Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 35 Entries. Friday, April 2 View Page Hello everyone. I'm gonna try to keep a diary this year. I'm growing 6 plants this year. 1467 Perham 1725 Harp 1375.5 Liggett an orange one. Haven't decided which yet 1024.5 Tootle The last one will probably be a Paul Tacket seed Friday, April 2 View Page Planned crosses so far: 1467 Perham x 1725 Harp 1725 Harp x 1467 Perham 1375.5 Liggett x 1467 Perham Monday, April 12 View Page Started the 1278.5 Slone and backup 1084 Lyons today. One of these will be for an early weigh off. Once they pop, I'm going to move them to a 5 gallon bucket to keep them indoors for a little extra time. I'll choose the best one to go into the patch. Saturday, April 17 View Page Maybe it's just because it's my second year growing but it's always nice to see seeds popping up out of the ground. These are a couple days old now. Notice the white stripes on the 1084 Lyons. Not sure what caused that but it's a backup so no harm done. I will be starting the rest in a week or so. Tuesday, April 27 View Page I started the 1725 Harp, 1467 Perham, 1375.5 Liggett, & 735 Veader-Hahn this morning. I will start the 856 Harnica and my own 1024.5 once the first four pop up. I want to thank the growers who gave the above seeds. Christy, Brad, Dr. Bob, Farmer Chuck, & John THANK YOU! Tuesday, April 27 View Page Well, the 1278.5 Slone is a lot faster growing then my 10 day old plant last year. Tomorrow will be day 15 and I can see the main starting to vine. I may keep the 1084 Lyons as a pollinator but the 1278 is the clear winner. Thanks again Dwight for giving me the seed. Sunday, May 2 View Page All four popped up on Friday, 1725, 1375.5, 1467, & 735. The 1467 was the first up but has since curled the cots along with the 1725 curled cots. The first true leaf on both look fine. The 1375.5 was the shortest of the bunch, cots were almost on the ground. I have since transplanted them to 5 gallon buckets and will wait a week or so before putting them out in the patch. My final two (856 Harnica & my own 1024.5) are soaking right now along with a couple watermelons. I will put them in the germination chamber in the morning. Monday, May 3 View Page This 735 Veader-hahn may be on the chopping block. When it first popped up, I think I may have damaged it by taking the seed casing off too soon. which I think is the cause of the yellow center down the cots. Now it seems to be developing two first true leaves. Wednesday, May 19 View Page Well here is my 1278 Slone. It is just over 4ft and growing good. I will probably have to move the coldframe or at least slide it down tomorrow. I'm really excited about this plant. Wednesday, May 19 View Page It seems that one of my plants has developed a flat vine. So I'm considering taking it out and replacing it with a backup. I'll decide in the next couple of days. It is my 3rd biggest plant. So it's kind of a bummer but I see potential in this old seed. Sunday, June 6 View Page Well it turns out to several plants have developed flat vine but all of them have came out of it. I guess I should have built coldframes and hardened them off better. The 1278 was in a coldframe and didn't develop flat vine. All the plants are growing good now and are ahead of last year. Sunday, June 6 View Page Awesome plant, the first female is 12ft out and should be ready to pollinate in a couple days. Sunday, June 6 View Page 2nd best plant in the patch, about 4 to 6 feet out. Sunday, June 6 View Page 3rd best plant. due to flat vine, two of the side vines are up in the air. Going to make a ramp for them to come down. main is 4 to 6 feet Sunday, June 6 View Page I'm really impressed with this Orange plant, I've heard that most are slow growing but this one is not. minor flat vine on this one too but main has recovered and growing well. The main is about 4 feet. Sunday, June 6 View Page I had cot leaf problems with both 735 Veaders I started. This is the one I chose to go into the main patch. It was slow at first but is picking up now. The main is around 2 feet. Sunday, June 6 View Page So this 607 Liggett was the first one I noticed with flat vine. It was the worst one. I ended up cutting the main and choosing a secondary. It's growing good now butI still don't know what I'm doing with it yet. To the left is a 1024.5Tootle that I put in as a backup. By the way, I work for a sign company so I take home all the junk banners and use them in the patch. I felt this particular banner went good with a 2003 seed. LOL Aged to Perfection. Monday, June 7 View Page Ok so I've seen plenty of shoes with boards screwed, glued and etc.. But I decided to do something a little different. I wanted big feet. I made a template and then made these out of MDF board. They work really well and with no sharp corners, you can't jab them into your legs while getting used to them. Monday, June 7 View Page Wow, I guess I need to tell you what plants I planted and what goes with the pictures. lol Ok, the first picture posted June 6th is the 1278 Slone. The next picture is the 1375 Liggett. 3rd is the 1725 Harp. 4th is 856 Harnica. and the rest are named in the posts. I'll try to do better next time I post. Tuesday, June 29 View Page This is my 1278 Slone. This pict was taken on Day 20 OTT is 179". It's growing really good, I'm much further along this year than last with the 10day and 20day measurements. If you get a chance, you should grow the 1278. It's outstanding. Wednesday, July 14 View Page Line up and crosses 1278 Slone x 1197 Gerchy (Sirpumpkin is growing this one) 1375 Liggett x 1278 Slone 1467 Perham x 1375 Liggett 1725 Harp x 1467 Perham 607 Liggett x 1725 Harp The 607 is the exact reverse of the 664 Liggett 1084 Lyons x 1278 Slone Wednesday, July 14 View Page This season has been full of aborts. Some I think were due to 90+ weather we had during and after pollination. I guess I should have got out the ice. 1st place is 1278 Slone. This is an early plant for a local fair. It continues to be growing on pace. I really like this plant. My 1725Harp & 1375Liggett refused to grow any pumpkins after the first one was set. They are both around Day 25 and around 200lbs. My 4th largest is on Day 19 at 126ott. This really surprises me because the middle section of the plant got choked out by weeds and doesn't have side vines. The plant is now building up new vines since I have made my weeding rounds. Note to self: don't do 8 plants unless you have trolls to do weeding. 5th is the 1467perham. It’s on Day 14 at 102ott. This pumpkin looks like a watermelon. Extremely long! I can’t wait to see it develop. 6th is 856 Harnica. This Red-orange pumpkin’s first few aborted sets were long and I was starting to get bummed out because I didn’t want a long red-orange, I wanted a classic shape. The 3rd set looks like it will be a round one. Day 14 at 97.5ott 7th is 607 Liggett. I have a pumpkin on the plant but not sure of it’s growth rate. If it aborts then I’ll be down to the 4th set on this plant and not on the main vine. Plant itself is excellent. Huge vines and secondaries, it just keeps aborting. 8th 735 Veader-Hahn. (Red-orange genetics) This plant is one I was late at weeding. Several middle vines were choked out with weeds. Now that it is weeded, I’m letting third stage vines fill up the space. The 1st pumpkin on the vine aborted after a few days and didn’t produce another female for 8 feet. I will pollinate a female on Friday, hopefully it won’t abort. Sunday, August 8 View Page This is a 1278 Slone x 1197 Gerchy. The Gerchy was from Tony Vanderpool's one he grew this year (584 T. Vanderpool 2010) Sunday, August 8 View Page 3rd place at the Ohio State Fair. 804lbs 1278Slone x 1197Gerchy Saturday, October 2 View Page 735 Veader-Hahn I had hoped this one would grow round but at this it's pollinator was round. Same orange one the pollinator too. This pumpkin is estimating 560lbs and grown on a 3ft side vine about 16 feet from the stump. Saturday, October 2 View Page This is my 153Leonard that I'm growing. It's around 160lbs and still growing but slow now. Saturday, October 2 View Page I have no idea what caused these spots, they appeared around august and haven't seemed to effect the melon. I noticed they have cracks in them now which they didn't have last week. If anyone knows what these are, please help. Saturday, October 2 View Page This is my 267Edwards. It's around 130lbs but it's pretty much done maybe a 1/2 pound a day. Saturday, October 9 View Page This is my 150.5 watermelon. It was grown from a 153 Leonard. I placed 2nd at SOGPG, 6 more pounds and I would have beat Danny Reeb(156lbs). Friday, October 22 View Page This is the 735 Veader-Hahn that I grew. It estimated at 547lbs. Friday, October 22 View Page This wraps up my year. The 735 Veader-Hahn is now my 529 Tootle. It when 3 percent light but hadn't grown in about 2 weeks. Friday, October 22 View Page The pumpkin was weighed at the Circleville Pumpkin Show Oct 20th Friday, October 22 View Page At Circleville, we don't have a Howard Dill Award, we have a Nancy Martin Award. Nancy was very active in the Pumpkin Show being an announcer for the weigh-offs, and was a founding member for the Circleville Giant Pumpkin Growers club. The Nancy Martin award is in her honor because she always loved to see orange pumpkins. The award is similar as the Howard Dill. Pictured here is the previous winner awarding me the 2010 Nancy Martin Prettiest Pumpkin Award. Friday, October 22 View Page Pictured here is The Martin family, the 2009 winner and my wife on my left and my daughter sitting on my pumpkin. Friday, October 22 View Page One last picture. Thanks again Chuck for letting me grow your 735.