Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 25 Entries. Wednesday, April 29 View Page To kick off this year's diary, here is a picture of the tomato plants. I probably started them a little late but they are picking up steam now. It seems we have an anomaly here though...the 3 biggest plants are seeds from my own cross, a 4.83 Wilson Big Zac crossed with a Giant Belgium. The other plants are just plain old Big Zac. The cross pollination was done using the tomato emasculation technique to ensure a controlled cross. Hopefully the tomatoes grow as well as the plants. Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here's a shot of 5 of the 6 pots in the germination chamber. The wires are the thermocouples for temperature monitoring/control. All six of the seeds were soaked at 9AM on Sunday morning and put into the 85 degree soil at 11AM. The 6 seeds are: 846 Calai (801.5 Stelts x 876.5 Lloyd) 869.5 Calai (846 Calai x 801.5 Stelts) 900 Wallace (1068 Wallace x 670 Daigle) 983 Pukos (1068 Wallace x 1420 LaRue) 1250 Kline (670 Daigle x 1204 Kline) 1290 Poirier (772.2 Poirier x 500 Northrup) All but the 846 Calai and the 1250 Kline are up as of this evening. Wednesday, April 29 View Page The germination chamber temperature screen. Temp1 is the air temperature in the chamber and Temp2 to Temp4 are soil temperatures. The Max/Min reading track the maximum and minimum air temperature readings. The desired temperature is set on a different screen as this one is meant to be a Status screen only. All the PLC and LCD screen software I wrote as well as a list of hardware is available for free if anyone is interested in building their own PLC controlled germination chamber. It's not a cheap build (at least for my thin wallet) but if it saves just one good seed, it was all worth it. Good luck to you all this season! Saturday, May 9 View Page A shot of the new patch. Once again, I find myself in a rental so this will likely be the first and last year growing in this patch. It was heavily amended this Fall/Winter and considering it's a new patch, the soil reports don't look too bad. I will be growing two plants in this 1400 sq. foot patch of dirt. Saturday, May 9 View Page Getting the heating cables in the ground. I have never used these before but hopefully they will help the plants hit the ground running. They are buried about 12" deep and are spaced 5-6 inches apart. Saturday, May 9 View Page All done! I am curious to see how these will work. The dirt was still a little on the wet side to till the entire patch so I will hold off for a week or two. Good weather is in the forecast so hopefully it will dry out quickly. Saturday, May 9 View Page We are ready for plants! I am excited to give this pumpkin thing a try again this year. I have to send out a HUGE "Thank You" to a very good friend for all of his generosity, help, advice, and time, not to mention the greenhouses I am using this spring. Sunday, May 17 View Page Of the 8 plants I started, the final four have been chosen and are out in the patch. They are the 1041 McKie, the 869.5 Calai, the 846 Calai, and the 1370 Rose. The 869.5 is the largest plant right now and is just starting to vine. It's always exciting to see tendrils starting to form. I will cull down to two plants before they hit the ground. I hate that part.... Wednesday, May 20 View Page Just a quick update. 1370 Rose on the left and the 846 Calai on the right. The 846 has been giving me fits since day one. I'm not sure what it's up to but it better make up its mind if it wants to beat out the 1370. The 1370 was started a week after the 846 and it seems to be doing well so far. Just starting to coax it down with bamboo stakes... Wednesday, May 20 View Page The 1041 McKie on the left and the 869.5 Calai on the right. Like the 1370 Rose, the 1041 McKie was started a week after the 869 Calai. Both plants are in good shape and growing well. The 869 Calai should be on the ground and running by the end of the week if all goes well. Sunday, June 7 View Page The 869.5 Calai today. They got their first good soaking with the sprinkler system today and I was happy with the coverage. I'm using a small popup version of the rotary head sprinklers we use on the irrigation equipment we design and build where I work. Low flow and excellent uniformity at average residential pressures. Sunday, June 7 View Page The 1370 Rose today. The 869.5 was started on 4/26 and the 1370 was started on 5/2. Considerind where I normally am at this time of year, I'm very happy with their progress so far. It's so nice to not be growing at 4500 ft. elevation this year! Sunday, June 7 View Page Patch shot. I am only growing two plants this year. Hopefully I'll get at least one to the scale but we'll see how it goes. Incidentally, the 869.5 Calai has its first female showing at the tip. Sunday, June 7 View Page Just a couple of pictures of the irrigation equipment I help design at work. I'm an Engineer at Pierce and we manufacture center pivot and linear irrigation systems. I dabble in structural design but most of my time is spent on the electrical systems and controls. This example shows one of our CP600 center pivots over a field to be planted with potatoes. This pivot covers approximately 150 acres in one revolotution (6.5 hours per revolution) and will deliver 600-1500 gallons per minute, depending on the sprinkler pack chosen by the customer. Sunday, June 7 View Page The front end of our latest control panel. This panel uses a Linux based single board computer as the "Human Machine Interface" aka HMI. Our systems are capable of sector management and all user machine programming is done in a web browser based environment. With our system, the farmer can be in Vegas at the poker tables and monitor, program, and start/stop his entire farm using his/her Blackberry. Sunday, June 7 View Page The back plane. We use a Siemens PLC that is in charge of all machine operations. The HMI unit on the door provides the interface for loading water schedules, fertilizer schedules, sector data, etc. into the PLC. Most of my time on this project is spent on PLC programming. Sadly, I know what each and every wire does and where it goes by heart as I have been working on the development of this panel since I started at Pierce in early 2008. Sunday, June 7 View Page Our machines are designed to last 20 years with proper maintenance. All that technology and engineering for what boils down to an oversized sprinkler that goes around and around all season. Today's high tech farmers are all about using technology to lower their costs, increase efficiency and yields, all while maintaining a high level of quality. Sunday, June 14 View Page The 1370 Rose today sitting at close to 11 feet. The weather has been cloudy and wet for a week or so but the sun is finally back. This one is on track to catch up with the 869 Calai which is a week older (4/26 vs. 5/2 germination date). Sunday, June 14 View Page The 869.5 Calai today. Main vine just hit the 12' mark. The secondaries have been growing like weeds despite the lack of sun. The first two males of the season also opened this morning on this plant. 'Tis the season! Tuesday, June 30 View Page The 1370 Rose today. Main vine growth has slowed while the secondary growth has exploded. Pollinated two so far on this plant, both with the 869.5 Calai. Tuesday, June 30 View Page The 869.5 Calai. This plant isn't as heat tolerant as the 1370 Rose and it has a few burnt leaves to show for it. Other than that, so far so good I guess. Just watered in the second dose of Merit today to keep any bugs at bay. Just hoping for a new personal best this year! Friday, August 28 View Page My only shot at a new personal best this year. Shown here is the pumpkin on the 1370 Rose. Picture taken on August 1, day 30. Friday, August 28 View Page Another shot of the 1370 Rose on day 30. I self-pollinated this one. No current pictures to post but with a decent September, I still have a shot at a new official PB and that's all that really matters to me... Sunday, October 4 View Page Here is a picture of the pumpkin I grew on the 1370 Rose this year. Final OTT was 384" for an estimated weight of 1184 lbs. Boy was I surprised when the scale read 1356.5 lbs. It went just under 15% heavy and it was self pollinated. A huge thank you goes out to the PGVG and to the Bauman family for hosting such a great event. Sunday, October 11 View Page The main vine on the 1370 Rose plant about 5 feet before the pumpkin. I have never had a main vine this size or tap roots this aggressive. This was new dirt this year and it looks I will be starting over in a new patch again next year as I am moving about a mile from where I live now. Congratulations to everyone who got a fruit to the scale and all the best in 2010!