Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 28 Entries. Sunday, July 10 View Page I'm just now getting around to starting my diary for this year. I am growing my main plant, the 1610 Lieber over at Jim's place and I have the 1394 Daletas growing at my place where unfortunately the soil is no where near as good as it is over at Jim's place. Jim and I are having a friendly competition between us to see who can grow the largest pumpkin this year. We both have our secret weapons we are using and also trying some new things. So far both our plants are doing very well and have both nearly filled the patch. Pollinations have been taking place this past week. Here is the 1610. Sunday, July 10 View Page This is my first year growing long gourds and these things really are fun to grow. They're like growing weeds the way they grow so fast! Thanks Sam for the seeds. Here are some LG's growing on the 109.75 & 104 Lovelace. Thursday, July 14 View Page Day 10 measurment on the 1610 is at 31.75 The largest I've had so far but I would rather have impressive numbers for days 20 thru 50. I hope this trend will continue. The 1610 is crossed with the 1394 Daletas. Tuesday, July 19 View Page Day 15 for the 1610 sitting at 54" Circ. Growing 4"-5" circ. each day. She looks like she is going to be a real nice orange color like her mama. Tuesday, July 19 View Page Another shot of the 1610. Wednesday, July 20 View Page This dove has taken a liking to my long gourd plants. She built herself a nest up on top the trellis and must have laid some eggs because she will not move from her nest even when I put the camera right up to her. Wednesday, July 20 View Page Long gourds getting closer to the ground. I probably would have had one reaching to the ground if I would have let only 1 or 2 gourds grow on this plant instead of 4. I still have another plant started later that hasn't put out an LG yet so I'll let only one grow on that plant. All 4 on this plant are in the 70-80 inch range and still growing but slowing down. Wednesday, July 20 View Page 1394 Daletas day 10, 26.5" circ. Crossed with the 1610 Lieber. Monday, July 25 View Page Well I guess if you grow pumpkins long enough your bound to have disappointments along the way. Today I lost what seemed to be a very promising pumpkin on the 1610 Lieber. With all vines terminated and no other pumpkins that effectively puts an end to any chance of getting a pumpkin from this plant. The pumpkin was gaining 4-5" circ each day until day 16 I noticed the gains drop off then sharply dropping off over the next couple of days and then the pumpkin started developing spots on the skin and was oozing what looked like water droplets at various places all over the pumpkin skin. I have never seen this happen to a pumpkin so I am at a loss for what might have went wrong. The plant looked ok but seemed to me to be aging a little sooner that it should have. I should have taken a picture but was too disgusted with the situation to bother. The plant might have had a disease but who knows what. If anyone has an idea of what might have went wrong please email me. I would really like to know. I never dreamed the 1610 would be nothing more than just a pollinator plant for Jims 1544 Revier and my 1394 Daletas. On the upside, we should have some pretty good crosses to share and I still have the 1394 growing. Saturday, July 30 View Page This is a flower from the 1610 I found the other day. I think its a male flower with sort of female parts also? Saturday, July 30 View Page Here is a look inside the flower. Very strange. Saturday, July 30 View Page ...and here is a cut-away shot of it. Saturday, July 30 View Page The 1610 may be toast but all is not lost. This is the 1394 Daletas at day 20. 66"circ. Saturday, July 30 View Page I don't know what to expect from this plant (the 1394) because the soil in this patch has not been too good over the past few years. I let this area rest last year and so far this plant looks to be the best I've had here. I haven't had a pumpkin go over 300 lbs. in this patch yet. When growing in a limited space I tend to let my plant get a little out of hand with its growth as you can tell. Tuesday, August 9 View Page Day 30 for the 1394 Daletas. OTT is 225 or 249 lbs. It has been growing 15-17lbs consistantly which is encouraging considing this patch area hasn't performed near as well the last several years. I'll be happy if I can hit 500...we'll see. Wednesday, August 24 View Page Day 45 on the 1394 Daletas. By far the best pumpkin I've been able to grow in this patch. I really didn't think I could grow anything much over 300 lbs in this spot judging from past years. She keeps chuggin along as growth has slowed to 11-13 lbs. a day. Hopefully It will grow for at least 75 days. Is 600 possible? We'll see. Day 45 measurments: 127" Circ 78"SS 74"EE = 279" OTT or 463 lbs. Sunday, October 9 View Page I didn't realize I went so long without updating the diary. Today is day 91 and the 1394 is still growing. I hope she goes heavy like her mama. We'll find out in a couple weeks. Saturday, October 22 View Page Weigh off day is fast approaching. Jim and I got our pumpkins all loaded up and ready to go to our first weigh off. Sunday, October 23 View Page Driving up to the weigh off was an adventure in itself. I was amazed how many people have cameras with them. Countless thumbs up and people with amazed looks on there faces were everywhere. We had many laughs watching people drive past with strange looks on the faces. My pumpkin is on the left estimating at 623 or 309ott and Jims is on the right estimating 907 or 351ott. Sunday, October 23 View Page The competion. I was worried about the one on the left. I knew I didn't stand a chance with the one on the right. Sunday, October 23 View Page My pumpkin was first up... I suppose because it looked like it might be the smallest :-( And the scale says... Sunday, October 23 View Page It went 5.6% heavy...not quite a much as I was hoping for since the 1394 was 23% heavy but I'll take it. I hope I can hold on the 3rd place. Sunday, October 23 View Page Next up was my closest competition for 3rd place estimating at 650lbs. Sunday, October 23 View Page Congrats to Mike and Susan, two rally nice people. They edged me out by 20 pounds. Sunday, October 23 View Page This was Jims closest competition...looks like it might go heavy. Congrats to grower John. This pumpkin weighed 829. Sunday, October 23 View Page And the moment of truth as Jims pumpkin is prepared for the scale. His pumpkin has about as perfect of a shape as you could hope for and was the obvious crowd favorite. Is it large enough for 1st place......? Sunday, October 23 View Page He did it! 980 lbs. Congrats Jim! He took 1st place at his first weigh off. Nice job. If you look close at the picture you can see Jims eyes were closed...I think he thought this was all just a big dream :-) A great time was had by all. Monday, November 14 View Page This is my 658 (1394 Daletas X 1610 Lieber) carved up for Halloween. The giant jack-O-lantern is always a huge hit with the kids in my neighborhood.