Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 176 Entries. Tuesday, January 1 View Page Joshua, are you excited for the 2013 pumpkin patch???? Yes papa! How big will it get? This big papa! Tuesday, January 1 View Page Blessings everyone. This year it's me and my son Joshua. We will try our best together and have fun. Here is Joshua enjoying the patch and running on the leaves. Tuesday, January 1 View Page the patch is collecting leaves. I have 20 trash cans full of compacted leaves, about 4 to 5 inches thick over 80% of the patch. Only is San Diego is patch prep done in January! Chris, thank you for the Christmas gift, it arrived safely! Tilling and manure will be done this month sometime! Friday, January 11 View Page a little pumpkin break. Me, my wife, and Joshua up in Julian, which is in eastern San Diego County. Famous for apples! Friday, January 11 View Page who says it doesn't get cold in San Diego??? Yup, thats snow, and those trees are iced up good! Friday, January 11 View Page Joshua running around in the snow and my wife enjoying a hot drink! :) It got down to 14 degrees on the mountain the night prior, with a daytime high of 32. Friday, January 11 View Page Last horay! Ok, let's get back in the car, it's cold!!!!!!! Thursday, January 17 View Page vacation continues at seaworld. This is a fun photo of me and my dad on the roller coaster ride. I'm waving in the photo and my dad next to me! Pretty intense ride with the forces. Looks like we are still but it's going fast when my wife snapped this photo. Not bad for my dad who is 72 to ride this kind of ride!!!! Pumpkin patch finally got tilled today. All the leaves are now mixed in the soil. I did not put in my usual 3 to 4 yards of manure, no time to do the work! lol. More fun spending with family fun on vacation. I will add some in spring probably. Monday, February 18 View Page met a grower selling seeds on ebay. I saw a picture of a beautiful smooth real orange fruit in his pictures. About 800 lbs he said. I asked what seed grew it? He said 980 Fredricks! I was cool! It grew well, and went very heavy. It was growing fast but he told me he didn't lift the vine by the stem and it got a stem split from grower error at 600 lbs and then slowed donw after the split on the stem. Weighed at gpc weigh off. I am more and more impressed with the incredible consistancy of red orange, smooth beautiful fruit grown from the 980. And big too. Makes me want to grow it again and show off what the seed can really do. hhhhhhmmmmmm. Friday, February 22 View Page warm san diego again! We made a short trip to mt laguna in san diego for some snow! About 10 inches on the ground. Joshua's first adventure in deep snow and he was crying in 30 seconds from the cold! lol Friday, February 22 View Page of course he wasn't real happy after papa got him with some airborn snow that hit him:-) lol Friday, February 22 View Page The Fredricks family enjoying the beautiful day in God's beautiful country. Friday, March 22 View Page joshua at the fredrick's pumpkin patch. He was a real help today in pulling weeds and building the pumpkin fence! Good job buddy! Friday, March 22 View Page here is the 2013 patch. Since it is just me and my son this year, the patch size is smaller than last year. Looks big in the picture, but it's not that big in person! This was my final till, soil is prepped and ready. I got it ready early this year so I can do other stuff. Still a long way off from planting time with my late start this year. Still need watering system, shade cloth, and misting system to install in the next month or two! Thanks again Chris for the mail delivery! Tuesday, April 9 View Page The line between glory and miserable failure in this hobby is very small! This will be my 12th year growing. In my 11 years so far, 4 seasons ended with absolutely nothing due to disease, gophers, or splits. Growing only one plant a year is very dangerous. I was reminded again about high tight a line we walk when I woke up to find my patch had been invaded by an evil presence!!!!! The dreaded gopher!!!!!! Oh I hate these guys:) I'm kind of famous for gophers on bp.com, even made it into a book for one of my old diary posts under my previous screen name "Duster". Honey, where's my gun??? It's hunting time! Tuesday, April 16 View Page gopher must have heard of my infamous past and departed the area before I could get a shovel and go nuts chopping it up:) Lol In all seriousness, I don't know why it left, but it is gone. Maybe in gopher heaven eaten by something or on to better tunnels else where. Been focusing on fixing up things around the house. Haven't done any more patch prep:) Monday, May 6 View Page Today is day one for the 2013 season for me and my son Joshua. I have started 3 seeds. We will plant two, and cull down to one. I even let Joshua pick his own seed as one of the three! :) I will do my best to have fun this season and not be so serious ;-D For fun, since this season is about fun, the seed selection will remain a fun secret until later in the season. And yes, we started different seeds from different pumpkins. Our goal, get a pumpkin up to pumpkinmania in late October. Thursday, May 9 View Page Daddy is taking me for a ride! Here is how the story began.... Thursday, May 9 View Page Daddy started 3 seeds 3 days ago, after 42 hours of trying to germinate them, nothing happed! Daddy lost his favorite vcr which always germinated seeds 100% every year. So daddy tried an old heating pad with great confidence only to be so sad. 3 very good seeds were lost! But wait, his friend vince came by and picked up the dead seeds and put them in his own perfect warm chamber. So, we are at Vince's house to see if they came to life by some miracle.... Thursday, May 9 View Page Look papa, here is the wonderful wizard of seeds! Mr Vince:) Thursday, May 9 View Page oooohhhh, papa look, the seed chamber. And it looks so warm...... Thursday, May 9 View Page look papa, Mr vince has a nice garden in his backyard! But are the seeds ok papa? ..... Thursday, May 9 View Page look papa, two of the seeds came back to life after another 30 hours or so!!!! And one of the seeds is the one I choose. A moment of silence for the seed not pictured please....... Thursday, May 9 View Page all tucked away papa, let's let the seeds rest and grow, it has been a hard week for them..... Papa also says one more seed is at the magical pumpkin wizard's house, waiting to see if it will have a chance to fight for the patch too. Time will tell. Friday, May 10 View Page weather is warming up, gonna get hot for the next few days, but not much to worry about with seeds still inside in pots. Mr Chris Dunn, that third seed that was started by the pumpkin wizard looks to be a dud after 48 hours in a perfect seed chamber started advanced method. Unfortunately it was the 1596 werner you gave to me. It's still in the chamber, but looks bleak. Thank you for your generousity and a chance at it! But that's ok, we got two good seeds growing in pots. Identity still unknown. Both from different pumpkins, one choosen by Joshua, one choosen by me. Very different genetics. Waiting for them to poke through. Sunday, May 12 View Page smoking hot today. Mostly cold spring, with occasional really hot weather. hhhhmmm, strange weather start. Gonna be 100 today! Pulled pots out of sun or they would cook! lol. Bother plants are just ready to peak through the soil anytime. Sunday, May 12 View Page I need to spell check better:) Tuesday, May 14 View Page both plants are up as of Monday morning and growing nicely in this hot weather. They will be transplanted by Saturday. I have lost the charger to my camera and the battery is dead. Pictures are on hold until it's found. Seems like things disappear easy with a 2 year old! :) As for the seeds, (chris or anyone else curious) they will still remain a fun mystery. Someone has guessed they are 980's, hhhhhhmmmmm, maybe! lol Pictures will come when camera is working! Thursday, May 16 View Page seedling in the pot! Mystery plant looking very well. Looks too perfect for my liking! lol Thursday, May 16 View Page seedling number two! I'll call her curly:) Also very aggressive healthy seedling. Thursday, May 16 View Page the girls together. Will be transplanted this saturday when I have time. The one plant is darker green than the other. Always fun little differences. Hint number one for the plants, both plants weights end in 0. So, neither one is an 1116 George. Saturday, May 18 View Page come on papa, we have something special to do... Saturday, May 18 View Page hhhmmmm, hurry up papa! Saturday, May 18 View Page I'll take the shovel papa! Saturday, May 18 View Page I'm so excited! Saturday, May 18 View Page Look papa, I got the shovel and secret box all ready. Saturday, May 18 View Page Ok, Joshua, papa will help you up into the patch. Saturday, May 18 View Page :) Saturday, May 18 View Page let's dig two holes papa! Saturday, May 18 View Page ok papa, let's get the dirt back in! Saturday, May 18 View Page all done papa, both plants look warm in there new home. Let's wait and see how they grow. Saturday, May 18 View Page There's beer in the patch tonight! lol. And no, I don't drink. Explain later:) Monday, May 20 View Page Plants are growing. Kind of a rough start in the patch so far. Both plants seemed to have sustained some kind of burn on the second developing leaf. hhhhhmmmm, I suspect slight damage from a neighbor spraying weed killer or something. Not good! Oh well! Hope they grow out of it. Never had that before, but always a first time. Joshua was out there with me this morning, he took off one of the rebarb protectors which are heavy and he chucked it into the patch!!!!! Needless to say it landed about 3 inches away from "curly", my nickname for the one plant. Another inch or two and it was toast!! lol Man, it's dangerous out here. Curly seems to be growing faster and bigger than the other plant, but one thing I want to mention to newer growers, size and speed of growth for young plants means nothing. Slow starters can be just as good if not better at growing huge pumpkins. Tuesday, May 21 View Page this beer thing has some potential! Saturday, May 25 View Page beer in the patch????? Can it be??? Saturday, May 25 View Page a test trial! Filled up tuna can, pill bugs love it, get drunk, drown, and die. lol Sounds like a horror movie or something. I read it on line and guess what? it works. I will be declaring a beer war soon in the patch Saturday, May 25 View Page here's the photo for the last post! Saturday, May 25 View Page this is Joshua's close call. It almost took out Curly!!! A few more inches and Joshua would have made the cull choice for me! Saturday, May 25 View Page here's plant number one as of today. Seems to be doing fine, just a little small in size, but that's ok:) This is my number one plant and will get the patch if it grows normal. Seed???? still a mystery, I think I lost the envelope! lol Just kidding;-D Saturday, May 25 View Page plant number two, growing good as well. seed??? we'll keep it a secret too for now. Saturday, May 25 View Page patch prep is still in progress, but looking better. I got the misters in and the frame for the shade cloth. Saturday, May 25 View Page anyone interested, here is my misting set up. rebarb, and a micro sprinkler on a timer. Two micro sprinklers cover whole patch, almost like light rain. Waters and cools plant besides drip lines. Saturday, May 25 View Page Joshua hanging out with "sprinkles", our neighbors great dane next to the patch. Ok, I will give everyone this info. One of the two plants is a 980 Fredricks!!!!! Which one, I'll let you guess:) The other, well, it might be anything. Maybe another 980, or maybe something different. That's for you Chris! :) Is it plant one or two??? hhhhmmmmm Sunday, May 26 View Page funny what pumpkin growing does to you. Me, a non drinker and my 2 year old son buying a six pack of beer from target! lol Thus stuff seems to be working. I just set 5 more traps in the patch to kick it into high war against sow bugs. The best part, the little babies, which I can't get in the past, are getting killed in the traps. Sure, I could wipe them all out with merit, but being organic, the babies are hard to kill. Last year I got all the adults by hand squishing, but the babies, which were everywhere ate my tap roots like crazy and repopulated the patch with thousands. My patch is a nursery for the babies, thousands of them. I also seem to be finding dead pill bugs just laying in the dirt, the big ones. I think they might be getting out of the traps and then dying later. Pretty cool organic way to take them out. We will see if the effort works or if they take over as the plant grows. Monday, May 27 View Page oh, it's a baby sow bug, beer, horror death movie in the patch today! lol These traps are great:-D Probably took out 150 little guys during the night. A great spiritual lesson here, don't drink too much or it turns bad;) Tuesday, June 4 View Page plants are still slowly growing. Both vines are sticking straight up and not sure which way they want to go! :) Curley looks like it might be going double vine on me, will see if it pulls out of it or not. On a side note, a great blessing to share. My wife is pregnant and we are expecting in December! Another reason I won't touch a chemical right now and all organic. Other than that, patch is quiet still:) Wednesday, June 5 View Page beer traps are catching an amazing amount of baby pill bugs. I just counted around 100 in one trap alone dead. Probably took out 600 little guys now. BUT, this is a loosing war. I lift up a drip line and see hundreds of baby pill bugs still everywhere. They must number in the tens of thousands! It's plague status in my patch. They must breed like rabbits on steroids! They really are destructive and a pain in the rear! :) I hate those guys lol. Well, nothing to be done except spray chemicals which I won't do, so looks like they will harass me and my son's plant all year. Thursday, June 6 View Page picture of one of my beer traps just one day after setting out. All of the small brown things are pill bugs!!!!!! I counted around 100 or so in it. Amazing how many the traps kill and amazing how many are in my dirt! :) Also found one of my plants has an infestation of aphids already! And it's on my number one plant. Ugh!!! lol. Well Joshua, gonna be a small pumpkin this year buddy! Thursday, June 6 View Page spent the day at sea world with family. Here we are going down a big drop on the Atlantis ride. Fun! :-D Thursday, June 6 View Page what's up in the sky papa??? I see aphids, worms, flying pill bugs, moths, and butterflies laying eggs on my plants buddy! Take cover Joshua, it's gonna get ugly! Ok papa! Sunday, June 9 View Page what's going on today Joshua? Sunday, June 9 View Page curley on the right, other plant on left, which one to keep? Well, curley is showing double vines unfortunately, so the mystery plant on the left will be kept. Sunday, June 9 View Page Joshua had honors to bury curley and take her to the trash. Good job buddy! Sunday, June 9 View Page her final resting place. We'll spare the horrific picture of her going in:) Sunday, June 9 View Page the mystery plant. Well, we are having bug issues. A worm took a good chunk out of one leaf as you can see. I cut off the first 3 leaves on the stump to clean it up and get rid of the aphids. I inspected plant today, two days after spraying organicide, and I found a new infestation of aphids on all of the leaves. I have never seen so many landing on my plant and attacking. Not good! Will spray again tonight and cross fingers things get better or it's gonna be a long season with a small fruit! :) Monday, June 10 View Page I love beer!!!!! lol set out this trap just one night, caught between 200 to 300 pill bugs in this trap alone:) See the beer at the bottom of the trap? It's full of dead pill bugs too you can't even see. These things work great :-D I just have so many of them. Thursday, June 13 View Page I have a pumpkin!!!!!! :) It's only 3 to 4 feet out from the stump! lol Tuesday, June 18 View Page score one for the pill bugs! my first secondary putting down it's first tap root got eaten off lol. Oh well, who needs taps roots anyway;) Wednesday, June 19 View Page the mystery plant as of tonight. It has gotten warmer lately and spurred growth. I am having to bury the vine to keep pill bugs from chewing the tap roots. Not my favorite thing since rot can be an issue later. Another wave of aphids hit the plant tonight. Man, it never ends this year!!!!! Over all, plant looks healthy. Joshua says, "pumpkin plants gettin bigger." Yes it is buddy. Hope to polinate a fruit in 3 weeks or so. Wednesday, June 26 View Page hhhmmm, papa tells me that Mr Dunn really wants to beat me this year. That's ok papa, he is a very nice man who works very hard in his patch. I like Mr Dunn:) Joshua, how big of a pumpkin are you gonna grow this year buddy? hhhhmmm, well, I think the biggest pumpkin I have ever grown papa! That's pretty good Joshua! I guess any pumpkin you grow will be your biggest since it's your first huh. Yes, Papa. But don't tell Mr Dunn about our new secret weapon ok? Alright buddy, lips are sealed;) Friday, June 28 View Page smokin hot!!!!!! Too hot. Around a 100 or so, maybe hotter the next few days. Found more aphids today :( Will they ever end? Don't have time to spray, so oh well. Have a pumpkin on main vine around 15 feet out. I was gonna go with a later pollination, but I'm gonna go for it with this one. Too many bugs and issues, so better to get one on and go now! Still about a week away from pollination I think, but we'll see with this heat. Sunday, June 30 View Page Well Joshua, don't tell Chris, but you know that secret weapon you told me about? Yes papa. Well, that secret weapon is no longer an option and it will soon be returned! Oh no papa! Yup Joshua. Papa was very disappointed! lol Oh, well, we must go on even though it looks bleak! Ok papa! We will have fun papa, even if we have no secret weapon now. Thursday, July 4 View Page perfect pumpkin on main vine, 15 foot out, beautiful in shape and size, flower looked perfect. Went to pollinate this morning and when it opened it was a mutant mess, a swirl of lobes and seeds. I was pretty disappointed. Here is the amazing part. I have pulled off about 15 to 20 pumpkins on the main and secondaries. I always open them up and peeked, everyone was perfect! What are the odds????With the plant not taking the heat well, bugs, etc, this was my fruit I needed. I have 1 more chance on the main at 19 feet. If it fails to pollinate, or I win the lottery with a deformed lober, or it splits, cracks or runs lol, game over for a fruit on the main vine. My plant is not set up well for a secondary fruit. I'm kind of nervous :-D My main vine is not set up for room for any other fruit. Saturday, July 6 View Page plant is vitamin d fortified with milk spray tonight! lol The manganese sulfate seemed to mix fine with the milk, so on it went. Pumpkin on main, my last chance, eeeek, will go off monday. Holding my breath. ;) Monday, July 8 View Page bad news today. My strongest secondary broke off and snapped. My plant is mainly a flag pattern with 5 secondaries that will all be about 30 feet long, it broke at 15 feet and I already cut off all trieteries infront of the break. Bummer. Flower will go off in morning at 19 feet, cross your fingers! ;-D Tuesday, July 9 View Page fruit at 18 feet opened and was a perfect looking 5 lober. whew! One hurdle down, but it was 97 degrees today, hope she takes ;-D Cooler and frozen water bottle were used to cool fruit. Plant suffered burn even under heavy shade cloth and heavy misting. The cross is ? x 980 Fredricks. I noticed a significant difference in the plant after the manganese spray, I'm definitely deficient. I had a gut feeling about it with a low test in my soil and adding no manure this year. I will hit it again later this week since I'm sure another dose will benefit the plants health. Wednesday, July 10 View Page been awhile for pictures, here is the plant as of today. She is slowly sizing up:) Wednesday, July 10 View Page mainly a flag pattern, these are all my secondaries going down the patch. Wednesday, July 10 View Page an ugly sight! No, the vine isn't supposed to stop there :-D It snapped off. Wednesday, July 10 View Page fruit at 15 feet I was hoping for, the one with the deformed blossom. It took, I have left it on, growing ok, except the blossom looks strange. With very few fruit on my main, I will keep it as a last resort!!!! :) Wednesday, July 10 View Page My hopefull keeper at 18 feet, pollinated in 97 degree heat, so far so good. Cross, ? by 980 Fredricks Wednesday, July 10 View Page more bug issues with aphids found to day, not sure when I will spray for them. They never end. This is a look at what my leaves do in the heat, turn yellow:( Oh, well, just do my best with what we got! Saturday, July 13 View Page pumpkin at 18 feet has taken, it is very shiny. I cut off the deformed lober at 15 feet. The small pumpkins on this plant seem to be very slow starters. Very small for their age:) Joshua threw my shoe into the patch today lol. He still loves throwing which is not good. He took out a very healthy large leaf, snapped the stem badly, lucky he didn't do anymore damage. I amputated the leaf and am hoping he doesn't eventually take out the fruit or anything else. You never know with this little guy! Tuesday, July 16 View Page plant is really taking off now. Two things have really helped this year. Starting with calcium sprays early was something I did not do last year, but learned from it. I use organic nutrical once a week. Second, manganese sulfate foliar, what a difference in the health after spraying the plant. I probably have been low for years and never knew. I used 3/4 teaspon per gallon foliar twice so far and wow, I'm impressed. Kudos Chris! I owe you big time. Tuesday, July 16 View Page plant actually seems healthier now than 2 weeks ago. I'm stunned. Alright Chris, are your ready? here we go..... Tuesday, July 16 View Page introducing for the first time, my keeper fruit ..........cross........ 1140 Finders x 980 Fredricks should be a great cross for southern growers or anyone I think. She's slowly growing! :) Friday, July 19 View Page Joshua's first boat trip, san diego bay! He never caught a fish before. Friday, July 19 View Page he really enjoyed driving the boat! I was looking for you Chris! Didn't see you though lol Friday, July 19 View Page bendo! Fish on Joshua!!!!!!! Friday, July 19 View Page Joshua's first fish, a small but chunky spottie! Good job buddy. We were just on the water a little over an hour for his first boat ride. It was fun. Friday, July 19 View Page Papa switched from plastic's to a big rapala and bounced it off the bottom for a couple big spotties!! Here's one:) Friday, July 19 View Page and another beautiful big bay bass! A blessed day. Only bad part is the boat motor stopped running while cleaning out the saltwater at home! I was gonna go fishing tomorrow, bummer! Sunday, July 21 View Page day 13 on pumpkin, growth has really slowed down with poor weather. High of 75 and cloudy all day long, very weird July weather. Looks to be the same for another couple days :( She wasn't breaking any speed records to begin with during warm weather, so might be a low day 20 measurement! Brighter news, vince's 980 Fredricks is on hyper drive, he's on pace for 80 inches day 20. I have never seen a fruit that big ever in all my growing days. Good thing I pollinated with it! Monday, July 22 View Page bad day in the patch. Three more vines snapped! The vines are very thick now and seem to be very brittle. Genetics pure and simple. I have seen this on a couple plants in the past I grew. It's aggravating for sure! :) Won't have any vines left to grow a fruit. Two of the breaks are not all the way through, so they will stay for now, maybe. One was a total explosion, it's a gonner. Bad part about my patch set up is, fI have just a few vines that are real long. I'm trying to let trieteries fill in what I can. I miss my 980 fredricks right now :-D Wednesday, July 24 View Page vines getting close to end of patch. I put on 10 oz of grow more seaweed extract tonight, pouring it to the plant. Haven't really fertilized as of yet, so thought I would try to jump start this fruit! See what happens:) Saturday, July 27 View Page went fishing in the san diego bay today, me , my dad and nephew. Spent about 5.5 hours on the water, landed 85 fish. A great blessing! Lots of huge lizard fish, many spotties, a few san bass, one mackeral and three halibut. The largest halibut went 27.5 inches, she was fun to land on an ultra light! Pictures soon! Pumpkin still slow and steady, still waiting for her to goooo :) Cloudy all day, so probably not a good grow day. Saturday, July 27 View Page day 19 on fruit, circ is 60.5 inches, ott of 149. Still small and slow for her age. Plant is getting chomped on by catipillars! Like swiss cheese leaves:-D Another vine broke off and some mildew issues. Might not be my year Chris! Go Vince, Go VInce, Your 980 is screaming!!!!! :) Sunday, July 28 View Page 1140 spreading out Sunday, July 28 View Page plant looks healthy besides holes from catipillars not pictured:) I always get black mold on the underside of my leaves every year, but never seems to affect plant in a negative way. Anybody who can tell me what it is would be appreciated. I even posted pic's of it in the past, but no ideas. Anyway, I have it again Sunday, July 28 View Page another view Sunday, July 28 View Page fruit day 20, circ 89 inches!!! ok, just kidding Chris! I zoomed it in to make it look big, it's all I got this year. Circ 64 inches. Me and Joshua had a little pep talk today, trying to cheer each other up. We are both kind of puzzled with the slow growth so far with such a big healthy plant. Sunday, July 28 View Page plant from the other side! Monday, July 29 View Page Weather has been great Chris, but it don't matter for me lol. Three words for you, slow, slow, slow! I'm claiming vandalism. Vince snuck over and switched out his dirt for mine :-D lol Just kidding Vince! Sometimes this hobby can be humbling even when you do all the work. But it's just a blessing to grow! Tuesday, July 30 View Page took my nephew in the bay a few days ago, here are some photos. He had a blast! Tuesday, July 30 View Page lizard fish! His favorite. Tuesday, July 30 View Page don't mind my white face, too much sunscreen! :) Tuesday, July 30 View Page beautiful keeper halibut! Tuesday, July 30 View Page My dad! Pumpkin slowed in growth today even more, hoping it's ok. Cross your fingers! Wednesday, July 31 View Page Well Joshua, this year has been tough buddy. Yup papa! Joshua, the 1140 Finders is not doing well at all buddy. Plant looks big, healthy and great, but the pumpkin growth is actually getting consistantly worse as the fruit gets bigger instead of taking off like it should. We have topped out at 14 lbs a day buddy. Ok papa. Joshua, papa put up an old picture of the 980 Fredricks pumpkin from last year for good memories. Let's root on Vince and Chris, cause our season is not gonna happen this year for some unknown reason. I think we just unfortunately got a dud seed. I can see no other reason! ok papa. Monday, August 5 View Page I was graciously visited by Mr Vince last night. He had the same opinion as me, plant looks awesome! Huge leaves pushing 3 foot solar panels. lol Just one of those things where I got a little un lucky with a slow grower unfortunately. Joshua and I will do our best to grow it out slowly and see where she ends up. She had a slow growth curve up for three days from 13 lbs a day up to 21 lbs a day, now at day 28. She seems to have leveled off in growth again. This might be my upper limit for this season. I am learning contentment and patience this year with my patch. Not gonna be even close to last year, but let's have some fun Joshua! Tuesday, August 6 View Page Papa, this plant is soooo big and green now. It's even bigger than me! Tuesday, August 6 View Page Yes Joshua, it is really big and healthy and green. Tuesday, August 6 View Page papa likes taking lots of plant pictures lol. It is the most exciting part of this year so far:) Tuesday, August 6 View Page some of the leaves are almost 3 feet across, amazing! Tuesday, August 6 View Page even the older leaves look ok, calcium sprays all year really improved the health of the plant, along with manganese. Killing 3000 plus sow bugs with beer in the first 6 weeks really really helped too. I have had no leaves fall this year and get eaten! I have learned a lot actually this year. I still shake my head hehehe I see the plant and think, it should be doing 40 lbs a day! :) Tuesday, August 6 View Page papa, here she is. I love her very much. I even help my papa measure her! This is day 29. We won't worry about the numbers for now, not too exciting for day 30. :) Friday, August 9 View Page Joshua, we are going redneck buddy! lol Papa doesn't spray too aften but he has learned how to use the leaf blower pretty good now. Neighbor came up to me and said, "now I have seen everything!" :-D Then he said, "great idea". Plant is now vitamin d fortified, and mildew resistant hopefully. Friday, August 16 View Page newer growth still looks good at day 39 of the fruit, but powdery mildew is attacking the plant on the underside of the leaves pretty good in a few areas. It's just too hard for me to get under all of the leaves on such a big plant with my spraying tools. I will just do my best, but mildew will keep spreading unfortunately. Friday, August 16 View Page fruit at day 39. She is wider than long, wider than the photo looks. She never reached big gains, but she seems to have leveled off now very consistantly for the last 2 weeks in growth around 22 lbs a day, and still going. Her size will depend on how long she keeps this pace up. She is over 500 lbs estimated as of today. Sunday, August 18 View Page Spent about 2 hours in the patch tonight spraying the crud out of my plant for mildew lol. Top of leaves are fine, underside in a few areas were badly spreading. I sprayed organicide underneath and cut out about 6 or 7 leaves, and a few sections on others. Put milk on top again even though they are fine so far. See if any leaves burn from the organicide, this plant is not the best at taking sprays with oils:) Haven't measured in a few days, will wait for day 50 and see how she is doing. Blankets on fruit at night, cooler nights again, weird summer! Monday, August 19 View Page Ok, I know I promised not to measure until day 50, but I could only go three days without measuring! lol Funny huh. Ott on day 42 is 299.75, right on 600 lbs. Seems to have liked the warm up the last 3 days, it put on an average of around 27 lbs a day on 2012 chart. This fruit "might" get interesting if it keeps going and gets good late season grwoth. hhhmmmm time will tell. Friday, August 23 View Page Well Joshua, Yes papa, Looks like the pumpkin growth has really started to slow down the last 3 days. Looks like our hope for late big gains is ending! I was starting to get a little excited, lol, well that's over I think. Back to reality. Let's grow her out and see where she falls. ok papa! Wednesday, August 28 View Page 1140 fruit day 51. I'll call her the tortoise, she keeps slowly plugging away. Weight has gone down over last 2 days, getting older I think, but very hot. I put up 60% shade over best looking growth for a few days to keep it from getting toasted:) I'll call her jabba, she is wide, low, and fat. lol Wednesday, August 28 View Page best looking leaves at the end of the vines, the older growth is looking, well, older! :) Thursday, August 29 View Page One word for the weather right now, BRUTAL! 100 and beyond humid. Plant is taking a beating, and mildew is going nuts! My season might not be as long as I had hoped if the weather continues. This plant is not good in heat, leaves fry:) Finally pushed over 800 lbs, yahooo. Keep chugging along. Tuesday, September 3 View Page Visited Vince's patch on Saturday. This is the 980 Fredricks I crossed with this year. Hey Vince, I have a few words for you. Do you ever prune your plant?????? lol That is the most out of control plant I have ever seen. Yes, that is his driveway! Tuesday, September 3 View Page His fruit, estimated at 906 lbs! Awesome job for his limited patch, This patch has never put out a pumpkin greater than 600 lbs in a decade, pretty awesome. And it's still growing! Not the most orange 980 I have seen but sure is big! Tuesday, September 3 View Page Vince on the right, pumpkin guru John Berndes on the left, also growing a 980, his is a new personal best of 600 plus lbs and still growing, and I quote, "the most orange pumpkin I have ever grown". I have not seen it yet but sounds like a beauty. Tuesday, September 3 View Page John popped out his book and got into some serious pumpkin talking with Mr Gourdzilla! lol. C'mon guys, calm down here! :-D My 1140 fruit is day 57 tomorrow, will measure and see where she is at, but she seems to be getting visibly larger, always a good sign, but the tape will tell the tale tomorrow. Tuesday, September 3 View Page day 57, ott of 344 inches, averaging 16 lbs a day right now. Let's see how long she can chug along slowly and keep going. We need some cooler weather! :) Thursday, September 5 View Page BRUTAL! Weather that is! Friday, September 6 View Page day 60 for the 1140 finders. Last 3 days temps were, 105, 104, 105 and really high humidity. Absolutely horrible weather to even be outside in, felt like 120! Pumpkin growth has slowed down during heat wave, not sure when it will break. Tuesday, September 10 View Page Went to the Price Is Right today, a 16 hour adventure from home and back! lol. It was fun and interesting. Nope, didn't get picked! I'm exhausted, time for bed! Friday, September 13 View Page Scotty, I need more power!!! I'm giving her all we got captain!!!! Scotty, it ain't good enough, I need more power! I can't promise anything captain, but I'll try! Sunday, September 15 View Page Joshua.... Yes papa.... It's been a fun and long season buddy. The pumpkin has high expaectaions at the beginning of the season and then it just didn't grow well. Remeber buddy? Yes papa.... Well, on day 69, we did something I would of thought was impossible with 22 lbs a day, we have reached the 1000 lb barrier buddy! She has slowed way down now and is just creeping along, so any more weight is just icing on the cake. Still doesn't look like a new personal best, but I'm proud of you Joshua, you did an awesome job. May she weigh heavy. Yes papa, may she weigh heavy! And stay healthy for the weigh off. Sunday, September 15 View Page papa needs to do teach you a better job of spelling and re-read his post before posting lol. Yes papa! Wednesday, September 18 View Page Hey Joshua! Yes papa? Are you standing up?? Yes papa! Pumpkin is getting bigger buddy! Yes papa! Wednesday, September 18 View Page Plant is thrashed! lol sow bugs, catipillars and pm. New growth is growing but almost immediately getting wiped out by pm. Gonna be tough to hold her together for another 40 days. Yikes!!!!!! Heat waved thrashed the plant for sure. All vines seem ok, a little rot maye, but alright. Fruit and stem look great, not sure how long we can keep her growing, but she is still growing. Tuesday, October 1 View Page Joshua! Yes papa! It's time for the rumor mill, my favorite October activity! Some of it might be true, some of it might be false. That's why they call it rumors! Rumor number one, Team faith is bringing more than one fruit for competition at pumpkinmania! Rumor two, there is a fruit approaching 1300 lbs in the san diego area! Rumor three, well, I forget rumor three, maybe it will come back to me later lol ok papa! Sunday, October 13 View Page went to Julian for our yearly apple picking!!!! Beautiful day and big apples this year! Sunday, October 13 View Page Joshua picking one for papa! Good job buddy! Sunday, October 13 View Page Papa got a little carried away as usual. The Mrs laughed at me because I had to make sure our apples were bigger than anyone elses apples being picked in the patch, I mean orchard lol. Sunday, October 13 View Page Papa got a little carried away as usual. The Mrs laughed at me because I had to make sure our apples were bigger than anyone elses apples being picked in the patch, I mean orchard lol. Sunday, October 13 View Page ooooo, a thorough inspection, it must be healthy and really big! Sunday, October 13 View Page how about this one papa?? Sunday, October 13 View Page stopped off at Tom's pumpkin patch in Ramona, he one first for his town. He grew 4 fruit, this beautiful specimen came from a 980 Fredricks, over 400 lbs and one of many new personal bests in his patch this year! Sunday, October 13 View Page gorgeous fruit continue to pop off of the 980 fredricks. That last post should have said, won! Well, my fruit at home is still waiting the weigh off in 2 weeks. Not sure on this one, she is a wheel in shape with the blossom close to the ground. The bottom of the fruit is concave by the blossom as it goes under the fruit. I did the rocking test, and she rocks quite easily Chris! She might go light!!! Or she just has a weird shape easy to rock back and forth, well, time will soon tell, but I'm not optimistic on this one :-D Monday, October 14 View Page I just saw an 1140 finders estimated at 1050 lbs weighed in at 950! Gulp, not liking what I am seeing!!! I'm preparing for the worst I think :) Monday, October 14 View Page On the brighter side, another grower emailed me saying that his 980 Fredricks weighed in at 1129 lbs, 1% heavy to chart. Awesome!!!! I can't wait to grow the 980 again, awesome seed for sure. :-D Monday, October 21 View Page Got half the plant pulled out this morning with Joshua's help! Tap roots were massive, most so big they would not come out of the ground. I got one up and the root went 4 foot long before breaking off, who knows how long it was lol. Azos and mycos worked great. I found that the stem on the fruit where it connects to main vine is drying out from old age and rot is starting to go into the vine and stem. Only got 5 days before she gets weighed, don't think it will be any issue except if she starts loosing weight. Every pound might count this year with the big 4 growers coming to pumpkinmania, probably all having fruit around a 1000 lbs or larger. Thursday, October 24 View Page stump rotted off today, vines falling apart, and the stem and vine connection to the fruit has gone dry and soft. I think it's time to weigh her before anything else goes! lol Friday, October 25 View Page Plant is totally pulled out! Just some more weeds to pull, well, a lot more weeds. Pumpkin is a lonely giant sitting on her red carpet. She is what she is! I am very blessed to have grown this year with my son. His favorite part was pulling weeds and trash cans. We wish she would have gotten larger than last year, but this year it's all about being thankful for what we have. Heck, she could weigh 700 lbs tomorrow and it's ok. I always say this every year, "It's just a pumpkin!" There are sooo many more important things in life that God wants us to enjoy! And the most important gift of all, serving others through love. My competitive nature is my strenght and weakness becuase I love to do better every year. I always must remember that we are foreigners on this earth longing for our eternal home and not to put too much importance on such small things. That being said, may everyone coming to the southern california weigh off safely and may everyone have a heavy personal best. But most importantly, may we enjoy the day and who we are with. See ya on Sunday Chris! Saturday, October 26 View Page hhhhhmmmm, heavy, light, or to the chart??? Take your pick Chris!!! lol See ya tomorrow buddy! Drive safe! :) Sunday, October 27 View Page Just got home from our weigh off, whew, a long day! I took second place with a 1031 lb fruit off of the 1140 Finders. Chris got my be 30 lbs or so! Congrats on the win Chris, and welcome to the 1000 lb club. I have lots of photos to upload in the near future, time to rest. Sunday, October 27 View Page here we go. This is Saturday, the 26th. Our mobile home park rents a scale for me so all the people in the park can see it get weighed. So yes, I knew the weight before weighing it at the weigh off the next day! :) Sunday, October 27 View Page strapping her up! Sunday, October 27 View Page getting her on the scale. Ott was putting her right at 1030 lbs. Sunday, October 27 View Page Joshua and papa slowly pulling back the cover to reveal the weight! Sunday, October 27 View Page 1031 lbs, almost right on the chart. Well, we were happy to break the 1000 lb barrier for this fruit. Honestly, it was a challenge. The 1140 never wanted to go for me with growth and I thought we were gonna get a real small pumpkin for awhile. So we were thankful. Way behind last years numbers, but that's ok:) Sunday, October 27 View Page Me, my wife, Joshua, and baby Andrew inside my wife with the 1031 Fredricks 2013 at Pumpkinmania Sunday, October 27 View Page hhhhhmmm, two small pumpkins! We made a bet, winner of the contest had to wear the costume! Sunday, October 27 View Page there were four fruit all neck and neck in size, mine was the end one! Sunday, October 27 View Page Chris and Vince hanging out! Sunday, October 27 View Page a mean looking fruit that was big too! Grower was John Sach, last years winner. Sunday, October 27 View Page Joshua was first, his pumpkin weighed at 80 lbs!!!! He was 2 years old, but somehow got missed as the youngest grower. lol heheh It's ok. His pumpkin shirt was cute! His favorite part was the pumpkin canon, he kept talking about it all evening! Sunday, October 27 View Page what do you have there buddy? Pumpkins papa! Lots of pumpkins! Sunday, October 27 View Page John Sach weighed in first at 944 lbs. Then my good friend Vince was up, estimated at 985. She went light at 912 lbs. I felt real bad for him. I really wanted him toget atleast 3rd. I let out a loud, "darn it!!!" When I heard the announcer and somebody next to me thought it was my fruit cause I was upset! lol Hang in there Vince, awesome fruit! Sunday, October 27 View Page I did not get a photo when Chris was up next, but as you can tell, he was excited with his 1063 lber and loving the pumpkin outfit as the winner. Awesome fruit! Sunday, October 27 View Page she weighed 1030.5, lost .5 lbs in 24 hours. Not too bad for one day. Sunday, October 27 View Page a group photo of the top four growers with a couple others mixed in. Far right, John Sach, then myself, Chris in the outfit, and Vince Sunday, October 27 View Page getting second place recognition :) Sunday, October 27 View Page Last photo is of John Birndes fruit, grown on the 980 Fredricks. A nice looker! Well, as for now, not sure if I will grow in 2014, it's in God's hands. Will be busy with a new baby! Friday, November 22 View Page I want to announce my new born son, born 11-19-13, 5 lbs 15 ounces, Andrew James Fredricks. I want to thank everyone for their prayers for my wife and son, he was a little early and my wife had some complications. Both are doing good now. Pictures to come soon. Praise be to God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, more blessings in my life than I could ever imagine. God is good. I think this one looks like me :-D Friday, November 22 View Page A proud and tired papa at the hospital with little Andrew. Friday, November 22 View Page He sure is cute! looks like me when I was a baby. Joshua looked very asian, andrew looks white so far! lol. Busy busy busy, probably won't post for awhile. Saturday, December 28 View Page Merry Late Christmas to all. My schedule is finally slowing down at work. Yesterday we got more leaves than you can imagine from the maintenance guys at our park. The whole patch is covered 6 inches deep. All I did was watch them dump leaves over the course of the whole day and spread it out with Joshua with a rake. Joshua had a blast:)