Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 114 Entries. Monday, March 31 View Page Snow has finally disappeared in Western New York. More than 60 degrees today. Patch is soggy right now. Holding 2500 square feet of muck. Come on sun! Tuesday, April 1 View Page Practicing seed starting techniques now. Seeds soaking in cooler with seedling heating mat under solution of water, seaweed/fish and fungi. Temp 91 degrees. Water evaporated. Wife unhappy with strong scent of dead fish in basement. Water added, scent gone, wife appeased. Wednesday, April 2 View Page Announcing the first in the patch seed line-up for 2008....the 2007 Borton 133.5. Weighed on a bathroom scale, this orange beauty produced a plethora of seeds, one of which produced the plant seen here. Winner of the Borton 2007 AG pumpkin growing contest, it also produced a fine bottle of 2007 Grey Goose vodka ... Thanks again Dad Saturday, April 5 View Page Here is the frame for my indoor germinating/early growing greenhouse. 1 inch PVC pipe. Went to 4 hardware stores to find reducer from 1 inch to 1/2 inch for corners. Finally had to go from 1/2 " to 3/4 " and then 3/4" to 1". Temp outside now 47 F. Still need to construct 4 cloches. Ordered a bunch of stuff from Joel Holland yesterday. Monday, April 7 View Page Here are my future junior pumpkin growers standing in last year's patch. Grew 3 AGs in this flowerbed (about 450 square feet total) Nice day in WNY. My thermometer read 74 degrees. Got beneficial fungi in mail today. USPS put hole in box and spilled fungi, but it's OK, they put a "we're sorry we messed up" letter on the outside of the box. Patch still soupy. Will tilling ever start? Sunday, April 13 View Page 2 practice plants up in 72 hours. 12 hour soak in 10% H2O2 and 90% H2O solution after filing seeds. Then into coolor with seed mat. Starter mix in 4 inch peat pots. Temperature in cooler between 90 to 95 F. Will be using this method on the real seeds. Hope it works Sunday, April 13 View Page A picture of my pitiful compost pile. Started last fall and didn't get high enough temperatures to start composting process in full. Will add some more leaves in near future and hopefully will produce some good stuff by late spring or early summer Friday, April 18 View Page Finished tops and bottom ends of cloches on 4/13/08. Put bottoms together this week. Today will bring tops and bases together. Monday, April 21 View Page 2 of 4 cloches are pictured here. Need to get clear plastic for covering. Patch starting to dry up. May try tilling tomorrow. Researching family trees to decide which seeds make the final 4 this year. Wednesday, April 23 View Page Got some tilling done yesterday. Only areas that will be under cloches for now. Tilled in 50# alfalfa, some Grubex and some coffee grounds. Used Sears model POS rototiller. Will have to get new tiller for the fall. Body is aching. Will finalize 2008 lineup in next 1 to 2 days. Thursday, April 24 View Page My 2008 seed lineup: 1) 133.5 Borton 2007 - my PB pumpkin so far 2) 649 Spada 2007 (1420.5 LaRue x 1502 Wallace) Great orange pumpkin whose weight was limited by a devastating hailstorm. 3) 1236.5 Wolf 2007 (723 Bobier x 1068 Wallace) Tough decision between this and 1256.5 McKie 2007. Asked kids at dinner table, "Should I grow Dan or Andy's pumpkin seed?" All 3 kids said, "Andy". 4) 1297 Ghaye 2007 (998 Pukos selfed) European record holder. Plenty of Pukos powerful pumkin pollinator in this seed. Friday, April 25 View Page Got into the patch today to put first cloche in. The guy pictured here comes along and starts to help me with the shovel. I asked him to to pick up the pace and he told me he was with the union and if I had a problem I should take it up with the GPC. He called himself "Bubba". Sunday, April 27 View Page And they're off! After 10 hour soak in 5% hydrogen peroxide and 95% water solution seeds are in "germination chamber" aka cooler. Seedling mat is turned on. Shooting for temp 90 to 95 F inside chamber. Seeds started in Miracle Grow seed starting mix with a couple pinches of beneficial fungi and just enough water to moisten the mix. Seeds placed in chamber at 0130 hours. Let mother nature work her magic. Monday, April 28 View Page Little done this past weekend for pumpkin work except seeds were started in germinator. Temps inside are a balmy 90 to 95 F. Got Kubota tractor set up for lawn mowing this past Saturday. Hopefully this will get me extra time in patch this year as I showed my wife how to cut lawn last year and she loves cutting it. On Sunday I tilled up my old patches for her new flowerbeds. Rainy and cold today in low 40s. If rain lets up will try setting up last two cloches. Monday, April 28 View Page For rent: Beautiful pumpkin condo at Jazzs' pumpkin patch. Enjoy 625 square feet of land with your 70 square foot condo nestled in the corner of your lot. Open to all AG plants with desirable genetic backgrounds. Spraul your leaves out on our full sun patch. Bath in our warmed soaker hose water and be refreshed in the afternoon with complimentary overhead sprinkler water. Grower verified planned pollinations accepted and offspring, especially large offspring, are very much encouraged. Dine on succulent meals of kelp, fish, and molasses. Late afternoon sprayings of compost tea will be available in the summer months. Cucs and SVBs need not apply. Note: Offspring must be available to travel by pickup in October Tuesday, April 29 View Page They're alive! Checked this morning and 1297 Ghaye, 649 Spada and 133.5 Borton had all poked their seeds out of the dirt 54 hours after planting. Just checked at 11 pm tonight and 1236.5 Wolf is pushing up the dirt. Pictured here from left to right are 1297 Ghaye, 1236.5 Wolf, 649 Spada, and 133.5 Borton. Will try to carefully remove seed coats tomorrow if they appear ready. To the lights in next 24 to 36 hours. Wednesday, April 30 View Page Stare deeply into the photon chamber! Came home from work today and checked on plants. 649 Spada had nearly propped up cover to cooler (Must be on steroids). All leaves looking yellow. Then I sorta remembered something from a college botany class. 6 CO2 + 12 H2O + photons ---> C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O. OR carbon dioxide + water + light energy yields glucose + oxygen + water or even more simply .... PHOTOSYNTHESIS! I was so focused on getting the seeds up I forgot to give the plants what they need to survive --- light. I placed them in mini greenhouse with light source (photon chamber) Frame is one seen in my April 5th diary entry. Plastic is 6 mil plastic remnants from outside cloches. Two hot water bottles inside with thermometer. Notice left two seeds, 1297 Ghaye and 1236.5 Wolf, are propped up on baking pan so they are equidistant from photon generator as the 649 Spada. I fully expect the 649 to get up any day now and go and plant itself in the garden. After a couple hours of light I can see green starting to come into the cots. Friday, May 2 View Page Attention fans: Now coming into the 2008 season to replace the 1236.5 Wolf 2007 are the 1256.5 McKie 2007 and the 1121 Bobier 2007 Est. McKie is 1308.5 McKie '06 x 1039 Leonard '04. Bobier seed is 845 Bobier (00) x 898 Knauss (01). Thanks Dan (and Jason) and Bill. 1236.5 Wolf has stopped growing and seems to have a bad case of "cot rot". Other plants are doing well. The new players were filed and soaked in warm water for 11 hours and entered the germinator in the soil at 2 am on 5/2/08. Tilled half of patch yesterday. Took two hours. Nice and warm in cloches. Hope to get the plants outside and into the patch soon. Monday, May 5 View Page Happy Cinco de Mayo! The 649 Spada, 1297 Ghaye and 133.5 Borton celebrated the day by getting into the patch! The 1256.5 McKie and 1121 Bobier Est. Are still indoors under the lights. Pictured here is patch from ground level Went to Lowes with my dad today and we bought our walking planks for the season. They are pictured here. Put some fish and seaweed on plants in their new homes today. Lots of crumbling dirt when I removed peat pots. (Not gonna use 'em next year.) 649 Spada initially looked unhappy in his new home but seems to have perked up. Will be starting a couple of 133.5 Borton seeds for a local grower who has had problems getting this seed going :) ! Thursday, May 8 View Page A spring harvest from the pumpkin patch. Two of my junior helpers and I harvested these rocks from the pumpkin patch two days ago into a wheelbarrow. I was going to dump them in the woods when my wife told me to do something useful with them. I put them around this lilac bush in the backyard. Last year I actually had an AG growing here until the plant got killed by SVB. Pumpkin on the plant weighed in at 38 pounds at time of death. Needless to say shovel got a good cleaning after turning over this dirt. Plants in patch all doing well. Will put in 4th plant tomorrow. The contender list has been modified......... more info later. Friday, May 9 View Page Start growing boys, one of you will eventually plucked from the Earth to sit atop a compost pile. Picured on left is 1265.0 Howard 2007 ( 1229 Platte '06 x 1231.3 Pukos '05, a birthday gift that I received yesterday. On the right is the 1256.5 McKie 2007. Good root system developing in the McKie plant. All plants got a drink of fish and seaweed fertilizer today. Wednesday, May 14 View Page Went out to the patch to water today and there was a lot of noise. Looked into the 1297 Ghaye cloche and saw this. What an exhibit of German pride! (The plant said "hi" Jos.) I then heard some stirring in the 649 Spada cloche............ Wednesday, May 14 View Page I opened the end of the cloche and saw this beautiful plant standing beneath the Canadian flag, a tall cup of steaming Tim Hortons coffee in the background. (Your plant said "hi" too Sav - he said he'll make you proud.) Alas I heard some unintelligible rumbling coming from the home of the 1265.0 Howard and the 1256.5 McKie plant. Quickly I hurried over to see what was going on... A proud patriotic display of the red, white, and blue? I could hardly wait.....! Wednesday, May 14 View Page Oh the horror! No American flag, just two bent over plants and an empty six pack. I spent quite some time talking to these rogue plants and told them that they needed to start growing fast if they wanted to have any chance of producing a bigger pumpkin than their more than worthy international contenders. They muttered their apologies and picked up their empties, promising that they would try their hardest to start growing. Thursday, May 22 View Page Heard of Howard Dill's passing today. A sad day for all of us. Went into the cloches today to do some weeding. Used this free tool - a stick. It's a great surface weeder and microtiller for disturbing weeds and breaking up alfalfa pellets. Cold days = slow growth. Cloches might stay up until July if cold weather continues. Saturday, May 24 View Page Ibuprofen - the wonder drug for those who rototill much. Spent Saturday, May 24th, rototilling patch so entire patch has been tilled twice now. Found more rocks. Also had to till front flowerbeds and I helped the Mrs. plant $150 worth of flower bulbs. Also planted some strawberry plants. Weather getting warmer. Have been using fish and seaweed fertilizer but will do more research to see if I can add something else. Glad to see from other diaries that my plants aren't the ONLY small ones because of the cold weather. Friday, June 6 View Page Updated pictures of the plants. Here is 649 Spada. Starting to show female flowers. Another local grower of this plant has a ten foot vine already. Looks like heating cables really do work Friday, June 6 View Page Here is 1297 Ghaye plant. Finally warming up around here with high of 90 F expected today. Friday, June 6 View Page Here is the 1256.5 McKie. Hopefully vines will set down on the ground soon. Have stopped fertilizing until this happens. Friday, June 6 View Page And last but not least is the 133.5 Borton. A local grower called this plant a "dark horse" on another website. We need to remember that were not growing salad here, we're growing pumpkins. We'll see who has the last laugh in October! Monday, June 9 View Page Here are some of the things I've been using in the patch lately. I bought a scuffle hoe and was able to weed my 4 cloches in a matter of 20 minutes. I hooked up this elevated sprinler system today. First try with sprinkler occured when PVC glue was not dry enough and sprinkler head shot off up into the air. Using bamboo sticks to whip, uhm gently guide, vines towards the ground. McKie plant is closest to touchdown followed by Ghaye plant. Spada and Borton plant vines seem to have a mind of their own. Glad cloches are still up as it was very windy today. Did my firsy spray of garlic barrier tonight as I visited my dad's patch tonight and found some Cukes. Didn't see any here and I don't want to. Of course I told him about his problem, I am a good sport you know. While going out to spray garlic barrier, two rabbits hopped away from behind the McKie cloche. The cloches will be fully closed before sunset from now on. Wednesday, June 18 View Page Protective fencing is up. Nice orange snow fencing that is suitable for pumpkins. Mainly here to keep out 4 legged furry animal that lives in my house and non-furry 2,3, and 5 year old two legged animals that also live in my house. Put up the fence yesterday and removed cloches with my dad's help. Thanks dad! Was quite rainy here yesterday and we were slippin' and slidin' getting the greenhouses out of the patch. Had hail storms in the area this past Monday but they missed my patch. Sprayed liquid fence around the orange fence last night as a deer was spotted in the neighbor's backyard early yesterday morning. In picture at 12 o'clock is the 1256.5 McKie , at 3 o'clock is the 133.5 Borton, at 6 o'clock is the 649 Spada, and at 9 o'clock is the 1297 Ghaye. Hope to be ready for pollination in a week or two. We'll see. Saturday, June 21 View Page The Whizzer sprinkler in action. Ran this last night and also tonight. I was burying vines for about a half an hour tonight when lightning storms came through. Got most of the secondaries on the 1297 and 649 buried. Put down some pinches of beneficial fungi tonight. While setting up the Whizzer last night my 5 year old daughter came over to me and said, "Dad, you've got a pumpkin in the patch." I didn't understand what she was seeing until she pointed to.......................... Saturday, June 21 View Page THIS! The first open male flower of the 2008 season on the 1297 Ghaye. All main vines on plants are between 7 and 9 feet now with the 1256.5 McKie being the longest. I will give a foliar spray of fish and seaweed fertilizer tomorrow night and will also spray a dose of Garlic Barrier in the next 24 to 48 hours. If you look closely at the picture of the flower there is a bug in the upper right corner. It was yellow and black but did not have the striped pattern of the cucumber beetle. It expired shortly after this picture was taken. Monday, June 23 View Page Put a spray of Miracle Gro fertilizer mixed with fish and seaweed fertilizer on the plants this morning. The eldest son asked Grandpa B for a tomato plant even though he's never eaten a tomato before in his life. Here's a picture of me planting the tomato plant in on the far edge of the patch. Note the fine and disciplined young assistants behind me staying on the walking planks! In the afternoon I spent an hour burying secondaries on the 1297 Ghaye and 1256.5 McKie plants. After dinner we saw raindrops and sunshine and then we saw this........... Monday, June 23 View Page a spectacular ROY G BIV, I mean rainbow, in the sky. If you look in the upper left hand corner of the picture you can actually see part of a second rainbow. After the light showers I applied a spray of Garlic Barrier to the plants. 133.5 Borton seems to have a fertilized female about 2.5 feet out from the stump. I saw some bees flying in the patch today. Will try to get silt fence for wind protection tomorrow. Older leaves on plants seem to be drying out but newer leaves look healthy. Wednesday, June 25 View Page Finally found some silt fence yesterday and bought two rolls of 3 ft x 100 ft. Placed one outside patch and one inside the patch closer to the plants. Buried secondaries on 649 Spada and it took some time as all of the vines were crossed due to my failure to take of them earlier. Plants got a healthy watering yesterday. 1256.5 McKie continues to lead the "longest main vine race". I set up a marker last night and I'm going to measure its growth over the past 12 hours this morning. Pictured here is a Christmas gift from last year, an automatic watering system. Set it up in about 15 minutes last night and I'll be trying it out today. Will also try to bury secondaries on 133.5 est. Borton plant today. Tuesday, July 1 View Page Spent along weekend in Boston for my cousin's wedding. Patch was left alone for four days. Came home to many weeds and much longer plant vines. Hopefully a couple of females will be opening this week. The 1256.5 McKie has a female about 12 feet out on the main vine. Weeded about half the patch today and removed tendrils from secondaries. I saw this orange Porsche 944 across from my hotel in Boston. Don Langevin, is this your car? Wednesday, July 2 View Page Let's get it on! The first pollination of the season occurred at 4:15 am this morning. After a late night at work I went into the patch and played matchmaker. The glowing female is from the 1256.5 McKie plant (It's a 4 lober) The de-petaled males are from the 1297 Ghaye plant. 3 of 4 plants underwent vine burying today, after the sun was up, of course! Wednesday, July 2 View Page This just in...... shortly after the aforementioned pollination took place, JAZZ's pumpkin patch police were dispatched to the 649 Spada quadrant for a disturbance. Here are exclusive photos of what was found....two 1297 Ghaye males lounging after a pollination encounter with an unsuspecting 649 Spada female. Details are sketchy but it seems that a 4 lober Spada female was indeed pollinated today. Pumpkin patch police are asking for peace and restraint but......................... Wednesday, July 2 View Page These 649 Spada males are vowing to take matters into their own stamens! Monday, July 7 View Page well, looks like it took. (1256.5 Mckie female x 1297 Ghaye male) On 7/3 pollinated 1297 female with 649 male. On 7/4 pollinated 1256.5 female with 649 male, and this morning pollinated 649 female with 1256.5 male ( a 5 lober!) Tomorrow will try first pollination on 133.5 est Borton with 649 male. Sprayed Liquid Sevin tonight. Patch needs some major weeding. May be able to work on that tomorrow. Friday, July 11 View Page Well here he is. The kids decided to name him "Carl". His genetic make-up is 1297 Ghaye female x 649 Spada male. He was pollinated on July 3 and is biggest pumpkin in the patch at this point. Did alot of small things in the patch yesterday. Took down inner silt fence as main vine of McKie plant was pressing on it. Sprayed Roundup on large amount of weeds in patch. Removed aging leaves from plants. Cut tendrils and gave the plants a nice evening meal of fish and seaweed fertilizer. This morning pollinated a 649 Spada female (4 lobes) and a 133.5 Borton female (5 lobes) with pollen from the 1297 Ghaye. I think these will be my last planned pollinations of the season unless others fail to take. Heavy rain here this morning. Will disable the sprinkler timer temporarily. Need to bury vines but today it's really wet out there. Monday, July 14 View Page Finally got to use the tape measure today. Day 10 measurements on 1297 Ghaye female x 649 Spada male, aka "Carl" pollinated on 7/3/08 are SS=19, EE=20, CC=28 and OTT = 67. On 7/12 buried vines on Ghaye plant and yesterday buried vines on McKie plant. Will try to bury vines on Spada plant now before going to work tonight. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Here is a picture of the second named pumpkin, "Wally" (1256.5 McKie female x 649 Spada male). Wally's ten day measurements are SS=17, EE=16, CC=24, OTT=57. Yesterday spent 2 hours and 15 minutes burying vines and removing tertiaries on 649 Spada plant. Today I repositioned distal main vine on 1297 Ghaye and cut tap roots to get "Carl" into best position for growing. Fertilized patch with fish and seaweed today. Thanks to Alannah and Zander for helping me record Wally's measurements, in fact......... Tuesday, July 15 View Page Here they are out in the patch with their cooooooool sunglasses on. When we walked into the patch Alannah said, "Oh there's a pumpkin, lets call it "Pollen". So "Pollen" is the third named pumpkin in the patch. I happened to find Pollen yesterday when I was tending to the Spada plant. Pollen is an open pollination sitting about 7 feet out on one of the Spada's three main vines. Nice round pumpkin. Now that she's named she can't possibly go to the culling pile. In fact she's bigger than any controlled pollination on the Spada plant. She is pictured in the right lower corner of the picture. Thursday, July 17 View Page I have seen the enemy and here it is....SVB! Saw first one in patch today around noon. Watched it, tried to catch it and it disappeared. Saw some random Cucs around too and I decided it was time to spray with insecticide tonight. I did and on the Spada plant there was a SVB, just sitting on a leaf. There was a stare down and then boom, it got a full stream of insecticide right between the eyes! That felt good. Also put more sand under pumpkins today. "Carl" has a surface split in him that developed today. I will reduce fertilizing and possibly watering for now. Captan was applied to wound. Also sprayed liquid fence around perimeter of patch tonight. Might get up early with fly swatter tomorrow and hunt some more SVBs. Saturday, July 26 View Page Greetings from inside the blue line; Raquette Lake, NY in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Took a vacation from my pumpkins and they kept growing. Came back into town today. "Carl" healed his scar. "Wally" and "Pollen" put on some weight too! My wife took the kids over to her relatives tonight when we got back from vacation so I could work in the patch. Thanks Sue! My dad stopped over and helped me move some vines and pumpkins so they are in good positions. Sand added under pumpkins and shading structure improved over pumpkins on Ghaye and McKie plants. All plants got a drink of fish and seaweed fertilizer tonight. Here are Wally's 10 day measurements taken before vacation: EE=19, SS=18, CC=26.5, OTT=63.5. Compost tea brewer arrived when I was gone. Will make a batch and spray it this week. SVB treatment in 1 to 2 days. Monday, July 28 View Page The doppler radar showed a nice red circle right over our house last night. 15 minutes of torrential rains, gusting winds and lightning every three seconds. I looked outside for hail but luckily there was none. Part of my patch fence was leaning this morning. Out in the front yard I found this: a large cracked tree branch probably 35 feet in length. It's leaning against another tree right now. Then I went to the backyard this morning and found this..... Monday, July 28 View Page A crack in "Carl" (1256.5 McKie female X 649 Spada male). Crack was about 3/4 of an inch long. Wasn't there last night. Looked like it might have some frass in the split but I probed the split and saw no tunnel into the interior. The split is covered here with a generous amount of Captan. Buried vines and weeded around Ghaye and McKie plants today. Applied insecticide to plants tonight. Think I saw a mouse in the patch tonight. Will have to set out some traps. Also discovered rogue pumpkin hidden under leaf canopy on the not well attended to 133.5 est. Borton plant tonight. Will cull tomorrow in daylight. Need to get shading in place for 2 pumpkins on the Spada plant. Saturday, August 2 View Page Nothing like a good brew....of compost tea. Brewed a batch and sprayed this stuff yesterday. But it kept clogging up intake on backpack pump so spraying took longer than usual. On 7/31 I sprayed Nutri-Aid 0-52-30, 2 tablespoons per gallons. Took measurements yesterday: "Carl" EE=60, SS=60, CC=85, OTT=205 est. 192 pounds "Wally" EE=54, SS=54, CC=79, OTT=187 est. 149 pounds "Pollen" EE=54, SS=67, CC=74 OTT=195 est. 167 pounds "Dinosaur" EE=53, SS=57, CC=72 OTT=182 est. 138 pounds Borton plant pumpkin EE=29, SS=30, CC=42, OTT=101 est. 29.4 pounds. Also checked 3 day weight gains for pumpkins: Carl=32 pounds, Wally = 35 pounds, Dinosaur = 35 pounds, Borton plant pumpkin, a mere 4.9 pounds and last but not least Pollen, gaining an amazing 66 pounds over three days! Wednesday, August 6 View Page Received an email from my coffee connoisseur cheesehead non-AG growing uncle from Wisconsin recently. He was apparently upset with the paucity of my recent diary entries. Seemed like he wanted some photoes of the pumpkin family for this year, so here they are: "Carl" - 1297 Ghaye female x 649 Spada male Wednesday, August 6 View Page And here is "Wally" - 1256.5 McKie female x 649 Spada male. Wally received a coating of pyroxylin solution on his split shortly after this picture was taken. Wednesday, August 6 View Page Here is "Pollen", an open pollination on the 649 Spada plant. Wednesday, August 6 View Page Don't forget "Dinosaur", 649 Spada female x 1297 Ghaye male Wednesday, August 6 View Page Lastly, and certainly smallest in size, "Lil' Buddy", 133.5 est. Borton female x 649 Spada male. Wednesday, August 6 View Page I was called to the sand bed of "Wally" today. His non-healing split seemed to be extending and softening. Still more frass-like material. I decided it was time to perform emergency surgery. Operative note is as follows: Preoperative diagnosis: Non-healing blossom end split Post operative diagnosis: SVB grub tunnel Findings: one three inch tunnel, no perforation into pumpkin cavity, one SVB grub. Estimated loss of pumpkin skin: 1 square inch. Procedure: Using a stick extracted soft pumpkin material and then SVB grub. Captan was applied generously to wound. Shade cover was placed back over pumpkin. Pumpkin tolerated procedure well and is in good condition. Specimens: 1 (now pulverized) SVB grub Wednesday, August 6 View Page Here is a picture of the specimen. Luckily his tunnel remained fairly superficial. If it would have bored into the cavity of the pumpkin, "Wally" would have not done well and it would have surely caused his early demise. Actually I feel lucky. This little grub could have gone into the main vine and destroyed the entire plant and "Wally". Hopefully all that comes of this is an ugly scar on the pumpkin. Lesson learned: "If you see frass, go hunting for a SVB grub." Tuesday, August 12 View Page It has been quite rainy here in Western New York for most of August and much of July. A recent low pressure system seemed to camp out over the area for days. Growth rates have slowed but all pumpkins inspected and are intact at this time. Temps are just breaking into the low 70s. By this Saturday, we may see 80s again. Went to Akron Falls Park today and got this shot of the upper falls going over the Onondaga escarpment. Usually this would be just a trickle in mid summer but quite a show was seen with all the recent rain. Pulled some weeds out of patch tonight and applied 40% milk solution in attempt to prevent PM. Bubba helped out in the patch tonight. Asked a lot of "Why?" questions when I told him what I was doing (Sure sign of a competent future grower!) Sprayed Liquid Fence around the perimeter of the patch tonight also. Thursday, August 14 View Page I noticed 3 yellowed leaves around "Wally" (1256.5 McKie X 649 Spada )tonight. Looked for SVB frass, found none. Then I found this: a split in the main vine. Applied Dermabond glue (usually used for gluing people skin together) to the main vine split while pinching it together. This will either save or destroy Wally. If glue got extensively into vine, nutrients to Wally may be cut off. If glue stayed on surface, Wally may continue to save nutrition. Sprayed fish/seaweed/Nutri-Aid combo tonight and also measured plants: "Carl" 1297 Ghaye x649 Spada OTT=243 = 310 pounds "Wally" 1256.5 McKie x 649 Spada OTT=226.5 = 254 pounds "Pollen" 649 Spada x open OTT=220 = 234 pounds "Dinosaur" 649 Spada x 1256.5 McKie OTT=223 = 243 pounds. Lil' Buddy not growing much and I've let several open pollinations go on the 133.5 Borton est. plant. Other open pollination pumpkin on this plant is 40 pounds. Won't save seeds as these pollinations are open but will have many smaller AGs for Halloween. Send your get well wishes to Wally. Dismal weight gains over the past 7 days due to cool weather and too much rain. Saturday, August 16 View Page Here is a poor shot of the moon tonight using an unsteady hand. Looks kind of cool though. Had hail yesterday. Got a call from the wife while I was at work and she was describing the hail and how she moved stuff aside in the garage so she could park her minivan in the garage. My question to her was, "How are the plants?" Her reply was, "What plants?" I rolled my eyes and then inspected the plants when I got home and there seemed to be some minor leaf damage. Pumpkins still look like they are doing OK. Will check measurements on Wally on Monday to see if he is still putting on weight. Picture of moon is to show that there are actually clear skies here in WNY. It was a beautiful warm day here today with NO RAIN! Tuesday, August 19 View Page Here's a picture of me taking one of my smaller pumpkins for a test drive in preparation to go to a weigh off. Just kidding! I don't drive a Dodge and look at the gas prices on the billboard: $2.35! Wally (1256.5 McKie x 649 Spada) still alive and put on 30 pounds in last 3 days. Have increased frequency of fertilizing in order to get most out of the pumpkin's growth potential. Thursday, August 21 View Page A picture of a cool fire red sky on 8/19/08 over the pumpkin patch. Thursday, August 21 View Page That ain't no orange! Pictured here are the bisected remains of "Lil Buddy" (133.5 est. Borton female x 649 Spada male). This pollination did something terrible to pumpkin genetics.....it turned off the growth gene! Some seeds in the pumpkin. No real growth over the past week. There's an open pollination on another main vine of this plant that is about 60 pounds. Figured I could increase growth rate of that pumpkin by culling this one. Thursday, August 21 View Page Pictured here is stem end partial dill "ring" on "Dinosaur" (649 Spada female x 1256.5 McKie male) Shortly after taking this photo noticed cuke beetle on shade cover of this pumpkin. Will spray with Garlic Barrier tonight again. Also noted small inward hole at "Wallys" BES site today. Probed it but not through to cavity. Could possibly be due to work of a cuke? Hydrogen peroxide applied. Brewing compost tea now. Will apply later today. Will take weekly OTT measurements of pumpkins later today. Sunday, August 24 View Page Here's where I want to be on October 5th. Pumpkinville, NY. I probably won't be standing with the heavy hitters in the top 5 for the weighoff, but I want to get there.....and have a fruit that weighs more than 500 pounds...this is my mid-season modified goal. OTT measurements from 8/21 are as follows: "Carl" OTT= 256.5 = 363 pounds "Wally" OTT = 235.5 = 284 pounds "Pollen" OTT = 232 = 272 pounds "Dinosaur" OTT = 228 = 259 pounds Sprayed compost tea on 8/21 and Garlic Barrier on 8/22. Friday, August 29 View Page Took 3 days off away from the patch (bad, bad, patchmaster!) Took a plane to the city that doesn't sleep. Friday, August 29 View Page Ahhhhhhhh............Times Square. Would love to be here at the end of October in about 5 years. Dream about the truck driver saying, "Mr. Jutras, could you please step back? We're trying to unload the 2245 Borton!" Friday, August 29 View Page Had to get to Yankee Stadium this year while it still stood, and we did. Yanks got spanked by the Red Sox 11-3. Friday, August 29 View Page Efficient groundskeepers they have at Yankee Stadium. If I won the multi-million lottery, I'd hire them to come and pull weeds for me! Saturday, August 30 View Page Alas returned to look at the pumpkin patch today. Leaves need help and I need to read a whole lot this winter. 8/29 OTT measurements are as follows for the pumpkins: "Carl" = 264 "Wally" = 245.5 "Pollen" = 239.5 "Dinosaur" = 234.5 Monday, September 8 View Page Growth seems to have slowed in the patch. My daughter Alannah needs to bring in something orange for her kindergarten class this Thursday. Certainly she couldn't carry "Carl" in, so she's going to bring in a picture. 9/6/08 OTT measurements are: Carl = 269 Wally = 248.5 Pollen = 241.5 Dinosaur = 240 Tuesday, September 9 View Page Got my pumpkin ring lifter yesterday from the PGPGA. Told the mailman what it was and invited him back to the patch to check out the pumpkins. He was amazed. I told him that I was very good at growing weeds. Brought the ring into the house today and was met at the door by Zackary. He started to speak, "Dad, I want to...whoa, what is that?" I told him what it was and he agreed to have his picture taken with it. Rainy and cool here today. Applied Miracle Gro last night. Sprayed the driveway area with Garlic Barrier to try to cut down on mosquitos while waiting for the bus in the morning. Tuesday, September 16 View Page Strong winds blew through with the remnants of Ike. Fencing bent over. Shade covers came off showing a view of the pumpkins. From left to right: "Carl", "Pollen", "Dinosaur" and in the back, "Wally". I think I'll bring some ragweed to a weighoff - Is there a prize for heaviest weed? 9/14/08 OTT measurements are: Carl 269 Wally 252 Pollen 245 Dinosaur 240.5 Tuesday, September 16 View Page An astute reader will note that Carl didn't gain anything in OTT measurements over the past week. Here's the reason why....a mushy brown rotting stump. I saw some frass here. Possible infestation by SVB. I don't think Carl will make it to the weigh-off. He will come in handy when I test the pumpkin lifter. Hopefully he'll give up some seeds. I might take the time to weigh him piece by piece on a small scale. Tuesday, September 16 View Page A really astute reader would also note that my last entry said "brown mushy rotting stump". It should have said "brown mushy rotting stem". Pumpkin anatomy 101 mistake. Carl is also forming some superficial "smiles" on his blossom end Tuesday, September 23 View Page My dad and I went to Lowes to get three 16 ft 4X4s and some other parts and we (mostly he) made this pumpkin lifting tripod this past Saturday. Was going to try it out but I received encouragement from a local grower to save "Carl" and I'm going to try to do that. Captan on the stem now and just hoping for October 5th to get here soon Tuesday, September 23 View Page Here's a closeup of the business end of the lifter. Tuesday, September 23 View Page Here is part of the "Save Carl" therapy that was started today. A fan on the stem. Three extension cords from the house. Stem is drying nicely though. Thursday, September 25 View Page Went out last night and picked remaining pumpkins off the 133 est. Borton 2007 plant last night. Here is a picture of the stump. 6.25 inch circumference. Thursday, September 25 View Page I pulled up the main vine that the earlier culled pumpkin Lil' Buddy (133 Borton female x 649 Spada male) was growing on. It hardly grew at all and this may be the reason - vine rot! I buried this main and beyond this point shown, vine was all yellowed and dead. Drainage seems to be a big problem in the patch and I'll have to investigate the other plants' main vines later to see if they had similar problems. Will seriously consider not burying main vines next year. Thursday, September 25 View Page Here is an open pollination on the Borton plant. This was on a main vine that was not buried and the vine remained green. This pumpkin had some hail marks on its top and it was getting orange so it was picked. OTT measurements put this pumpkin at around 95 pounds. Like previous Borton pumpkin a huge thick stem, 9 inches in circumference, was on this pumpkin. Also like previous Borton pumpkin, this didn't get very big. This is how the pumpkin grew, with its blossom end up in the air. The kids came up with a great name for this one because of its orange color. He has been named "Cheeto". Monday, September 29 View Page In the distance is a hayfield. I own a very, very, very small part of the field. A farmer has used the field but never knew that he was on my property. When he was rolling hay this week, I walked out into the field and showed him what was my property. He couldn't give me any information except for his brother-in law's phone number. I called the number of the big kahuna guy. He told me he didn't realize it was my property. I didn't really want him to stop using it but the rent for him using this small piece of land would be ridiculous to collect anything from him. Turns out that he's gathering this hay to feed his cows. Turns out his cows make poop....and alot of it. He said he would gather some and bring some brown gold over in a truck and dump it on my patch this fall. Bartering in 2008......gotta love it! Wednesday, October 1 View Page Today was harvest day for the pumpkins on the 649 Spada plant. Here is Zander showing the pale belly of "Pollen", an open pollination on the 649 Spada plant. Wednesday, October 1 View Page Here's basic method for moving pumpkins. 1. Put piece of plywood with attached 2x4 with screw ring next to pumpkin. 2. Stare at pumpkin. 3.Push on pumpkin and say to self, "Man these shiny ones are sure slippery." 4. Stare at pumpkin some more. 5. Wonder if wife might come out of house to help you prod pumpkin onto plywood. 6. Realize she's probably fed up with this hobby by now and you're lucky a sledgehammer didn't find the side of your beautiful orange fruit 2 months ago. 7. Do some more awkward movements and get pumpkin on plywood. 8. Straighten out back to walk upright. 9. attach one end of tow rope to tractor, other end to plywood "sled". 10. Drive. Wednesday, October 1 View Page Here's a driver's view looking back. Wednesday, October 1 View Page The boys wanted to sit in the fire truck and get their picture taken. Fire truck is 1948 Seagrave canopy cab pumper. Used to work on it a fair amount before this obsession with giant pumpkin growing started. Maybe I'll cut back on germination techniques this winter and work on the truck. Would be cool to drive this up to a weigh off. Wednesday, October 1 View Page A great picture here. I was taking so many pictures today that the boys ran inside and got their "toy" digital cameras that really work. I told them to take a picture of me taking a picture of them by the pumpkin. This pumpkin is "Dinosaur" (649 Spada female x 1297 Ghaye male). What considerate sons I have. Squatting down in the picture to make Daddy's pumpkin look bigger. (And I didn't even tell them to do that!) Wednesday, October 1 View Page So here are "Dinosaur" and "Pollen" tucked away inside the garage waiting for Halloween (or a weigh off if tragedy strikes "Carl" or "Wally"). They each got cleaned up really good today with a bleach solution and their "earth sides" got dried out with a fan. Final 10/01/08 measurements are: "Dinosaur" (649 Spada female x 1297 Ghaye male) CC = 98.5 EE= 71 SS = 76 OTT = 245.5 = est. 320 pounds "Pollen" (open pollination on 649 Spada plant) CC = 101 EE = 70 SS = 72 OTT = 243 = est. 310 pounds Nice orange pumpkins with this plant. Not huge fruit, but they'll look great on Halloween! Sunday, October 5 View Page So "Carl" went to flight school on October 3rd........ Sunday, October 5 View Page ........and made a picture perfect landing in the back of my pick-up. Thanks for loading and patch clean up help Dad! After landing "Carl" got a shrink wrap dressing and rested in the truck. Sunday, October 5 View Page "Wally" preferred not to fly but took a ground plywood and old blanket to his resting location. He almost got loaded for Pumpkinville, but "Carl" was measuring just a little bit bigger. Sunday, October 5 View Page ...and people gathered around "Wally" for a scale measurement. (The guy in the back IS standing on a rock wall!) Sunday, October 5 View Page And "Carl" made it to Pumpkinville! And people sat around him and waited for him to be weighed. Sunday, October 5 View Page "Carl" went up to a higher level for a different kind of scale measurement than "Wally" "Carl" was measured by none other than Andy Wolf and Joe Pukos. His measurements: CC = 118 EE = 74, SS = 74 OTT = 266 for estimated weight of 403 pounds. Sunday, October 5 View Page There should be a "2" between the "4" and the "0" there! Sunday, October 5 View Page In the end "Carl" weighed 420 pounds, a whole 17 pounds or 4% over his predicted weight. "Carl" now has a new name: 420 Borton '08 Sunday, October 5 View Page Everybody knows that Pumpkinville has THE best cow train rides around! Sunday, October 5 View Page Alas the pumpkin formerly known as "Carl" was an ugly and scarred pumpkin. He has weighed over 3 times as much as his masters previous personal best pumpkin of 133.5 pounds (estimated) but he knew his time was short on this Earth! Monday, October 6 View Page The 420s stem end....about 10 inches thick! Monday, October 6 View Page The 420s blossom end.... 5.5 to 6 inches thick. Monday, October 6 View Page An open view......there were many seeds to be had. Monday, October 6 View Page A special thanks to my seed collecting helpers! Monday, October 6 View Page The frail stem of the 420....it held on just long enough.(Aren't hair dryers awesome?) Monday, October 6 View Page The remnants of the day. Thursday, October 9 View Page The seeds from the 420 Borton 2008. Counted them and there are about 500 good seeds. (Or at least I hope they will yield good results in the future.) Sunday, October 12 View Page My wife and I started to read the Bible in an attempt to read it from cover to cover in one year. This week I read the following verses from Proverbs 24:30-34 "I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense. I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like and armed robber." Yeah, they knew I'd be growing giant pumpkins thousands of years later and had to take a jab at me! Can barely use the bathroom and sleep and I'm supposed to keep my patch weed free? Wednesday, October 29 View Page The patch after everything, pumpkinwise, is out of it. Weeds galore. It has since been rototilled. Will possibly spread some gypsum and get a soil test this fall. Running out of time. It snowed here last night. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Everyone watch your liquor cabinets carefully. I heard the sound of someone or something getting sick this morning. Lo and behold it was Wally out in the front yard, returning the remnants from a night of boozing. He promised not to do it again, saying that he was disappointed that he didn't get to go to the weigh off. Friday, October 31 View Page Happy Halloween everyone. I woke up today to the sound of a pumpkin wailing. I hurried outside to help "Dinosaur" but he had already taken care of his assailant, although he did end up with a nasty dent in his head. He said he was very happy with his meal. Friday, October 31 View Page Pollen had her eyes and nose carved about 10 days ago, maybe earlier than that. She had a pond of water in her bottom when she got moved today. Then she did a face plant. Not looking good for her, but at least I didn't have to cut her mouth out. Can someone please alert all the king's horses and all the king's men to inform them about Pollen's grave situation? Friday, October 31 View Page Here they all are, Dinosaur, Wally, and Pollen enjoying their favorite day of the year, Halloween, under a balmy 60 F clear blue sky! Sunday, December 28 View Page Will end 2008 by making a list of things to not do or to do better in 2009: # 10....Kill more weeds....earlier! # 9....Build a better, more expensive fence! Wednesday, December 31 View Page #8 Read up on soil chemistry/biology this winter. #7 Get soil test this spring. #6 Get soil test reviewed and act on it. #5 Get soil warming cables. #4 Get back to the convention in the Falls #3 Research seeds carefully and likely still go with gut feeling. #2 Do more with less - grow 2 plants next year instead of four. And the number 1 thing.....HAVE FUN !