Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 21 Entries. Tuesday, April 30 View Page The 2013 pumpkin season has arrived in northcentral Pennsylvania! Brady, Lily, and I are ready to get growing! Tuesday, April 30 View Page We live on Gardner Hill in Pennsylvania's elk country. This is a view from the top of the hill showing the Bennett's Valley where the Bennett Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek flows. Tuesday, April 30 View Page In early spring the local wild turkeys spent lots of time in our pumpkin patches...tillage by turkey?? Tuesday, April 30 View Page striking a pose for the ladies Tuesday, April 30 View Page For the turkey hunters out there...check out the beard on this guy! Tuesday, April 30 View Page Reading/research goes on throughout the fall and winter, but the official start of my season is the OVGPG seminar. Great growers-->great results-->sharing great information Tuesday, April 30 View Page The reigning champ came all the way from Rhode Island and had a fantastic presentation. Afterward, Tim Parks led a Q&A session with Ron that covered even more material. Tuesday, April 30 View Page Our soil test came back looking pretty good but we still needed to tweak some values a bit. With the ever-helpful Frank Finders' guidance, we've collected the necessary supplies. Tuesday, April 30 View Page Hoop houses are up, heating cables buried, and plants are in the ground. The house shown on the left houses a 1608 Brady. Its heating cable worked just fine in the garage prior to burying it, but now seems to be working only slightly. Soil temp is only 60 instead of 74 so I've got an infrared heat lamp running round the clock trying to warm things up more quickly. On the right we've got our 1065 Bouch. This is our first time growing one of our own seeds and we're pretty excited to see what we can do with it. Final amendments have been spread, tilled in, and rye has been planted. Thursday, May 2 View Page 1608 Brady Thursday, May 2 View Page 1065 Bouch Monday, May 6 View Page This is a secondary patch that will be used for another pumpkin project. We are going to try to grow the "boats" which will be used in Florida for a giant pumpkin regatta this fall. I've expanded the patch and will try to get the expanded area amended as fast as possible. Monday, May 6 View Page This was our main patch for the past two years. It is being rested this year and will go through a series of plantings of cover crops. We planted most of it in winter rye last fall (I didn't have enough seed to cover the whole patch) and it was mowed today for the first time. Our regatta patch was mowed today also. Monday, May 6 View Page 1065 Bouch Monday, May 6 View Page 1608 Brady. I believe the cold soil due to heating cable malfunction it really holding this plant back. Wednesday, May 8 View Page Brady's first baseball game was played tonight. It just seems appropriate that his team's uniforms should put them in the running for a Howard Dill Award Saturday, May 11 View Page While watering my plants today I decided to check soil temps again and got a pleasant surprise. The soil heating cable under our 1608 Brady has inexplicably begun functioning after two weeks in the patch. Hopefully this will get us back in the game with this plant Saturday, May 11 View Page 1608 Brady Saturday, May 11 View Page 1065 Bouch. This plant continues to outpace the 1608 Thursday, May 16 View Page 1608 Brady, doing better but still kind of sluggish. The primary vine is just getting started Friday, May 17 View Page Our 1065 steamrolling along. So far this is the fastest-growing plant we've ever had. Its primary vine laid down overnight and is now out around 4 feet, secondaries are forming.