Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 51 Entries. Friday, March 26 View Page Sure had a good time in Niagara. Thanks to the Wiz and Biz for letting me tag along. Friday, March 26 View Page My new toy for 2010 is hail netting for the patch. Trying to avoid the disaster of 2009 from ever happening again (http://denverpumpkins.com/2009/07/pumpkin-season-is-done-for-me.html). If anyone is looking for some good hail netting at a cheap price contact me. I've got a great source. Friday, March 26 View Page Testing out a new seed starting setup in my basement closet this year. Out of the picture, at the bottom of the shelves, is a space hitter with a thermostat. For seed starting I set the thermostat to 80 degrees and then for a top hot source I had the florescent bulbs above the pots. The pots were at about 90 degrees and all the seeds germinated and popped through the soil quickly. I am somewhat concerned about having enough wattage for the plants. 80 watts with the two fluorescents and another 28 watts with each CFL bulb per plant. Is that enough? Friday, March 26 View Page I'm always afraid with a post like this that I will leave someone out, but I would like to thank Eddy, Bill, Paul, Christie & Nick, Dan, Thad, Jim and all of the growers of the RMGVG for their kindness in sharing seeds with me this winter. So many good seeds and so few spots to plant them in. Thanks again to everyone! Friday, March 26 View Page Unless I change my mind again this is my 2010 seed lineup. I'm hoping come September that I look back on this list and realize that I made some good choices. After last season's hail I'm really looking forward to having something big go to scale. Thursday, April 15 View Page Tilled in 17 pounds of gypsum, 2 pounds of epsom salts, 2 pounds magnesium sulphate, 35 pounds alfalfa meal, 20 pounds of PAM, rye grass and 3.5 yards of 3-year-old composted cow manure into the patch this morning. The soil tilth has improve a lot since last spring. Monday, April 19 View Page started soaking my seeds last Monday and Wednesday and now the pumpkin plants are 4-6 days old since the germinating process began. To the right is a picture of all of the plants except for the 1019. 1316 and 1129 are the biggest so far, but the 1528 is on par with those two even though it is two days younger. 1161 is a bit small and the 1236 has those funny crinkled leaves. The weather here in Denver is beautiful so I decided to let them all do a little sunbathing today. Wednesday, May 12 View Page Growing in Colorado can certainly have its challenges. Monday, May 17 View Page This is a picture of the 1161 Rodonis. The main is growing nicely now and I hope for it to be on the ground and running in the next week or so. Monday, May 17 View Page This is the 1236 Harp. Nothing seems to bother this plant. Sun, clouds, cold or hot it is always the same. Not the fastest grower so far but very steady. Sunday, May 23 View Page 1161 Rodonis looking pretty good. I'm easily ahead of where I was at last year at this time. Sunday, May 23 View Page Opps. This is the 1161 Rodonis. Last pic was of the 1236 Harp. Tuesday, June 1 View Page 1161 Rodonis is growing nicely right now. It will be out of the hoop house by the end of the week. The pop bottle is a CO2 generator. Tuesday, June 1 View Page 1236 Harp main is about 4 feet long right now. It is a touch behind in growth to the 1161 but seems happy. Tuesday, June 8 View Page Hurray...Got the hail netting up... Tuesday, June 8 View Page ...trying to overt last year's disasters... Tuesday, June 8 View Page ...The 1161 seems to be liking the 14% shade... Tuesday, June 8 View Page ...and the 1236 says it has daddies genes and is ready to grow big this year! Friday, June 11 View Page Big hail in Denver again. It came down for probably 10-15 minutes. Hail netting held strong however. 1161 got it a bit where the wind took the hail under the netting. Don't know the full damage yet but the season would be almost over without the netting. Friday, June 11 View Page Hail in the netting. Most of the hail bounced off to the side which is what I designed it to do. Friday, June 11 View Page The 1236 has maybe 10 small holes in the leaves but came through nearly perfectly fine. The 1161 got hit pretty good on the right hand side. Left hand side was untouched. The main didn't seem to be effected. It will slow down this plant some but I'm guessing it will be fine. It is the Phoenix. I read a report two years ago where they fired ice at pumpkin plants to similate hail at different points of the season. The plants hit early season actually had high yields and greater average weights than the control plants and plants hit later in the season. Hope that proves true for me. I could do just fine without hail. Friday, June 11 View Page Kids plant without protection didn't fair very well. Tuesday, June 22 View Page The 1161 is growing nicely. Have my eye on the female under the red chair. It is going to grow big. Tuesday, June 22 View Page It looks like the 1236 is going to produce orange pumpkins. The recently pollinated pumpkin has a lot of dark yellow in it. Will be pollinating another female under the green chair at 15' in the next three days. Thursday, July 1 View Page Happy Canada from the 1236 Harp. Thursday, July 1 View Page 1161 Rodonis. Two pollinations on it so far. I'm watching the pollination at 13'. Pumpkin still hasn't laid down after three days but it has a thick stem on it so that might just be holding it up. Saturday, July 10 View Page The patch seems happy after 1 3/4 inches of rain during this last week. Saturday, July 10 View Page This is the 1236 Harp. The picture doesn't show the dark yellow that this pumpkin has right now. It will diffently carry the dark red color of the 998. Grew 3 inches last night. I think it might have it's papa in it. Only 1705 pounds left to go! Lol Regardless of how it does, thanks for the seed Nick & Christy. Friday, July 16 View Page The Biz asked me to post a picture of my pumpkins in my diary last night. Biz--if it is to big to see it in your rear view mirror look out your side window and I'm sure you'll get a pretty good view. Did I mention that the 1236's papa was a World Record Breaker? Sunday, July 18 View Page A little over a week ago I started noticing a little browning on the edges of some of the older leaves. The weather has been in the 90s so it only suprised me because I have the misters running and I wouldn't expect much burn under 14% shade cloth. Then I noticed some of the leaves dulling a few days later and within a day or two the leaves would be turning brown and then soon dead. When the leaf gets to the very last stage the leaf stem turns yellow but is still firm. At first I thought it might be bacterial wilt but after doing some tests suggested by other growers that doesn't appear to be the case. Both of my plants have this but the 1161 seems a touch worse. It definetly appears to be fungal. If you have any ideas on what it is or what I should do any help would be greatly appreciated. The picture of the leaf is pretty typical of what I see in the 2nd to last stage. I'm losing about 10 leaves a day right now. Thursday, July 29 View Page Now there is no comparison between my pumpkin and the 1725, but a few days ago I was walking past the 1236 Harp and I could see it's daddy in it. I took a picture, photoshoped it with the 1725 on top of it and outside of the bigger shoulders on the 1725 the two pumpkins perfectly match up in shape. Genetics is a wonderful thing. Thursday, July 29 View Page 1236 From the back side a few days ago. Thursday, July 29 View Page The backside on the 1161 scares me a little. Friday, July 30 View Page It's GROWING... Friday, July 30 View Page and Growing... Friday, July 30 View Page ...and growing. Just wish it would grow even more. But not to much more. Just more than the Biz. And the Wiz. And Joe. And Shenfish. And don't forget Pete. Not to much more than Pete because he is giving me the secret sause. And of course Greg. Put Adam in there as well. He and his dad are going to grow big this year. Not sure if Madman is growing this year. You out there Madman? Give me a shout. Grow em BIG! Friday, July 30 View Page I'm liking the shoulders on that 1236. Might go heavy. Mama and papa were heavy. If this pumpkin holds together and keeps growing it will be named RedemptionBoy. I think I could use a little love after last year. The 1161 will be called LarryBoy. Larry is a kid that is the same age as my son that was nearly 30 pounds at 8 months old. At 4-years-old he has slimmed down but still a whole head taller than my son and wearing clothes for a kid 1 1/2 years older. I'm trying to figure a way to cross him with my pumpkins. Friday, July 30 View Page Biz - don't you wish you knew if those last pumpkin pictures were from a week ago or two days ago? When they put on the pounds like they do this time of year a few days makes growth makes a BIG difference. Sunday, August 8 View Page It was great seeing everyone at the patch tour. Thanks for coming by the Johnson patch! Tuesday, August 17 View Page This is a picture of the 1236 Harp. I can't believe how gnarly looking this thing has started to become since the patch tour. It has been a very consistent grower up until the last couple of days. For some reason it found a new gear lately and it has actually started to slightly increase in daily gains lately. It is probably the extra watering and fertilizing I've been doing (i.e. grower has finally gotten out of the way of the plant's genetic potential--thanks for the tips Wiz, Biz and Thad). The 1161 has also been a fairly consistent grower but in the last two weeks has made slight gains on the 1236. It use to regularly be 16 inches behind the 1236 and now it is 10 inches behind and like I said before the 1236 hasn't slowed down. This plant has some challenges though. The stump rot has slowed down but hasn't gone away. Monday, August 23 View Page This is a picture of the 1236 Harp. Still packing on the pounds each day. Tuesday, August 24 View Page I was walking by the patch, heading into the house and caught a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. Turns out it was more than a flash. Found this 69.5 pound pumpkin growing on the 1236 Harp plant. It was a sneaky bugger. I have a silt fence that goes around the patch and along the back fence the silt fence overlaps where once piece of fence ends and another piece begins. The vine had gotten between the two fences and this pumpkin had been growing there, probably for weeks. That means the main pumpkin (RedemptionBoy) may have lost a potential 69.5 pounds in the last few weeks. The good news is that this pumpkin was heavy to the charts. A lot heavy. 13% heavy! If the RedemptionBoy was anything close to 5% heavy I would be thrilled (and suprised) but 13% would be fantastic. Saturday, September 18 View Page The 1236 Harp one week from going to the scales. This pumpkin was crossed with the 1161 Rodonis. Saturday, September 18 View Page The 1161 Rodonis. Hopefully getting some blessings from heaven. This pumpkin was crossed with the 1544 Revier. Should be a great seed but we will know a little more in two weeks. Saturday, September 18 View Page Forget about KDL Pete and Biz. What I've been giving my 1161 has made it so dense that it has become a black hole. Monday, September 27 View Page Congrats to my children on setting a new state record and getting first place with their 208 pound pumpkin grown from the 1129 Orleck. Their pumpkin was a very nice looking, almost dark orange pumpkin that with almost no ribbing. It was crossed the 1161 Rodonis. The pumpkin didn't have a leaf left on it after a big hail storm in June but my kids kept taking care of it and the fruit of the labors showed. Monday, September 27 View Page Bitter/sweet day for me at Jared's weigh-off this last Saturday. The 1236 was a personal best but went 15% light. Didn't see that coming. It is a good looking pumpkin however that is now the 820 Johnson (1236 Harp x 1161 Rodonis. Pumpkin #2 goes to the scale this Saturday. Monday, September 27 View Page If anyone is interested in seeds from the 820 Johnson (1236 Harp x 1161 Rodonis) please shoot me an email. Saturday, October 2 View Page Great day for a weigh-off again today. Again a bit bitter/sweet but a new personal best from the 1161 Rodonis. This pumpkin is now the 868 Johnson (1161 Rodonis x 1544 Revier). I'm going to grow this seed next year. This 1161 had more to give this year and I wish I had the seed to grow it all over again. Stump rot, leaf fungus and a grower's lack of time got in this pumpkin's way. The 1544 pollinator came from Joe Scherber and was a beast of a plant whose pumpkin was blowing away everything else in Joe's patch (even his pumpkin that gave him his new personal best) until it went down with disease. If anyone would like some seeds please send me an email. Saturday, October 2 View Page The 868 Johnson going to the scales. Saturday, October 2 View Page New personal best. 868 Johnson (1161 Rodonis x 1544 Revier).