Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 16 Entries. Wednesday, January 2 View Page A 3D drawing of my main patch (greenhouses without roofs). On my secondary patch I hope to grow additional giant root crops and an extra field pumpkin. I hope to grow 2x 134 Wursten and 1x 85 Eaton field pumpkins. Both LG plants will be my 122 Wursten 11, which grew the 130 Horde 12 European record. Thursday, May 30 View Page What you plan to grow and what actually makes it into the ground and survives are two different things. We have had the coldest spring since 1964 and more than enough rain lately. PUMPKIN: 1694 Meier - growing as planned and doing well SQUASH: Went with 1088 Horde instead of 626 Horde* FIELD PUMPKIN: 134 Wursten didn't germinate, so am going with 85 Eaton and 94 Lyons this year MARROW: Of the last three WR 206.5 seeds I had, only one germinated. Started 114 Baggs, 70.5 Wursten and 73.6 Wursten and will plant out best of bunch and use the others as back-ups HEAVY CUCUMBER: 2 of 3 drowned - still got 1x Thomas going LONG CUCUMBER: 3 going as planned (Thomas & Wursten) BEETROOT: got several going as planned CARROT: about half died of frost PARSNIP: seed seller took my money twice but never sent the seeds, so no parsnips this year LONG GOURD: got 2x 122 Wursten plants going as planned TOMATO: got 5 or 6 going as planned SWEDE: got 2 going to fill up empty spaces RADISH: still to be sown Other than that I have some giant stuff going just for the seeds. Wednesday, August 7 View Page Very cool spring and early summer changed into a heat wave for a week or two. Back to cool and wet again today. This year looks like another waste of time. PUMPKIN: 1694 Meier - waste of time - day 20 and 51 lbs. Worst ever. SQUASH: 1088 Horde* - all aborted except last one (with deformed lobes) which I just got pollinated, so well over a month behind. FIELD PUMPKIN: Just pollinated a few on 94 Lyons and 85 Eaton. Two very good plants. MARROW: Just set a few on the 73.6 and 206.5 Wursten plants. Looks like the 206.5 will be a true marrow. HEAVY CUCUMBER: 2 of 3 drowned and last one rather small. LONG CUCUMBER: 2 of 3 still going (picture), the best one still several centimeters short of my (and EGVGA) record of 85.5 cm. Not sure it will make it. BEETROOT: had to pull all but 2 and one of those went to seed. CARROT: nothing worth mentioning. LONG GOURD: pollinated several on first 122 Wursten plant - 2nd 122 has no females at all. TOMATO: got 6 of 7 plants still going - 4.91 Nieuwenhoff leading the pack at about 2lbs. RADISH: two going, but one has already gone to seed. Weather is just too instable. Thursday, August 15 View Page Pulled most of the giant vegetables yesterday. They still had about 6 or 7 weeks to go, but I just found out that long after the growing season had started and dues for 2013 were paid, the EGVGA decided to no longer accept 24 of the 32 giant vegetable classes. No use putting energy, money and time into them if the competition has been called off. Thursday, August 15 View Page My heavy cucumber. Still growing and would likely have been a new PB, but the EGVGA suddenly doesn't accept cucumbers anymore, so I have no way to get an official weight on them. They won't last till the October weigh-off. Thanks to David Thomas for the seed! My long cucumber is close to a new record, but it will end up on the compost heap for the same reason. Unless a new organisation steps up to the plate to recognize giant veg, this will be my last year growing. Thursday, August 22 View Page 1088 Horde - day 22 - 123 lbs Thursday, August 22 View Page 206.5 Wursten marrow - day 22 - 60 lbs It is my last marrow. All the others have split. This morning I also lost the 85 Eaton FP. It imploded, something I haven't seen before. Down to one FP and one marrow now. Thursday, August 22 View Page Cucumber ended up at 84.5 cm (33.3") and just one cm away from a new PB and what would have been an EGVGA record. Weighed in at 6.575 kg (14.50 lbs) which is a new PB for me. Probably the only one I will get this year. Friday, August 30 View Page Picked one of the two remaining tomatoes. Lost all the tomatoes on the other 5 plants. 4.14 Wursten 13 (4.90 Nieuwenhoff x open). Still have a 4.90 growing. Looks a bit bigger. Time will tell. Thanks to John Nieuwenhoff for sharing his seeds in the GVGO seed packs! Monday, September 2 View Page The last marrow blew apart. Front section literally let go of the back section and then split down the middle dividing the marrow into 3 parts. It was still young and on a 180-200 lbs growth curve, but will go in the books as 140.0 Wursten 13 (206.5 Wursten 09 x self) DMG. It's the 3rd marrow over 135 lbs I have grown off the 206.5 and the 5th consecutive year I have grown over 110 lbs, but now the trick is to keep them whole. Monday, September 9 View Page 5.42 Wursten 13 (4.90 Nieuwenhoff x open) New Dutch record and 2nd heaviest in Europe till now. (2459 grams) Tuesday, October 8 View Page As poor a season as it was, weather wise, I managed to grow three new national records (heavy cucumber, tomato and carrot). I'll just pretend I didn't grow all the other stuff that failed. Here is the 8.79 lb carrot and 5.42 tomato. Tuesday, October 8 View Page Iwan Horde and I both grew the 122 Wursten 11 long gourd. We tied for first place at 115", with two pretty much identical gourds. The 122 now has a top 5 average of almost 121" with two over 130", but unfortunately mice took out my entire seed stock last year. Monday, October 14 View Page The ministery of water management took tests of the ditch water running through our allotment a week or two ago. It turned out to be highly contaminated. It had killed off most life in the ditch and cows that were drinking it were getting sick or producing misshapen calves. I have been using this water for several years and have been experiencing strongly diminishing pumpkin weights any many oddly shaped pumpkins. It appears my soil has been badly contaminated. So there is one thing to do. Dig. Monday, October 14 View Page I can't move my greenhouse, so I have to dig down 3.5ft. Over the entire plot. By hand. That's about 65 cubic yards to move. I then have to fill in the hole, starting with the topsoil and ending with what was at the bottom. Monday, October 14 View Page So I do it, piece by piece, slowly moving down the plot. The top soil is a bit more than a foot deep. Followed by red and then grey clay. Underneath is an ancient pure peat layer about 1.5ft thick. I throw half the clay and the topsoil to one side and the other half of the clay and the peat to the other side. Then throw the topsoil and half the clay back into the hole, then mix the other half of the clay with the peat and throw it on top after adding a layer of compost. I rototill that, then throw on some manure and rototill it again. I already did that to my field pumpkin patch too (about 15 cubic yards). Still about 35 cubic yards to go in the greenhouse.