Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 25 Entries. Thursday, May 1 View Page May 1 and I have yet to get a seed to hit the soil. I'm off at college and have a week left that will seem like forever. I have about half the patch prep done. It's kinda hard when your 4 hours away. We've had a wet spring anyways so maybe it will be good to start alittle later. Minnesota has had some unpredictible weather this year!! Heres the list to get done: -finish tilling/amending soil -finish hoop houses -START SEEDS!!! -heat up soil where planting This year I'm gonna just try two plants and leave my faith in just those. That way I'll have some more space to work with and a little less work for my already busy summer. Friday, May 9 View Page Got my first seeds to hit the dirt. This year I'm growing only 2 plants. I've started 5 seeds: -1016 Christensen -573.5 Fillmore -uow 365 Fillmore -823 Fritz (Orange genetics) -1087.5 Marsh The weather is finally getting more consistant so now let the pumpkins begin! Wednesday, May 14 View Page Got the patch completly tilled today and I have 2 seeds that have broken the soil. I also finished my cold frame/ wind shelter. Things are looking a lot better now. The weather is supposed to avererge mid to high 60's for the next week and a couple days in the 70's. All I have left to do is get the coldframe in the patch and wait for the rest of the seeds to break soil and then I'll be sitting pretty comfortable for awhile. Saturday, May 17 View Page Here are a few seedlings left inside. These are backups at the moment. I'm growing two plants this year and both went in the patch today. Saturday, May 17 View Page Here are a few seedlings left inside. These are backups at the moment. I'm growing two plants this year and both went in the patch today. Tuesday, June 24 View Page Haven't had any post in awhile but I haven't found the time. I'll probably have some pictures up either today or tomorrow but things are picking up in the patch. I'm about 2 weeks behind a normal year but my plants will be big enough come pollination time. Since most everything is 2 weeks behind it seems like the cuc beetles are too. Monday, June 30 View Page Say my first SVB of the year on Saturday sitting on one of my leaves. I thought they were supposed to be fast. I walked up and flicked him off and proceded to crush him with a foot. That put me on high alert so I sprayed with malothion and inspected Sunday, July 6 View Page we need rain! 88 here today with a heat index of 94 Tuesday, July 8 View Page Heres the patch on July 8th. The plant on the left is the 1171 Marsh and the 1087.5 Marsh on the right. Plants are behind still but it's enough for pollination time. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here is the first pumpkin pollinated on July 3rd. Tuesday, July 8 View Page This will probably be the keeper on the 1171 Marsh plant. It's about 12 feet out and pollinated on the 7th Friday, July 11 View Page Forgot to mention that we finally got some rain on Sunday night. We got about 1.5" and then probably another .5" later in the week. We got lucky because the system that moved through wasn't very big. Dodged a major storm yesterday by about 20 miles with 40 mph winds. It's 90 right now and really humid with it feeling like 99. We have some 20 mph winds right now that are cooling it down a little. Wednesday, July 23 View Page Took a trip to colorado this week. Haven't seen my pumpkins since Friday and won't get home till this Saturday. Hope everything is still good. I was worried because my pumpkins are gunna really start growing while I'm gone. I think I got them prepared enough. Wednesday, July 30 View Page Got two good pumpkins going right now. They are behind my fastest last year that split on August 15th but they are doing better than my 601 that I finished the season with. Both have good shape and don't have any characteristics of blossem ends that could split. They are both alittle over 150lbs right now and are growing almost 20lbs a day. Friday, August 15 View Page Measured and weighed a tomato tonight. 18.5" circumference and 2 lbs 3.5 ounces. It's a big one. Keeping to pumpkins on the down low but alls I can say is they are thumping solid. Maybe I can get another 20% heavy pumpkin like last year. Hope to get some pictures on. Friday, August 29 View Page Came back to college about a week ago. Hopefully my pumpkins will do OK without me there to watch over them. Did everything I could in preperation for the next month. My parents will be watching them but they can't notice things like the grower does. The fun part is that I won't get any measurments until I come back for the weigh off at the end of September in Stillwater. Hopefully I could see a 150-200 pound gain in these last 5 weeks if not more but they were starting to slow down on the last measurement. There might be a little stem stress problems but I think they will be fine. Monday, September 1 View Page 1171 Marsh Monday, September 8 View Page 19 days until the weighoff in Stillwater. Biggest pumpkn is 62 days old today. Hope to see some good pumpkins again this year at Stillwater. Nights are gettin' cold here. Supposed to get down to 38-39 tonight. Got pumpkins covered but it shouldn't be a problem. Got some nice ribs on the largest pumpkin. Been away from pumpkins for 2.5 weeks and am probably gonna get a suprise when I get back from school. Kinda in the dark as to how big they are right now. Sunday, September 14 View Page 1087.5 Marsh on day 69. Had the name wrong in the last post. Wednesday, September 24 View Page 2.5 days till the Stillwater weigh off. Don't have any pictures of my biggest but do have one of my smaller one. Last time I measured was August 22 and pumpkin estimated about 600+ but who knows how much it's grown since then. It's gonna be a surprise Friday afternoon when I get home from being at school for 5 weeks. Smaller pumpkin was about 75 pounds behind my biggest but it split this past weekend at a dill ring. Wednesday, September 24 View Page 2.5 days till the Stillwater weigh off. Don't have any pictures of my biggest but do have one of my smaller one. Last time I measured was August 22 and pumpkin estimated about 600+ but who knows how much it's grown since then. It's gonna be a surprise Friday afternoon when I get home from being at school for 5 weeks. Smaller pumpkin was about 75 pounds behind my biggest but it split this past weekend at a dill ring. Thursday, October 2 View Page 910.5 Fillmore 08 (1087.5 Marsh X Self) Thursday, October 2 View Page On it's way outta the patch the night before the weigh off. Tuesday, November 11 View Page Here is the 910.5 Fillmore a couple of weeks ago. I know a lot of people would be satisfied with that weight but with some of the problems I had this year like a pretty late start and a late pollination I think things could have gone better. I'm happy with a 300 pound PB and hope I get the time next year to grow. May have a summer job that has me pretty far away from home. Have my sights set on 1100 next time I grow. Tuesday, November 11 View Page Heres my other pumpkin from this year. Estimated around 850ish. Pumpkin split a week before the weighoff. A dill ring and a deep rib met and thats right where it split. You can see the dill ring in the cross section.