Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 14 Entries. Wednesday, March 31 View Page Is it already pumpkin season? We're still on the ski hill for another 10 days....no garden prep whatsoever yet. Guess it'll have to wait until mid-April now. Sunday, April 25 View Page After 50 days on the hill, ski season is officially over and now pumpkin growing takes priority. Patch is tilled, nutrients put in and now just waiting to get some "Sky Rocket" compost when it comes available. Found out that rats love molasses - they chewed through my bucket in the shed and then proceeded to eat my patio cushions and other fish fertilizer containers. Sunday, May 2 View Page I've been trying to post to my diary using my Mac but it keeps saying I have "syntax" errors - not sure what that means or even if the postings have been successful. Anyway, in a nutshell I've had fun germinating 10 seeds (just from one of my old pumpkins) with all 10 germinating (using the baby wipe warmer) and now they're all up and growing under the lights. Some will be going to new homes, but the others will be joining the compost pile. I was hoping that I could get into the garden today to spread some cow poop and molasses and rototil, but that's been rain delayed. Thursday, May 20 View Page The season was almost over before it began - had a massive wind storm that toppled the hoop house (despite being secured with 4 patio bricks), which caused the heater to fall on the pumpkin plant. There was some serious pumpkin CPR happening at 4:00 am to save the plant - looks like the stem survived with one leaf casualty. With the high winds still happening, wondering what the exposed plant will be like after work. Hopefully the propping up with dirt and bamboo will stabilize it until the winds die down. Never did mention I'm growing the 1536 van Kooten this year. Thursday, June 10 View Page Not much to report due to the very poor spring we're having on the wet coast. The plant is growing slowly and hopefully will pick up with some sunnier weather forecasted for this weekend. Had to cut off a second main that was growing under the other - that's the biggest news lately! Saturday, June 19 View Page I wish I had pictures to post - the nicer weather has allowed the plant to take off - it has a ten foot main with some nice secondaries, a couple pumpkins have shown up and the first male flowers have opened. Amazing what a little bit of sunshine will do. I still have to get a load of compost so that I can top dress and bury vines - I've been buying bags as the plant grows, but that gets expensive. The only issues right now is the amount of weeds I'm battling this year - I've been scraping the top inch of the soil every couple days trying to unearth them. Plus I'm presently without a gate to my garden (the old one disintigrated) so my dogs keep wandering in to check out the plant. Let's hope the weather continues. Wednesday, June 23 View Page Looks lilke there will be some pollination happening in the next couple days - still a bit early, but nice to see. Tuesday, July 13 View Page I'm down to two pumpkins on the main vine - everything else has been culled off. Now it's just waiting a week or so to find out which one is growing the best. Did the first measurements today - 98 OTT (day 20) and 60 OTT (day 13). I have concerns about each - the larger is quite scuffed up from rubbing on a leaf and vine and it's close to the base, and the smaller has a bit of an indentation at the top of the pumpkin where it meets the stem - not sure if that could potentially be a weak spot that could be worrisome later on. Otherwise, the plant is healthy and filling out the entire patch nicely. Friday, August 6 View Page Have left the pumpkin in the husband's hands while away visiting family. It seems to be growing normally packing on the required daily gains with the good weather we've been having. Hoping August will bring warmer temps at night, though. Monday, August 9 View Page Getting a bit nervous being away from pumpkin so long - it's been 6 days with 6 more to go. No bad news from the husband - he's been given extra instructions to start spraying the blossem and stem ends with calcium, making sure the secondary vines are loose enough so there's no stress on the main (the pumpkin is growing away from the main onto it's blossom end) and putting a blanket on at night. No idea how big it is now - it was 300 on the 3rd and was averaging 23 lbs a day during the week before. Monday, August 23 View Page My pumpkin is now named "Jabba" as it's shape is like Jabba the Hut. You can't see it's blossem end at all - it's just spreading like a giant glob of goo. But... not putting on much weight during August - quite disappointing as its gains in July were normal then it just went downhill from there. It should be bigger than last year's disaster, but definately I'll still be waiting to grow my first 1000 pounder. What a hobby when you're disappointed with a potential 700-800 pound pumpkin - such silliness! Tuesday, September 28 View Page The 1536 baby I've been growing certainly won't be living up to it's predecesor, but it's still not too bad. Tough to tell the weight with it's strange shape - it's completely grown onto it's blossem end (sure hoping there are no blossem end split surprises waiting for me). I'm estimating around 800 lbs - at least that's what the measurement is saying. I think it's worthy enough to attend the Nanaimo weigh off this year, but it certainly won't be winning any awards. The patch is completely done - seems once September comes around, and work/school/after school activities begin again, the patch gets neglected. Plus after the giant wind storm pounded the north island, my giant sunflower broke it's bindings and fell on my pumpkin plant, taking out several vines and leaves. So it looks like the pumpkin is solely living on life support now. Good luck to everyone with weigh offs! May they all weigh heavy. Thursday, November 4 View Page So here's the final result... 941 pounds and second biggest I've ever grown. Patch is all put to bed for the winter and plans are already in the works for next season. Thursday, November 4 View Page Looks like the 941 had too much fun celebrating....