Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 35 Entries. Friday, February 19 View Page I will be tilling in my cover crop in the next few days and getting a soil sample not long after that. I've got most of my supplies for the season, just a few left to get. I still haven't figured out just what seeds I'm going to plant but I've got a little time left to decide. Monday, February 22 View Page I got my cover crop tilled in and will till it again in a few days, weather permitting. This has been the wettest winter we've had in many years. I built my germination chamber out of a styrofoam cooler from a local store. I'm using a seed mat from extreme pumpkin store and I found a thermometer that has a humidity meter with it to keep track of the internal temp. When I started, with the lid closed, it took just a short time and it was almost 100deg. I've been slowly propping the lid open until I could keep a low 80's temp. Now i'm trying to germinate some tomato and pumpkin seeds as a trial run. Hope it works out. Saturday, February 27 View Page My first run at pumpkin seed germination had my test seeds coming up after 3 days. Seems my first germination chamber works. Still waiting on my tomato seeds to sprout. Not sure how long they are supposed to take to come up. Can't wait till it is time for the real thing. Will be working in my patch in a couple of days. Sunday, February 28 View Page Checked my germination chamber last night after I got home from work and I had 4 out 7 tomato plants up. Maybe the others will be up in the next day or 2. I added my grow light last night also. Had to put a towel over the lid to help keep in the heat. Thursday, March 4 View Page This is my first attempt to post a picture. My camera is messed up so I used my cell phone. As of right now this is my line up for 2010. It's still subject to change. I will have 4 plants so it still needs to be narrowed down. Thursday, March 4 View Page I will try to post a picture again. This is my line up so far for 2010. It's still subject to change but not by much. I will have 4 plants for my 1st year. Wednesday, March 10 View Page This is my germination chamber. I bought a styrofoam ice chest from a local store and a germinaion mat from extreme pumpkin. I have a rack to raise the peat pots up and a pan to put the pots in. I bought a thermometer/humidity reader. I can keep the temperature relatively stable by raising and lowering the lid. I've already made a trial run and had good sucess. Wednesday, March 10 View Page This the inside. Sorry the pictures aren't to good. My camera is messed up and i'm having to use my phone. Monday, March 15 View Page On the 5th day they were all up. I soaked my seeds for 2 hours in a diluted fish/seaweed solution and then put in the pots. For the 3 days before that I put fish and seaweed fertilizer in the seed starter mix to get a little fertilizer in the soil. Monday, March 15 View Page This is my watermelon patch. Room for one plant this year. Monday, March 15 View Page This is my pumpkin patch. Almost ready. I will put up the silt fence and put out the rest of the walking boards in a few days. I've been building an irrigation system and will start putting it out soon. I'm looking to put out my plants in about a week or so. Tuesday, March 30 View Page I've got my silt fence up and 4 plants in the ground. 1164 Finders, 1143 Reid, 1330.5 Johnston-Butler and 1194 Northrup. I hope I'm up to the challenge. My wife gave me another challenge and that is adding on to our house. I guess I'm paying for what I've spent so far on my patch.HaHa. So far everything is going good. Friday, April 9 View Page Well I started out alright and now I'm having a rough time. I lost one plant, not sure what I did, but I was fortunate to have another seed from the same pumpkin. Seed has come up and will be put out in a few days. Another plant broke in a wind storm. I layed it back over and covered the area with dirt and it seems to be doing alright. I 'm not sure if I'm wasting my time with it but I'm giving it a chance. I went ahead and started another seed just in case it dies. Saw my 1st cuke beetle a couple of days ago (at least I thought it was one) and then it died. I sprayed today with a weak solution of Bifen XTS and Daconil. Just trying to get an early start. Will post some pictures later. Sunday, April 11 View Page My leaves are starting to yellow. I don't know if I sprayed insecticide and fungicide to early or what. I used what I thought was a half strength dose. I'm posting pics of the 3 plants. Any ideas e-mail me. Thanks, Robbie Sunday, April 11 View Page Plant 2 Sunday, April 11 View Page Plant 3 Sunday, April 18 View Page Here is part of my new irrigation system. It works better than I expected. I still have one more run of sprinkler heads to put out on each half of my patch. These micro- sprinkler heads are great. I have a timer and flow valve up by the house to control it. I will be tying in another timer to get my misting. Tuesday, April 27 View Page Well I'm learning some hard lessons so far. I've lost 3 seedlings so far. I finally figured out that I was watering them to much and started using fertilizer to soon.(With help from The Finders and Brodie) My soil is very crusty on top and it appears to be real dry so I kept watering. But down a couple of inches it was real wet. It caused the roots to rot. Hard lesson to learn. I've got replacements going so half my patch will be about a month behind the other half. I have 2 plants that have really taken off. My largest plant is the 1330.5 Johnston-Butler 09'. Tuesday, April 27 View Page My 2nd plant is the 1194 Northrup 09'. Both plants have grown about 4" in the past 2 days and have been getting a lot of blooms. I've got 2 191 Hollaway's going and I'll post some pictures a little later on. Sunday, May 2 View Page Finished my irrigation system today. I tied a timer into the system to allow me to be able to mist the plants. I tried it with all my sprinklers turned on and it seems to work real good. My 1330.5 Johnston-Butler and 1194 Northrup are doing great. I've never seen plants that grow as fast as pumpkins. I have a 1466 Neptune and 852 Desoriseirs going on the other half of the patch. They are 3-4 weeks behind the other plants. Taking it easy since I lost the other plants because I didn't have enough patience. My older 2 plants have been having plenty of male flowers and today I saw my 1st female at about 4-5 feet out. Started burying the main on my 1330.6 Johnston-Butler. It is a fast growing plant, about 4-6 inches a day for the past 4 days. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. Monday, May 3 View Page My first picture of my watermelon, a 191 Holloway. I don't know if I'm behind with it or not. Monday, May 3 View Page Another picture of my 1194 Northrup. Monday, May 3 View Page Another picture of my 1330.5 Johnston-Butler. Got side vines that are growing fast. Wednesday, May 5 View Page Added a 520 Mailey to the patch today. Thursday, May 6 View Page I can't belive how fast AG's grow. These 2 plants are growing faster than I thought they could. I'm glad I got hooked on growing them. These are the 1194 Northrup(closest) and the 1330.5 Johnston-Butler in the background. Thursday, May 6 View Page Temps are already in the 90's here and I've got my watering system set up to mist. I don't know how well you can see it but it's misting now. Thursday, May 6 View Page This is a 1466 Neptune. It's one of my backup plants. This end of my patch is about 30 days behind the other end. Monday, May 17 View Page Got about 1/2" of rain saturday and a 1/2" inch so far today. Looked at the news radar and a storm is coming in and it's moving real slow. Found out I have to improve drainage for next year. I have one female out at a little over 10' from the stump on my 1330.5 Johnston-Butler and I'll try to pollinate this one. More pics later. Monday, May 24 View Page Finally get a chance to add to my diary. This is my 191 Holloway. Monday, May 24 View Page This is the 1330.5 Johnston-Butler. I've got one female pollinated. I'll see if it takes. Monday, May 24 View Page This the 1194 Northrup. Doing well also. I've got one pollinated on this one too. Monday, May 24 View Page This is the 852 Desoriseirs. Monday, May 24 View Page This is the 1466 Neptune. Not doing to bad for being 30 days behind the first 2 plants. This plant has really taken off in the past few days. Sunday, June 20 View Page It's been a rough few weeks. I lost some pollinations that I had and something happened to all my plants. The mains at the end started deforming and a few side vines did it also. I think I gave them too much nitrogen. I backed off and the sides started responding aand growing again. I had to cut a main off one plant and started using a side vine as the new main. I got one pumpkin pollinated on my 1466 Neptune and it seems to be doing good. This is it at 8 days old. Sunday, June 20 View Page This the 1466 Neptune at 11 days. 93.5" OTT.