Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 107 Entries. Wednesday, March 25 View Page Here is my new plants about a week ago. I started them indoors under lights and have just started to introduce them to sunlight lol. Two are from 1300 plus pounders from canada and there are two from each of our pumpkins last year. it was our rookie year and we made an insane amount of mistakes but they still did well. Wednesday, March 25 View Page Here they are today. The smaller plants in background just got moved outside and are backup plants. we are taking our four best of the seven big ones which look like the two 1300 + seeds and our 790 seeds. Our 790 seeds are by far best looking though - but honestly all are out of basically same genetics hahahaha. Thank you again for all assistance last year. We will line holes with chicken wire tomorrow - gophers. Then fill in with high grade soil next week that is high percent ground coconut husk - going semi hydroponic again this year. Last year we got them in two months plus to late and don't want the same mistake this year hahaha. Thanks again. Steve ps. local hydroponics shop wants to donate a large hydroponics system this year with self filling resevoir but honestly it sounds like too much work hahahaha. has anyone tried this yet. Steve Wednesday, May 6 View Page Here is one of our plants. We are doing four this year and all about 3 1/2 feet long vines now. I put this photo on as it is a strange mutation in vine. It appears to have two to three main stems bound into one main stem. Has anyone seen this before? If so how do these plants do. Main stem is triple height of others and same width. Atleast twice as many leaves on main stem too. However side vines are not growing as quickly. Still at this point it is the dominant plant. Thanks. Steve Saturday, May 9 View Page Here is spot that third vine broke off from other two on main stem. I am thinking of cutting them off and leaving this one as it is healthy and seems to be a main vine also. It appears to have started as a triple stemmer and is down to a double stemmer with a third main stem lol. Anyone agree with this theory and also theory of cutting off other two and keeping this one. Should still be about 4 1/2 foot long vine and many months to grow. Thanks. Steve Saturday, May 9 View Page Here is another photo of third main stem after it has split from other two. I am thinking cut other two as i have split them with razorblade but this one is healthy naturally and they have been split. Any advice? Thanks. Steve Saturday, May 9 View Page Here are two mainstems that I split. I did this yesterday and both seem fine but personnally I like idea of cutting them off and keeping third main stem that split off naturally lol. Steve Saturday, May 9 View Page Here is overall view of our plants this year. We are raising four and three are 4 1/2-5 feet long. Our weather was 100 plus for a few days this weeks so really had to water like crazy. Gophers are giant pain here so this is why we have chicken wire under vines. It keeps them from getting to plants. They are also in holes lined with chicken wire too. This has kept them out. I think area is gopher free for now but - it only takes one to move in and destroy a plant. Thank you for all input. Steve Friday, May 15 View Page Here are our four babies this year. The three big ones are all a bit over 6 feet long and two have first pumpkins showing. last year we did not get the seeds into ground until may 15th and did not want to make that mistake again this year lol. These are all looking healthy and ribbon vine seems to have corrected itself on the one vine. Steve Friday, May 15 View Page Here is our first pumpkin of season. It is only going to be about 7 feet out but it is sure tempting to keep one of these early ones just to have one to play around with hahaha. Thanks. Steve Sunday, May 17 View Page Here is our garden. I am going to try to include my son in each photo and do two photos a week - using him as a size guide hahaha. Last year we did not even get our seeds in ground until may 15. This year our plants look this big at same time of year. We are very excited about our prospects. It is only our second year of growing so if you see any major mistakes - or minor ones hahaha - please feel free to comment as we are still very new to the game. It has been hundred plus every day this week but plants are growing insanely in this heat. Steve Wednesday, May 20 View Page Hi. Here is our plants as of today. The biggest is about 8' long from the stump and about 10' long overall. the other two big ones are right behind it. Our fourth is a couple weeks behind but growing well too. We wanted a better start than last year as our seeds didn't get into the ground until 15th of may last year. It is our second year so we are really excited. If you see any mistakes please let me know as it is only our second year and we are definitely still learning. Thanks. Steve Sunday, May 24 View Page This is first pumpkin pollinated of the season. It is only about 7 feet from stump so we did this one for practice and also - just in case hahahaha. Last year our best pumpkin was pollinated two months later than this and got to 790 - and was same distance out. But we were rushed for time last year and wanted to end up with something. This year really holds a lot of hope of some really big pumpkins. Thanks. Steve Sunday, May 24 View Page Here's our vines again. Our three big ones are all about same size. Fourth is a couple weeks behind them but growing well too. Three big ones are about 9' long from stump now and growing like crazy. Very fun hahahaha. Thanks. Steve Tuesday, May 26 View Page Here is first female flower on the vine that had ribbon vine. That seems to have corrected itself - with a bit of help lol - and is off and running. This flower is only about seven feet out so I pollinated it as a - if everything else fails pumpkin hahahaha. good practice though. The next one out on main vine should be right at ten feet and I will try to take that one as pumpkin for year. I have a nine year old son helping on this and can only keep him patient so long hahaha. Thanks again for all help. STeve Tuesday, May 26 View Page Here is our second female pollinated of season. Too close in for a keeper - unless all else fails of course hahaha. however it is good practice and makes me feel like season is truelly on. I think most of our keepers should be open and pollinated by next week. It is so nice to have gotten an early start this year. We were in so late last year it was just a race to get anything. I moved the string out by pumpkins for tying up keeper flowers. We are ready hahaha. Thanks. Steve Wednesday, May 27 View Page Here is another photo of our vines. They are growing like crazy now and I think our three big vines should have their pumpkins for the season pollinated this time next week. The fertilizer tea we have been using really seems to agree with them so we will keep that one going for a while - a couple months at least lol. Thank you again for any advice etc.. It is only our second year and last year was a short season so we are pretty rank amateurs yet lol. Steve Wednesday, June 3 View Page Here are our plants this week. They are getting big fast. All three big ones have a set pumpkin at about ten feet. I am going to try to pollinate their new ones at about 13 1/2 feet this week. At that point I am good as son gets out of school in a week and he is nine and I am single parent and there is only so much a man can do hahaha. It is beach season after all. We are watering daily with a seabird guana tea and then have soaker hoses running throughout area. This seems to work well for our area. Again I am single parent with a nine year old hahahaha. Our vines are looking really amazing though and we are getting lots of advice from a very good hydroponics shop. If you see any blaring mistakes please let me know. Oh. Gopher boxes has blocked out random gopher and and running chicken wire under main vines to block them out. none out there now but they are sneaky lol. steve Wednesday, June 3 View Page here is another angle of our vines this year. The three big ones are getting huge and the other is getting big but a couple weeks or so behind. My son was helping me nip tendrils and nipped main tip of main vine hahahahha on our small one a couple days ago. Luckily there is a pumpkin at about 9 feet or so out on main vine. We will keep this one and then try to train a secondary to be main vine. Have a great season. Steve Sunday, June 7 View Page Here are the plants as of today. I have the pumpkins set on three of the four vines that will be the keepers this year. The fourth should have one pollinated in two days. I have all except one pollinated at about 13 1/2' out from stump. The last is at about 9 feet out. I have to keep that one though as my son broke off tip of that ones main vine and this is farthest pumpkin out on main. luckily it was our youngest and smallest vine. I will train a secondary as the main vine - or try to hahahaha. We are still really new so it has been hard to cut off the pumpkins that were pollinated but too close in. They all look so good hahaha. good luck. Thanks. Steve Sunday, June 7 View Page Here they are at another angle. All the plants look healthy as hell right now but we have had some really good fertilizing advice at local hydroponics store. They are so knowledgable and have suggested some really interesting ideas. Thanks. Steve Wednesday, June 10 View Page Here are two culls we took off yesterday. I find this the hardest thing to do - cut off healthy happy pumpkins lol. However these were only out about 9 1/2 to ten feet from stump. New ones on those plants are at about 13 1/2' out and seem to be set. Barring something really wrong I think we are set with our keepers this year. All but one are out about 13 1/2 feet from stump - I have a nine year old growing partner and can only keep him - and me hahaha - patient for so long. Our vines this year are already almost as big as ours were last year at end of season so we are really looking forward to some big pumpkins. I just pollinated our last keeper this morning at 13 1/2 feet out. I will take off the back up that is at about 9-10 feet out in a couple of days. Thank you so much for all help and if you see any problems we are missing please let me know. I have some gardening experience but this is our second year with these giant pumpkins and I realize it is a whole different ball game. Goal this year - one 1100 plus pounder. Goal we dont talk about (hahahaha) three 1100-1200 pounders hahahaha. Thank you again. Steve Wednesday, June 10 View Page Here is latest photo of plants. The one on right end we are making a giant s curve with to make space for the pumpkin. All four appear to have set pumpkins though we will keep pollinating later pumpkins to be safe. Steve Wednesday, June 10 View Page here is our normal photo angle. The plants are getting so big though that I am trying different angles to get all of patch in. We are making a big s curve with the plant on this end to make room for pumpkin so it will not look like it has gotten a lot longer in this photo lol. Thanks. Steve Saturday, June 13 View Page Here is pumpkin one of our keepers this year. all are a few days to a week old now and all are at about 13 1/2" feet out except one - main broken at about 11 feet on that one. Steve Saturday, June 13 View Page this one is only a few days pollinated. i am pollinating the next pumpkins out on each vine to be safe. Steve Saturday, June 13 View Page this one and last are both from our 790 from last year. it averaged about 10 pounds a day from pollination but we did not even plant the seed until may 15th last year. it still won local contest and set new record by 70 pounds so we are quite excited to see how these two do this year. it is our second year of growing and we have high hopes for our patch this year. steve Saturday, June 13 View Page last of our pumpkins this year. only 9 1/2 feet out but my son accidentally nipped off the main about 2 feet after this one lol. better here than not at all I figured. Last year we got our seeds in so late that we had to take one that was only about 8 feet or less out and it averaged 10 a day from pollination so we are hoping for best with this one. Steve Wednesday, June 17 View Page Here is our pumpkin I think may be on our best plant. It was pollinated on 7th and is starting to take off. It is only 22" around widest point and it is football shaped hahaha but it is starting to go. weather here has been insanely cold for June. Usually in nineties this year it is in high sixties. warm weather is supposed to be coming later in week. Steve Wednesday, June 17 View Page here is our second. it is out of encell 790 hahaha. it is starting to jam too but is only a few days pollinated. we need warm weather. it is nuts really. we had rain twice last week and we live in a desert hahaha. high sixties instead of high nineties. steve Wednesday, June 17 View Page this one is also out of encell 790. mind you our 790 last year did not even get planted until may 15 so we were really pleased with its performance. especially considering it was our first year and we set new local record by 70 pounds. This one has an insane stem. it is much wider than any of the others though the pumpkin itself was only pollinated about 9 days ago. I am very excited about this one. thanks. steve Wednesday, June 17 View Page This is our biggest. It is out of pitura 1310. It is starting to take off now too. It grew almost 5" in last 24 hours and is measuring 26" around. it is only at about 81/2-9 feet out as my 9 year old son accidentally pruned off the growing tip of main vine at about 11 feet out. it is growing well though and we are training a secondary as main vine. Thanks. Steve Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is the pumpkin I culled today. I broke its stem half way through - A sideways break. I wanted to give it a chance but you can see that the side of the pumpkin thats vine didn't get broken was growing much faster than the broken side and in just two days it was becoming deformed. It was a good excuse to take the back up pumpkin on this plant that is at 17' out and looks really nice. Thanks. Steve Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is our biggest. It is starting to grow about 5 inches a day in circumfrence - really taking off. The others are right behind it but they are all really starting to explode. This is fun!!!!!! hahahaha. Thanks. Steve Monday, June 29 View Page Here is our largest pumpkin. It is 64" in circumfrence and has grown quite a bit in last eight days. I am starting to support main vine as it is starting to lift vine as it grows. It is about 22 days since germination. Steve Monday, June 29 View Page Here is second biggest pumpking. I believe it 50" in circumfrence and is 20 days today. It has an insanely thick stem - about as thick as a coke can. Eight days has made such a difference. We went away for a week and man have they grown. Steve Monday, June 29 View Page Here is third biggest. It is 42" today. It also has insanely thick stem. It is from same pumpkin as the second biggest and is 18 days since pollination. Steve Monday, June 29 View Page This one is about 11 days since pollination. It is on our biggest plant and is 17" from stump. I am excited to see what this one does. Steve Monday, June 29 View Page Here are our four plants. How big do we let them get? They are getting huge and about 30 feet long but I am not sure how big they are supposed to be. It is our second year and last year ours were in so late that I am guessing they never got to max size at all lol. Steve Thursday, July 2 View Page Here is our patch as of yesterday - four plants that are probably a bit closer to each other than I would like for next year hahaha. It is our second year and I really didn't anticipate how much they will grow but we have space so it is taking some creative pruning and training hahaha. steve Thursday, July 2 View Page Here is our patch as of yesterday - four plants that are probably a bit closer to each other than I would like for next year hahaha. It is our second year and I really didn't anticipate how much they will grow but we have space so it is taking some creative pruning and training hahaha. steve Thursday, July 2 View Page our biggest as of yesterday - measures approx 150 pounds today and is averaging about 18 right now per day. it will be one month pollinated in a few days. Steve Thursday, July 2 View Page here is our smallest but i think potentially our best pumpkin. It is out of a 1305 pound pumpkin - approx. lol. it is 17 feet from stump and on our biggest plant. i think it will catch up with our others in a week or so as it is really starting to steam along and measures about 52" circumference. it was pollinated about 2 1 /2 weeks ago - i have to check records for exact date but in that range lol. good luck. thanks for all assistance. i will add a couple more photos later. steve Sunday, July 5 View Page Here is our biggest pumpkin this year - so far. It is measuring about 210 pounds today and broke the 200 mark. It appears to be growing about 18-20 per day. 300 next sunday? hahahahaha. I hope so - or more of course hahaha. Sunday, July 5 View Page Here is a second angle of "elmo". It is not my fault - my nine year old son named it hahaha. Its my dad's first year and he is claiming his two are just behind this one - high 170 pound range. I am giving him pointers over the phone and I gave him two well started plants from my big pumpkin - Encell 790 - from last year. I should have waited a few weeks to start his seeds hahaha. Sunday, July 5 View Page This one is measuring at about 130 pounds and is growing well but I think it will be passed by all the others - still it has been maintaining good growth. Sunday, July 5 View Page Second angle of "frankenpumpkin". We have decided that its mutant large stem and sort of odd shape - even for a pumpkin hahaha - call for a cool name. Sunday, July 5 View Page Here is our other pumpkin from Encell 790 this year. It is growing fast is measuring also at about 130. Both it and Frankenpumpkin were pollinated on about the same day too. Interesting - something in the genetics apparantly. both turn 30 days from pollination in about three days. both have been gaining approx. the same rate too but I think this one will win out and hopefully pass all of them. Sunday, July 5 View Page Second angle of the last pumpkin - Son of Godzilla - Its mother was named Godzilla hahaha. Last year was our first year and that pumpkin did so well for us it is hard not to have its offspring be our favorite - prejudice in the pumpkin patch - who would have thought it possible hahaha. Sunday, July 5 View Page Here is our last one. It will probably turn out to be our best as it is growing like crazy and is about 2 weeks younger than the others. It is measuring about 80 pounds today and is about 17 feet from stump. Its long wierd shape is probably good but it looks a lot longer than any of the others hahaha. Are we the only ones naming our pumpkins hahaha. This one is "Pumpkitron 3000. Doesn't mean anything but sounds cool hahahaha. Monday, July 6 View Page Here is split in stem. Luckily it is our least interesting plant. It goes all the way into cavity of pumpkin as far as I can tell. Can it be saved. If nothing else I will try anti fungal foot powder and duct tape. Thanks. Steve Thursday, July 9 View Page Howdy. I am starting with smallest first this time. This one is weighing at about 150 and is about 2 weeks or so younger than the others but growing fast. It also had foaming stump but I think I may have corrected. The plant is huge and this one is putting on about 18 per day right now - pounds. Steve Thursday, July 9 View Page Here is our second biggest pumpkin. It taped out to about 30 pounds growth yesterday. Up until now it has been averaging about 20. I think it will catch up with our biggest soon. This one is out of our big pumpkin from last year so it is our favorite hahaha. steve Thursday, July 9 View Page here is the one with the split near stem. I can see into the cavity but have split covered with duct tape and filled with foot powder. It is still gaining strong so I am going to keep it on as an experiment. It has grown over 50 pounds in three days - by measurement of course. Could weigh a bit light hahaha. Steve Thursday, July 9 View Page here is the one with the split near stem. I can see into the cavity but have split covered with duct tape and filled with foot powder. It is still gaining strong so I am going to keep it on as an experiment. It has grown over 50 pounds in three days - by measurement of course. Could weigh a bit light hahaha. Steve Thursday, July 9 View Page Here's our biggest. It is about 270 pounds and growing about 18-20 a day steadily. Thursday, July 9 View Page Here is the infamous foaming stump. I drilled bottom of cavity today so it can't build up any "stump juice" then dug away excess dirt to a good ways down below infected area. I also cleaned away all decaying matter then let it dry and sprayed with anti fungal foot powder - I don't know where to find Captan in our area. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page Here is now what is our second biggest pumpkin lol. It got passed yesterday by our fastest growing one. It is about 320 pounds right now. This one is still putting on about 18-20 a day average but for about 5 days the other has averaged 30 and that is a big difference lol. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page Here is our biggest now. It is packing on about 30 pounds a day now and has kept it up for 5 days. Its only our second year so I don't know how long this can go on for at this rate but it is fun to watch hahaha. It is circumfrence 109 today. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page Here is our smallest though it is coming on fast at about 20 pounds plus per day now. Its about 250 but is about two weeks behind the others. It was an experiment to put it out at about 17 feet from the stump. it is on our biggest plant too but honestly one of my others at 13 1/2 feet out and not quite as big of a vine is beating it at this point by about 10 pounds a day. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page Here is our smallest though it is coming on fast at about 20 pounds plus per day now. Its about 250 but is about two weeks behind the others. It was an experiment to put it out at about 17 feet from the stump. it is on our biggest plant too but honestly one of my others at 13 1/2 feet out and not quite as big of a vine is beating it at this point by about 10 pounds a day. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page This photo says it all. My son has a good sense of humor hahahaha. Steve Monday, July 13 View Page This is the one with the sidewall split at the stem area. Last time I checked you could see into the cavity but I have sprayed it with antifungal foot powder and covered wound with duct tape and it is still putting on about 18-20 pounds per day and is around 250 today. Steve Wednesday, July 15 View Page Here is our biggest. It caught up and passed everybody that was pollinated at about the same time. It was pollinated on 6/8 I believe and measured 117 cc today. It is putting on at least 30 pounds a day now and I think 35 yesterday. All looks healthy but what do I know. It is only our second year and I really know squat about what to look out for and how to do this hahahaha. Steve Wednesday, July 15 View Page Here is number two. It is averaging about 18 pounds per day steady but is on the smallest plant and only about 8 1/2 feet out as my nine year old son broke off the main stem right after that by accident hahaha. I think I am going to start applying a bit of extra potassium to this one and see if I can really jump start it. It should be 400 with in a couple days but the others are growing way faster. steve Wednesday, July 15 View Page Here is our now third biggest. It passed the fourth yesterday and is packing on about 30 pounds per day now. I think the foaming stump is corrected now and I think the stump juice removal system was a bit extreme but worked hahahaha. I am hoping this one will catch up with number one pumpkin or at least keep up. This one is 17 plus feet out from the stump and on biggest plant - but only a bit bigger. However the one at 13 1/2 feet out is off to the races at this point and grow a bit faster so hard to see this one catching up right away hahahaha. It is fun to watch them grow!!!! Steve Ps. Thank you so much for all advice. It is only our second year and last year was a short season so we are encountering a multitude of crazy problems but advice has gotten us through them so far. Steve Monday, July 20 View Page Here is our second biggest. It has really started to kick in now and is weighing in at about 420. It starting to measure 30 pound days now for a few days in a row. We have about 40 days of really solid grow time to go so I am excited to see what happens lol. Steve Monday, July 20 View Page This is our number one pumpkin. It has been doing a solid 30 pounds per day plus for about 10 days or so now and is measuring out at about 540. In two day it should be as big as our second biggest pumpkin was last year - at the end of season lol. It is starting to look like a giant tomato hahahaha. I think we will paint it red for contest if it is still shapped like this in mid october. with 40 plus days of really solid grow time left we have no idea of what to expect but are figuring at least one of ours should hit over 1000 pounds this year - however with the size they are right now and amount of grow time we have left we are hoping for 1400 pounds plus this year. We still have sort of decent grow time after Sept first all the way until contest in mid October. Steve Tuesday, July 21 View Page This used to be our biggest and is now our third biggest - out of four hahahaha. Its about 420 our so but its performance is not that great lately. About 10 pounds a day or so I am estimating. Still it has almost three months to go but it had its main stem broken at 9 feet out - just past this pumpkin. I trained a secondary as the main vine after this. Luckily we had back up pumpkins this year lol. steve Thursday, July 23 View Page Here's our smallest. It had some problems with main vine but is still averaging about 15 plus a day pounds. It should hit 500 tomorrow. Steve Thursday, July 23 View Page here is our second biggest. it broke 500 today and is about 2 weeks or so younger than the smallest pumpkin. It appears to be averaging somewhere around 25-30 a day but to be honest as long as it is growing it is getting so hard to measure accurately that i am focusing more on the weekly differences. Steve Thursday, July 23 View Page Here is our biggest. It has somehow grown to where it is sitting on its blossom and is shaped like a giant tomatoe hahahahaha. It is still averaging about 30 pounds a day but to be honest is getting really hard to measure. Again i am focusing on weekly gain as worrying about daily gains would drive me insane - it is so hard to measure it. It is 136 circumfrence today - 600 pounds. we have forty more days of really prime grow time and then 1 1/2 months of much slower grow time so we have no idea of how big this baby can get. its ultimate genetics were a 1300 x a 1384 so they seem pretty sound. steve Thursday, July 23 View Page here's a shot of our biggest one's stem. It has been massive like this since this pumpkin was about 20 pounds. This pumpkin looked so like it was built for speed from the time it was about the size of a volley ball hahahaha. Steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page here is our number two pumpkin. it is growing about 25 pounds a day plus and is measuring 600 today. I think in long run it may be our biggest but our biggest is still growing faster now. steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page here's a different angle of number two pumpkin. it hit six hundred pounds today. Steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page Here's our number one pumpkin. It is still averaging about 25-30 pounds a day but is getting very hard to measure hahaha. Circumfrence is 143" = 700 pounds today. I am probably going to start measuring every few days as it is getting so hard to measure accurately. Steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page here is our number one pumpkin from a different angle. This thing looks like a giant heirloom tomatoe hahaha. Steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page heres our number 3 pumpkin. Its weighing in at about 550. It was our biggest - a while back hahaha. it is only growing about 15 pounds a day but it is steady and has been doing this for a long time. Steve Tuesday, July 28 View Page Here's a second angle of our number 3 pumpkin. It is looking very good but just not as fast of a grower as the other two. My nine year old accidentally snapped of tip of main vine at 9 1/2 feet. I had to train a secondary as main vine and this pumpkin is only about 8 feet ish from the stump. steve Thursday, July 30 View Page Here is photo of where I have raised the soil and then compacted it with a shovel. I also buried some small logs and stones in the area and spread it out a bit. I won't be measuring this pumpkin for a week lol. I am hoping this will stop the sinking away from the main vine it has been doing. Next photo will show where stem split a bit. It was starting to pull away from the main vine. I have not been able to relieve the tension on main vine much and I think that this is because the weight of the pumpkin has been forcing it away from the main vine. I think this is also what caused the pumpkin next to it to split at stem so drastically. It seems like the soil is settling and they are shifting away from main vines as it does. Has anyone else had this problem. I have seen more and more stress on stem area where it connected to main vine but kept trying to loosen tension and had not realized it was just plain settling away from vine hahaha. Steve Thursday, July 30 View Page Here is a shot of the stem crack area. Bear in mind this stem is about twice as wide as a coke can and very thick. It appears to be just growing away from the main vine at this point. I put anti fungal foot powder in cracks and will add more tomorrow. It is about 1 inch deep into sidewall at deepest area so hopefully compacting and raising the soil around this will stop any further growth way from main vine. I also cut a few more tap roots to reduce some more tension. Any advice is most appreciated. It is interesting that our big pumpkin last year had similiar problem and was grown in same area. I think the weight of these is just causing them to sink away from the vines. Steve Friday, August 7 View Page this pumpkin should end up being our best. it is out of a 1300 plus pounder and it just hit 800 lbs today. It seems to be averaging about 23-27 pounds a day and steady. it is 17 1/2' out from the stump. i love the shape of this one. it seems to just grow in all directions now. steve Friday, August 7 View Page Same pumpkin - slightly different angle lol. steve Friday, August 7 View Page Here is another pumpkin. This is our smallest and it is measuring a bit under 600 lbs right now. thanks. Steve Thursday, August 13 View Page Here's our big one as of yesterday. It is measuring in at approx 900 pounds as of yesterday. It appears to be growing approx 22-25 pounds a day but solidly and for a while now. Steve Thursday, August 13 View Page Here's another angle of our big orange outdoor chair hahaha. Steve Wednesday, August 19 View Page Here's a shot of our biggest. Thankfully its long wide shape has stopped it from sinking into the ground the way the rounder ones did. It is still packing on weight at at least 20 pounds a day and hit 1000 about a day ago. The leaves are starting to show some wear though with brown around edges on some and stuff like this. Still fifty percent of plant looks pretty healthy and fifty is showing age lol. We are hoping for good growth through around first week into sept and then we should have no frost until after local contests so hopefully some growth then too. now we are just trying to keep it alive and healthy mostly though - no problems is the goal now. Steve Wednesday, August 19 View Page Here is a good shot of some of the plant. This is only our second year growing and last year was a short season to boot so I am not sure if the brown edges on the leaves are normal or not for this far along and this size pumpkin etc. It is 17 1/2 feet out from stump and was pollinate on 6/17 I believe so about 2 months old. Any info is most appreciated. As is all the advice we have gotten so far. Steve Wednesday, August 19 View Page One more angle of "pumpkitron 3000" hahaha. It is our biggest pumpkin yet and is also the biggest one we have ever seen in real life. Sort of looks prehistoric hahaha. Steve Wednesday, August 26 View Page Here is our biggest today. It is measuring 1100 pounds today approx.. it seems to still be growing about an inch a day in circumfrence. I am not sure how much longer of this sort of growth we'll get but the weather has finally gotten hot again - about 100 degrees today. we have about 51 days until local contest. Steve ps i did this shot again to show difference in size from 12 days ago Wednesday, August 26 View Page here it is from another angle. we have never been to one of the big contests so it is biggest one we have seen in real life hahaha. steve Wednesday, September 2 View Page here is a good angle i have not used before on this pumpkin. it had a healthy vine that was blocking this angle before hahaha. poor plant is looking rough. pumpkin is over 1100 but i am only measuring once a week now as it is driving me crazy measuring and finding an extra inch circumfrence. tape keeps falling off etc hahahaha. ps. it is 105-112 every day right now so the kid is melting hahaha. Steve Friday, September 4 View Page Here's another view of our big one from two days ago. it is getting so hard to measure i have just given up and wait until the end of the week. It is so long and wide that i am very curious how it will weigh out. i only am doing circumfrence and should be over 1100. our contest is 41 days away though. i hope i can keep it alive that long hahaha. well i am really only doing it for me anyhow hahaha. steve Friday, September 4 View Page here's another angle. its blossom end is looking a bit obsene hahaha. it is starting to cantelope a lot and looks like the same height and width of a normal pumpkin but twice as long. steve Friday, September 4 View Page one more angle. now that the plant is really starting to wear down i can get photos from angles i couldn't before. Steve Thursday, September 10 View Page one good thing about not having many leaves left on the plant is that i can get new angles for photos on the pumpkins. Here is our big one. It is still growing but slow - i am guessing only about 5-7 pounds a day. Still it is over 1100 so not bad for our second year at all. with 36 more days until the contest i am hoping for 1200. Thanks again for all assistance and advice. Steve Thursday, September 10 View Page wierdo pumpkin. I let this one grow on the plant that lost its 850-900 pound one to a gopher colony cave in - something caused the soil to collapse under it and it snapped off the vine and split lol. Crazy. anyhow to make matters worse this its second pumpkin and is about 250-300 pounds and looks like a muffin hahahaha. well maybe it will hit 4-450 by contest. still this plant produced some pumpkin weight hahaha. steve Sunday, September 27 View Page Here's a CORNicopia of our indian corn from this year. We started selecting out red kernals a batch of years ago from normal ears of indian corn and bred up this. Almost all our corn is mostly red and all of these are shades of pure red - most of the crop this year. next year we will really have enough to plant a big crop of pure red kernels. We are breeding towards the really dark garnet red ears that you see some of in photos. However all the red colored ears look amazing. We'll get a few pumpkin photos up tomorrow. steve Sunday, September 27 View Page same corn different angle. Steve Friday, October 9 View Page I"m unfortunately taking the photos for this event so I am not in any hahaha. Here is the speculation stage of how to move them. we started with the small one first in case our theories were wrong hahahaha. Friday, October 9 View Page Now we're ready for the big boy hahaha. This one should be around 1100. not bad for second year. Thank you for all assistance and advice. it is most appreciated. Steve Friday, October 9 View Page This is a great shot. My ten year old was supposed to take photos but lost interest so I am in none of photos on this but thought I better preserve these images for future generations hahaha. Thanks again. Steve Friday, October 9 View Page More speculations and coming up with theories hahaha. This time its for the big one so the stakes are a bit higher hahaha. Thanks. Steve Friday, October 9 View Page one last photo with the kids all in it. Steve Saturday, October 17 View Page Season two is ended. Thank you so much for all advice and help this year. Our winning pumpkin this year was the one we had to get the foaming stump juice out with a straw pumpkin hahaha. It hit 1065 but we had to cut it a week ahead of contest so may have lost a bit of weight. We won local contest again and broke last years record by 275 pounds. Our record from last year. I know it is only because of great advice and I highly appreciate it. Thank you again. Steve ps. It taped 1100. Saturday, October 17 View Page My dad, my son and I with our winning pumpkin. Steve Saturday, October 17 View Page Contest breakdown of prizes. Our "Oh sh%^!!!!" pumpkin came in second in contest. It was a good plant and pumpkin but grown in a tiny area in corner of garden - about 10x10 or less. Probably sort of place most "oh @#it!!!!" pumpkins are grown hahaha. thank you again for all advice and encouragement. I am really looking forward to year three. i finally feel like we have some idea of what we are doing and look forward to not being complete novices for a season. Steve Saturday, October 17 View Page One photo of just our pumpkin. Not sure how something this heavy bowed upwards but our soil seems to be pretty unsettled at best. I think what saved this one is its length. too long to sink down hahaha. Steve