Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 33 Entries. Tuesday, January 31 View Page We have a task ahead of us to beat last year's pumpkins. Jacob grew his second best, 839.5# and won the Prettiest Pumpkin award at Anamosa. I had a personal best of 919.5#. We plan to expand from 6 to 8 plants next year. We got a better soil test and know what nutrient we are lacking. We got a lot of fall preparation done before the winter freeze. We seem to have our past disease problem whipped, but we need to do better on the bugs and weeds. We have a great seed lineup for 2012, for both big and bright orange. Hopefully we can keep on improving. Tuesday, February 14 View Page The 2012 season will be getting off to a rocky start for me. I have a torn muscle/tendon in my hip that will require surgery to correct. It means 8 weeks in a brace with no work in the patch. Thankfully Jacob will be able to get things started for us this year. I still have until the middle of March to do what I can (spread fertilizer, fix electric fence) and will at least be able to get the plants started. Since the tiller is giving us problems and Jacob does't like to run it anyway, tillage will be limited to use of a fork around the planting sites to start. Roundup and hoe to keep weeds under control. Some of our patch will just get a cover crop of Dwarf Essex Rape to keep the weeds down and give the ground a rest. At least I found a doctor who is skilled in this surgery and can get me scheduled in a reasonable time. Tuesday, February 21 View Page A little good news from the doctor. They are moving my hip surgery up a week, so I will be in the patch a week sooner than expected. I should be out of the leg brace by the first week of May, but I'm sure it will take me several weeks to get back into shape after that. Jacob was home from school over the weekend and we set out our plans for the next season. We each will have 4 plants. but no long gourds this year. The big jack-o-lantern patch will go to a cover crop for a year. We will have some giant field pumpkins for the state fair or maybe a watermelon for Anamosa Pumpkinfest. As long as I get a new backpack sprayer, Jacob will be able to to the early chores that I won't be able to handle. Thursday, February 23 View Page I got more good news from the doctor yesterday. He is only going to keep me in the leg brace for 6 weeks instead of 8. That means I will get into the patch 2 weeks earlier, and Jacob will get a break from all the chores earlier too. I just have to be very careful that I don't re-rupture the tendon he is going to repair. Friday, March 9 View Page I frost seeded the clover patches for deer food to keep them out of the pumpkins. I also got the potash and a little nitrogen applied. Now all I have to do is pound in a couple fence posts if the frost is out of the ground and string a couple electric wires. Then it will be ready for Jacob to take over fow a while. My hip surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday and I am anxious to get it done. Saturday, March 31 View Page Well, I made it through the hip surgery OK, got tghe staples removed last Thursday. All 26 of them. I have been missing out on some great weather being cooped up in the house. And the home computer is down, (my great wife Lu Ann brought me into the Anamosa Library for computer access). I hope to be out of the leg brace by April 25 but will still have several weeks of physical therapy after that. But it looks like the pumpkin patch should get planted on schedule and Jacob and I are hoping for a great season. Wednesday, April 11 View Page It has been a rough spring, especially for my wife. Her parents both had pneumonia, and her Dad passed away just a week ago. But we hope things are starting to turn around. Her brother became a grandpa for the first time on Monday. Spring is back to normal, as we had frost 2 days in a row. But we are hoping for a great season this year. Friday, April 20 View Page My hip is healing and I hope to be out of the leg brace and walker next week. I started some watermelon and field pumpkins 2 days ago, along with some long gourds. The gourd seeds are 3 years old, so I started several in hopes of gettng one or two to grow. Forecast is for frost the next two mornings, but I hope that will be the last for this season. Thursday, April 26 View Page I'm out of the leg brace and walker, just using a cane for the next monty. I'm cleared for office work for a month then back to normal. We had 100% germination success so far, even with the 3 year old long gourds. I'm holding off on starting the the AG's until tomorrow. We have a couple days of cold weather, highs in the 40's, in the forecast for the weekend. Hopefully that will be the end of the cold and and it will be game on! Friday, May 4 View Page Jacob got home from his last day of classes at Ellsworth Community College just in time to help me get our plants set out into the garden. The garden looks tough, with no spring work and weeds everywhere. But we had prepared our planting sites last fall and the soil there was in good condition. We have about the best looking seedlings ever, as my germination chamber experiment worked perfectly. I used a 26 watt CFL instead of the 15 watt incandescent bulb. With the white inside surface of the cooler, it had just the right temperature and light to produce vigorous plants that aren't a bit leggy. We were fortunate to miss the heavy rains and hail that hit just to our south last night and this morning. Next step is for Jacob to cover the plants with a bucket and spray glyphosate. Then we add more bagged manure, some N and K and some compost and till in with the fork ahead of vine growth. Friday, May 4 View Page Correction: Jacob's 2011 pumpkin was 839.5. My fingers were working faster than my brain. Monday, May 7 View Page The mild winter and early spring resulted in an early invasion of cucumber beetles, both the striped and spotted varieties. By the time I found them they had killed my 1451 Scherber and were just getting started on Jacob's. I picked off what I could and hit the rest with Eight dust and more garlic. It looks like it will be a long season of battling bugs. I replaced the 1451 with an 1165.5 Marsh, but it isn't looking too great. Just in case we have more losses we started 3 more for backups. They are great orange pumpkins so if they aren't needed for competition they will be used for growing multiple large orange decorations. Tuesday, May 15 View Page Jacob's 1451 Scherber was looking very sick after the cuke beetle attack, and the replacement for my lost 1451 was also lookin tough. So we set out backups beside them to see what will do the best. Jacob put out another of his 866.5's and I set out another of my 919.5's. We are getting a good weed kill from the glyphosate, and soon I will be healed up enough to run the tiller for the first time, if I can get it started. Until then Jacob will get the chore of mowing off the dead weeds and spreading out some compost and bagged manure to be tilled into the soil. We set out a few more watermelons and field pumpkins, but we could use a good rain. Tuesday, May 22 View Page We need rain. The areas in the patch that haven't been tilled are as hard as concrete. I haven't seen it this dry since 1988. I lost one AG to a rabbit, just a day after I gave my last backup plant to a friend. so I will dedicate that spot to growing some field pumpkins. Our plants are growing slowly, and are getting watered daily. We are starting to mulch with grass clippings to save any rain we might get. Thursday, May 24 View Page After reading my last post, a fellow grower called to offer me a backup for the Ag that I lost. Thanks Scott! Big pumpkin growers are a real good group. But with the extreme dry spell and heat wave,and a rapidly deteriorating knee, I decided that I had enough giants to try ot care for. And I had already started prepping that spot for a serious try at field pumpkins. Today I am Thursday, May 24 View Page I ddi't get to finish last post: I'm at surgical waiting room. My daughter is having minor back surgery for an injury and I got called back to see her before they take her in to the OR. Anyway, we have long gourds going this year and so far they are looking OK. I hope we can avoid the fungus problems that gave us problems in previous years. We also have some watermelons going, along with the tomatoes, peppers and green beans we always grow. Rain is in forecast for this evening and I sure hope we get a good soaker. Thursday, May 31 View Page Bad news and good news in our patch yesterday. 3 straight days of high winds broke off Jacob's 839.5, so that one won't get a test this year. But his 1451 Scherber that we had all but given up on due to beetle attacks started growing again. So we dug it up and replaced the broken plant. He had a backup 866.5 growing close to the 1451 that is looking great. Our competition field pumpkins for Anamosa Pumpkinfest are germinating, and we will each have 3. The long gourds are doing well for a change as are a couple of our watermelons. Some rabbits are living on borrowed time. I replaced 8 tomatoes that they ate off and each one was eaten off again. If the repellants don't work, we may have to take more serious steps to eliminate the problem. And we are finally getting RAIN. the first decent rain of May on the last day of the month!! Today is setting a record, the first time ever that the last day of May is the coldest day of the month. Thursday, June 7 View Page Gave the plants a shot of Merit and watered it in last evening. The plants seem to be growing very slowly. It must the the lack of rain. They don't seem to grow nealy as fast on well water. I have seen only 1 cucumber beetle in the past 2 days, but I did see a few that might have been adult vine borers. The plants are also getting dusted with Eight for a contact insecticide too. Our tiller is dead: out of time, the recoil starter broke and the engine is from a company that went bankrupt so no repair parts are available. Looks like we need to buy an new engine for this fall or next spring. Wednesday, June 13 View Page Jacob and I each have 2 plants that are growing a little faster than last year, which is encouraging with the dry conditions. Our other 3 plants are a little bit behind. I sprayed the patch with glyphosate last evening with calm winds, and today Jacob will be mowing grass and mulching the patch with the clippings to try to save as much moisture as possible. So far no return of the cucumber beetles. I need to get some daconil sprayed on the field pumpkins, as a couple are already showing signs of powdery mildew. We culled the long gourds and now have 3 strong plants growing. Thursday, June 28 View Page We got a nice 1.5" rain Sunday morning, the first decent rain in about a month. We missed a pollination on the 1351 Trumm due to the rain, but it was close to the stump and still early. Jacob pollinated on of his 866.5's with a 1351 on Tuesday. I missed one on my Witter 1725X1725 cross on Wednesday. The previous night it looked to be 2 days from opening, but the heat accellerated the growth. Temps now are in the mid 90's with heat index well over 100. We were teased by some thunder early this morning but no rain came from it. Cucumber beetles and squash bugs make periodic appearances and are greeted with bifenthrin. If we get some rain, we should still be able to salvage a decent season. One small problem with our field pumpkins: the first one to fruit produced yellow summer squash. I think the grower I got the seeds from may have also grown squash and got some cross pollination. The fruiting plant is bushy like summer squash but other plants are running vines. I hope we get some decent pumpkins from them. Friday, June 29 View Page We got a nice shower this morning, with chances for rain the next 2 days. After that it looks like more mid to upper 90's and dry. We have a black garbage can in the patch, filled with water, and we add fertilizers and growth stimulants so the go into the roots with warm water. No real hot shots of fertilizers, just real low rates to keep things growing nicely. We have to freeze water bottles so we can keep the pollinations cool. Looks like 2 will be ready Saturday morning. Friday, July 6 View Page 100 degrees today, pumpkins are aborting. Some don't even bloom. I have been using ice packs with small foam coolers on new polinations. If it doesn't cool off soon it will be a poor season. Monday, July 9 View Page The watermelons and long gourds seem to like the heat. They are doing better than we have seen in many years. The AG's don't like it. Several plants get droopy in the afternoon, even with Jacob watering them twice a day. Lots of new leaves are getting burned on the edges, and some female blossoms die without even opening. We have been pollinating and placing an ice pack and covering with a foam cooler. We will know in a few days if they take. I'm going to have to call all of our pollinations "open" this year. It has been too hot in the evening to go out and bag the new flowers. It is so warm in the morning that the bees are already active at first light. We have a plague of bees this year, and every flower that is starting to open just a little will have one or more bees in it. At least this week is going to be in the mid 80's instead of upper 90's to low 100's. Wednesday, July 11 View Page Nothing to take a photo of yet. Pumpkins are all aborting. My 2 best plants lost the main tips to the heat. 2 of Jacob's plants showing the first signs of the disease that wiped us out a few years ago. Everything has beeen treated for it so we just wait and see. Nothing to pollinate tomorrow, not even on secondaries. Forecast for next 7 days is low to mid 90's and no rain. Field pumpkins are growing yellow squash, big gourds and white, lumpy pear shaped things. Farmers around here really need rain. Corn is curling up and the pastures are all dormant and grazed down to the soil. This is worst hot dry spell since 1988. Only good news from our patch is that the watermelons and long gourds look better than ever. They must like the heat. Sunday, July 15 View Page We had nice break in the weather, with a nice rain on Friday, sprinkles on Saturday, cooler temps and a break from the scorching sun. Today the oven is going back on. We MIGHT have one AG pollination that has started, if it doesn't abort in the heat. The plants are getting big so I am afraid of blowing up late pollinations. It looks like we arrested the disease problem on one of Jacob's 866's. We each have one good looking watermelon and one misshapen watermelon going now, and 2 long gourds have started growing. Hopefully we can salvage a little of this season if nothing else goes wrong. I have to work hard to get as many chores done as I can in the next week. On the 24th I have a minor surgery scheduled for my right hand, so I will be limited on what I can do for a few weeks after that. Wednesday, July 25 View Page The heat is intense, and we still don't have apumpkin going. We have lost 2 plants to the root rot disease, and are down to just 5 now. We still have time to get a decent pumpkin if we can ever get a pollination to take. The long gourds are doing great, with some already exceeding 5' long. Watermelons are still doing good. I had my hand surgery yesterday and tomorow I have the thrill of having a wisdon tooth pulled. This is definitely a year I will remember, but one I would rather forget. Friday, July 27 View Page We lost another stump to rot, down to just 4 somewhat healthy plants. Jacob might have one set on his 1351 Trumm. Watermelons doing good. Gourds at 55, 60 and 66". Long one got scuffed up against trellis support post in the wind 2 nights ago. Growing it on a slanted board as it set too close to the ground. Saturday, July 28 View Page Now we lost the stump on the 1351. I got a couple set on seconadries on mr 919 and a ground hog ate one. Just not a good year. Monday, August 6 View Page We got around 2" of rain Saturday, leaving us only about 10" short for the year. I am down to 1 AG and Jacob is down to 3 but one has no stump. We might have a couple of pumpkins finally set with about 8 weeks to grow. We might manage something small IF we can keep the rabbits and groundhogs out of the patch. We have a couple long gourds now over 6' long and a few watermelons going. We had to throw out 2 melons that developed black rot on the ends. We got a cover crop planted where we had to pull vines. Going with brassicas for their ability to help fight soil diseases. Wednesday, August 15 View Page Its time to pull my last AG plant. Not only did the groundhog eat off all of the vine tips and the last remaining basketball size pumpkin, but he tore up the center of the plant and dug a new den right in the patch. I hope he was home when I dropped the poison smoke bomb down his front door. Jacob has a couple basketball size pumpkins on plants that are getting chewed up. We put out fox urine to discourage the critters. We started getting some rain and decent temperatures, and the mildew and brown rust diseases are now hitting the long gourds. We have a few that will likely make personal bests, but not big enough to be competitive. We may have to give up on those, as the humid microclimate in our valley seems to be better at growing disease than gourds. The watermelons are still going OK. Our cover crops of rape, turnips and groundhog radishes are sprouting as are the weeds. I guess this just wasn't meant to be our year. Sunday, September 23 View Page We had a killing frost this morning, bringing an end to a miserable growing season. Jacob has one small pumpkin for the weighoff and it is a good candidate for the ugliest pumpkin award. He has one small watermelon and a few gourds over 6' long. My field pumpkins turned out to be large gourd hybrids. I have already started fall patch preparation and plan to go all out next year: I should have more time and money to spend on the patch and I hope and pray that no more health problems crop up. The weatherman could turn the thermostat down a few degrees next summer too. I'm going to help with the early shift of unloading and weighing pumpkins and I'm looking forward to seeing all my grower friends. Here' wishing everyone safe travel and heavy weights. Thursday, October 4 View Page Our seed lineup for the year. Jacob is growing his 866.5 from 2010 and his 389.5 from 2011, a 1351 Trumm and a 1451 Scherber. I am growing my 919.5 from 2011, a Witter-Benson 1725 Sweet X 1725 Harp cross, a Renninger 1725 Harp X 1725 Sweet cross and a 1451 Scherber. We have an 1100+ Marsh plant in reserve and are waiting for a 300 Schnicker to sprout. We planted some long gourds and watermelons, and some field pumpkins for the state fair. We plan to start some field pumpkins for Anamosa a little later so they don't mature too fast. Sunday, October 7 View Page The weighoff is in the books and Jacob beat me again. He took in his tiny 234# pumpkin and finished in 20th place (dead last) Shows what a terrible growing season we has in Iowa. We only had half the normal number of entries, as a lot of growers didn't get anything. Jacob took 2nd in the Jones County division for the 2nd year in a row; last year he had 839.5. He even got the first place Jones County long gourd plaque for his 78.25",even though he was out of the overall money. Jessica won a prize in the cooking contest. All I had was one gourd and I didn;t bring it. Hopefully next year will be better.