Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 227 Entries. Saturday, January 10 View Page my 2009 first diary entry will begin with my line up that is set to take down my "run-his-mouth" rival...george j. #1 spot 650 sq ft - 1385 jutras #2 spot 650 sq ft - 1385 jutras (not a misprint) #3 spot 650 sq ft - 1161 rodonis planned crosses #1: 1385 x 1161 #2: 1161 x 1385, and #3: a sibbed 1385 first round of seeds above will be started on 4-20-09 along with five 1147 shenoha 2008 backup plant seeds . if all germinate, the best 3 1147s will go side by side with the top dogs and the other 2 given to newbies. if any of the top dogs have trouble germinating or are mutant sprouts, here are my next in line to take their prime spots. another 1385 or a 985. i would like to save my two 985s for next year if possible and do a 985, 985, and a 1255 van kooten 2008 (which i think by next year will be the new 1041 big-n-heavy seed). get some 1255 x 985 both way crosses and a sibbed 985 in 2010. long way to go before then and anything can happen, but this is my battle plan set forth to do one thing...take down georgie boy and get a new pb while at it. best of luck my roselle pumpkin brother, shazzy "the fatman" shenoha Wednesday, January 14 View Page with a foot of snow over the patch and minus temperatures on the horizon, this picture brought a nice smile to my face. it is the first 1147 shenoha 2008 sprout i have seen. i had a couple sprouters inside the pumpkins so i knew the seeds were viable. but this is nice proof positive that the seeds are ready to hopefully help anyone who tries one to get their new personal bests. thanks logan for the warmth on a cold snowy day. Wednesday, February 11 View Page after more time to think over this long winter, my line up has changed and i am going to add the 1185.5 daletas into the line up and remove one 1385 plant. i really want to do a heavy x big cross and the 1185.5 x 1385 fits the bill. that is the 1041.5, 898, 1068, and 998 into one genetic package. so this is it...no more changes. the line up is the 1385, the 1161, and the 1185.5. and each plant will get 700 sq ft. got multiple seeds of each so failed germinations should not change the line up. 3 of my 1147s will go side by side the top dogs as back up plants. Sunday, February 15 View Page freak was 54.5" circ. this morning at 15 days and filling out. gonna be a long one. duece has looked to be improving and time will tell if i can finally get something off the 1161 which is the biggest nicest plant of the patch. a half inch of rain and a 87 degree temp day was nice today. problem is a record cold spell might dip in over the next 3 days. blankets will come out just because it makes sense to do it. tarps will go over the blankets if rain threatens at night to avoid a cold wet blanket laying on the kin. Sunday, April 12 View Page greenhouses go up today after a final raking and gradual mounding to the planting sights. 15 yds of organimix dairy cow compost that ted krueger, "the compost king", personally put his finest touches on went down 4 weeks ago prior to the recent rains and snows and was tilled in along with 3 gallons of molasses. after a nice one week dry stretch, a nice deep final till was done yesterday incorporating in 150 lbs of "charcoal green" innoculated biochar and 480 pounds of gypsum. funny to watch the rear tined tiller sink in so the front end is up in the air. took off the restricter bar and it easily tills over 10" deep if you slowly work each individual spot in an up down motion before moving on. tons of centipedes and large crawlers under some boards in the patch that were left there after the fall tilling. we will see how all the ammendments help or hurt my season output in the long run. 100 lbs of sulfur was added last fall to bring ph down to the higher 6s instead of mid 7s. also added last fall to the 2100 sq ft patch was 100 lbs of greensmiths humic acid, 100 lbs of k-mag, 100 pounds of greensmiths calcite calcium, and 250 lbs of kelp meal. all of last years ammendmentments incorporated very nicely with the extreme rains and snows all winter and spring, and i am extremely satisfied with the way the soil looks. how it produces is another story since no soil test was done last fall or this spring. i know this is a cardinal sin to most growers, but i haven't officially had my soil tested in 3 years. i test my own soil ph and that is it. i know that the heavy amounts of biochar and humic acid will lock up some nutrients, but i have added plenty of compost to conteract that effect. gonna push the envelope this year in many directions and the soil was the first step. only time will tell how this experiment works out. Sunday, April 12 View Page i will start my seeds in 8 days and i am excited as a kid on christmas. staying with the 1385, 1161 and 1185.5 line up. had to do some major contemplation all winter on my backup plant strategy. my 1161 backup will be a second 1161 planted side by side and healthiest plant wins if both germinate. if one of the 1161s does not germinate, an 1147 shenoha 2008 (1041.5 mckie x self) will be the backup. if both 1161s do not germinate, i have 3 more 1161s and i will try a 3rd one on 4-26 or 27. the 1385 backup will be my healthiest of 4 i plan to start. just like last year with my 1041.5 mckie plant, the backup 1147 will be snipped no matter how slow or healthy the 1385 looks at an early age, as long as the 1385 is not dead. my 1041.5 last year was the slowest sickliest looking plant of them all that grew my new personal best of 1147. leave the super proven dogs in the ground no matter what the backup looks like at that stage. if my 1385 does not sprout on my 4-20 batch, then another will be started on 4-26 or 4-27. if that one doesn't sprout, then a late starting 5-2 germination of my final 1385 attempt will take place. i will try my damndest to make the 1161 x 1385 cross both ways this year with this program. and the 1185.5 backup will be a second 1185.5 plant side by side with the healthiest 1185.5 getting the spot. if one doesn't germinate on the 4-20 batch, an 1147 will be a backup. i told steve i would guarantee him that i would try the 1185.5 when requesting a seed from him, and he was nice enough to obliege. the 1185.5 (a 22% heavy 1041.5 x a 898) crossed with the 1385 will be my last intended cross with a combo of an extreme % heavy potential seed x super power proven seed. Sunday, April 12 View Page clarification needed on that last post. only one 1385 will be started in my first batch of seeds. it should read that the back up plant along side of the 1385 will be one of the 4 1147 shenoha plants i intend to start. lol. i am not that stupid....do not say a word georgie boy....i know i left the door wide open there for you. lol. Sunday, April 12 View Page this is a pic today looking out my window. the greenhouse on the right will be replaced with my spare greenhouse still in the garage cuz the door zipper is messed up. for now this one is sealed up and fine for doing its purpose of heating up the soil. the other one will replace it sometime before planting. these greenhouses have held up pretty good over 6 years and i like the multiple vents both low and high. right now i have the dirt tucked tight to the plastic to help the soil heating. later in may when it begins to get pretty hot even with all vents and the front door left wide open, i will pull back the dirt and raise the greenhouses up on bricks on all four corners to provide more air circulation. ordered some fresh bio endo mych from joel holland yesterday and the left over 6 pounds from last year were tilled into the planting spot areas yesterday. after the greenhouses were erected today, i gave the soil in the greenhouse a nice soaking to help incorporate some of the gypsum and biochar tilled in yesterday. the rest of the patch will have plenty of time to get a good soaking starting tomorrow. i ran extension cords to the greenhouses for when the space heaters go in. this week i will lay out the initial polytubing for the misting system, and when the plants go in, i will tap into this main line and put a suspended mister head over all plants inside the greenhouses. Sunday, April 19 View Page seeds have been filed and are soaking, the peat pots are soaking, and the moistened seed starter mix is heating up to a nice 85 degrees. after 5 hours of soaking and a slight captan dusting, the seeds will go into the warmed mix and onto the propagation mats with plastic baggies over each individual pot and a tall plastic humidity dome goes over all the 9 pots. the propagation mat thermostat is place at seed level in one of my pots, and a thermometer is placed at seed level in another pot. and today and tonight i play mother hen. one hour temperature checks while i am awake, 2 hour alarm checks all night tonight. the first day and night is when any temperature tweaking and adjustments will be made. 85-87 degrees is target range for myself. all seeds as planned in previous post were started. the 1385 seed is a big motha, the 1161s are smaller white ones, and the 1185 daletas are the smallest atlantic giant pumpkin seeds i have ever seen. both are identical, tan and tough little babies, slippery and hard. filing resistance like i have never felt before. the closest seed i have ever seen to it was my 1041 mckie seed from last. it was the smallest seed i had ever seen, but the 1185s are even smaller than that one and tougher outer shell. hopefully this means heavy walled pumpkins lol. ya never know, it seeds came from a 22% heavy 1041 momma. the seed size shouldn't make a difference in the long run, but figured i would document it anyways. exciting time of the year to say the least...now the waiting game until they sprout. come on babies, do your things!!!!!! Wednesday, April 22 View Page signs of life. this morning i saw that one of the 1161s was pushing dirt. tonight after work i see that the other 1161, the 1385, both the 1185s, and 2 of the 1147s are also now pushing dirt. i removed the plastic sandwich baggies off the peat pots with signs of life and took them out from under the humidity dome and put them right under the flourescent bulbs. i expect to see seed coats and sprouts by tomorrow morning for these 7 pushing dirt tonight. the other 2 1147s will probably be pushing dirt by tomorrow. i will help remove any seed coats that need it tomorrow night. i let the sprouts do the work if they can, but if the seed coat dries out a bit and gets rigid, sometimes the leaf starts cutting itself while trying to force it open. this is when i spray a jet of water into the small gap between the seed coat and the leaves and moisten it up for a bit before gently pulling it off. sometimes the inside of a cot leaf will be stuck to the inner seed coat and removing the coat by hand removes one of the cot leafs. water sprayed to moisten it up will also help to avoid that situation as well. i will add some water in the black plastic garden tray in the morning and let the water wick its way up into the sprouted peat pots. doesn't take long for that starter mix to begin to dry out after removed from humidity dome. very happy the 1385 is pushing dirt as i was nervous. out of 36 attempted germinations last year, (most to give to newbies) i had 35 successes. the only failure last year was my 1385. hopefully all goes well while they push to get above ground and break free from the seed coats. Thursday, April 23 View Page i was going to help remove some seed coats this morning, but decided to let the plants do the work for a half day on their own. well the 1385 went silly today with the little drink it got this morning. one of its cots got pinched a bit from the seed coat corner and there is a small cut in the center of that one cot leaf. no biggie at all. i like its growth spurt and vigorousness more than the little cut gash on one of the cots. i sprayed down the other sprouts and helped them with their shells also to avoid the same thing happening to them while i go back to work for a second shift tonight after working all day. can't complain in this economy for 10 hours o.t. in one day. this is the main line up in front. you can see how small the 1185 cots are compared to the 1161s and the 1385. like i said, the 1185s were very small seeds for atlantic giants. but sprouts look good and the color should even out on those up front with the shells removed by the time i get home tonight. 3 more sprouted 1147s to get above dirt level. i will raise the light a bit tonight before going to bed to avoid an aggressive sprout from burning itself on the bulbs. Saturday, April 25 View Page 2 days from the last diary picture. these things do grow quick. last night i gave them their first dark night and reduced the temp in my propagation room to 60. then lights back on this a.m. at sunrise and the space heaters have the air temp set at 85. right now i have taken them out to my solarium for some acclimation time. 4 hours on a cloudy day and 80 degree air temp in the solarium is perfect. then back to the basement propagation room under flourescent lights until sundown and temps set back to 60 overnight. here is the line up with the 2 1185s going side by side and competing all the way til main vine lay down. same with the 1161s. and the 1385 wins unless it dies and only then will the 1147 gets the spot then. they will go in the ground tomorrow about noon. Saturday, April 25 View Page this is maybe the only time i loved to see weeds. i replaced my greenhouse with the messed up door zipper with an identical backup greenhouse today . exactly 2 weeks ago the greenhouses were put up. i would say the soil has warmed up nicely and the sprouts will love this warm activated soil tomorrow by the sight of all the weeds that sprouted in side the greenhouse. time to get the hoe out. the other greenhouse is now up and all are tied down and staked down tightly with chances of severe storms tonight. Saturday, April 25 View Page i brought out some voodoo to help bless the plants and encourage them to grow to their kickass potential. this statue was carved by myself back in the early 90s in a period of time when i had to come to a realization that life is not all beer bongs, grateful dead shows, and basically "F" ing off. i needed to get my "stuff" together, and one night while watching a discovery channel show about the life of dung beetles, i had an epiphany. if the dung beetle has enough gumption and drive, with no complaints, to follow around elephants just waiting for them to "stuff", so they can in turn eat the "stuff" and roll the "stuff" in a ball and lay an egg in the middle so the larvae can eat "stuff" and be protected at the same time until they mature. then well, hell, i needed to mature by not complaining and eat the "stuff" that life was handing me and take care of business. i basically needed to get a job and knock it down. i carved this carving and it now rests on my mantle along with my other silly carvings from that time in my life. it is titled, "It is a World of 'Stuff', So Eat Up" and it always reminds me when life starts weighing me down to shut up, stop crying about it and take care of business. you don't hear the dung beetle complaining. and it literally eats the "stuff". so i am hoping this statue will help encourage the plants to do what they love to do, eat all that cow "stuff" and grow big and round. hey George J., eat "stuff". lol. Sunday, April 26 View Page temps dropped from 75 to 42 degrees in about 10 minutes at dusk yesterday and it got pretty chilly last night. so i went and checked temps inside the greenhouses this morning that had no space heaters in them and the air temp was still 60 inside them at 6 am. the radiant ground heat from the cooking the soil has been getting in these past 3 hot days is still kicking. with it cloudy and cold this morning, i dediced to throw in the space heaters to help get the soil temp up a bit up for the transplant this afternoon. if the sun comes out, they will shut down and keep the temp at 85 and i will undo some vents as it is supposed to get back to 80 again by 2 pm. weird weather with these crazy temp swings and lots of rain on this stalled cold front. it is still in the 50s at 9:00 a.m. and will be 30 degrees higher in 5 hours. i already hoed the weeds inside the greenhouses early this morning and dug out 2' deep planting holes (clay level transition is at minus 2') and then loosened up the lower clay layer with a shovel. all the dirt from the 2' deep planting holes was spread thin across the rest of the soil in the greenhouses. so right now the holes are heating up as they are exposed to 85 degree temps and the the soil going back in the holes is also heating up some. this is the first time i tried this pre-digging of holes to heat them and the also heat the return spoils dirt prior to planting time. the cold temps from last night gave me the idea. necessity is the mother of invention with weather swings like this. got the bio endo plus ready to mix into the return spoils dirt along with my foam-kids-water-kicker board i use as a kneeling pad, and warm water bath will finish off the transplant at around 1pm. Sunday, April 26 View Page it was way too hot and sunny at 1 pm for transplanting in the greenhouses. 81 temp outside and 95 inside greenhouses. i opened up all vents and let the greenhouses cool off. i used the solarium to acclimate the plants prior to putting them in at 3 pm. they got some bright sun for an hour then partial non-direct sun for an hour and back and forth with the exhaust fan keeping the temps in the solarium about 85. i did this from 11 am to 3 pm and now at transplant it is nice and cloudy for the rest of the day and all is well. they went in without a hitch. gave them a good bottoms up wicking drink of water this a.m. at 6 am so later in the day at transplant time the peat pots were easy to remove completely and the starter mix and root system stayed in tact nicely for all 6 transplants during the process. it is a nerve racking process to completely and carefully remove the peat pots. i always start with the backups first and get my nerves straight for the big dogs after a couple practice runs. these are the 1185s in their new home with one growing a little ahead of the other. Sunday, April 26 View Page here is the doubled up greenhouse with the 1161s in the back and going to grow to the right and the 1385 (second one in) and the 1147 (closest to me taking the pic) growing to the left. instead of growing directly back to back, i go a staggered side by side like this to create more space for the main vines to run. the 1161 on the far side looks to be the early favorite of the 2 and was planted at the far end on purpose and the 1385 was positioned 2 spots away from it to give a total of 6+ feet between the 2 competing root systems. this doesn't give me much room to keep the greenhouse up when doubled up this way. the greenhouses come off when the mains lay down or the temps tell me it is time to remove them earlier and put up the silt fence wind breaks. but i used this system last year with great success on my 1041 mckie and 1446 werner plants, and one less greenhouse to manage wind flow and temps is easier then stacking up 2 greenhouses side by side for each individual plant in my patch lay out. even if i turned the greenhouse and did plant the plants back to back more towards the center of the greenhouse, at a 5' space between the plants, they would still only get about 2.5'-3' mains before running out of room. trial and error from past seasons and my somewhat limited space for my mains to run before hitting sidewalk or fence (22') helped me create this system. i actually turn my mains in advance of the restrictions and curve them to give me more chances to pollinate on the main if needed. the difference is 35' of width for the plants (16' secondaries and space for walking boards on the edges and 22' main length room as opposed to a long 35' main space with only room for 10' to 11' secondaries. i have had better success with secondaries at 15' than i have with them limited to 10' or 11'. Thursday, April 30 View Page all the plants seem to have taken to their new homes nicely and are growing great except one of the 1185s. its first true leaf got severly toasted on that sunday getting acclimated in the first true taste of sunlight. the other 1185 first true leaf got a very minor burn on just one side of its first true leaf and has that shiney wrinlkey look in one spot meaning the leaf will look 3/4s developed when it fully grows. no big deal. even if the second true leaf looks like crap, no worries...it is just there to pull the main down over in the right direction and acts like a support brace as the main slowly leans over. the third leaf finishes up the final bush stage of the plant and will be the final push for the plant to start running. if all three first true leafs look terrible from whatevercause, do not give up on the plant yet when choosing between main plants or the backups. sun burn, wind tattering, cupping of leaves, yellowing and nitrogen deficiences from cold soil, ealier bouts with mites or aphids..i have seen them all and in most cases the plants survive nicely when they finally kick in gear on the 4th and 5th leaf vining stage. do not be discouraged if a plant doesn't look so hot early. check ealier on under leaves for aphids or mites. a magnifying glass is a nice tool to catch a early infestation. once you see mite or aphid damage on early plants...those leaves are done...toast...the damage has been done. but still leave them on for any energy they can provide for the next forming leaves. spray and kill the bugs, but then let the leaves die on their own and then trim them close to the stump. any true leaf growing out of the stump area that dies is critcal to cut clean and dust with fungicide to prevent later stump rot. i may be over explaining a lot of things this year in my diary, but there are some newbies that i have given seeds to that are following and getting any advice i can give them while i think about it at each stage of the game. Saturday, May 2 View Page been a cool cloudy week and very easy to regulate the temps in the greenhouses without major temp swings. 80 during the day and 60 at night. a good week for acclimation prior to the first bright sunlight today since last sunday. this is the 1185 daletas that will most likely be the keeper. it got some very minor leaf burn last sunday on the first true leaf but over all looks very nice. with the 1041 genes in it, i do not expect to see this plant kick ass out of the gate. it saves the kicking ass during its pumpkin flesh formation stage. Saturday, May 2 View Page and here is the burnt baby 1185. without doing anything different to all plants, this one took a hard hit on its first true leaf and you can see the light yellow edges on the second true leaf. this will put it way behind in initial growth, but overall the plant should be fine. it will most likely get the whack and the previously pictured 1185 will win the spot. time will tell and it will serve its role as a backup nicely in the mean time. Saturday, May 2 View Page here is the 1147 backup looking good. since it has been cloudy and the greenhouses have been sealed up most of the week, i haven't watered the little ones since the good soaking they got with warm water at transplant. today, one week later, each set of 2 plants got 3 two gallon watering cans filled with warm water sprinkled in a circle 8 pattern aroung the set from right next to base of the plants to about 3 feet out. a good soak since the 67 degree temps with bright sunshine will make it 85 in the greenhouses and the open vents will allow plenty of wind flow. the good soak will help them acclimate a bit better to the bright light after 6 cloudy days. also mixed into one of the 2 gallon watering cans that each of the 3 sets of plants got was some biogrow aqua sol+ from jolland holland. it's a new product i am trying this year with more endo and micro goodies. Saturday, May 2 View Page here is the 1161 number 2 plant one week after transplanting. Saturday, May 2 View Page ooops. here is the 1161 number 2 plant. Saturday, May 2 View Page and the number one 1161 showing some early muscle. Saturday, May 2 View Page and the 1385 is looking good out of the gate. Sunday, May 3 View Page i wouldn't have thought i needed it, but the plants let me know it was time to tap into the main line misting system and put some mister heads above each set of plants. at 2 pm with all vents open and no wind on a sunny 70 degree, the temp in the greenhouses was only 84. but i didn't think about the low air humidity under 20% from the north wind. coming off a cloudy week and this being the second day of bright sunshine in a row, the plants were flagging a tad bit. nothing heavy, but with the good watering they got yesterday, it was not from lack of moisture in the soil. the flagging is cuz of the north wind with low humidity. the root system is not all that large right now and transpiration was kicking at the max. the plants picked right back up nicely after the quick mist. so i set the timer for tomorrow as it will be a little warmer with n.e. winds which means even less humidity. the 7 minute bursts 4 times a day with black tornado misters will cool the plants and get the top half inch of soil wet at the most. i do not want to water the plants, just cool them and wetten the soil surface for a nice evaporation cooling process of the warmed and drying soil in between misting intervals: every 1.5 hours from 11-3:30 with 3:30 being the last one for plenty of time to to let the surface soil moisture evaporate before i seal up the greenhouses around 7 pm and set the space heaters to 60 for overnight. this is an interesting and delicate time for trying to microclimatize very young plants with temp swings that bright sunshine can create. from here on out it will be fully vent if there is any chance for clear sunshine during the day. with no one to control my venting of my greenhouses while at work, the vents come open in 40 degree morning temps with the space running at 85 that will shut off when the sun warms the temps up, and then the misting system will be used on days that i feel the plants need it. Sunday, May 10 View Page gave the plants there first drink since last sunday one week ago with a good deep soak. all plants are looking good except the 1185 that got burnt. it is alive but looking dismal and barely growing. i have to believe it has a club root and a smaller root system. i am glad i put 2 1185s back to back and have the choice on which plant to be the keeper. this is the keeper 1185 starting to show the beginning of its main vine. this picture was taken today at 17 days after breaking through the soil. Sunday, May 10 View Page this is the keeper 1161 so far. its backup looks almost just as good, but this one is more stout at the base which is what i like to see. this pic was also taken today 17 days since the seed coat got above ground. the decision to put 2 1161s back to back gives me nice piece of mind for insurance right now, but culling the back up in this case will be a harder deed to do since they are both beautiful aggressive plants. time will tell and it is survival of the fittest. plenty of time to make that decision, but my gut is going with this one for now. Sunday, May 10 View Page this is the 1385 today also at 17 days since getting above ground. of my 3 keepers, it is slightly behind the 1185 and the 1161, but it wins the spot no matter what and is doing fine. too bad my 1147 next to it is kicking in gear the most of all my plants now but is sure to get the whack. Sunday, May 10 View Page and i have to show a pic of the 1147 eventhough its days are numbered on this planet. i hope Meat does great things with his 1147 down in Taylorville. it has proven to me to be an aggressive plant early on. Saturday, May 16 View Page it has been a week since i gave the plants a drink so this morning i gave them a good soaking drench of warm water and mixed in some merit because this is the time to prepare for the enemy. i saw a spotted cuke beetle at the bar on monday and found one sleeping on one of the plants this morning. i looked for any signs of munching and there is none. tonight the plants will get a light dose of talstar one. i thought the one at the bar might have been an early freak, but to have one sitting on a small plant when the hoops are zipped up all night means they have arrived in good enough numbers to warrant concern. everything else has been par for the coarse this week and the plants are looking good. there is a frost advisory tonight, but long range temps looks like this should be the last one. i will be taking down the greenhouses and putting up silt fence wind breaks in about a week to 10 days. Wednesday, May 20 View Page i lifted all 4 corners of the greenhouses up today and elevated them with bricks to allow more air flow. the rigid frames allow me to prop them up to help remove build up heat. i also pulled back some soil that had them sealed up tight and will set the misters on longer intervals. i will basically water the plants with the misting system for the next 2 days. it is going up to 87 today, but the high winds should help keep the air flowing with all vents and doors open and the added circulation from propping up the greenhouses. this warm spell is going to kick the plants in gear big time as all 3 plants have at least one tendril on them and getting ready to run. Saturday, May 23 View Page touch down!!!! all 3 plants have hit the ground and are running. the backup 1161 is a stocky aggressive plant but keeps wanting to twist and grow upwards. it will be down by tomorrow. i will be making the final cull decision after both lay down and run about 3 feet. with the warm temps, that should be in a couple days or so. the other 2 backups were whacked this past week. the greenhouses come down tomorrow morning on what is predicted to be a mostly cloudy 75 degree day which will be perfect for full strength sun acclimation. i will but the silt fences up and get some weeding in order. i held off spraying talstar one cuz i didn't like the fact of spraying the small plants while still in the greenhouses before running the main vine. i have seen another cuke beetle at work yesterday, but no signs of any by the plants. tomorrow night after a cool cloudy day will be a perfect time to hit them with a light dose. i will take some pics tomorrow. Sunday, May 24 View Page whacked the 1161 backup and the line up is set with a 1385, 1161, and 1185. the backup 1161 tried to twist again and i took it to be a sign to whack it and keep the 1161 on the ground running straight. took the greenhouses off today and put up silt fences. i waited until about 5 pm for the greenhouse removal as it stayed a bit sunnier today than i would have liked. supposed to be a little more cloudy and cool tomorrow so i picked memorial day for there first full day of full sun. i gave the plants a good soaking drink today and mixed in some holland's bio aqua sol for a little nurishment along with more mych endo spores. supposed to get a nice soaking rain from tues. to wed. and the patch and plants will surely like some of mother natures water as opposed to joliet tap water. all watering to date has been with luke warm tap water except the hot days when the misting system was set on longer intervals. got most of the weeding in check today as well. tomorrow i will lay out some more walking boards, set the main misting system line up through the plants and attach a couple more mister heads to stay out in front of the running plants. it got too dark to take pics when all done, so i will get them in the morning. time to remember not to adjust the plants until they warm up a bit and go very gently while doing so. Monday, May 25 View Page here is the 1185 this morning before adjusting bamboo sticks. gonna wait til it warms up a bit before i do any adjustments on the vine. got a little more clean up work today on weeding before going back to work tomorrow. Monday, May 25 View Page this is the 1385 this morning before bamboo adjustments. Monday, May 25 View Page and here is the go getter of the patch, the 1161 this morning. you can see why i had to remove the greenhouses yesterday. the moisture in the darker soil was from the watering inside the greenhouse yesterday morning. there is a chance we might get over an inch of rain tomorrow which will kick the plants into gear big time. with aggressive plants and a couple cloudy days predicted along with heavy rain, and then sunny warm temps at the end of the week means that i will have to stay diligent on adjusting the bamboo stakes every morning and evening to keep them running out and not up with the power surge they are sure to get. Monday, May 25 View Page here is a lower angle shot of the 1161 in the foreground and the 1385 in the background both sharing this silt fence wind break shelter. if all goes well, these 2 will be crossed both ways. gonna spray the talstar one tonight now that the plants are out of the greenhouses. demand cs will follow next week and monday will be my pesticide day from here on out. i expect to see the svbs sooner this year and will stay ahead of the game. next pics will be in a couple of weeks. Wednesday, May 27 View Page over 2 inches of rain last night as the skies opened up. it came down like buckets. the plants look good though and there is some splashed mud to spray off some leaves closer to the ground. i was hoping for a little rain, but damn, i haven't seen that heavy of rain in a long long time. hopefully today will chill out a bit on the rain and let things dry out a bit. Saturday, May 30 View Page time for the real work to begin. it is dedication time. pruned my first tertiary today and have got the first 2 sets of secondaries trained in their right direction on all 3 plants. this took some careful manuevering with one secondary on the 1185 that was at a slight twist point early in the main vine growth. i gently lifted the main after digging out some clearence and redirected the secondary to the right side of the plant as it was growing under the main to the wrong side. it was either redirect it or prune it to avoid major stress build up at this junction as both the main and this secondary gets larger. training the first 2 sets of secondaries is harder than the main some times as some of them now have to be turned to make the bend. this requires letting them grow out longer first then using multiple bamboo strakes without any one stake applying too much pressure to avoid causing it to fold, kink, and sometimes split. tomorrow night after spraying demand cs i will begin burying the main vine at leaf junctions only along with bio endo mych added. so far i have been mounding up soil around the sides of the mains at leaf junctions to promote good tap root anchorage, but didn't want to bury the vines until i got a spray of demand cs on them. and with possible severe storms coming on monday, all plants will need to be secured with a little dirt over the vines and more bamboo added at large leaf stalks. i will support the plants at major leaf stalks to prevent the plants from rolling over at this stage, which is very easy for them to do with huge leaves, running down the main with little to any tap root anchorage. all it takes is a good rain followed by some strong winds and boom...plants goes boom and rolls over. so tomorrow all silt fence wind breaks will be repositioned and brought closer to the plants. i will be happy when more tap roots anchor down and more secondaries develop to get the plants stable for future storms. Tuesday, June 2 View Page 1185.5 daletas today. with the 1041 x 898 and 20% plus heavy genetics, i am hoping for a rock from this girl. Tuesday, June 2 View Page here is the 1161 in the front and the 1385 in the back today. i need some catching up to do on the weeding, but i need to let the patch dry out at least one more day. some nice rains this time wth about a half inch total as opposed to the 2.55" last tuesday. gave the plants a nice good drenching sat. morning of neptunes seaweed and fish to help with a energy boost. it has been a cloudy spring, but the plants seem to adjust with bigger leaves. i have high hopes for a nice round shaped big'n from this girl. the 1161 reminds me of the 1446 last year and is in the same spot. it is one on the nicest early plants i have ever grown. Tuesday, June 2 View Page and here is the one that makes me dream big at night, the 1385 sitting in the honey hole of the patch that grew the 1147 last year. it is doing it's thing nicely. all is well at this point and the plants are running in all directions now. Saturday, June 6 View Page plants are looking good and all 3 are looking identical in many ways except the 1185 has slower and a couple weaker secondaries on only one side of the plant. i attribute much of this from the energy that the first secondary on the other side is stealing which is acting much like a second main. this does not surprise me and i actually like this fact because this is exactly the way my 1041 grew like last year at the early stage. this plant is very much like last years 1041 which gives me high hopes for this 1185 progeny. the right side secondaries have shown big time improvement with full bright sunshine thursday and friday and are now on track and getting stronger and running. all in all i have no complaints. burned some leaves from underwatering as opposed to overwatering with the cool nights. i would rather thirst the plants out a bit than water too much and cool the soil back down after heating back up from the high 30s and low 40s the nights have been like here for the past week. a couple of smaller newly forming leaves got the crinkle, but gave the plants a nice drink friday morning and will now keep them on a regular every other day pattern from here out with night time temps back in the mid 50s. all three plants are sitting at 8' main vines which puts me 2 or 3 days ahead of last year. i will be expecting to see some females showing up this week and will hit the plants with vigor cal phosphate once a week from 6-10 on to help the flowering stage along nicely. i imagine i will see 14' pollinations about the 24th to the 28th if all goes well. Sunday, June 7 View Page the rain blew apart this morning before even getting here so i figured why not give them there scheduled drink along with some 9-18-9 and some vigor cal phos 0-13-0. i just ground drenched as i will be limiting my foliar ferts early on while many new leaves are forming that can be easily damaged. while fertigating and adjusting bamboo this morning i saw my first female at 8' on the 1161 along with another female on a secondary on the 1161. it sent a quick jolt through my system knowing that it won't be long now. gonna wait a day or 2 before snipping the females to let them get big enough to get a clean cut without damaging the vine tips. kind of glad that the weather has slowed the plants down a bit. the vines seem to be catching up in thickness and are becoming more stout all the way to the tip and the leaves are getting to a nice large size. it is also giving the plants more time to catch up on secondary growth. all mains have run outward nicely to this point, but with the new strength from tapping roots and more leaves have them wanting to "boner" up as pap likes to say. this is a critical time with females forming to keep them main vine tips down to avoid the boner up and break off snap that can happen when the plants start showing some muscle. after seeing that female, it was the first nervous- excited jolt since the big dogs sprouted. the fun is right around the corner. Monday, June 8 View Page what is this? anyone know? i thought it was a leaf burn from insecticide but now have my concerns as disease. anyone ever see this slight discoloration in leaves and slight curling in the leaves. all signs in leaf charts pointed to a mosaic virus of some sorts. but most of what i can find on info is thought mosaics viruses show up on newly forming leaves and not older existing leaves. i checked for mites and aphids and have found none. any ideas? Monday, June 8 View Page a closer look of affected leaf. a couple more leaves on the same plant and another plant have this look to them. Tuesday, June 9 View Page thanks to the good people on bp.com, i feel a little better about the leaves in the previous posts. the general consensus was cold wet soil and there has been plenty of that this spring. warm weather is right around the corner this week. saw my first female on the 1185 at about 9'. it will get pruned, but nice to see it is getting ready for that stage of its life. Wednesday, June 10 View Page sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow. unbelievable. here is the 1185 daletas this afternoon. it has longer spaces in between leaf junctions and is growing nicely. with all the chances of hail and high winds, to come out with just 2 leaves that lost their backbones and are folded in half is not that bad. Wednesday, June 10 View Page here is the 1161 today enjoying a taste of bright sunshine. the leaf junctions are stacked closer together on this mama and she will have a lot of power when she is completely filled out. the 1161, the 1185, and the 1385 all have females on the mains at about 9' with multiple females on secondary tips. pruned a couple today and when the leaves cool down this evening i will spray demand cs. one warm day like this after cool wet cloudy days will hatch them svbs pronto. i bet i see my first one in 2 days from now. time to stay ahead of them muthas. i got some vine buryin'/mych to do tonight as well as i haven't done any since sunday, 3 days ago. Wednesday, June 10 View Page and here is the 1385 today looking nice after a quick 2 minute mist. i give them 4 two minute mists a day on sunny days to help them with getting re-acclimated to the sunshine when it only comes out once or twice a week. 10:45, 12:15, 1:45, and 3:15 are my on/off times. hotter days get longer misting intervals. real hot days in high 80 or 90s get 30 minute intervals an i am basically watering with my misting system at that point. the white lawn chairs will be covering main tips soon as i will be shading the cluster to help females develop strongly and increase their chances of reaching maturity with out frying out. Sunday, June 14 View Page set up a new 5' tall sprinkler in the center of the patch and checked its pattern after burying vines with bio endo mych this morning. looks to get out to the edges pretty good but i will set up a couple sprinklers from the outside in on both far sides of the patch and use them as well when the patch is completely filled out. had fun watching my insane dog chase and jump at the water each time it went over the chain link fence in her separated area. basically she has complete access to the south half of my propety and the patch is secured from both her and neighborhood punks and is on the northwest side of the property. no way in hell i will let her anywhere near the plants or the punks. it would not be a pretty sight if a kid ignored the beware of dog sign and jumped the fence. i hope they are not that stupid. as the third owner of her and being a rescued dog that was severly abused, she is a great with me, but hates most other things that move. lol. and i still call her be her original given name of "oreo", but most of the time i call her "cujo". she is a 3 year old black lab mix with either rotweiler or pit mixed in and is somewhere in the vacinity of 120 lbs. best security system a person could ever ask for living in and growing pumpkins in Joliet. Sunday, June 14 View Page here is the patch view tonight looking at the 1185 in front, the 1385 in the center heading left and the 1161 on the far end heading right. the females on all 3 plants were pinched today. both the 1385 and 1185 were longer females, and the 1161s are round as can be. all 3 were between 9-10 ft. there is a female in the cluster of the 1185 that will fall about 12.5' and will get pollinated for insurance reasons, like in case another female doesn't show until 18' or after. no noticable females yet down the line on the 1161 and the 1385. when they show, they will also be pollinated and should fall after the 13' range. i would love to start seeing females stacking up every other leaf junction at this point. starting to hook my main vines on the 1385 and 1161 to give the mains more room as they will be approaching the fence. you can see on the 1185 in the front how the secondaries on the right are way ahead of the secondaries on the left just like last years 1041 plant. 80 degree temps all week should kick things in gear a notch. Sunday, June 14 View Page here is looking out my window tonight at the 1161 in front, the 1385 behind it, and the 1185 to the left. the 1161 main will run straight and then slightly hook to the left for more room and then head straight left eventually. opposite for the 1385 behind it. have yet to see an svb or cuke beetle live or dead in the patch since a saw one cuke in the middle of may. been too damn cold for them to emerge yet i guess. gonna spray the plants tonight and jump the gun in the schedule by one night. gonna mix in a little 9-18-9 to help the males and females boost up in energy. Wednesday, June 17 View Page 3.55 inches of rain yesterday and the plants went ape shit. by that i mean gorilla strength, all vines at least 1' in growth and mostly straight up in the air. had vines push bamboo stakes out of their way. carefully got the vines down and will adjust carefully tomorrow morning. did i say carefully. jeez. you can feel the strength from the resistance and the vine tips almost start a spinning turn if you let them....... power.....harness the power. Thursday, June 18 View Page just got done feeling the kick in the balls that only this hobby can do to you. lol. i was adjusting my 1185 daletas main to get some curve in it for a female at 13' that was gonna open in 3 days or so, when i noticed a brown line on the main about 1 foot in front of the female. and not the good infront. by infront i mean between the stump and the female. and then i saw it. the brown line was a clean crack that runs against the vine about 1/3 of the way through that looks to have happened maybe 4 or 5 days ago. it was healed a little bit but the brown was definatelitey rot starting to set with all the rain that has hit the crack. i had about a one minute fit that used to last me a week to get over. just took the scissors to the main and i am starting to train the new main vine tip from the closest secondary to the break. that puts this plant behind 3 weeks, but damn, she will have a lot of strength an energy built in those secondaries by then. oh well. the other 2 plants have of a nice curve set in place and are in position to pollinate. the 1385 in maybe 3 days at 13' and the 1161 in 4 or 5 days at 12'. all the plants have way too much energy in them for my liking from the 4.5 inches of rain and now starting tomorrow we will have hot temps for the first time in the high 80s all week. time to hang on and go for the ride i guess. got the fans and extention cords ready for pollination in the high heat, the ice jugs are in the freezer and the white lawn chairs are over the females. i will say it one more time, it really sucks to lose a main before getting a female pollinated, but 9' was way to close and it is what it is. it is over. i would much rather try a new secondary to be the new main tip then baby a cracked main to only have it possibly rot out with limited production. it's over, time to make a clean cut and move on. Saturday, June 20 View Page i lost maybe 5 leaves to the 93 degrees it reached here yesterday before the wicked storms came in. 3 small 5' rolled over secondary vines that were put back in place last night and one broken leaf and all looked good as can be this morning. branches down everywhere in the subdivision. luckily no hail and just more rain. the patch drains nice and today it got dried out from the bright 89 degree sunshiney day. i have had to stay out of the patch all week as much as possible with the 6" of rain this week alone. the only thing i did was prune secondaries and restake with bamboo as even then the walking boards were compacting the soil more than i would like in the saturated soil. lifting up perimeter walking boards show a great root network set up way outside the plants themselves, so no sense stomping them. any single tap root that was visably suspended in the air was buried. but the rest tapped in on their owns and will get buried with mych fungi tomorrow morning now that the patch is in better shape. put up 14 more mister heads around the patch today. the 5 leaves burnt yesterday fell outside of their coverage zone. i put 12" vortex fans next to the 1385 and 1161 females to keep them as cool as possible for mondays-tuesday pollinations. gonna be in low 90s so putting the fans on them now should help increase the odds a bit. the ice jugs are ready, and will be used tomorrow the day before pollinations, the day of pollinations, and 3 days after along with the fans. Monday, June 22 View Page tomorrow starts the pollination process and heat is a major concern. so that means out comes the fans. plural. i have had the 12" vornado fan blowing on the 1385 at 13' for 2 days continuously and it will stay on for the whole week. she should be ready tomorrow morning to open. today an ice bottle will go between the fan and the blossum this morning and a replacement when i get home after work. same for the 12' on the 1161 which is hard to tell this morning if it will open tomorrow or wednesday. the 16' and 17' blossums on the 1385 have one 8" turbo fan cooling them both as they develop all week and are also shaded. same with the 1161 at 15'. now because of rain chances today, little plastic patio tables are over the 8" fans to keep them from shorting out and a little bigger size tables are over the 12" fans. i also threw a 8" turbo fan on the 1185 newly transverted secondary into main tip incase a female is already developing deep in the cluster. and it and the fan are also covered with the little white plastic patio tables. i bought 6 of them yesteday at menards at 9 bucks a piece. and the misting system is set as well. gonna be a week of hell and i am just trying to increase my odds by any means possible. it was a lot of work to get to this point just to let them fry in the sun and heat. Tuesday, June 23 View Page good news, bad news. good news that i pollinated the 1161 at 12' this morning and it was a beautifully symetrical 6 lober female pollinated with six 1385 male flowers. bad news is the 1385 at 13' was pollinated this morning with 5 males flowers from the 1161, but it had a couple seeds in the blossum on just one lobe. it was a perfectly sysmetrical 5 lober. i learned from last year that it might not make a difference because the 1041 blossum that became my 1147 pumpkin was the worst looking female i have ever seen. it will get its chance to compete with the next one down the line that should open in about 5 days and another one after that about 7 days away. the really bad news is the heat, as i am dripping wet from the pollination process as it is already 76 degrees and 100 percent humidity. oh well, the bottles of ice between the blossum and the fans are the last thing to do before off to work. Thursday, June 25 View Page losing many leaves to burnt crispified edges even though the misting system has been used diligently. the 1185 takes it the worst. not much you can do except wait for this heat to pass and keep doing my best. a fenced in yard and a brown brick building surrounding the patch with no wind and 97 degree temps equals an oven. hard to tell if the 2 pollinations took on 6-23 but they are still growing and have a nice shine still. the #2 pollination on the 1385 at 16' takes place tomorrow morning. high heat again predicted but have faith that i have 2 more females after that down the line on the ground already in case the pollinations in the heat do not take. and temps are predicted to be lower for those. the 1161 at 15' hopefully will wait til sunday to open when the cooler temps arrive and the female at 18' should be about one week on july 1st or 2nd and is already on the ground. good news with the heat is the 1185 is growing like wild with the heat and all the watering from misting heavy and has caught up nicely. the secondary converted to the new main has a female laid down already at 17' and i am already training the tertiaries to be new secondaries and it is hard to tell the main ever cracked at all. that gives me a pollination attempt at about 7-1 or 7-2 on it with now 15' secondaries being pruned each day and pleanty of plant to push it. most of the plant will be filled in at pollination time and i am now excited at the prospects of having so much plant behind a female. got plenty of room to hook the main on the 1185 and get more pollination attempts on my newly converted main. got a couple super strong 15'secondaries with females on the tips i will pollinate for backups on this plant in a day or two incase i want to treat the plant as a genetics plant if anything else goes wrong on it. Friday, June 26 View Page 1385 #2 at 16' was a scrambled 4 lober with also one lobe with slight seeds in the blossum pollinated with 7 1161 males. it was good to see that the 1528 starr last year had seeds in its blossum just in case that is all i get out of this plant. i'll keep trying next ones down the line. the 1385 #1 is pretty damn big and has the look like it took. the #1 on the 1161 is considerably smaller and may have bit the bullet. ice and fans and the whole routine this morning along with 3 more mister heads on the misting system to keep the main vine tips misted nicely. Saturday, June 27 View Page doh!!!!!!!! just noticed today that while putting the table back over the pollination yesterday that the bottom of one of the legs snapped off the blossum top of the female 1' away and next in line to be pollinated on the 1385. it must be a sign to stick with the 13' with very minor seeds in blossum, like 3 on the side of one blossum segment. it should be completely laid down by tomorrow at 5 days old and is on a very nice curve on the main. the srambled 4 lober at 16' with many seeds will still get a chance to grow and the 19' or 20' will be ready to pollinate in about 6 days and will be pollinated for back ups. the 1161 at 12' is a dud for sure and the female at 15' looks to have stopped growing before reaching maturity. the prime 18' on a nice curve will hopefully be the one in about 6 days, but i will have plenty of time to keep trying now that the main is hooked and can go for another 14' if needed. pruned 2 of the biggest prettiest open 5 lobers side by side on the 1185 secondaries i was going to pollinate for back up. scrapped that idea of having a genetics plant and it is on the main or nothing or the plant will become a halloween pumpkin plant if i do not get one on the main. about 5 days away for that first attempt at 17'. today is the last day of the extreme heat and high humidity. i have been walking a fine line with svbs. haven't sprayed since 13 days ago, but i haven't seen one yet and i am holding out for the first cooler night so not to burn the leaves and use the 420 stihl blower for good coverage. Sunday, June 28 View Page i just got done wracking my nerves positioning the mill fabric under the 1385 at 13'. i had the loop set up to keep the secondary going sideways and around, but decided to whack it when it kept falling over and getting in the way. the leaf was whacked as well cuz the leaf stem bent in half under the table last night in the winds and started rubbing on the female. so this morning i said what the hell, and gave her the bed she is looking for. this is a pic this morning at 10:30 am on day 5. she is a grower early on and sits at about 14" on day 5. i hope she keeps chugging along and becomes the keeper. Sunday, June 28 View Page svbs arrived today as far as i know it. first one that i have seen so far this year at least with many hours in the patch. and go figure, the stihl blower won't start. dumb luck, or just dumb. i forgot to drain and run the gas out of it last fall. i thought for sure i ran it out of gas the last time i used it. wrong. it needs a tune up and i will drop it off tomorrow. so tonight comes out the backpack sprayer the old fashioned way. i put 3 long 8' boards on each side of the plants for good internal access to the mains and i will hit with demand cs on the 1385, and a combo vcp 0-13-0 and demand cs on both the 1185 and 1161. the 1161 will get a good dose of the vcp to help its females get a little more vigor and hopefully the 18' will take. Sunday, June 28 View Page as the whitesox opened up a 5-0 lead on the scrubbies, i decided to try my own luck out in the patch with some hits but have so far struck out. i went to use the fly swatter and as i was about to whack a svb sitting on a burnt leaf that i could care less about, i broke the fly swatter in half with the force of the snap before hitting the svb. doh!!!! so i modified the fly swatter as seen in the picture above by adding on a 3' piece of garden stake to the cracked off section. it works great and has nice reach....but i went 0-3 as they moved to fast before i could get to them. jermaine dye just hit another homer run as i type....you can put it on the boaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrd, YYYYYYYYESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6-0 over the baby bears. nice. funny how the dragon flies are following the svbs with me like a wolf pack. where ever the svbs go, so do i, and the dragonflies follow and perch on nearby bamboo stakes. 4 or 5 dsifferent kinds of dragonflies roaming the patch today. love to see them, hopefully my coating of demand cs tonight will not hurt that population too much. Sunday, June 28 View Page well, i just got done re-adjusting bamboo stakes to find another major problem. another crack in a main. this time on the good side even there can be a good thing. at 19' there is a slight perpendicular crack that had to develope today in the high winds with some 40 mph gust. the main was secured tight, but looks to have slightly rolled a bit. this put part of a leaf stalk under the vine just enough to prop it up, and that is where it slightly cracked. i have it secured down, but it is big enough to look into the main and that sucks. oh well, i guess that 18' female will be the one and only last shot on the 1161 main. i am glad cooler weather is here to give it better odds of setting sometime this week. don't ya love this hobby? lol. Sunday, June 28 View Page here is a shot looking out my window today while watching the sox beat up on the cubs. this is the 1161 right side of the plant with the 1385 in the back. both plants have room for 16' secondaries with more getting terminated on both plants every day. Sunday, June 28 View Page and the 1161 left side of plant. you can see the 1185 to the left and the 1385 behind the 1161. plants are huge and i need some good luck for a change on the 1161 with the pollination at 18' now that the main is cracked behind it. i have just seen a diary pic of a nice round 1161 at 10 days old and am jealous in a good way. please pumpkin gods...a little help for the effort. Sunday, June 28 View Page and here is the 1185 in the front with as much as i could fit in while standing on a latter. pic is crooked, but you get the gist. the 1185 has many 15' secondaries terminated and starting to really fill up. you can not see the left side of the plant, but it should have plenty of energy for the female at 17' that is growing nicely and should open sooner than i thought originally and might be ready on tuesday or wednesday. in the back is the 1385 going left and the 1161 going right. after seeing svbs for the first time this year today and not spraying for 14 days prior due to avoiding spraying in the heat last week, i just got done at dark and sprayed every vine, leaf stalk, under side of leaves and top side of leaves as diligently as possible. sprayed a total of 9 gallons under the plants on all vines, stalks, and leaf undersides and 4.5 gallons of mix on the top side of the leaves along with vcp 0-13-0 on both the 1161 and 1185. spent 4 hours in a.m., and 3 hours p.m. in the patch today with the sox/cub game sandwiched in between. i am sun burnt and tired, but proud of the work i completed. the entire rest of the misting system was set up so the full coverage mist can help me avoid any more future leaf burn. the picture doesn't show it cuz the leaves are blowing crazy in the wind when i took the picture, but i have many damaged heat related leaves from the past week. that heat wave also cost me 2 prime females on the 1161. glad it is gone and it could not have come at a worse time. but i did mange a successful pollination on the 1385 so all the fan work was worth it. tomorrow i will catch up on some weeding and vine burying now that all vines are coated with demand cs. Tuesday, June 30 View Page 1185 at 17' was pollinated this morning with 8 male flowers from the 1385 and was a nice 4 lober. nice cool day and hope she takes. another chance on the 1185 at 21' in about 5 days. the 1385 at 20' was selfed and once again a real screwey looking blossum. one segment was super huge and fused with another and the others were scrambled bad. so it is looking more and more like the 13' is the one if she continues at the pace she is at. 19.5" tonight on day 7 and my guess she will come in at over 25" on day 10 and maybe closer to 30" depending on how this cool weather treats her. the last chance female on the 1161 looks like it will be pollinated thurs. which is predicted at a high of 80. nice. she still has a nice shine and color to her and this is the longest stem i have seen so far on the 1161 blossums so maybe all was meant to be. ya never know, but i haven't been this nervous about getting a set on a plants main in a long time. fingers crossed. Wednesday, July 1 View Page one thing after another. the cold weather, low 50s over night, procuced yet another main snap. again on the good side if there can be one. the 1185 which has a tendencey to shoot up in the air at different times, did so last night and grew up and out and "snap". it was secured down last night, but oh well. and to add insult to injury, the crack went through right at leaf junction where the next 20' female was and cracked right before it instead of after it. so yesterdays pollination attempt will be the only one on the new main and really need it to take. i am letting all secondary females develop on both the 1185 and 1161 from here on out for insurance. even a secondary pumpkin with this much plant behind it now will have a chance for something respectible come the weighoff. it has been a very trying year, all with in the last 3 weeks, that has me laughing at how many curveballs this hobby can throw at you. it is amazing, last year no main snaps. this year 3, and 2 on the same plant. in fact, i have had only one secondary crack out of all 3 plants, on the 1185, and the rest are fine. what are the odds of out of 4 vine snaps, 3 of them would be on the mains. sheeeeesh. so now i really need some good luck for a change and have the 17' yesterday on the 1185 take and the 1161 on tomorrow morning take and all will be fine. good news of the morning, the 1385 grew 2 inches since last night and is now in the chugging stage. she might be my only chance at glory this year. Wednesday, July 1 View Page the pumpkin gods just might have blessed me when least expected. after walking by the 1161 plant at 6:30, i noticed an open secondary female that i didn't know was there and decided to pollinate it (4 lober)for a backup with some of the 1385 flowers i had bagged in case the 1161 on the main opened this morning. it was hard to tell last night if the 1161 on the main at 18' was going today or tomorrow and the color was bleeding through enough orange to plan for a morning pollination today. but it was still crimped shut at 6:30 am and i was about to go to work when i noticed the secondary female open and pollinated it. while pollinating the secondary 1161, i saw that its petals on one half were somewhat still crimped together like it was stuck a bit while opening. after pollinating it, i went back and took a closer look at the main female and knew that the top petals must be twisted and crimped at the tips from the cool night. a little twist of the tops of the petals and she started to opened up. 5 minutes later i pollinated her with 7 1385 males. it was a 5 lober that was symetrical, but a couple of the segments were a little smaller than the others. not sure if a problem or not, but at least i feel lucky for a change. i didn't miss the one and only last chance on the 1161 main. only going to 68 degrees today, so the weather is sure right. so now finger crossed tight that the 1185 and 1161 last chance pollinations on the mains take successfully. come on pumpkin gods, smile down at me and let me go 2 for 2 with these girls. it is out of my hands now. Friday, July 3 View Page the 1385 at 10 days old this morning at 6:30 am was 27" circ. not bad considering it hasn't seen sun or a temp above 73 with night time lows in the mid to lower 50s for the past 5 days. 2 days never got above 65. from one extreme to the other as it was pollinated on a 94 degree and made it through 97 degree temps the first couple days and then weather where guys at work wore hooded sweatshirts most of this week. all in all 27" is a good start. the 1185 and 1161 last chance main pollinations still have a shine and are still growing, but too early to tell if both or either took. Sunday, July 5 View Page this is "It". "It" is on the 1385 at 13' and was 35" circ. this morning on day 12 and has hit 4" circ for 2 days in a row. and yesterday never got out of the 60s with the rain all day. i will take the rain, but sun and and warmer temps is what the soil temp and plants need right now. "It" is named "It" cuz i have a feeling "It" will be the only chance for a shot at the big money this year. the other 2 last chance pollinations on the 1185 and 1161 may have took but i still can't tell, and at are day 5 and day 4. the 1161 was the smallest female pumpkin on a main i have ever pollinated and the 1185 is a cigar that is filling in, but i went to feel the weight of it to see if i should put mill fabric under it and feels like a dud. both still have shines and haven't lost color yet. the 1161 is still smaller than a tennis ball on day 4. my only luck for these 2 is that they were slowed way down in development due to the cold and cloudy temps and still will make somewhat of a comeback. i have let the secondaries go to the bees on both plants, and will choose the largest secondary pumpkin at day 10 down the line if neither last chance mains took. i have been doing this for 8 years now and have been fooled many times, but i honestly believe "IT" is the one chance i got to beat old georgie boy this year. i felt this strong enough yesterday that i removed all females pollinated or unpollinated on the main. today i terminated the main and removed all unopened male flowers. "It" is all or nothing. Wednesday, July 8 View Page this is "It" on day 15. "It" was 53" circ. this morning at 6:30 am. the warm weather the past 3 days kicked it from 4" on day 12 to 4.5 inches circ. on day 13 and then 6"+ circ. both day 14 and 15. lovely shape and color so far with a nice stem angle set for future shoulder clearance. too bad for the early leaf scratch scar, but oh well, all mine seem to get a scar one way or another by the end of the year. the little table behind it is over the stem and vine union. the pruned tendril and leaf have depressions that i do not like for ponding water on the stem. i cut them down tight early, but growth since then have left perminant little pockets. when the shoulders out grows the table, a cover will go over this one. "It" definately has my mind spinning with the possibilities. this is why i grow big pumpkins. to feel the dream, to hope for glory, to hook into a big'n that will take 3 more months to maybe get "It" in the boat and all the anxiety that comes with it. i told a friend yesterday that i figured out why i grow these things. it is just to feel that sense of pure wonder. i wonder how big "It" will get, i wonder if it will blow or make it to the show. i wonder if i can top my personal best. I wonder... Thursday, July 9 View Page "It is easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you have the stock market beat. But the man worth while, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat." ahhhaahahaa go ahead Pookie, do the honors. I christen thee the flying wasp..........enter rodney fast and furious.....i love caddyshack, even on regular tv on amc....so anyways i brought out the power and stihl fogged eagle/demand cs mix tonight and am now watching caddyshack.. gotta love the power of the 420 blower... gung gunga gullungangagga...which means, "on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness," which is nice. big hitter the lama, with the flowing robes........ Saturday, July 11 View Page well well well. i guess i lied when i said "It" would be my only chance at glory. i would like to introduce you to "Freak". this is "Freak" on day 11 and 32" today means it grew 5" circ. since yesterday. now that is including the crooked nose, but not the 2 inch blossum. weirdo for sure, but it is a keeper and see where it goes. it is on the 1185 at 17' on a secondary turned into a new main at 11'. the new secondary/main is thicker already than the other plants main at this point, so i do not think the early snap will hurt the growth too much. i hope the weird shape grows out as it fills in. each day it looks a little better, but an oddball for sure. it's genetics are a 22 percent heavy 1041 x the 898, so i am hoping for heavy. "Freak" was pollinated with the 1385, so i did succeed so far in doing my heavy x monster big genetics cross. Saturday, July 11 View Page today the 1161 last chance on the main was culled. at 17" on day 10, i got down and took a close look to see if i would still go with it and put mill fabric under it. that is when i noticed 2 stem splits underneath going into the pumpkin. i am glad that i decided 3 days ago to pollinate a secondary kin. this is at 3 days and looks better than the culled one on the main at the same age. after culling the main 17", i decided to throw the mill fabric under this as a sign of hope that it will take. it was self pollinated and a nice 5 lober. good thing i put fabric under it today, cuz while doing so i noticed some fuzz developing on the blossum and removed the goo, treated with captan, and got a fan on it. i got a backup open pollinated 1161 at about 4 days and removed all other open secondary set pumpkins to give the juice to the 2 remaining ones. i decdided that with this much plant, and a nice strong secondary vine that is cut off after the pumpkin at 7' out from the main, then what the hell, that 7' is just like one long stem from the main with leaves on it too. lol. wishful thinking, but i have never grown a pumpkin directly off a secondary. i have let the plant turn into halloweenines if i didn't get one on the main. if neither of these 2 remaining sets take, it will be late in the game after this and the plant will be a halloweeny plant. so with 2 last chances on the secondaries, it would be fitting to call this little one "the duece". if it grows big and makes it to the weigh off, we will be careful not to drop "the duece". Sunday, July 12 View Page i decided to pollinate another one on the 1161 for backup to "the duece" as the open pollinated female looks to have aborted. hopefully "the duece" takes completely. not many chances left even on secondaries at this point. and male flowers are limited to few if none since pruning them all off yesterday. i missed a few on the 1161 and used that to pollinate the 4 lober on a strong secondary this morning. the plants are all filled in and i will return to my root drenching program of neptunes seaweed and fish. i will try to pick cooler cloudy days to avoid instant energy surges. i have not given the plants anything but vcp 0-13-0 and 9-18-9 about 3 weeks ago. i did mix in a little humic acid in with the fungicide/insecticide on thursday, but nothing else but plenty of water. i am not foliar feeding this year or using compost tea. i am keeping my leaves from getting coated with anything but fungicides and insecticides. everything else is coming from the soil. the calcium is from the 400 lbs of gypsum and the 100 lbs of calcite calcium. the 250 pounds of kelp meal, the 100 lbs of K mag, the 100 pounds of humic acid, and 150 pounds of charcoal green biochar along with 15 yards of the best compost on earth should be plenty on the nutrient side in the soil. also, i ordered 26 pounds of bio endo plus and ended up using 5 pounds per plant. the remain 11 pounds was broadcast by hand around the entire 1385 plant when "it" was on day 10 and watered it in nicely for 3 days. not sure how much of that will help, but i no it can't hurt. "It" is 77" circ. today on day 19. "freak" is 38" circ. on day 12. Monday, July 13 View Page "it" was 83 cc- 53 ss- 52 sb = 188 ott on day 20 at 5:30am. "it" is a good girl and i told her about her sister 1385 pumpkin "taz" up north in roselle. she said to tell georgie boy and "taz" to "Bring It!!!!!" (do not mind the old style bottle, i have to get some more budweiser for at home. this bottle i found downstairs) Friday, July 17 View Page got about an inch of rain in a half hour yesterday as the skies opened up from a dangerous hail producing cell that produced no hail in my patch. thank God. with the cold front coming in last night, i decided to get some numbers this morning to get some pre and post cold spell numbers. gonna be a high of 70 today and lows in the lower 50s for the next 3 days. blankets will come out tonight and be used the next 3 nights to try to keep internal temps buffered from rapid changes. this morning "It"s numbers are 106 cc 67 ss 64 sb totaling 237 ott or 289 lb estimate on day 24. that means it has averaged 34.5 lbs a day for the last 4 days. "freak" got its first ott measurement of the year and is 67 cc 38 ss and 44 sb totaling 149 ott or 80.2 lbs on day 17. freak was 54.5 cc on day 15 and hit 6"+ cc the past 2 days of warmth and sun. and good news so far for "duece" on the secondary of the 1161 is at 21" cc this morning at day 9 and shows no signs of stem splitting so far or aborting. it got down to 55 degrees and the pumpkins felt cold while measuring today. a bad "splittsville" scenario for rapidly growing pumpkins has developed with hotter temps followed by an inch of rain followed by a upcoming 3 day cold spell. the blankets will help some, but i will be nervous after the cold spell is over and temps pick back up. Saturday, July 18 View Page "duece" this morning is 23.5" cc and still has not aborted yet. i am leaving two other 1161 x self secondary sets on the plant until i know for sure one of them gets past 15 days or so before culling. Saturday, July 18 View Page "freak" on day 18 at 73" cc. circumference doesn't mean as much with this torpedo, but i am still having fun watching this freak grow day after day and get weirder and weirder looking. Saturday, July 18 View Page silly "freak" is chugging along nose and all. Saturday, July 18 View Page "it" on day 25 at 111" cc. blankets are now off this morning and i am going to let the cloud filled 60 degree sunlight hit the pumpkins for a while before sheeting them to get the internal temp back up a bit. a couple more days of riding out the cold spell and weather looks good down the road. Saturday, July 18 View Page side view of "it" today on day 25 Sunday, July 19 View Page looked closely at the backup set on the 1161 and found stem splits already. i decided to go with "duece" all or nothing and culled all females. the secondary leading to duece is not the biggest secondary by any means, but it is the only pumpkin to make it to day 11 with aborting. if it aborts, then officially the 1161 will be allowed to grow some pop up tertiary pumpkins for halloween like last years 997. the 997 produced about 800 pounds of tertiary pop up pumpkins and these on the 1161 are round and yellow so should make some nice halloweenies if it comes to that. even a disappointing plant will produce enough halloweenies to produce some nice smiles from friends and families when delivered to their doorsteps. blankets did there work last night as "freak" and "it" never broke stride even in the last 2 cloudy and cool days. 2 more nights of blanketing should do it hopefully until the next cold spell comes along next week. the comforters were laid out over the pumpkins and spread out to retain as much ground heat and internal pumpkin heat as possible. last night the comforters were covered with blue tarps about 5 pm to get a little warmth from the darker color absorbing sun and also to keep the comforters dry as i began watered again as usual from 3 am to 6 am with the overhead misting system. everynight when the pumpkins and soil are at there coolest is when i water, this way the cold tap water is not that shocking to either. and with the heavier drop misting system, the leaves funnel the water to the taps and then wick outwords never soaking the soil too much, but keeping a nice base saturation. hoping for some sun today.....hey it must be a sign, it just came through the clouds as i type...freaky. Monday, July 20 View Page "freak"s 20 day numbers are 83"cc 53"sb 46"ss = 182" ott and an estimate of 138 pounds. "it" is going into unchartered teritories for me and has averaged 35 lbs a day for 7 straignt days and is sitting at 264.5"ott or 396 lbs on day 27. last 3 days have been brutal weather wise. yesterday's morning sunburst faded quick but we did see some afternoon sun after 2:30 pm for the first time in 3 days as the weather climbed into the 70s. i am done blanketing as the night time lows are gonna be closer to 60 this week. pumpkins always felt warmer than air temp when i took the blankets off the last 3 mornings. not sure if it helped any, but couldn't have hurt. i still have not given the plants any fertilizers (neither foliar or drench) since the middle of june and am leary of doing so until the weather gets more constant. probably wednesday i will drench neptunes and seaweed and do so weekly the rest of the season. a little humic acid will go into the eagle/demand cs fog tonight since it has been 12 days since the last combo spray. haven't seen any cukes or svbs for a couple weeks now and that is a good thing. Thursday, July 23 View Page "it" was 131.5" cc 81"ss 78"sb = 290.5" ott on day 30 this morning at 6 am. now estimated at 520 lbs meaning it has jumped up to 41.3 pounds per day over the last 3 days. never did bring out the neptunes an have decided to leave well enough alone and continue doing nothing but watering unless i see a drastic decline in gains. duece was 46" cc today on day 15. Thursday, July 23 View Page decided to take some more pics on a sunny afternoon. this is "it" on day 30 on the 1385. Thursday, July 23 View Page sideview of "it" on day 30. the pronounced hump forming on the shoulders and the area above the blossum starting to nose out has this baby looking more and more like the shape of its papa, the 1689. did some side by sides pics from all angles and it is growing pretty close at this point to that shape. got a nice 25 minute downpour yesterday that produced a solid half inch of rain at least. Thursday, July 23 View Page here is "freak" starting to fill out some what by going wide. this "freak" makes me smile with its crazy long shape, 2" protruding blossum, and its narrow shoulders. trouble with a short stem (4" at the most) and future vine clearance had me whack off the main (retrained secondary to be the main) right behind the stem. i then spun the "freak" until the problem was solved and braced the main vine and stem with styrofome. at 214 lbs estimate, it was now or never. in doing so i only lost 2 secondaries cuz the main snapped 4 feet after the "freak" anyways. i do not see it hurting the growth too much cuz on removal, the root systems on those removed secondaries were still just getting somewhat established and those leaves were feeding more of the plant that their own tap roots at this point. "freak"'s oddball numbers today are 98"cc 53" ss 62" sb = 213" ott od day 23. the past 3 days have averaged 25 lbs per day so it is entering the chugging stage. a blanket with some calcium on it i believe from last year made a slight chemical burned checkered pattern on its back when the cold spell was here. makes it even freakier looking. Thursday, July 23 View Page watch out for this torpedo coming at ya......silly "freak". with a 22% heavy mama from the 1041 and crossed with the 898 knauss, and then the long shape on top off that has me to belive this one on the 1185 daletas will go heavy. Thursday, July 23 View Page mark buehrle. perfect game. perfect day. tied for first. go whitesox. unreal. Saturday, July 25 View Page dodged a bullet tonight for sure. a wicked line of hail producing storms had their eyes on joliet all day long and blew apart and then reformed enough to give us a nice soaking of lightening charged rain drops as the bolts were hitting within half a block away. i was standing in my solarium tonight watching for hail when a bolt cracked so close it shook the ground. contemplated the odds of a direct hit on a pumpkin. that would be some wicked bad luck if it happened. lol. i did contemplate setting up the shade cloth after work and got it all out, but decided against it. while tracking the storm all afternoon like a nervous freak, i came up with a way to shade the entire 1385 in less then 20 minutes and the whole patch in about an hour if duty calls. tall rebar with rebar osha safety plastic caps on them that have a square flat bottom will be erected at prime support locations. i have the perimeter posts and steel rope cables still in place from the old system to tie on shade cloth to. 2 crossing cables in each direction over the plant can be clamped on in 5 minutes and tied with wire to the rebar up high. after one side of the 40' x 40' shade cloth is tied on, you drape it over the cables and pull from one side, then the other, sliding it in place. then secure to the border steel rope cable with wire tie. using a broom stick to push up on the shade cloth and slide over helps. instant circus tent. it shood work just like the old set up that had more crossing cables on 4 x 4 s left in place. besides that all the mister heads are on sturdy green garden stakes which should also disperse the load of the hail while i push it up and over the edges with a broom stick while wearing a hard hat. this is what i came up with in theory, and i see it working for minimal size hail. the hail in the storm that barely brushed us wiped out crops in iowa. i will be more prepared though. Saturday, July 25 View Page "the duece" jumped up to 5" cc per day the past 2 days and is 56" cc on day 17 and the stem is rapidly getting larger and the secondary vine it is on is growing in size nicely now that the juices are all going in one direction. got deep within the plant and removed every single little weird pop up tertiary the plant wanted to shoot out. never seen so many little mutant stubby terts coming out of previosly pruned secondaries unions. similar to those weird pop terts you get near your stumps sometimes. i had to get the vegetative energy out of the plant so it could switch over to fruiting concentration. would love to still try to get something around 1000 from the 1161 on a secondary. plenty of plant to do it, and the pumpkin is shaping up like it will possibly go tall and squattier with somewhat of a nice shape and color. a little early to tell if it is a chugger, but nice to see it gaining a little faster. noticed a decent size stem side split under the stem that has already healed without my knowing on "the duece". could be signs of problems to come or just a quick burst of energy from the cold spell to warm spell and the pumpkin split a little to give instead of blow. had this happen before at that age. took a couple measurements on "freak" to see if any changes since removing the main after the pumpkin and the 2 secondaries i lost in the procedure. 24 lbs per day since the surgery on day 25 as compared to 25 lbs per day before it means it hasn't really missed a beat. Saturday, July 25 View Page here is "the duece" dropping by to say hey on day 17. Saturday, July 25 View Page here is "the duece" dropping in to say hey on day 17. Saturday, July 25 View Page "the duece" is a shiney yellow girl early and might be the looker of the patch. nice to have a pumpkin on all 3 plants now even if the 1185 is a retrained secondary main and the 1161 is a secondary vine pumpkin. they all get the same love equally and will hopefully make it to the weigh off with a lot of luck over the next 70 days. Saturday, July 25 View Page noticed 3 old half dead leaves shaded under other leaves that had early signs of pm. not good, but glad i noticed it on only one plant. trimmed the 3 half dead infected leaves off and carefully got them out of the patch and have stayed out since and will not go back in till i change cloths and shower. just hit the plants hard with eagle last monday, and will hit with a clearys3336f/daconil mix tomorrow night. gonna pick up another for the rotation and will make that purchase today on line after some investigation. and the one plant i found it on was the 1385, so am i glad i spotted it early. the battle is on to keep the leaves healthy for 70 more days. Sunday, July 26 View Page "it" will get 3 day measurements from here on out to track any significant drops in weight. if i see a significant average weight drop after a 3 day measurement, i will return to a drench fertilizer program and contemplate foliar feeding and or compost tea. for now it is still plain ole' water, the soil and the sun like it has been since the middle of june. "it" averaged 39.3 pounds per day over the last 3 days and is 142.5 cc 86 ss 83 sb = 311.5 ott and an estimated weight of 638 lbs on day 33. definately unchartered territories for me at this stage. used duct tape to hold measuring tape around the pumpkin as it has past that point. getting harder to control my silly brain....a lot of wondering, calculating, worrying as each storm approaches, and checking under the sheet each day is fun to see the growth, but nail bitting to say the least. Wednesday, July 29 View Page "it" on day 36 was 151 91 88 = 330" ott or 756 lbs. 39.3 lbs per day again the last 3 days. Thursday, July 30 View Page "freak" on day 30 on the 1185 is 124.5 cc 65.5 ss 73 sb = 263.0 ott or 390 lbs. gave her another spin for more vine clearance which is easy to do still on mill fabric with a 390 pound pumpkin. this left me hanging over onto the soil, so i added another folded up section of fabric on the stem side to compensate. Thursday, July 30 View Page "the duece" is loose but for how long? at 5" cc a day the past 7 days, the duece has grown but its blossum hasn't moved. the blossum is bellybuttoning innie style very deep, very fast, and you can already see in this pic a small blossum end split that is small and healing itself fine, but not a very good sign. my bet, this one never makes it to the scale due to a BES. but for now, it is growing bigger and i have seen stranger pumpkins make it the distance. "the duece" is 85 cc 57 ss 56 sb = 198" ott or est. of 174 pounds today on day 22 on a secondary set on the 1161. Saturday, August 1 View Page "it" on day 39 is 158-94.5-91.5 or 344" ott and estimated at 855 lbs. first drop in daily gains in 6 days. some cooler nights over the past 3, but the daily average was bound to start coming down sooner or later. 33 pounds even a day for the last 3 days. more signs of powdery mildew, about 15 leaves per plant with some minor symptoms, and 3 leaves per plant completely covered. spraying thoroughly and should be ok for the remaining maximum growth period over the next month. i am not easing off the watering program due to the powdery mildew. i figure with the 3 fungicides in rotation, i can keep 90 percent of the plants healthy for the next 4 weeks and as long as possible. i will begin my neptunes seaweed and fish drenching again on monday or tuesday. its cloudy and cool all day today and tomorrow is supposed to be warmer with clear bright sunshiney skies so i will wait for the ferts until the warmer temps steady out so not to push to hard. Tuesday, August 4 View Page looking for some sun and warm weather at the same time. saturday never broke 70 and was cloudy. sunday was a sunny 74 but 55 at night. yesterday was sunny for 3 hours and cloudy the rest of the day and made it to 81. some tree leaves are starting to change color here and drop early. all 3 pumpkins dropped a bit in daily average, but that was expected with the crappy 3 day stretch. good thing the hot weather is finally here starting today and hoping for a pick up in growth pace over the next few days. i imagine the powdery mildew isn't helping, but looks to be somewhat in check and sprayed immmunox/demand cs/humic acid last night. tomorrow returns the drench fertilizer program. "it" on the 1385 averaged 20 lbs per day over the last 3 days and is estimated at 915 lbs on day 42 . the "freak" on the 1185 is 35 days old today and has hit 27.7 pounds a day for the last 3 and 138-73-81 or 292 ott on for an estimated weight of 528 lbs. the "duece" on the 1161 secondary was 104-64.5-65 or 233.5 ott and estimated at 275 lbs on day 27 and the blossum keeps receeding so far in that it is freaky. so summer is finally here and time to finish these puppies off with some good warm weather weight gains. Thursday, August 6 View Page warm weather and sunshine. it was still 54 here last night, but the past 2 days of sun and 87 and 84 degree temps did the trick. back to 31 lbs per day the last 2 days for "it" and sits at 166-99-95 this morning at 6 am on day 44 and estimated at 978 lbs. i will take some pics on day 45 tomorrow when it hopefully goes over a 1000 lb estimate. when it does that, it will officially become the highest ott total by me and a new personal best for ott measurements. the 1147 was estimated at 997 lbs last year and went heavy. i am glad i laid off the big drench push i was going to give them to get them kickstarted again. patience and sunshine did the trick. and if that is the case, no sense getting them all charged up with ferts to go along with 95 degree temps on sat and sun and hot weather. most splits happen around day 45 to 55, so i will let mother nature do the pushing and trust my soil. but, if i see another big drop in daily gains and the weather has been good, then out comes the ferts, both foliar and drench. Saturday, August 8 View Page stopped by a trick shop while on a way for a burrito at lunch yesterday. picked up some snap and pops and a fart machine with a remote control. cried laughing like a 2 year old the past 2 nights at bobby's tap. i would put the fart machine next to some ladies under the stool next to them. wait a while, then hit the remote from 15 feet away. the anticipation while waiting for the perfect moment...like in between songs when it quiets down a bit...is almost more funny the the actual reaction. it is a highly recommended product for the other 2 year olds out there. so anyways, that reminded me of this ass shot of "freak" on day 39 this morning. 148 cc 78ss 86sb = 312 "ott or estimated at 641 lbs. averaged 28.3 lbs per day the past 4 days. if the actual blossum gets closer to ground level, i will pull up the fabric and shelf down some soil so the the blossum never hits the pressure of the ground. Saturday, August 8 View Page here is another shot of "freak" on day 39 before going under a tyvek tarp Saturday, August 8 View Page as it is going up 93 today, the tyvek tarps are now up over "freak" and "it". the sheet goes back over too for side angles of sun as the tarps are high enough to allow good air flow around the pumpkins. also, misting will be in place more frequently over the hot spell, so keeping them dry, especially the stems from here on out, is a good thing in 95 degree heat and extreme humidity. Saturday, August 8 View Page here is a back shot of "it" on day 46 and estimated at 1035 lbs this morning at 6 am. 169-101-97 and the hump is growing taller day by day. got a good soaking half inch of rain yesterday and more this morning. been watering every day continuously, so a night off of joliet water is a great thing. this pic was taken in the rain before putting up the tyvek shade structure. Saturday, August 8 View Page another shot of "it" on day 46. i folded a 8 foot wide roll of tyvek over and doubled it up and then duct taped all four corners. then set up 6 rebar pieces. once the corner is secured by punching a hole threw the duct tape and tying with wire to the rebar, see where the side lines up with your middle piece of rebar. after lining it up, add duct tape on the side where the wire will go through. the duct tape helps preventing the tyvek from ttearing at the ties. we will see how they hold up in a high wind storm, but i think they will do fine and the white color with 95 degree temps should stop the heat absorbed by blue tarps and reflect sun to give a nice steady cooler airflow around the kins. Saturday, August 8 View Page another shot of "it" on day 46. the flash of the camara on a cloudy rainy morning with the white tyvek shade structure gave some cool effects with the water droplets on the pumpkins. here comes the sun and the heat as i type this now. misters are ready, and i may bring out some 12" vornade fans today and tomorrow to circulate the air nicely under the tarps as it is gonna go over 93 degrees today and 95 tomorrow. selt belt is on for the ride. Saturday, August 8 View Page went back and re-read the last posts. i watered every day, but not continuously. i water 3 hours every morning from 3 am to 6 am with large droplet tornado misters from my misting system. when over 85 and direct sun is predicted, i water 4 hours from 2-6 am the night before. this might not be the best for powdery mildew set up, but i figure with the cool summer, why cool the soil and plants down any other time then while watering them with 57 degree tap water at the coolest part of the night. and the misting system acts like a slow steady soaking instead of a beating with large droplets to the soil. the moisture wicks back and forth nicely as it funnels from the leaves to each tap root then outward. got the powdery mildew in check and the plants still look plenty healthy. still haven't had to remove too many older leaves yet from the stump area, mains and early secondary growth area. with the 95 degree and high humidity, this is the time for rot to set at any spot it gets a hold of. i will wait for the patch to dry out a bit today and tomorrow morning give full inspection to these areas and remove those needed to be removed and apply captan. Sunday, August 9 View Page tyvek is a mistake for those with neighbors close buy or your patch close to the house. loud and crinkly tinny noise every time the wind blows. my neighbors have their air on at night so not too bad. but my dog has me up from barking at the 25 mph winds making sounds like pie tins out there. more secure taughtness would temporarily do the trick, but as the loosen up, the noise will return. so for the sake of my sleep and the neighbors not having to hear it all fall as temps decrease and windows are opened at night, i just purchased some 10 x 8 foot waterproof tarps that are white on on side and silver on the other. i will point the silver sides up. the tyvek will get me through til they get here, so oh well live and learn. Sunday, August 9 View Page you tell me how to measure "the duece". if i take the circumference at right under the stem and go horizontal with the ground to the nose end of the blossum, that is the widest point. it seems like cheating and i should go stem to blossum on an angle lining up and taking the circumference tilted. it matters about 3" circumference but the side to side and stem to blossum are the same. in theory, if i took the circumference with the tilt aspect, then my side to side and stem to blossum measurements would be taken with an invisable angled plane to to the side to side and stem to blossums. i know a bird bath pumpkin is measured circumference around parellel to the ground, so i will go with option one, partellel to the ground as the blossum end will eventually hit the ground anyways and option 2 measurements wouldn't work anymore. i gave the pumpkin a slight tilt when the inverted blossum started deepening to keep it from becoming a place for water to sit in. now it is on full tilt so to speak in the poker vernacular. i am thinking it might be the best thing for this baby. the small bes splits are totally healled and no more signs of trouble yet. YET. the splits ran concentric for a half inch early on which is a much better chance then splits going up and down pointed at the nub. but still, theis innie is silly. so if "the duece" keeps dropping its weird ass downward, eventually it will touch down and have support evenly across its bum. the stress will be dispersed upward as opposed to outward and the downward pressure from the weight above the blossum will eventully thicken up the blossum end in general as it gradually supports more and more weight. either that or it splits. theories....jeez. who is this shaz idiot anyways? "the duece" is 122-73-71 or 266 ott and estimated at 403 lbs on the 1161 secondary vine set. Sunday, August 9 View Page now you get the picture. see what i am talking about. "the duece" is squatting down to take a dump. doh! Sunday, August 9 View Page this was in no means taken to show a picture to represent the saying, "to sh@t a brick". but once i saw it on the computer, it was the first thing to come to mind. yep. i ain't right in the head. all i wanted to do was to show how far in this blossum really is by supporting the can with a nearby brick. "the duece" went from a looker to hooker in 2 weeks on the streets. joliet is a rough place to live. Wednesday, August 12 View Page "it" on day 50 has dropped back down to 21 lbs a day for the last 4 days and is sitting at 173-104-100 or 377" ott and estimated at 1121 lbs. Friday, August 14 View Page here is the freak starting to turn a nice orange on day 45 and estimated at 752 lbs. (156.5-83-90 or ott 329.5) down to 19 lbs per day for the past 6 days in the warm weather means this one is on the decline. the stump has some issue from secondary shoot that grew directly into the ground under the stump and produced an aborted tennis ball size aborted white pumpkin that started emerging out of the soil. freakiest thing i have ever seen. so i chopped out gnarled up seconday and entwined pumpkin that was the size of a grapefruit combined. i let it air out and put captan on it, but some rot from an underneath fissure made its way into the stump. this all happened last week. today it is progressively getting worse. i am not that concerned cuz there is still a lot of plant in front of the stump to keep feeding the "freak". hoping for anything over 1000 with this one, and then hoping the 20 plus heavy genetics pushes it into the high 1100 or low 1200s. Friday, August 14 View Page the "freak" from the stem side on day 45. had to remove another secondary as it is growing wider had to whack it for clearance. the vine was chopped off after the pumpkin and the pumpkin twisted several times for more vine clearance. in doing so, the vine sort of got some sharp angles to it. one of them is now less then inch from the pumpkin and styrofome padding has been placed to allow the pumpkin to slowly nudge the vine over with the slack it has. it should be ok, but some stem stress may show itself in a couple weeks as the pumpkin keeps pushing it over. Friday, August 14 View Page hasd to get a pic of the 1185 stump before it gets any worse. pretty freaky fo sho. Friday, August 14 View Page the vine coming off the stump is way thicker than a pop can. the pic does not do it justice. Friday, August 14 View Page this is the secondary vine that was retrained to be the main after the real main snapped at 12'. i would have loved to seen what plant could have done with a pumpkin on the true main. whatever though, i like the freak. the freak makes me smile. and this goofy secondary/main vine that is almost as thick as a popcan growing into the stem makes me smile big. the vines keep getting thicker and the 1185 and 1385 are some of the thickest vines i have seen. about like last years 1446. Friday, August 14 View Page and a final picture of "the freak" on day 45 shows off its recent color changes. if the freak holds true to its genetic makeup and goes anywhere near 15% heavy, then i will grow the seed out of it if they are viable next year. the reason being is i crossed the female 1185 (1041 x 898) genes with the 1385 genes that are growing "it". the long shape with heavy genetics and super vines/stump/leaves crossed with the monster 1385 genetics have me hoping big time for viable seeds. besides this, both pumpkins have nice color, and both are a lot more powdery mildew resistant than my 1161 plant. amazing difference. all 3 plants show signs of pm, but the 1385 and 1185 are way more healthy and show significantly less infected leaves than my 1161. Friday, August 14 View Page the "duece" is still loose. got some minor stem side stress cracking which is not threatening and if anything a good sign of good growth on a plant going down to pm slowly but surely....faster than the other 2 plants. i will not complain a bit to see 29.4 pounds per day the past 5 days and sitting at 138-79-79 or 296 ott and estimated at 550 lbs on day 37 and doing way better than expected on the spindly secondary vine it is growing on the 1161. Saturday, August 15 View Page "it" on day 53 this morning is 382" ott and estimated at 1166 lbs. 15 pounds a day for the last 3 days in the best growing weather possible shows that this one is in the maturing stage and on the decline. i am hoping for long term continual growth over the next 49 days. i am not gonna do anything different to my schedule than what i have done the whole time, which is trust my soil and water thoroughly. pushing it now with ferts is silly in my eyes. i have received some awesome emails from fellow growers rooting me on and it is much appreciated. i would love to try to gain 302 more pounds out of this one and have a shot going to the scales at a chance at the illinois record of 1468. what ever it does from here on out is all good. it has brought me more joy this year of all my years growing these giants. i hope she can make it the distance and hit the scale in 7 weeks from today. Saturday, August 15 View Page stem and vine shot of "it" on day 53 for my buddy and IGPGA weigh off MC extrordinaire, greg sliwka. the main vine in front of the pumpkin is thicker than after the pumpkin and couldn't be seen in my past pics. actually about one foot in front of this pic, where the last tap root is still in the ground, the main is as thick as the 1185 pics from yesterday. Saturday, August 15 View Page here is another shot of the stem. still looks young and has some more growth to it left as it isn't showing signs of surface cracking or the woody feel older stems get. and the pumpkin isn't cantaloping too much yet, which hopefully means it still has plenty of time to slowly pack on pounds. you can see the weeds are also growing, but the trade off of not going into the patch and tromping your soil and disconnecting established root systems by pulling out entwined weed roots is worth it in my eyes. it is like economics 101. trade offs. i will trade the early established pumpkin root system and the pounds that come with it to the small amount of weight lost from competing weeds. a pretty patch is not my style anyway. Saturday, August 15 View Page and a final weekly pic of "it" on day 53. with the more pronounced ribbing and coloring of both the 1385 and 1185 in just the past week from last weeks pics shows to me that the heat wave has accelerated the maturity rate a bit. like a tomato or an apple starting to ripen. the powdery mildew on the 1161 has advanced heavily and an eradictor will be here monday afternoon for a monday evening spray in cooler temps. the 1385 and 1185 are still more resistant, but after some more inspection this morning, an eradictor is a must at this point as the systemics can't keep up. thanks tremor for the info on the message board, you are the man. Monday, August 17 View Page "the duece" is 40 days old today and sitting at 608 lbs est. and ott 306.5. she is blobbing out day by day and looks more and more like loose fat hanging over a belt with a bellybutton of a blossum so far in that its silly. still might have a chance to get 1000 on a small skinny secondary vine set which would prove to me this 1161 plant has some true mighty power in its genes. my camara broke, so i will get a new one this week and get some pics of "the duece" soon. we didn't have any measurable rain for over 9 days. so with the 1-2 inch prediction on sat. for sunday and mondays storms, i watered with the misting system 5 hours saturday in the heat and 5 hours saturday night/sun morning. i basically upped the watering to get the ground somewhat saturated for 36 hours prior to the heavy rains to buffer the plants from the instant shock surge. well the skies opened up yesterday with one inch and got another 3/4" this morning and another half inch to an inch is expected later today. hopefully they take it in stride. cooler weather in the high 70s is back which is the temps these pumpkins seem to love the most. Tuesday, August 18 View Page "the duece" on day 41 on the 1161 secondary set. Tuesday, August 18 View Page and this is what i mean about the duece is loose, with the fat blobby look. it's got some weird indented sag areas on both sides of its back, the innie blossum from hell, and the plant is starting to look like it snowed in one area from the powdery mildew on the leaves. but it is still growing. thoroughly coated the top of every leaf tonight with the pump sprayer and daconil, then got out the stihl fogger and mixed some talstar one/daconil/humic acid and hit under the leaves heavy. the stylet oil eradictor did not arrive today and will be year tomorrow most likely. i will wait 3 days and hit the plants with that as well to try to eradicate or at least halt the progression. the 1385 is the most resistant and the pm is not too bad right now. the infected leaves on all plants have the white fuzz, but the leaves are taking a lot longer to crispify and die. that means something in my book if i can keep them all healthy long enough to keep producing down the stretch. Tuesday, August 18 View Page i am not sure how the duece even made it to this size in 41 days with the secondary vine it is on and the little hooked stem. Tuesday, August 18 View Page it was bound to happen. my dog lost the battle to the skunk and got sprayed. she came in on her own and wiped all over the bed and the carpet before i realized what had happened when the smell made its way over to the computer and it is too late. nice. no sleep tonight. lol. not only that the air conditioners picked up the wafting air filled skunk juice and blew it into my house. jeeez louise. Thursday, August 20 View Page "it" is still averaging 15 pounds a day and is sitting at 180-107-103 or 390 ott and estimated at 1240 lbs. on day 58 this morning. the "freak"'s stump issue dropped it down to 13.5 lbs per day and is sitting at at 162-86-93 on day 51 and estimated at 833 lbs. the girls weathered out another storm and we got another nice rain yesterday and more this morning. hoping this rain and the fresh hitting of humic acid keeps "it" going at this rate. been hitting close to russ laundry's 1200 lb chart growth rates even though my numbers were higher than his chart for day 20-30. but starting at day 30, "it" went over 35 lbs. per day aver. for days 30-40, 24 lbs per day 40-50, and should see an average of about 15 pounds per day for days 50-60. if things progress as they have for the past 28 days in that sense, i can hope to expect an average of 10 lbs for days 60-70 and 6 lbs a day for days 70-80. this would put me at about 1430 lbs on day 80. i would then need to go at least 3% heavy or still creep along at an average of 2 pounds per day for the last 22 days before picking for a shot at the illinois record. that is all number crunching and dreaming cuz it could blow tomorrow and all those numbers mean nada. but for now, it is nice knowing after 5 days without measuring the thing is still growing. Thursday, August 20 View Page just found out there is one out there not to far away from that matched "it"s numbers on day 53. hope they both make it to the scales. i just hope this time i am on the positive side of the 16 lb differential at the weigh off. lol. keep it up brother and best of luck. Friday, August 21 View Page mini patch tour today. actually, late enough now where this will come up on the 21st. this pic was greg sliwka with "it" on day 58 afternoon. what a great evening talking pumpkins. greg is a class act good dude. how about joliet greg, freaks and all? he got a nice dose of bobby's tap on a slow nite. lol. God Bless Joliet Illinois! Saturday, August 22 View Page rear view of the "freak" on day 53. sitting about 860 lbs. sag area is of some concern especially on a deeper rib line forming, but her momma had some small humps and bumbs and i would think the 21 percent heavy genetics have the walls thick enough in that area to make it the distance. Saturday, August 22 View Page stem side of the freak on day 53 Saturday, August 22 View Page and a side view of the freak on day 53 Saturday, August 22 View Page oops wrong pic, that was "it" on day 53. this is the side view of the freak on day 53, doh! Saturday, August 22 View Page stem side pic of "it" on the 1385 jutras on day 60 and sitting appx. 1270 lbs. the cross is the 1385 x 1161. Saturday, August 22 View Page rear shot of "it" on day 60. believe it or not, that was the first budweiser drank in the patch all year when greg sliwka came by for a visit. i saved the bottle for reference pics. shazzy's been a relatively good boy this season....while at home that is. how was that hangover friday morning at work greg, i stayed out playing darts til 11 pm that night. i actually was red hot and won a game of cricket in 5 rounds, and hit 2 double bulls and a single bull making 5 bulls total to win a game when i was severly getting a beat down by my buddy chris bebar. Saturday, August 22 View Page here was the winning shot with the 5 bulls eyes....we are gearing up for winter leagues. 5 of the best dart players in the world ada ranikings are from joliet. there is a bar on every corner, so you do the math. lol. Saturday, August 22 View Page "beebs" says, "wtf was that?" after i hit the 5 bulls. beebs is a good friend and a die hard whitesox fan i have known since freshman year in high school and we played football together. known him for 28 years and he will be at the weigh off. hoping for some of that dart magic in a couple of months from now when me, beebs, pollock pauly, tommy the bartender, and our female ace annie team up to take down joliet's finest. Saturday, August 22 View Page and here is a final pic of "it" on day 60 as i grabbed a chair and took a picture from up over the fence. and with the weekly pics completed and patchwork done, no better way to spend a sunny 75 degree saturday afternoon than playing euchre and darts at bobby's tap. as mickey rourke says so eliquently in the movie "barfly", DRINKS FOR ALL MY FRIIIIIEEEEEEEENDS!!!!!!!!" Tuesday, August 25 View Page the post on day 60 should have read 1261 lbs for "it". 1270 was on day 61 and this morning on day 63 "it" is 182-108-105 or 395 ott. and estimated at 1288 lbs. with only 2 days of nice sunshine in the past 5 days and cool cloudy lower 70 degree days the other 3 with nights in the lower 50s, "it" slowed down to just over 9 lbs per day and is sitting at an estimate of 1288 lbs. starting to snout or more like it "shelf" out a bit above the blossum which is cool as it now is beginning to do a final elongation push. definately still in growth mode cuz the one shoulder has finally got close enough to the main vine that a flexible styrofome piece was placed between the two with plenty of slack for the pumpkin to push the vine over without stress. warm 86 degree weather today and then back into the high 70s the rest of the week should kick them both in gear again a bit i imagine cuz they both responded well after the the last cool 5 day period like that. "the freak" showed the same slower growth for that 5 days and with both pumpkins showing similar drops, it has me feeling good that "it" is still moving along although slowly coming towards the end. i hope 400 ott is reached in about a week cuz that is a number i never thought i would reach in my lifetime. the "freak" is sitting at 165-88-95 or 348 and estimate of 884 lbs on day 56. Wednesday, August 26 View Page the weather is turnin' to the cool side for a week, so i decided on my rain day today to string some cable and rope across the 1385 and 1161 plants and throw up some plastic. my intentions are not to create a perfect greenhouse situation. all i am trying to do is to increase some heat in the soil this week a bit and maybe increase the air temp by 8 to 10 degrees in the day time on days when the sun breaks out. there is plenty of ventilation on each side of the plants as the plastic never drops below 5'. on a sunny 75 degree day i still think there is plenty ventilation to not cook the plants and plenty of gaps in the plastic to allow good rain drainage. there are support ropes and cables both ways under and over the plastic to avoid an upward gust from tearing it from its connections or downward rain ponding and sagging to the leaf canopy. 3 pieces of 8' rebar were put into the ground 2' and capped with a plastic osha safety caps to avoid ripping the plastic on the rebar. these were put down the center for support and good drainage of rain. there are no high winds predicted for the next week and the plastic already held on about a 20 mph gust in the rain. this is just a temporary experiment for the week as i am trying to gain every last pound out of "it" that i can. Wednesday, August 26 View Page the patch is not in the prettiest shape for this time of year compared to some of the other diaries i have seen. oh well, that leaves some room for improvement next year. lol. i have let the weeds now do their own thing as some of the grass weeds are over the canopy, but i am letting them alone and staying out of the interior of the plants at all times except for stump and main vine inspections and old dead leaf pruning. no sense tracking the powdery mildew everywhere to chop down some thin weeds that barely block any sunlight to the leaves. this thin clear 4 mil plastic will come down next week and all the supports will remain up. it is supposed to get back into the 80s in 8 to 10 days. then if we get another cold stretch in sept. or a chance of frost, i will purchase a 6 mil 100' squared piece of clear visqueen and tack it to the bottom of the outside fence and enclose fully the 1385 and 1161 plants all the way to the house and down the outside edge to the ground in the center of the patch. i will add some more 8' rebar support posts. that piece of plastic will be rolled up along the house and attached so all i will have to do is unroll it over the cables, and secure it at any time with a staple gun to the the outside of the fence line at ground level. duct tape will be used over the plastic before stapling to avoid tearing. the center of the patch plastic will have brick or rocks keeping that side of the plastic tight to the ground. basically i will have a make shift sturdy greenhouse over the 1385 and 1161 at my disposal throughout spet. if frost or freezing temps arrive, or if i just want to heat things up a bit if "it" becomes a long term grower over the next month. the old cables were in place still, so this is why the 1185 is not under the plastic. basically the 1161 is getting protected too while i am concentrating my efforts at warming up the 1385 plant. Thursday, August 27 View Page the plastic held pretty good overnight even with the couple inches of rain. one spot sagged down from the weight of the water and broke about 6 or 7 powdery mildew affected crispy leaves. i got that back in order this morning as more rain is on the way. the 3/4 inches of rain before the plastic went up was needed, the other 2 inches were shed off to the outside of the plants, so all in all, the plastic was worth the effort yesterday. after all the rains are done tomorrow, i will straighten out the plastic a bit and re-secure it and tighten again after it has loosened up a bit from the pounding. 7 broken pm affected leaves i will take as opposed to the extra couple inches of rain on the 1385 plant and possible splittsville. and when it is only 65 on sunday and sunny, i should be at least in the low to mid 70s under the plastic. blankets will be coming out for over the pumpkins in a couple nights as it is getting down to the low 50s and high 40s for 3 or 4 nights. pretty crappy stretch of weather here for the final push, but boo hoo, whatcha gonna do. Friday, August 28 View Page ok mother nature....you asked for it. you turned off the heat for the next week, so i am adding some of my own. had to wrestle with the plastic last night a bit and again this morning. connections tore at various places in the wind and rain. no damage to the plants, but enough was enough. i said hell with that 4 mil crap and went and got some 6 mil rolls and improved the temporary greenhouse over the 1385 and 1161 plants. the plastic goes to the ground on the outside of the north fence (where the cold north wind will blow from for the next week) and to the ground where you see in the picture. the left fence line has no plastic and will allow for ventilation through the fence. the other side to the right is vented wide open as well and goes to 4' from the house. this should provide some nice warmth for the soil and plants but not create an oven situation. i only want to increase the temps by 10 degrees cuz it is going down to mid 40s for lows and i do not want too large of temperature fluctuations from mid 40s at night and to 90 or 100 degrees if sealed totally up. it was fun having a late season project and putting the noodle to work. never did staple it to the fence. both sides of the plastic sheets are just weighted down with bricks and rocks so this plastic will be re-usable for years to come. these are my prime 2 planting spots, and it is nice knowing if frost comes early for any year onwards, i got it covered at least on the 2 honey holes. Friday, August 28 View Page seems like i am losing some fence day by day as friends swing buy and neighbors peek in to check on "it". here is a new hole in the fence that just mysteriously popped up. Friday, August 28 View Page and another crack in the fence has shown up as they peek in to see a pumpkin that is estimated larger than the street address it is grown on which is 1308. Friday, August 28 View Page and here is the view they are getting through the fence of "it" at 397.5" ott and estimated at 1310 lbs on day 66. i always hoped that someday i would grow one that would top my street address. if it goes to the charts, then i am there. a long way before the weigh off though that is 36 days away. at only 7.3 lbs per day average over the last 3 days, what ever it does from here on out will not be much. still hoping it grows at least 2.5" more ott before it quits. this is why all the effort with the new makeshift greenhouse over the past 3 crappy, cloudy, 3 inches of rain, and barely 68 degree days. only 2.5" ott to reach the unthinkable 400" ott. she is cantaloping a little more and some sap bubbles and stretch marks are becoming more and more present and the nice color is fading a bit as more little surface cracks of whitish color are showing up and fading the orange color. after emailing jason traylor, it occurred to me it might be a nice cross to cross the seeds from this one with his 1116 pumpkin cuz mine exploded out of the gates and slowly fizzled down the stretch, while his was a slow starter that didn't start gathering steam til later in the game and chugged impressively big time later on. might be weather related, but it was pretty damn cool here also the first half of this pumpkins life when it averaged 35.5 pounds a day from day 20 to day 45 and hit a stretch in the 40+ lbs for about 5 days. from day 27 to 32. all in all, i can't complain a bit....except for this crap weather is junk!!!! Friday, August 28 View Page here a pic for my bro boz of the stem side cracking and cantaloping on the 1161. the stem side is the only place it is cantaloping or cracking as the rest is slippery smooth. hopefully you can see in the pic the stem side cracking for those who are concerned about there stem sides splits. these have come and healed since day 31 as it grows with no problems yet. cracks starting outside surface in (as opposed to an internal crack that leads all the way out) on the stem side have never taken down any of my pumpkins over the years. they are to be treated properly with fungicide and fanned if needed, but are just stretch marks for the most part. hopefully mine will continue plodding along slowly like boz's 1161 over the long haul, but this plant is in teribble shape and was the least resistant of pm of the 3 plants i grew this year. i have let new pop tertiaries grow and have about 25 new leaves forming which is refreshing to look at for a change, and hopefully they will help the duece make it to maybe the high 800s or even low 900s with a chance to be heavy and maybe see 1000 lbs. with this weird shape. i will always try a secondary set if it is my only chance cuz this secondary pumpkin proved to me that you can still get a nice big one to give away off a secondary set. Friday, August 28 View Page the duece is 326" ott today on day 51. here is a stem side pic. not much of a vine or stem, but the duece was my only one on this plant that took after 9 tries. Friday, August 28 View Page the duece is leaning back taking a load off of its fat ass. Friday, August 28 View Page and it is at this stage i will have to use a mirror to do a visual check on the duece's blossom or just feel while i can still get a hand up there. "who farted?" i think "the duece" just cut one loose. Friday, August 28 View Page took one for the team. had a splinter of wood about half as thick as a pencil jammed under my thumbnail over half way to the bottom of the nail. had to remove the entire corner of the nail to get to a piece of the splinter that broke off under the nail. a pretty big piece too. so with nail clippers and and a needle, i slowly chopped enough nail to stick the needle, through raw chopped up undernail skin, to pry free the remaining splinter. not fun. and yea, it hurt and still does. but it pissed me off when it happened while messing with the 4 mil plastic last night in the rain, that i went out today and got the 6 mil rolls and put it up, bad thumb and all. i will call it a motivational wound that comes with the territory. shoot, last year a had an old bamboo shoot in the shin healed up wound from the year prior that festered a bit the year later and out came a little piece of bamboo shoot that i missed. pumpkin growing can be dangerous my friends, especially when you are Polish. Saturday, August 29 View Page "freak" on day 60 is 354" ott and estimated at 930 pounds and hit 11.5 pounds per day average the last 4. not bad with the crap weather. still think it has a good chance to go over 1000 estimate. this plant looks the best out of all of them, but has a rotting stump. more pimpling on this one with little round crack protrusion and sapping and more pronounced ribbing. no need for more pics as it hasn't changed much since last week. it is 7 am and i see some blue sky popping through the sky. haven't seen that blue color except for 2 days on mon. and tues. in the past 9 days. Saturday, August 29 View Page and the green house experiment keeps going. with it still only 63 and cloudy at 1 pm, i decided to seal up the vented side on the house side and threw up a 10' wide by 50' long piece of tyvek as a gap filler so now the whole 1385 and 1161 plants are mostly sealed up except the west fence line. it is still real windy and cloudy today and any heat being accumulated was blowing on through too easily. the next 4 days are gonna have lower winds and should be sunny, so the greenhouse effect should kick full force on those days. the 6 mil plastic is holding up great in the 30 mph gusts too. and now with it sealed up to the house, the heat from the brown brick is not being lost either. tonight after the winds die down, i will seal up the fence line with visqueen, and totally seal her shut. extension cords are already extended to each plant throughout the year, so i might as well throw in the space heaters by the 1385 plant. i won't trap that much heat with this size of a greenhouse with only 2 space heaters, but still i am going try it, set the alarm for 3 am, and go get some air temp reading inside and outside the greenhouse near the 1385 plant. i would use my high low thermometers if i could find them. i figure with 2 space heaters, the trapped ground heat, and the stored heat in the adjoining house, i can keep it up maybe 5 degrees. tonight that is not a big deal as it is supposed to be in the high 40s. if i can get the system down before tomorrow night i will be happier cuz some forecasts show as low as 42 and then 44 mon. night. what else am i gonna do this time of year? i swear, i am having more fun watching the neighbors look at me like i have 2 heads than i am playing "McGuiver". all this for a few more inches..... that is what she said. Saturday, August 29 View Page what's the best way to hold the tyvek tight to the house for a Pollock...jumper cables of coarse out your living room window!!!!! and no that is not another Polish joke. it's called, "makin' do". i wanted to easily remove this sealed vented section when it gets sunny and too hot, so i left the tyvek attached to the roll, draped it over the cables and used more cinder blocks as weights on each side to hold it in place. the last step was to keep it tight to the house. the jumper cables "jumped" out at me while walking through the garage. why not. i am part Irish too, so i will call this greenhouse experiment, "the Polish McGuiver Trials". you can see in this pic some of the 4 mil visqueen i left in place under the 6 mil that is hanging lower in spots. it never touches the plants. the first 3 rows of the 1161 on this side of the house are getting shaded on one side of the plant from the tyvek, but i am not as concerned with the 1161 as i am with the 1385. that blurry section of missing leaves is where i lost the 7 leaves to the sagging 4 mil plastic in the rain. no worries though as this is all just trial and error to see what will work in years to come. Saturday, August 29 View Page the sun came out here for an hour of bright sunshine mixed with some clouds. 69 degrees standing next to the 1185 plant that is not in the greenhouse. Saturday, August 29 View Page and here i am next to the 1385 plant inside the greehouse after one hour of bright sunshine mixed with clouds sitting at a toasty 81.4 degrees at 3:30 pm. the hottest spot near the north fence was 84 and the temp closer to the pumpkin with the fence line vented sits at 80 degrees. good boy shazzy. this tells me that tomorrow and while at work monday through wed, i will be removing the tyvek gap filler and vent both sides during the bright sunshiney days as all i want is about 85 degrees tops and temps are gonna be low 70s with less wind on those days. trying to warm without cook. pretty cool how a flock of small sparrows moved in under the greenhouse canopy today and have only a couple small gaps for them to get in and out of and they all freak out when i go in there. i am sure they are picking off all the trapped insects one by one. had a monster dragonfly look at me like "wtf?" as it was trying to find an escape from the birds. lol. my life is so silly. i think i will go crack a beer and steam myself in my greenhouse for awhile. to quote from the oscar award winning "throw mama from a train", ....."the night was sultry." OOOOOWWWWWENNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! time to go shake up the sparrows a bit and drink an ice cold budweiser. Sunday, August 30 View Page glad to see andy wolf's big top circus came to town , cuz now i feel a little less nuts. results from last night. at midnight it was still 56 outside and 58 inside. never woke up at 3 am, but this morning at the coldest before sun up there was no difference in temps. basically it just buffered the cold a little longer. but good news is at 8:30 am with mixed clouds and sun, it is 70 inside the greenhouse and 59 outside in the sun. need to get this figured out before going to work tomorrow. i am looking for more gradual heat increases and decreases. tomorrow morning i am going to have to vent early before going to work, but that seems like it should work out just fine as the pre-dawn morning air temp is the same inside or out. my blankets and the added tarp directly over the blanket do a good job at retaining the internal pumpkin heat. those will not come off tomorrow until i get a break from work and remove them mid morning. with an air temp expected of low 40s tomorrow morning, and the surface temp of the pumpkin at 61 degrees this morning when taking off the blankets at 8:30 am. while at home today, i am venting on just one side as soon as the temps reach 80 and see how the temps react. and then vent both sides if things get too hot. when the temps get hotter all week, i can vent 3 sides or all four. i like andy wolf's design where if it gets too hot with his style, just take some off the encompassing wall sections to regulate. brilliant andy. i will not be surprised if more growers do not start gathering supplies and this becoming the norm as the quest for "more" continues and mother nature keeps forcing our hands. i want "MOOOOOOORERRREEEE!" Wednesday, September 2 View Page "it" is 184-109-106 or 399" ott and estimated at 1327 lbs on day 71. did the greenhouse work? probably not in over all growth over that cool stretch but i did stop "it" from stalling out completely. only average 3.4 lbs per day over the last 5 days, but anything is better than nothing. one more inch ott and is all i need over the next week of beautiful weather and sunshine. the pumpkin is barely growing any wider or taller and is filling out most above the blossum and saw the most gain in that stretch on the stem to blossum measurement. Wednesday, September 2 View Page figured i would measure the other pumpkins too while at it. the "freak" on the 1185 daletas is 170-98-90 or 358" ott and estimated at 962 lbs on day 64 and will hopefully grow another 5" of ott at least for 2 out of 3 plants with over 1000 lb estimates. the duece on the 1161 secondary stalled out for the most part and is 736 lbs on day 56. a couple more nights of blankets left this week and the greenhouse came down as the warm temps are back for over a week at least. went over the 3000 lb estimate mark for 3 plants and 3 pumpkins which was one of my goals this year. that just sounds silly coming out of my mouth. now just to get them to keep slowly growing over the next month so those wall keep thickening up. 4 weeks is a long time for anything to happen though so hoping for some good luck coming down the stretch. Saturday, September 5 View Page 400 OTT. nice! Saturday, September 5 View Page "freak" on day 67 on the 1185 daletas going wider. this is a low level blossom end look at 970 lbs estimate. barely any growth in 3 days. Saturday, September 5 View Page the standing on a chair shot of "freak". it's hopefully my super heavy cross x 400 ott producing 1385 pollen. Saturday, September 5 View Page tough to figure out where the cavity is going to be on the freak. hopefully there is none. lol. except for a tiny one with a lot of seeds! i am no structural engineer, but i work around them every day. i would imagine with this short of an arch span over the wide distance means the only way for this shape to be able to support itself over time is to develop really thick walls. in theory that is. if it goes over 20% heavy like its mama, i could break my personal best twice this year. think heavy "freak" keep thinking heavy. Saturday, September 5 View Page and here is a stem side pic of the freak Saturday, September 5 View Page and a couple of pics of my first ever 400 ott pumpkin. this is "it" on day 74. Saturday, September 5 View Page another shot of the 1385 x the 1161 at estimated 1337 lbs. Saturday, September 5 View Page stem side view Saturday, September 5 View Page and the good ole' blossom shot of "it". i am very proud to say "it" made it to 400 ott. she is one inch more ott than quinn's 1483 off the 1385 last year hopefully when she hits the scales she will do a 1209 kuhn and go over 15% heavy and take me into the 1500 range. yea, i know, keep dreaming shazzy, keep dreaming. lol. to quote Trotter in the movie, "Let it Ride" (best gambling comedy movie ever),..."Even when you think you know, you still never know." Ya never know until til they hit the scales. she will probably go light and hit 1146 and not even top my pb....BAAHHHHH!!!!! Saturday, September 5 View Page take a seat. tried to get some better color with the sun not reflecting on the pumpkin as it looks a pinkish orange at night. the pic doesn't show it to well, but i put a chair next to it for reference that the bottle doesn't show as much. Saturday, September 5 View Page and another beautiful evening in joliet illinois comes to a close. an exciting day for me reaching 400 ott and hopefully i will not have to take any more pics until the weigh loading nite on oct. 2nd when a boom truck will pluck them out of the patch and onto the foam covered pallets in the back of the trucks. my lifting ring check just went out to the pgpga and marv hicks and all i have to do is get some better foam padding for the ride up there, eventhough i do love hearing everyones joke about the couch cushions. Sunday, September 6 View Page a friend asked me how big the chair was in the photo, so i measured it for reference. the chair is 36" tall to the top of the backrest and 23" wide. i let the pumpkins get some hazy sun today and will put the sheets on tomorrow if the sun comes out. the tyvek shade tarps will go back up before the rains come to keep the soil under and surrounding the pumpkin completely dry as well as the pumpkin, and most importantly, the stem. lightly dusted the stems as i regularly do this time of the year with captan. this week i will trim off all remaining leaves on the the main vines as most are in very poor shape and the pumpkins are barely growing. i just want to keep the ambilical cord in tact as long as possible withought old leaves rotting at their bases into the main. the secondaries i do not get as picky with. Thursday, September 10 View Page 363" ott for the freak and estimated at 1002 lbs. another first for me this year to grow 2 pumpkins estimated over 1000 lbs. still hoping this thing hits the scales at 1150 or higher for a possibility at 2 new pbs this year. she is getting uglier by the day and put her self back into gear a bit over the past 5 days and jumped from 3 pounds to 6 pound average per day with the nice weather. the 1185 is the most resistant to pm of all the plants and i love that in this possible monster cross. i just like the sound of the 1185 daletas x the 1385 jutras. rolls off the tongue nice. hopefully monster heavy x monster size = monster big-n-heavy pumpkin. got some free charcoal green innoculated biochar for next year coming. sometimes opening up my big trap pays off. lol. Sunday, September 27 View Page went out to takes some measurements for the first time in a while to be pleasantly surprised. they are still growing very slowly. this is nice knowing that i have been gaining and not losing over the last 10 days. i have watered the same amount as i did all season except for the brief rains in hopes to keep the plants gaining slowly til the end. and it is tough to over water when you have as many weeds as i do right now. but the plants are still producing pop up tertiaries which is a good sign and nice to see male and female flowers just for fun. i feel anything to keep the plants producing leaves, vines, flowers or anything this late helps the plant retain some energy and transfer a little more into the pumpkin. hard to explain why i feel this way, but in unscientific terms, i feel the plant still feels like it has some purpose left while making some more leaves and flowers. like a last chance at making one more seed carrier and therefor the balance of nutrients flowing in the plant is still in production mode. but who knows, just more rantings of a lunatic pumpkin grower. getting excited for the weigh off next weekend. sucks to hear that gene mcmullens big'n went down. heartbreaker. but a weight of 1544 lbs in milwaukee is still awesome. so i need to go 7.4% heavy still have a chance to top the official illinois record this year as "it" is 403" ott today and estimated at 1367 pounds on day 96. the "freak" has some minor stem issues that have been addressed all week but still growing too at 369" ott and estimated at 1052 pounds on day 89. Friday, October 2 View Page i didn't have time to take pics in the rain, but the boom truck and the lifting ring worked sweet. both pumpkins are locked and loaded and ready for the trip up north in the morning. i have a friend that took pics the whole way threw. pretty freaky to watch the pumpkin go up in the air over 15' and swing right into place. i got one inch cushions between the silverado truck bed sides and "it". very tight fit for the 1385 kin. the 1185 is loaded as well, and a long day of anticipation has got the best of me. i will sleep good tonight cuz the adreniline rush has worn off and the beers have done their work. and hopefully the scales treat me kind tomorrow, but all is good no matter what they say. been a hell of a year to this point and tonight alone was gold with my drunken buddy stevo laying on the boom truck horn about 100 times with all my friends kids encouraging him on. the loading party always gets way more loaded than me. tomorrow is my night though to toast the season in high fashion. Sunday, October 4 View Page great day at the weighoff and good times had by all. i had a blast until my pumpkin was weighed last and i heard the number 11 coming out of the mc greg slwikas mouth and i instantly knew....big bag of air. 14% light. "it" was a balloon, albeit a pretty balloon, but a balloon never the less. 1173 lbs for "it" on the 1385. first time i ever had a pumpkin go way light as i have been spoiled with 15.4 heavy and 10% heavy the last 2 weigh offs. but like gene gene the pumpkin machine says, "it is what it is". 2 years now gene has topped me on the scales. i may have to take his advice and grow my own seeds cuz "meat"'s 1147 shenoha was estimated at 703 and weighed 873 which was 24% heavy. that was truley the highlight of my day to see that big white rock hit the scales. great job meat!!!!!!!! and thanks. better knews was the 1185 daletas, "freak" went heavy and weighed 1125 lbs. so 2 over 1100 out of 3 plants will have to help me nurse my bruised ego. lol. actually, at least 50 kids so far have sat on the big bag of air and loved it and the people on the highway loved it, and the hot chicks at bobbys loved sitting on it for pics last night til 2 am, so all in all, a fantastic year. and the beginning diary post for 2009 was that no matter what the out come this year, my ultimate goal was to beat georgie boy by at least 1 pound. and i beat him by 4 pounds. lol. there is always next year georgie and the 1st to 1200 for a hundo was a push and we doubled it up for next year. i will take some bobby's tap pics today as the 2 are out front of the bar. Tuesday, October 6 View Page truck shot of the 1173 shenoha 2008 Tuesday, October 6 View Page oops, meant 1173 shenoha 2009 Tuesday, October 6 View Page and the yearly bobby's tap shot Tuesday, October 6 View Page here is the 1173 on the left and the 1125 shenoha 2009 to the right. 48 lbs difference. one very light and one 7% heavy. the 1173 is a balloon, but a pretty balloon that will go on display at the joliet fall frenzy at pilcher park this weekend. they do a real nice display and the koliet herald is going to take video and pics of the move on thursday. Tuesday, October 6 View Page and during the bears game on sunday, the cars stopped in all day long and i got to see the enjoyment that these freaks of nature bring to both kids and adults. its a good feeling watching the kids eyes light up and seeing them climb all over the things. Tuesday, October 6 View Page 2 of the prettiest girls i have ever seen in one picture. lol. this is my friend karen with the good old colors of orange and blue on as we BEARED down on sunday. DA BEARS!!! did i say beared down or bared down. lol. i wish. Tuesday, October 6 View Page 2 of the prettiest lasies i have ever seen i one picture. lol. this is my friend karen proudly wearing her orange and blue as we BEARED DOWN on sunday. DA BEARS!!!!!! did i say beared down or bared down. lol. i wish. Tuesday, October 6 View Page the patch was cleared today by a couple friends out of work. the prize money was a bonus, so why not share the wealth and take the load of my back. i paid them handsomely and when the patch dries out, it will be tilled. i will have a soil test done and make some ammendments this fall, but ted krueggers onganimix compost will wait til the spring. gonna throw down a cover crop, which kind i am not sure yet. most likely winter rye. here is a pic of the 1185 stump. very aggressive plant. neither seed cross i made this year will be planted by myself next year. with the 1161 abort problems crossed into the light 1385 and the light 1385 genetics crossed into the 1185, not sure i trust either cross. but i am growing an 1147 shenoha 2008 in 2010 based on meat's job with a quarter size plant from disease and still producing the 24% heavy 873 naylor 2009. the 1147 was a very aggressive backup plant and meat said his 1147 plant was a beast. thanks meat for proving out the 1147. looks like i will go with an 1147 shenoha, a 985 werner, and a 901 hunt next year. i know the 1385 grew christy's world record and have done some great things, but the dissappointment of light will not make me repeat that path. george's 1385 went 11% light and i see on the gpc page that russ's 1385 also went 14% light like mine. tough pill to swallow. i am in no way disrespecting the world record producing seed, i just have to move on and try not set a trend of lightness in my pumpkins. with the big 901 hunt going 19% heavy for a pumpkin of that size, i would be stupic not to try it when i have the seed in my freezer. my 1147 shenoha that produced a 24% heavy has me excited, and seeing how well the 985 i might as well grow that one that is in the freezer too. this takes a lot of fun out of the winter plans, but oh well. still have plenty of time to decide on that but the 901, 985, 1147 sounds like a good line up to me. Saturday, October 10 View Page very proud to see the 1125 shenoha 2009 in front of the new lenox legion hall, and the boyscouts have full control of decorations, and each one gets a couple seeds. on a cold october day, this site brought a chill to my spine. no matter what party we support, we are all Americans first and foremost with the right to agree or disagree. and i am sure no matter what party we support, there is no questioning that we all love our country. Saturday, October 10 View Page george, i love the keg shots, but how about this tank shot!!!!! Monday, October 12 View Page here is a pic i lifted off the joliet herald web page of a kid sliding down the 1173 at the fall frenzy at joliet's pilcher park greenhouse. they do a nice display and kids climb all over the pumpkin the whole time. the cold subfreezing nights have given her a little more color which will be nice for when it comes back to bobby's tap for the big carving by my buddy "Will the Tattoo Artist". the traveling pumpkin show is not over yet. we still have to move the 1161 secondary pumpkin sitting at 333" ott. it will not get weighed, but it will find a nice home on my friends front porch for their kids. so 2 more moves by hand with tarps and the 2009 season will be officially over. Saturday, October 17 View Page the 777 shenoha 2009 estimate pumpkin grown off the 1161 on secondary vine so small i have no idea how it even got this big. she was the only pumpkin pollinated on this plant by myself or the bees that took. 1161 x self. these seeds will not be distributed because i do not want the trait of this individual plant's reproductive issues gettting mixed in future crosses. i did make the 1385 x 1161 cross i intended to make, but it too has this individual 1161s genes in it. the 1544 revier is the seed to grow for this dynamic cross. 2 of the best looking biggest pumpkins ever grown with power on both sides totalling 3123.5 from the 2 plants involved in the cros. that 1385 x 1161 seed will be as red hot as the 1385 was its first year out. Saturday, October 17 View Page i had to get the low ass shot. how this thing did not split i have no idea. some areas of the blossum end thump like a paper bag or cardboard sound around the recessed areas. i can almost lose my arm up there. lol. Saturday, October 17 View Page here is a nice pic of the fall colors really starting to ripen here in joliet. this is my neighbors tree that i hope that some day gets struck by lightening. no, not really but it wouldn't break my heart. i lose some direct evening sun because of it, especially in late august and september on. its not a lot of sun lost, but at least one hour every night all season long. she sure is a pretty maple though, and all her leaves get shredded fine and go into the patch. so she ain't all bad. Friday, October 23 View Page 2003 p and p seed co. post card with bill bobier on the front. this hobby has come a long way and 2000 pounds is just a matter of time. Monday, October 26 View Page tomorrow is the final move of the season. the 1173 is coming back to bobby's tap for the carving party tomorrow night. the pumpkin will be secured with a piece of pvc pipe going in one shoulder and out the other with a piece of plastic coated 1/4" steel rope going through the pvc pipe and secured to a tree and post on each side of the pumpkin. the pvc pipe should avoid andy cutting of the flesh from the any pressure of the pumpkin leaning on the cable. then bails of hay will be placed behind the pumpkin and we will get some cornstalks to cover the pipe sticking out of each side. the pumpkin should stand up pretty good on its own with the shape and should look pretty nice upright and fully displayed towards route 30. securing it properly is my major concern to avoid kids rolling it onto another kids leg or neck or something. once secured. i will sit back and relish the evening as the carving commences and then the final lighting up moment. dart leagues will be in the bar tomorrow too, so it should be a full house of fun. hopefully on this last move the pumpkin is still sound and isn't rotting inside out or anything. ya never know with this hobby. i can't wait to see how thin my walls were compared to my 1147 last year. Monday, October 26 View Page nice english...geez..i need to proof better. lol. Tuesday, October 27 View Page i see that my rival georgie boy has picked out 2/3s of his 2010 lineup. with some recent trades, mine is set in stone. going with a 991, 901, 1147 lineup. they all have some 842 genes in them, with some more than others and have all produced heavy pumpkins. the 991 has produced up to 21% heavy on the 1242 urena, the 901 popped the 19% heavy monster 1677.5, and the 1147 produced 24% heavy on the 873 naylor 2009. the 991 on average has proven out to throw heavy and big consistantly. the 901 hasn't been grown enough to get a good percentage read on it, but i can't argue with the fantastic success the hunts have had with it. and the 1147 will get its chance to compete as well thanks to my brother "Meat" from taylorville. plenty of 1147s so one spot will get 2 1147s. got backup seeds for the 901, so this seed will get planted unless all do not germinate. and the 991 has no backup seed yet, so i will have to say merry xmas to myself and pick one up at auction. backup plants next to the 901 and 991 will yet to be determined. out of the last 4 years, one of my backup plants has won the spot 3 times, so i want good strong genetic plants that have yet to be proven out next to the big dogs. this way, i can at least get a feel how the plant does up to a 2' vining stage for information for myself and the grower. culling is necessary to increase odds, but can be done with gathering enough early information so as not to completely waste the plants short life. if Meat gets some good seed counts out of his monster heavy crosses, i would be honored to use them as backups next to my big dogs. the 873 naylor 2009 (1147 x 1119) and the 752 naylor 2009 (1119 x 1147) both went 24% heavy and would cross nicely into my other choices if i need to go to the bullpen and call on the reserves. Wednesday, October 28 View Page camara was set wrong. terrible pic but nicely displayed. better pics tomorrow. Wednesday, October 28 View Page again...embarrassed by quality of pic...but had to show off the size reference with someone standing behind it. more pics tomorrow if it doesn't get smashed in by then. i have friends that took all kinds of pics, so not too pissed about camara settings. we had a blast carving it and all kinds of people stopped by with kids for pics and to just see if it is real. for a big bag of air, she sure made me damn proud today. Thursday, October 29 View Page here is a better pic i took this morning before going to work. it is easier to stand on route 30 and check the camara and pics when there is not a steady flow of traffic. you have to stand in the street to get the better pics. this pic shows the stabilization from the front. i will take daylight pics after work to show the reverse side. we stood up the pumpkin and immediately put 2 bails of hay behind secured to the ground with rebar. then cut 2 hole up high through each side by the shoulders and put a one inch pvc pipe through it and cut the pipe flush to the pumpkin. then quarter inch steel rope goes through each side of the pipe and attached to a pole and a tree with cable clamps. next we cut the hole open behind on the flat side big enough to get in and get seeds and guts. then carved, cleaned out chunks, then insert flood light and close the hole with fabric of any kind. we used the lifting tarp. then a third bail of hay is centered on top of the other 2 side by on the ground and 3 pieces of rebar are driven behind the upper bail to keep in place for support. the mouth is supported with broomsticks cut to size to hold the weight of the flesh up as it will sag more and more each day. added mouth supports may be needed the longer the carving stays in tact. we like the big evil grin, so the only way to pull it off so wide is with supports. time to get the kenny powers outfit ready for halloween. east bound and down is the wackiest will ferrell danny mcbride stuff out there. check it out if you like movies like "the anchorman". same director. it is on hbo and season one is on out on dvd. Friday, October 30 View Page 6" at the thickest point on the sides. Friday, October 30 View Page 4" average across the top with as little as 1.5 inches at deep rib lines. i would be able to fit my entire fat ass body in this cavity easily. great for a carver though. lol. Friday, October 30 View Page hopefully next year i will see wall thickness like this again. here is a pic of last years 1147 shenoha 2008 that was estimated at 997 and went 150 lbs heavy. and this years 1173 shenoha 2009 was estimated at 1365 and went 192 lbs light. 40" ott difference between the 1173 and the 1147 and only 26 lbs weight difference. amazing. it will be nice to open up the 1125 shenoha 2009 in a couple days and see thicker walls again as it went 7% heavy. no room for even half of shazzy in this cavity on the 1147. lol. Friday, October 30 View Page you can see the taught wire cable going in the left side through the white pvc sleeve cut flush to the pumpkin and out the other side. this support stops kids from tipping towards the street and possibly crushing another kid in the worst case scenario. the rest of the same cable was used to tie the corn bundles in place. when done carving, the red lifting tarp was draped over the hole and then we put the top bail on and secured it with rebar from behind. very easy system if you want to stand them up for carving like this. for a pointy blossom with a nose, bails of hay on the lower sides helps stabilize it better while carving. if no trees or poles to tie rope through to, take 4' or 5' pieces of rebar and stick them through the sides walls from the top all the way into the ground on both sides. the right pieces of rebar and the bar is hammered flush to the top of the pumpkin and secured into the ground and you do not even see them. Friday, October 30 View Page TOGA!!!!! this is one of bobby's taps finest barflies, "Toga Tom". he ain't all there and either are his teeth and every once in a while when all is quiet he raises his fist and yells out, "TOGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", in a loud crazy voice that trails off into a crackling oxygen starved pitched cackle. and then if you ask for a left handed one, he raises his left arm and yells, "AAAAAAAGOOOOOOOT!" yep...you guessed it....toga backwards. welcome to my world. kind of fitting to see the red tarp covering the back hole showing up like a red nose in the daytime. this pumpkin was named "IT". with the red nose, "IT" fits right in at bobby's. lol. Sunday, November 1 View Page Kenny Powers stopped by at Bobby's Tap yesterday for halloween. He likes to drink Budweisers on the reg, jagerbombs on the reg, and use the fart machine with the remote control on the reg until he almost pees in his pants. lol. (For those who do not know who Kenny Powers is, the second season of this Will Ferrell/Danny McBride creation called "East Bound and Down" will be on HBO this January. season one is out on dvd.) Monday, November 9 View Page finally finished all patch work for the fall tonight. the patch was cleared and the soil was tilled over 3 weeks ago, but this year i wanted to get some more leaves incorporated and this meant waiting on the maple leaves to fall. 75 full brown lawn bags of maple leaves were stored and stockpiled in the solarium to stay dry. then i was finally waiting for the patch to dry out from all the heavy rains in october. so saturday and sunday, each planting spot got 25 bags that were shredded fine with both a shredder and then follow up with mulching lawnmower until finely grounded up. then they were tilled in with calcite calcium, sulphur, K mag, and humic acid all purchased from greensmith's. then i paid an out of work friend to use a deep spader. http://www.groworganic.com/item_GDO500_Deep_Spader.html this thing is a beast but works great. he subsolied the entire patch for 8 hours today and will be hurting tomorrow for sure. but it is cool to see this thing penetrate 18", then rocked back in forth with all your weight standing on top of it, and then pulled backwards and down to lift and raise the soil 6 inches. i then threw down a territorial seed company fall cover crop mix of 50% winter rye, 20% austrian winter pea, 10% hairy vetch, 10% crimson clover, and 10% annual ryegrass. very late i know for a cover crop, but the soil temps are warm from this indian summer we have had lately and hopefully i can get enough of the cover crop to germinate and root and grow some before the cold temps arrive. the sprinkler is running for the last time in 2009 as i type as no rain is predicted for the next week and i need to get the germiantion process going. temps look fine for the next 10 days with no freeze or frost predicted. but being chicago, that can all change in a hurry. it will be interesting to see how this late of a cover crop takes. 15 yards of ted kruegers organamix compost will go down early next spring. Wednesday, November 11 View Page that is more like it baby!!!!! so nice to see a thick walled pumpkin again. this is the 1125 shenoha 2009 with 11" on the entire stem side, 7" across the top, 4" blossom side and about 6" on the bottom. the 1041 genes have showed their stuff again in this 1185 daletas (1041 x 898) pumpkin. hopefully i will see a lot more of this next year when i grow the 1147 shenoha 2008 (1041 x self). Friday, November 13 View Page checked on some of the cover crop seeds and i saw today that the radicals are emerging eventhough the temps got below freezing 2 nights ago. i read most fall cover crop seeds can still germinate over 33 degrees and grow slowly over the freezing point. i am glad it worked out that the radicals weren't already emerging the night of the hard freeze. just in case, i threw down a second round of the tsc fall cover crop mix today after soaking the seeds for a couple hours first. being so late, doubling up on seeds will give me a better chance of more of them taking root and growing strong enough to endure the next hard freeze. temps look good for the next 10 days, and i would like the sprouts to get the most out of that stretch, so i tried the reemay circus tent over the entire patch. a 300 foot roll of 10' wide reemay does the trick for my patch size. 3 ropes running across the patch, wrapped around the top of 7' tall rebar with plastic osha caps in the center and then attached to the other side of the patch holds the reemay up nicely. bricks or just tying to the fence on each side hold the reemay firmly in place. and office clamps are used to hold each 10' section together to make it one big piece connected together. i bought the roll for next fall if i needed it, and i figured what the hell. lets see how it works now to help the cover crop get going and get some better ideas how to set it up next fall. these sections will be carefully removed latter on and resused if they do not get ripped up too much. so far so good even in the gusts of winds today. this will be much better for next year than visqueen if i need to get some extra warmth during a cold stretch come late august or september. Friday, November 13 View Page here is a blurry pic under the reemay. i through some whole leaves over the cover crop seeds after raking them in to blanket them a bit from frost as they sprout. the ones that do not decompose will be raked off next spring before adding compost. this will be the latest date attempt at starting a cover crop and i will see how this experiment works. Friday, November 13 View Page it's about time i shut my big mouth. lol. this was the 1173 last night before chopping up and throwing away. it was cool to watch it slowly shut its mouth and change facial expressions over the past 2 weeks. all evidence of the 2009 season is over and with the cover crop planted, 2010 has offically started in my books. bring it georgie boy, BRING IT!!! Monday, November 16 View Page here is a cool pic of Tattoo Will taken by his girfriend who happened to be smoking a cigarette and accidently created this cool eerie effect. Tattoo Will can carve a pumpkin. Wednesday, November 18 View Page i have been living in my house for about 10 years. my fridge is a collage of pics, clippings, stickers, and nonsense. after eating chinese food tonight, i put a fortune cookie piece of wisdom on my fridge under a magnet corner, and realized i have done this 4 other times. it is only at certain moments in time when fortune cookie messages hit home and make the fridge. i figured tonight after a great night of dart league action and a couple....a few beers.... i figured i will share them. "great things are accomplished only by the perfection of minor details" "the wisest owl hears all before he flies." "if you want it, take it." "spread your good feelings around" Thursday, November 26 View Page the late cover crop has sprouted and is starting to show signs of life. even the ausrtrian winter peas in the mix have sprouted. the reemay was left up for about 5 days until a rain storm followed by high 30 mph winds took it down for me while at work. i had run extension cords over the reemay besides having rope sections supporting under it to help weigh it down from updrafts, but strong winds tore my connection points. if i tried the reemay again this fall, i would sew the pieces together with twine or string to avoid point stress failures at connection points. also going over the wooden fence was tough on the reemay and started tear points. glad i learned my lesson this late fall instead of having wet heavy fabrics laying on my plants come next september if trying to prevent stalling out a pumpkin if temps get cold. but it was still fun and many of the large sections just tore on corners and edges and will be re-used if needed. nice to see some green starting to show in the patch. we got one more week of lows at or above freezing and highs in the upper 40s and lower 50s. i have seen a new crop of weeds sprout around my house near the warm brown brick and roses blooming at a friends house in a warm nook near their house. weird. very mild november and the patch ammendments and shredded 75 bags of maple leaves incoporated into the soil 17 days ago along with the recent plentiful rains are working together nicely for a longer period of time than i could have expected. latest cover crop i ever put down and it should establish itself fine and then kick in gear early next spring. Sunday, November 29 View Page 2010 CROSSING STRATEGIES i am hoping to do a 901 x 991, a 991 x 901, and a 1147 x 901. all 3 seeds in the crosses have 842 genetics in varying amounts in them which i like. all of them have the 723, 846, 845, and 898 genes in various forms. by making a 991 x 901 and/or a 901 x 991, i will be creating crosses that have all four of the 723, 846, 845, and 898 genes from both female and male sides. that is pretty cool. the last cross of the 1147 x 901 is just my idea of taking the 842 x 1068 genes from the (1041 x self) 1147 and matching them with the 901 that is 50% the opposite of 1068 x 842. again this will be matching up similar genes from both the male side and female sides like a semi-reverse cross. these working strategies can all be traced back to me copying al eaton's reverse crossing of the 842 and 1236 crossed together to make the 1301 and then crossing that back into the 842 again to get the 1446. i like the strengthening of lines approach from both male and female sides and the reverse crossing and back crossing ideas. and besides that the other reasons are the 991 and 901 kick ass, and i have my own personal reasons for growing my own 1147 shenoha seed that produced a 24% heavy kin. i would like to see it go big n heavy with a nice 901 pollinator to boot. i like hearing about the 901 possibly becoming the next big and better 898 super pollinator. hopefully i can help prove that theory out more in 2010. gonna get one more 991 at auction and then i will have backup seeds for all 3 in case of germination failures. Sunday, November 29 View Page see the good looking humble man to the right? he will have the same expression in 2010 after beating the man on the left, who doesn't look as happy as the intelligent, funny, witty and charming guy on the right. the 991 challenge is on. and the overall heaviest of the year is on, and the first over 1200 is ON!!!!!!!!!! is it on? oh yea, it's on! it is so on like georgie's night lite is on when he goes to bed scared from having nightmares of a fat polish jackass loud mouth from joliet also known as "The Shaz". BRING IT GEORGIE BOY!!!!!!!!! from "The Shaz" aka shazzy, shazaroo, shazaam, shazbo, and sometimes when the moon is high and the spirits are flowing just right to the ladies he is known as "shazzy shazanova", the most un-interesting man alive. Saturday, December 5 View Page i love buying myself gifts for x-mas, so i just had a 7 pronged broad fork from johnny's select seeds delivered to go along with my bohemeth deepspader i already bought this fall. the deepspader will be used evey spring for busting and lifting the subsoil around the planting spots in a 10' x 10' square. the broadfork will be used on the rest of the patch in the spring after final tilling and ammending. then the deepsader will be used on the entire patch again each fall. these 2 tools will help with drainage and hard pan from tilling. my other 2 gifts to myself were a 901 and 991 purchased from the ovgpg auction. and another gift i will be getting for me is the rti co2 product. i like the science behind it and can't argue with the results that some heavy hitters had with it this year. i love christmas time. lol. Saturday, December 5 View Page next to the house there are still weeds growing in december. this dandylion will be open later today or tomorrow when it gets to 40 degrees out with the added heat of the brown brick next to it. the frost will be back out of the ground by tomorrow afternooon and the cover crop is slowly filling in more and growing. but those days are numbered as the cold and snow are here starting this week. what a beautiful stretch the patch had to help the soil breakdown some of the heavily added shredded maple leaves. definately one of the latest years i can remember without having frozen ground. we have had frosts and freezes, but nothing penetrating far enough that doesn't thaw by the next day or 2. hopefully this will be a good sign for next year. Saturday, December 5 View Page oh yea, i have gone all out to create a nice environment for the back to back planted 901 and 991 spot. this greenhouse will be up by st. pattys day over the the prime honey holes to warm that soil up reeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllll gooooood!!!!!!! another christmas present to myself today as well as some rti co2 foliar. this 14' diameter domed 10' tall greenhouse (from extreme gardening at http://www.extremepumpkinstore.com/ccp0-prodshow/domehouse.html) will allow for steadier temps when the sunny days and warmer temps come and allow me more room if needed to keep the greenhouse on a little longer incase of a late may frost. 2 maybe 3 space heaters will go into this greenhouse on cool april/may nights. pricey, yep. but i haven't lost a greenhouse or a plant to high winds since using these sturdier structured greenhouses in 2004 because they are durable and can be staked down and tied down nicely. in the region of the world known for its high winds and strong wind thunderstorms coming down the I-80 corridor, peace of mind with a strong enough hoophouse or greenhouse to take the winds while i am away at work is worth every penny. this greenhouse will be known as "The Shazzy Dome". just one more weapon in "The battle of the 991s" with george j. don't forget to put on that nightlight tonight georgie boy while those nightmares of "the shaz" and his "shazzydome" haunt you while you sleep!!!! Thursday, December 10 View Page i did a patch layout on wordpad that i couldn't get to transfer on to this site. my printer is out of ink, so here is the best i can do. this is a pic of my computer screen. there are evenly spaced horizontal lines going across the picture that are from my camara interefering with the computer screen. those should be disregarded. yes i am polish. the red line is the main line (50' of 3/4" poly tubing) the blue lines are 1/2" lines teeing off the main line with 1/2" male ends with caps at the end. 1/4" spaghetti tubing is tapped into the 1/2" lines or 3/4" line, which ever is closest to minimize length of tubing adding up to less pressure. the spaghetti tubing is attached to 5' stakes with black tornado misters from dripworks zip tied on top. this is the misting system i have been using for 4 years. the dots are approxiamtely where each stake goes. i add them as needed when the plants get larger and grow. this means buyin new mainline and 1/2" poly tubing each year, but it is cheap and easier than goof plugging each hole from a previous years swiss cheese by the end of the year. the spaghetti tubing is reused and rolled up and labeled with the lengths marked on masking tape at the end of the year so it is easy to find the right length pieces the next year. the only difference is i will be removing the tornado mister heads and the 5' stakes and replacing with rotary sideshooting microsprinkler heads on 13" stakes with 2' of 1/4" tubing and a transfer barb fitting ready to connect to the tubing already in place. this will allow for better under the canopy coverage and less water on the leaves when watering. when leaves are mature enough in that zone to go without misting, the drop down and switch will take place. i could just drop the misting heads below, but i like the rotary throw idea better and not shooting water up heavily on the bottom of the leaves where powdery mill forms first. Tuesday, December 15 View Page it was fun playing santa at work today. i gave out seeds from my 1125 shenoha 2009 (1185 daletas x 1385 jutras) to all the guys on the site i have been working with all year. Trinka got 15 of them tundra dan. (that is a side note) i figured they would be nice for first time growers just having fun with them. i got plenty and didn't want to get that light genetic out there from my 14% light 1385. the 1125 was 7% heavy, but that huge cavity with thin walls at deep rib lines in my 1173 is not a good trait for serious growers. anyone want some for free to grow or to give away to friends, i will send them out 5 at a time if you send me a self addressed stamped bubble pack. those who have sent them already to me, they will be going out shortly. send sas bubble to jeff shenoha, 1308 colorado ave, Joliet IL 60435. if you want more than 5, say 10, just write it down in a note in the bubble. no more than 10 though. use them as test seeds, give them to friends, it is all good. when they are all gone i will say so. ho ho ho and everyone have a merry chrismas and happy new year! the end. Friday, December 25 View Page one last pic from the newspaper of me and my new personal best pumpkin, the 1173 shenoha 2009. it was an up and down and up year that i will never forget. hoping for some good things in 2010 for not only myself, but for the future of illinois giant pumpkin growing. it should be an exciting year.