Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 11 Entries. Wednesday, July 27 View Page I am growing a 470 Connolly bushel gourd this year. Today is day 20 DAP and it is the smallest day 20 measurement I have ever had. I hoping it kicks into gear or I might pull the plant. Too much work for a small gourd. Day 20- 45cc Day 18- 38cc Day 17- 33cc � Wednesday, July 27 View Page The plant has been very strong and easy to grow. I�ve been spraying insecticides and fungicides weekly. Cucumber beetles love bushel gourds. The onslaught from them never ends, even with weekly sprays. I�m not happy with the shape of the gourd. It has a long neck similar to the one I grew a couple years ago. I did terminate the main vine right after the gourd and turned the side vine that the gourd is growing on into the new main vine. � Monday, August 1 View Page This years boneheaded event. A few days ago I sprayed insecticide and fungicide. I�ve been having heavy pressure from cucumber beetles. I sprayed the gourd as well. I left the cover off the gourd the following day and left for the day. I came back to this burn spot. Not sure if this is the end of the season for me or not. I hope it�s just superficial. � Monday, August 1 View Page We�ve been getting a lot of rain the past couple of weeks. The soil just doesn�t drain well. It�s about six inches of loam on top of heavy clay. The water goes through the loam and can�t go through the clay. It pools up and creates a pool of water in the soil profile. The plan this off-season is to install drain tile underneath to fix this. � Monday, August 29 View Page Amazingly, the fruit did not die from the burn. It scabbed over and has continued growing. It�s not going to be huge but I will take it to the fair in September. � Monday, August 29 View Page Close up of the burn spot. � Monday, August 29 View Page Plant is looking tired so not expecting much more growth. My plants always look like this at the end of the year with the oldest growth looking the worst. I�ve never known if this is just old age or if there a lack of some type of nutrient. I never was able to control the cucumber beetles even with weekly sprays. They�re everywhere on the plant. Luckily no gummy stem blight this year though. Maybe because of the new fungicide (Ranman) I used this year? � Thursday, September 22 View Page I will be loading up tomorrow night for the weigh-off on Saturday morning at the State Fair of Virginia. When I cut it off the vine tomorrow it will be 78 DAP. The last measurable growth was on day 74. I would love to see how many days bushel gourds grow from someone that has grown one on a scale. � Friday, September 23 View Page When I removed the vines there was no rot and rooting along the vines at just about every leaf junction. � Friday, September 23 View Page Getting her loaded � Friday, September 23 View Page Ready to go for tomorrow morning. I couldn�t find all of my ratchet straps so I had to make a spider web with rope. �