Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 52 Entries. Saturday, March 21 View Page Welcome to my 2009 Giant Pumpkin growing diary. My name is Russ Pugh and my handle here on bigpumpkins.com is "vineman." Last weekend (March 17th)I cut down and tilled in my cover crop of vetch, bell beans,and sweet peas. It was in full bloom, which is when the nitrogen content is supposed to be at its height. Today I tilled in 150 pounds of elemental sulfur (to lower my pH-which was around 7.5), 400 pounds of gypsum, and some Grub Ex (to kill cucumber beetles). Saturday, March 21 View Page Last fall I brought in 320 yards of composted vegetable matter from our local dump to raise my planting area about 18 inches so I will be growing above our heavy,tight, clay, adobe soil. I raised part of my patch for last year's season and had my best results by far, so I decided to raise my entire growing area which is approximately 60'x125'). Saturday, March 21 View Page I put on 20 pounds of elemental sulfur with the hopes of lowering my pH, which is a bit on the high side. That was the recommendation I got from A&L Western Labs along with the results from my soil test. Saturday, March 21 View Page I put on 100 pounds of this mined Humate product. It is a granuar product and should release slowly, providing trace elements anich I hope will enable my plants to better uptake nutrients. Saturday, March 21 View Page Currently I am planning to only grow five plants in 2009. We have had a very dry winter and there is word that we will have to cut back on our water use. The seeds I currently have slated to go in the ground are: the 1114 Pugh (1041.5 McKie x 1385 Jutras), 991 Urena (1420 Larue x 1446 Eaton), 985 Werner (1370 Rose x 898 Knauss), 1041.5 McKie (842 Eaton x 1068 Wallace), and 961.5 Urena (1032 Urena x 1195 Glasier). All of these seeds have great records of producing solid fruit that go heavy...except my 1114 Pugh, which is a first year seed. I'm particularly interested in Leonardo Urena's seeds this year. The 991 Urena produced my buddy, Russ Pingrey's 1214 last year and the 1338 Yanez. Both were personal bsets for both of these growers by a long shot (and Juan Yanez was a first year grower). The 961 Urena is 2 for 2 in producing crazy heavy fruit (the 1223 Glasier that was 20% heavy and the 1004 Urena that was 22.6% heavy). I'm looking forward to growing some big, heavy fruit this year! Wednesday, April 29 View Page April has been a very busy month. On April 11th my company, Vineman, Inc. put on a triathlon with 600 people in it. Wednesday, April 29 View Page This week I started a major remodeling project on a house my family plans to move into this fall. My seven year old son just learned to ride his bike, so every evening before dinner we have been practicing bicycle riding. And wedged in there somewhere, I've been getting my patch ready for planting! Wednesday, April 29 View Page On Thursday, April 23rd I got a call from Patchmaster asking me when I was going to get my seeds started. I whined a little about being busy, but got my a$$ into gear and started them the next day. I had good germination success, with the exception of my 985 Werner. It seems like there is always one that doesn't want to go for me. Wednesday, April 29 View Page This evening I planted my 1041 McKie (shown here), 991 Urena, 1385 Jutras, 961 Urena, and 954 Pugh seedlings. They went into the ground 5 days after the seeds were soaked, which is the quickest I have ever made that happen. I'll be planting an 1114 Pugh at my home patch this weekend. Sunday, May 10 View Page Happy Mother's Day everyone. Today the Pugh family visited the newly built Castle in Napa. Sunday, May 10 View Page It actually is between St. Helena and Calistoga and was built by Darrel Satui. It took thirteen years to build and cost 40 million dollars. It was all built "the old way." Every piece of stone was hand hewn and every brick was slavaged from Europe. It is quite impressive. Sunday, May 10 View Page This pic of one of the lower towers on the perimeter gives some perspective of its size. Sunday, May 10 View Page Ahhh, here is a recent picture of the progress we've made on my castle in Santa Rosa. Monday, May 11 View Page Yes, after the castle tour there was still a little time left for pumpkins. Here is my 1114 Pugh seedling which went in on Friday. All of my other seedlings looked about like this on April 29th when they were planted in the hot houses. Monday, May 11 View Page Twelve days later they look like this. This is my 961 Urena, which is looking great! Monday, May 11 View Page My 1385 Jutras is about half the size of the others, which is why I planted the 1114 Pugh beside it as a backup. Sunday, May 24 View Page Yesterday the main vines of my 1041 McKie and 961 Urena plants hit the ground. This is a pic of the 961 exactly one month after the seed it grew from was soaked to begin germination. Sunday, May 24 View Page This is my flat vining/doubline 1385 Jutras. I'm bummed about this plant, but have a 1114 Pugh planted next to it. Unless something changes with the 1385 it will be culled. It is growing very slowly and is just a clump of leaves. It is less than half the size of the other plants which were started at the same time. Sunday, May 24 View Page Work on the house is progressing nicely as well. Thursday, May 28 View Page I was about to cull out my mutant 1385 Jutras this afternoon and noticed that it has a normal looking side vine in good position to become a main. So I cut off the plant beyond the secondary that looks like it might grow normally, just to see what happens. Here is a picture of the vine I cut. You can see where it was going triple! Wednesday, June 3 View Page I've been hardening off my plants getting them ready to come out of their hot houses. This is my 1041 McKie with about an 8 foot long main. We are expecting rain the next couple of days, so I am planning to take down the hot houses on Saturday. Wednesday, June 3 View Page This is my 961 Urena, which is two-for-two in producing 1000+ pound pumpkins which have both been 20% heavy. It also is my best looking plant currently. I believe that the 961 Urena has the potiential to become "the new 898 Knauss" because of its ability to produce super-heavy offspring. Wednesday, June 3 View Page Here are my dueling 1114 Pugh (left) and 1385 Jutrus (right). The 1114 is 10 days younger than my other plants and the 1385 is beginning to grow out a secondary which would become a main vine after having the mutant portion of the plant cut off. I'm probably a week from having to choose one or the other as my keeper. Wednesday, June 3 View Page Meanwhile, work on the house continues. Saturday, June 20 View Page Each year on June 20th or 21st I measure my main vines to see how they stack up compared to other years. This is my 1041.5 McKie which had a 16 foot long main vine this morning. It has a female at about 14.5 feet which looks like it will open in 4 or 5 days. If I like it and it opens on the 25th (or later) I will probably keep it. Saturday, June 20 View Page This is my 961 Urena plant. It measures 17 feet today and also has a female which will be opening around the 25th (at about fifteen feet). This plant has been my leader all along. It has had two females already open on the main vine. Saturday, June 20 View Page This is my 1114 Pugh (1041.5 McKiex1385 Jutras)plant. It measured 13 feet this morning. It is 10 days younger than my other plants, which means that it is really cranking along. I culled the 1385 Jutras which I had intended to grow in this spot because of a flat vine. It looks like this 1114 will be a great plant! Saturday, June 20 View Page This 991 Urena plant is more compact and wants to grow more upright than any of my other plants. This morning it measured 11 feet, which should put a fruit at about 13 feet in the first couple days of July. Saturday, June 20 View Page Crows pecked the main vine apart on this 954 Pugh plant almost two weeks ago, so I am growing out the last secondary as a new main. It measures 10 feet this morning. It had a female open on a side vine this morning and it has seeds in the blossom...I hope that the other females aren't showing seeds on the blossom. Thursday, July 23 View Page This is my brightest hope for a big one in 2009. This is the fruit growing on my 1041 McKie measuring 64 inches in circumferences on day 20. It has been growing 4-5 inches in circumferences a day for the past three days. Last year my 1041 fruit was 78 inches on day 20...which excited me a lot. This one has a different shape. It is rounder and not as long as the one I had last year...which I think means that it won't be as big. But the plant that it is growing on is amazing. Time will tell! Tuesday, August 4 View Page I've been busy putting on races...but now they are over! Now it is time to get down to some serious pumpkin growing. Here is the fruit on my 1041 McKie at day 32 measuring 107x77x77=261" or an estimated 363 pounds (on a several-year-old chart). I'm calling this one "the Great White Hope." If it can go 25 pounds a day for the next eight days it will be sitting pretty to become a 1000 pounder. Its too bad that in 2009 a thousand pounder is like an eight hundred pounder from about three years ago. Tuesday, August 4 View Page This is the fruit on my 1114 Pugh plant. Today is day 32 and it measures 110x68x69=247OTT or an estimated 310 pounds. It has a great shape...long, wide and is even orange. Its parents are the 1041 McKie x 1385 Jutras, which is a very interesting cross: three different world record producing seeds are in its family tree either as parents or grandparents (1068 Wallace, 842 Eaton, 998 Pukos). This could be a good cross. Hopefully some truly talented growers have given it a shot this year and we'll see what it can grow! Tuesday, August 4 View Page This is the fruit on my 991 Urena at day 35 measuring 108x65x67=OTT 240 or an estimated 285 pounds. It has the same shape as Patchmaster's from last year, but doesn't appear to have the same growing power. Tuesday, August 11 View Page My two best pumpkins hir day 40 today, which many believe is the day you can multiply the fruit's weight to get an estimated final weight. Here is the fruit on my 1041 McKie measuring 120x87x85=292 OTT or an estimated 528 pounds. This one has been going about 20 pounds a day. If it can continue that for another ten days, it will be a good one. The plant is big and healthy, so it has a chance! Tuesday, August 11 View Page This is the one I am most excited about. It is growing on my 1114 Pugh and has really been cranking out some great daily gains. The past two days it has grown 35 lbs per day, and the two days before that it went a total of 60 pounds. On day 40 it tapes to 133x79x83 = 295 OTT or an estimated 544 lbs. I got an e-mail from another grower who is growing the 1114 and is having great results as well. If this one can keep going 30+ pounds for a week and stay in the 20+ pound range for another week this baby will be around 900 pounds by the end of August! It has nice, long shape, and is even starting to put on a little snout. Nothing would be better than a personal best from my own seed! Oh, actually I could think of several things which would be better, but that would be pretty darned good. Saturday, August 22 View Page Today the fruit on my 1114 Pugh hit day 51 and measures 155.5 x 92 x 96 = 344" OTT or an estimated 855 lbs. When Owen was smaller he made the pumpkins look bigger, so I guess I'm going to have to grow them bigger! This one is having a pretty good run: over the past five days it has been going 25 lbs a day and for the eight days before that it averaged 32 lbs/day. It is beginning to get a bit of a sag line so I have been doing calcium soaks on it. Saturday, August 22 View Page This one has come on out of nowhere after an un-impressive start. It is growing on my 991 Urena and measures 155.5 x 94.5 x 94 + 344" OTT or an estimated 855 lbs. On August 9th it weighed 430 pounds. I wasn't even paying attention to it before August 9th because it was so far behind my others. It has averaged 32.7 lbs per day over the past 13 days. It is as wide, thumps like a rock, and is even orange. Wow. Wednesday, August 26 View Page I've been doing some calcium soaks on my two big pumpkins lately. This is my 1114 fruit shown here. It is starting to get a sag line which I hope to beef up with the help of some liquid calcium. This fruit tapes to an estimated 919 pounds. It is starting to slow down a little after going from 500 pounds to 900 pounds in 20 days. I'm hoping that I can go over 1200 lbs with this one. Saturday, August 29 View Page Today my 991 Urena fruit broke the 1000 pound mark based on OTT measurements. This is an "overhead" shot of the fruit. It is very WIDE. You can see my foot in the pic for a little size perspective. Saturday, August 29 View Page Here is a pic of the shoulders of the 991 fruit. Yesterday it measured 994 lbs based on the OTT chart. Saturday, August 29 View Page For the past several days it has been growing about 2.5 inches per day or about 20 lbs. Saturday, August 29 View Page In the past 24 hours it grew 4.5 inches or 36 pounds, putting it at 366.5" OTT or and estimated 1031 pounds. It has been about 100 degrees for the past couple of days and out overnight low last night was 70 degrees. Our normal lows have been about 50-52 degrees. Wednesday, September 2 View Page It took only 4 days for this baby to go from 996 lbs to 1104 lbs (375" OTT). Wow! How long can this go on??? Sunday, September 20 View Page Now that we are in the home stretch we are getting ready for some contests! This is Owen with the fruit on my 1114 Pugh at 369" OTT or an estimated 1052 pounds. Sunday, September 20 View Page Owen and Grandpa are shown here in front of Grandpa's giant pear gourds. Sunday, September 20 View Page Here is the fruit on my 991 Urena which has made my season an exciting one. Today is day 81 for this pumpkin and it is slowly making its way to 400" OTT. With good weather this week I believe that we will hit the 400" mark! Sunday, September 20 View Page Here's a shot of the 991's shoulders. This baby thumps like a rock. It's footprint is five foot x five foot and is about three feet tall. If it grows a little more, and goes heavy, I think I might actually have a chance! For a pumpkin grower, it doesn't get much better than that. Thursday, December 31 View Page Since it is New Year's Eve I guess I'd better add the pics of my 2009 pumpkins while I still can. This is the 1107 Pugh '09 DMG. It developed a pin hole in a rib intersection. It was grown from my 1114 Pugh '08 and was pollinated with the 961 Urena. It was weighed with my certified in-line scale in the patch and was 5.24% heavy. It was my largest pumpkin at the time the hole developed. Thursday, December 31 View Page Here I am with the 1288.5 Pugh '09. It was grown on the 991 Urena and was pollinated with the 961 Urena. It placed 7th at Elk Grove and was 6.34% heavy. This is my personal best! Thursday, December 31 View Page This is my dad and son with the giant pear gourds that my dad grew at my patch this year. The largest one weighed 77 pounds. Thursday, December 31 View Page This is the 971 Pugh '09 which I grew from my 954 Pugh '08. It was weighed at Half Moon Bay and was 13.62% heavy. It was pollinated my my 961 Urena which went about 17% heavy. This should yield some heavy growing seeds. Thursday, December 31 View Page This is the 1333 Skinner which was grown from my 954. It was HUGE, but went something like 13% light. It has great color, which must have come from the 1231 Pukos. The 954 I grew received basically no care after I broke off the main vine early and had to grow it on a secondary. There were probably 1500 or more pounds of other pumpkins grown on this plant. Next year I will give the 954 Pugh another chance and take better care of it!