Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 66 Entries. Wednesday, April 10 View Page I made a new sub soil ripper for the tractor. This will cut down 22 inches. This will be my first year not tilling. Soil sample cam back from western labs for no recomendations so it is time to get started. Wednesday, April 10 View Page This thing does some real damage. I think I will call for locates before I use it any place elce! Wednesday, April 10 View Page I sent dale M. an email last night asking if he has anohter 1723. I know it is late but tracking down growers with the AGGC.org being down is a pain. One can only hope for the best. Friday, April 12 View Page Spent part of the day wielding up some skylights for my greenhouse. The copper rod in the photo is the hydraulic auto opener that I made. They work well on the ground, but will they work when the wind is blowing like hell? May 1st or 2end we normally get a big wind storm. Friday, April 12 View Page Steel just looking to be burnt. Sunday, April 14 View Page first test seeds came up fast and strong. I am getting a bunch of cr@p on BP about my spelling. I am legaly hadycaped so cut me some slack! Sunday, April 14 View Page so that last pick was the diggi comp that runs the hot box and this pick is the first test seed. It has been a long hard day. Sunday, April 14 View Page Hot box all warmed up ready for seeds when the time is right. Sunday, April 14 View Page Better view of the new hot box. It is an old federal meat case. Glass on top and the one side. It is insolated with mirrored interior. 3 four foot florescent lights, and a 800 watt forced air heater. It is all controlled by the computer. I see less than 5 degrees of temp change at any time. Works very slick! Now we wait for all the guys that started early to freeze their plants in the 28 degree snap cold we will have tonight. Tuesday, April 16 View Page Thank you Dale M. for the seeds they will see soil very soon. Now that the taxes are paid it's time to grow some pumpkins. Tuesday, April 16 View Page Line up for this year: 1678.5 Daletas 1723 Marshall 1610 Lieber 1432.5 Starr 1288.5 Halbert 1246 Halbert 1149 Halbert 1246 Vincent 1063 Mackenzie 767 Johnason Can't keep them all. Now we just need to see who grows the best. Thank you to everyone that was so kind as to give me seeds this year. Selection is always hard. I hope I can do you and them proud. Scott Holub's articles in the PGVG news letters realy helped to make up my mind. Good bit there Scott. Tuesday, April 16 View Page Sorry that is the: 1462.5 Starr I wish these diarys had an edit function!!!! Wednesday, April 17 View Page I need to add the 1129.5 Blalock 2007 to the list, it turns out I can't find my 1246 Vincent. All will still be ok in my patch. I have noticed that seeds started using Compainion do not germ as fast, and to not pot up as well as seeds started using just water. I tested it on 10 seeds and had 100% of the seeds in water do about 300% better than thouse with Compainion added to the starting solution. I will do a larger scale test later in the season when the plants are growing slowly. Friday, April 19 View Page Working on getting the new drip system in. Time is running short, and I have so much to do. Saturday, April 20 View Page I hope that all the work to put this drip system in is worth the work. I can see now that working arround the tape will take some getting used to. Saturday, April 20 View Page I needed to work somthing out to make the drip install go faster. This makes the 30 foot runs much faster. It should be done tomorrow. Zone one is working now. Ill have to run water 24 hours a day to get the soil damp for planting. sooil is dry as a bone. Saturday, April 20 View Page Off to help a new grower get his patch set up in the AM. I love the excitment that a new grower has with the prospect of thier first giant pumpkin. Tuesday, April 23 View Page Never had this happen before. Aphids hatched out of the native soil I mixed in with the potting soil. They ate my starts over night. I treaded them, but I will start some new seeds, because I don't think they will make it. What a bummer. Good news is that the automatic skylight opener in the green house are working very well. Pictures to follow. Tuesday, April 23 View Page New grower patch looking good. Tuesday, April 23 View Page New skylight with hydro lift. Tuesday, April 23 View Page Mister roosty thinks my pumpkin patch is a spaw or somthing. I am growing pumpkins here buddy! This is not your custom dust bath and sauna!!!!! Tuesday, April 23 View Page this is what the aphid damage looks like Thursday, April 25 View Page The aphids in the hot box needed to go. I looked to the kitchen for help. Friday, April 26 View Page This is chlorine gas generated by the bleach, soda, and vinegar. Nasty stuff and very harmful if breathed in. The chamber filled with gas. This should be the end of the aphids. The nice part about the hot box being made out of the old meat case there is very few places that I am not able to clean. Friday, April 26 View Page The temperature controller is finally done. I know what it looks like, but this is used only for my greenhouse. Set up the 110 volts, 24 volts AC, 12 volts dc, two 12 volt bipolar relays, two 110 Volt AC relays, two thee program temperature controllers, a wireless soil moisture sensor...... ho my. All nicely sealed in a waterproof case. Now I just need some plants! Saturday, April 27 View Page So I puller the cots off of the 1799.5 deletas, 1149 halbert, 1288.5 halbert and the 1723 marshal. More seeds are coming up fast. The 1462.5 Starr was the only one to survive the attack, but it looks like the aphids ate the mail vine. I will wait and see. The out poring of advice and sympathy has been great! Thank you all. Good news the new watering system is holding the soil at 90% of capacity. I may bump that back a little. Everything is working so well, now it is time to update the fertilizing system. Saturday, April 27 View Page I was not going to plant the 1149 but after the PGVG article that the 1149 has statistical one of the best chances to throw a pumpkin over the carts, I have reconsidered my assessment. 7 over 1000, and one closer to 1300 its first year helped it to get a spot in the patch. It has always been a rock star out of the gate. The color has kept well too. Saturday, April 27 View Page The 1149 halbert was the male for the 1246 halbert (1723 marshal X 1149 Halbert) All heavy's I miss the Aggc.oeg. so much harder to picks and info on pumpkins Saturday, April 27 View Page For thouse that want to see the controller working http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Efn1krdtE 111 halbert 2013 marrow Saturday, April 27 View Page New site record. 1288.5 Halbert (1313 shirwood X 1723 marshal) This was one of my brothers back up plants that he gave me when the 1794 Pugh would not germ. Saturday, April 27 View Page New site record. 1288.5 Halbert (1313 shirwood X 1723 marshal) This was one of my brothers back up plants that he gave me when the 1794 Pugh would not germ. Saturday, April 27 View Page No feeling as good as growing a friends seed to a new personal best. My wife's personal pest, squash. To day this would be a pumpmin. Saturday, April 27 View Page This was judged a pumpkin the next year 917 pounds Saturday, April 27 View Page This was a great squash, but it was crossed with a squmpkin..... hum I should plant it and see what it does. Saturday, April 27 View Page Two marrows over 85.5 pounds. New Washington State recored in 2012 at 87 pounds. I want the US national record 90.1?????? Thursday, May 2 View Page The bugs are going to be bad this year. A swarm of cucumber beetles showed up yesterday. I killed 3 without getting off the tractor. I hope the hatch is early and there will be nothing for them to eat. All the plants made it through the first night in the ground at 36 degrees last night. Saturday, May 4 View Page My wife made this for our tools. We may have to change it to 2141 Giant Pumpkin Way! Saturday, May 4 View Page Here is a better pic of the tool box on the greenhouse. The old filter system, and the dositron I don't use anymore. Saturday, May 4 View Page Stan Pugh was nice and gave me a start to help the patch out. The 1228.5 Halbert is in the front that Stan gave me, and the 1149 halbert is in the back that I started from the second bunch. All my plants look much better today. I hope they are happy in their new homes. THANK YOU STAN! I had a power supply on my controller bite the dust last night. Orbits has 12 volt DC and 24 volt AC solinoids. The 12 volts units get a little hot whan you put 24 volts AC to them for too long. You cant tell by looking at them whitch is whitch. Ill give you a hint you need a adapter to use the 12 volt DC ones...... grumble......grumble. There is $75 down the drain! It is so warm tonight. It is like a midsummers night. If it would only last all summer the west coast would be back on the map! Sunday, May 5 View Page This is a little odd. 3 cot leaves. Monday, May 6 View Page New fertilizer delivery tank. It will need a few mods. Saturday, May 11 View Page New roll up sides on my greenhouse. Season is off too a slow start even with the warm weather. Nice crop of weeds however! Monday, May 13 View Page 100% of the 117 Tobeck field pumpkins sprouted. So I am done gettng plants started. I hope the mangles start. Tuesday, May 14 View Page 75 mile an hour winds ripped through our town today. My plants are a little beat up but ok thanks to my big greenhouse. Not all the growers out here did so well. My brother lost his biggest plant. My heart goes out to them for all of their pain and upset. This has been a rough season and it is just getting started! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN2r-lDUzLA Wednesday, May 22 View Page this is one odd leaf. it is like two leaves with one stem face to face with each other. Hummmm I think I may need to back off on the depleted uranium! Wednesday, May 22 View Page another shot of the odd ball leaf Thursday, May 23 View Page Your plant not long enough? Need more size quick? Try my new patented vine stretcher. Garneted to give you the extra length that you are looking for and improve you love life, but wait there is more it slices, it dices, and it makes mounds of Julian fries!!!!! Thursday, May 23 View Page With nights in the mid 30's and highs in the high 50's, I gave in and put up some heat lamps. The temp controller will turn them on and off for me so I don't have to worry about cooking the plants in a spaced out moment trying to get to work on time. Ho that's right I am the boss so I should not have to be on time. Friday, May 24 View Page I found this split stem today. We will see if it can heal itself. The vine strecher, may be a vine splitter. Saturday, May 25 View Page Today was not a good day. Some of my plants suffered a mysteries..... deadly condition that causes them to completely wilt to the ground like they were frozen. It was not a cold day, and it was not hot and sunny. My time-lapse camera had all the pictures deleted as well. There was a glove left behind that had no place being in my greenhouse. Sabotage would be the logical conclusion. If not sabotage it was a very unusual set of circumstances that leaves me scratching my head in bewilderment. I have a hard time believing that I have made any enemy's that could be so heartless, or would not confront me to my face. One never knows, and with the photo evidence deleted I may never know. I think a few plants may survive, and the marrows at the far end of my greenhouse are fine. I hope that the morning shines a better light on my patch. I will post a picture of my plants in the morning when I have some light to work with. Saturday, May 25 View Page All my giant carrots dead Saturday, May 25 View Page All the mangels dead Saturday, May 25 View Page Some of the pumpkins dont look very good today Saturday, May 25 View Page The stem split on my 1288.5 looks to be healing up ok, I hope the rest of the plant will be ok. Saturday, May 25 View Page The 1799.5 Deletas stem split today. This is the before. Saturday, May 25 View Page Here is my attempt at healing it up. Ill check it in an hour or so. If it needs more support I will splint it with a stick and some zipp ties. Saturday, June 8 View Page My first femail showed up today out 10 feet. The marrows are taking off as well, and show good femail s all over. We are going to see some big fruit this year...... no cracks! Monday, June 17 View Page Happy Fathers day. I got to spend the day with the family helping in the pumpkin patch. We got all the weeding, pruning, and burring done. I added an o ring to one of my hydraulic skylight cylinders. It was leaking and making it hard for the water pressure to open it. It was an easy fix. Unfortunately I have one plant that has a problem. I will send in a tissue sample in the morning. It is the 1723 marshal too. The season is not over for this one if it comes back not being a virus. I can hope. All my pollinations will be done by the end of the week. For all the growers in the Pacific North West that got VERY early starts..... We will have to see how the season plays out. Monday, June 17 View Page The 1462.5 Starr that was eaten down to 1 leaf by the aphids has made an unbelievable comeback. She is over 14 feet long by 12 foot wide. She will set a pumpkin before the end of the week. All with no greenhouse to keep her warm. Had I only known that she would come back from that level of damage.... She could still be a contender! Wednesday, June 19 View Page High winds while I was at work. Lost a lot of root mass and 2 marrows. Good news is that I had my first set on the 1799.5 with a perfect 5 lobe. Oooo this is going to be a great cross. I sent in tissue samples to Western labs today. My 1723 D M is having some issue. I want to get it fixed asap. Wednesday, June 19 View Page My 87 2011 marrow is 4 times as big as it was yesterday. The plants are over 16 feet long. Happy little marrows. 150 pounds would be a great start. Wednesday, June 19 View Page The 1799.5 looking good, but will not survive the week, if the next one is a good 5 lobe. Set my 1288.5 today out about 17 feet. My 1246 will set in the morning, along with 8 marrows. Marrow pollen is in short supply around my place. One more 1288.5 and the 1723 to do, and the competition pumpkins will all be done. 2 weeks ahead of may best starts, and my latest germ in 5 years...... good singe. Thursday, June 27 View Page The stem on the second 1779.5 is 9" long. The fruit is bigger than a lemmon in 3 days. looks like a keeper. The pirst pumpkin on the 1799.5 stalled out about the size of a volly ball, and is 12 days old now. A few other nice fruits on the vine, but I think Ill keep thouse to myself for now. Friday, July 19 View Page Today is day 30 for my 1288.5 and we are at 388 pounds. I think she can do 500 by the end of the month. 500 in july 800 in Agust and 400 in September......1700lbs. that is a good dream to have. My 1246 is not that far behind. She has a few more days before day 30. Nice round and orange. Friday, July 19 View Page My 75 pound marrow split July 15. I glued it togeather and it is still growing, but the crack is getting worce not better. I have a few other good marrowns growing, so we will see. Sunday, July 28 View Page My 1288.5 is 308 inches at 44 days, and growing 32 lbs a day. My 1246 is not far behind. Looking to 700 to 750 by 8/1. My biggest on 8/1 to this point is 350 pounds. This nice summer is going to put Washington back on the pumpkin map. I would not be supprized if a Washington grower growes 1800 pounds this year.