Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 37 Entries. Friday, March 12 View Page Year 2: I've learned so much over the past few months...I know I'm way better off this year compared to my first year of growing giant pumpkins! I was able to plant my first pumpkin seeds on March 10...I just can't Duchess get a head start on me. I would love to have a pumpkin to take to my local fair. I hope to be able to bring a pumpkin to the state fair this year...Can't wait to see what mo_pumpkins and duchess are able to do...Good Luck All! Pictures will be online soon! Tuesday, April 20 View Page My Line up for this year is the 988 foss, the 1091 foss, the 625 Lavigne. For a first time grower last year I had great luck with the Foss seeds, every one that I planted came up and i started them directly in the garden. This year i'm starting them indoors and moving them outside. So far everything is looking great! The 988 foss is growing like CRAZY! Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here is the 988 foss just over a day old! Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here is the 988 foss after a couple days in my low tunnel. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here is a pic of my full garden view you can see my low tunnels in the back. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here are my three low tunnels i have tomatoes and peppers growing in the larger low tunnel and i have my 988 foss and my 625 lavigne growing the the other two tunnels. Tuesday, April 20 View Page This year i have added a root cellar and a 55gallon compost tea brewer to my farm, here is a pic of me digging the hole for my root cellar. I have dug a hole and placed an old fridge in the ground. I still need to cut my vent hole in the fridge and finish burying it with soil. I'll have more pics of my compost tea setup and my finished root cellar. Also i'll keep everyone informed on how my root cellar does for storing vegies!. Friday, April 30 View Page Stormed last night blew my low tunnels all over hell. We had 60-70mph wind gusts and 50mph sustained winds! Plus hail but the plants are still looking fine, they blew around a bit but should be back to normal in a day or two hopefully this will just make them a bit hardier. Pics will be posted after this weekend. Tuesday, May 18 View Page 988 foss: It's been cool, damp but not windy which has been nice. The 988 foss has been doing very well i see some male flowers starting to emerge. This pic was taken on Sunday evening. Plant is looking great at the moment. I just took the low tunnel off of the plant, it is supposed to be in the 90's by this weekend Tuesday, May 18 View Page Sry i posted to wrong pic Here is the plant on May 16 2010 Tuesday, May 18 View Page 625 Lavigne: I started these seeds a little later than my 988 foss, I'm hoping to get a pumpking for my county fair in late July with the foss is i do great if not that is okay by me. The 625 Lavigne is not quit as aggressive of a grower as the foss but this plant still looks great. Just for reference the 988 foss was crossed with 1428 Riever x 1428 Riever Wednesday, May 26 View Page Here is the 988 Foss. He has his first male flower blooming today. The first female which is 6.5 feet out will bloom tomorrow but I will cull that one and probably the next one at 8 feet. I'm hoping to get one set around 12 feet next week! Wednesday, May 26 View Page The lavigne started to vine out yesterday. It has some real nice big bright green vines! Wednesday, May 26 View Page The patch as of May 26...pumpkin plants growing and starting to bloom should start seeing some orange next week! Thursday, May 27 View Page Several more flowers are blooming today...The plants look great this weather is just perfect for them! 10 day forecast highs in the mid 80's lows in the low 60's if that isn't perfect growing weather I don't know what is! Look out Duchess I think we're going to see the first 1000lb pumpkin in Kansas....Too bad it's going to be grown in my patch! Wednesday, June 2 View Page was looking at my plants today and noticed that i had my diary labeled wrong. The Lavigne plant was culled the 1091 foss is my second plant. Wednesday, June 2 View Page The 988 foss and 1091 foss are growing extremely well at the moment. The 988 foss will have it's second pumpkin Blooming tomorrow. The 1091 foss had a male flower blooming today and we are supposed to get rain tonight so i picked the male flower and will try cross pollinating it tomorrow! Friday, June 4 View Page Last night the main vine broke at 12.5 feet i have 3 pumpkins on it at 8, 10 and 12.5 feet. The 8 and 10 foot ones have been pollinated. I'm hoping that i can get the one at 12.5 pollinated. Does anyone have any suggestions on what i should do? Should i keep the pumpkins on my main or try to start some on the secondaries? Friday, June 4 View Page 988 foss flower at 8 feet on Monday June 1 Friday, June 4 View Page 988 foss June 1 before main broke grew 4 more feet Friday, June 4 View Page Patch one June 1 Friday, June 4 View Page 988foss Friday, June 4 View Page 988 foss Friday, June 4 View Page patch on june 1 Monday, June 7 View Page pollinated the first female pumpkin on the 1091 foss at 7.5 feet with the 988 foss male. This one has an oblong shape to it. We will cull this pumpkin but i wanted to see what it looks like as it grows. Thursday, June 10 View Page 1st pumpkin on the 988foss 22 in circ on day 10. Not bad was hoping for 25 inch but i am still planning to cull this pumpkin. 2nd female pollinated Friday June 4th is looking very good and 3rd female pollinated Tuesday June 8th looks okay tough to tell if it will take...We had big rain and wind on Tuesday. I'm hoping the 3rd will take because it is in a really good location. Friday, June 11 View Page 988 foss 25.5 inches today a 3.5 gain not bad for the first pumpkin on this plant lets hope the other pumpkins are a little bit faster growing. Monday, June 14 View Page Looks like Kansasgirl got some of the bigger winds. I had 60mph winds last night blew the plants around, snapped 3 posts on my wind fence and dumped 2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes... However my plants are still looking good 1st pumpkin on the 988 foss day 14 circ 35.5 not the best gaining about 3 inches a day however the second pumpkin on day 11 is at 30.5 so i'll give it a day or two but this one is almost ready to pass the first one so I'll start the culling soon. Monday, June 14 View Page Correction 2nd pumpkin was pollinated on the 4th so day 10 circ is 30.5! Monday, June 14 View Page Also forgot to mention I pollinated the 3rd pumpkin on this plant Thursday June 10th. Wednesday, June 16 View Page Culled the first pumpkin on the 988 foss looks like the 2nd one will be my keeper. Day 12 circ 38 averaging 4 inches per day Friday, June 18 View Page 24 hours of no rain YEE HAA! Bout time unfortunately I have lost 20-25 percent of my plant to vine root. I'm uncovering the vines trying to dry them out but i think i'm gonna lose this battle. my 988 foss is at 46 circ growing about 4 inches per day hopefully this trend will continue but as much of the plant that i've had to cull from vine rot kinda makes me weary. Monday, June 21 View Page Lets see i have been in the patch once or twice in the last 10 days. In those 10 days we have received around 25+ inches of rain and 6 out of the 10 days there has been winds around 50-60mph one of them was around 70+ but luckily we didn't get the 80+mph winds just north of us. The pumpkin has been growing steadily around 3 inches a day. It is at 52 inch circ but i don't know how much more rain it can take we need it to dry out! Thursday, August 19 View Page 988 foss Day 10 Thursday, August 19 View Page 988 Foss Still growing very nicely Thursday, August 19 View Page 988 Foss Slow but sure wins the race it is not the fastest growing pumpkin ever but I hope it will make it over the 100in mark and be an new PB...Right now it is at 70inches Wednesday, September 1 View Page Self pollinated the 988 foss yesterday at 8 feet. I will cull this one but i need all the practice i can get since this is my first year pollinating the plants. I'll put up pictures later.