Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 30 Entries. Thursday, February 7 View Page Hey all, This is my first post of the 2008 season. Not much has been happening around here lately. I just got some new A.G. seeds at Lowes. They are just regular Atlantic Giant seeds, but I think they should grow a decent size fruit. I got 14 seeds for about 2 dollars, so I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully the new seeds germinate a lot better than my old seeds did. I also started some Mammoth Sunflower seeds on Tuesday January 29th and one germinated 16 hours later and the other one germinated on Thursday. Today number one is at about an inch and a half tall and number two is at about three inches tall. But I have noticed interesting growth habits between the two plants. The first plant is growing less tall, but a larger 1st leaf set and the second plant is growing taller, but it's first set of leaves is smaller. My theory is that once the plants start to grow their first set of leaves they focus on leaf growth for a week or two rather than height, so the plant can photosynthesize enough energy to nourish and support both height and leaf growth. I'll have to note the growth habits over the next couple of weeks and see if there is any corlation between my theory and what actually occurs. Hopefully I can get the plants to bloom in the next couple of months. Sunday, February 10 View Page My sunflowers are growing pretty well. The first one is two inches tall and the second one is four inches tall. Both have their first sets of leaves and are starting to grow a fuzzy stem from between the seed leaves. As soon as it started to grow the stem and first leaves number two started to grow less tall and focus more on stem and leaf growth. So I think my theory about height growth in seedlings maybe correct. Hopefully it gets sunny in a day or two, so they start growing faster. I guess I'll see what happens. Sunday, April 13 View Page Today I started my new Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds that I got a couple of months ago because it is finally warm enough to start growing them. I soaked them for about two hours and put them in a moist paper towel on a warm cable box to help them germinate. I may also start some sunflower seeds today as well. I hope my A.G.s germinate. I still have some older seeds left and one is from a 1000+ pounder, so I'm thinking about growing one of those too and picking the most vigorous plant to put in the garden and the other one will just be grown in a large pot and used as a pollinator for the one in the garden. I can't wait to plant my pumpkins and have them start to grow! Hopefully I can get a good sized pumpkin this year. I'll have to see how my luck turns out. Tuesday, April 29 View Page Well, I do have an Atlantic Giant pumpkin plant that I planted in the garden today. But it was a seed that I direct seed started because as usual the two other atlantic giant seeds didn't grow using conventional methods. So I removed the seed coat from a fresh one and within 24 hours I had root formation. At three days I had a three- inch root. At five days the seed was above ground and had cotyledons open. Today it is starting its first true leaf and is in the garden. Looks like this is my new seed germination practice. I built a mound of compost and soil around the pumpkin and fertilized with some 17-17-17 ozmocote. It's been cooler lately, so I hope this isn't a problem for the plant. Hopefully it will warm up and get sunny soon. I hope my plant grows well because I'm hoping to get nice weather this summer and possibly grow another 200+ pounder. We'll see what happens. Sunday, May 4 View Page My pumpkin plant is doing fairly well, It does have 1 true leaf almost fully formed. There is one problem however. The plant has only one cotyledon because the black ants have decided to try to eat my plants this year, so I sprayed ant poison on and around my pumpkin and tomatoe plants to take care of the problem LOL. I think my A.G. plant should start to grow a little faster once the true leaf opens. Maybe I'll fertilize later this week to help it along. I don't want to give it too much fertilizer because it might burn up, So I'll probably wait until next week like I usually do to start the weekly fertilizing routine. Monday, May 5 View Page The pumpkin plant is growing fairly well, it's starting to pick up the pace a little and is putting on more leaf growth. It's also been around 75 outside for a while so the plant is definitly liking that. It is working on two leaves now and has one that is almost fully formed. I did accidently burn the plant a little with sevin when I treated for ants, but it should be allright. The leaf is growing quickly and is allready starting to get greener. I'll just have to be more careful next time and keep sevin off of the new growth. I'm so glad that my season has finaly begun. I hope everything goes well. Wednesday, May 28 View Page Well, summer's almost here and I still have no pumpkins. I usually have a plant with an eight foot vine by now. But I big storm came through a couple of weeks ago and took my pumpkin plant. It ripped it right out of the soil and I didn't find it, so I started a new seed. I'll find out the exact name, but I know the seed was from a 1000+ pounder. I started it by the direct seeding method and it now has one leaf and is working on it's second. I really hope this one grows because I can't have another set back. I guess I'll put it in the patch this weekend and see what happens. Sunday, June 15 View Page My 1059 Johnson is doing well, knock on wood. It has over five leaves the largest is the fourth leaf, I beleive. It is at about 10 inches wide by about 11 inches long. The plant is also starting to vine. I fertilized it on Thursday with some 20-20-20 miracle grow and it started taking off the next day. I really hope it keeps growing strongly. The weather has been nice and warm lately. Hopefully the thunderstorms stay at bay for a while so I can have a decent season. We had a storm yesterday, but I covered my plant with a rubber made conttainer to protect it, but the plant is noe too big for the container. I learned this trick from a recent post on the message board. Although I've been at this sport for about 10 years I still learn neat little tricks, LOL. I'm just going to hope that the storms stay away for a while, so I can have a decent season. Some of you may not recognize the 1059 Johnson name, this seed is from 2002 and I got it from B.P. .com back when there used to be FREE pumpkin seeds available on this site. I'm not quite ready to pay out the A$$ for seeds yet LOL. So I'll try to use what I have. Good luck to ya all and I'll keep updating on my progress. Tuesday, June 17 View Page The 1059 Johnson is doing pretty well today the largest leaf is around 12 inches wide and 12 inches long. The vine is over a foot long too. I hope it doesn't break when it starts to lay down. I burried the stump for some extra stability and watered. I'm hoping this will solve the problem. I've noticed a little bug damage on some of the leaves, so I'm going to get some sevin dust and dust the patch. Hopefully my plant continues to grow well, so I can get a nice pumpkin this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. Friday, June 20 View Page The 1059 Johnson is finally starting to lay flat. I was starting to worry that it would snap. The main vine is around 18 inches long and is about an inch thick. The largst leaf is now over 14 inches wide. The plant is also sprouting lots of secondaries and other leaves. I fertilized it yesterday with 2 gallons of Miracle grow. I can't wait to hopefully set a pumpkin in another month or so. I hope my season continues to go well. Saturday, June 21 View Page My pumpkin plant is doing well, knock on wood. The largest leaf is over 16 inches wide and the main vine is about two feet long. I' ve never had leaves grow as quickly as these do LOL. One day they'll be four inches across and the next day they'll be a foot. I'll dust with sevin to keep the bugs down, but other than that I'll just keep watering and see if I get a pumpkin this year. I will also start training the main vine soon to grow into the yard and around the tomatoe plants. I'm hoping that this will give me some more space. Monday, June 23 View Page Today the 1059 is still growing well. It has a three and a half foot main vine and is sprouting secondaries and huge tendrils. It is growing very close to the tomatoes though. I am concerned that the leaves will not have room to grow. I guess I can do some training and see if I can fix it. I have also noticed a bent leaf axel due to a secondary vine growing on top of it. I'm hoping that this doesn't create any problems. I may cut the secondary off if it continues to present issues. I can't wait to see this plant in a couple of weeks LOL. It's really nice. I just have to watch out for bugs and I should be all right. I hope my luck holds out. Wednesday, June 25 View Page Today my pumpkin plant is starting to climb out of the bed already LOL. I hope it continues this vigorous growth so I can hopefully pollinate by the end of July. If I can get one set then I should be back on schedule. I will fertilize and hopefully dust tomorrow. I don't want any bug problems. The main vine is at about four and a half feet long today and is averaging around six inches of growth per day. There are also male flowers starting to come, hopefully I'll see one open in about a week. Then I will have about 2-3 weeks left before my pumpkins start coming. I really hope my luck holds this year. I havn't had a decent pumpkin season in about two years. Friday, June 27 View Page The main vine on the 1059 is about six feet today. I think the plant likes the heat there's little wilting and only slight heat stress on the leaves. The plant also seems to grow faster when it's hot outside hopefully the 90 degree weather keeps up for a couple more days. But not too long because I don't want my plant to be over stressed. I fertilized with 3 gallons of miracle grow today. I think my largest secondary is dead because it was growing straight in the air and I thought I'd just let it fall but it snapped. I taped the injury and hopefully it won't rot and infect the main vine. I think I'll cut the secondary off if it doesn't look better by tomorrow. I'm just hoping that I don't have any more problems. My season is going great so far and I don't want any screw ups LOL. The 1059 is also my last seed from a 1000+ pounder, so I'd like to get some viable seeds from a pumpkin from the plant at least. Sunday, June 29 View Page Today my pumpkin plant is about 7 feet long and has lots of secondaries. The largest leaf is about 18 inches wide and the leaf stems are over two and a half feet tall. I hope this plant is as vigorous with pumpkin growth as it is with vegetative and root growth. I guess I'll find out if I am giving the plant enough potassium when it starts to flower in a few days. I do have a slight concern about the main vine though, it appears to be having a little trouble leaving the bed. I placed a step stool to help releive stress on the vine. Hopefully it doesn't break. I guess I'll wait and see because I don't see the point in prolonging the transition from the bed to the lawn by placing more under the vine because by the time it finally rests on the ground I'll have a 6 foot portion that is resting on boards and step stools. I want as many tap roots as possible. So I'll just let it go and hope that it doesn't break off. Monday, June 30 View Page Today my pumpkin plant is just about at 8 feet long and the largest secondary is about three feet. It is looking ok despite being damaged it does wilt in the heat however. So I still might cut it off. I noticed a small female bud at the tip of the main vine about 8 feet out. I hope I can pollinate in a few weeks. If another bud appears a little farther out I'll pollinate that one instead. I'm hoping to get a pumpkin pollinated on the main vine about 10 to 14 feet from the stump. I guess I'll wait and see. I hope my season keeps going as great as it has been. Wednesday, July 2 View Page The pumpkin plant is at about 9 feet long on the main vine and is over 100 square feet in area. There are several small females forming. One is on the main and three are on secondaries. The male flowers should open any day now. I'm getting more and more anxious to pollinate as the days go by LOL. I really hope I can get a nice pumpkin this year. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. Saturday, July 5 View Page Today my pumpkin plant is about 12 and a half to 13 feet long and it has several six foot long secondaries. I should have a male open any day now and hopefully the female on the main vine will open in a week or so. I fertiliaed yesterday with about six gallons of miracle grow. I will probably step up the dose to eight or ten gallons next week depending on the plant size. I hope I have a male flower ready when my females open. I guess I'll just wait and see. I'm getting more and more anxious everyday to get a pumpkin pollinated. Wednesday, July 9 View Page Yeah! Today I pollinated a five segment flower on the main vine of my pumpkin plant today with two males. The flower opened in just over a week. They usually take about 10 to 14 days. I'm glad because now I have a good 90 days to have the pumpkin grow if it sets. I was surprised at how big the flower was , over 8 inches wide I could almost fit my fist inside of it LOL. I am a little concerned about the pollination because it was raining a little bit when I went out there to pollinate. I hope the pollination job is complete. I guess I'll wait and see. I like the shape of the pumpkin so far the stem is nice and long and the shoulders are big. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. Thursday, July 10 View Page I think the pollination of my pumpkin yesterday was successful. Today it has grown to about the size of an egg at day 1. Hopefully it stays and doesn't rot or abort. I will probably start measuring and charting growth rates by next week. I will fertilize and spray for bugs tonight. My plant is really getting huge , compared to my other plants I've grown, it is probably around 150 square feet. I removed some small secondaries that were too close to my pumpkin. If I decide to keep it I will probably remove a few more so it has room to grow. I'm hoping to get my plant around 250 to 300 square feet before I start dead heading some vines. I will try to only pollinate five lobed flowers because my plant is small. Saturday, July 12 View Page Today I checked my pumpkin and I found that one had open pollinated about 14 feet out on the main vine. I was going to pollinate it ,but it opened today and I didn't think it would be open for a couple of days. I don't know how many lobes it was yet. I also fertilized with 8 gallons of miracle grow today and sprayed sevin ob thursday to keep the bugs down. I also have three pumpkins set as of today. Next weekend will be culling time LOL. Number 1 is at 12 inches in circumference on day 3, this is the fastest growing pumpkin I've had. I hope it continues. Number two is about golf ball sized at day 1 and number three is probably around ping pong ball sized at day 0. I placed some card board under 1 and broke some tap roots and tendrils off with my finger. I hope the pumpkin has enough room to grow. I really hope I get a new pb this year. Tuesday, July 15 View Page My pumpkin is growing great, knock on wood, it is now at 22 inches and circumference on day 6. The other pumpkins are all around golf ball size, this one is clearly dominating. I am a little concerned about its vine position. It is very close to the main vine. I'm hoping that it doesn't break it self loose when it gets big. I'm really hoping that I can have my pumpkin grow to its full potential. I also erected a small shade structure over my pumpkin today. It is only temporary until I can build something bigger in a couple of days. I'm really excited about this pumpkin so far. I hope it continues to grow quickly, so I can beat my personal best and hopefully make my goal of 300+ pounds this year. Friday, July 18 View Page Today my pumpkin is growing GREAT! The 10 day bench mark has arrived! It is at 32 in circumference, 26 side to side and 28 long as of 11:00 this morning. The OTT is about 86 inches (about 17 pounds estimated weight). It also gained around 5 pounds since yesterday. It usually gains an inch in circumference during the day, So hopefully it will be bigger when I measure again later. Hopefully it keeps up the growth rate and doesn't explode. Sunday, July 20 View Page My pumpkin is growing great so far. At day 11 it is 41 inches in circumferance, 31 inches long and 32 inches wide, total OTT is 104 inches ( about 30 pounds). It has averaged 6 pounds a day over the last two days. I hope it keeps up the good pace. I will fertilize and spray for bugs tomorrow and cut off all remaining pumpkins. I will also erect a larger shade structure because the pumpkin is already out growing the patio chair I placed over the top of it. I hope I can manage to keep stem stress at bay until the pumpkin gets to atleast 300 pounds. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Monday, July 21 View Page My pumpkin is starting to pick up some speed LOL. Today it gained about 10 pounds since yesterday. I can't beleive how fast it is growing. It is already almost to the top of the chair I have shading it. So I will probably build a bigger shade structure tomorrow. I hope it doesn't split. The day 12 measurements are: 45 inches in circumferance, 37 side to side, and 33 long (115 OTT). The estimated weight is around 40 pounds! It hasn't been quite 24 hours yet since I last measured, so hopefully it grows some today and I may get my first ever 10+ pound daily weight gain! Hopefully it is able to keep growing, so I can atleast beat the state record this year. Tuesday, August 5 View Page My pumpkin is still growing pretty well, knock on wood. It is at about 90 inches in circumferance, 62 side to side , and about 54 inches long. Total OTT is 206 at day 27 (about 200 pounds). The measurements are a little weird because the blossom end is starting to sink a little, so this makes the length a little shorter. I'll try to post a picture of it soon. As long as the pumpkin grows and weighs heavy I don't really care how it looks. My shade structure is also doing a pretty good job keeping the pumpkin cool. The pumpkin does get a little sun in the morning and evening, but it still seems to be keeping cool, so I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I am a little concerned about stem stress because the pumpkin is sitting on top of the main vine now and I can't move it anymore because it out weighs me by a good 70 pounds now LOL. I tried to move it a little, but it was like trying to lift a boulder. So I'll just leave it alone and see how it grows. I hope it can gain at least 100 more pounds this season so I can get to my 300+ pound goal. It would be great if I can get a 400 or 500 pounder, but I don't know what's going to happen with the stem. Hopefully it holds up for at least two more weeks so I can be pretty certain that I've reached my goal of 300 pounds. I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. Saturday, August 9 View Page My pumpkin has slowed down a bit because of the cooler weather lately, but it has started to fill out around the blossom end. I'm glad because I've been worried about a split forming. Now I'm hoping that the pumpkin will pick up it's pace again so I can meet my 300 pound goal. I think my measurements were off last time because the circumferance today was 92, but the OTT was 214 (around 220 pounds). Yesterday the cicumferance was 91 and OTT was 211, only a 5 pound gain, but I think I might have measured wrong last time I updated. I'll keep checking more accuratley in the coming days, hopefully I start seeing bigger gains soon. I'll try fertilizing a little extra tomorrow and spraying for bugs and see if that helps. I also think that my pumpkin may weigh a little more than it's estimated weight of 220 because the shoulders are broad and the pumpkin appears pretty solid. I guess I'll find out how solid it is when I weigh it. Monday, August 11 View Page Today my pumpkin is about 93 inches in circumferance, according to the Stelpflug chart that's around 225 pounds. It's been averaging 6 pounds a day over the past two days. Hopefully the fertilizer that I put down yesterday helped. I only put about 12 gallons down because with the cool weather I don't want a surge of growth to cause my pumpkin to split. I'm so close to my 300 pound goal. It's getting more and more exciting everyday. All I need to do now is spray for bugs, keep the pumpkin dry, fix the shade structure, and hope for warmer weather. I hope my pumpkin can hold up for about 2 more months until Holloween. Thursday, August 14 View Page Today my pumpkin is around 96 inches in circumferance ( about 250 pounds). The fertilizer and rain helped spark some growth. I do have some problems with powdery mildew and bugs eating my pumpkin, so I will spray and hopefully be able to have the plant hold up for at least another month. Only 50 more pounds until I reach my 300 pound goal! I can't wait! The pumpkin is already a new Personal best for me, but I'm hoping I can reach my goal. Thursday, August 21 View Page My pumpkin has slowed down a lot becuase of the cooler days but it continues to ripen. At day 43 it is starting to get some good ribs and a little cantelouping around the shoulders. I'll measure tomorrow, but I'm guessing it's only around 260 today. I hope I can keep the pumpkin on the vine for at least a few more weeks so it has time to ripen and so I can also have it ready for Holoween. I'm also glad that it is starting to fill out because it might weigh a little heavy. I hope it weighs 15 to 20 percent heavy, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. The main vine has two new sets on it. One was open pollinated last week and the other one was a self pollinated three segment. I'll just let them grow and see what they do. I've never seen a three segmented flower before I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of it. I also sprayed sevin on Monday now the bugs are gone and I don't have to worry as much LOL. I guess I'll just fertilize the plant somemore and see if the pumpkin will grow again.