Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 135 Entries. Wednesday, January 2 View Page ok, just want to update my diary from last years events. heres my plant about a few weeks old Wednesday, January 2 View Page theres the 1704 Wednesday, January 2 View Page the plant is getting bigger....... Wednesday, January 2 View Page heres the baby..... Wednesday, January 2 View Page getting bigger Wednesday, January 2 View Page BIGGER Wednesday, January 2 View Page to big for the camera! Wednesday, January 2 View Page another pic of the plant before fruit set Wednesday, January 2 View Page wow! now its growing! Wednesday, January 2 View Page even bigger! Wednesday, January 2 View Page i wonder whats inside? Wednesday, January 2 View Page nice and thick Wednesday, January 2 View Page no! its loseing weight to fast!!!!!!!!! Wednesday, January 2 View Page and that sums up 2012! hope you enjoyed it! Wednesday, January 2 View Page pics arent here yet because they take longer to regester Thursday, January 3 View Page heres a pic of my big max in 2011 Thursday, January 3 View Page heres thw whole plant Thursday, January 3 View Page another pic... smaller one started to get ugly dispite how good it looked before. this was grown before i knew anything about growing. again, these are big maxes and are good size for that variety. smaller ones 40 lbs and the bigger one is 100 lbs Thursday, January 3 View Page heres a pic from 2011 at half moon bay....... Thursday, January 3 View Page this one might squash the records Thursday, January 3 View Page this one might squash the records Thursday, January 3 View Page the patch looks great! not! still need to put in rye, 0050, gypsum (ands lots of it!), maybe a few pounds of kelp meal. Thursday, January 3 View Page nice and fluffy...... not Thursday, January 3 View Page nice and fluffy...... not Thursday, January 3 View Page some steme is coming up here, you probably can't see it,,, but its there. top " of soil is warm.. but below that its freezing cold Thursday, January 3 View Page some steme is coming up here, you probably can't see it,,, but its there. top " of soil is warm.. but below that its freezing cold Thursday, January 3 View Page thats where my pumpkin was on a side vine Thursday, January 3 View Page tilled up this area manully....... its the only part of the patch that i approve of....... but it still needs aloy of work before i get some good soil Thursday, January 3 View Page looks kinda soft right? Thursday, January 3 View Page wrong! soil on top " is alright..... the rest is hard as a rock Thursday, January 3 View Page heres the whole patch Thursday, January 3 View Page where are the seeds?!! Thursday, January 3 View Page oh,,, there they are Thursday, January 3 View Page thank you again Mr. Connolly for the 1674 seeds. I think i'm going to cross my 572 into the 1674... and if i have a good year with that i might cross the other 1674 into the offspring of the 1674 times 572. Thursday, January 3 View Page oh, also, it is nice to have some 1725 in my patch, or do the genetics mainly come from the pollenator? if so i still have some good genetics going into the patch Thursday, January 3 View Page heres some of my seeds Thursday, January 3 View Page here they are Thursday, January 3 View Page i left the fridge open for you guys,,,, does anyone see my sandwich? Thursday, January 3 View Page heres the sprayer i got at home depot cecil... Thursday, January 3 View Page trying to find the right fittings for my irrigation system Thursday, January 3 View Page heres some of my ferts from last year... Thursday, January 3 View Page i got this for blooming and possibly root develipment? well, i got it at a hidroponic store. they really like the blooming ferts... i wonder why? :) Thursday, January 3 View Page some neptunes, im not showing all the ferts because im already posting a ton. Thursday, January 3 View Page i gan grow bigger than this! Thursday, January 3 View Page spayer is pretty cool. connects to the 1 gal bottles and goes from 1 tsp to 8 ozs a gallon Thursday, January 3 View Page the spreyer or the dart? Thursday, January 3 View Page he takes aim! Thursday, January 3 View Page heres another pic of the big max from 2011 Thursday, January 3 View Page this is when the patch went wild! Friday, January 4 View Page ok, im experimenting with grafting. are these pots too small? please email me if so. also, do you mind if i do this experiment don? thanks Friday, January 4 View Page heres my seeds for my grafting experiment. there are 8 of them and they are my 572 seeds Friday, January 4 View Page and heres the pots and soil the seeds are going into. im letting the seeds soak over night while the soil heates up. im planting tomarrow and will graft them together sometime soon. Friday, January 4 View Page back to 2012 again, heres a pic of the kin, its been playing alot of golf latly Monday, January 14 View Page got some peat moss for the soil... i hope this will help with loosening the soil. Monday, January 14 View Page thanks for the seeds mr. Jutras. i now have 2 differnt seed stocks and am trying to find room to plant the 1674.5 Connolly and this 1306 Jutras. again thanks Joe! Monday, January 14 View Page heres the seed of the 1306... looks adged but i think it'll germ. Tuesday, January 15 View Page oops, ment aged Thursday, January 17 View Page heres one of the cabbages im growing this year. its a o.s. hybrid. its been known to produce 70 lb heads. im also going to get some northern giant cabbage seeds too. Thursday, January 17 View Page thanks Bart for the seeds! this is the first half. Thursday, January 17 View Page second half... Thursday, January 17 View Page that looks alot better... Sunday, January 20 View Page ok, this is to show the improvement in my soil. this is before soil prep......... Monday, January 21 View Page after..... Monday, February 4 View Page ok, ive receved yet another seed from Mr. Jutras,(thanks Joe!) about 2-3 weekes ago. i have made the dicision to use 1000 sf of our easement to grow 2 extra plants. the plant in my 300 sf patch is the 1661 Jutras (1725 Sweet times 1520 Sperry) and the 2 plants on my easement are the 1674 Connolly (1725 Harp times 1596 Wallace) and 1306 Jutras (1450 Wallace times 1068 Wallace). i intend to cross the 1674 into the 1661, and the 1674 into the 1306 and vise versa.looking foreword to growing these plants! see you at the weigh off! Saturday, March 2 View Page ok, i lost my adapter for my memmory chip but i have found it and i will summerise what has happened recently. Here is a pic of the 2009 i have receved in the mail.(thanks Ron/Pap!)hopefully this is the right picture. Saturday, March 2 View Page here is the RTI pumpkin pro i got from our Elk Grove meet in California. The guy selling it was really nice and threw in a 10 lb bag of pumpkin pro, 6 oz. of azos, and 6 oz. of Calcarb. if he is here, i just want to say thankyou! Saturday, March 2 View Page here are all the seeds Ron and Pap sent me. the seeds are 2009, 1579, and 1104 wallace. again, thanks to both of you! Sunday, March 10 View Page this is going to be my new 600 sf, 20 by 30 patch. i'm going to add 3 inches of rotted manure and go from there. Tuesday, March 19 View Page Every day I go into my seed bin and see a envelope full of my 575.5 seeds from 2012. If you would like to grow one I have plenty to share. Friday, March 29 View Page ok, here is my vine training method for 2013. It has taken a bit of time and I have come up with a couple of strategies that I like, but I like this one the most. I would like to say thank you to Thad starr who has posted his vine traning strategies on his online website. If you look at both of them they look alot simular but I have made a few tweaks like letting the main vine grow back down the side of the patch instead of cutting the main, which I am told has a hormone that keeps the plant growing in its tip. I have also curved the vine at the pumpkin to relieve stem stress. Thursday, April 4 View Page ok, lets get updated! Thursday, April 4 View Page here are the 2 seeds going into patch 1 which is my older patch and also my largest at a amazing 300 square feet! :) Thursday, April 4 View Page here is the shade cloth. I wasnt able to take another picture once i put on the final touches but i pretty much added 3 more beams to help hold up the shade cloth. Thursday, April 4 View Page Here is my grow box. Both seeds have some roots coming out of their tips. I accidentally buried the 1788 a little too deep but that shouldnt be much of a problem. Thursday, April 18 View Page 1775 Starr is looking good. 13 days after germing and it is forming its 2nd true leaf. fortunate to have some good weather this early. I'm going to start the rest of my seeds on the 20th or so. Monday, May 6 View Page the main plant is doing very well. It is on its 6th true leaf and i am trying something a little different. I am going to squirt some co2 into my greenhouse along with using cal carb going on the leaves weekly to bi monthly. I'll soon see what the affects of doing this is. Friday, June 7 View Page Still no pic's,,, pumpkin is exploding with growth. The main is at 12 ft. with a small pumpkin set at about 11.5 feet or so. The 5-6 first side vines are at about 5 ft. and the rest are growing like crazy trying to keep up. Tuesday, June 11 View Page Main is at 15 ft. Friday, June 14 View Page Just got back my tissue test. The results say I need to lower N and K and raise Mn, Mg, Ca and S. Friday, June 14 View Page Ok, pumpkin is 2 days old, set about 14 ft. Out. The main is about 18 ft. out. The one thing that worries me is that the pumpkin was pollinated about 30 hours ago and the female blossom isn't showing any sign of wilting. Is this bad? Please email me... Tuesday, June 18 View Page Patch update: This morning I found my second pumpkin at 19 ft. chewed off by one of our dogs. The only pumpkin left should be my pumpkin of choice at 15 ft. Monday, June 24 View Page The 1775 has officially filled up 300 Sf. of patch. The chosen pumpkin is at 11 DAP., 51 OTT. Hopefully the pumpkin will start picking up speed. Wednesday, June 26 View Page After 2 weeks of cuting back on nitrogen, watering and a lot of vine growth i think it is safe to say that my N levels have gone down. Todays measurements at 13 DAP are 68 OTT, 8 OTT more than yesterday. Friday, June 28 View Page pumpkin at 15' is at 15 DAP and is 88 ott, 88 cir., estimating about 19 lbs and 6 lbs up from yesterday. Saturday, June 29 View Page This is the beginning of my cloning project! Dead headed 7 vines off of the 1775 and put them in the cloning machine. I have a lot of extra room so I put in 34 white rose cuttings. In about a week the roses should be rooted and once i pot them i'll clone some tomatos. meanwhile the kin on the 1775 is a bit bigger than the average sized basket ball at 15 DAP and is doing about 11 ott a day and counting. Monday, July 1 View Page Ok, i will try my very best to get some pics up by the end of this week. Appairently my phone cant take jpg. pics and my picture library cannot convert it to jpg. meanwhile the fruit set is doing about 4 cir. (10 lbs) a day at 19 dap. Also update on the 1775 clones the clones have some tiny roots sprouting out of them. Tuesday, July 2 View Page ok, where starting to get a move on. The 1775 is 55 cir. and 141 ott. and did 5 cir (19 pounds) last night. if it keeps this up it should easily surpass my pb of 572 which peaked out at 20 lbs a day last yr. Tuesday, July 2 View Page ok, i just got 3 more cuttings from my patch today. now i have 12 clones 7 of which where started a few days before the others and are already rooted. If anyone would like a 1775 clone for next yr weather it be for pollen or for seeds just email my Dad at "[email protected]" to reserve a clone for free as long as you can pay shipping. Tuesday, July 2 View Page just got some more tape on the 1775. seems like it will put on a lot of weight tonight as it has put on 3 cir. already today since i last measured it this morning about 9 hours ago. the pumpkin looks like it will be the classical shape you see in the 1789 and 2009 wallace. It has the wide, tall shoulders with a little hump on the top to top it off. Wednesday, July 3 View Page 67 CIR, 19 DAP, and 141 OTT Thursday, July 18 View Page heres the 1775 plant. Thursday, July 18 View Page heres the pumpkin on the 1775 35 dap 271 ott 447 lbs new chart. should beat my pb in 4-5 days and it gained 29 lbs last night. Thursday, July 18 View Page heres the 1135 Jutras late start squash. the other one rotted in the pot so i just planted the other one i had. this looks like it will be a healthy plant and with a bit of pampering i might be able to get a 100 lber off of it. Friday, July 19 View Page the pumpkin only grew 17 lbs. today but i have noticed that there has been a pattern where the weight gains dip for a day and then they resume back to normal. Friday, July 19 View Page oops, it should say 20 lbs. Saturday, July 20 View Page 1775 37 dap 493 lbs gained 25 lbs last night Saturday, July 20 View Page 1135 J. squash Saturday, July 20 View Page 1775 shot from today Tuesday, July 23 View Page and a new PB at 576 est. lbs! gained 29 lbs last night. Wednesday, July 24 View Page 1775 Starr yesterday 40 dap 576 lbs Sunday, July 28 View Page 1775 DAP 45. its developing a bit of a sag line but other than that it looks fine. I projected that it should be 900 lbs by 50 DAP but it slowed down a bit and i estimate that it should be 800 lbs by DAP 50. currently it weighs 693 lbs and over the past two days it has gained a average of 23 lbs. Monday, July 29 View Page heres the 1775 (i have now named her iceberg because of the color and because the tip that sticks out of the leaves isnt the whole thing)the sag line seems to be getting worse and i am now spraying cal mag plus and nutri cal once a week in hopes of thickening the walls. I really think she will make it the rest of the year but you could never be sure. she now weighs 715 lbs at 46 DAP and has put on 25 lbs last night. Monday, July 29 View Page back end pic of iceberg Tuesday, July 30 View Page Iceberg is ramping up again. Did 27 lbs a day for the past 2 Days at 47 DAP. Tuesday, July 30 View Page Found a crack on iceberg today. It was right inbetween a rib on the dill ring. It hasn't gone into the cavity of the fruit but it still has a chance of breaking in. I have washed it with bleach and capped it off with sulphur. Wednesday, July 31 View Page well, it looks like this is it. i removed the cap of sulphur i put on to see just how bad it had gotten. I probed into the crack and i have found that it is 4 inches deep, not quite into the cavity, but definately close. I will see how the crack is doing and i will measure daily to see if growth stops. if growth stops i Guess i have 800 lbs of pumpkin to haul to the dumpster. Thursday, August 1 View Page Well, I guess this is the end of iceberg. She is still growing 25 pounds a day but the crack area is starting to rot. I will extract the seeds in a couple of days and if anyone wants a seed please email my Dad at [email protected]. I am going to do some pollinations tomorrow so that i can at least get a 400-500 lber to the weigh in. Thursday, August 1 View Page Oh also iceberg was 801 est. lbs today and is 1775 Starr (1725 x self) times self for anyone who wants the purebred 1725 genetics. Friday, August 2 View Page 1775,,,,, R.I.P. if i cant get to a weigh off in time, i can weigh it myself chunk by chunk. The final est weight was 808 lbs est. and before it split it was growing 25 lbs a day without slowing down. Tuesday, August 6 View Page heres the plant outside the patch yesterday. Tuesday, August 6 View Page 1775 yesterday 2 dap Tuesday, August 6 View Page oops, should say 1 dap Friday, August 9 View Page 1775 DAP 2 Friday, August 9 View Page another 2 DAP Friday, August 9 View Page Dispite the fact that this one is on the vine growing off of a tert vine it looks like it might be the fastest grower. 6 DAP a bit bigger than a softball. Friday, August 9 View Page 1135 Jutras Squash late start. i've got one pumpkin 8 feet out as shown in the pic that i will poll in about 5-8 days or so. Friday, August 9 View Page 1135 plant,,, starting to put out the sides Friday, August 9 View Page applyed 5 spoonfulls of azos and 1 cc of great white mycorrhizae to the soil in 1.5 gallons of water around the base of the 1135. Friday, August 9 View Page the 1775 5 dap in the bucket Friday, August 9 View Page the 1775 5 dap in the bucket Friday, August 9 View Page Im not going to mess around with the mycorrhizae next year. I wasn't able to apply much myco in the water soluble form but next year i'm going all out with it. I think i will drench great white every 2 days at 2 cc's or so per gallon. Also i will be getting a variety of organic benicicials and mycorrhizae products. Friday, August 9 View Page sorry, should say 6 dap instead of 5 Friday, August 9 View Page also should say 2 cc's every 5 gallons in the other post Saturday, August 10 View Page heres a picture of the growth outside of the patch. Im trying to deplete the soil a bit so that i can A. Amend my patch so that the soil isnt so compacted after a couple of months of growing, and B. so that the nutrient levels are a bit too low instead of too high. I'm planning on amend the soil with 3-4 inches shredded leaves sprayed with a lieter molasses (thanks for the help Cecil) 1 inch of compost, 1-2 inches of sand and about 5 lbs of mixed cover crop. Thursday, August 15 View Page 1775 pumpkin 1: DAP 11 cir 29 s.s. 21 e.e. 20 ott = 70 inches or 24.6 lbs or about 4.5 lbs heavyer than yesterday. pumpkin 2 is DAP 10 and 47 ott. My 844 est. was 46 ott. DAP 10. the 1135 was open pollinated by the bees (i thought it was going to open tomorrow so i slept in)Ive got 4-5 pumpkins under 10 DAP that look like they might overpass kin 2 and if i'm lucky one might overpass kin 1. Saturday, August 24 View Page puuled the 1775 today. I have collected soil for my soil test and i will send it out soon. The soil looks a bit out of shape so i will be adding a lot of organic matter. Friday, September 13 View Page heres my soil test. I'm thinking a couple inches of leaves, one inch cow manure and some gypsum. Wednesday, September 25 View Page Change of gameplan. After the soil test i've been tring to figure out a good way to remove some of the soil nutrients. I am going to broadfork the whole area to 16" deep (the soil is about 11" deep before you hit hardpan) And pretty much leave the soil be besides a few things. I will have to raise the Ca as it is not balanced with K which I am certian is why this years pumpkin went down to a dill ring. I will do this by adding about 30 lbs Gypsum so the soil which should also help break up the hardpan and lower the salts. I will also add about 10 cups of lime as reccomended by the packaging to bring my ph up to about 7 ph. I would prefer 7.2 but i am going o do it in a slower fashon than I would like to keep the soil from going far off balance. The last step would be to add hollands 50% winter rye 40% winter oats and 10% hardy vetch to raise the om so that the hardpn will break down easier, and so the vetch will raise my N a little bit. Wednesday, September 25 View Page Oh will also add about 2" leaaves to this patch Sunday, October 6 View Page oops should be small patch and big patch. Saturday, November 23 View Page Here are the seed packets that are a model for the packets that I will be making. Tuesday, December 31 View Page HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY THIS BE A YEAR OF MANY PERSONAL BESTS TO ALL GROWERS! Tuesday, December 31 View Page HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY THIS BE A YEAR OF MANY PERSONAL BESTS TO ALL GROWERS! Tuesday, December 31 View Page HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY THIS BE A YEAR OF MANY PERSONAL BESTS TO ALL GROWERS! Tuesday, December 31 View Page HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY THIS BE A YEAR OF MANY PERSONAL BESTS TO ALL GROWERS!