Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 97 Entries. Wednesday, February 1 View Page The competition plants I have going this year are: 835 Tanner 2004 (900 Sandvik 03 x 963 Stucker 02) 1225 Jutras 2003 (1016 Daletas 01 x 845 Bobier) 896.5 Calai 2000 (846 Calai 99 x 801.5 Stelts 97) 670 Daigle 03 (810 Dill 99 x 1230 Daletas 01) 1125 Frantz 2004 (869.5 Calai 00 x 1225 Jutras 03) And I have one non-competition plant out in the fruit trees: 851 Companion 2004 (1016 Daletas 01 x 810 Dill 99) It was a back up that I couldn’t throw away. this post was pre-dated. Monday, April 24 View Page Started 7 seeds this week. ... pictured ... 1225 Jutras 2003 _(1016 Daletas 2001 x 845 Bobier 2000) ... 1125 Frantz 2004 _(869.5 Calai 2000 x 1225 Jutras 2003) ... 932.5 Tanner 2005 _(1225 Jutras 2003 x self) ... 869.5 Calai 2000 _(846 Calai 1999 x 801.5 Stelts 1997) ... 835 Tanner 2004 _(900 Sandvik 2003 x 963 Stucker 2002) ... 670 Daigle 2003 _(810 Dill 1999 x 1230 Daletas 2001) ... not pictured ... 520 Tanner 2000 _(471 Hester 1999 self) Wednesday, May 3 View Page Finally got the hoops houses up. Each on is about 7x7 ft. the four on the right are in two back to back groups. The plants will go out in the next couple of days. Wednesday, May 3 View Page Seedlings from right to left: 869.5 Calai 00 (846 Calai 99 x 801 Stelts 97) with 3 cots... ... 835 Tanner 04 (900 Sandvik 03 x 963 Stucker 02) looks good ... 932.5 Tanner 05 (1225 Jutras 03 x self) with on cot... ... 1225 Jutras 03 (1016 Daletas 01 x 845 Bobier 00) Wednesday, May 3 View Page 2 more seedlings: 670 Daigle 03 (810 Dill 99 x 1230 Daletas 01) looking great so far... ... 1125 Frantz 04 (869.5 Calai x 1225 Jutras 03)... ... I also have a 851 Companion 04 (1016 Daletas 01 x 810 Dill 99) started but no pic of it. Wednesday, May 3 View Page the 932.5 Tanner seed tore itself in half when in germinated. one cot came up an it has a true leaf growing on it. the other cot stayed in the ground, never grew up, but grew roots. Hopefully the "good" half has a good root system on it. Wednesday, May 3 View Page another picture of the "bad" half. Friday, May 5 View Page The 5 competition plants went out into their hoop houses in the patch today. they are the: 1225 Jutras 2003, 1125 Frantz 2004, 869.5 Calai 2000, 835 Tanner 2004, and 670 Daigle 1999. I have two seedlings, the 932.5 Tanner and 851 Companion still inside for one last non-competition spot. Saturday, May 20 View Page The weather here has been 10-20 degrees above normal the last two weeks with highs in the 80's up to the low 90's. The plants have reponded well with good growth. This is my 835 Tanner 2004 plant. Saturday, May 20 View Page Next in line in the patch is the 1225 Jutras 2003 plant. Saturday, May 20 View Page The 869.5 Calai 2000 plant. Saturday, May 20 View Page Then the 670 Daigle 2003 plant. This one is gowing the wrong direction. it will take a little work to turn it around. Saturday, May 20 View Page 1125 Frantz 2004 plant. Saturday, May 20 View Page finally ... the 851 Companion 2004 non-competition plant, out between the fruit trees. There is no hoop house over this plant. I'm hoping to get 3-4 or more dark orange nice shaped 200-300 lb fruit off this plant. Saturday, May 20 View Page my 835 plants here is showing signs of double vining at this node. but the next node looks good so hopefully it will not be ok. Saturday, May 20 View Page This is what one of my hoop houses looks like. Not very fancy but it works for me. It is about 7 ft x 7ft. It is made of three 10 ft pvc pipes going into 2 ft re-bar. then a 12 ft x 10 ft section of plastic covers the top. Saturday, May 20 View Page 1/2 inch binder clips hold the plastic to the pvc pipe. Saturday, May 20 View Page I use a double sized hoop house where I have back to back plants. The middle section is a separate piece of plastic so I and open both ends and the middle for venting and access. Saturday, May 20 View Page Here is the entire patch just before I closed up all the hoops house for the night. Each plant has approximately 20 milk jugs full of water around it in a ring to help keep them warm at night. Sunday, May 28 View Page Sunday- 1:30 pm, 42°F outside, with Hail ! High for the day was around 50°F. Well after 2+ weeks of dry, above average temps the high pressure system moved east ... so we got a weekend of cold and wet weather. The hoop houses stayed closed all day Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday. Thursday, June 1 View Page 835 Tanner 2004 plant. I took down all of the hoop houses since most of the plants have filled them and the temperatures are warming up. Thursday, June 1 View Page 1225 Jutras plant. I guess I should clean up BEFORE I take the pictures not after... makes for a better looking patch. Thursday, June 1 View Page 869.5 Calai 2000 plant. Not as big as some of the other plants but still looks good to me. Thursday, June 1 View Page 670 Daigle 2003 plant. Thursday, June 1 View Page 1225 Frantz 2004 plant. secondaries seem to be slower in arriving than on the other plants. I have seen this in years past so I'm not worried about it. Thursday, June 1 View Page 851 Companion 2004 plant. Started later than the other plants. It got a little hail damage on Sunday. Thursday, June 1 View Page Here is the whole patch. Tuesday, June 13 View Page Pictured is the 1225 Frantz plant which grew 8.5 inches from monday 6 pm to tuesday 6 pm. High Tuesday was 89°F the low Monday night was 58°F. I measured all of the main vines for 24 hour growth. The range was 5.75 to 8.5 inches. The average was 6.5 inches. It was a little difficult to measure since the end of the vines are up in the air. Saturday, June 17 View Page DANG !!! I hate it when this happens! espeically when it was my fault! I was re-adjusting the main on my 869.5 Calai plant and snap! ouch that's a painful sound. it is not all the way through but I'm going to cut it off anyway. I had made the same adjustment on 2 of the other plants before I got to the 869 plant. I stopped there. Monday, June 19 View Page For some reason all of the vines on all of my plants are reaching for the sky- as this picture shows. I've never seen this before. strange ! I know I know I need to support them. lets see - 5 plants - 13 vines per plant minus one broken main... that 64 vines... at 4 stakes per vine...that's only 256 stakes. :) Tuesday, June 27 View Page This is near the tip of one of the two "new" mains on the 869 Calai plant. It is extra thick & stocky. Also the leaf nodes are close togther and the leaves get very large quickly. I figure it is because all the vines on this plant have been terminated except two. Tuesday, June 27 View Page This is a more normal vine tip on the 1225 Jutras 03 plant. Wednesday, June 28 View Page This male will open tomorrow. Thursday, June 29 View Page 9 males from the 869.5 Calai plant are ready to do some pollinating. Thursday, June 29 View Page A long stemed female on the 835 Tanner 04 plant that was pollinated a day or two ago. Wednesday, July 5 View Page a 835 Tanner 04 female that was pollinated on 3 July with 2 males from the 869 Calai plant. Wednesday, July 5 View Page 670 Daigle 03 female pollinated on 3 July with 3x 869 Calai 2000 males. (yea I know I need to weed!) Wednesday, July 5 View Page 1225 Frantz 04 female was pollinated yesterday with the 670 Daigle 03. I'm concerned some about little crack in the main there at the node. Wednesday, July 5 View Page This a female on the 851 Companion 04 plant that opened today but I didn't get it covered last night. os if it takes it's definately a x open! The picture was taken just after Noon. This is what the High elevation, HOT and Dry Utah sun does to flowers. Wednesday, July 5 View Page Sun damaged tips on the end of a secondary vine on the 851 Companion 04 plant. Wednesday, July 5 View Page A closer look at a couple of the sun damaged leaves. Wednesday, July 5 View Page The disease that attacks my plant has showed up early this year. Here is an older leaf that is in early stages that is affected. Wednesday, July 5 View Page Here is the under side of the same leaf. Wednesday, July 5 View Page Again the same leaf underside only closer up. Wednesday, July 5 View Page Another area on the same leaf. (Underside) Wednesday, July 5 View Page And a close up of the top side of the same leaf. Wednesday, July 5 View Page I shook the leaf on a white piece of paper. Here is a close up (as close as I could get) of the little bug that came off leaf. It was the only thing that moved on the paper. The critter is at the 12 o'clock position near the top of the circle. I circled him with a pen and then took the picture. So the line is the width of a fine ball tip pen. Friday, July 7 View Page The diagnosis on the leaves is spider mites. thanks to all who emailed me with help. especially Tremor. Saturday, July 15 View Page Did some culling over the weekend. These are from the 1125 Frantz, 670 Daigle and my 835 Tanner plants. All the plants are throwing nice color fruit except my 835 Tanner plant. I took one and stuck it next to a vine in my neighbors field pumpkin plant. Saturday, July 15 View Page Fruit on my 835 Tanner plant... which to choose? Choosing which fruit to keep is the 2nd hardest choice I make each year (after which seeds to plant). Saturday, July 15 View Page Two fruit right next to each other on the 670 Daigle plant. They are essentially twins. They were pollinated on the same day and are the exact same size and shape. I culled the one on the left shortly after I took this picture. The deciding factor was the one on right has a little easier access to it. (no stepping over the main vine) Tuesday, July 18 View Page HOT here in Utah. We've been over 100°F for the last 5 days in a row. ( yea I know even though it is 103°F ... it only feels like 99°F ) Saturday, July 29 View Page The weather has been brutal here the last 2-3 weeks. High temperatures have been near or above 100°F. All the July pollinations have aborted. Good thing I had some June sets that I can go with. Saturday, July 29 View Page The keeper on the 835 Tanner 2004. It was pollinated June 26th. It tapes to just over 300 lbs. Saturday, July 29 View Page 1225 Jutras 2003 keeper pumpkin. This has been the only pumpkin on this plant for just over a week. It was pollinated on June 24, earlier than I would have liked, but what could I do? anyway it's doing well, estimated weight is over 400 lbs. Saturday, July 29 View Page 670 Daigle 2003 keeper pumpkin. Pollinated June 26th. It looks like it's going to be a nice orange fruit! :) it tapes to over 300 lbs. Saturday, July 29 View Page The 1125 Frantz 2004 keeper fruit. To be honest I didn't want to keep this one because it has a scar on the top of it. But all of the other fruit aborted. It tapes to over 300 lb also. Saturday, July 29 View Page Here is a close up of the scar. A Magpie pecked it when it was very small. The scar is 3 inches long x 2 inches wide and is in a rib crease. :( I wonder how big it will be if the fruit reaches 900 lbs.? Saturday, August 12 View Page I was busy this weekend with the UGPG patch tour. We visited 6 patches. Everyone had a great time. I posted some pictures in the photo gallery. This is the only picture that I took this weekend so here it is the whole patch. I have a couple of fruit in the 500 range, the 835 Tanner (far left) and 1125 Frantz (far right- way over there) One pushing 600, (670 Daigle 2nd from the right) and one pushing 700 (1225 Jutras 2nd from the left) The one in the middle front by the grass is a small fruit but I want to keep it because it is a 869.5 Calai x 1370 Rose. There is another 869.5 fruit (x 670) back by the fence that you can't see. Saturday, August 19 View Page 835 Tanner 04 - tapes to around 600 lbs. - starting to orange up nicely after starting out white. Saturday, August 19 View Page 1225 Jutras 03 - Largest in the patch (2nd year in a row) - but it is as day 56 and has slowed down a lot :( - tapes to around 800 lbs. Saturday, August 19 View Page 670 Daigle 03 - This is one good looking pumpkin ! nice round and orange. tapes to near 700 lbs... BUT .... Saturday, August 19 View Page ... But the plant suffered major leave damage when I sprayed 4 weekes ago. Saturday, August 19 View Page My 835 plant suffered the worst damage from the spraying. The 1225 Jutras plant had minor damage. And my 869 Calai, 1125 Frantz and 851 Companion plants were unaffected. Strange but true. Saturday, August 19 View Page 1125 Frantz 04 - will end up with a nice color to it. but it still has the scar on it. it is about 4 1/2 inches long and 1 inch deep now. - The pumpkin tapes to almost 650 lbs. Sunday, August 20 View Page The 851 Companion plant is taking over the fruit trees. It has several smaller pumpkins on it. Wednesday, September 6 View Page What's that at the end of the street? Wednesday, September 6 View Page Humm I guess it's a giant pumpkin. Wednesday, September 6 View Page Here is the pumpkin off my 835 Tanner 04 plant all loaded up and ready to take to the state fair. What a pain. It took 2 hours to get it all set up for display. Take it to this building to get it weighed then bring it back. Wait for someone to show up at the weighing building. Wait for someone to show up with a fork lift. Fill out paper work for entry. Guy with fork lift dropped it of outside the building- not inside. Wait for guy to show up again. He won't move it inside- says his boss told him not too dive inside any buildings. Try to get a hold of boss. Call another fork lift guy over. He moves it inside. Final weight was 718.5 lbs. To add insult to injury the next day the pumpkin is on the front page of the newspaper with some kid sitting in front of it ... not my kid... caption says the kids name ... doesn't mention who grew the pumpkin... but the picture implies that he grew it. Oh well oh shouldn't complain ... at least I'll get the First place ribbon and $50. Thursday, September 7 View Page A small pumpkin on the 869 Calai plant. I reduced the size of this plant after I broke the main on it. There are two smaller pumpkins on it. The look similar in shape. One is 869 x 1370 Rose (thanks Brent) and one is 869 x 670 Daigle. Thursday, September 7 View Page A nice pumpkin on the 851 Companion non-competition plant. Thursday, September 7 View Page 1125 Frantz pumpkin ... tapes to the mid 700's Thursday, September 7 View Page 1225 Jutras pumpkin. looking good .. but has slowed down a lot lately. tapes over 900 lbs. Thursday, September 7 View Page 670 Daigle plant's pumpkin. Besting looking pumpkin I have ever grown. Maybe one of the best looking pumpkins I have ever seen! ... It's HUGE too! Still growing well inspite of earlier leave damage. I'll let you know how big she is after the weigh off. Saturday, September 16 View Page Nothing like freezing temperatures and a little hail/snow to bring the pumpkin growth to a screeching halt ! Sunday, September 17 View Page Cold again last night and today. Some Frost damage on all the plants even though they were covered. The high yesterday was 49. it's not to much warmer today. yup that's new fresh snow in the mountains. Sunday, September 17 View Page Old leaves, hail and frost are not a good combination the plants. Sunday, October 1 View Page Well it's that time of year again, the leaves in the mountains have changed, the days are shorter, the plants look terrible, and all pumpkin growth has stopped. It must be weigh off time. The weigh off is this saturday. I'll post the weights sometime after that. the pumpkins are on the following, from front to back, 1225 Jutras plant, 869 Calai plant, 670 Daigle plant and the 1125 Frantz plant. Sunday, October 1 View Page Another shot of the patch. Monday, October 2 View Page Here is a picture of the 869.5 Calai (x 1370 Rose) pumpkin just cut from the vine. I sold it to a local Orthodontist. He is having a guess the weigh contest with it. I will be getting the seeds back from it in the middle of Nov. Monday, October 2 View Page Look at the root coming down from the stem node. About 6-8 inches of it is above ground in the air. I not so carefully pulled up as much of it as I could... it was just over 6 ft in lenght. Saturday, October 7 View Page 391 Tanner 2006 (851 Companion x open) Saturday, October 7 View Page 417 Tanner 2006 (869 Calai x 670 Daigle) Did someone say they were looking for orange? not pictured but it looks exactly the same only smaller is the est 318 Tanner 06 (869 Calai x 1370 Rose). Saturday, October 7 View Page 744 Tanner 2006 (1125 Frantz x 670 Daigle) Saturday, October 7 View Page 775.5 Tanner 06 (670 Daigle x 869 Calai) Saturday, October 7 View Page 963.5 Tanner 2006 (1225 Jutras x 869 Calai) a new personal best and good enough for 2nd place at the UGPG weigh off. Saturday, October 7 View Page Here is the 1104 Blair 2006 (1247 Handy x self) winner of the weigh off and new Utah State record. Congratulations Kenny! Saturday, October 7 View Page Here a picture of most of the pumpkins lined up at the weigh off. Saturday, October 21 View Page 744 Tanner 06 (1125 Frantz x 670 Daigle) - set on it's stem in front of the house for Halloween ready to be carved Tuesday, October 24 View Page I finally got the face sketched out on it. Thursday, October 26 View Page Now it's all carved and lit up... ready for Halloween. Tuesday, October 31 View Page The begining of the end for the 718.5 Tanner pumpkin. Tuesday, October 31 View Page It was drop as part of a local radio stunt. Tuesday, October 31 View Page It's final demise. Time to collect the seeds now ... dang it's freezing cold. Tuesday, October 31 View Page Here are Mick and Allen the 2 DJ's on the air live. These guys are nuts! They were making up all sorts of stuff about me and pumpkin growers in general. They want to do the drop again next year... only not on Halloween just after sunset when its 30 degrees. Gee maybe that's why only a handful of people showed up.? Thursday, December 14 View Page Well fall patch prep didn't go as well as I would have liked it to go. I was able to add about 100 bags of leaves and some compost. but no manure... What I have is in two big piles ... but they are not heating up past 80-90°F. Looks like I will have to turn them and add more molasses and N to get them going. Saturday, December 30 View Page WOW that's one big bottle rocket!