Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 53 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page Happy 2009 to everyone. Here's a picture of the patch on this first day of the New Year. May all of your giant pumpkin growing dreams come true in 2009. Monday, March 23 View Page Seed germination starting again. This is round 2. Seed filed and 12 hour soak in just water. After last test, bottom of pot felt really warm. Stuck thermometer deep in soil. Measured 110 F. Now tupperware between pot and heating mat. Bottle at right filled with warm water. Temperature remains pretty constant at 90 to 93 F. Friday, March 27 View Page Started digging trench through patch earlier this week. Here is a picture of the digging buddies. Trench will hopefully help with drainage. Got soil test back from Western Laboratories. % organic matter only 2.87%, Nitrates low at 8, CEC = 11, Phospate = 17 (low) and potassium very low at 90. Looks like I've got a bit of work to do before planting. Tuesday, April 14 View Page The cow poop fairy came last night! Will spread some more poop around today. Put down gypsum and a winter's worth of coffee grounds yesterday. Also am close to completeing drainage ditch. Hopefully alot less work this year as only planting 2 seeds and using half the patch. Thursday, April 23 View Page Here is the 2009 line up: 1556.5 Werner '07 1568 Connolly '08 dmg 1436 Nesbitt '08 dmg (back-up) All seeds into germination chamber at 0800 today. Tuesday, April 28 View Page "Kowalski, 1556.5 Werner progress report." "Up and going good since the 26th Skipper." "Excellent, Rico, status report on 1436 Nesbitt." "Up since the 27th sir, getting greener." "Charming, Private, 1568 Connolly report." " I'm sorry sir, it appears to be gone in the soil, no tap root, just.......nothing. And Skipper, grower Borton spent so much for the seed and it appears, it appears to be.........a dud!" "Smile and wave boys, smile and wave!" Tuesday, May 5 View Page The pumpkin patch police were called to the scene of a destroyed hoop house that occurred on the evening of 4/30/09. PVC was snapped and one piece was impaled into the ground 30 yards from the original hoop site. Luckily no plants were home at the time of the incident. Police have issued an all points bulletin for one B. B. Wolf. Tuesday, May 5 View Page Here are the new fortified houses with wind fence. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone, it's planting day! Tuesday, May 5 View Page Say "Hi" to the 1556.5 Werner '07. Tuesday, May 5 View Page And into the game for the failed to germinate 1568 Connolly dmg '08 is the 1436 Nesbitt dmg '08. Monday, June 8 View Page Cloches came off today. Here is the 1436 Nesbitt plant. Monday, June 8 View Page And here is the 1556.5 Werner plant. Wind fence and snow fence is up. Secondaries are buried. Wednesday, June 10 View Page Sprayed Garlic Barrier tonight. First female on Werner main vine is shown here. Sunday, June 21 View Page I received great Fathers' Day gifts thought up by my six year old daughter. I now have custom made pumpkin flags attached to my outer fence of the patch. Makes it look very imperial. Thanks kids and Grandpa B for helping with creative efforts. Pictured here are the young artists with their respective flags. Sunday, June 28 View Page The family took a recent trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania to visit the Steamtown National Historic Site. For those who don't know, Steamtown is all about............... Sunday, June 28 View Page STEAM AND TRAINS!!!!......and how they work together. Here is the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 No. 4012 aka one of the "Big Boys". Locomotive and tender over 130 feet long. This is the 1689 of the steam locomotive world. Notice my two "little boys" in the foreground. Sunday, June 28 View Page Here's a close-up of the front end of the 4012. Sunday, June 28 View Page This is the train that we took our "Scranton Limited" ride on at Steamtown. Too short for the boys' taste and mine too. Sunday, June 28 View Page OK, back to pumpkins. I always wanted to take an under the canopy shot and the 1556.5 Werner actually provided enough leaves for a canopy! Will hopefully be pollinating in next 24 to 72 hours. Males are in fridge and waiting. Females are being bagged at night. Monday, June 29 View Page It's pollination day baby! 1468 Nesbitt x 1556.5 Werner (6 lobes) 1556.5 Werner x 1468 Nesbitt (5 lobes) 1556.5 Werner x 1272 Brunst (5 lobes) 1272 Brunst '08 is 1689 Jutras x 1631 McKie Thanks to Mom and Dad Borton for supplying some males as males in my fridge were partially frozen due to old fridge. Wednesday, July 8 View Page We growers spend so much time working with our pumpkins, and sending out seeds. Turns out that I have an uncle in Milwaukee who likes to comment on my diary. No words of encouragement, just snide remarks. I sent him seeds but do they see dirt? No. But he is my uncle and he wants pictures of pumpkins. I've decided to use my next 2 posts to honor my great........... Wednesday, July 8 View Page Uncle Wednesday, July 8 View Page Hoag! Tuesday, July 14 View Page A sad day yeaterday. This one was culled. 1556.5 Werner x 1468 Nesbitt. A good looking fruit but had to make way for........ Tuesday, July 14 View Page Dixie! Located on the southern side of the patch this belle was named by the kids tonight. Mill fabric and sand underneath thanks to help from Grandpa B. Lineage is 1556.5 Werner x 1272 Brunst. Exact same cross as Grandpa B. is growing. 10 day measurements are: SS = 13, EE = 13, CC = 20 OTT = 46. In the northern half of patch is............. Tuesday, July 14 View Page Phineas! He is 1468 Nesbitt x 1556.5 Werner. 10 day measurements are: SS = 14, EE = 15, CC = 22 OTT = 51. Let's hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as historical medical marvel Phineas Gage! Wednesday, August 5 View Page Picture from vacation in the Adirondacks. Some bog in the very middle of nowhere. Wednesday, August 5 View Page OK, time for some pumpkin pictures. Here's Dixie under white sheet on left and Phineas under multicolored blanket on right. Wednesday, August 5 View Page Beautiful sunset tonight! Saturday, September 12 View Page Here's a picture of "Dixie" at day 75 measurements are SS=89, EE=89 CC = 148 OTT = 326 estimated weight of 729 pounds. Unfortunately she is the 729 Borton DMG 2009 pumpkin. Hoping to get seeds though as this pumpkin is 1556.5 Werner x 1272 Brunst. Here's why she's a DMG....... Saturday, September 12 View Page 2 stem splits appeared on this one in mid-August. Tried to keep it dry and clean but it essentially stopped putting on weight. The yellow stuff isn't disease....it's Big Gap Filler! Hope to keep her around a couple of more weeks and then go seed hunting...or will it be too late? It's a shame since this was the biggest pumpkin I've ever grown.......... Saturday, September 12 View Page With the exception of Phineas! (1468 Nesbitt x 1556.5 Werner) Day 75 measurements = SS = X8, EE = X1, CC = 1X7, OTT = X4X Est weight = ??? or ????. Thanks to Joe P., Pap, Quinn, Andy W., and Karl H. for helpful and much needed September advice! Pumpkinville or bust! Wednesday, September 23 View Page Found a new disease for giant pumpkin growers. It's called Borton's black humic acid blight. Caused by a dummy grower putting humic acid crystals into one gallon of water and then doing a foliar feed (burn) of the plants. I'm just glad this dummy did this in September and not in July! Wednesday, September 23 View Page I was foliar spraying fish this evening and when I came around the 1556.5 Werner plant I noticed an odd shape to the sheet overlying the pumpkin. I pulled the sheet off and immediately the words of the rock group The Band played through my head......The Niiiiggggggghhhhhhtttt they drove Old Dixie down. This pumpkin is now the 729 Borton 2009 estimated DMG pumpkin. Her walls were thin and she stopped really growing in the middle of August. I blew up an AG pumpkin! Or it merely collapsed on itself. Thursday, September 24 View Page Here's the goop I had to muck through to salvage some seeds. I couldn't begin to describe the smell. I should have cut this one open two or three weeks ago. My guess is that the stem split went deeper than I could see and into the cavity. Seeds are washed and drying out now. I'll cut the stem tomorrow and see if the other pumpkins on the plant can rev things up and become super porch pumpkins! Thursday, September 24 View Page This is my 5 year old son Zander. I was looking at my deceased pumpkin today and he came over to me and asked to be lifted up so he could see the remnants of my work. "Looks yucky" he said. I agreed with him. Next he said, "I hope you win Dad." I was thinking yeah, me too, but at this point with only one hope left, it feels alot more like just surviving. I know he thinks its all about winning but he doesn't understand this whole giant pumpkin thing yet. The next words out of his mouth are, "But Dad, you only got one pumpkin left." Smart kid - he does understand the game! Friday, September 25 View Page Cut up what was left of Dixie today. Seeds are mostly junk. Squeezed them and pus like material came out of them. I don't remember plants having white blood cells. This area is where I put the remains of all of my pumpkins last year. Weeds are taller here by about 2 feet compared to the rest of the field. Friday, September 25 View Page Here's the area where Dixie sat. If you look closely there is a small pumpkin that was hiding near her stem end. Sand is all mixed with pumpkin guts in this area of the patch. There are three decent size porch pumpkins going on this plant now. Friday, September 25 View Page Hosed off mill fabric and then did a foliar spray of 10% bleach onto the fabric and then hosed it off again. Cleaned up really nice. Friday, September 25 View Page This is a test of the wife looking at my pumpkin diary system. This is only a test. If my wife actually looked at my diary, I'd be receiving instructions as to what was thought of my actions. This is her Pampered Chef knife that I used to slice Dixie apart. I probably would have never thought of using this if she was home, but she's at a convention. I'm hoping she'll never find out about this unless she's actually looking at my diary, and if this is you reading this honey, then I'm sorry, I'll never take your kitchenware into the patch again. If not then mums the word fellow pumpkin growin' buddies. This now concludes the test of the wife looking at my pumpkin diary system. Tuesday, October 6 View Page September was a long stressful month. Last spring I sold a bunch of seeds for a local charity fundraiser and an 82 year old gentleman nicknamed Jigger threw my seeds in the ground and this ended up at the end of his main. He never grew giant pumpkins before and he had his picture in a local paper so I called him up and went over to his house and his OTT weight was 345 pounds. He terminated his secondaries with a lawnmower when they got too long. He treated me to coffee and his wife baked an apple pie. I remember growing my first "big" pumpkin at 133 pounds in 2007. My guess is that Jigger is probably hooked on this sport now. Tuesday, October 6 View Page On Saturday, October 3, my mom and dad took their giant, John Henry, to the WPC weigh off in Clarence. I helped my dad load this on my pickup and John Henry came in 2nd place, weighing in at an amazing 969.5 pounds. He was only taping OTT at 830 or 840 pounds. Nice job mom and dad and nice payout too! Tuesday, October 6 View Page After leaving Clarence, my dad and I went to my patch to load up Phineas. I buried my truck in muck and just over three hours after starting the loading process the truck was back on solid ground on the driveway. Hey everyone....walking boards also make great tire boards when trying to back out of a swamped backyard! Here's a picture of Phineas just before take off to Pumpkinville on Sunday morning, October 4th. Tuesday, October 6 View Page You know its a good day when GPC president Dave Stelts is out there taking OTT measurements on your pumpkin. Phineas was 362 OTT according to the Grand Pooba. Tuesday, October 6 View Page There was some heavy competition at Pumpkinville. My goal this year was at least to make it to the bottom of the "U". Lighter pumpkins are on the left side of the "U" and the heaviest are at the top right. The pumpkins at Pumpkinville are set up in a "U" shape. Last year I was on the left side of the "U" and weighed 420 pounds. This year I was at the far right of the bottom of the "U". I knew I had a good year when I pulled up and got out of my truck. Andy Wolf came over to me and looked in the bed of my truck and said, "Nice pumpkin." Last year the guy in the parking lot tried to wave me through to general parking because he couldn't see the pumpkin in the back of my truck! Tuesday, October 6 View Page Finally Phineas got his trip to the scale......would he break 1,000 pounds? Tuesday, October 6 View Page After getting approved by Judge Randy Sundstrom, he went to the scale. Numbers danced to the left of the decimal point and when his weight really came down there were 4 figures to the left of that decimal point! The number on the screen says, "1102". Phineas went 10% heavy. Phineas got a new formal name of 1102 Borton 2009. At home we still called him Phineas. Turns out Phineas tied for 9th place with another pumpkin that weighed 1102 pounds too. It was grown by some guy named Jerry Rose. Anyone ever heard of this guy? Oh yeah, he's a big heavy hitter. He even shook my hand and congratulated me. Tuesday, October 6 View Page Relieved grower (got over the half ton mark). Tuesday, October 6 View Page Then we ate and hit the ever popular Pumpkinville ride - the cow ride! Tuesday, October 6 View Page Monday.....sitting on Phineas with a nice cold Sam Adams cherry wheat beer. Thanks mom and dad for betting on pumpkin weights. Got another bet with my dad going now as to how many seeds are in Phineas...Price is Right rules apply....winner gets a cup of coffee. Tuesday, October 6 View Page Phineas alone in the back of the truck. Tuesday, October 6 View Page The boys, me, and Phineas. Tuesday, October 6 View Page Cross section of Phineas. Had 0.75 to 1.75 inches of space between outside and seed cavity along the sag line. My dad carted Phineas' remains to the old fire pit in the back yard. I wanted to take time to thank my family who showed me patience and tolerance thoughout this season. I also wanted to thank all of my grower friends who offered advice or just a chuckle through amusing emails throughout the year. Mostly I wanted to thank my dad for throwing a pack of $1.50 Lowes brand giant pumpkin seeds at me in 2007 and challenging me to grow a bigger pumpkin than his. Both he and I have come a long way since we measured that 133.6 pound pumpkin on a bathroom scale in 2007. Thanks for all of your help Dad. I love you. What do you wanna wager for 2010?