Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 14 Entries. Friday, April 25 View Page Planted 656 Domke seeds about 10 days ago in a cooler with heating pad and temp adjusted to 85F. Used grow light and/or sun as available once germinated, which took about 5-6 days. Two weeks later also planted two 1526 Miller seeds that just arrived. � Tuesday, April 29 View Page Planted the larger 656 Domke under the poly tent. Growing in a raised bed garden, about 500 square feet available between the two beds and additional soil area. Soil has had lots of compost over the years. Compost and horse manure added late winter this year. Mixed in high nitrogen fertilizer and about a pound of sulfur soil acidifier (based on results of Penn State Univ. soil test). Soil nice and loose about 1 foot deep. � Friday, May 16 View Page Two 656 Domke plants transplanted and growing nicely in spite of unusually cool, cloudy and rainy spring. Drip irrigation hose installed on right side bed, not in left side bed (which will probably become a secondary plant). � Saturday, May 17 View Page Planted first 1526 Miller next to the 656 on the right side bed. Plan will be to cull the 656 once the Miller seems to be growing well. Hoping to keep the 656 in the left bed going for purposes of cross-pollinating with the 1526 Miller. If Miller grows well it will be the primary (pollinated by 656 male flower) while the 656 will be trimmed small and used mostly as a seed producer (pollinated by Miller male flower). Miller seed has 2493 Wolf, 2365 Wolf, 2702.9 Cutrupi and lots of other 2000+ lb pumpkins in its genetics plus lots of bright orange. Domke also has lots of nice looking orange in its genetics. � Tuesday, May 27 View Page Culled the 656 Domke in the right bed to make room for the 1526 Miller. Domke had a flat main stem which turned out to be a twin stem that split into two mains as it was starting to lay down. Interestingly, after cutting this plant off at its base, pulling it up and seeing some rootlets forming along the stem, I planted it in a nearby compost heap. After a few weeks it took root and began growing. I'll keep this going as a backup seed producer (it's mostly shaded all day, so no big pumpkins on that one). Periodically spraying the plants with a pyrethrin mix and also watering with half-strength Miracle-Gro every couple of days. � Thursday, June 5 View Page 656 Domke vine about 6' long, secondaries starting. 1526 Miller is growing well but no vine yet. Still kind of cool and cloudy for this time of year. As the plants extend vines I've been loosening the dirt ahead of the vine about 1 foot deep and mixing in about 1 cup of high nitrogen fertilizer or blood meal per 20 sq ft. Soil is then covered with about 2 inches of well composted and finely ground yard waste (branches, leaves, etc). � Friday, June 6 View Page Noticed a few leaves on both plants with some wilting/drying up areas around the edges. Worried it might be a disease (a few cucumber beetles had been spotted the last few days), but it turned out to likely be sun or heat scorch on a few young leaves (all about 8-10" size leaves) that were hit with a sunny 85F day after lots of cool cloudy weather. I've been spraying the whole plants about 1x per week with Spectracide permethrin/immunox insecticide/fungicide. � Friday, June 6 View Page First 656 Domke female flower found, about 8' out on the vine. Plants all seem to be growing well. Main vines and secondaries are being trained, staked down and buried an inch or two deep. Roots are found to be growing out of the buried vines in just 4-5 days. � Sunday, June 8 View Page First 656 Domke male flower opened. � Sunday, June 15 View Page I decided to pollinate the first female flower (656 Domke) with a male flower from same plant ("self") even though it is only 8' out on the vine and isn't a cross with 1526 Miller, mostly just for practice (since I'm a first timer/new grower) and due to lack of patience! Figuring it will eventually be cut off once I have a cross-pollination going on this plant and a cross on the Miller as well. Hoping the Miller will be the primary plant, but the 656 Domke sure seems vigorous at this point. � Thursday, June 19 View Page The 656 pollination seems to have been successful. � Thursday, June 19 View Page The patch as of today. Two 1526 Millers at opposite ends of the bed on the left, one 656 Domke in the bed on the right. The Millers are about 2 weeks behind the Domke. Beds are 24'x4' with another 4' growing area to the left of the left bed. Basically there is about 240 square feet of space where vines can be buried and take root, but lots of additional grass areas where I will likely let the main plant grow to some extent (and I might try to bury some secondary vines in mulch in these areas). Strong storm blew through this evening and broke off two feet of the main vine of the smaller Miller (front left side) and slightly uprooted the ends of a few secondaries. I do have some wind screening up, but not enough). � Friday, June 20 View Page The pumpkin was in a pretty tight crotch of the main and a secondary so I've been moving those two vines out of the way, a little bit each day. Since the soil in the bed is mounded up towards the middle of the bed where the main vine is running, I was able to dig out from under the pumpkin and then temporarily support it. I plan to reduce the support underneath gradually as the pumpkin grows so its base will eventually be below the level of the vine. Saw first adult squash vine borer in the patch today so I mixed up some malathion and lightly sprayed the under carriage of the plants (vines, stems, soil). Also gave each plant a low dose of imidacloprid at main roots and along buried stem. � Friday, June 20 View Page 5 DAP. Amazed at how fast these plants and the pumpkin grow. The patch is getting full sun from roughly 9am till 4pm with spotty and indirect sun the rest of the day. Keeping the pumpkin shaded with cloth draped over a few stakes. �