Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 123 Entries. Sunday, April 5 View Page This winter has been very busy. I have spent my time evaluating and determining what I had done wrong in 2008. From all of my research, I have determined I just didn't have all of the knowledge I needed to make informed decisions when it came to my pumpkins. This year I chose to join the SNGPG to gain as much knowledge as I can. I have received many articles from friends, and have a couple of other references to look back on. Hopefully this year will be one to remember! Attached is the result of 2008. I present the 280 Rozenbaum! Sunday, April 5 View Page Building some cold frame this year. The wood came from my neighbor. It was a bunch of scraps left over from his deck that he had built. I ripped everything in half and built these frames. Still need some plastic sheeting, but it is still a little early for that. Sunday, April 5 View Page Shortly after I built my frame I put some plastic on to see how it would hold up to the spring weather we have around here. I have to come up with a new strategy. Sunday, April 5 View Page I had decided to garden more organically this year and stay away from synthetic fertilizers for they sterilize the soil. I have encorporated one of Mr. Steve Connolly tricks in delivering nutrients too his plants. I acquired two blue 55 gallon barrels attached a means to drain the barrel and started the tea in one of them today. The other will be used to collect rain water for my compost tea brewer. I am pretty excited as to how this season is developing so far. Sunday, April 5 View Page Here is a picture of the manure barrel set up and ready to go. I was at the dairy yesterday to pick up the secret ingredients. I made sure that the barrel was level before filling. My luck would be that I would not be able to get the stuff out because I didn't level the barrel. It will hopefully be ready come June. Thanks Steve. Sunday, April 5 View Page I also had my soil test completed back in February. I compared it with fellow growers up in New England, which was provided when I received my SNGPG video. I learned that I was a little low on my PH level and organic material. I was going to adjust the organic level by adding a leaf compost provided by the city for free, but they gave it away to commercial businesses so that the tax paying residence were left with nothing. I was a little angry to find out there was nothing left. They have since changed their policy, so we will see if there is anything for us next year. Sunday, April 5 View Page I have added about 100 pounds of Lime to raise my PH and I am adding a nice composted manure to the soil to increase the organic level. I have two more loads to bring in and then I can begin my tilling. Sunday, April 5 View Page Here is another picture of the patch from the other direction. I still have a lot of work to do before I am ready to put my seedlings into the ground by the first week of May. Sunday, April 5 View Page Some of my components that I am going to use through out the season. I realize I may not have enough, but it is a start. Sunday, April 5 View Page The last picture for today is of my compost brewer center. I built it with some of the spare deck wood from my neighbor’s deck. It will never fall apart and weighs about 80 pounds. It is virtually indestructible. I still have to set up in its final position and will hopefully finish this in the next couple of weeks. Busy Busy Busy. There is a lot of work to get done. Sunday, April 5 View Page Seed selection for 2009. This is my line up for 2009. Still not firm, but pretty close. Sunday, April 19 View Page New seeds arrived last week. I will use the 1250 Kline for sure next year. I thought the plant that I had was awesome, I just wasn't lucky enough to set a fruit. Just a novice mistake; thanks, Josh and good luck with your Bee Hive project! Sunday, April 19 View Page I intended to get a third load of manure for the patch on Friday, but the farmer was unable to load me and had to attend to some pressing farm duties. I had decided that it was time to break out the tiller and turn over the patch. Three hours later I finished with the initial turning. I took many, many breaks. Sunday, April 19 View Page Here is a second picture of the tiller cutting through the ground. Sunday, April 19 View Page The last load has arrived! Got three scoops from the Dairy Saturday morning, normally I only get two, but the farmer hooked me up after returning the last three weeks in a row. Thanks Farmer Hickman. I am planning to store his number for future pick ups. I live in the city and thought it was really cool to visit an actual working farm. There were cows everywhere! Sunday, April 19 View Page Old "B" dog inspecting the load before I begin the manual process of unloading and spreading of the product in the patch. The smells had here senses going wild. Sunday, April 19 View Page A look at the patch after the initial tilling. I feel that it is coming along just fine. I am starting to catch up on my weekly duties and almost ready to plant. Sunday, April 19 View Page Patch completed tilled, and amended. Now it is time to set the houses and prepare the germination chamber. Sunday, April 19 View Page Left over from the dairy farm, Going to save it for later in the season. I am going to try to turn it after a couple of weeks. Tuesday, April 21 View Page I constructed my seed germination chamber last night. I ran a preliminary test run to see if my heating pad would maintain 80 degrees since I have a hole in the top for the light bulb. Everything looks good and should be ready to go next weekend when the seeds go in. The lighting system will be on a timer since I am out of town quite often. The heating pad has an automatic shut off when the temperature reaches 80 degrees. Thursday, April 23 View Page Seeds have been started and are located in the germination chamber. Sunday, April 26 View Page Temperature is averaging around 92 degrees. For a while it was near 100 degrees. I went ahead and added some additional venting and the temperature is back down. I am now waiting for the seeds to pop through the soil surface. Can't wait!! Sunday, April 26 View Page Spring Patch prep is complete. Just need to finish covering the cold frames. We have had temps in the upper eighties I am not sure that the frames will be necessary other than for protection from spring rain storms. Will have to wait and see. The weather can change from one day to the next; so, I will have to wait and see. I have installed a taller wind protection system to hopefully help manage the wind a little better this year. Sunday, April 26 View Page Pic 2. Monday, May 4 View Page My primary line up was a bust. I am guessing I cooked the seeds with my heat mat. I have gone to my back up and ditched the heat mat. I am using the recommendation from Ken D. The back up group of seeds was planted Friday afternoon/evening. As of Sunday nothing was coming up, but I did some careful digging in the pot and was able to identify an active root structure on three of the seeds. So, I am hopeful. Attached is a picture of my back ups. I am not convinced that I am completely out of the woods until I see green! Wednesday, May 6 View Page Look, I have a seed coming up!! This seed was planted on Friday, May 1, 2009. It has been in a cooler for the last 6 days with a soil temperature range between 82 - 88 degrees. This is my 907 Van Hook... They still have a long way to got, but this is promising compared to last week. Wednesday, May 6 View Page and the 1288 Wallace... Sunday, May 17 View Page This has been a really slow start for me this year. I tried to follow the teachings of those who have done this much longer than I, but I guess I just did it wrong. I had some extreme difficulty getting my seeds to germinate. I think I have solved the problem and gained understanding as to how delacate of a process it really is. Here is the one and only surviver from the second batch of seeds. It is a 1288 Wallace. It looks really healthy and is ready to move out to the patch. Sunday, May 17 View Page Here are two other of my seeds. What are they, I have no idea because the pen I used to mark the stick with ran and the stick is now blank...Just my luck.. Sunday, May 17 View Page My next seedling... Sunday, May 17 View Page and my last unnamed seed. This set of seeds were placed in pots outside in desperation of trying to get something to germinate. Understand my average temperatures are in the 70's this time of year, and last week we were in the 80's. I am pleased with the results, but frustrated not knowing what I am growing. Sunday, May 17 View Page I have decided to try four more seeds to see if my germination outside was just a fluke or there is something to it. I reallize that weather and temperature has a lot to do with the success, but this upcoming week will start coold and end nice and warm. All-in-all, I think I should have some good choices of seedlings to choose from this year. Sunday, May 17 View Page Some of my dead seeds....May they rest in peace. Monday, May 25 View Page Worked on some weeding yesterday. I have a new tool to assist me in my task. This came from a recommendation from the SNGPG video. Let me tell you it works great! As long as you stay infront of the weeds they will easily come up without a stuggle. I have it mounted on a 7' adjustable to 15' handle. It is a great investment to the patch. Monday, May 25 View Page To go along with my new tool, I have my patch shoes. Again, an idea from the SNGPG video, but it works great, while in the patch. Outside the patch you have to have patience to get from point A to point B. The shoes were some old garden shoes; the plywood is 1/4 inch that I picked out of the scrap rack at Home Depot for $.56. Then I used Gorilla Glue to attach the two. Works Great! Monday, May 25 View Page Here is my 1288 Wallace. It is looking good and seems to like being in the patch. It has two primary leaves with a third growing and developing. Monday, May 25 View Page Some Rozenbaum seedlings are in the patch. They are two that were planted together. I will remove the weaker of the two in a few weeks. I want to see how they progress. Monday, May 25 View Page Here are the rest of the crew. I have one seedling with one Cot and a second seedling with three cots. They will all move to the patch this evening once cooler conditions arrive. Monday, May 25 View Page Created my first batch of compost tea and applied it to my plants and the soil. It is a pretty easy process, although, I have to go and get another large air stone because I broke one cleaning the brewer. I also applied some of the tea to the neighbor’s lawn to see if it will get it to grow. It will be interesting to see the results. I would have done it to mine, but their lawn is in really bad shape and I am hoping to see some results fairly quickly. Monday, May 25 View Page The manure tea is coming along just nicely. I can't wait to apply to the plants and see the result later in the year. Saturday, June 6 View Page Not really sure which plant this is, but when I put it into the ground it didn't look well. Since that time she has continually grew and thrives in its new home. Saturday, June 6 View Page My 1288 Wallace, it is my largest plant but the main has collapsed due to the wait falling into the vine stage. I am going to try something different next year. I am going place the plant at more of an angle to help it grow and relieve stress on the plant. Saturday, June 6 View Page 1195 Wallace...Making good progress. The white stuff is a bug spray, which you will see in later postings and other plants don't look well and I am not sure of the culprit. Saturday, June 6 View Page The 1195's neighbor. She is also doing really well. I think it is a wolfie plant. Saturday, June 6 View Page B - Dog trying to figure out what her daddy is doing...She really wants a treat! Saturday, June 6 View Page Susie Q running around the yard! Saturday, June 6 View Page Both the girls wondering what their daddy is doing with that shiny silver thing... Saturday, June 6 View Page 280 Rozenbaum 08...Growing beautifully... Saturday, June 6 View Page 150 Rozenbaum...a little smaller, but still growing well. Saturday, June 6 View Page My first Sunflower plant. I had a grower generously give me some seeds. I decided to try my hand at it. I put 10 in the ground and 8 have sprouted. It will be neat to watch them grow, especially if they get of 10 feet tall. Saturday, June 6 View Page Here is one of my ailing plants. I am not sure if the reason I am seeing deformed leaves is due to a bug or something environmental. This plants neighbor looks the same way. If anyone has any idea what could be causing this please feel free to share your thoughts with me. Saturday, June 6 View Page Here is the neighboring plant. Not as bad as the first plant, but still have quite a bit of deformity of the primary leaves. Saturday, June 6 View Page Here is the central control of my watering system. Last year I used a similar device, but only watered the stumps. Well that caused rot and never grew anything of real size. So, I decided to use a pair of oscillating sprinklers. I have them set for 15 minutes of watering each day. I am looking to get a rain gauge to monitor the amount of rain and only water when necessary. So far I am very happy with the performance of the device. Saturday, June 6 View Page OK, turn your head to the right and here are my sprinklers set up on step stools. I had these in the garage collecting dust and thought they would make a great platform for my sprinklers. I did use them last year, with great success. This year I decided to mount the sprinkler using zip ties verses using a brick to hold them in place. The zip ties work much better. Saturday, June 6 View Page Work Completed this weekend... 1. Weed patch 2. Sprayed for bugs. 3. prepared fertilizer concoction for plants. 4. Started a batch of compost tea. 5. Stirred manuer tea. 6. Rotated compost pile and added kitchen scraps. 7. Drink Beer! Sunday, June 14 View Page My largest Sunflower plant. I think it is really exciting to see how well they are growing. I have 8 of them and I can't wait to see how tall they get! Sunday, June 14 View Page Here is today's picture of my largest sunflower. All doing well. Sunday, June 14 View Page My 1288 Wallace, she is growing very nicely. I have a vine of 4.5 feet long. This is the plant that had the split in the main vine. It has sense healed and she has grown 3 feet in the last week. Plenty of new growth, even secondaries are developing. I have buried the main and starting to train the plant to grow in the desired direction. Sunday, June 14 View Page Two of my back up plants. The one on the right is my 1095 Wallace. She is starting to vine and is looking really good too. I can't wait to see what they look like next week. Sunday, June 14 View Page Here are my 150 Rozenbaum on the right and the 280 on the left. The 150 has jumped ahead of the 280. This has completely taken me by surprise. I am really happy as to how healthy the plants are looking. Sunday, June 14 View Page My Last pic for the week. This is a pic of one of my sickly looking plants. She has completely turned around. I am very happy with the result. The other next to it is much slower in its recovery, but is coming out of its shell too. Sunday, June 14 View Page List of weekly activities: 1. Weed the patch and remove the weeds. (sent them to the compost pile to break down) 2. Sprayed my weekly brew of compost tea. 3. Fed the plants a mixture of Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Molasses, Fish Seedweed and a little shot of miracle grow. 4. Burried the main on the 1288 Wallace. Sunday, June 21 View Page This is my unamed plant. It had a mate next to it, but was growing in circles. I was going to terminate one of them and chose the one that was gowing in one direction. Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is my row of Sunflowers. They are doing very well. I am just amazed as to how fast they have been growing. I think they are four weeks old. Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is my largest Sunflower. a little over 24 inches tall. Sunday, June 21 View Page The 150 Rozenbaum Growing very nicely. I am very happy with how this plant is performing. It started slow and continues to pick up speed. Sunday, June 21 View Page Aparently I picked the wrong one. Here is the 150 Rozenbaum. Sunday, June 21 View Page 1195 Wallace. Still small, but getting ready to get a move on. Sunday, June 21 View Page 1288 Wallace. This is my oldest and largest plant. It is very heat tolerant. I does not show any signs of wilt even at 98 degrees. I am really impressed. Sunday, June 21 View Page The 1288 Neighbor. Does not like the heat at all. Sunday, June 21 View Page My first small female on the 1288 about 9 feet out. will cull. A second is alreay forming. Sunday, June 21 View Page Second developing female on the 1288 still to early to detemine the distance may keep. All depends on the date. Sunday, June 21 View Page Patch activites. 1. Weeded sunflowers... 2. applied 5 gallon of fert per plant. a. 1/2 gallon manure tea. b. 1 cup molasses c. 1 cup blood meal d. 1 tablespoon kelpmeal. 3. Applied bug spray - Found a cucumber beetle on the 1288 on Friday 6/19/2009. 4. Buried vines on all plants. Mixture applied to ditch. a. added Mycro b. bone meal c. blood meal d. humic acid e. worm castings. Other Notes: Temps for the last 7 days have been 90 + degrees. Continued high temps are anticipated for the upcoming week. Weeding will have to take place next weekend. Sunday, June 28 View Page Open Pollination on the 1288 on 06/28/2009 at 12 feet. I did not get up early enough. Bees everywhere. I think the percentage of the pumpkin being pollinated with itself is very high. All but 1 of the male flowers open this morning were of the 1288 wallaces. Sunday, June 28 View Page The 1288 Wallace. Getting ready to grow out to the right side of the plant. I had a neghbor that I terminated yesterday. This is my largest and most aggressive plant. Of coarse, this plant is a week older than the rest. Sunday, June 28 View Page My 1195 Wallace. This plant has the largest leaves I have ever seen on any of my plants. I can't wait to set something on this one. Hopefully in a week or so. Sunday, June 28 View Page My 150 Rozenbaum. It looks a little rough. We had some weather yesterday that tore up some of the leaves. I think we should see some recovery in the next week. Stll a strong grower. My second largest plant. Sunday, June 28 View Page My no-name plant. This was the sickest plant I had. It really is behind, but growing everyday. So far this plant has surprised me, and I hope it continues to grow and gives me a nice sized fruit by the end of the season. Sunday, June 28 View Page My line of sunflowers. Still growing. It is great to watch these guys go! Sunday, June 28 View Page A leaf from my 1195 Wallace. This weeks activities: 1. Weed the patch. I came home this weekend to a weedy mess. I spent four hour weeding yesterday. My hands are very soar, but the patch looks great. 2. Added a fertilizer treatment to the patch. Spread 12 cups each of the following. > Blood Meal > Bone Meal > Humic Acid 3. Added fertilizer mixture to each plant: > 1/2 Gallon Manure Tea > 1 1/2 cups of Molasses > 8 ounces of Calcium 4. Discontinued watering system to allow patch to dry. Received over an 1/2 inch of rain yesterday afternoon. 5. This evening will be the application of liquid seven. Sunday, June 28 View Page Patch pic1 Sunday, June 28 View Page Patch Pic2 Sunday, June 28 View Page B-Dog! Sunday, June 28 View Page Picture of spicket assembly for my 55 gallon water barrels. Outside of barrel. Sunday, June 28 View Page Picture of spicket assembly for my 55 gallon water barrels. Inside of barrel. Sunday, July 12 View Page Here is a rabbit deterrent I had installed last Monday. It has seemed to work. My dad actually makes these and sells them. He does it for fun. He has many different types. He calls this a woodpecker, I call it a pterodactyl. They are fun. If you are interested in what else is available let me know. They run $20 to $30 dollars plus shipping and handling. Sunday, July 12 View Page New Patch pic. It has gone through some extreme growth in the last 10 days. Sunday, July 12 View Page Patch from the other side. Sunday, July 12 View Page 1st pumpkin to grow, it is on the 1288 Wallace. When I got back home this week, the pumpkin was just about to grow over the main. I ended up cutting the secondary root systems to relieve some of the stress. I have installed mill cloth. The pumpkin is in a great position now. I think I waited too long to install the mill clothe because it was really hard to lift the pumpkin and slide the clothe under it. Sunday, July 12 View Page 2nd Pumpkin on the 1288 Wallace. It was polinated around the 2nd of July. This was another open polination because I was on vacation. It is smaller but doing well. I like the long shape of pumpkin. Sunday, July 12 View Page 1st pollination on my 150 Rozenbaum. Nice and long, the pumpkin appears that it may develop deep ribs. It will be interesting to see how it will grow. I have a second that was pollinated on Friday July 10, 2009. Sunday, July 12 View Page 1st polination on my no-name plant. It was polinated yesterday July 11, 2009. Sunday, July 12 View Page My line of Sunflowers. Growing really well. Sunday, July 12 View Page My sunflowers with my youngest son. Sunday, July 12 View Page My tallest sunflower with my oldest son. Sunday, July 12 View Page My two boys together with my sunflowers. Sunday, July 12 View Page The shade structure my youngest and I built yesterday. It has performed really well. We had some really hard down pours today and it is still up. Great design! Sunday, July 12 View Page My wife with the sunflowers. The Sunflowers are over 6 feet tall now. Sunday, July 12 View Page Forward view of patch...Weekly activities. 1. Fertilize a. 1 gallon manure tea b. 1 cup fish and seaweed c. 2 tablespoons of miracle grow d. 2 cups molasses 3. Broadcast 12 cups of blood meal. 4. Broadcast 12 cups of bone meal. 5. Broadcast 12 cups of humic acid. 6. Trimmed dieing leaves from around stumps. 7. Sprayed actinate on plants. 8. Sprayed compost tea on patch. Made two batches by pouring two gallons of straight tea and adding one gallon of water to dilute. This made 8 gallons of tea. 9. added mill clothe to pumpkins. 10. Erected shade structure. 11. relieved pressure from main vine. This weekend I have been very busy trying to catch up on activities from that I had forgo from due to my vacation. I still need to spray the plants for bugs and wipe down the pumpkins. Might have to wait for the morning, more storms are approaching from the north. Tuesday, July 21 View Page Well here is my 1288 Wallace Pumpkin. It has made excellent progress over the past week. But, I have a concern. I am concerned that something may be going on with the plant. I had another pumpkin 2 feet further down the vine that had aborted this past weekend. I hope the plant is not getting sick. I made sure that she was getting plenty of nutrients, and water. Low bug counts, but continued my bug program. One factor is our weather. We have been running in the mid 90's for highs and upper 60's for lows. Then we had a passing cold front which moved everything 20 degrees cooler. The weather this week is suppose to return to more normal temps, but I am at a guarded state right now. Tuesday, July 21 View Page I just love this picture. It is of a couple leaves that are higher than all the rest because the vine had jumped a fence at that point. Tuesday, July 21 View Page My patch at an overview. Sunflowers are getting really big. I think they are pretty cool. I hope to see flowers in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of smaller pumpkins on my other plants, nothing bigger than a soft ball at the moment. I hope that all changes come this weekend. Tuesday, July 28 View Page Not much has change except my largest pumpkin is still moving along. as of Sunday I had an estimated weight of 230 lbs. She is making good progress with a daily average of 17.3 lbs. Tuesday, July 28 View Page Here is a front view! Tuesday, July 28 View Page One of my Sunflowers started to bloom this weekend. Patch activities: - Fertilize using Manure tea. - Applied 2lbs of Potash to provide nutrients for the plant to support the pumpkin grow. - WW3 with the squash Bugs. I find them, and crush them in my hand. I also applied NEEM oil and Sevin to help to move them along. - Applied fungicide to take care of the powdery mildew. - erected a second canopy over the pumpkin growing on the 150 Rozenbaum and installed the mil clothe. - pruned any unnecessary growth. Friday, August 7 View Page Pumpkin on Main on the 1095 Wallace. About 3 weeks old. Friday, August 7 View Page Pumpkin on Secondary on the 1095 Wallace. Also about 3 weeks old. Seems to growing a little more aggressive then the one on the main. However, the there seems to be some nasty leaf rot near the stem. I have treated it with a bleach and water solution. Friday, August 7 View Page Lil Peat on the 150 Rozenbaum. This one is weighing in at 215 pounds. The stem also has stem rot set in. I have put some bleach and water solution to hopefully stop the rot. I am not sure that I caught it in time. It seems that one of the bigest problems in growing these beast is stem rot and keeping the perfect environment for the stem to stay healthy. Friday, August 7 View Page Here is Big Daddy...He is at a whopping 341 lbs and is 40 days old. I am very happy with this pumpkin. This is officially my largest pumpkin to date. It has by passed my last years pumpkin. The growth has slowed to a crawl. I am hopeful she will grow for another 8 weeks. I won't break any records with this, but I have did break my personal best. Friday, August 7 View Page another pick of my pumpkin on the 1288 Wallace. Friday, August 7 View Page Closeup of the stem on the 1288 Pumpkin. Looks like there is a crack, I try to stay on top of any rot, but time will tell. Friday, August 7 View Page Here is another picture of the front of the pumpkin. Friday, August 7 View Page Stem and face from on one of my new pumpkins This growing on the main on the 1095 Wallace plant. Friday, August 7 View Page Stem on the pumpkin growing on the secondary. This has a little bit of rot from a leaf. Sprayed water and bleach solution. Friday, August 7 View Page OK, I went out to cull a pumpkin I saw growing on a side vine. When in the area I decided to track down the main from my 1288 and this is what I found. This not good. This gives me a great understanding as to why the pumpkins growth has slowed so dramatically. Friday, August 7 View Page I cut the vine back to the position where it was viable. and this is what I had found. Appears to be some sort of bug damage. Friday, August 7 View Page Here is a cross section. Friday, August 7 View Page I went ahead and terminated the main just pass the pumpkin. I know that the end will be coming soon, but I can say that the stump and the vine up to the pumpkin is in really good shape. I also can see continued growth at that end of the plant. Plus cutting the main has seemed to releive any tention on the pumpkin. I think next year when I set my keeper pumpkin I am going to terminate the main and grow out the secondaries for further support. Here is one of my Sunflowers. Friday, August 7 View Page Here is another that has been blooming a while. Friday, August 7 View Page The plant is just beautiful too from the last sunflower pic. The leaves are HUGE! Friday, August 7 View Page A group of smaller flowers that just started to get their bloom on! Tuesday, November 24 View Page Here is my personal best for 2009. Approximate weight of 350 lbs. The female plant is a 1288 Wallace. The polenation was open, but is was the only pumpkin flower blooming in my plant. It was a really white pumpkin with a white haze. Friday, November 27 View Page Here is the rest of my harvest for 2009. Combined weight is estimated at 600 + pounds. To bad it wasn't all in one pumpkin. I am hoping to reach that next year. Today the patch is dormant and waiting for some attention. Maybe today. Now that it get dark much earlier, I have to get started as early as I can.