Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 14 Entries. Monday, May 13 View Page I received two 603 Muller seeds in a trade this year. Unfortunately neither of them germinated. I'm not surprised, being they were 2003 seeds. I'm happy to have just had a shot of growing the 603 again. This year I'm growing the 1339 Adams 12(1161 Rodonis X 1421 Stelts) as my lone competition plant. This afternoon I planted two 1339 Adams 12 plants in the patch(at opposite ends of the patch). I'll keep the best growing/most normal looking one. I realize the riskiness of growing just one competition plant, but I just don't want to invest a lot of time on pumpkins this summer. Hopefully with just one plant, I can take good care of it, and grow a decent pumpkin. Thursday, June 6 View Page It's been cool, cloudy, and wet here. Since planting out, I've only had to open the hoop houses a few times, to vent the heat inside. It looks like the temps. with be getting better soon, and hopefully more sunshine. My largest 1339 Adams plant has a mainvine of about 2', that hasn't touched down yet. The other(back-up) 1339 Adams had a mainvine of less than a foot. Saturday, June 8 View Page One reason I'm growing the 1339 Adams 12 seed this year, is because it was a very orange pumpkin, considering it was grown off the 1161 Rodonis. It is a nice cross...1161 Rodonis X 1421 Stelts., and it went 10% heavy to the chart. What's not to like? Here's a link to a picture of it: http://www.lakeshoreimages.com/images230/ASF_4580.jpg Tuesday, June 11 View Page I measured the mainvine on my largest 1339 Adams plant this evening. It is 54"long. I didn't measure the other 1339 plant, but am guessing it's around 3' long. The plants are at opposite ends of the allotted patch, so I have a lot of time yet, to decide on which plant will be my keeper. I may even keep the non-keeper, as a smaller plant, for a genetics cross/smaller pumpkin. We'll see. Monday, June 24 View Page We got almost 5" of rain last Thurs. evening/early Fri. morning. I woke up at about 1:30 AM on Fri., to the sound of strong winds and rain. I imagine it was similar to the sound of a hurricane. I heard that 50-85 MPH wind came through the area. Six trees were down on our property. Three of them were uprooted. I feared the worst for the pumpkin plants, as I hadn't put up any wind protection. So I prayed, and hoped for the best. I expected the plants to be in very poor shape, or totally wiped out. I was greatly relieved to find the smaller plant was virtually undamaged, and the larger plant only had a few leaves near the crown knocked down. I'm quite thankful! The whole garden is very wet. Hopefully we get some nice soil drying weather, so I can do some work in the garden again soon. It's much to wet now. Monday, July 8 View Page The soil the pumpkin plants are in, was very wet for quite awhile, since my last post. The plants were growing O.K. before we got almost 5" of rain in one evening/night. After that the plants seemed to be very slow growers. They seem to be picking up some lately, but all that rain seemed to take it's toll. I'm not expecting much of a pumpkin this year, consequently. For my own records: 1339 south plant.....Open pollination on main July 3. 1339 north plant.....Open pollination on main July 7. I think these dates are correct(not positive)...but I'm going with these dates. Thursday, July 11 View Page The first pollination on the 1339 south plant quite growing about 3-4 days after pollination. Today I had another open pollinated, 4 lobe female on the main of that plant. Hopefully it becomes the "keeper". The 1339 north plant may get pulled soon, as it looks like the south plant will be easier to get into a decent vine growing pattern. It also has darker yellow females on it...so may throw a darker orange pumpkin. Thursday, July 18 View Page I've decided to keep the 1339 south plant....the 1339 north plant will be pulled soon. I have a pumpkin on the "keeper" plant that was at day 6 today. It's shiny and pale yellow at this point. It has a real nice shape early on. A fat football shape, that's more rounded at the stem end. There's another female that opened on the main either today or yesterday. I'll keep it for insurance. Sunday, July 21 View Page Day 10 for my pumpkin on the 1339 Adams plant. Circ.= 27". Friday, July 26 View Page Day 15 for the pumpkin on the 1339 Adams. Circ.= 47" I watered the plant yesterday. Today I started mulching around the plant and part way into the canopy. I'm hoping this will result in better mid and late season gains for my pumpkin. We'll see. Cool temps today. Wednesday, July 31 View Page Day 20 for my pumpkin on the 1339 Adams. Circ.= 64" Monday, August 5 View Page Day 25 for my pumpkin on the 1339 Adams. Circ.= 82.5". I haven't seen any cuke beetles this year, thankfully. Tuesday, December 24 View Page Time for an update lol. The pumpkin on my 1339 Adams plant ended up being an unattractive shape IMO(I know, it's the personality that matters). It was wide, flattened, and had a rather large dip in the middle. It was a decent orange color. I quit measuring it early on. I didn't get final measurements, but I'd guess it ended up at around 900 lbs....just eyeballing it. Due to it's poor shape, not likely being a personal best, and the fact that I'd need to bother the neighboring farmer to help load it(which he always seems happy to do), I decided not to get it weighed. I should add that I let a later set grow on the same plant, and it had quite a nice shape to it. Tuesday, December 24 View Page I won the bid on the two 603.5 Muller seeds, at the OVGPG seed auction. I grew my personal best with this seed in 2007, with a weight of 1041 lbs. I love the color it can throw. Hopefully I can get one or both seeds to germinate. It's definitely one of my favorite orange seeds of all time.