Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 45 Entries. Thursday, January 24 View Page Hello to everyone! I hope you all are doing well. I can't wait until it's time to plant again. Take Care, Candis Wednesday, April 10 View Page I started my giant pumpkin inside on April 10th this year 2013. My husband came up with a good name for the giant pumpkin this year. This year he is named "Semore" because we want to "see more" this year than we did last year with "Morty" my first Giant pumpkin attempt. Morty weighed 12.5 pounds LOL! I should have gotten the award for the smallest giant pumpkin.... This year I planted a seed I bought too late to plant last year. I got it from the Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin growers website. It was easy to order with PayPal.I thought $10.00 was a bit steep but I figured it was helping the association which I am a member of so I bought a package. I choose a seed from Cecil Weston's pumpkin. He is located in Circleville, Ohio and Teresa have been very nice to answer my questions about growing a giant pumpkin. Imagine my surprise when the seeds came and it wasn't seeds it was "a seed" a $10.00 seed... Oh my goodness. I should have taken a picture of it but I didn't think of it at the time. It was a really big seed way bigger than the seed I ordered from eBay last year. I was a long time before it finally sprouted. I actually dug it up because I was afraid the soil was too wet and it was going to rot. At the time I planted I didn't have any seed started so I scooped out the seed and added the jiffy mix and re-planted. To be honest I dug that poor seed up 3 times in all... I wanted to see what it was doing and I just couldn't understand why it was taking so long to sprout. Since then I've learned that there are tips to help the seed along but I didn't know them at the time. Friday, May 10 View Page Placed in Garden looking good. Transplanted May 10th. Thursday, May 16 View Page May 16th All the plants in the garden are wilted and look like they are dying. We watered them well last night. I'm wondering if the the miracle grow was the cause or not enough water? Friday, May 17 View Page Started inside April 10th. Placed in Garden May 10th Friday, May 17 View Page Yesterday May 16th. Totally wilted and look like it would die for sure. Today it still looks bad but is better than it was. Friday, May 17 View Page May 17th Still alive The plant is still alive but the bottom two leaves are pale. One of those has a big chew hole from some sort of critter. I hope the plant lives...This makes me sad. It does look much better than yesterday. I put some newspaper around it to hopefully keep the soil moist. I think I will try adding some mulch today. Saturday, May 18 View Page We did a really fun thing on May 18th. We attend a giant pumpkin seminar in Circleville Ohio. We took this pic of the pumpkin water tower when we drove by. The seminar was hosted by Cecil Weston and Dr. Bob Liggett. They are giant pumpkin growing experts. They have both grown giant pumpkins... (I mean really illy giant pumpkins). We watch an exceptionally informative power point presentation and afterwards they allowed time to answer all of our 5 million questions. We became members of the Circleville Giant Pumpkin Growers Club and we came home with two giant pumpkin plants That they gave to us. They also gave us zip lock bags of stuff to put on the roots. Thanks to them we may still get to grow a giant pumpkin this year. Yay! I'm soooo excited! We decided to plant them at the back of the yard and let them grow toward the east (which I guess is the directions that pumpkins like to grow "naturally"). We will be urban pumpkin growers. We went home and that same day made plans to prepare the soil for planting. We chose a spot away from our vegetable garden. The only place we have is in the grass in the backyard. We will scrape off the grass and do the best we can with what we have to work with. With God's help maybe we will grow a giant pumpkin. Monday, May 20 View Page It is official "Semore" is dead. We thought initially that the problem was from a fungus in the bag of soil I used when I transplanted. The whole garden is looking really bad though and not growing like it should be all of the plants took a hit. We now think it could be the lawn care service that we use and that the wind carried the poison into the garden. We canceled the lawn service. Monday, June 24 View Page Our 9 year old grandson David was with us today. We just love him he is such a blessing in our lives. We got some pictures of him with the giant pumpkin plants. Monday, June 24 View Page pic of one of our pumpkin plants Wednesday, June 26 View Page June 26th 2013 our pumpkin plants are growing. They seem even bigger than they were a few days ago.It looks like at least a yard longer... crazy....Here is a picture of our two giant pumpkin plants. The one in the foreground is the is the larger of the two Wednesday, June 26 View Page We had to put up a fence to keep the dogs out of the garden they love the fishy smelling stuff we put on them to help them grow. Chester is in the background wishing he could get inside. Earlier each plant had their own little fence and you can see some leaf damage caused by the chicken wire. In this pic you can see one of the secondary vines so exciting! Wednesday, June 26 View Page A few weeks ago Katie our old senior dog went into the garden and dug up and ate the roots of my tomato plants. She loves the fish product that I put on them to help them grow. I added soil and reburied the poor exposed chewed roots and tried to baby them but they are not doing well at this point. I'm hoping they were just set back a bit on time rather than dying.The entire garden looks bad. I don't know why. Friday, June 28 View Page Our first pumpkin soooo cute and small grow baby grow! Friday, June 28 View Page This is the plant with the tiny baby pumpkin on the end for perspective. You can't even see the baby in this pic but he's there on the end. Sunday, June 30 View Page They grew even more after the huge rain. This is me.. "Farmer Lucky" as Steve calls me with the giant pumpkins. Sunday, June 30 View Page Here you can see the veggie garden with the giant pumpkins in the background Friday, July 5 View Page What a nice surprise to come home this morning after work and see that Farmer Steve had been out working hard burring vines and making new white covers for the babies. The white covers are what Cecil and Teresa Weston(giant pumpkin experts in Circileville, Ohio) recommend to shade the pumpkins from the hot sun. As the pumpkins grow larger they need to be protected from the sun so that the outter shell won't become hard and firm. If this happens they can split open because of their rapid growth rate. Friday, July 5 View Page Here is Baby today. He is about the size of a golf ball or maybe a little bigger. Humm... that gives me an idea about naming him... Maybe I'll call him "Little-bigger". There is a story behind the name "Little-bigger." The Story of Little bigger When Rosie our grand daughter was around 3 years old she didn't want us to say that she was too little to do what she wanted to do. She would say no I'm "little bigger". At that time when visiting she still slept in a pack-n-play. One night we decided to use a big air mattress instead of the pack-n-play.... This did not go over well with Rosie. She cried and cried and said "no Lucky I'm a "little-bigger" sniff ..sob... sob .."I'm a Little-bigger". So out came the pack-n-play and Rosie slept with her feet pushing out on the side netting. She was a truly happy "little bigger" that night. Friday, July 5 View Page I made a little Tee Pee for our little grand kid's. I planted peas, beans and cherry tomatoes around it. It is starting to take shape. The rest of the garden is still looking sickly...I don't understand what is happening this year with my veggie garden. Sunday, July 7 View Page Our Pumpkin Patch is growing. Farmer Steve was busy extending the fence over the weekend. I'm glad the pumpkins like the rain the ground is soggy out there but they seem to like it. Sunday, July 7 View Page June 28 to July 7 changes. Little bigger started out about the size of Steve's finger nail and now is about as big around as a water bottle. You can see in this photo that the blossom is finished blooming. I am not sure if the pumpkin was pollinated. If it was not pollinated the fruit will die and drop off of the vine. That is a very sad thought. Sunday, July 7 View Page Here is a pic of the new pumpkin on the end of the vine located 3 feet away from "little-bigger". You can see that the blossom on the end has not opened yet. I call this pumpkin "Sibbie" because she is a sibling to little-bigger. Thursday, July 11 View Page Farmer Steve with Little Bigger the giant pumpkin. Yesterday before the storms rolled through I gave the pumpkins some "Mega Fish" .... I think they really liked it! Thursday, July 11 View Page Here is me with "Little Bigger" our giant pumpkin. Thursday, July 11 View Page Here is the blossom end pic. Friday, July 12 View Page Here you can see Little Bigger and Sibbie our Giant pumpkins getting bigger. Today they were given some "Mega Sea" an organic solution that helps them grow. Friday, July 12 View Page Our pumpkin patch today. Friday, July 12 View Page I sent an email today to Cecil Weston (Giant Pumpkin Expert) about the vine that is so close to the pumpkin. I remember that we should remove it and I remember something about peroxide to put on the end. I'm so afraid to do it wrong and I don't want to damage the pumpkin. Saturday, July 13 View Page After getting an email from Cecil Weston I went out to the pumpkin patch and uncovered the vine and began the process of moving the end into a 90 degree position from the pumpkin. I did the move as he suggested during the heat of the day so moving it wouldn't snap the vine. I also dug out the area where the pumpkin stem was and put a small board under it attempting to raise it to the level of the stem. The only board I had on hand wasn't think enough so I jammed a water bottle underneath it for today. I don't have Styrofoam either so I put a cushy garden kneeling pad under it until we can get some tomorrow. I also uncovered the vine on the other plant and moved the vine. That pumpkin seems to be in better shape as the stem is still level with the little pumpkin. Saturday, July 13 View Page This is what my pumpkin and vine look like after I uncovered the vine moved it and attempted to raise the stem. It is not level yet but I was afraid to do too much all at once. We will work on it more tomorrow. I put a kneeling pad under the pumpkin for today to get it up off of the ground. We will get some sand and Styrofoam tomorrow. Tomorrow we will buy the supplies we need to cut the vine that is encroaching on the pumpkin. The thought of doing this is really scary to me. I'm off to work tonight 7pm-7am Saturday, July 13 View Page This is my attempt at moving the vine. Friday, July 19 View Page Growing well Friday, July 19 View Page Pumpkin number two Tuesday, July 23 View Page Here is our grand daughter with the largest of the two pumpkins. Monday, July 29 View Page Our two pumpkins and the new hoop houses Thursday, August 15 View Page Our little patch Thursday, August 15 View Page "little bigger" Thursday, August 15 View Page "Onesimus" Sunday, August 18 View Page Onesimus estimated at 140 pounds Sunday, August 18 View Page "Little Bigger" estimated 105 pounds Monday, September 2 View Page Our two pumpkins in the "grass patch" Monday, September 2 View Page "Onesimus" estimated 170 pounds Monday, September 2 View Page "Little Bigger" estimated 105 pounds