the other 6 volleyball sized pumpkins --will leave these two. The Plant itself is showing some signs of wear--already! Quite few leaves that were over three feet have fallen over, many have some holes or browning edges--some spotting. I will start to leave some growth to regenerate these leaves for the summer. Went into the patch under the leaves on my hands and knees to chkeck for rot on vines and other problems (cut some leaves out etc.). Roots are literally everywhere--many shooting out from the vines for 3 or 4 inches--I coverd lots with dirt and will move in more dirt over the summer. Although almost all vines are blown wide open, they are strong and dry with no rot--thanks in part to my underground watering system I think. Some vines are partially buried. The parts on the main are so blown open they are starting to bend the opposite way! Oh well, pumpkins seem to be growing like crazy so I guess it doesn't matter. Sunday, July 2 View Page Here is my best fruit at the beginning of day 12 with a circ. of about 29.5--still averaging 2 inches in circ. a day--I think this is pretty fast growth--certainly the fastest I have seen. I have done some reading on calcium nitrate towel applications. Any advice on making calcium towels appreciated. I have some water soluble calcium nitrate 15.5 .0 .0. How much should I put in a gallon for a calcium towel? How useful/dangerous is this? Haven't used any fertilizer in a couple of weeks--this plant is almost exclusively compost fed, except for some 1 gallon applications of miracle grow earlier on in the season around the stump. Sunday, July 2 View Page Here is the second fastest grower at the beginning of day 12 with a circ. of 27 inches. This one is starting to speed up since I terminated the main and started pinching more secondaries--it also has a nice thick blossom. Notice the bend in the stem where it joins to the main. I was a little late cutting the tap roots, and the weight of the leaves kept the vine down and it started to thin/stretch the stem a bit--i hope this does not effect future growth. I pushed the vine up with some foam blocks to allow this one to grow better. Also, I put a bunch more sand around it. I will be growing this one on sand without foam--just too much trouble to get the foam in there. Sunday, July 2 View Page Here is a picture of today’s culls—the one at 24 inches was on day 10, the other ones were slightly smaller day 10’s . Tough to cut them off, but that’s the way it has to be—I am not trying to grow a bunch of big pumpkins—I want 1 or 2 monsters. These ones were just not fast enough, and in bad positions. I left one more (besides my best 2) that is doing really well--it is very tall in the middle, and is on flat ground. Will likely cull that one soon. Still tons (10-15) little pumpkins starting to grow. I will measure them in a couple of days--I already see a couple of fast ones. Will begin culling them next week or sooner. Sunday, July 2 View Page Here are my current shade structures for my two best pumpkins. I have placed the tarp over a couple of supports and will unfold it as the pumpkin grows--it is stapled on. I could unfold the whole tarp and just staple it, but why cover unnecessary leaves and prevent photosynthesis. I will extend the tarp as the pumpkin grows. The one on the main gets an umbrella zap-straped to a 2X4. I will improve that one as time creates a necessity. The other little ones are under leaves and get no special attention until they have proven themselves. Most secondaries have been dead-headed. The plant is pretty much as large as it will get (about 25 X 25 feet) Tuesday, July 4 View Page Measured my three strongest pumpkins. Fastest grower at 36 inches today--I think it might be speeding up averaging around 3+ inches a day in circ--I doubt it hits 68 on day 20 as it is day 14 today. . . who knows, about a week to go. . . could be close. The one on the main is at 33.5--up from 27.5 two days ago. This one also averaging 3 inches a day--but smaller pumpkins off its secondaries may be sucking some power. Also, third fastest one at 30 inches also growing 3 inches a day--I will likely cull it tomorrow or the next day unless it just explodes. I trimmed off 12 pollinated ones--about 8 the size of baseballs (there was only one failed pollination that I could see--little ball started to sag--obviously a goner). I left 8 of the best and will measure them on day 10--any pumpkin less than 27-30 inches will be cut--at this point I am looking for a really fast grower (still one on the main at 27 feet) I think I already have my best two picked out, and they have seen two weeks of good growing weather, so I may be committed to them at this point--but we'll see. Wednesday, July 5 View Page Day 15, my biggest one is 39 inches in circ., this is up 3 inches from 36 yesterday. My guess is it will be about 54 inches on day 20--well below the 68 inches to be on track for 1000lbs. The one on the main may be starting to overtake my biggest one. It is at a circ. of 38 inches--up from 33.5 yesterday (an increase of 4.5 inches!). I hope this one keeps growing the way it does. It would be interesting if it turns out to be a fast grower--since it started out quite slow, and I almost culled it at one point. The third largest is slowing down 32 inches--up from 30 yesterday. I may cull it soon. . . but we'll see. . .a grower just emailed me telling me that his day 17/60 incher aborted. Guess you never know what they are gonna do from day to day. Thursday, July 6 View Page Weather seems to be turning a little cold--no worries, it gave me a chance to paint some of the house today. Pumpkins growing well, but not as fast as I would like--I am sure I need more soil next year--I will not plant on top of grass and bury the vines next year, instead I will dig a larger plot--I am seeing roots jutting out everywhere looking for more soil--these plants are unbelievably vigorous. The one on the main is now my biggest pumpkin--up to 42 on day 16 this morning from 38 yesterday (4 more inches in 24 hours!). At this rate my 20 day growth should be around 58 inches--a little short of the 68 it will need to be on track for 1000+lbs--but who knows, the weather is cooling. My large one appears to be slowing down--gaining only 2 inches (at 41 from 39). And the third largest is at 35 from 32 circ. yesterday. I have 5 more that are between baseball and softball size--I will be culling them slowly--don't want to cause a surge in growth that might cause a blowout. The one on the main started to pick up bigtime since I trimmed off a whole bunch of baseball sized ones on secondaries. Not using any ferts at all, and haven't been for over a month now. Saturday, July 8 View Page Te main one only grew 2 inches last night--disappointing after a couple of days 4 inches a day. The large one was up 3 inches today from the 2 it grew yesterday, so was my third largest. Oh well, still a while left in the season, we'll see what happens. I'll post more pictures soon. Saturday, July 8 View Page note to self: the previous diary entry sould have been dated yesterday. Here is my largest on day 18 at 47.5 circ. Up 3.5 inches from yesterday--not bad. I made a mistake the day before that only watering for 15 minutes because it was cooler. I did the OTT measurements and estimated the weight at 40lbs--not great for day 18 but oh well. Saturday, July 8 View Page Here is the other one off a secondary that started off really fast and now appears to be slowing down considerably. Today's circ. for this one was 46, up from 45 the day before--but I think it is putting on more weight because it is an awfully tall pumpkin--so the other measurements are increasing more. Estimated weight is 35 lbs on day 18. Only 2 other pumpkins left. One is about 30lbs as well, and the other is about baseball size. I will cut the 30lber soon and leave the small one as a back up until it reaches basketball size in case something happens to the 2 other ones I have. Right now I will go with the two I have and see what happens. Still lots of time to grow, but at this rate I don't think I'll get much more than a 400-500lber. Sunday, July 9 View Page My big one on the main was up 3 inches over yesterday. I did the OTT mkeasurements and it is estimated at 49lbs--up from 40 yesterday--seems kinda slow growth at this stage. Circ. is just 50.5 on day 19--well short of the 68 I was shooting for, and still short of the 58 nI thought it would hit. The second biggest one was up 2 inches to 48 circ. (I did not do the other measurements for it). Also, I cut my third largest one (it was 33 lbs when I weighed it). I only have one other left (a very small one on a back secondary) just in case something happens to my prized two, I left it as a shock absorber for now. Still have not fertilized, I am a little worried it could cause a blowout--I only have the one plant, so I have to be careful--would hate for all my hard work to be wasted if I end up without a pumpkin. I will examine my daily gains next week, and if they are really slow (under 15-20lbs) I will start to fertilize with some miracle grow balanced blend. Monday, July 10 View Page Day 20 and my largest has hit a circ. of 55 (approx 60lbs--up 11 lbs from 49lbs estimate yesterday). The other one is not far behind at 51 inches circ. Still short of the 68 it needs to be on track for 1000lbs. . .but not bad for me--definitely better than last year. Already starting my composting efforts for next year. I have a large pit behind my plant (10X4X4 feet deep) that I took soil out of to bury the pumpkin vines over the lawn. Today I did about 4 hours of trimming in the yard and filled the pit up with organic debris. I will continue to fill it up over the summer and fall and then I will eventually put a couple of feet of soil over it before planting time next year. Have other things planed too, but I should not get ahead of myself. Tuesday, July 11 View Page Things looking up somewhat. Day 21 for my pumpkin and I have an estimated 76 lber (measurements are 59,46,42). Up from yesterday's approx 60 lber. This is +16 lbs since yesterday--although I measured it at 2:30pm--5 hours later than I normally do (I usually measure in the morning). I would say it gained 11-13 lbs since yesterday--may be speeding up a little. I didn't bother measure the other one--although it is of similar size. I will cut the last remaining backup on a back secondary today, and leave just the two for now--I am pretty certain they will not abort at this stage of the game. Also, I will add more sand around them to account for expansion and keep those slugs away! Need to weed and remove fallen leaves that may be rotting against the vines--spotted one yesterday and am not taking chances. Cleared the base of the stump of extra leaves since I hear this can cause rot. Will be on vacation for a day and a half tis weekend so I spent $60 on a timer--but this will only account for the "base" of the plant, I won't be able to hand water the vines like I normally do. Guess I'll have to give it a good soak these next couple of days. I think the vines will last 48hours without water--I will set the timer on the soaker for 200min to compensate slightly. Tuesday, July 11 View Page Had to cut a couple more tap roots to make sure the vines around my two pumpkins can lift itself--stuck some foam underneath yo keep them up. I also weeded around the plant a good deal. Got rid of a couple of huge leaves that had fallen over long ago. They were still alive and well, but I wanted to prevent any rot, some were lying over vines--Hard to believe some of these tap roots go a foot deep! Some rot starting on the stump off two of the primaries--I don't think it is a biggie though--might get some sulphur powder to dust it, but the stump (basal crown?) is covered from the rain and I never water it directly. Might set up a fan tomorrow. Sure glad I kept the plastic over my plant--this will really help when the rain hits--especially since my vines are all blown open and prone to rot easier. Wednesday, July 12 View Page Measured the pumpkin on the main at 8:21 this morning. It grew only 3 inches in circumference--could be because the weather was cooler. At any rate the measurements gave an estimated increase of 10 lbs. So on day 22 it is approx. 86 lbs. Did't bother measure the second one. Anyway, they are growing, but just not very fast. Thursday, July 13 View Page I might get a picture of the pumpkin up here at some point soon (when I stop being so busy with the rest of the yard). My wife and I bought a house with quite a large landscaped yard, and I never really figured how much work it would be. With the regular garden I get really busy in the summer. The rain was a nice reprieve from all the irrigating I do everyday. The home weather station I bought for $40 says we got .7cm yesterday and last night (at least in my back yard). I thought this weather stations was a waste of money, but it is really pretty neat (has an indoor monitor with indoor/outdoor temp, humidity etc.). Regarding the pumpkins, the one on the main is up 2.5 inches in circ. The cold rainy weather is probably partly to blame for the slower growth, however, the OTT measurements this morning were 162.5 (64.5 48 50) for an estimated weight of 100lbs--up 14 lbs from yesterday (I think it might be heavier by a bit, but you never know until you weigh it eh?). Anyway, progress is not so bad for day 23--at least it feels that way until I read some of the diaries of the heavy hitters who have surpassed 250 lbs on day 23! I checked my last years results and I am way ahead of where I was--so I guess that's good. Unfortunately, the side of the pumpkin is getting close to the main vine (2.5 inches away). For now I stuck a piece of foam between the vine and the pumpkin to keep the vine from touching the pumpkin--this seemed to work last year. I never was able to move it perpendicular to the vine, and now it is too large. The other one on a secondary which started out growing like crazy is slowing down--it is at an estimated 79 lbs. Funny how things change, it was growing so quickly, and now it is behind. Today I will get that sulphur powder to dust some rot on a couple of primaries. Thursday, July 13 View Page Here is the picture I said I would post. It is a shot of my biggest on day 23 from my 1446 Eaton. This pumpkin was self pollinated and is about 100lbs on day 23. Notice the piece of foam and how close the vine is getting to the pumpkin. I will continue to monitor, and hopefully nothing goes wrong. Actually, I was yanking on the vine pretty hard when I was trying to move it. The vine seems pretty strong, but I have to be more careful as it is not a good idea to be yanking on the vines. Thursday, July 13 View Page Here is a picture of the stump after I rubbed some sulphur powder into the areas that are starting to rot a little (look closely and you can see it on the two primaries that go left and right). Also, as you can see it is really thick-- 11 inches in circumference! I bought some cheap generic sea kelp solution and some Muskie Fish Fertilizer. I decided it was time I start doing foliar applications, and I have heard these things are really useful. I just measured the solutions according to the directions and added a tiny bit (1 teaspoon) of miracle grow. I'll try this every couple of days or so and see what happens--other than this I have not done any fertilizing in probably 6 weeks. Thursday, July 13 View Page Oops! Wrong picture--you can't see the foam and the vine close to the pumpkin because the leaf is covering it. I'll try to post the right picture later--I have to get to dinner. Friday, July 14 View Page I measured again this morning and got an OTT measurement of 168.5 for an estimated weight of 111 lbs--up another 11 lbs since yesterday--not bad since the weather was pretty cool and rainy. We'll see what it does in the next couple of days as the weather improves--of course I am leaving for 48 hours come Saturday--hopefully the plant doesn't stress--I won't be able to water the vines for one day in between--but we had lots of rain, and I'll soak em' good before I leave. I didn't measure the other pumpkin as it requires quite a bit of effort to squat under the tarp and remove the shirts I have covering the fruit. I'll measure this one every couple of days. Might even cut this one if I get brave enough to leave 1 fruit on my only plant. Saturday, July 15 View Page Well, I am outta here for a couple of days of vacation. be back Monday. Got everything organized before I left. I spent 2 hours (and another $50) setting up another timer to water the vines with from overhead while I am gone. Now I have the 200feet of soaker for the base of the plant set for 60min and the overhead water for the vines set to 60min. Should be plenty of water. The base will not get watered twice as I still have plastic covering the center of the plant. Anyway, I figured the extra effort and $$'s were worth it so I can relax while I am gone, and not have to worry about the vines getting dry--and besides, I can use this set up when I take day trips with the family later this summer. Also, I finished moving the pumpkin so it is almost completely perpendicular to the vine (thanks to Camera for reminding me how important this is--I was getting lazy--gotta remember to pay attention to the details). I pushed the pumpkin a little and then I moved the vine a little too (was careful not to rip up any tap roots). Also, gave the blossom end of the pumpkins a little dust with sulphur powder as they are getting a little brown, and I also fertilized very lightly with a fish/kelp solution (mixed 2 litres then foliar sprayed). The whole patch smelled like the ocean after I was done--it was kinda surreal. Saturday, July 15 View Page Measured the pumpkin this morning and it has gained 13 lbs. It is now at 124 lbs (but only 70.5 inches in circ.) on day 25. We'll see ow id does when i am gone for a couple of days. Monday, July 17 View Page Just got back from a weekend vacation and my two pumpkins have grown considerably! I haven't measured the smaller one yet, but the large one gained about 42 lbs from Saturday morning to Monday afternoon! Looks like I may finally be seeing some 20 lb/day gains! So the OTT is 195, estimated weight is 166 lbs--up 42 lbs from 124 lbs (fruit is on day 27 right now). Tuesday, July 18 View Page Here is a picture of the one on my 1446 Eaton that is at about 17 feet on the main. It gained about 8 inches in circumference in a little over 2 days! Funny thing is all this seems to correspond with my change in watering (since I left for vacation I set up a timer for watering that provides considerably more water). I am finally starting to figure out how much water these things require to grow well. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure this "watering business" out, and there is no substitute for experience here--you just have to figure it out by getting to know the plant. In fact, I have learnt so much already this season that I'll take with me into next year. Of course I have also started the seaweed/fish foliars recently too--but in such small quantities that I don't think this could account for a difference. Also, after I took this picture I shifted the pumpkin even more to try make it perpendicular to the main--you should have seen me slip and fall on my calf over the retaining wall--I'am going to have a good bruise tomorrow. Oh yeah, almost forgot, you can see the pumpkin is pretty close to the vine because the stem is really short--I sure hope it does not start growing over it! I'll keep wedging that foam in there and make minor adjustments--good thing I started to move the pumpkin, or I'd already be in trouble--these things grow so fast--thanks again Cam for reminding me how important this is! Good to hear the NSBoyz 1016 is making a comeback--impressive indeed--what with all those squirrels feasting on it! I must say that recent picture posted of that female has a nice long shape to it--of course I am hoping to be at 400lbs by the time that one gets pollinated. . . but you never really know. . . Tuesday, July 18 View Page Here is a view from behind. The pumpkin itself is pretty tall--I think this is a good sign--but it looks like it might be growing "stem end down"--is this a problem??? Forgot to mention on the last pic you can see at least one blowout on the main. Also, you can see a secondary off the main pulling the main to the left (bottom left of last picture) I will have to cut this secondary right out--and maybe a couple of others--but I will wait until the last possible moment in case there is any impact on the growth. Tuesday, July 18 View Page Measured today again. Another good day of gains with 3+ inches in circ. gained (it is getting difficult to measure under the tarp with limited space--so i took the smaller measurements). The one on the main is up 18 lbs from 166 to 184 lbs (202.5 OTT). I measured the other one too--it is much smaller at 184 OTT for approx 141 lbs. Sure hope they keep gaining at this rate! Wednesday, July 19 View Page Wow! Today I came home later (8:30pm). I measured the growth at this time and it registered at 25 lbs--5 inches gained in circumference! That makes it 86 inches at day 19--if growth is good tomorrow I'll be at about 90-91 inches on day 30--still short of being on track for 1000+ lbs, but only by about 18 inches. Of course, I measured 4 hours later than I usually measure, but if I subtract one-sixth of the weight to account for time the growth at 4:00pm would still have been at least 20 lbs! Quite happy that I am finally seeing some significant gains. A potential problem developing is that the vine that leads to the stump may not have enough slack in it. I was looking at it today, and it may be problematic. I gave the main a good tug to try loosen it, and the tap roots gave a little, I may cut the tap roots and see what slack I can pull from it over the weekend. Also, the sides of the pumpkin are already getting really close to the vine because the stem is very short. If the sides really start to grow forward, the pumpkin may push itself right off the vine (I only have about 2.5-3 inches between the pumpkin and the vine right now, and it is only at 209 lbs estimate. We'll see--that stem is really short. Weather is supposed to turn really hot this weekend--may be record setting temps up to 36 celcius on Saturday! Hope this does not cause any problems. I will likely stay home for the weekend in case I need to mist the plant etc. Friday, July 21 View Page Something strange is up--maybe it is the heat. I measured my pumpkins today and the large one gained a measly 11 lbs since yesterday! A real disappointment considering it was gaining 20+ lbs for a couple of days. Right now it is at 220 lbs on day 30 with a circ of 87 inches--not the greatest, but not bad either. I also measured the other one. It has gained about 27 lbs in two days, so it is gaining at about 13 lbs per day. I foliar fertilized yesterday, will do again tomorrow. Hopefully my plant gets its "grow on" at night. I think it is too hot during the day. Afterall, it was 34 celcius in my back yard today. Also, trimmed a couple of tertiaries that sprung up without me seeing--one was already 9 feet long with a female. I should be more diligent when looking for these things, but I have been busy remodeling my sisters bathroom all week. Thank goodness I got these automatic timers for watering so I don't have to do it by hand a everyday. Friday, July 21 View Page Big increase! 26 lbs from yesterday! There is always a significant visual difference when the pumpkin has grown. I didn't bother to measure the other one as I measure it every second day. Some concerning highlights. Firstly, although the pumpkin has no visual defects on the stem or blossom etc., its stem is very close to the ground--so much so that the pumpkin almost seems as though it might start to grow over the stem with its large shoulders. For some reason the main vine does not lift itself. Today I yanked at the vine to rid it of another tap root in hopes of a possible remedy to the problem--although it seems like there is plenty of slack in the vine anyway--the pumpkin just does not want to lift it up. I know I should not yank at the vine to sever tap roots, but the reason I yanked at the vine is because I did not have a knife, and the vine itself is so thick and scarred that I can't possibly imagine it would break. The other concern is the rot developing on the stump. Even though it is covered in sulphur powder, and does not get any direct water, it is starting to rot at the base of the two primaries. There is a small hole that is rotted just to the right of the stump that I filled with sulphur powder. Also, there is the primary that extends to the left that has a rotted area or two. Today I sunk my finger about a quarter inch into a wound and scrapped all the "guck" out. I then rubbed it deeply with sulphur powder. I may have to stop watering around the stump with the soaker hose and just water the vines (although the soaker hose is at least a foot away from the stump itself). I also thought of excising the second primary, and maybe even the other one. There is still a considerable amount of growing time left, and I don't want stump rot to end my season. I have cleared it of all leaves, and the sun beats down on it all day. Perhaps I will set up a fan to give adequate air circulation. Sunday, July 23 View Page Slow day for gains on the Eaton. Pictured above is the on on the main. Up 13-15 lbs from yesterday (approx weight 259). In the picture you can see how the pumpkin wants to grow over the vine. Like I said, lots of slack in that vine, it just does not want to lift. I measured the other one today and it is starting to pick up. looks like I had a couple of days of 20 lb gains because it is up from 168 two days ago to 209 lbs--an increase of 41 lbs over two days. This other one is getting some rust spots around the stem--not sure why. A little surprised that this one is starting to pick up again. I would really like to cut one off (the one on the secondary) but I don't have the guts right now to take the risk. I would also like to fertilize a little more, but I lack the courage to do this too as I don't want to risk any blowouts--so I continue with the small foliars from day to day. Sunday, July 23 View Page Here is a back shot on day 32 estimate weight 259 lbs. Already beat my last years best of 250 lbs--on the one hand it was easy to surpass that small weight, but I did way less work last year--I really worked my tail off this year. I really hope I get a 800-900 lber, but I doubt it at this rate--so I am a bit disappointed so far--but you never know. Perhaps this Eaton has the genetics to grow into September. I think it will be in the 500-700 lb range. Not bad for my second year out, and if it is around 500 lbs I may at least be able to get it out of my back yard to a weigh off. If it is around 600 to 700lbs the plan was to weigh it by cutting it into pieces--sad I know, but you should see how inaccessible my back yard is. I already have a pretty good clue of what I did wrong this year, and with a little luck next year, some good seed, and a lot of hard work, I am pretty sure I can get close to the mythical 1000 lb mark in the next couple of years. Sunday, July 23 View Page A good day for gains on the main vine! Pumpkin was up between 25-32 lbs! It's hard to measure correctly when they get bigger and you can't see around them--so I will go with the lower number (I measured several times and got between 96-98 for circumference). At any rate, when I add the other 2 measurements it is about 284 lbs on day 34. It will be weird to break 300 lbs, since I have never gone there before. I did not masure the other one, but it appears to be growing better tan it was for a time. As you can see by the last picture, I have a pumpkin that is leaning dangerously over the vine. Thanks again to "Camera" for his e-mail on how to improve the angle of the fruit. In accordance with his advice I will try to dig under the blossom end slightly to improve the angle of the fruit to the vine. Last night it seemed to tilt qithout too much pushing, so I think I may be in the canger zone. Even if I improve it, I am not sure how long it will last if the pumpkin continues to grow in this odd shape. Blossom end is looking great though, so is stem end--no rot, or signs of age. Monday, July 24 View Page Some good news and bad news today. Above you can see a shot of the pumpkin on the main after I repositioned it (it is nearing 300 lbs). Boy did I sweat. I was digging in tight quarters underneath the backside. Then I put down a thin layer of dirt (I hope it was enough) and tipped her backwards with all my weight and shoved a piece of foam under the vine. Much better than it was. Seems that a secondary in the back is giving me trouble--the pumpkin may start growing over it (I did not want to rip out the secondary because my plant is fairly small and it was a long healthy secondary). However, and i worry, will the tap roots grow through the pumpkin if the pumpkin grows over the vine??? Does anybody know? It would seem that the roots would seek out nutrience and moisture(??) Monday, July 24 View Page Above is a shot of one of several massive leaves (if spread out flat they are over 30 inches across, and 3+ feet tall). These are the leaves that are growing over the almost pure compost that is several feet deep. Some of the roots from these leaves are incredibly vigorous, growing through the hard clay that borders beyond the mound. I cannot believe the robustness of these plants--they always amaze me. At any rate, I took a picture of a leaf to introduce some of the bad news--"aphids". This leaf does not have them, but I came across at least 10 to 12 that had medium sized infestations. I sprayed the affected areas with some "End ALL". Hope this substance does not burn the leaves in the hot sun. At least now that I know they are there I can start being more diligent. In fact, I was wondering what all the wasps were doing flying around the patch (I think they eat aphids). Monday, July 24 View Page Another shot of the stump with a bunch of sulphur powder on it. The stump continues to grow--now over 12 inches in circumference! I did not have a can handy for scale so I used a baby food jar. At any rate, this is the other bit of bad news. You can see where the rot has hit (mainly on the left and right primaries). The small depression by the baby food jar is where it has gone through the flesh--although I think I have it under control because there was no more "guck" and the areas were dry. However, the vines around the pumpkin where I have cut off old fruit have some rot too. I cut the stems closer to the vines, and i may even cover them if I have to (like with tiny plastic tarps) I think the overhead watering is aggravating both the aphid situation and the rot, but it is also noticeably increasing my weight gains. One surprising thing is that where the vines are blown apart there is absolutely no rot. Even in areas where the blown vines are filled with dirt and water, they do not rot. I am getting more and more convinced that blown vines are not very problematic at all. Monday, July 24 View Page Day 34 (I think). After measuring at my usual time (6:30 pm) I registerd about a 33lb gain from yesterday--and I was taking the smaller measurements! Right now the OTT is at 246.5 for an estimated 317 lbs--heavier than I thought. Of course, I did reposition the pumpkin earlier in the day--so this probably had a lot to do with the measurement being so different--but still heavier. I know for sure that the circ. was up from 96 to at least 98.5-99 this would indicate a 16 lb gain if I use the circ. as the only measurement--so it did grow considerably regardless of the repositioning (and the pumpkin looks nicer now too). How much it grew exactly I'll never know. Isn't that what makes growing these fruit so much fun--you never really know what will happen. It sure is exciting when you see 4+ inches of circumference gain at this size--you just know it has gained tremendously even before you take the other measurements. Maybe it will happen again tomorrow as it did a few days ago--although at this size the increments are getting smaller. I measured the other one and then lost the measurements I wrote down--so I'll have to measure again tomorrow. I think it is hovering around 250 lbs right now. Increased overhead watering slightly by 15 min because of heat (total 75 min). Underground watering is still set to 60 min. Friends came over for dinner so I let their young boy do the foliar for me--he really liked that. Wednesday, July 26 View Page The one on the main is up between 16 and 26 lbs today. Again, if I take just the circumference it has grown about 16 lbs. I'll go with the smaller measurments in any case, so as not to deceive myself about its size--although I think it is heavier. In any case, it is up from 317 lbs to 333 lbs (the maximum right now would be 343 lbs). This means it is at least up 100 lbs from 5 days ago--not bad. The growth seems to be a bit more steady. I tilted her back today and put some more sand under her--I was a bit worried that if it grows really big it might start to rot with only an inch of sand underneath it--so I put a bit more, then tilted her back and put the foam under to hold her off the vine--thanks to fellow Abbotsford grower Camera for that tip! I also moved the vine in the back that would be under the pumpkin soon. I ripped up several taproots and pulled it back--I guess that's better than ripping up the secondary entirely. Hopefully it will re-root itself--those leaves on that vine are still really fresh looking. I had so much to do I did not measure the second fruit, but it is a little lighter. The plant itself is starting to show some signs of age. Some leaves are getting brown edges (I cut a couple of more out today--a couple dried up strangely in the last day or two). Good to see some new leaves are starting to pop up--but not too many. If I see a vine pop up I am pinching it off after a couple of leaves form. The center of the plant is getting bare because a couple of huge leaves fell over early on, and a couple of more have been cut out because of rot--I hope some new leaves start to grow there--also, the plastic is causing the heat to dry them up a little--but I know that plastic will work like a charm once the rain sets in soon. Secondaries are getting really thick. The plant itself is looking really mature and still vigorous with a stump like a tree. I hope the plant gets its second wind and grows well into September--time will tell. Wednesday, July 26 View Page Doing battle with aphids today for about an hour. Leaves still look okay. Not sure why I have aphids in this warm weather. I water in the afternoon for about an hour and fifteen minutes, but the leaves dry before night. I will start doing the foliar earlier--say around 4:00pm--so they don't dampen later on. Nice to see more new leaves than I thought were on the plant. Hopefully this warm weather allows a good second crop of leaves to show up--although most of the old ones are still pretty good--standing straight up, which is a good sign. I measured the smaller one, it is at 228 OTT (or about 256 lbs). Definitely smaller than the one on the main. Also, talked to a heavy hitter over e-mail who says he got 100 days growth from 4 of his plants last year. Things may be looking up more than I thought if I can keep my plant healthy. I am on day 36 for fruit right now--so another 60 days would be unbelievable--even if growth slows down some. Wednesday, July 26 View Page Stopped the neighborhood gardener just now. He was happy to have me take six huge bags of yard trash (mostly grass and leaves) off his truck. It is funny, our conversation was kinda like you'd have at the local produce stand (i.e., where was this grown, do they use pesticides etc.) the only difference was that I was taking trash to dump in my back yard for free instead of produce to eat. I thought about making some compost tea from the yard trash, but instead I just dumped it in the huge hole behind the stump of my plant. Boy did I sweat hauling that stuff into the back yard! Have to start early for next year. He is coming by later in the week with another truck full of grass. I read somewhere that one well intentioned gardener can produce more compost soil in one year than nature does in a hundred. I also read that worms can eat 15 tonnes of leaves per acre and turn them into worm castings--imagine what this could do for your soil when worm casts contain 5 times more nitrogen, 7 times more phosphate, 11 times more potash, and many more trace elements than the surrounding soil. All the better for compost feeding a plant. Other than the small foliars I have been administering everyday (2 litres diluted fish/seaweed/half tablespoon of Miracle grow) sprayed on the plant leaves of the plant--I have not done any other fertilizing in a couple of months, and gains seem reasonable. I have a feeling the roots will work their way into this compost before long--hopefully it does not provide too much of a jolt to the growth of the pumpkins. I already saw some roots creeping into the hole a while ago, so I covered them up with the yard trash. Next year I should have 4 feet deep compost/organic matter for the pumpkin stump to root into. i don't think I will till next year at all. Wednesday, July 26 View Page Here is the main fruit on the 1446 at day 36. Approximate OTT is between 256 and 258 for an estimated weight between 352-360 lbs. This indicates a gain of between 19 to 27 lbs from yesterday. Not bad. The last 5 day average seemed to be about 20 lbs a day. I should hit 400 lbs by this weekend. One thing that concerns me is that the shape of this pumpkin is not ideal. I mean the pumpkin is wheel shaped and has a concave blossom end. I wonder if it will split by the blossom--as I have heard this can happen with wheel shaped fruit. The other one is of a very similar shape. In fact all the fruit this plant put out were very similar in shape. There was one early on that was a bit longer in shape, but it was in a bad position. I even looked at a picture of the 1446 that Al Eaton grew and it looked like a wheel that had slowly started to sag under the sheer weight of itself. So far no real problems on the stem end or blossom end. I am keeping the pumpkin covered with a blanket, so it is staying pretty white. Right now I intned to leave the two fruit. I may need a shock absorber if the rains set in, and the risky shape of these two make keeping both a bit of an insurance policy. Also, I added a bunch more compost behind the plant (to fill the large hole I have created) so the pumpkin might slowly work its way into this nutrient rich stuff and hit a growth spurt. Thursday, July 27 View Page Here is a close shot of the blossom end. Hopefully these little marks are not cracks that will open up on me. I may cut back on the watering just a little bit. Friday, July 28 View Page The one on the main is up about 19 lbs. OTT is 261 for an estimated weight of 371 lbs. Fruit is looking good on both stem and blossom end. Shade structures + blankets are working really well as the fruit is quite big and still quite white--skin is still fairly soft. Pumpkin has yet to develop ribs--which makes me think it will swell considerably more. I'd like to see some new foliage as some of the old leaves are starting to yellow and die one by one it seems. Also, there is the aphids and some inch worm is making holes in some too. Lots of leaves are still deep green and upright. Should break 400 lbs before August. 25 lb gains seem to be fading though with the hot weather--time will tell. It's weird, last year I hardly used any of my tape measure, now I am running out of room on it! Friday, July 28 View Page Pumpkin grew between 16 and 20 lbs today. Estimated weight is between 387-391 (265-266 OTT). Growth has slowed down a bit, but so has all the heat. Temperatures a lot cooler right now (17 C and cloudy). I cut back on overhead water by 15 min and underground by 15 min. Might get rain tomorrow. The smaller pumpkin off a secondary is about 281 lbs--quite a bit lighter. It has some oozing sap on it (not sure what that is). All together I have almost 700lbs of pumpkin grown so far on this plant. Did battle today again with aphids. If it gets really bad I might look at buying 1000 ladybugs or some other bug to try counter them. I think 1000 ladybugs go for about $35.00 at the nuresery--might be kinda nest to do that, but so far it is not too bad. I did the foliar, but more lightly today because I sprayed some undersides for aphids. Some more leaves yellowing, but the plant is sending out new vines (tertiaries) that I have pinched after a couple of leaves form. So far there is quite a few, and more on the way, so I am hopeful that i can rejuvenate (sp?) the leaves. Saw one leaf today with powder mildew--but it was a little scrunched up. I might spray with something as a preventative measure int he next week or two. Saturday, July 29 View Page Will cut back on the water significantly today. Overhead cut from 75 min to 30 min, underground from 60 min to 45 min. We are getting lower summer temps so I think a lot less water is lost to evaporation and transpiration from the leaves. Saturday, July 29 View Page The one on the main is up between 21-25 lbs. OTT taped at 270-271 for an estimated day 39 weight of 408-412 lbs. I am getting more pleased with this fruit as it is gaining steadily and at a pretty good pace. Still the circ. is way off the Ailts/Landry benchmarks for 1000 lbs. Who knows. Tomorrow I will get some "Bordo" or other copper spray to spray for powdery mildew as a preventative measure. Should be nice and cool for spraying tomorrow too. I don't any problems with powdery mildew yet, but preventative maintenance is best if I plan to be growing this fruit into Sept. I may test it on a part of the plant--if anyone has any recommendations on brands to spray for mildew prevention please email me. New leaves are popping pretty well all around--but still in small numbers. they are coming up on small tertiaries, but I wonder if I have cut some of the tertiaries too soon (after 2-3 leaves have formed) perhaps I should let them vine out a bit more at this stage to get more leaves going for later on in the season??? Sunday, July 30 View Page Day 40. Just when I thought things were going good a turn for the worse. As I was hand watering some vines that the sprinkler does not hit directly I glanced at the stem end of my smaller pumpkin and noticed two stem end splits! One goes quite deep (inch to an inch and a half--maybe 2 inches). It does not look like either split goes right through to the cavity of the pumpkin, but nonetheless, I am not sure if this will end my second pumpkin prematurely through rot or stoppage of growth or what have you. In other news the one on the main was up a measly 12 lbs since yesterday. Might be the decrease in watering I did in anticipation for the rain, or perhaps the cool weather. Anyway, not a great day in the patch at any rate. Monday, July 31 View Page Took another look at the stem end split on the secondary fruit on my 1446 and it does not look good. Quite deep as far as I can tell. I tried to shove some sulphur powder into it, and I will set up a small fan to blow inside the small gap that runs quite deep. More disturbing, is when I was looking at the pumpkin itself it was full of small brown scabs and it was oozing or weeping small droplets of water or some sort of clear guck. When I think about it, it has been oozing slowly for quite some time. Becoming more concerned, I checked the stem and blossom end of the fruit on the main and noticed a couple of tiny drops of water had leaked out of the blossom end. Dusted with some sulphur powder and immediately cut the watering time for this plant in half (30 min/day underground + 30 min/day overhead). I will also stop any foliar ferts. I will try to slow the growth down some--especially since I don't know what will happen if the other fruit stops growing due to the stem end split. Also, when I dug under all the compost I have been dumping behind the pumpkin plant (to fill up the hole I had created when I took dirt to bury the vines) I noticed that the pumpkin roots were slowly moving their way into it. I may even cut a couple of tap roots on the main to slow her down. I'd rather have this pumpkin grow slower and longer than push it and have it "go bust". It is my only plant, and I would like to take at least one fruit to maturity--even if it is a bit smaller. Monday, July 31 View Page Pumpkin is up about 15 lbs today (OTT 276.5) for an estimated weight of 420 lbs on day 41. Weird thing is when I take the gains of the last three days and add them (15 lbs, 12 lbs, & 19 lbs) they don't equal the difference between Friday's weight and today's weight, they equal 46 lbs--and the pumpkin has actually gained 64 lbs (the difference between 371 and 435). If I take 64 and divide it by 3 that means the average daily gain over the last three days is larger than I estimated--21 lbs. At any rate, I guess it does not really matter, but I think I need to start rounding off to the higher numbers on the tape rather than the lower ones (as I have been). Or maybe I need to start doing 4 day averages. Perhaps then I'll get a more accurate measurement of how it is growing. It did look noticeably bigger today. I cut the watering in half, stopped foliar fertilizing, and cut one more tap root on the main to slow growth down some (cutting the tap root was inevitable to help lift the vine more). I did this after the secondary fruit developed two stem end splits (and started to weep). I have the fan running in there right now to try heal it up. I still can't tell if it goes through to the cavity--but I don't think so. Once I can see if the secondary fruit is still growing (and the split has healed some) I may bump up the watering again if the one on the main has slowed down. I don't want to lose the one on the main as it is my only fruit left and my only plant. Monday, July 31 View Page One correction to my last post. I meant an estimated weight of 435 lbs on day 41, not 420 lbs. Tuesday, August 1 View Page Just threw my 3 day average out the window and tried to get more reliable statistics. So I did a 5 day average on weight gains over the last five days. It looks like I have been getting about 15-16 lbs average over the last 5 days. The five days before that registered a 20 lb average daily weight gain. The five day average before that was 22.6 lbs/day. The five days prior to that was about 15 lbs/day. I wonder if the pumpkin has already peaked in its daily weight gains--as seen by my averages??? It is at day 42 already. Of course, the interesting thing is the 20-22 lbs/day gains were also during the hottest 10 days of the summer so far (and included the "heat wave"). Night time temps during the heat wave were as high as 23 C. Night time temps now are going as low as 13 C. Anyway, just some interesting statistics for me to consider in future growing seasons. I wonder if the weight gain fluctuations were more a product of the weather or of the age and growth cycle of the pumpkin??? If I consider the steep decline in night time temps, my pumpkin is still gaining pretty good I think. Interesting stuff to consider. I was walking around the plant today. Leaves are starting to age quickly. Aphids seem less apparent--good news. I was a little concerned that a couple of the new leaves were a bit yellow instead of lush green. Unfortunately, the new leaves that are forming are on vines shooting straight up, so they won't have the benifit of rooting into soil--at least not in anyway I can think of--bending them down will indeed break them. Here's hoping for some hot weather and new foliage! Good luck all! Tuesday, August 1 View Page Measly 9-14 lb gain on my main pumpkin. Looks like my effort to slow it down worked. I will see if tomorrow has similar low gains and then look at bumping the watering up slowly. It is at about 444lbs right now. The other pumpkin (the one that has the stem splits) actually split again near the stem--but this one is smaller. I think the fan is working at drying the splits, but I want to make sure it is still growing before I bump up watering and ferts again. It is sitting at about 322 lbs. Weird thing is this one was only gaining about 10 lb average over the last 4 days and it split. Might just be an abnormal type fruit--icould be that's why it split because it was not gaining overly much. It is a very odd shape with the stem end being very fat and the back being concave. I will likely go back to my usual schedule of watering and ferts soon to try increase growth. Not sure if I can still squeeze out more 20 lb/day gains, since the plant has slowed down overall it seems. However, today was sunny, and I don't think it is finished yet. Must spray for mildew and aphids soon! Wednesday, August 2 View Page Things have definitely slowed down prematurely with my 1446. I got another small 9 lb gain on the main one, and a 4 lb gain on the secondary fruit. At tis rate I can't see myself hitting 700-800 lbs. Fruits sit at approximate weights of 453 lbs and 326 lbs. The days of 20lb gains seem to be over and done. I will definitely bump up the water by 15-20 min to see if I can get back to some 12-15 lbs gains. Did battle today with aphids for about 1 hour, man, they are everywhere. I may spray with something stronger (like Sevin) than this dish soap derivative (called End-All) that I am currently using--it is useless. My dad recommended Diazonon! Ha! I have a large jar of it in the garage (left by previous owners). I don't think you can buy it anymore--it is pretty toxic stuff that kills everything in sight. At any rate, I will not spray with Diazonon. Still have not sprayed for mildew, and a couple of the older leaves have it. Weird thing is this morning I was looking at the leaves and thinking they suck big time! However, this evening, they were all really green and still standing up stiff--so who knows. It was pretty hot today though, I was hoping for better gains than I am getting. Stem split on the secondary fruit looks even bigger. I shoved a small stick inside to see if it goes into the cavity--it does not, but growth is slowing down on this fruit--and all around. Pumpkin skin is still "whiteish" but the surface of both fruits is starting to seep clear guck and the skins are getting a little rough and hard. I think my plant is starting to age quicker than I would like. We'll see. Thursday, August 3 View Page Forgot to submit last night, so I am dating this as the 3rd of August. Well, even with the water bumped up for the past 2 days still no tremendous gains. The one on the main was up a small 9 lbs since yesterday--could have been as little as 7! It has taken 5 days to go from 408-462--about a 10 lb/day average. I did not measure the other one. Another weird development is the concave area around the blossom end--all of a sudden it developed all these small brown age cracks or something. The skin is definitely changing, even though I keep her covered with blankets and under a tarp. Got two big spider bites in the patch yesterday--man they hurt. Anyway, not sure why the growth has slowed down so much--it is hard to believe it is all weather related since it is still pretty hot in the day. However, I am getting a lot of wind, and the nights are really cool. Friday, August 4 View Page Well, today was a good day for gains. I hope it is a signal of things to come. The main pumpkin was up between 14 and 20 lbs! Looks like going back to my regular watering schedule has helped—although it was quite a bit hotter today too. Good to see the fruit might still have some good gaining left in it. It was also interesting for me to ease off on the water to get a feel for controlling fruit growth—definitely a growing experience, and one that may serve me well in the future. A little bit of “sap” leaking from the stem end, but no major problems. Genetics and shape may have contributed to the other pumpkins split—afterall, it was only gaining about 10 lbs a day not 30-40 lbs. The fruit shape is changing, getting fuller around the blossom end, and the pumpkin seems to be “thumping” harder and bending towards the vine again (this could become a problem again as the pumpkin continues to weigh more. It is at about 476 lbs right now—but it is not resting on a flat surface, my feeling is it could be a good bit heavier. Still, I am about 50-75 lbs behind where I wanted to be, but slowing growth down was an interesting experiment—let’s just hope it was really me slowing the growth down and not the plant! Still early in August. Hope to make up more ground—700-800 is starting to look more possible now. Will need to do a lot of aphid spraying and mildew preventative spraying (which I still have not started). Might start up the foliar feeding again soon too—but not if the pumpkin keeps gaining good. Saturday, August 5 View Page Cut out 7-8 old and yellowing leaves--some bent, some fallen over around the center of the plant. Traces of mildew on old leaves is apparent--I will wake early tomorrow 5:00am and spray--have to do it soon. Will water 15 min extra today because tomorrow I may not water if I spray. Sunday, August 6 View Page Gains not as good as I had hoped today. Funny, it was a hot day and my watering increased, and still a measly 11 lbs on the main fruit. I may cut the fruit on the secondary soon to try increase growth on the main fruit--I think I'll do it for sure in September when everything will slow down. Still averaging a 10 lb gain over the last 5 days--not bad, but not good enough. Estimated weight right now at 487. Has taken a long time to crawl from 400 to 500 lbs. Must be the plant slowing down. In other news, I finally sprayed for mildew prevention. Had a big family BBQ with the inlaws. When everyone left at 11:00 pm I decided it was time to spray the patch--I'd rather work late than get up at 5:00am. Family thought I was crazy when I told them my plan to spray at night with a head light, but I figure people on this website understand my motivations perfectly. Anyway, I mixed 10 litres of Copper spray (called Bordo) and drenched the leaves and the undersides good. Will need to spray for aphids again in the next couple of days--I think I might try something stronger like Sevin. Supposed to rain on Tuesday, so I better act fast. Trying to keep the plant healthy so my pumpkins will grow long. Here's to my pumpkins growing while I catch some zz's! Monday, August 7 View Page Yesterday's post should have read as August 5th. Big gains today--must be going up with the hot weather. Tape registered a 19-24 lb increase in weight! Approximate weight today is 506 lbs on day 47. Hope it stays hot--and it is supposed to. Did some more spraying for aphids today. A little more stump rot appearing--will rub some sulphur powder into it tomorrow--also ave a lot of weeding to do. The pumpkin is also starting to cantaloupe a fair bit. I think this has to do with the blankets that I keep it covered with day and night--they absorb some water and get damp--maybe causing some skin scarring. Lots of cantalouping around the blossom end--don't think this will be a pretty pumpkin--who cares about that though, I just want a heavy pumpkin! I will stop covering the pumpkin with blankets except at night--see if that's contributing to the cantalouping. In the day I will revert back to just using the orange tarp. Leaves are looking pretty good lately, new leaves appearing better. May spray with something stronger for aphids when the weather cools. Tuesday, August 8 View Page Here is my best pumpkin on day 48 at 516 lbs. She grew only 10 lbs yesterday, but I also measured her 4 hours early, so it could be a good bit more. As you can see the skin is starting to get small brown cracks. There are many of these around the blossom end, but none of them run deep--just little splits. I have started to uncover her during the day so that she will not sweat as I think she has--hence the brown scars. Anyway, looks like she won't be very pretty--as long as she is heavy. My tape has run out at 120 inches circ--I will stich another tape measure to it so that I can continue to tape the pumpkin. Still need to do weeding and a good pesticide application. If tomorrow is cloudy, I may do it. Tuesday, August 8 View Page Here is a picture of the second primary about 4 feet from the stump. As you can see it is pretty full of rot. I don't know how I missed it, as it is in the open--but I didn't see it until today. The tap root that extends from the lower juncture is incredibly thick--thicker than my thumb. In fact the whole second primary is very thick and has nice leaves and good secondaries with good tap roots--I think they are contributing a lot to the power of the plant and I don't want to lose them. Losing this primary would rid me of about one-fifth of the plant. So today I cut off the rot and rubbed lots of sulphur powder in the remaining wound. I also pulled any wet dirt from around the area and constructed a makeshift "cover" to keep it dry while I water during the day (see the cover in next pic). Tuesday, August 8 View Page Here is the makeshift cover that took me about 10 minutes to construct with a skil-saw, 2X4's, a couple of nails, and some 6 mil plastic. I wanted to use plastic so the sun could get through and shine down on the rot to dry it. However, I am not sure if the vine will sweat under the plastic at night--if it does, I will only cover it during the watering period in the afternoon, and then uncover it during the rest of the day and night. I think I can recover fromt his rot--these vines scab up huge. Around the stump I had some rot and I just rubbed it good with sulphur powder and it seems to have ceased as far as I can tell. I just squish out the "gucky part" of the rot with my fingers. I figure the less you cut off the better--let the plant heal itself by keeping it dry. We'll see if my theory works. Tuesday, August 8 View Page Pumpkin on the main vine is up about 15-20 lbs. Approx weight is between 531-536 lbs. I think it might be considerably heavier if I could measure it on a flat surface—but the only way to tell would be to move it, or weigh it, and that will not happen anytime soon. Looks like my going back to my regular watering schedule has caused the gains to go back to normal. Good to see the gains are still adequate. I wish it was hotter so I might get some better gains, but I guess the weather is a large part of the game. I did not measure the pumpkin on the secondary, but I think it is still growing in spite of the stem end splits. A considerable amount of rain in the afternoon today—I cut back on the water a bit, but not much—hope that the rain does not cause too much of a growth spurt. Rot on the back primary still bad—hope I can save it. I have my makeshift plastic cover (see previous diary entry) and rubbed more sulphur in the wounds today, but the moisture is taking its toll. Losing this second primary with a very thick vine and very well developed tap roots will definitely effect the longevity of my plant and most certainly the weight gains. We’ll see. Wednesday, August 9 View Page Another 10 lb gain today. Estimated weight is about 441 (299 OTT circ being 122.5). I have noticed the shoulders of the pumpkin are starting to get really close to the main vine again--and the pumpkin is perfectly parallel to the main vine, not sure what kind of problems this could cause a couple of hundred lbs down the road (if she gets that far). Guess I'll have to wait and see. My rain meter registered 1 cm of rain last night, so I did not water today at all--don't want to cause any sudden growth spurts. Weather man says more rain on the way. Then it is supposed to get hotter. The rot on the back primary seems to be under control. The makeshift cover I constructed seems to work well. Leaves showing age a lot over the last day or two--maybe the high humidity--good thing I sprayed for mildew. Aphids are everywhere, just waiting for the right weather to spray with something strong. Wednesday, August 9 View Page OOps! Estimated weight is at 541 lbs, not 441 lbs as in previous entry. I see, after some diary review, that I have taken 8 days to get the last 100 lbs. At this rate (and if all goes well) maybe another 200 lbs left in August for my best fruit. But if the weatehr picks up. . . Stem end split on the second pumpkin looks worse. I WILL spray instecticide tomorrow--must not get lazy. Of course today I was busy cutting down 2 fruit trees (plum and an apple). Tomorrow I want to cut down a huge hazelnut. I simply have too much to do in the yard with all the gardening and hedge trimmin ect. to worry about unproductive fruit trees. The hazelnut gets picked clean every year by squirrels, the plum has not had crop in 2 years, and the apple tree has about 10 lbs of apples a year. But I am rambling. . .the reason I am really cutting these trees is beacuse they are taking sun and water from my regular garden--the future site of another A Wednesday, August 9 View Page OOps! Estimated weight is at 541 lbs, not 441 lbs as in previous entry. I see, after some diary review, that I have taken 8 days to get the last 100 lbs. At this rate (and if all goes well) maybe another 200 lbs left in August for my best fruit. But if the weatehr picks up. . . Stem end split on the second pumpkin looks worse. I WILL spray instecticide tomorrow--must not get lazy. Of course today I was busy cutting down 2 fruit trees (plum and an apple). Tomorrow I want to cut down a huge hazelnut. I simply have too much to do in the yard with all the gardening and hedge trimmin ect. to worry about unproductive fruit trees. The hazelnut gets picked clean every year by squirrels, the plum has not had crop in 2 years, and the apple tree has about 10 lbs of apples a year. But I am rambling. . .the reason I am really cutting these trees is beacuse they are taking sun and water from my regular garden--the future site of another giant pumpkin plant. Friday, August 11 View Page Cut the hazelnut out today. I will deal with the stump tomorrow. Roots from these three trees were sucking all the nutrients and water from my garden--so they must go. I examined the rings of the trees after cut-down and I could see that they grew tremendously in the last two years since I started cultivating and watering the garden. You simply cannot plant around trees if you want a good garden. Next year I will cut down a huge mountain ash in the corner of my yard--I found roots from it about 20 feet from the stump and 4 feet underneath the soil--its gotta go, can't have them competing with my pumpkins and garden. In other news, I did not water today again because of the rain. .3 cm of rain in the yard and the weather was cool. In spite of this I got about a 10 lb gain on the main one for an approximate weight of 551 lbs. As long as it stays slow and steady. Hot weather is supposed to come around in the next few days. Still have not sprayed with Sevin, maybe tomorrow. Leaves showing age lately with the cool weather. I have new leaves sprouting, have stopped terminating tertiaries as I need all the new growth I can get. Saturday, August 12 View Page Lots of tertiaries shooting now. The challenge will be to cull old leaves without promoting rot and also to train and bury tertiaries in the right spots (they seem to be growing over vines etc.). Today I feel like I am losing the battle with aphids, vine rot (back primary), leaf wear-and-tear. I sprayed the patch today with End-All instead of Sevin because I know that Sevin can burn some new growth, and I can't afford to lose any new growth (I used almost 10 litres of End-All and spent about 1.5 hours drenching the undersides of many leaves). In spite of the problems it was a decent day--another 10 lb gain on the main fruit--putting it at approx 561 lbs. Of course our weather has really sucked lately, so 10 lbs/day is not too bad (but it isn't too good either). I sure hope the fruit has some 15-20 lb days left in her, but we need better weather--which is supposed to be on the way. Almost forgot, had an impromptu visit by BCDeb who happened to be driving through town. Nice to meet new people who enjoy growing big pumpkins! Saturday, August 12 View Page Think I killed quite a few aphids yesterday. Good thing too! Turned up the water slightly again seeing as we are getting better weather. If tomorrow is hot I will bump it up a little more. I just measured the main one--a couple of hours later than usual. It is up a bit more than the usual 10 lbs--about 15 lbs gained since yesterday! Approx weight is 576 lbs (306 OTT on day 52). New growth starting to pick up the pace, hot weather on the way and many aphids dead--things looking up a little. Still, it took 8 days to gain the last 100 lbs--not so good. Would love to break the 1000 lb mark, but everyday it slips a bit further away. We'll see. Sunday, August 13 View Page I held back water today as I noticed two stem end splits on my main fruit! It is still really small (about 1/16 inch wide) but one of them runs into the flesh of the pumpkin for about 1 inch and it is the width of a thick fingernail--like a fine crack! My other fruit has two gapping stem end splits--and I have not measured it in some time since I have been busy. I will measure it tomorrow to see if it is still growing, but the stem is seperating big time on that one and I have fears that my main fruit will follow suit and do the same thing! Funny thing is, it is only gaining about 10-15 lbs a day, so it should not split the way it is--what do you do--if it splits it must be the genetics? It is at about 587 lbs today. I think it would gain more if I poured on the water, but as I said I cut back to half what I normally give the plant during hot weather. Oh well, we'll see what happens. The last one had a split that just got progressively worse--the end of the season might be near. Time will tell. Tuesday, August 15 View Page Finally broke the 600lb mark today with an OTT of 310.5 (circ. is 127.5). For some reason 600lbs felt like quite a landmark for me--I guess I didn't see my fruit going over 600 lbs. Now I am so optimistic I could see it going to 800 or so if all goes well. The plant itself is very well established (even if it is only 400 square feet). . .but there is still the matter of that looming stem split. Actually it has become a bit worse, and I have cut way back on watering today. It is creeping into the flesh on both sides of the stem and is about an 1/8th of an inch wide and 1 inch long on either side (will post pics tomorrow as well as a shot from the roof). I will increase the water a tad bit tomorrow (as I have given the fruit 2 days to rest--even so it is gaining 10-12 lbs a day). I think if I would be watering it as hard as I normally do the hot weather would have seen some 25 lb days recently--but I have to resist the urge and keep it slow and steady. My spirits took a turn for the better after I examined the gaping splits on the secondary fruit and realized that they did not go through to the cavity--even though I could see right into the flesh of the fruit. I guess these fruits can take quite a beating. Time will tell if the split gets really bad--just have to wait and see. New tertiaries are doing really well in some spots, and that huge 10 litre blast of aphid spray really slowed down those buggers. I aim to bury the leaf nodes tomorrow to help the tertiary leaves find their tap roots and I will also prune more old leaves and spray with fungicide again--may even expand the shade shelter--which is getting too small. Sun seems to have helped the vine rot on the back secondary too--as has the decrease in watering. Will have some pics tomorrow as I plan to spend quite a bit of time in the patch--that is if I don't get called out for that "intervention" being planned in North Van. Tuesday, August 15 View Page Here is the first of the three pictures I said I would post yesterday. This is a picture taken this morning of the beginning stem split on my main vine fruit (which is at about 600 lbs). It has gotten noticeably worse since yesterday evening, I sure hope the gaps stop widening--it seems to be splitting a lot slower than the other secondary fruit. Tuesday, August 15 View Page Here is a picture of the gapping stem end splits on the secondary fruit--which is still growing (measured 12 days ago at 326 lbs). Also, notice the vine blown wide open and severe cantelouping. Does anyone know why some fruit canteloupe and others do not??? Both my fruits seem to be experiencing it--the one pictured above severely. Tuesday, August 15 View Page And finally a picture of the patch from my rooftop showing both fruit (the largest one uncovered on the left hand side). The retaining wall I temporarily positioned earlier in the season has worked wonderfully--and it took no more than 45 min of work. As you can see, the terrain in my yard is so steep that the 600 lb pumpkin would have tumbled from the vine long ago had I not positioned the retaining wall correctly and back filled it with a couple of wheelbarrows of dirt. Also, check out the overhead watering system on top of the plastic. This sprinkler is attached to a timer so I can tweak the time--and it covers the vines of the plant perfectly. The part of the plant under the plastic is fed by a seperate soaker hose system also hooked up to a timer. This works well because I can soak the vines of the plant (which feeds most of the growth of the pumpkin) without soaking the stump and main vine, and I can feed the base of the plant from below ground--as a result the stump has not rotted out that badly and the main vine is in perfect condition (as it is covered by plastic) all the way to the fruit (I did not bury the main so as to be able to inspect it). I anticipate the September/October rains will make the plastic shell useful. Tuesday, August 15 View Page I must have been dreaming yesterday when I said the sun had helped the vine rot on the back primary. I examined it today again and the vine is almost toast--it smelled so bad when I stuck my fingers in some places that I literally almost vomited--I'm talking serious vine rot on about 5-6 leaf nodes (where I cut old leaves off). In fact, it is rotting very close to the stump--in one place almost right through. Should I have to cut it at the closest point to the stump (which is looking more and more likely) I will rid myself of at least half of my plant--the best half! Also, much of the new tertiary growth is shooting from this vine that is rotting. Very disappointing, but I will not cut it until I absolutely have to. I cleared all the soil and the soaker hose from under the rotted area and poured on the sulphur powder. Also found some clear jelly like stuff around the base of the actual stump (could it be an SVB hole?). When I rubbed my fingers across it I took off a good layer of skin that had rotted. Again, with the sulphur powder--imagine, I was pouring it on so heavy the wind picked up all of a sudden and I inhaled a good blast of it as well. . . recreational hazards I guess. I buried some tertiaries and did some weeding, and I also cut out a ton of old aged and drying leaves. The regular work in the yard took most of my efforts today--trimming a laurel hedge 20 + feet tall and some other things I have been working for 5 hours in the sun. I am simply finished today, and yet I must spray with fungicide this evening and do the measurements. Also, the pumpkin on the secondary is dangerously unstable. It is developing a camel-like hump on top and could start to tip over and roll at any time. This is a hazard as I have a young daughter and am often playing with her in the yard. Tuesday, August 15 View Page First day of the season that registered with no growth on the main fruit--still at 600 lbs--disappointing, but I did cut back on water quite severely because of the stem splits that started. I will increase the water again tomorrow. The secondary fruit with all the gapping stem splits is at 416 lbs. This is up 90 lbs from 12 days ago when it was 316--looks like the splits really slowed this one down as it averaged only 7.5 lbs/day over the last 12 days. Perhaps my other pumpkin is experiencing the same effect? Perhaps it has stopped growing? Just have to wait and see I guess. Thursday, August 17 View Page Sprayed with fungicide yesterday. 7-10 LB gain from yesterday on the main fruit--putting the fruit at about 613 lbs. I think the main vine fruit may have gained 5 lbs or so the day before--not zero as I had indicated in my diary entry. Stem split on the main fruit is getting worse--my attempt to decrease water didn't seem to slow the splitting down much--I will increase the water again tomorrow--almost to normal levels. If the fruit goes bust, then it goes bust, but I have cut back a lot on watering this year (and sacrificed a good deal of gains) to try to keep it from splitting, and it still seems to be splitting--so I am going to stop coddling it and just go with the flow. Whatever happens, happens. The gardener was in the neighborhood today and he dumped about 400 lbs of grass into the pit I dug behind my pumpkin--which is next years planting site. I have probably put a couple of thousand lbs of organic matter in the (3.5deep X10long X5 foot wide) pit since the beginninbg of the summer. It is cooking really good. Come October I will seal it up with a 2 foot deep layer of regular soil and let the worms do the work. It will probably settle over the winter--so I will add more organic matter (probably a dozen or so wheelbarrows of leaf compost and chicken manure) in the spring and then plant right on top. Next year my soil will be better than this year as I will have a ton of old composted soil left over from this year. it takes a few years to build up the soil, next year should be better as I plan to test and adjust as well. Also, next years plant will be huge--I am hoping to go much bigger in square footage for the plant--at least double, so I have lots of leaves to power the fruit and get me through the season. Friday, August 18 View Page Nothing much to report--gains down big time--maybe this fruit is nearing the end. A small 3 lb gain from yesterday, stem end split has become worse. The pumpkin seems to be thumping a lot harder than it was a month ago--maybe it is a bit heavier than the current OTT that puts it at 616 lbs. If it does not pick up in the next couple of da Friday, August 18 View Page Well, things definitely slowing down in the patch. My main pumpkin has only gained about 15-20 lbs in the last three days! It is sitting at about 622 lbs by OTT measurements. If it does not grow significantly tomorrow I think I can safely say that it is nearing the end of its growth potential. Seemed to really slow down when the stem split and I decreased the water. We'll see. My last ditch effort will be to cut the 416 lber on the secondary to see if that increases the growth of the one on the main. I may do that next week depending on how things go. I am pretty tired of tending the plant and have had my hands full this year with university classes, yard maintenance, and home renovations--I am a little exhausted to tell the truth, and holidays are almost over, so if this is the end then so be it. I am excited about composting this fall and extending/prepping the patch for next year. Saturday, August 19 View Page Another day of slow growth--oh well. Pumpkin seems to be limping along at a snail pace now--a mere 5-8 lb gain from yesterday. I think it has seen its best days of growth. Right now it is about 630 lbs (316 OTT) on day 59 of its growth. I think it could be a fair bit heavier as it is thumping a lot harder than it did, and also because I am not measuring it on a flat surface. (but I don't think it is over 700 lbs). Seeing as I may not be able to move it out of the yard for weigh-off I have figured out a way to weigh it without cutting it to pieces (more to come on that later). Weather is supposed to get hotter, but I have my doubts about anymore big growth. Still, I beat my first year PB of 249 lbs by a mile! Also, if it decides to grow long at 5-8 lbs a day (which I doubt right now) it could gain another 200 lbs in September and October. Who knows. . . Sunday, August 20 View Page Almost forgot to mention. The split on the main fruit is worse. I have not put a fan to it, or muddled with it at all. It seems to be drying nicely on its own, and I don't think it is terribly serious even though it opens up about 1/4 inch and about 2 inches long on either side of the stem. Right now I am worried about rot underneath the pumpkin as I have not put that much sand underneath it and I have been watering quite a bit--hence the tarp extension that I talked about a few days ago that I still have not done. Sunday, August 20 View Page Very small weight gains again today (about 5 lbs). The stem split is getting wider--quite wide--I don't think it goes through to the cavity. I think the stem split on this fruit affected it big time. Weather has been great, I am watering abundantly, and still no more decent gains (in the 10-15 lb range) ever since the stem started to split. For some reason the pumpkin still seems like it is getting bigger to me (ha! must be wishful thinking). The above shot is on day 60 at approx. 635 lbs. I took the shade cover off for so I could readjust it (the pumpkin was growing outside the cover and the irrigation was wetting it--don't want it to rot from underneath as it won't be moved for another couple of months or so. I dug a trench around it and put in a whole bag of extra sand to help the drainage. The pumpkin itself is resting on sand, but not a whole lot of it is underneath the pumpkin. Sure wish I could get another couple of hundred lbs out of this fruit, but I highly doubt it right now. Monday, August 21 View Page Just a note: there is a beer can on top of the previous photo for an idea of scale. Today I took a walk around the patch and realized the massive amount of tertiaries sprouting (must be 20 or so that are at least 3-8 feet long). I had about a dozen little pumpkins a bit bigger than marble size, and one was the size of a softball. I pruned all the little pumpkins off and also lots of the side growth and males from the tertiaries. I will dead-head most of them in the days to come. I did want to get these new leaves into play in hopes of increasing the length of my plants life--so I let the tertiaries grow lately. I now wonder if all the tertiaries and small fruit were what caused the dramatic decrease in weight gains on my main fruit?? I'll see what happens as i slowly prune them over the next few days. Monday, August 21 View Page Gains up a bit today. Taped in the main pumpkin at 318.5 OTT (644 lbs). Go pumpkin go! An increase of 9 lbs--which is not to bad at this stage of the game--day 61. Stem is spliting further--got the fan on it 24/7 just to be sure. I think she'll be alright as the split is much slower than the fruit on the secondary--that one is massive, but still no rot even though it goes into the flesh a few inches it does not breach the cavity. All the tertiaries and their tiny fruit may have been sucking power lately--I dunno. I will dead-head them soon as I think my leaves are healthy enough to take me to the end of the growing season. I am amazed at some of the old secondaries that are facing south east on a slope. These were some of the first leaves to emerge and they are still standing straight and tall--even though they get hit by a good deal of wind, vine splits, aphids etc. Fungicide seems to be working great. Have not done foliar application in ages--don't think I will as I don't want to aggravate the aphid situation at this stage of the game. I have sprayed twice and will do so again in a few days (before the weather gets wet). Also, the aphids took a good beating from my last huge spray of End-All--but they are back again. Will spray for those buggers soon. Got tons of yard trimming done over the last few days (lot is one-third of an acre, so I feel like a full time gardener between yard work and growing veggies and AG's). Got about 200 feet of hedge bordering the lot on both sides--some is 15 feet tall, but gave it a good chop (5 feet lower). This will extend the sun ont he patch next year by at least 1 hour. With all this time consuming work done I will have lots of time to compost and extend the patch in the fall when work starts again. Wednesday, August 23 View Page Measly 2 lb gain if I am measuring right, and I think I am. Taped at 646 lbs. I have been saying it for some time, but I think the end is near for this fruits potential. Good luck all! Wednesday, August 23 View Page Main pumpkin gained about 6 lbs yesterday. This puts it at 652 lbs on day day 63--It is thumping fairly hard right now too. Measured twice, and looks like she is still gaining--even if it is slow. Also, measured the pumpkin on the secondary, and it has gained 30 lbs over the last 8 days--not great, but that puts the secondary fruit at 446 lbs. +1000lbs on the one plant. To bad the 1000lbs has to be spread out over two fruits! Anyway, a couple of pretty decent fruit still growing slowly. Boy, I'd love to hit 800+ lbs on the main fruit--since this was my psychologocal goal ever since the start of the season. If it gains for another month and goes heavy there is still a chance it could hit the 800's. In my family pool, my bet was 700 lbs, and the nearest contender was at 650 lbs--so she better at least hit the 700 lb mark so I win the 50 $! Good luck all. I see the Lawman and the NSB are starting to get some double-digit gains--it's about time eh guys! Look out though, I might be able to get this fruit out of my yard and off to the North Shore weigh-off with a little luck (and seeing as it isn't really that heavy yet my buddies might be able to lift her). When is that weigh-off anyway Glen? Anyway, hope you guys get the best of our mild, late summers, here in God's country--otherwise known as the Pacific North-West. Thursday, August 24 View Page Just when I think the game is over my plant surprises me. yesterday saw an increase of 8 lbs for an approximate weight of 660 lbs. If it keeps growing slow and steady at this rate for the next 30-40 days I would be elated. 8-9 lbs/day is great for day 64--at least for me. Last years fruit from generic Howard Dill seed stopped growing pretty much at about 50-60 days. Amazing how important good seed is. Speaking of good seed, if anyone has any stellar seed donations for next year let me know. I am hoping to grow 1 plant again next year and put all my attention into it--like this year. I would love to try a real proven seed. Of course, if I can't find anything else I might just grow my own seed--if it turns out. I am sure I need to spray for aphids, but I have just taken on a huge home renovation project, so my patch-time is really limited. No mildew yet, will spray soon for that too, and must trim tertiaries--they are getting to around 8-10 feet already. Good luck all. Saturday, August 26 View Page 3 lb gain today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Trimmed some more young females off the plant. Tertiaries doing well, vine rot on the back primary under control. Cut out a few more old dying leaves to make room for the new tertiaries--ended up accidentally breaking a well developed one--oh well. Home renovations are taking their toll on me, but life is perfect really--it's warm, the weather is nice. Here's to some decent gains over the next couple of days. Sunday, August 27 View Page Didn't measure at my usual time yesterday--for the first time in a long time--was having a wonderful family dinner with my sister. It is getting harder and harder to measure the large fruit under the big tarp, so I may start measuring every few days instead. Right now the fruit is at approx 672 lbs. It has taken me 12 days to go from 600 lbs to 672 lbs (this calculates to a pathetic 6 lbs/day over the last 12 days). No worries, at least she is still growing--but 800 lbs is starting to look like a pipe dream. The one bonus is that the fruit flesh is still quite white and the ribs are just starting to deepen--so that makes me think it could grow for for awhile yet. I am convinced that my fruit could have been heavier now had I given it the quantities of water I should have at the beginning stages of growth--when I was watering very inadequately and getting small gains. No worries, there is always next year, and now I have a good idea of what kind of water these things need. Powdery mildew starting to make an appearance now. Ripped out about 4 leaves that had it. Aphids abound. Will spray with copper tonight and maybe for aphids tomorrow if I can cancel some other household and yard duties. Tuesday, August 29 View Page Small gains again. 3 lbs yesterday--up to an approximate weight of 675 lbs. Aphids are bad, and I am too busy to spray (busy tiling the kitchen back-splash in a mosaic pattern). Must spray tomorrow--and follow that up wtih a fungicide application as well. Problem is, the pumpkin isn't growing as fast as I would like and my motivation to get the job done is beiong affected by this. I can't see my fruit gaining another 100 lbs at this point--it just seems to be slowing down more and more. Grow pumpkin grow, there's still time! Wednesday, August 30 View Page So busy with renovations I forgot to do the diary yesterday, and have had very little time for the plant too. Lots to tell. I decided to spray for aphids and I went into the patch and leaves were major infested. I started spraying like crazy and as I get near the stump I notice a secondary on the rear of the plant rotted right through. In frustration I started ripping up the vine (I was working for 10 hours prior on house renovations so I had very little patience). To make a long story short, I had just finished sparying and pruning for 30 minutes on the leaves that were no longer attached to the plant! So I just started tearing with my hands to get the vine out--and in the process I killed quite a few good tertiaries and yanked out a whole bunch of decent leaves. At the end of it the back one-fifth of my plant was decimated. Next i checked the stump and almost vomited from the smell--it was rotted one-third way right through! I scooped out the gush and fetched a ton of bordo fungicide powder and sulphur powder and mixed the two together and just started plastering the stump. So I decide to finish spraying (now completely exhausted and I start seeing mildew. Anyway, my frustration mounted and I just started ripping out infected more leaves by the handful. I dunno how much life is left in the plant--in the end I dumped out the rest of my aphid spray and gave up. So then I go measure and the main pumpkin gained 6 lbs--now approx 681 lbs--go figure. . . but the end is near, it's gotta be. Stopped watering today because of the rain. I will stop watering around the immediate vicinity of the plant for good now (that means turning off all the 200 feet of soaker). I am just going to water the vines--hopefully this will take care of the stump rot. Friday, September 1 View Page Have been really sick the last couple of days with a fever. Must have been all those home renovations I was pushing myself to finish. Anyway, I got a chance to measure the main fruit and it registered a 9 lb gain for 690 lbs estimate. Looks like I will at least break 700. The ribs are not very defined yet, and the color is still a pale white, so I am hoping there is some gains left in her. I think the secondary fruit is close to 500 lbs. Stump rot is under control--looks like that powder smearing worked very well, but the back primary--which is almost half the plant is pretty much done as it has rotted almost through at one point. Not much left in the leaves either--what with aphids and all. Zuchinni and squash plants already succumbed to mildew, I will spray tonight with copper to try and ward off mildew on my pumpkin plant. Here's hoping for another 100 lbs in Sept and October! Sunday, September 3 View Page Day 74 for my pumpkin and it is still growing--although very slowly. Overall, I am very pleased with the performance of this plant. I measured the main fruit last night after 1.5 days and it only registered a 3 lb gain (692 lbs estimate), but it is still growing. The stem end is still green and the pumpkin has yet to change color significantly--and get deeper ribs. If it is to get deeper ribs at all? Blossom end is still intact and the splits are under control--so is the stump rot, and mildew. Funny thing is the tertiaries are growing really well and sprouting tons of females which I have been culling before they flower (culled at least 10 yesterday!). Also, sprayed with "Bordo fungicide" for mildew prevention. The pumpkin is starting to lean over it's stem again as the shoulders are really starting to bulge. Although this time I don't think it will grow much more, and I won't be able to prop it up either. Sunday, September 3 View Page Here are some pictures, as I have not posted any in a quite awhile. This is a pic of the new tertiary growth that is doing really well. To the left of the picture is the back part of the plant that I destroyed in a fit of frustration--I just started yanking leaves and vines. Sunday, September 3 View Page Here is a shot of the stump rot. It is now drying nicely. I am becoming more convinced that "Bordo Copper Fungicide" powder works much better than regular sulphur powder as a topical paste for rot. In the future I will use it not only for preventative mildew maintenance, but also as a remedy for vine rot. I may mix the two together. Sunday, September 3 View Page Here is a shot of the secondary fruit. Check out the stem splits! It has gained a small 27 lbs over the last 9 days for an OTT of 285—giving it an approximate weight of 474 lbs on day 74 (not the 500 lbs that I had predicted it would be at by now). I have been neglecting this fruit--putting a brick behind it to keep it from rolling--well, the brick is now digging into the flesh. Sunday, September 3 View Page Here is the fruit on the main that I just measured. It tapes out to a maximum of about 695 lbs right now (327.5 OTT). Although, the widest point has a rib that is wider than the rest of the pumpkin--this concerns me as it could be a fair bit lighter(??) Check out the large shoulders though. I hope that saying “big shoulders go heavy" is true when I weigh this monster. Also note as I pointed out--still quite pale white and not a lot of rib definition yet. Time will tell if it gains or stops. Right now it is getting some veins--anybody know what that means when the shoulders get "veiny". Stem splits on this one are not too deep at all--about an inch or so. I think I will try terminating tertiary growth soon to give it more of a push. I may also resume the foliars now that i have many new leaves and need not be as concerned about aphids on the young leaves. Sunday, September 3 View Page Here is another shot with beer bottle for scale. I would like to take the tarp off for pictures, but it is stapled down. Can't wait until I can take a roof top picture of the carved pumpkins at night, or even in the day after I yank all the plastic and foliage. Tuesday, September 5 View Page A mere 9 lbs of growth in the last 4 days on my main pumpkin. No matter how I tape it I still get the same measurements--maybe varying by half an inch. At the same time, the shoulders look like they are getting bigger and bigger, and the stem is also splitting a bit more (towards the vine thankfully). Right now it is at 328 OTT maximum, for an estimated weight of 698 lbs. Of course it could be more or less on a flat surface--I had to prop it up with foam earlier on in the season, so who knows. I guess it is about day 76 for the fruit right now. If it does not grow by the end of the week I will make preparations for weighing it. I will terminate all tertiaries in a final bid to try get it to grow--since I have more leaves than I need for another 30 days if it decides to go that long. Looks like my season may be over, but it has been rewarding--even if it was a heck of a lot of work. Hopefully I can harness seeds soon and there are no signs of internal rot. Wednesday, September 6 View Page Did not measure today, too busy grouting tiles and also busy with all the work involved now that my job has started up again. Sure is nice weather though! Thursday, September 7 View Page Busy today helping my parents can 700+lbs of tomatoes--yes you guessed it, we eat a lot of pasta sauce. Well, day 76 and I finally inched past the 700lb estimate with an OTT of 328.5 (135, 101.5, 92). Only 3 lbs in 2 days--by the tape at least. Looks like this fruit is not destined for greater things--too bad, but I am still pleased with it. I will meaure it very carefully and in the same spot for the next few days and see what happens. I will have to make arrangements to weigh it un oficially soon--probably this weekend. For this I will use 4 bathroom digital scales that I will attempt to calibrate before hand. I will place the scales on top of a piece of plywood and place another piece of plywood on top of the scales--propping it for support. I will then roll the pumpkin onto this set up and remove the props with a jack. The total of the 4 scales minus the plywood should give me a pretty accurate measure of the pumpkins weight. Just a note to self--I dead-headed most of the tertiaries at about 8-10 feet today =, and pulled off several more females--plenty of leaves for the season--a good portion of which have gone the entire distance. Thursday, September 7 View Page I just reread my last post and laughed. Oddly appropriate that my dad brings back about 700 lbs of tomatoes from the Okanagan on the day that my pumpkin passes the 700 lb mark. You should see our setup for canning. Pressure canner that fits 14 jars, a stainless steel pot that takes 150 liters +, and a powered food mill that is about the size of a two jack hammers strapped together. Sunday, September 10 View Page Day 79 and as far as I can tell the fruits are still growing--although very slowly. I measured the one on the main for the first time in 3 days and it showed between a 4-16 lb gain over 3 days. The reason I can't really tell is because I am measuring it in a variety of ways to see if it has grown. It is at about 705-716 lbs. Pretty much done though, I may leave it for one more week because the ribs seem to be deepening--so maybe it is gaining more than I think. I just hope the stem split is not going through and the seeds are not rotting--I will have to check it again tomorrow. Also, getting my weighing cointraption set up. I went and bought three scales and put a piece of 1 inch plywood on top of them. I then proceeded to weigh a variety of materials--including myself seperately on each scale and then on all three. It seems to work pretty accurately as far as I can tell. From what I could gather the discrepancy was only between 1-3 lbs on a variety of items between 25-100 kg. Not the best set up in the world, but this is likely how I will weigh my fruits--by rolling them on a piece of plywood with three scales underneath (better than cutting up the pumpkin isn't it?). Of course the end weight will be unofficial, but I am only competing against myself anyway. If I can figure a way to move it, I may still hit a weigh-off with it. We'll see. Monday, September 11 View Page Day 80 today. I taped the pumpkin carefully today and it definitely registered 330 OTT for an estimated weight of 710 lbs--it is definitely bigger than the 704 lbs I mentioned yesterday, but maybe not as big as the 716 lbs. This means it has gained about 15 lbs over the last 8 days--for about 2 lbs a day. Not great, but if it can keep that pace for another 20 days that would put it at 750 lbs on day 100--then if it goes slightly heavy I might cross the 800 lb mark. But it does not look likely at this point. On another positive note, I probed the stem splits and they don't go through to the cavity--in fact, they are quite shallow. Ripped out more aphid infested leaves today. Stump is not rotting anymore and will likely last another 20 days, but leaves are infested and also have some mildew--a week or two at best from them. I may spray with fungicide tomorrow. Right now I won't spray for aphids--the leaves are too far gone, and the growth is so minimal the effort is not worth it. Here's to hoping my fruits keeps plugging along! Wednesday, September 13 View Page Measured carefully today on day 81. Pumpkin certainly tapes out to 331 OTT for an estimated weight of 716 lbs. That likely means 21 lbs in the last 9 days--slow yes, but maybe a little better than I thought at 2.3 lbs per day. Sunday, September 17 View Page Pumpkin is taping to about 720 lbs. I gotta weigh it this week unless I see some growth, it has really stopped growing these last couple of weeks and I would like to harness the seeds for next year as I think there is some good potential in them (1446 X self). I may grow my own seed next year just to see what it can do. Right now I am on the hunt for some good cow manure--it's hard to find. I just don't trust any of that topsoil/manure/compost you buy at the nurseries as I think a lot of it is substandard and may even be damaging to soil chemistry (I've heard some horror stories about how they make it). I hope to find a farmer who has some good cow manure. Definitely need more copmost/manure for next year to grow em' big--and if I hope to go over 1000 lbs. Lot's of work to do extending the patch. It will be a busy fall. Good luck all. Wednesday, September 20 View Page Pumpkin taping out to 725 lbs. As far as I can tell it is still growing on day 87--or maybe it is just flexing. Cantelouping getting worse--oh well, maybe those scabs will help it weigh more. Afterall this isn't a beauty competition is it? I am itching to cut and weigh it, but right now I am thinking I might be able to drag it out of the yard with a couple of buddies and off to a weigh-off--like on a sheet of plywood or something. Maybe I am getting a bit too optimistic (afterall, there is a month to go) but I might try to keep it on the vine until the North Shore weigh-off. The prospect of going head to head against Lawman (his mom) the NSB gang (and all his kin) is better than the idea of cutting up the pumpkin in my yard and weighing it. Oh well, where there's a will there's a way eh? Problem is, all the buddies that I have are plagued with back trouble--including me. Anyone willing to donate money for a crane let me know. There must be a budget for these kinds of things in the North Shore weigh-off treasury fund eh? :0) Sunday, September 24 View Page Pumpkin taping out to about 728 lbs. I tried to wiggle it a little today to test weight and to my surprise I could wiggle it a bit--makes me think it might be lighter than I figure. Finally pulled the tarp to give it some sun over the next couple of days--maybe give it some colour. It seemd to be holding out nicely--no rot on the stem, which still looks young. Splits all dried up as far as I can tell. Anyway, in the picture you can see the problem I am faced with. The pumpkin has to be moved down the walkway. The grass is quite steep and slippery, and the walkway is not all that wide--although it is a little over 3 feet wide. Must keep it covered well from the rain over the next couple of weeks, I may even throw some extra plastic over it. Sunday, October 1 View Page Pumpkin taping out to 749 lbs (336.5 OTT). Up 21 lbs from 7 days ago. I am surprised at this gain--maybe it is the weather. I have not pruned anything else--I have a couple of young pumpkins on the size of softballs, the plant is still vigorous as ever. It is day 98 for the fruit. It is getting quite blotchy green on the top and sides--very ugly pumpkin. I am now wondering if I can break 800 lbs. Still a couple of weeks to keep it on the vine. A mole seems to be digging around it, sure hope it has not dug underneath and into the pumpkin! Tuesday, October 10 View Page Got rid of the heating cables and top watering system--have not watered overhead in weeks as the ground stays moist. Still using the 200 feet of soaker hose. Have not measured, but I think the pumpkin is around the 750 range still. Unless it grew some more. I can hardly wait to cut this pumpkin loose and start cleaning up the yard. Have much to do in the yard this next week. Need to plant garlic or my seeds will sprout by early spring--problem is I need manure first. Wednesday, October 11 View Page My wife called the local paper last week and they came over to take a picture of my two-year old daughter on top of my estimated 749 lber. Yesterday they printed the photo with a small caption. If you would like to see it go to the following address (bottom) and scroll down until you see the picture of the pumpkin on the right hand side. http://www.abbynews.com/ Wednesday, October 11 View Page Yesterday while working in the garden and extending the garlic patch I realized that ordering and moving 10 yards of manure by hand up steep terrain in a wheelbarrow would be a pretty daunting task. I also wondered what all that manure would do to my soil (since I have heard many horror stories about massive soil amending jobs). So, it looks like I might be falling back to my original plan of collecting all the grass and leaves I can this Autumn and planting winter rye--and maybe a truck load or two of manure in the spring. Thursday, October 12 View Page Pumpkin is taping out to a maximum of 752 lbs estimate. It is done growing. I will cut and weigh it either this weekend or next. Thursday, October 12 View Page I cut the plant out today and put it on the compost pile. I also deconstructed all the plastic and poles. On retrospect, it was such a dry summer I didn't even need all the plastic covering the plant. Oh well. Here is a picture of me with my two pumpkins. The big one is estimated at 752 lbs and the smaller one further away is estimated at under 500lbs. I will be working on the soil all next week digging and extending the patch. I might have someone who can give me some good horse manure (aged stuff--a couple of truck loads) only problem is I need to get it somehow. I will be adding a ton of leaves hopefully (I have huge maple trees around my lot). Thursday, October 12 View Page Here is a picture of the stump. I ended up pulling it and leaving about 10 feet of the main (and the other vine connected to the other pumpkin). The stump was loose, so I just uprooted it--I think it was pretty much toast anyway. I will be weighing tomorrow--unofficially with three calibrated bathroom scales under a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood. Seems like the North Shore weigh-off is not happening this year, and the Nanaimo weigh-off is too far out to go--like I have money for the ferry ride. So it was the bathroom scale idea or nothing. Anyway, I will place the scales on large concrete slabs and level them off (Ha! I sound like I know what I am doing, as if I have done this before--yeah right!). Anyway, as far as I can tell it should be pretty accurate because I tried the setup in my garage and it worked well with a variety of weights (it seemed to be + or - 5 lbs in terms of error). Stay tuned for really cool roof top pictures at night of the two pumpkins carved and lit in my back yard! Next year will be different--no more messing about. . .I mean if I am going to grow a pumpkin I better get it out of the yard. I predict a 1000lb monster, and I will be prepared with ramps ahead of time to move it. Friday, October 13 View Page Almost forgot to mention, even though I won't get any official weights, it has been a really great season for me. I will be looking to best the NSB's, Switch, and the Lawman again next year. Friday, October 13 View Page Plans to weigh this afternoon--provided I can get my scales set up/levelled off. As stated earlier one weigh-off in the area was cancelled and the other is too far to go--so anything I post will be UOW (unofficial weight) I will weigh this evening, or tomorrow for sure if the setup takes longer than anticipated. I have a muscular buddy coming over to help me tip the big one over (he used to squat 500+lbs in his football days). Will meausure them good first to see the accuracy to the OTT. My final prediction is that the big one goes light to the charts. Final OTT for the large one was 337 for an estimated 752 lbs. My feelin is the big one will be around 640-670 (not sure why I feel this way, I just do). Very curious to see what happens. Saturday, October 14 View Page Very busy last two days. I weighed on Friday afternoon and had friends over that evening. Today I spent all day preparing the garlic bed with compost and horse manure (garlic needs to be planted by 2nd week of October). Just got in about 200 seeds before the rain started this evening--spent all day working on it so I had to wait until this evening to do the diary entries from the weighing that took place on Friday. Above is my pumpkin ready to go on my crude weighing contraption. I ended up cutting the stem right off so it could tip onto the scales and touch on the shoulders. I placed a small board down and some foam to assist in the process so I would not break the scales. What a surprise too! It weighed in at about 840lbs--combined total of the three scales! The scales seemed to move around at between 830-860, but I think I can pretty safely say that I had an 800lber. I measured the pumpkin (after weighing it) by having my buddy assist me with the tape and it taped out to much bigger than I previously had it (350 OTT--right around the 835lb estimate--much more than the 337 OTT and the 752lb estimate I had it at). Of course this is all unofficial, but I am pretty confident that it was an 800lber. So for my purposes I will be naming my pumpkin the 800 Dekleva UOW. Saturday, October 14 View Page Here is a picture of me on top of the pumpkin. I weigh in at about 175-180 lbs. I was really surprised at how solid the fruit was after I cut it loose--I even stood on it at one point. I dug under the front and my buddy and I were able to tip it onto the scales, but the two of us were completely unable to tip it over onto it's side--even on a flat surface. The bottom (shich I was worried about) was solid as ever and completely flat. I am interested to see how thick the walls are on this fruit, and am generally pretty impressed by the height and approximate weight. Sure wish I could have weighed this thing officially, but I just could not figure out how I'd move it--save that task for next year. Of course if I can't move it I will rent or buy one of those tripods with the spring scale (the kind they use to weigh bears). So here it is the 800 Dekleva UOW! No for the task of preparing for next year. I have about a month of evenings and weekends to dig and prepare the soil as well as hand cart wheelbarrows full of compost, and manure. Saturday, October 14 View Page Here is one last shot of me showing my buddy where to hold the tape. I think part of the reason I had been measuring the circ. wrong was beacuse it was very hard to hold it on the bulging part of the side (it always slipped into the rib). I think it went heavy (at least on my crude weighing device) because the shoulders on the blossom end and the stem end were bulging quite a bit, and the bottom was perfectly flat rather than concave. Monday, October 16 View Page Here is a pic of me starting to shovel out behind the patch--much to do in preparation for next year. The larger one is standing on its stem end because that is the only way we could tip it to weigh it. As I said it hovered between 830-860 lbs--but to be certain I think I can justify the heavy one by naming it the 800 Dekleva UOW because I am pretty positive it hit the 800lb mark. The one beside it (the smaller one) taped out to 502 lbs--but I did not weigh it. It has a massive stem blowout--but is still solid as a rock because (the blowout did not extend into the cavity). I did some searching around and I found a good quality crane scale I can rent for next year for as little as $50 a day in Langley. So next year, if I still can't get my pumpkin out of the yard I will easily build a tripod and weigh it with a crane scale (supposedly accurate to 1 lb). Congrats to all the growers in the lower mainland especially Cam for that nice orange monster and Lawman for that impressive one e's got going over 550lbs. I will be posting pictures of flesh thickness and of course rooftops at night of the carving to come in the next week or so when I harvest the seeds. It will be a busy fall preparing for next year! Wednesday, October 18 View Page Well, I have spent the last couple of days working on extending the patch--it is a long slow process when you are digging up grass (it's very nice that there are hardly any stones to remove). I don't think I will be planting winter rye as I have too much to do. Instead I will dig in bags of leaves and grass clippings and then a layer of manure and then a layer of straw from a few hay bales to prevent erosion until the spring. Maybe I will plant rye in the early spring, or dig in the straw if it has disintigrated. Wednesday, October 18 View Page By the way, if anyone is interested in growing seed from my 800(UOW) e-mail me and I'll send you an address for a bubble envelope. I will be harvesting the seeds this weekend and drying them and I would love to see someone grow it if they are interested. Thursday, October 19 View Page Spent the last two days after work digging and amending the patch. It sure pays to be friendly to the neighborhood gardener. He dumps more grass and leaf clippings than nature could produce in many years--and I put it all on the patch. Bad ting is there are quite a few pine needles, but I have read that even pine needles break down to a neutral ph 7.0. I got 8 beautiful orange bags of beachnut leaves from a person I know in the neighborhood. They were really dry and fiborous. Probably should have ran them over with the lawnmower, but I put them right on top of the patch and mixed with the grass clippings. Not sure how much more organic material i should add? Can you ever have enough? I will add more aged compost on top of the leaf and grass compost--then a layer of straw and ten a layer of manure. Should have the soil energized by spring, but lots of shovel work to do to even out the compost once it partially breaks down. Tuesday, October 24 View Page Above is a shot of my pumpkin plot post-dig. It is weird looking at the pumpkin patch without the plant there and just seeing two large pumpkins resting on the edge of the patch--it seems a bit surreal, like I can't believe they really grew there in the first place. I dug up the pumpkin patch by hand this weekend and added about 8 bags of beechnut leaves. As I was digging I yanked and then ripped the heating cables that cost me close to $100--I was choked. I also harvested the seeds this weekend from both fruit. The seed counts were good. Pumpkin flesh shots to follow. Tuesday, October 24 View Page Here is a shot of the flesh on the 800 from the blossom end. Definitely quite thick. However, on the stem end it was incredibly thick (12 inches or more) filling an entire third or more of the pumpkin from the stem side! There were no holes in the 800 that reached to the outside—very fresh inside the fruit, and no signs of rot. We carved it up yesterday and I took some shots at night from the rooftop, so I will post shots when I download them. Tuesday, October 24 View Page Here is a picture of the pumpkin flesh on the 502lb (estimate) pumpkin off a secondary. These walls were very thick except at the very bottom under the stem where there was a slight hole that rotted to the inside and caused some thinning (I think this was the result of me not repositioning the fruit and causing it to exert pressure under the stem—but who knows). When I dropped the lid on the hole the day after I harvested seeds it cracked down to the bottom under the stem and I could see that it had started rotting a little. The interior of the pumpkin was really fresh with a couple of seeds having sprouted. I think all in all, this fruit would have gone heavy had it been weighed. Tuesday, October 31 View Page Happy Halloween from my back yard! Monday, November 6 View Page Next year is starting to look like a more serious effort. I forked out the $70 for a soil test and will be balancing the soil soon. Shooting for 1000lbs next year, so I gotta get serious eh? Soil is deficient in many nutrients, at first I thought this was a disadvantage, but this is much better than having too much nutrients which makes the growing area toxic--you can always add, but removing is next to impossible. Also, if this year was such a successful year on relatively poor soil, I think I can do much better with soil that has been amended and balanced. Thursday, November 9 View Page I think I am finished for the season. After digging and extending the patch (it doubled in size) I now want to boost my organic matter from 6.7% to 10% for next season--this will be the most difficult part of the soil amendments as it will require a lot of sweating. To this end I put in many bags of mostly maple leaves on the now 420 square feet patch. I just placed them overtop to keep the weeds down and prevent soil erosion (we get a lot of rain here and I am on a slope). In the spring I will till the leaves in and add some very old horse manure (this will be difficult as I will be carting it wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow) to the patch. Not sure how much I will need here yet but it will require some work? I did not plant rye as it takes quite a while to sprout in the colder weather of Nov and Dec, and it also requires a lot of work tilling in the spring. Last year I had rye shooting everywhere post dig--it does not die off that easily. I figure there are other ways to boost the OM right now--maybe when I get it where I want it I will plant rye earlier in the season. Thursday, November 9 View Page Almost forgot to add that I am learning some very important lessons this Autumn about "balance". No use flooding the patch with all kinds of chemicals and manure etc. in a bid to get all the levels high--it is a real balancing act I am finding out and one that needs to be approached with caution and planning. Also a little worried about next year and diseases. I did have 1 or 2 foaming vines and instead of destroying them I buried them under the pumpkin mound. Oh well, at least I didn't compost the pumpkin directly into the soil this year--even though I buried most of the vines in the mound too. Live an learn. Tuesday, November 14 View Page With the help of someone very knowledgeable I have a plan to whip my soil into shape in early spring. I now know exactly what I will have to add and how—and I have all of it purchased. Looks to be less work that I first thought—but I need to get my hands on a rototiller—I think I have one lined up. Will go lower with the OM than at first thought—am finding out that OM is only a small part of the game—and one must not overdo it. Still, the tilling will be hard, and it will take me more than one year and one test to get my soil up to the ideal levels. Patience required here, inappropriately amended soil needs years to recover—no need to overdue it the first year and then have a useless patch for years to come. I’d like to get some 45 gallon drums to gravity feed the plant through soakers, because this would make it much easier to deliver ferts to the right spot—the roots. I could then supplement with a little overhead water—keep the vine rot down. Also, I will definitely build a hoop-house this year as opposed to the 2X4 contraption of last year. This will cost some bucks for pipe, rebar, and plastic. Add another $100 for the heating cables I ripped this year (arhhh!!!). Then there is the matter of ropes and pulleys to move the pumpkin from the yard—should I grow a good one. Will be looking at flea markets etc. for this equipment. In the meantime I am doing germination tests--got one of my 800 seeds growing in a tiny dish of water--nice thick stem, not spindly at all. Trying to keep in mind a great piece of advice I recently got—“you gotta think big with AG’s otherwise what’s the point”. The seeds are dried, the bubblers are in the mail, and while the Lawman and the NSB are busy eating turkey and putting on Christmas cheer, I’ll be gathering my strength and getting my game-plan on for the season ahead. Sunday, November 19 View Page Well, I must have hauled close to 1000lbs of wet maple leaves to the back yard today--I was exhausted. I saw my neighbor was getting frustrated at what to do with all his leaves(he has 7-10 massive maples on his 1/2 acre lot), so I walked over and told him I'd take all his leaves--he thought I was crazy at first--but I was out fixing my front door and I was watching him! I'd been waiting for my chance to get his leaves and hoped I'd catch him cleaning up. He had a small ride-along mower with a trailer, so he was able to haul all of it up to my driveway. I already got tons of leaves from a gardener friend of mine--but I guess you can never have enough. Now that I have introduced myself to him I should have no trouble getting his leaves again next year. I had so many maple leaves I filled my huge compost bins completely and mulched some flower beds--there were just too many and I already have about 6 inches on the pumpkin patch and the regular garden too. I am pretty surprised at how fast maple leaves rot down though and I should be able to add the rest. With all the OM I'll be adding to the patch with these leaves I won't need much else. I still have about a yard or two of pure grass compost waiting to be mixed in around my pumpkin mound. I think I am slowly getting my soil to where it wants to be! i might add a pick up load of horse manure, and that'll be about it for next year. Wednesday, November 22 View Page Still have a huge pile of leaves in the back yard waiting their trip to the top of the lot for the patch. Boy has it been raining here! Looks like the November record for rain is within reach (I think we are about 20mm out from the record). Have been doing a lot of thinking for next year in my spare time--getting my game-face on you might say. Still lots of hurdles to consider--time being the biggest one as always. It's too dark to do much work by the time I walk home from work. Winter blues. . . Sorry to hear about the loss of that yard cat Glen. I myself have a cat that I inherited with my home that I can't stand (of course I am highly allergic). His name is Kink (because of the kink in his tail) he's a great mouser and he stays out doors all the time--but he recently "charged" my daughter, so his days might be numbered. Maybe you'd like to take him off my hands on account of all those squirrels you got :0) Not much on an animal lover myself, but he's impressive, I have seen him catch and kill bunnies and stand face to face with a raccoon. One tough feline, but he is lazy and I overfeed him. What else is there to do but sit around and wait for the season to begin? Wednesday, November 22 View Page We could start trash talking each other early? Wednesday, November 22 View Page Here is a picture Glen sent me of the North Shore Boyz best fruit of 2006 (the small orange one in the center). Wednesday, November 22 View Page North Shore Boyz, Lawman, other Vancouver growers take note: This picture is a representation of my "mantra" for next year. It'll be a "show no mercy", and "take no prisoners" mindset here in the Abbotsford Fraser Valley. In other words, it'll be an all out pumpkin war in 2007!