Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 48 Entries. Saturday, June 19 View Page Hi, This is my first year at growing pumpkins.I have been on the site every day now since march,and learning a ton from all the great growers on here.Im starting my own diary so that i can keep track of all the steps that i take ,good and bad.I was fortunate to be given some great seeds to start off with,along with alot of great info.My plants went into the ground on may 16 all with the first true leaf showing.My line up is a 1147 shenoha X , a 1125 shenoha X , a 923 Gerhart X , a 434 gerhart X .At this point three of the plants have just hit the ground with the main,i have helped them down with bamboo stakes.I have started a folier spray of fish/seaweed and they seem to like it.I also just ordered some CO2 and fumic acid.Have not had to water with all the rain,one of my plants got beat up by the storms last night(leaf damage).For whatever reason i feel that they are not growing as fast as they should.I will try and post some pics Saturday, June 19 View Page Tried to fix a split leaf stem with some captin.Olso laid out my soaker hose,and sprayed talstar..I hope they start gowing faster now that they have laid down. Tuesday, June 22 View Page Sprayed nepunes fish/seaweed on the plants at 7:30 last night.From my markers im getting around 4-6" a day growth on my plants, don't know if this is slow or good? I have three nice plants in the big garden with lots of room for them to spread out,then i have 4 more in odd spots on the edge of the yard that will have to grow out into the grass.Im just experimenting to see how they will turn out but don't expect any huge pumpkins out of these? We love to have alot of pumkins to carve so just hope to get a few for this reason.The 3 in the big garden i hope to break the 200lb mark or better for my first year..time will tell.. Wednesday, June 23 View Page Well had to fix a split main on my 923 gerhart, strong winds whiped it around and it split.I put captin into the split and will watch every day to see if it heals. I have secondaries on all plants out to 20".Started to bury my main and the secondaries at the junctions also added some myco to help the roots.. Saturday, June 26 View Page The plants are growing faster now,sprayed c02 on thursday ev.Last night gave them some humic acid. A few flowers showing up now but the main is only about 8 ft, and 6ft. Saturday, July 3 View Page We spent over three hours in the patch today ,got the weeding done.We burried more vine and addded myco under the stem.I have two female flowers out at 12+ feed on two of the bigger plants.Wish i new when they will open up??One of my oddball plants has like a club end on it now ?? will try to post a pic if anyone has seen this and knows what to do with it please laet me know.Everything looks good ,added some fish/seaweed fert today with some blossom booster Saturday, July 3 View Page pic of one off the oddball plants that has developed a club end ???? what do you do with this?? Saturday, July 3 View Page this is a pic on my 1147 shenoha ,its out at 12 ft,is thiere a way to tell when it will open to be fertilized ?? Monday, July 5 View Page I pollinated my first pumpkin today at 6:30 am used 3 male flowers and then tied the female closed.last night sprayed co2 folier on all plants.Trying to mist the plants once /twice a day in the high heat.Looks like ill have one ready for pollination on wed,and 2 on fri.. Monday, July 5 View Page Had to put out a frozen milk jug about 2" from the polinated flower, heat was around 90 today.will do the same tommorow. Also have the flower in the shade..Hope im doing this right??? Tuesday, July 6 View Page the main on my 1147 got split at about 16ft in the night somehow..put on some captin on it and hope it makes it.There is another female just past the split..Removed the pedals from the pollinated female today and put an ice jug close to help with the heat..If anyone see's any HUGE/ STUPID mistakes PLEASE let me [email protected] THANKS!!!! Thursday, July 8 View Page well the main vine that split cross ways is stiil green and looks like it grew a little today. I have 4 pumpkins pollinated as of this am..Looks like ill have one ready at about 14ft on saturday.Everything looks good,don't see much in the way of bugs thinking of spraying with Talstar one more time. Sunday, July 11 View Page TWO OF THE 4 POLLINATED PUMPKINS ARE GROWING GOOD.tHE SPLIT ON THE 1147 IS HEALING ,ABD THE VINE IS STILL GROWING IT GREW ABOUT 2FT SINCE THE SPLIT.I t has a female about a foot past the split,but i dont know if it will give the pumpkin enough to grow big????the split is half way through. don't know how much nutrition and water can get in with that cut??The one that i have pollinated at 10 or so feet is about baseball size now.Cleaned out the stump area a little more today.also watered in some nutri aid blossom booster. Thursday, July 15 View Page well my 1147 is 22" today on day 10,and my 923 is 18" on day 8 i think its going good . I have several others pollinated in the odd garden.Had the main break on another plant at obout 18-20ft,seems like if i don't get them staked down that at night they reach for the sky and somehow get broken.This is the second one in the last week or so.There is a female about a foot before the break so if it takes ill terminate the main at the break.. Im on information overload !!!! so many things to do/watch all at once ,BUT IM LOVIN IT.... Friday, July 16 View Page checked them today and the 1147 is now 30" and the 923 is 28".Put up the shade cloth today.One of my other big plants that the main just snapped on is not producing femals ??? only had one and it died..don't know if ther is anything that i can do to help produce more?? Saturday, July 17 View Page Had to terminate the main on the 1125 today ,the split was to bad.I hope this plant will send out a few females soon??This is my longest plant at about 20ft and the only one without a good female flower... Saturday, July 17 View Page 1147 with new shade cloth Sunday, July 18 View Page The 1147 IS 38" AND THE 923 IS 35". I cut the club end off the mutant plant in hopes to stimulate some more growth and female flowers.did a drench feed on the 1125 with some nuti aid bloom booster in hopes of some more female flowers.Lots of females dieing off before they get ping pong ball size??? Tuesday, July 20 View Page 1147 IS AT47" AND 923 IS AT 41" TODAY. THINKING OF TERMINATING THE MAIN ON THE 1147 TO PUT MORE ENERGY TO THE PUMPKIN? Thursday, July 22 View Page yesterday i terminated the main on the 1147 and the 1125.gave the 1125 some fish/seaweed fert to possibly help get a female to live long enough to fertilize ?? The growth on the 1147 and 923 have slowed down a little ? Saturday, July 24 View Page FRI,23RD. i terminated a few secondays in hopes of more growth to the pumpkins.also cut all the terts that i could find.We have not had a good rain in a while so i watered heavy,and then yes we got a TON of rain. All in all the patch looks great for my first year,on here every day reading and learning as much as i can.I did get one fertilized on the 1125 on thursday . Sunday, July 25 View Page This is a pic of the 1147 now named Brutis,and the other one the 923 is now named Mater...Brutis is at day 20 and is 58" Tuesday, July 27 View Page Brutis meeasured in at 71" today.Mater has slowed down.I did terminate the main on Brutis where it got a split a few weeks back,all the females past the split aboted so i figure the split was the cause? Still not sure what caused the leaves to yellow and burn at the edges?STILL PLUGIN ALONG SLOW BUT STEADY.... Thursday, July 29 View Page july 28th sprayed a light mix of nutri aid on the plants at 6:45pm.Will give them a small dose od c02 with a couple drops of milk on fri am? Saturday, July 31 View Page Well i just figured out that i have been measuring my pumkins wrong??There are three spots to measure and then add up the numbers to get your OTT..I found two charts for the OTT weight..my numbers on 7/30/10 were 75-52-53=180=about 134lbs.I hope im doing this right now?????????Did spray a light dose of C02 with a couple drops of milk to help prevent the PM... Sunday, August 1 View Page Brutis has an OTT of 193"=162 lbs at day 27 and Mater is at 160 OTT =97 lbs I also have several smaller ones on there way,next up is one thats about 25 lbs.In the pic Brutis is on the front/right and Mater back /left Sunday, August 1 View Page FORGOT THE PIC Sunday, August 1 View Page Brutis on day 27 Tuesday, August 3 View Page Well we got blasted with another 4+ inches of rain and again after i watered.All in all everything looks good,im worried about PM after reading reports about it in my area.Not to sure what it looks like other than a powdery mildew on the leaf ??? pic is of another new one .. Thursday, August 5 View Page Well i have PM on all the plants in the main garden,I hit them with daconil yesterday and ordered up some stronger stuff(brain fart) can't remenber the name.Will hit them friday AM with 40/60 milk/water mix.Don't know what else to do... Friday, August 6 View Page Trimmed out some leaves in the patch today to let the air flow a little better,also found a few terts that i had missed and cut them out.Srayed with a heavy 40/60 mix of milk /water.Ordered up some eagle 20.Brutis is in at about 212 lbs. Monday, August 9 View Page Brutis is in at about 230lbs now and still growing slow.the pm looks better after a few 40/60 milk/water sprays will hit it with the eagle 20 today to try to hold it off.I understand know why these plants need so much room,i pushed it and put 4 plants in where only 2 should be and its a jungle.I have learned a ton from this year and have a better game plan in the works for next year already!!! Pic is of Brutis at 95-63-63=221=237 lbs.. Thursday, August 12 View Page Checked the plants today and found a few 1" white maggot looking thing in my vine ???????????cleaned out the soft spot and put captin in.Brutis is 98-68-68=234=279 lbs.The pic is leaves ont the brutis plant also where i found the ???white maggot thing????.I am thinking that this is why the leaves have been dieing and the growth has been slow??If anyone knows what this thing is and what to do about it let me know PLEASE...When i was done cleaning it out i did spray sevin over the whole area ?? [email protected] THANKS Thursday, August 12 View Page WELL i found out they were svb's hit them hard with Bayer tree and shrub,drench and spray.I just hope that i found them in time ,they killed half the plant.&^%$#@#%^^%&^%^* Monday, August 16 View Page The PM seems to be under control,and didn't find any more SVB alive in the vine.Brutis still put on a little weight even with the pm and svb problems he is at 303 lbs.Pic is brutis with basketball for ref... Wednesday, August 18 View Page Well got one to stay on Gerhart plant its about a week 10 days old and seems to be growing good,its all the way at the end of the plant about 25ft out.Have some 0-0-25 and 3-18-18 on its way so i may give this plant a little more juice than i did on the others and see what happens!!!! Wednesday, August 18 View Page I wish i had cought the SVB problem sooner.the front 8ft of Brutis is dead...I did alow some vines to grow backward off the stump and they are still OK.And there is about six ft of main and 3-4 secondays with 8 ft or so of good vine past the fruit so its all day to day. Sunday, August 22 View Page everything still growing slow,gave them some 0-0-25 and 3-18-18 to try to get some more out of them.Didn't measure today i will wait till next week.The pm is only on a few leaves now,and from what i can teel the SVB's are dead.... Thursday, August 26 View Page ok,Brutis was at 325 lbs today and still gaining slowwwly.Two of the newer pumpkins are growing good,i think there are 4 in the patch over 100 lbs.At this point im just trying to keep them alive until october,the fact that they are still growing is awsome.. Thursday, August 26 View Page IN this pic with the table and bench is the front half of brutis ,you can see all the leaves are dead from the SVB problem. i have cups covering all the open spots in the main.To the left(in the pic) i let two back vines grow and they are still good.The back half of the plant still has good leaves on it. Thursday, August 26 View Page Thats me with my biggest pumpkin to date.today 8/26/10 it measured 105-71-71=247 or 325 lb ,and still growing.Thanks to everyone that helped with advice,seeds and answered all my newbe questions..................... Tuesday, August 31 View Page Everthings still growing but very slow.?????? i give them a cool down at around noon and then water at 4 pm for about 30 min every day is this enough water??? I see that some people give then several hours a day??? Iv been worried about over watering them ???Gave them some 0-0-25 yesterday and every 3 days and 3-18-18 every 4 days 3 days after the 0-0-25. Found some stump problems in the small garden,on to of the plants the stump has a 6" split about 3" wide on the under side(can't be good) Tuesday, September 7 View Page well im trying to deal with a stem rot issue on brutis plant .A bout 2 weeks ago we found a dime size hole in the stem about 3-4 inches from the pumpkin,did the bleach water and captin and kept it as dry as possible but its now about 3" long and 1-2 inches wide and right at the pumpkin..don't know what else to do?? I don't want to cut it off if i don't have to.It seem to still be growing very sloooooow Tuesday, September 14 View Page well we got a fan on the stem rot problem two days ago and it seems to be working as far as keepin it dry.All the plants look spent !!!most original leaves are dead they are still putting out new ones and even putting out female flowers (pinched)I think they are done growing but am leave'n on the vine in hopes they gain a littttttle bit more.Its been a great ride !!!!! Tuesday, October 19 View Page well it was a great year,went passed my first year goal of 200 lbs with a official 331 at bengstons for the weigh off.Saw the new illinois state record broke by SHAZZY.I learned so much for people on this site,so THANKS to everyone for all the help! I just put 5 yard of organimix into my patch with some kelp and corn meal ,and some gypsum.Tilled it in real well and now waiting for spring to add a little more organimix before the green house goes up. Wednesday, October 20 View Page won't let me post pic?????????? Wednesday, October 20 View Page fogot i also added about five gabage cans full of ground up leave's before i tilled. Well off to the woods it's DEER SEASON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday, November 28 View Page Well my seeds for this years lineup have been ordered,have some good ones picked outshould be a great year!!!Ok back to the woods, two deer down and hopefully a few more to come!!!!!