Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 97 Entries. Wednesday, January 30 View Page Trying to get some answers to strong seedlings. One thing I've learned is that in the future if someone says they are going to plant one of my seeds (not just want one) I'll include more than just 2 seeds in the envelope. These are seedlings from the same melon that was a 2010 controled cross. I would have been disappointed had I only gotten the 2 on the front right. They all popped within 24 hrs of each other. Wednesday, February 27 View Page Tired of re-doing my lineup so I took time to plant 15 acres of marginal land in loblolly pines and a few red, white and sawtooth oaks. 7500+ trees in 3 days. I may be able to harvest the pines in my lifetime. The grandkids will get the oaks. The sawtooth oaks are mainly for acorn production for the wildlife. Started pruning in the peach orchard today. With any luck I'll be done in 3 weeks and patch prep can begin. Monday, March 11 View Page Little miss Autumn and her first bite of watermelon. She sure doesn't take this fondness after her grandpa or mom. Five months old and 2 teeth. Wednesday, March 13 View Page After much deliberation I've decided to go ahead and start a couple of pumpkin seeds. I know it's way early But I thought I would try to take advantage of our earlier spring weather compared to the northern gang. I'll have to grow under similar conditions that most of the country does. I'll get my first experience with heating cables in conjunction with a mini-greenhouse, heat lamps etc. With a lot of luck I might be able to compete with the folks that go to the Indiana and Ohio state fairs in August. Any real advantage I get in weather & temps I may be giving up on seed selection. I've decided to plant a couple of squash half breeds. 806 Shymanski 10 (800* Neily X 1725 Harp) and 604.5 Cantrell 11 (1020* Jutras X 1161 Rodonis (clone off Sweet)). If I kill em early or I can't figure this out I've got time to start over. Sunday, April 14 View Page Starting the AG's today. If they all germinate this is the list. 1140 Finders 11, 1789 Wallace 11, 1756 Lancaster 12, 1730.5 Werner 12, 1770.5 Lieber 12, 1596 Werner 10, 949* Platte, 913 Boyce 11, and 1221.5 Robinson 12. Back-ups for those that don't pop, if any, will be some of my own crosses that could produce a greenie. Some of mine will go in another patch. Not such a good start for my melon season. Only about 50% germination so far but pleased to have a few good seeds that have popped. I'll list them when I've given up hope on the duds. Friday, April 19 View Page 100% on AG's. Thought the 1789 Wallace was a dud but it popped yesterday and should be showing its head soon. I tried 2 seeds on both the 178 Mudd and 252 Neptune with no luck. 3 seeds on both the 242 Carson and 245 Bartoli, so far no luck. The ones that are out of the dirt are 199 Mudd, 267 Edwards, 285 Edwards, 197 Leonard, 270 Neptune, 326 Bartoli, 165B Cantrell, 207 Cantrell, 199 Cantrell, 45 Cantrell, 144 Cantrell and 157 Bright 04. The 157 and 144 are the most aggressive so far. Friday, April 26 View Page Had a couple requests for an update on what is going on with the American Chestnut project. We have planted a second field with the same generation, different genetics, as last year's trees. The other site is being converted to a "seed orchard", the first in Tennessee and the 5th in the country. What that means is after the seedlings that are now being planted in that orchard are screened and culled the 12 remaining trees will be allowed to mature, open pollinate and collect seeds to reforest America. Friday, April 26 View Page Dr Hill Craddock, second from left, is showing a couple of county agents how to tell the difference between Chinese and American chestnuts. Friday, April 26 View Page Dr Craddock standing next to the tallest of this years seedlings. Not bad for a one year old tree. If we can get the pollinations to take in June there will be about 500 direct seeded this fall. Thursday, May 2 View Page Finally got warm enough to take the hoop houses off my fair plants. The 604 Cantrell is the more aggresive of the 2. Thursday, May 2 View Page The 806 Shymanski is just a little behind. Got the livestock panel windbreaks up again this year. They work better than anything I've tried. Thursday, May 2 View Page Pull off the hoops and they will come! Little does it know how short life is. Thursday, May 2 View Page Hope to get the melons planted before the next round of rain. I need to cull a plant or two. These are the same age, can you guess which one will not make it to the patch? It's my own dang fault. I had plenty of the 270 Neptune seeds (sorry Bill) and I pulled this one out of the pack. Next year I'll start multiples of each seed if possible and like I posted earlier, more seeds will go out in my packets. Sadly I had a similar problem with a 1789 Wallace (Freak). Yes I culled it. Actually pulled it out of the pot to see if I could tell what was going on. Turned out to be split below the soil surface right wher the roots attach and was deformed. I put the 1221.5 Robinson in it's spot. Had to, it is the most aggresive plant so far. Also all hope of a 242 Carson and 245 Bartoli in my patch have been given up. All duds. Saturday, May 18 View Page Not what I wanted to see 15 minutes after open on the first Saturday of strawberry season. EMPTY FIELD!!! Rained most of the morning and too wet to pick. Can't complain too much it's been a good week. Most all the ripe berries are getting picked and the sun will come out again. Saturday, May 18 View Page The rain does give me a chance to do a little diary work. I'm growing 4 plants toward a central point in 3 of my spots. All sibbs and a 50/50 chance of going green (if my theory is correct). The first female on each plant will determine its fate. Anything that doesn't produce a greenie at bloom will get yanked. If more than one sibb goes green, I'll have a good problem. In general my patch is behind. I need some sun and a little heat. No drip in place. No ground cover or sand on the melon patch. All vine are starting to run. Only 2 of 400+ peach trees have been thinned and I could use some rest too. ☺ I love the spring time. ☺ Saturday, May 18 View Page Wrong pic in the last post. Those are my red-neck wind breaks. These are the sibbs. Saturday, May 18 View Page Wrong again! Tuesday, May 21 View Page This will be my first attempt at long gourds. Being a tightwad I kicked around several plans to build a trellis as cheaply as possible. Then it occured to me that I had a couple of 10x10x6 ft dog kennels in the barn. Bingo bango, instant trellis and relatively easy to move to a new location next year. Hope it will hold up. The 2 plants I'm growing are 100.5 Berry 10 and 124.5 Jutras 12. Friday, May 24 View Page Had such a wet ad cool spring that I couldn't get the beds ready to plant the commercial melons this year. I finally transplanted the seedlings but they were so root bound that they never recovered. I tilled them under. With no commercial buffet the bugs only have one small diner left at which to find a meal. Sure am glad the systemics are working. A multitude of leaves look this way. My season could be over and I don't even know it yet. Found squash bugs yesterday also. Strange how 2 days ago there wasn't a sign of a bug. Friday, May 24 View Page Out of focus here but this is the 157 Bright 04. It and a 144 Cantrell are the most most aggresive. Hard to tell which is ahead. Even though all my plants seem to be behind the heat this week has made them jump. I had a casualty in patch 2 earlier this week with the sudden death of my 199 Mudd. A deer's foot took it out. Had a few LATE plants started for a ground cover experiment so I took the most aggresive of them and stuck it in. Another 144 Cantrell. Not that I don't like growing a lot of my own but I was really looking forward to seeing the Mudd, Neptune and Bartoli seeds going head to head this year. Maybe next year. Monday, May 27 View Page Woo Hoo!!! Pay day at the strawberry patch. Monday, May 27 View Page I know this is not his best angle but Mr Kent, Jessica and crew by to get their share of the berries. Nothing like seeing the kids leaving with smiles and red faces. He also came bearing a gift. It didn't take much arm twisting to get me to find a place to but his extra 274. Had to take it, the pot was full of that secret sand he uses. I'll do my best Chris. Sunday, June 2 View Page I'm heartbroke over this one. At 5+ feet it shows no sign of fixing itself. I'll let her go just to see what happens. Haven't had one that looked this bad before. Don't know if its called a ribbon, flat or double. I'll try it again next year if it's not a problem that everyone else is having with this seed. It has a world of potential, 1730.5 Werner Sunday, June 2 View Page This is not what I'm looking for in my squash project. It will grow into a pumpkin so this vine will get pulled. Sunday, June 2 View Page Now this is more like it!!! Sibb to the last one. I haven't had one that starts out green turn orange. There is a variation that is striped that will go orange and I'm sure I'll have a couple of those later. They've had a tendancy to be dark orange. If I don't get a greenie out of one of the other families I'll keep a stripey hoping for a HDA winner. Sunday, June 2 View Page Just in time. One of the long gourds got a hold of the trellis just before the winds got up. This is the 124 Jutras. The 100 Berry is about 6" behind. Sunday, June 2 View Page 157 Bright still leading the pack by a nose. A couple of sides are starting on most all the plants. Sunday, June 2 View Page 267 Edwards here is doing just fine. Finally got the cover and sand in place on the entire area for patch 1. Still have patch 2 to go. Sunday, June 2 View Page Hard to convince someone to grow a genetics cross when it's NOT a 250 pounder even though there are really good reasons that you put them together. Here's my 45 Cantrell 12 (267 Edwards x 285 Edwards) WATCH OUT! This plant is a week younger than most in the patch. Only one younger is a 199 Cantrell 12 (165B Cantrell x 267 Edwards). Found a female coming on the 207 at 2.5 ft but way too early. Monday, June 3 View Page Wanted to wait to be sure something wierd didn't/hadn't happen. Have had a bloom to die and not open that turned yellow but not this time. The first 891 Cantrell has been pulled leaving 3. Worse than having to pull this vine was that I found 7 squash bugs under the main. Sprayed 4 days ago, rain all day yesterday. I'm finding dead ones from the spray but I'm wondering where they are all coming from. Sprayed again tonight. Pissed some of them off, they started coming out from undr another 891. I may not pull the other culls right away,I might use them for bait and spray the bazzingas out of them. Hope I don't lose everything to YVD. Friday, June 7 View Page Couldn't take it any longer. It kept getting wider and wider so I yanked it. Now there is this big hole right in the middle of the field. I really wasn't pleased with where I had put the 274 Kent so it will get moved. I know it's late and melons don't like you tickling their feet but at least I know this spot is in better shape as far as ferts go. Planted a couple 23.25 Zappa sunflower seed for my first attempt at those. Thanks Lee. And I have a few tomatoes started for later in the season 5.08 Maston, Ciesielki and Delicious. I'm not much of a tomato grower but I'll do my best. Thanks guys. Saturday, June 8 View Page Strawberry season is all but over here at it's been a good year. This leaves a little more time to catch up on the patch before blackberries and peaches get here. Had a female open on one of my own 1051's. She started out as a stripey but not very dark...... WHAT'S THIS, I TYPED THE WORD STRIPEY AND IT GOT UNDERLINED.... Spell check? Thanks Ken!!! .....Back to the female. She had 5 lobes and 10 stripes. I assume 1 stripe for each half lobe. I'll be watching and counting. Doubt that it means a thing but who knows. I only have 1 other 1051 plant so if she doesn't throw a greenie I'll keep this plant to se if she can throw a HDA winner like her momma. I'll self her if she is the one just in case. Monday, June 10 View Page The attrition has commenced. Had heavy rain last night and this morning and went out to find the 1051 that had the stripey had succumbed to what I assume was bacterial wilt. No big surprise but it does leave me with only one 1051 no matter what color she produces. The Alias is still working it's just that there are so many bugs that the odds are not in my favor. Monday, June 10 View Page This is one of the three 891's left. For those of you that are not sure what you are looking at disregard the mud on the leaf edges. Pay close attention to the difference in the appearance in the 2 leaves on the right compared to the 2 on the left. Looks a little like flagging, heat stress or lack of water but remember the was immediately after a good rain. Monday, June 10 View Page This is the rest of the main. Notice the drooping and the yellowing. Yes, it's my first case of yellow vine disease of the season. I'm sure it won't be my last. This 891 had proven to produce yellow females but with YVD I won't keep it any longer for a bait plant. Now there are two 891's left. The good news is the little females on both remaining plants appear to be greenies. I very well may direct them both in parallel flag patterns and keep them both just in case. So far no squash bug sightings on the melons or long gourds. Tuesday, June 11 View Page Most of the melon plants in patch 1 have produced a female. The first ones always seem to be small and skinny, in the 1.7-2.1cm range. Sometimes they're deformed. Can't find much to complain about with this first female from the 157 Bright. Hope it's a sign of things to come. I figure I'm 2 weeks out before a keeper comes along. Plants are just too small but most of the plant are about equal in size now. Thursday, June 13 View Page It's not pulled just yet but this is on the 3rd 891. This one started out medium green with stripes and I was hoping it would stay green but nooo. Typical stripey. If number 4 goes stripey I may keep this one and grow it out. The female on plant 4 dried up so I'm waiting for another to confirm the color. Quite sure the female on the last 1051 is going to be yellow and if so I will pull it. That plant is in the worst location in the field. That leaves 8 plants that have a 50/50 chance of going green and that is very close to how it appears the are colored. Time will tell. Friday, June 14 View Page Tomorrow will be the day for this young girl. I told Jeremy wrong, sorry. I thought the first female was a stripey (went from memory) but this plant has only produced yellow females. She is still pretty. We'll see how she looks when it opens in the morning. It's on my most aggressive plant 1221.5 Robinson. Friday, June 14 View Page I've covered a couple of males on this plant to possibly pollinate the 1221.5 with in the morning. It's on my 604.5. The resulting cross would have a 25% chance of throwing a greenie but I'm a little concerned about it's light color. I'm not crazy about the real light greenies that this cross could produce that can be questioned as to which category they fit in. I have a couple plants with males ready that appear to be going to produce green fruit that may be a better fit for color. Friday, June 14 View Page This is the 806 Shymanski (800* Neily x 1725 Harp) and pollinated by the 604 Cantrell (1020* Jutras x 1161 Rodonis clone that produced 1725 Sweet). I like the color of this one. I'll get some measurements in a few days. Saturday, June 15 View Page I really struggled with which plant to use as a pollinator on the 1221.5 Robinson. I actually carried blooms from 2 plants to the female. A pair from the plant that produced this and a pair from the 604.5 Cantrell. Ultimately went with the 604. It may require planting more seeds from this cross next year to get a greenie but I really like the genetic package. I did a little patch clearing by eliminating the 3rd 891 that produced that nice stripey a couple of days ago which leaves the last one and it is green. Pulled the last 1051 which was in a terrible spot but it was going yellow so I lightened my load. Lastly I pulled a sib to the photo plant which are 386 Cantrell 10 (841 Turner x 1221.5* Werner). 3 of 4 are going green and I my be able to turn one into an open spot if I don't decide to lighten my load a little more. Thursday, June 20 View Page Sprayed weeds this morning with a contact herbicide around the edges of the melon patch and this wasn't there. The stump is in the clump at 12 o'clock. First thought was a rat must have done it but there wasn't any dirt piled up at the entrance. Actually it wasn't an entrance. Friday, June 21 View Page Found tracks from a deer 12 feet from the plant with the damage. At the last second it must have been afraid to cross the sand because it veered sideways planting all 4 hooves within 18 inches of the stump of the 165B. It's just about time to look for potential keepers in patch 1. Friday, June 21 View Page Long gourds have reached the top. Hmmm, now what? I have no idea when to set fruit. I've taken several off of the sides. I'll get it figured out. Got several pollinations to do in the morning. 2 kin, 1 squash and possibly 4 melons Sunday, June 23 View Page I guess the inbreeding was just too much. The focus is bad but you can see how all the males look on my 1770 Lieber. I haven't pulled the plant just yet. There is a female set that was pollinated by a squash and I've been pulling plants left and right. I'd like to get something to a weigh-off. Only one vine left without a pollinated female. It's the 1140 Finders. Had a 3 lober on it but chose to wait for the next one. It looks like it will be here in less than a week. Also been pollinating a few melons. Decided to self the 157 Bright a couple days ago. I hope this one sticks. Wednesday, June 26 View Page Found a vine on this plant with early signs of YVD. Cut it out and kept my fingers crossed but it didn't work. Many vine ends showed signs last night of the curse. I know 10 day measurements don't mean much but they help me decide which on to keep and this one was my largest ever at 35.5 in circumference. The plant got air blasted with a strong dose of bifen to knock down any hidden squash bugs and it will get pulled today. Sure would like to have seen how this 1221.5 Robinson finished. Wednesday, June 26 View Page 806 Shymanski here. I've wondered over the years battling YVD if some plants have some resistance. This is one of my fair plants that showed it on the last 2-3 feet of the main. I cut it off along with 3 good feet of vine and so far no more signs. Growth has not slowed which normally happens. I had a couple squash vines a couple years ago that never totally succumbed to the disease but I never got a fruit to set on them. I blamed the disease but maybe it was inbreeding or something else. Since then I just started pulling the plants to help eliminate the spread. Just couldn't do it to this former stripey as she shows the early dark color that should go TENNESSEE ORANGE. Wednesday, June 26 View Page No matter how many vines get pulled or pumpkins split there are things that make all the little disappoints go away. Wednesday, June 26 View Page Let's get caught up on the squash project. This is the oldest female on my 386 Cantrell 10 pollinated by 894 Cantrell 12. 8 days. Used this plant to pollinate 1770 Lieber. Wednesday, June 26 View Page Here's the 959* Platte 09. According to Joe the sibs to this plant produced dark fruit. I've crossed it with the 806 Shymanski which is producing the darker pumpkin a few posts back. If everything goes as I hope this cross should produce dark green or orange. Only time will tell. Used this plant on the 1596 Werner. Wednesday, June 26 View Page Second try here on my 894 Cantrell 12. Pollinated by the 891 Cantrell 12 again. The next female will get something different just in case these two don't like each other. I wouldn't think it should make a difference but who knows. Used this plant on the 1756 Lancaster. Wednesday, June 26 View Page This is the last greenie and it's the 891 Cantrell 12. Used the 386 Cantrell 10 on her. The plan is to use this plant on the 1140 Finders when the time comes. For the record I planted 14 plants which I thought had a 50% chance of producing a greenie. 6 went green, 8 showed stripey or yellow. Friday, June 28 View Page Spoke too soon. 806 Shymanski is done. 10 pounds yesterday and zero today. Thought this secondary looked suspicious yesterday morning and this is how she looked this morning. Strange how it affects plants differently. The 1221 showed symptoms over the entire plant while this one is moving back down from the main tip. Friday, June 28 View Page On a secondary back from the pumpkin the tip shows no sign. This plant will get to survive another day or 2 so I can do a back-up pollination. Sadly my last fair pumpkin looks suspicious on a couple of tips today. I need about 6 more days for it to reach that 40 day mark when I've been able to get viable seeds. Friday, June 28 View Page Final estimate weight 279. Sorry Mr. Shymanski. Friday, June 28 View Page Some research indicates that squash bugs may search out a less preferred food source (watermelons)or a hiding place up to 120 days prior to cold weather if no food source is available. With that in mind and the rate at which I'm pulling vines I've decided to start some AG's for a bait crop. I'll simply plant them where the others were. I've also wondered if you can direct plant the seeds in such a manner as to get the first true leaf on the side that you want it. It would make life easier in a genetics/commercial patch to direct seed and control vine direction. Sunday, June 30 View Page Patch 2 from front to back 285 Edwards, 207 Cantrell, 326 Bartoli, and 144 Cantrell. The 2 Cantrell's are the younger replacements. Just now starting to get a few females in this patch. As a group the females are larger than the early ones in patch 1. Sunday, June 30 View Page I've been reluctant to post any pictures of patch 2 recently. The plants look pitifully yellow. I was following my fertilizing and spray program and I was totally puzzled. Three days ago the light bulb came on that some how in my feeble old mind I thought this patch was 1500 sq. ft. and I had been fertilizing accordingly all season. WRONG! 2800 and they were starving to death. Quick dose of liquid ferts injected, a foliar and they're green again. Hope I haven't stunted them too much. Friday, July 5 View Page 1756 Lancaster is my fastest out of the gate so far. She must like wet feet. Friday, July 5 View Page 959* Platte I hope I can keep this one to the end. I like it's early color. Friday, July 5 View Page Not bad color here either. I think I'll double the sheet coverings to see if keeping some of the extra sun off these greenies will help them keep growing. Don't have a good set on the 894 or 891 yet. I'll try making different crosses to see if that makes a difference. Plants are huge. Still no sign of a set on 1140 Finders or 1770 Lieber and both are foaming. Never had a foamer that didn't have a fruit and deadheaded vines. Not sure how much longer I'm going to battle them. Friday, July 5 View Page 165B Cantrell - Plant #1 By far this is the most disappointing year in several!!! I like my line-up but I can't get my patch to look worth a flip. Friday, July 5 View Page 165B Cantrell Plant #2 Don't know what it is. I've never grown in so much wet ground. Soil has good drainage but not enough I'm afraid. Could be something I don't see like nematodes. Maybe too much spraying but I'm afraid not to. Friday, July 5 View Page 157 Bright Not real pleased with the neck on this one but it's the best one I've been able to set so far. That's another issue. I've had the fewest females in both patches that I can remember. Actually looks like I'll be keeping an open pollinated one on a different plant. Saw it after it opened and haven't been able to get another good set to grow faster than it is. Doesn't matter much as all gains are multiple days behind previous years. I've had about all I can tolerate of the rain. Seriously checking into a greenhouse for next year. Should help keep out the bees and bugs. Sunday, July 14 View Page Time for a pumpkin update. Still trying to get a set on 2 plants. Had heat issues early but things look promising. Pollinated everything I could find for 3 days in cooler weather. Some have aborted and some look good. I'll show them later if anything sets. We'll go from youngest to oldest. 913 Boyce here with blossom issues that concerned me but it's dry now. Plan is to carve away the bad and treat it with fungicide. 15 day ott 129 Sunday, July 14 View Page 959* Platte Day 18 Est 129. A little concerned about the development of ridges so early but I love the color. Sunday, July 14 View Page 1756 Lancaster My first flat one! Day 20 est 147 Sunday, July 14 View Page 386 Cantrell day 21 est 123. Small plant that needs some help. Been afraid to ad much N but I think it's got to happen soon. Sunday, July 14 View Page 1596 Werner day 26 est 316 Showing more color than I thought it might. Sunday, July 14 View Page 604 Cantrell Day 42 est 602 No competition for Indy here but I'll send in the papers anyhow just in case. If it keeps growing I may haul her to Alabama. Patch 1 of the watermelons are pathetic!!! Made a major change in managing the fertilizing. Don't think I can recover the missed gains but I'm giving it a shot by adjusting back to last years schedule. 30% drop is a bunch. I'm not convinced it's ferts, could be nematodes. Thursday, July 18 View Page Another one bites the dust. 959 Platte Saturday, July 20 View Page Well this isn't the way I wanted to start the weekend. Don't know if this means I'm getting better or worse at growing these things. Maybe just bad luck. I'm going to leave it on the vine in hopes the seeds will mature a bit more but it could turn into a buffet for mice. It's the 959 Platte Sunday, July 21 View Page Been a hard weekend on the patch. No gain from Friday to Sunday. Sure sign of doom. Entire plant yellow not just a vine or two. It took a few days to get the normal YVD look but it's there. Final est at 28 days is 259 on the 386 Cantrell. Probably not much of a chance of sound seeds. Sunday, July 21 View Page Thought the bad luck was over and then the storms came. Found out stacked dog kennels don't work as a trellis. Going to miss these guys. Had a couple in the 6' range. To ad salt to the wound they collapsed onto my giant sunflowers. Yep they're flat. The wind played havoc with the 4 melon plants closest to the trellis. They also look rough. I'll weigh my options as to whether or not to pull them or leave them. Hoping Monday brings good surprises. Friday, July 26 View Page Can't remember ever taking so long to make a decision on which one to cull but my final keeper has been chosen. I went with a controlled cross over this open one. This is off the 326 Bartoli. Estimated weight was 53 pounds and actual was 53 pounds. Pretty good chart! Melon patch still under performing, check that, I'm under performing. So far I'm ok with how the pumpkins are doing. I have chosen to grow a squash on it's blossom end which will most likely turn into another disaster but it appears to be an extreme wheel in early growth and it's my only hope on that plant. Monday, August 5 View Page Another good trip to the Ohio State Fair and a Howard Dill Award. It was only big enough to take second place but with the way my season is going I'm thrilled. Estimated weight was 755 but it went 20% heavy. I like squash crosses! It's now officially known as 907.5 Cantrell 13. It was grown on a 604.5 Cantrell 11 (1020* Jutras 09 x 1161 Rodonis 07 (DeBacco clone))and pollinated by a 806 Shymanski 10 (800* Neily x 1725 Harp). The 806 was doing great and was going to be really orange with great shape until YVD took it out. This cross should produce an occasional squash, that's my goal. Rumor has it that if all goes well Ray Villafane will be carving her next weekend at Indy. Sunday, August 11 View Page Fortunate to get one to another weigh-off. Third place at the Indiana State Fair. 669.5 Cantrell 13 grown on 1756 Lancaster 12 and pollinated with 894 Cantrell 12. 14% heavy. Unless things change I won't be able to grow this cross as it looks as though it is going to Hong Kong to be carved by Ray Villafane in late August. I hope to post his carving of the 907 after he completes it today. Tuesday, August 13 View Page Didn't know Ray was doing a carving of me! Wednesday, August 14 View Page Don't let downy mildew ruin your season too. Best pic I've seen of earliest signs is in Frank & Tina's diary. http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=180757 Mine is much more advanced. I've been too hard headed to get help in diagnosing it so I'm paying the "stupid tax" again this year. More pics to follow. Wednesday, August 14 View Page I got 2 of my county agents out and they both agreed that they were quite sure that it is downy. Ohhhh but I still wanted to argue with them. They took samples and sent photos to the state lab where they said-- Wednesday, August 14 View Page No need to send them in it's downy. Saturday, August 17 View Page Ouch!! All I needed was one more week till Cullman and I might have had a real shot at our state record of 1078, possibly a HDA also. This is the 1596 Werner. I really thought hard about taking it to Indy but it was still gaining and the other one had stopped. You can see some discoloration just below the captan and it goes into the center. I'll cut it open and get a good look tomorrow. I've got to know how thick it is. Estimated weight was 1045. Saturday, August 17 View Page She had a good shape and was pollinated by the my dark green 959* Platte. Hope I get at least a few good seeds. Speaking of seeds, anyone got a spare 1596 Werner? It was the fastest and most consistent gainer that I've ever had. Thank again Quinn!! Sunday, August 18 View Page Started to just harvest the seeds but curiosity got the best of me. Made a couple calls and set up some portable livestock scales to get an unofficial weight. According to the owner they're within 5 lbs. of the stockyard scales so that's good enough for me and my damaged kin. The scales read 1160 so that's what I'll call her. Sunday, August 18 View Page I'm pleased with the wall thickness. Sunday, August 18 View Page I did the plywood and mill fabric thing underneath, the bottom was flat and without any visible signs of damage. I wonder if there is a modification that can be made to keep the bottom solidly attached. The worst separation is where it rotted through at about 9 o'clock but there is a complete ring where it partially cracked from the weight, I assume. My wife might have been more disappointed in this one going down than I was. The way I figure it even though it didn't get to a weigh-off, with more effort and attention to details I should be able to grow a good one in the south. Thursday, August 22 View Page This is not pumpkin related. I wish I could get these barn swallows to catch squash bugs and cucumber beetles. Normally we have a 100ish around here after the little ones leave the nest and thankfully no mosquitoes. Thursday, August 22 View Page They must be migrating because today there was a minimum of a thousand on the wires and a few hundred flying around. Never know what you might see on the farm. Sunday, August 25 View Page Took my last 2 AG's to Cullman, AL. It was hard to make my truck cross the border into enemy football territory but it made it with no ill effects. Trent Boyd and the rest of the Alabama crew did a great job pulling off their first weigh-off and Trent took first place. I managed to luck into 3rd place with the 913* Boyce. It will be known as the 615 Cantrell 13 (913* Boyce 11 x 1221.5* Robinson 12). I actually did the pollination on this plant a couple days after pulling the 1221. Had a couple males that were going to open on the pulled plant so I used them. I like this cross and 25% should go green. Should also make for some nice orange ones. Sunday, August 25 View Page Took this one to Cullman because it was the last one in the patch and it allows me to nuke the patch with a heavy dose of insecticides to try and kill any escaped squash bugs or nymphs prior to renovation for the winter. The good news is it was 20% heavy and it went green as predicted! Grown on a 894 Cantrell 12 and it weighed 446 pounds. When harvested it was gaining approx 6 lb a day. Now the bad news. There were NO SEEDS. It was plenty old enough. The plant I used to pollinate it with never set a fruit (891 Cantrell). Never got a pollination to stick on the 891 nor did I get another plant to set a fruit pollinated by the 891. Just makes me wonder. The 894 was used to pollinate 2 other plants. One went to China and I have no idea if it had good seeds and another went down to YVD with a young fruit which I'm not too sure has viable seeds but some look ok. There is a small fruit on the 894 on a side vine that was recently open pollinated which may cause me to delay eliminating the plant just for a learning experience. I'm curious to see if I might get good seeds which might indicate just a pollinator problem. Sunday, August 25 View Page Melon patch 2 is done. I decided to take the 2 largest to Cullman even though it was going to be embarrassing. I sure didn't do the seeds justice this year. This is the first one to be weighed in. It's a 144 Cantrell and, for it's length, it's probably the tallest I've ever had. Wt 129. Sunday, August 25 View Page This was the larger of the 2. It weighed in at a whopping 138. Grown on a 326 Bartoli and crossed to the 144 in the previous post. I wasn't too excited about this seed but even though it has been abused in my patch, this plant had some qualities that I liked. It's possible I could put another in the patch next year or even a seed from this one. This is the only melon that I'll save a few seeds from out of this patch. The rest will hit the dumpster today and patch renovation begins. No pic but I entered my first long gourd ever. I managed to find one growing on the outside of my collapsed trellis that measured 72.63 in. LG's have found a spot in my patch for next year. Very enjoyable to grow! Wednesday, August 28 View Page I was cleaning up the patch and I had NO intention of harvesting seed from a couple of melons that quit growing early due to my screw-ups. At the last minute I decided to at least cut them open and one had the usual void and then there was this. Now comes a whole new group of questions. Is it solid because it quit growing early although its neighbors were not that much older? Genetics? If it's genetic how many genes have to be there to get it solid? Did one of my screw-ups cause this? Etc. Etc. Now do I keep seeds with hopes it can go big and solid? Do I plant multiples of the same mother seed in hopes of going large AND getting a solid one? Hmmm Monday, September 2 View Page Well I'm no tomato grower either. This was my first semi-attempt at growing a giant one. Hard to read but it was 2.00 pounds. Grown on a 5.08 Maston. Thanks for the seeds Duke. I was thrilled with the way it grew with virtually NO care. I'll give them a better go next year, still have a couple Maston seeds left. Still have a couple tomato plants going but nothing huge set. Tuesday, September 17 View Page I waited on nuking the 894 squash plant to hopefully see if it would produce solid seed and it did. It makes me wonder how one fruit can have no solid seeds in one fruit on the same plant. To me it indicates a pollinator problem. Wednesday, September 25 View Page The season is done for me. Got to see several old friends and made a few new ones at the weigh-offs this year. No new PB to the scales in the watermelon or AG classes but I learned a lot once again. Still plenty of questions yet to get answered like the one this melon re-triggered. How is it that this melon had so little air and many of the others on the same line of drip-tapes had more than their share? This one is closely related to the solid melon I had in a previous post. It was cut open a minimum of 5 weeks after its stem died. It was weighed on 9/3 and still very little air. It's now the 169 Cantrell 13 (157 Bright 04 x Self). Unofficially I taped it at 151 lbs. at weigh-off time. It was not measured at the weigh-off. I used this plant to pollinate my best melon of the year which is now the 188 Cantrell 13 (199 Cantrell 12 x 157 Bright 04). It's seldom works out that you can get the 2 largest crossed when you have 12 plants. I'll give them both a chance in the future. Tuesday, December 31 View Page Happy New Year!