Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 70 Entries. Monday, January 14 View Page This morning it was -7 F with 14" of snow covering the patch. I just bought some seeds from VGPG and we are looking forward to planting some new plants this spring when it warms up. We will be planting Orange this year because we like the look of the orange pumpkins, I guess we are "Orange Junkies". Thursday, January 31 View Page We have a new patch to grow in this year. A friend of Rachel's said we could use the back half of an acre of their property to grow some pumpkins. It might take some work to get it ready to plant. Thursday, January 31 View Page This past week we have had an ice storm and over 15" of snow. It did make for some good sledding for Emilee's birthday party last Saturday. She turned 11 and she wants to do all the work this year in her patch, we will see how that goes. Monday, March 18 View Page Over the weekend went to Hyrum for some compost at Miller's and picked up some A to Z mix for Janna and some rose food top try on the tomatoes. Monday, March 18 View Page Saturday 3-16-13 tilled in some molasses and compost into the patch in the backyard and cleaned up the flower beds. Now the work begins at the neighbors patch. 3-9-13 went to the seed distribution and seminar, we picked up some nice seeds that I want to try, only if we had the room and time. The plan is to start seeds April 5, and maybe have them in the ground late April. We have narrowed the seeds down but still undecided on what to grow. Monday, March 25 View Page We have chosen our seeds for this year. We are going mostly "Orange". We will be planting 3 Howard Dill winners from last year and some that have produced orange in the past. I let Emilee and Sarah chose their seeds. We will also plant squash, tomato, watermelon, long gourd, and field pumpkins along with some other gourds. Monday, March 25 View Page Back up seeds in case anything goes wrong with the first ones. Monday, March 25 View Page Emilee's 1st choice. Monday, March 25 View Page Emilee's 2nd choice. Monday, March 25 View Page Sarah's 1st choice. Monday, March 25 View Page Sarah's 2nd choice. Monday, March 25 View Page Long gourds. Monday, March 25 View Page Watermelon,field pumpkins and other gourds. Monday, March 25 View Page Squash. Tuesday, March 26 View Page I need to thank the VGPG chapter and Norm for the seeds this year, I also got some good seeds from the UGPGA, so many choice so little ground. Monday, April 1 View Page Set-up hoop houses in the back, will be starting seeds this week. Friday or Saturday will till new patch and set-up hoop houses Tuesday, April 2 View Page Took this photo of Ben Lomond Peak this morning of one of the parks that I take care of. Thursday, April 4 View Page Started seeds last night, now the work begins. Tuesday, April 9 View Page Went home last night after work and took down the hoop houses in the back before the wind blew them over the fence into the neighbors yard. Weather forecast is low 30's with a high wind warning 50-60 mph gusts for the next two days. Almost all the seeds that I planted last week have sprouted and are under grow lights. Just need to find some bigger pots to transplant in, because the weather forecast isn't looking favorable for planting outdoors yet. I don't have to work Friday, if weather is good I will work on the new patch. Monday, April 15 View Page This last weekend made a new light rack and put it in the living room, afterwards went to the the new patch for this year and tried to till the soil after two hours and after only tilling enough ground for two hoop houses it is time to call in a reservation for a tractor and tiller at the rental yard. Weather here is terrible, lows in the 20's highs mid 30's with snow. Forecast is looking better for the end of the week and for the next few weeks, 60's and 70's. The plants are almost ready to go in the ground. Monday, April 22 View Page Tilled the new patch on Saturday. I don't know if it is going to be any good, very hard and compacted it might take a few years before it grows anything big. Heaters in the backyard patch are not working, I might buy some heat lamps to put out in the hoop houses for some warmth at night. Planning on putting some plants out but I need some protection from the low temps. Thursday, April 25 View Page Put two in the ground last night. The heaters seemed to be working and keeping the inside of the hoop house at 73. Low temps are in the low 40's and the next few days they are going to be higher, hopefully warmer weather is coming soon. When I finished the moon was rising over the neighbors house. Wednesday, May 1 View Page Last Saturday 5-27-13 planted pumpkins in the new patch and set up hoop houses. With no heat and frost warning this morning and cooler temps this week I hope that they survive. Just in case I started a new set of pumpkins to go in the ground if any are frozen or die. Utah weather is very unpredictable. Friday, May 3 View Page Well I lost all but one plant due to the cold weather (hard frost warnings the last three nights, 28-31 degrees). At least we haven't had snow like some. The one that survived the heater was working the other one in the backyard the heater failed and froze the plant. The ones at the new patch are all gone, no heat source because no electricity to run to the hoop houses. The new batch of seeds (back-ups) that I started on Sunday 4-28 have all sprouted and are looking to go in the ground sometime next week, weather permitting. Long gourdes have not sprouted yet a few more days they should be up. This weekend I will start more back-ups to the back-ups to prevent any more setbacks this year. I guess I started too early this year to get a jump start on the season and Mother Nature always wins. Tuesday, May 7 View Page Went by the new patch last night to survey the damage and to my surprise the two watermelons that were in the walls-of -water were still alive there still might be hope after all with new plants ready to go in the ground at the end of the week we might have a decent year after all. Note to self don't get too excited to plant seeds before April 10. Tuesday, May 14 View Page Last Saturday 5-11-2013 planted the back ups that I started 3 weeks ago after the frost killed all the plants at the new patch. They are looking good and with record or near record temps for the next few days it might be hard to keep them from not burning under the hoop houses. Sunday 5-12-2013 started another batch of seeds, just in case the ones I put out burn up. Friday, June 28 View Page A view from the tree house, 990.5 Young on right 1015.5 Cole on left. Size difference of about three weeks due failure of the heater with the first 1015.5. Friday, June 28 View Page Put the shade cover on last week. Friday, June 28 View Page Pollinated yesterday 990.5 Young with 1274 Wolf. I wanted to cross with the 1015.5 Cole but it didn't have any flowers ready. Friday, June 28 View Page With temps. in the 100's yesterday, today and tomorrow. I saw this cooling tower last year on someone's diary and made one but didn't use it and it did make a difference. Friday, June 28 View Page I use two frozen milk jugs with lids off and upside down and holes in the coolers to cool the little pumpkin. Friday, June 28 View Page Outside temp. 98.8. Friday, June 28 View Page Inside temp. 78.8 Friday, June 28 View Page Whoever I stole this idea from THANK YOU, it works great and is easy to make. Two coolers and some handyman secret weapon and it drops the temps. by 20 degrees. Monday, July 1 View Page Pollinated another pumpkin on the 990.5 x self. Thursday, July 11 View Page Went to water the new patch yesterday and looked at the 1274 Wolf that Emilee has claimed as her's and it is the largest of all the pumpkins we have growing. I believe it is at DAP 16 or 17, it was an open pollination so I don't know when it was pollinated exactly. The 1015.5 Cole is not doing well and will be pulled out tonight. The 990.5 Young is growing but is slowing down for some reason. Possibly too much shade from the neighbors trees, they shade the patch at around 5:00pm. Monday, July 15 View Page Bought me a new pumpkin hauler this last weekend, 7'x14' flatbed trailer. It should hold up 3 pumpkins. Now if I can grow at least 3 for the weigh off in September. Monday, July 15 View Page 990.5 Young at Dap 11. Monday, July 15 View Page 990.5 Young Dap 18, cir. 40.5" Monday, July 15 View Page 990.5 Young x 1274 Wolf Monday, July 15 View Page At the new patch we have 5 set, they are all open pollination around July 1-8. One of them is a ribbon vine, but it is one of the stronger plants so I will let it grow to see what comes of it. We had a thunder storm blow some of the plants around and twist and split the vines, they happened to be the 3 Ganserts that I planted a little later in the season after the first set froze. Monday, July 15 View Page 990.5 Young stem shot at 18 DAP. This plant is doing really well it just might be a personal best this year if nothing happens to it. The pumpkin is set at 15' and pollinated on June 26, 2013. Wednesday, July 17 View Page Day 20 for the 990.5 Young 105" ott. This might be a personal best this year, we have had a great start with this plant. The 1015.5 Cole is not doing so well no pumpkins and growth has slow down to little if any older are are yellowish, i think it might have a virus. Long gourdes have reached the top of the trellis and a few female flowers appearing. The new patch has 3 nice pumpkins the girls have claimed and 3 more that will set in the next couple of days. No tomatoes yet, and the watermelon passed on. Now if I can make it to the end of September. Thursday, July 18 View Page Went to water the new patch yesterday and looked at the 1274 Wolf that Emilee has claimed as her's and it is the largest of all the pumpkins we have growing. I believe it is at DAP 16 or 17, it was an open pollination so I don't know when it was pollinated exactly. The 1015.5 Cole is not doing well and will be pulled out tonight. The 990.5 Young is growing but is slowing down for some reason. Possibly too much shade from the neighbors trees, they shade the patch at around 5:00pm. Thursday, July 25 View Page The 990.5 Young has stopped growing and is developing a ghost white appearance I don't know if it was too much heat or what happened to it. It stopped growing about day 22. We have had 18 100+ temps this year, I did find a few squash bugs and sprayed them with bifenthrin, we do have 22% shade cloth over entire plant. The other patch is doing well have 6 set and 3 are in day 20 or close to it, they were all open pollination. Pictures and measurements to come soon. One side note on the 990.5 it is still in the ground and I let one pollinate out about 22' and will see what it does, it is about day 7. Friday, July 26 View Page This little guy is no longer, last night I culled it off the vine because it stopped growing and became moldy. I didn't know they could abort after day 20. Friday, July 26 View Page We have had 18 days with temps in the 100's so far this year in Utah. I read that some of you are experiencing too much rain and others are dealing with cooler temps. Life can be cruel. Friday, July 26 View Page This is the new patch for this year. The one on the right is mine and the one on the left is Sarah's. Friday, July 26 View Page This one is Emilee's in the foreground and Sarah's in the background. Friday, August 9 View Page The 500 Poirier stop growing about two weeks ago, so I entered it in the Weber County fair and won Best of Show. It has nice color but only taped at 148 OTT (77 lbs.) Friday, August 9 View Page LG's are doing well, we have one that is 60". The new trellis that I made this year has some Dipper and Turtle gourds climbing well and should cover the trellis soon. Thursday, August 29 View Page Well it is patch preparation for next year in the patch in the back. I brought in 2 yards of sand and double dug the patch and will be planting a cover crop soon after a soil test. Thursday, August 29 View Page A rainbow appeared the other day watering the other patch that we still have some small pumpkins growing. Thursday, August 29 View Page Sarah has chosen this as hers it is not real big but is a deep orange. Thursday, August 29 View Page Emilee's is the largest that we have this year, it is 260" OTT. She gave it a mud bath early on and it has large scab on it, nickname Scabby. Thursday, August 29 View Page One bright spot this year is that we have 6 LG's growing well and should have some over 100". Thursday, August 29 View Page We also planted some Dipper and Turtle gourdes on the new trellis by the tree house and they are growing well and have almost covered the trellis. Thursday, August 29 View Page A photo of the new trellis off the tree house. Friday, October 4 View Page Weigh off was last Saturday 9-28-2013. We had a great time. We took 4 small pumpkins and 3 long gourdes. Here are three loaded and ready to go. Friday, October 4 View Page We have the largest weigh off in Utah with over 70 pumpkins weighed in one day. Half of them in this photo. Friday, October 4 View Page The other half. Friday, October 4 View Page A four foot diameter pumpkin pie that feed many. Friday, October 4 View Page Emilee with her 428 Kolb. Friday, October 4 View Page Sarah with her 125 Kolb, nice color. Friday, October 4 View Page My 194.5 Kolb. Friday, October 4 View Page My 174 Kolb. Friday, October 4 View Page Long gourdes Friday, October 4 View Page The trophy for the winner, one day I hope that is me. Wednesday, October 16 View Page We took this little one to the elementary school Emilee and Sarah go to for a guess the weight contest. It tapes 170" and is from the 963.5 Gansert seed that I planted a little late after we had some die early in the year. Wednesday, October 16 View Page The front porch this year. We had some smaller pumpkins this year because of the weather and new patch with no soil amendments (low fertility). The gourdes are from the new trellis that was in the back yard.