Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 72 Entries. Wednesday, January 2 View Page Stopped by the city office to see if they will be having the pea patch again in 2013. Looks like we are in business for another year. Recruited my neighbor to give it a try in 2013. Happy New year to all of you pumpkin growers! Friday, January 25 View Page Just found out that the pea patch plot draw is Feb 4th this year. Anxious about getting a good plot. Have some good seeds to try out this year. Looking forward to a mild and warm summer here in Seattle. Monday, February 11 View Page Here's the first picture of the Normandy Park Pea Patch... Maybe this year will be the year of deep rich soil and warm summer sun! Wednesday, March 13 View Page My other hobby.... Saturday, April 27 View Page I maybe a bit late but here they are. The patch needs a bit of work but these guys will be ready to go in next week. Thursday, May 2 View Page Here's the patch for 2013. All ready to go! Thursday, May 2 View Page Here is the Hoffman Thursday, May 2 View Page Here is the Briggs 922.5 Thursday, May 2 View Page And the Briggs 859 Wednesday, May 15 View Page These guys have out grown their covered home. Good thing and not a day too early. They escaped the wind storm over the weekend. This is the Briggs 859 Wednesday, May 15 View Page And here is the Briggs 922.5 Wednesday, May 15 View Page And the Hoffman 810 Monday, May 20 View Page Here's the daily update... Well almost daily. The plants are starting to put on vines and put on girth at the stem. Here is the Hoffman 810 Monday, May 20 View Page Here is the Briggs 897.5 Monday, May 20 View Page And the Briggs 922.5 Wednesday, May 22 View Page Split Stump! What to do? Any suggestions? This split is at the base. Sunday, May 26 View Page Cool weather has slowed the growth. Plants seem to be healthy. Here is the Briggs 922.5 Sunday, May 26 View Page Here is the Briggs 859 Sunday, May 26 View Page And the Hoffman 810. Hoping for warmer weather... Sunday, June 2 View Page Looks like I need to get out an water these guys. With all the rain we've had this past week I thought they needed a good drying out. We're going to have good growing weather here in the Seattle area this week.... Here is the Briggs 992.5 Sunday, June 2 View Page Here is the Hoffman 810 Sunday, June 2 View Page Here is the Hoffman 810 Sunday, June 2 View Page And the Briggs 859 Sunday, June 2 View Page Here is the Pea Patch pumpkin patch of field pumpkins. This will be fun once these guys get to growing. Not a lot of room to roam here... Thursday, June 6 View Page Spent a couple of hours in the patch. When I arrived the AG's were flagging. Odd, I had watered them the day before. This is going to be busy summer if these AG's need twice a day watering.... Friday, June 7 View Page I'm thinking this may not be a heat/water problem that's causing one of my plants to flag. It's pretty droopy on the first set of true leaves. The vine looks healthy and it will be a few days until it puts down any roots. Are their any suggestions as to how to keep the main body of the plant healthy until the vine takes root? Thanks... Sunday, June 9 View Page I seem to have found the problem with the flagging AG. It appears that the main trunk has become somewhat severed at the ground level. It is healing over and from the cool weather the plant has progressed. Albeit much slower than the other two plants. I'm suspecting once we get some rooted leaf nodes along the main vine that the plant will strengthen. The other two AG's are putting out nice main vines. I'm ready to start burying the vines this coming week. Tuesday, June 11 View Page Ok, well it looks like the Briggs 859 might just make it. I took a look at it this evening and it's not flagging as it was a few days ago. The weather has been cooler. Starting to see a good vine emerge. Here's the Briggs 859 Tuesday, June 11 View Page The Briggs 822.5. This one is putting out a strong vine. Will start burying the vine on Saturday. Tuesday, June 11 View Page And the Hoffman 810. This one is doing well. Putting out a good vine. We'll start burying this weekend. Hoping to get some pollination going before the summer solstice. Tuesday, June 11 View Page ooops! looks like I got an earlier version of the Hoffman posted. Let's try this again... Wednesday, June 12 View Page Out in the patch today... Noticed that my Briggs 922.5 is putting out two main vines! Is this a bad thing? Can an AG put out two vines and still grow the giant pumpkins? Any advice would be appreciated..... Thanks! Friday, June 14 View Page Briggs 859 RIP. Went out to the patch today to bury vines. The Briggs 859 had separated from the stump. Not sure how that happened. Must have been the wind storm from a week or so ago that started the separation. Now what to do with the extra space in the patch, too late to start a new AG... Monday, June 17 View Page Here is the update for the week... This is the Hoffman 810. Making good progress on the main. Two nice secondary's have appeared. Weather forecast is cooler weather with some rain. This will give me chance to get the patch ready for the warm weather forecast for the end of June... Monday, June 17 View Page And here is the Briggs 922.5. This AG has a strong main and an equally strong secondary. It's on the other side fo the plant heading east. Saturday, June 29 View Page These AG's have been all cleaned up, vines buried, fertilized and given a nice blue water bath (miracle grow), Now they are ready for the warm weather. The second set of females are forming at the tips about 12 feet out. Can't decide which way to make the turn. The Hoffman (in front) will probably turn to the West and the Briggs (in back) to the East. Wednesday, July 3 View Page No pictures today... but we made the turn on both of the AG's and put the "hopefull" giants under some Styrofoam to give the vine some elevation... It's been a good year so far. Now to get to some pumpkin growing! Saturday, July 6 View Page What a busy place in the patch this morning. The bumblebees had started the pollination party without me. I'm not sure if I got there in time to get the Briggs and Hoffman cross pollinated! Here is a picture of the Briggs. Saturday, July 6 View Page And here is the Hoffman. Notice only the four lobes... Saturday, July 6 View Page Drat... wrong picture.. let's try this... Sunday, July 7 View Page Stopped by the patch to see how the AG's were faring after the pollination party on Saturday and found this split on my Hoffman! Is this going to be a big deal and should I wait for the next female to come along? Friday, July 12 View Page Here's my active AG's. This is the Hoffman with the strange four lobe. This gal isn't making much of a move. Waiting for some warm weather.... Friday, July 12 View Page And here is the Briggs. Notice how close the two AG's are. I was thinking I could grow a set of twins. Earlier this morning the second one (facing inward) was culled. Friday, July 12 View Page This one is on the Briggs main. Another 3 feet down the vine. The flower was just opening up when I got to it this morning. Crossed this one with Briggs. Tuesday, July 16 View Page No pictures today. But the patch has exploded with vines. The One Hoffman and Two Briggs are doing ok. Started burying the main vines again, about three feet from the pollinated pumpkins. Also started trimming off the tertiary vines and clipping off the new pumpkins that want to grow. They've grown out so far that they are now into the squash. It's kind of hard to see what's going on in there. The secondary's are now buried with a little extra 10-20-20 fertilizer. Maybe that will give the AG's a good boost. I'll see if I can get some good pictures. It has been close to 10 days since these gals have been pollinated. They are about the size of a large softball! Tuesday, July 16 View Page Here's the picture of the patch. As I was saying it's getting pretty busy in there. Those are Hubbard squash you can see in the front of the picture. Towards the middle you can see the Hoffman peaking out. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Here is the Hoffman. It's picking up some size about as big as the brick. I'm thinking this is 9 or 10 days since pollination. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Here is the Briggs. This ones coming along fine. Down that vine about three feet is another AG. It's not doing to well. I guess forcing the flower open to pollinate wasn't such a good idea.... There's another AG over on a secondary that's doing well. Although the vine is tight against the soil. Not sure if I'll cull it though... Sunday, July 21 View Page Stopped by the patch today to check on the AG's. When I checked on Tuesday they were the size of a softball. Today their almost the size of a basketball. One of the leaves had brushed up against the AG and you could see water beading up on the side of the AG. Goodbye leaf. I need to build a shelter for these gals. Any suggestions? Thanks! Pictures maybe tomorrow. Sunday, July 21 View Page Out in the patch early this morning. Cool and heavy mist. Felt like September. Here's a picture of the patch. It's clearly over-run. You can see the secondary from the Hoffman heading southwest. Out of space to bury this one. Should I terminate or let it continue to grow? Sunday, July 21 View Page Here is the Hoffman. Doing well, Doesn't seem to be affected from the crack in the main from two weeks ago. This is 14 days past pollination. Sunday, July 21 View Page Here is a surprise from the Briggs plant. From the size it looks like it's been 10 days since it was pollinated. It has a good size and color. Much better than the one that was pollinated on the Briggs 8 days ago. Sunday, July 21 View Page Here's that Briggs I mentioned in the prior post. This was pollinated 8 days ago. The other AG a few feet up the vine is looking the best of all. Unfortunately I don't have a picture. Something about operator error and the camera... Monday, July 22 View Page Here's the Briggs at 14 days post pollination. The brick has been cleared and the AG moved ~1/2" away from the vine. Friday, July 26 View Page Here they are at 20 days. Just a bit bigger than a basketball. This is the Briggs Friday, July 26 View Page And here is the Hoffman. I need to get these off of the Styrofoam and onto a sand base. I have the sand just need to get it up to the patch. The crab pots are calling though. Saturday, July 27 View Page Here's an update on the pumpkin patch. A shade structure has been added to protect the Briggs. If you look close you can see the Briggs peaking under the screen. The Hoffman is in the front. Not sure if I'll build a similar structure for the Hoffman. The Styrofoam is gone and these AG's are on a bed of sand. The Briggs has spawned another AG. There are two good healthy AG's on the Briggs now. A third may be too many to get a 500 pounder. Suggestions"? Thursday, August 1 View Page It has been 25 days since pollination. I was up in the patch putting down some fertilizer, and what do you know... Another AG had snuck passed me. This guy was the size of a basket ball. Would have loved to keep it but already had two AG's on the Hoffman. Here is a picture of the Hoffman at 25 DAP. Thursday, August 1 View Page And here is the Briggs at 25 DAP. Not the best view from this angle. But crawling in there to take a picture could cause some serious damage to the plant. The Briggs is ~20% bigger than the Hoffman, and staying nice and shaded... Saturday, August 3 View Page Here is the Hoffman DAP 27. Hoping this warm weather for next week will kick these guys into gear. Saturday, August 3 View Page Here is the Hoffman DAP 27. Hoping this warm weather for next week will kick these guys into gear. Saturday, August 3 View Page And here is the Briggs at DAP 27. Gaining some girth and starting to flatten out. Wednesday, August 7 View Page DAP 30 on the Briggs. I know you can't really see it in there. It's about the size of an automobile tire, maybe more. I was going to say a truck tire, but then I would be exaggerating a bit. Pumpkin growing and Fishing make for good honest men... Saturday, August 10 View Page My first blow out! The secondary on the Briggs blew out sometime in the past couple of days; Most likely Friday/Saturday. I must have put to much fertilizer on the plant. The blossom ring blew right through to the core. Pictures will be available later. The real challenge is that I lost a major secondary when I went to move the pumpkin and cut it loose. Time to get the machete and get this guy out of the patch... Tuesday, August 13 View Page Here is the picture of the Briggs blow-out.... Tuesday, August 13 View Page Here is the Briggs on the main vine. Best guess it's 30" in high and about 18" thick. Tuesday, August 13 View Page Here's the Hoffman from a few days ago DAP 30. This evening ribs are forming... Friday, August 16 View Page Here is the Hoffman.... This DAP 39 or 40... He's starting to put on ribs, a little character. The Briggs isn't easy to get to for a good picture. Maybe this weekend I'll crawl back in there and take a picture. He's white as a ghost... Friday, August 16 View Page There seems to be some kind of a contest on this Hoffman plant. The pumpkin I let grow on a secondary appears to be as big as the pumpkin on the main vine. Here's a picture of the AG on the main. You can see the AG on the secondary in the background.... I'll let them duke it out. Maybe just maybe I'll get two good sized pumpkins out of this plant. I call them the twins... Tuesday, August 20 View Page All good things come to an end... and so it has to be with the remaining Briggs. Decided to go in a little further and get a picture of this big white ghost. And what did I find? The same challenge the Briggs had on the secondary. The blossom end split open. Not as bad as the other, but it has been there some time. There's a patch of fungus that has formed. I'll keep it on the vine to see if it will hold on until mid-October. It will make for a fine jackolantern. Now it's up to the Hoffman twins to give me a pair of carving pumpkins for Halloween. I'll have to get out my seed stock pile and start thinking about next year. If any of you have any decent seed from prior years you would be willing to let go, please send me a note. Thanks! Here's a picture of the damage... Saturday, August 24 View Page Sad day... I think I'm done with the public pea patch... Thursday, August 29 View Page Well, I thought I was done posting this year based on the blossom cracks and vandals. However, I'm amazed at the persistency of this AG's. I've got two new hopefuls. One from the Briggs and one from the Hoffman. Both are about the size of basketballs! In this picture you can see the now "deflated" (I'm amazed at how fast the earth takes back) and the new Briggs.