Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 32 Entries. Friday, January 10 View Page Pic as of this morning. Not a lot happening right now, everything frozen at -7C Saturday, April 19 View Page Seeds started today, 2020 Paton and 2183 Mendi. Both seeds have great genetics so it doesn't really matter which ends up being the chosen one. Wednesday, April 23 View Page It may not look like much but the 2183 has finally germinated on day 4... nothing yet from the 2020 Sunday, April 27 View Page 2183 finally breakin' dirt and about time too! Wednesday, April 30 View Page Ugly twisted cotelydons with the 2183 but I've seen worse, hopefully will be ok as the main leaves come through. If not I've managed to germinate a couple of Paton 2020 so whatever happens there should be something decent to plant. Friday, May 2 View Page Just 48 hours later and 2" of leaf has grown on the 2183, it's looking good and I'm always amazed how quickly these things happen Friday, May 2 View Page A Paton 2020 breakin' dirt. The seeds themselves looked thin, flimsy and dehydrated so I'm both pleased and surprised to get this far Sunday, May 18 View Page After a 3 year absence we're finally underway with the 2183. Thursday, May 22 View Page Looking healthy. Size doubled in 4 days. Monday, May 26 View Page Main vine appeared overnight. Things are about to take off! Monday, June 16 View Page This baby showed last night. Pollination possibly 7-10 days from now. Thursday, June 19 View Page Very strange, the female I want to pollinate is doing a U turn, going back on itself and underneath the leaf! I'll have to remove the leaf and hope it all works out ok Friday, June 20 View Page This ugly duckling was selfed this morning as a backup in case the U-turn flower doesn't work out. Beggars can't be choosers. Not ideal at only 11ft, but time is ticking - next available female won't be ready until July. Sunday, June 22 View Page Pollination dilemmas x3..... I'm still not convinced that the U-turn flower will be worthy: Good - it's in the perfect position, Bad - external shape is all weird..... The one before it was selfed 2 days ago: Good - pollinated and on the go, Bad - only 11ft on the main, ugly & distorted stigma..... Finally a new one at the tip: Good - about 16-17ft on the main and looking prominent, Bad - will be a July pollination..... Comments welcome ;) Sunday, June 22 View Page This is the good one at the end, probably still 7-10 days away. An early July pollination would still leave 90+ days growth. Not ideal but...?! Thursday, June 26 View Page Limescale depostits on the leaf from the overhead misters, not good as it will inhibit photosynthesis. My fault I should have used hydrochloric instead of sulphuric acid, which I will do from now one. It'll make soluble calcium chloride instead of insoluble calcium sulphate; chloride is ok in small amounts but it's not good to let it build up so I will have to install an RO system sooner or later. You live and learn. Thursday, July 3 View Page A typical leaf and looking much better now, HCl at pH 6.0 seems to be doing its job, for the time being at least Thursday, July 3 View Page This was pollinated 5 days ago at 18ft, it was perpendicular to the vine and in a perfect position... now it's decided to head 90 degrees left...!?! I foresee some tricky maneuvering to do in the coming weeks to get it back on track Sunday, July 13 View Page This is DAP16, good growing weather and it shows, will probably start taping soon. I still need to get it into a better position, slowly but surely, while it's still moveable. Thursday, July 17 View Page The 2183 Mendi at DAP20 taping 189lbs, everything looking good and a 70% increase on my previous best at this stage... just got to keep it up now although dull and dreary weather forecast for the next few days won't help Sunday, July 27 View Page DAP 30 taping 529lb and gaining about 35lb per day. Not bad really but I am sure it would be more if we had some sun, it's been cloudy every day for 2 weeks and more forecast to come. Friday, August 1 View Page We've had 3 weeks of cloudy weather now but despite that we're taping exactly 700lb at DAP35 Wednesday, August 6 View Page DAP40 and taping 878lb, putting on 35lb per day despite weeks of grey skies but it looks like that's about to change for the better. Thursday, August 7 View Page There is a fair bit of guttation coming from the pumpkin suggesting there's more going sap into the fruit than it can accommodate - which might lead to a split - so I will gradually reduce watering over the next few days and see if it helps Monday, August 11 View Page This is DAP45 and measuring 1035lb. Irrigation starts at 6.30am and the last one is now 3pm so the plant only gets water when it needs it, it also means a longer dryback period and this has caused the guttation to stop. Saturday, August 16 View Page This is DAP50 and taping 1135lb, a considerable slowdown in gains since last week despite favourable weather. Maybe I should up the watering after all. Thursday, August 21 View Page It turns out I've been using the old charts so with the 2025 charts we have 1304lb at DAP 55 which is of course much better and well on course for a PB this year. Friday, September 5 View Page Grey skies and rain for the past 10 days have slowed growth to 10-15lb a day so at DAP 70 we're at 1538lb Monday, September 15 View Page Today is DAP 80 and the estimate is 1651 lbs. Autumn is here for sure and slow gains as expected like 5-10lb per day. Wednesday, October 1 View Page There's just a few days to go before the weigh-in at Wargrave and the pumpkin is taping a shade over 1700lb. My PB is 1769 so I'm hoping it'll go heavy. We will see! Friday, October 3 View Page The 2183 harvested today. It was grown on a pallet so no need for a sling, just a telehandler which slides right underneath. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Wargrave tomorrow! Good luck all! Sunday, October 5 View Page Wow what a day, not only did my 2183 go 11% heavy resulting in a personal best of 1894lbs, but I was honoured to witness the Patons finally achieve the goal of a lifetime, the World Record 2819 !!! Big thanks to all who got involved, especially Curtis for putting on the GPC Event, and the many people who have helped me get this far, not least James, Ron, Paul, Daniel, John, Mike, and Peter (Canna UK).