Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 28 Entries. Tuesday, July 13 View Page Let's get another country to the pumpkin world map: Estonia. I am actually a Finn but we have a summer house on Saaremaa Island in Estonia http://bit.ly/bYLsMl. I'm a total rookie in growing giant pumpkins but supported by Miika's (Team Lunatic) advice. My disadvantage is that we visit the place outside the vacation time only every two weeks, so innovative ideas are needed to keep the plants not totally drying. I will be reporting the progress here, but if you guys have Twitter accounts, I will post short updates on a more frequently (in English) www.twitter.com/korvitsa which is more convenient for mobile phone use. Tuesday, July 13 View Page And here is my main plant 232.5 Mäntyniemi (1226.5 Kline, 1171 Toftness) field tested and proven in the hard climate of Finland. Looking nice, I use hay and seaweed mulching to keep the moisture in the soil. Just pollinated it on the main and can't wait going back next weekend for a vacation and see whether it took. Saturday, July 17 View Page I guess this means business? On the 17 ft main of Mäntyniemi on Day 5. The scaling object is unconsumed bottle of Estonian dark beer with cherry flavor. Estonian culture, food and drinks, lesson 1. Stay tuned. Saturday, July 17 View Page I'm so proud of this plant (Mäntyniemi): abandoned for weeks, suffering the heatwave, no food, no drink. And the beast is about to attack the neighbourgs like this! A tough little fella imho. Thursday, July 22 View Page Mäntyniemi * Sundin Day 1o mainvine fruit looks a bit weird but is now groving faster, circ 23". Thursday, July 22 View Page The other Day 10 fruit on the sidevine is clearly bigger, but that should be the case in the beginning, I have been told. circ 29". Will wait another 10 days, then decide which one is the keeper. One still to pollinate on main at 20 feet, for just in case something bad happens. The other to plants have bigger fruits at the moment but they are at best just half of the size of Mäntyniemi, so I guess they will not make my pb or Estonian record. Saturday, July 24 View Page What I called "weird" some who know better call "deformed". The mainvine fruit on its way to compost. Who said this is an equal opportunity sport? It is rather the survival of the fittest. Continuing with the fruit on the 5th sidevine, gaining between 4-5" a day now and looking "normal" and cc 38" Day 12. I still keep a couple of backups just in case. Sunday, August 1 View Page Getting some 20D results. Baumert (must check the weight at home), named Max, weak leaves , but pushing hard, gave OTT 157", around 92 lbs. Doing ok compared to the care received. Sunday, August 1 View Page And Sundin, the fruit named Moritz (ashamed, but the envelope with the weight is at home) is starting to grow now. 89 lbs but the gap with the Baumert plant is narrowing. Sunday, August 1 View Page Finally the main plant Ljubomir (Mäntyniemi) got 20D today. This one is taken care much better and it pays back big time: 183" OTT (140 lbs) and groing like he*l. Also totally round and beautiful. It a bomb doesn't hit it withing the next 48 hours, we are going to beat the Estonian record. I think this one has got potential to +400 lbs. Sunday, August 1 View Page A view to calm you down even on a bad day. Sitting on the balcony with a cold beer,watching the Sutu Bay open seas over the fenced pumpkin patch. Sunday, August 1 View Page This Island is full of forests. Everyman's right allows you to pick berries or mushrooms everywhere outside people's yards. Chantarelles from Saaremaa, guess what sauce we are eating tonight? Wednesday, August 4 View Page As long as as the local fox fancies left overs of a yoghurt can more than my pumpkins we will have coexistence. Wednesday, August 4 View Page As long as the local fox fancies left overs of a yoghurt can more than my pumpkins we will have coexistence. Monday, August 9 View Page I got my Ljubomir a little bit short of 300 lbs on Day 27, OTT 239". We were leaving yesterday the cottage for 2 weeks, so let's see what will happen. Some arrangements are done, but other than that the pumpkins will have to do on their own now. Monday, August 9 View Page The other one (Moritz/Sundin) got to 29 days, and looks ok, and passed also the 100 kg mark with OTT 216". Both plants seem to be pretty healthy, but who knows what will happen. The third one ,Baumert ,is clearly slowing down as the plant itself is pretty weak. But that is more my bad rather than the seeds fault. Wild boars, stay in the woods, please. Spread some tar extract around hoping the smell to keep them away like it does to deer and elks (that's what they say). Hope it works. Only Ljubomir is inside a fenced garden. Saturday, August 14 View Page Got a picture from our carpenter Thrusday night. Game over for Ljubomir, a blossom end split. Looks also to be very thin area in general. Makes one humble after all the hard work. Let's hope the rest hold toget at least until next Friday when we go there again to check the situation. It is Estonia's restoration of independence day (from the Soviet reign) and let's hope we can celebrate it without more casualties. Saturday, August 21 View Page Moritz Sundin, D41, OTT 263", 390 lbs, I guess 500 is still possible. In Estonian ordinary buckets are made of silver....this is a very rich country. Not. But people appreaciate well nurtured gardens though. A house may be poor, but the lawns and flower beds are great. Saturday, August 28 View Page Mäntyniemi has an impressive stump, like a sewer pipe. If just the fruit would have been able to hold together. But obviously this is not a sport with ifs. I however let the plant remain on its patch and grow a couple of small pumpkins now as comforters. Tuesday, August 31 View Page 50 D for Moritz on the 29th, picture one day earlier. OTT 287", 502 lbs, not bad for a rookie with the backup plant. Growing still a healthy 8-10 lbs a day, despite of colder weather. However being on an island, lose some air temperature degrees spring time, gain now (compared to Finland). First night frosts in Finland/Estonia, but our temperature remains at 13-14 centigrade. So I'm expecting to see still some growth and forecast to come back to around 18-20 in a week. Signs of dill ring developing, but I am not worried yet. I will go back there in 10 days, and let's see then. Starting to worry about the transportation to Finland. Friday, September 10 View Page Seems that I'm pretty much done with this Moritz (Sundin), only a little growth in 11 days, now at 550 lbs estimate, will not grow much more. The plant itself is much too weak to push for more. Mäntyniemi, where I lost the big one due to BES, I left few just for fun's sake, and this plant is alive and kicking. But around 15th August pollinations do not leave too much potential for a big fruit. As a rookie, who knew nothing about this sport 6 months ago, forced to do this in a "remote mode", I should be happy with 550 lbs but somehow I'm not... After two weeks I try to lift the fruit, drive it to Finland and get it weighted. If it will remain intact this will be the new (and the first official) Estonian record. I will need some help next year to get some proven seed to beat this one at least with 200 lbs. The setup will be better with a lot more knowledge, patches ready and someone here full time during the season to take care of things on daily basis. Any volunteers..? Monday, September 20 View Page Getting some publicity. First another article in the local newspaper http://www.saartehaal.ee/index.php?content=artiklid&sub=41&artid=21251&sec=1 and after that my carpenter has his two minutes of fame when presenting the pumpkin on the national tv channel Sunday night news. in case you want to watch it go to www.tv3.ee/online choose -> TV3 UUTISED -> 2010 -> 19/09/10 TV3 UUTISED, wait the clip to load press "Mängi nüüd" (play button). The story is starting from 13:58 where you can move on the time bar without watching first 14 minutes of news in a very strange language. Tuesday, September 28 View Page Again a new wave of publicity. TV3 of Estonia followed the lifting of my pumpkin and presentation to public at the local agriculture fair. This can be seen with the previous posting instructions but selecting 26/9 news, start from 20:09 or so and takes around 1.5 minutes, my interview in English. Also "starred" the main channel ETV Saturday news, where I had to give an interview in Estonian language. Some said I did good, however the fact that they had added to my Estonian language interview Estonian subtitling should give some indication about my skill level. Nevertheless, my bet is that there is a pumpkin growing boom next year in Estonia. Picture of me together with the fruit, now heading to Finland weight-off next Saturday. Saturday, October 2 View Page Congrats to Miika The Finnish Pumpkin Maven! A victory well deserved, hats off. It takes a tough man to grow a winner pumpkin. Sunday, October 3 View Page Finally weighting the Estonian record, so here is Ollila 604. Just behind is Miika's white winner. I chopped my pumpkin there on the spot, gave people the pieces and found out that I was maybe one inch from having a split on the dill ring area. Seeds are collected, and will head back to Saaremaa where I will just give them away to interested people. After all the publicity and considering the natural fertility of the land, I am pretty sure that something big will appear during the next years. To get some variety to the genetics base, I'm happy to take any seed donations, as long as they are AG to be distributed free. I'm going to work out the distribution with the local newspaper, which have followed the development and is also arranging the agricultural fair, where we could have a weight off of some sort next year. Saturday, October 23 View Page Last of the season. I left these two which were open pollinated somewhere around 15th August after the main fruits split. The one in the back was covered but not the leaves of the plant. So the first frosts came during the 3 weeks we were away, but we one in the back ended as 266 UOW. Mäntyniemi was a strong plat for sure. After weighting it I drove around and gave the pieces to the people in the village. Saturday, October 23 View Page Preparing for the next season. We got 8 square meters of almost composted horse manure and went seaweed/kelp hunting with my wife. Lots of that has drifted with the storms ashore and we picked up some trailer loads. Some I mixed with the manure and will let it compost well during the winter. Some I will dry for making a liquid fertilizer for the next year and most we use as mulch to cover the patches. It is all organic now, "no till". Both for the pumpkin growing and the garden. We saw the results of mulching this year with the garden and are believers. The only complaint with mulching (my wife thinks) is that it does not look that neat than "normal" gardens. Anyways showeled a lot of manure to the patches already, as well as kelp (as it is drained by rains) and covered that with a thick layer of hay specially in the places were I intend to plant the pumpkins next years. I am pretty sure that the ground does not get much frozen under this layer. As soon as the snow melts away (mid March normally), I will take take the "cover" away, put some plastic on and let the sun heat up the transplanting area. I also got me a source of Mycorrizza, which is not so easy to get here. So next year I will try that as well. Thank you Don Langevin for showing the way in your all-organic book. Sounds like a plan to me, but let's see next year. Sunday, October 24 View Page Should have said 8 cubic meters. I must proof read as well better my entries, as I can find a lot of typos, sorry.