Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 29 Entries. Wednesday, June 10 View Page This is my winter wheat as of June 3rd. It's almost five feet high. This site will be my 2011 pumpkin growing area. Wednesday, June 10 View Page I started mowing the winter wheat. Wednesday, June 10 View Page Roto-Tilling in Winter Wheat Saturday, June 20 View Page Here is a look of my patch. My oats that I planted next to my pumpkin plants are about 8 inches high. Oats are growing better then my pumpkins. I had plan on tilling in the oats as my plants got bigger. Saturday, June 20 View Page Closer look at my plants Saturday, June 20 View Page Longest main on these is 4 feet Saturday, June 20 View Page From what I have found by searching several weather sites on the interent, the jet stream isn't going to change anytime soon. What I gather, July is going to be a cold and wet month as well. This picture shows what it looks like about four days out of seven here in central New York. Cold and wet. Like last night it was 56. Pumpkins need warm nights to grow. Saturday, June 20 View Page I'm going to wait and see what the weather does in the next ten days. Then on July first I will decide. My plants have only grown six inches in the last week. If the weather stays the same, Which I have a gut feeling it's going too. Time lost to wet and cold weather you can't play catch up with these Atlantic Giants.I will roto-till under all my oats and pumpkin plants. Then I'll cover the patch with 3-4 inches of year old compost and till it in really good. I'll be planting alfalfa in my old patch that I had winter rye on and i'll let the alfalfa grow for two years. I'm going to plant alfalfa were my pumpkin plants are now also. This way i'll be ahead of the game come next Spring. Plus, I won't have to do anything this fall. I almost forgot, I'll do a soil test first. Wednesday, June 24 View Page My plants are still very small. Last few days have been warm, but nights are really cold for the end of June. Wednesday, June 24 View Page Only great thing good so far here is there is no bugs. I haven't seen any cucumber beetles. Friday, June 26 View Page I've been taking the time to compare my own data on my pumpkins over the last eight years. Also looking at a lot of other growers diaries to see were they are and what my chances are of growing a atlantic giant over 1,000 pounds this year. Wednesday, July 1 View Page After taking a serious look at my pumpkin plants in the old patch, I decided to give the whole patch a rest. The plants were ( small )no were big enough to have female flowers on then by even the second week of July. When Mount Redoubt erupted in Alaska on March 23, 2009 it sent ash 50,000 feet into the air. This is why the whole North east is cold and why we are having all this rain. After watching some specials on the weather channel, they perdict July will be a cold and wet month for the whole North East. They even said we might have an early winter. There is no use in fighting mother nature. Knowing that if you don't have big pumpkin plants before July 1st, your not going to grow a pumpkin way over 1,000 pouns. Wednesday, July 1 View Page I tilled everything under. Pumpkins and the oats that were over a foot high. I had four pounds of Mycorrhiza left over. So I wait until the sun was just starting to go down and I spreaded it all over the patch and tilled it in deep. Then the next day I planted alfalfa and perennial rye grass. My patch will be in much better shape next year and God will, much better weather. Thursday, July 30 View Page The alfalfa and rye is finally growing good on my old pumpkin patch Thursday, July 30 View Page My sweetcorn and potatoes are growing good in the corner of the old patch Saturday, August 29 View Page I took down my compost pile bin and moved my compost pile to a new location. Now I can get all the way around the pile and it will be much easier to add to it. While I was doing this, I added sixteen yards of rotten corn grain products to the pile. The pile is really heating up. Saturday, August 29 View Page The alfalfa had finally blossom in my old patch. I chopped it all down the other day. The Mycorrhizal is my soil should be great next year after all of the Mycorrizal I added to the soil before I planted my alfalfa this spring. Saturday, August 29 View Page Tonight I got my Cyclone out and hooked it to my Cub Cadet and removed all the dry alfalfa hay off. Just in time before the rain came. Saturday, August 29 View Page All the hay was mixed in well in the compost pile. Doing a web search on making compost, alfalfa hay is one of the best things you can added to your compost pile. Friday, October 2 View Page God willing, I hope to have my personal best this weekend. It's been a tough year.Cold, and rain five days out of seven every week. Friday, October 2 View Page I started in early September getting ready for next year. It helps out a lot when you can get everything for nothing to make your own compost. Friday, October 2 View Page A nice neighbor stopped by and asked if I would like a manure spreader full of old hrose manure. Hard to refuse something free. Friday, October 2 View Page The spreader sure does spread the horse manure really nice. Friday, October 2 View Page All the manure and compost was spreaded out nicely Friday, October 2 View Page I plowed everything under as deep as I could get the plows in the ground. Just about twelve inches. Friday, October 2 View Page Pumpkin patch all set for winter. I planted a nice cover crop of oats. They should be up in a short peroid of time. Friday, October 2 View Page All of my oats are up. I checked the other day and there about six inches tall. Saturday, October 3 View Page I finally made it. 1048.5 My first pumpkin over 1,000 with all the rain and it being a cold and wet summer, I'm surprized at what I got. Friday, November 20 View Page This fall I went to growing oats instead of winter rye. After doing a search for some time on studys that have been done with planting oats for a cover crop, I like the great cover crop I have this winter of my oats I planted.