Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 34 Entries. Wednesday, April 25 View Page Time to start the 2012 diary. It's always an exciting, yet exhausting time of the year with all the patch prep to do. 3 different patches are ready to go. 2 patches at home and 1 large patch at Jim's (Team faith) place. Thanks to Tom Privitera for all the offseason help. I will be following his fert program this year. This year should be fun. After watching me grow pumpkins for the last several years, my son has decided he is going to grow his first pumpkin this year to compete against me. He will have a pretty decent seed to grow too...the California state record 1704 Urena. I will be growing the 980 Fredricks to compete against him. Over at Jim's place we will both gang up to grow another 980 Fredricks on the entire 850 sqft. Neither Jim or I have grown a plant out that large due to space limitations but surely have had plants that could have filled out the entire area. So this year it will be one plant for the whole area. We are hoping to finally get over that 1000 lb mark this year. This year is dedicated to the good Lord who has blessed us in so many ways. And also in rememberance of Steve Jepsen (Tremor) He was one of the most helpful and knowledgable people on BP and I miss his posts. With that, let the season begin. Seeds were soaked last night and so far one 980 has germinated after 17 hours. More to follow. Friday, April 27 View Page Started four 980 Fredricks and one 1704 Urena and wouldn't you know it, the 1704 does not look good. Kinda strange, a crown developed just above where the tap root should be but the tap root is non existant. All the 980's germinated in less than 30 hours. The 1704 plans are still an option because Jim has one also that we will see if we can get to germinate. Fingers crossed. Sunday, April 29 View Page The 1704 I initially started is a fighter. As mentioned in my last post, the tap root never developed because the point where it should have been went soft and eventually started to grow mold. I took my fingernail and scratched of the area where the mold had started to develop and continued to keep it warm to see what would happen since it was starting to make a crown above where the tap root should have been. Another day went by and now it is turning into a club root. Two small roots have started to develop so I put it in a pot. Today it is starting to break ground. Meanwhile Jim started his 1704 and it germinated normally and should be breaking ground tomorrow. Thursday, May 3 View Page And we're off! My sons 1704 Urena and my 980 Fredricks are in their patches. He thinks his pumpkin is going to be bigger than mine...I don't think so!!! Looking forward to a fun season. Sunday, May 6 View Page Got to have some seedling pictures in the diary! Here is my sons 1704 Urena...now that its in the ground he is starting to get excited. Sunday, May 6 View Page Here is my 980 Fredricks. I'm getting excited too. Can't wait to see what the cross Jim & I made will produces this year. We have several growers growing them including several who are not on BP. Sunday, May 6 View Page This is my latest addition to the patch. A 55 gallon drum plumbed into my watering system to feed the plants some "special goodies" right at the roots. It works perfect. Tuesday, May 22 View Page Just a quick update on the plants. Shade cloth has been put up over both of my home patches and I will be going over to Jims today to start setting up the shade cloth over there on our big patch. Weather has been very nice and warm...its been in the 80's and low 90's most days for a while now. Here is my sons 1704 Urena just about ready to launch. Tuesday, May 22 View Page The 980 is doing good too. It's just a bit smaller than the 1704. So far it seems to be a trend with the 980's to start out a bit smaller...but not by much. It must be building a nice root system. It will be intersting to see which trait will show up in the 980 because Jim's 1544 mother plant had huge leaves and my 1610 pollinator was a tighter more compact plant. We'll see. Sunday, June 3 View Page We went to a local airshow today and saw a little more than we expected. We watched this plane do several flybys alongside a British Spitfire similating strafing runs down the runway. After they had finished their performance this plane called the Fairey Firefly came in for a landing first. Everything looked fine on the plane coming in as it approached the runway. After touching down the landing gear collapsed and the plane came down on its belly and slid off the runway. What a shame. It was a very nice plane. It kind of has the look of a P-51 Mustang and sounds just like one too. Thankfully the pilot was not hurt. Sunday, June 3 View Page Back at the pumpkin patch these guys are on guard against bugs. I rarely see a bug in my patch. They do a great job of eating anything that moves. We call this particular lizard "The Sedona Lizard" because thats where he used to live before he came to San Diego to live in my patch. He was giving me the suspicious eye as I took his picture. Sunday, June 3 View Page The 980 is starting to take off now. It tried giving me a little trouble by shooting its main straight up in the air over a foot but after a twist here and a bend there all is fine. It won't be long before there are leaves everywhere. It is a nice thick plant with an average growth rate. Much like its mother plant from last year that took its time in the begining and then really kicked it into gear a while later. Sunday, June 3 View Page This is my sons baby...the 1704 Urena and it is a perfect plant for him. It layed itself down with very little effort and now its on its quest to fill up its small patch. My son has learned about drenchng now he will learn all about foliar feeding. He has become very protective about his plant...I think he's caught the bug to grow pumpkins :-) Monday, June 4 View Page Ouch! I bet the pilot had a sick feeling right about then. Friday, June 8 View Page The first pumpkins have appeared on both the 980 and the 1704 at about 7 ft out. This is the one on the 980. Sunday, June 10 View Page The 980 has had some decent growth this week when compared to last weeks picture of the plant. The vine is out about 8 feet now putting on about 5 feet this week. The first male flower looks like it will be opening tomorrow. The small plant on the right is the backup plant. I will be culled shortly. Sunday, June 10 View Page The 1704 is growing nice for my son. It grew about 5 feet this week too. He keeps telling Jim that his plant is bigger than the one at Jim's house and that he is going to grow a bigger pumpkin too...I have to remind him not to count his chickens before they hatch. Sunday, June 10 View Page This is a funny picture of a backup 980 I never got around to planting. it's growing in a 4" pot...obviously its roots have escaped the confines of the pot when you see how big the plant is compared to the tiny pot it is in. Sunday, July 22 View Page Time to get caught up with the diary. I can't believe more than a month has past since my last post! Anyway, shortly after my last post back in June, both my plants ran into a nutrient problem where growth slowed down noticably which prompted me to get a tissue test done on my 980 to find out what was going on. The confusing thing was that the plant looked absolutely perfect color but lacked vigor. It turns out I was low on calcium and micronutrients. With Tom P's guidance my plant got back on track grew like crazy filling the whole patch and everywhere else too. I think the slow down set back the early pumpkin growth so my day 20 numbers are not very good at all measuring only 49" circ. I think that's the worst day 20 measurement I've had but I see encouraging signs as the pumpkpkin has started to show much better growth the last several days. We will see what the future holds. The 1704 also had its issues with growth much like the 980 except it was showing signs of nutrient deficiency on the leaves. I didn't have a tissue test done so I winged it by nuking the plant with a heavy dose of various nutrients. The plant responded very well and growth increased dramatically. The pumpkin put on over 5" yesterday. Now, over at the big patch Jim and I have something very special growing over there. This 980 is going big! At day 20 growth is really picking up with a 27 lb gain today and packing on more each day. This is going to be a fun ride. This plant is an absolute beast with leaves averaging about 30" ( I know, we aren't growing salad but the leaves still are pretty impressive). The 980 looks like it may prove to be a great big/orange seed. All the 980's that various people are growing have all had excellent bright neon yellow color so far with great round shape. The other thing we have noticed is that the 980 seems to start out a little slow then it turns it on. I'll get some pictures up soon. Tuesday, July 31 View Page The 980 at the home patch is out of control and all over the place. The only problem is the plant grows great but the pumpkin...that's another story. Tuesday, July 31 View Page Well, she's going to be real pretty for sure but growth is much less than I had hoped for. My soil is junk and I am out of ideas on how to improve it. I need a new patch. Day 30 measurements...it's not worth mentioning. OK, it eeked out 200 lbs. Tuesday, July 31 View Page Here is my sons 1704 not doing much better. This thing looks like a lopsided dinosaur egg. Tuesday, July 31 View Page On a much brighter note over at our big patch things are going very good which makes it much easier to forget about my plants at home. This 980 plant is a sea of green and looking great with alot of young healthy looking leaves covering nearly 900 sqft. Having never had a plant this big Jim and I are finding out it is alot of work to spray this plant on both top and bottom sides of the leaves. We've put alot of work into this plant and I think it is really going to pay off this time. Tuesday, July 31 View Page Repost with the right date: Oops! Day 30 on the 980 Fredricks. 270.33" OTT, 445 lbs. averaging over 30 lbs a day. This puppy is nearly 70 lbs larger than the 980 was at day 30 last year. Hope we can keep it going. Chris, this is our best hope of keeping up with the great year you are having! Saturday, August 11 View Page Just came back from working on the 980 over at Jims place. What a beauty! She will hit 800 in a day or two. The heat is slowing her down a bit. I hope it cools down soon. This +100° weather is getting old! Friday, August 31 View Page Day 30 on the 980 Fredricks. 270.33" OTT, 445 lbs. averaging over 30 lbs a day. This puppy is nearly 70 lbs larger than the 980 was at day 30 last year. Hope we can keep it going. Chris, this is our best hope of keeping up with the great year you are having! Friday, August 31 View Page Jim and I had to pose for a picture with our Big Girl today. She is almost at 1100 lbs and still putting on the pounds. Aren't all those 980's so pretty. Chris, I think your 980 is about as perfect as you can get! I'll have to post a picture of my 980 at the home patch tomorrow. It's still growing and sitting at right around 600 lbs. Friday, August 31 View Page Here is the 980 at my home patch. 132circ. 85.5 ss 84.75ee 301.25 OTT = 610 lbs. This is better than I thought I would get this year with my poor soil. I have been keeping it covered until now so its not quite as orange as our big one at Jims place. It's time for a little sun tan to bring that color out. Wednesday, September 5 View Page Houston...we have a problem. Oh no, this doesn't look good at all! This is what appeared on the blossom end today. It looks like a surface crack because its very shallow. I hope we don't have a larger problem lurking deeper inside. I sprayed a bleach solution aroung the area and Jim placed a fan to dry the crack up. Any suggestions on how else to deal with this would be appreciated. Friday, September 7 View Page Thank all of you who gave advice on the blossom crack. We are keeping a close eye on it and doing what we can. I sure hope it will be able to heal over. This is my sons first pumpkin he has grown. Estimated at 540 lbs. Thats a pretty good one for his first time. He says he gives it a pep talk every now and then to keep it growing. It must be working since this thing somehow continues to grow even though the plant looks very tired. Maybe I should talk to my pumpkin a little more too ;-) Saturday, September 15 View Page It's too HOT!!! 109° yesterday and 106° today...needless to say the pumpkins aren't liking this. The heat is really taking a toll on the plants. Not much growth in this kind of heat. 42° temperature swing today from low to high. On a good note, my 980 Fredricks at my home patch has equalled my PB OTT of 309" set last year and did it 15 days earlier too! I think I may grow the 980 again next year :-) Saturday, September 29 View Page Today is the day to weigh our pumpkin! We also had the pleasure of finally meeting So.Cal Chris. He is a really great guy. Thanks for bringing the lifting equiptment Chris! We wouldn't have been able to lift it without your help. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have many pictures except a few that were emailed to me...here she sits cut from the vine and ready to be weighed. Saturday, September 29 View Page We had some serious lifting power to lift pumpkins...a huge fork lift. A local church supplied it for us and when we saw this thing come around the corner Jim and I had to laugh at the size of this thing. Chris also brought down his 985 to be weighed so we had 2 pumpkins to weigh. Chris's pumpkin hit the scale first. And the weight...well, I'll give Chris a chance to post his weight first since he is driving home as I type right now. Here is our 980 hitting the scale. Will she go heavy or light. She tapes at 370 OTT or 1104 lbs. Saturday, September 29 View Page Good news! She went heavy! OK just by a tiny bit. She weighs in at 1116! WooHoo we finally broke the 1000 lb mark which is a pretty tough thing to do down this far south.