Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 117 Entries. Sunday, February 17 View Page This is my first attempt at growing a truly giant pumpkin. Have grown Dill's Atlantic Giant before, but this is the first year I have obtained seeds from other giants thanks to the generosity of other growers, the GVGO raffle and also the PECPGA. Tore up a new 50 x 60 ft. patch in the fall (our "regular garden" is about 70 x 80 ft. and is still always overcrowded, thus the need for more space), added 4.5 yards of horse manure, tilled it in and planted a cover crop of winter rye and hairy vetch. The straw-covered corner of the patch has garlic planted in it. The plan is to harvest the garlic in July and then let the vines grow into that spot. I hope the timing of that works out, I have a feeling I'll be scrambling to get the garlic out of the way as the vines attempt to engulf it. We'll see. Sunday, February 17 View Page The guard dogs are ready to protect those pumpkins! Sunday, March 16 View Page Here are some of the seeds I'm considering growing this year. These came as a package deal from some very large pumpkins, the 1378 Pitura is the 2nd largest ever grown in Canada. Sunday, March 16 View Page Here are a few sent to me by a very generous and accomplished grower in Idaho. Sunday, March 16 View Page And here it is for you NCAA fans, my #1 seed overall, the 842 Eaton '02. I was extremely lucky to receive this seed from the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario raffle. At first I didn't realize what a great seed this is, but after Googling it and doing some research I now know that it is highly sought after and increasingly rare. Maybe I'll cross it with the 1378 Pitura and see what happens. If I can also get lucky with the germination, that is. Sunday, April 27 View Page This year's lineup: The 842 Eaton '02, a 1016 Christensen '07, a 1040 Christensen '07, a 1091.5 Vader '07, a 966.9 Vincent-McGill '07 and a 1378.5 Pitura '07. The 842 and the 1378 are the two I am growing if they germinate, the rest are backups and possibly for our gardening customers. Sunday, April 27 View Page The seeds are going in! Embryos, start your engines! Sunday, April 27 View Page This is the seed, the myth, the legend. Now nearly 6 years old, hopefully it will germinate without any problems. Everyone has their fingers, claws and tendrils crossed..... Tuesday, May 6 View Page The 1378 Pitura 2 days ago, just breaking the soil. Tuesday, May 6 View Page The same plant today, next to a "regular" Dill's Atlantic Giant. That's a gigantic cotyledon! Tuesday, May 6 View Page The 966 Vincent-McGill wins the germination race, popping out of the soil 2 days ago. Tuesday, May 6 View Page The same plant today, just beautiful. Tuesday, May 6 View Page The pumpkin patch with wheelbarrows of horse manure ready to be spread out. Tuesday, May 6 View Page And after the spreading. Tuesday, May 6 View Page Back to the plants, the 1091 Vader is a nice looking one too. Tuesday, May 6 View Page As for the 842 Eaton, it's lagging behind all the others but holy cow, I think it's gonna make it! Friday, May 23 View Page Here's the 1040 Christensen today. I definitely had planned to have all these in the ground by now but it's been way chilly, nights in the low 40s even upper 30s some nights. They're going in tomorrow and will only have to endure one more night in the 40s before it is warming up. Friday, May 23 View Page The 842 Eaton has caught up nicely after a slow germination. Friday, May 23 View Page The 1091 Vader, looking ready for more nitrogen! Friday, May 23 View Page The 1378 Pitura, amazingly still standing upright! Maybe it will grow into a tree form and save me a lot of space. Tuesday, May 27 View Page Here's a picture of the small tents of row cover I have over the young plants. The patch sits at the top of a hill and the wind up there can be brutal at times. I'm also expecting an early onslaught of insects and since I'm doing this organically, I'll need all the help I can get. Tuesday, May 27 View Page Here's the 842 Eaton on Memorial Day morning, a little wilty but otherwise looking good. I don't anticipate any problems with too much water causing cracking up here, it is well-drained and the soil dries out fast - sometimes too fast. Tuesday, May 27 View Page The 1378 Pitura, looking quite happy. It is no longer standing, I think it will be a vine after all! Tuesday, May 27 View Page And on the Pitura, after just 36 hours in the field, UNDER ROW COVER, I found this small green caterpillar where I noticed that 2 leaves were stuck together. Right in the center of the photo you can see his black head. It was smashed mercilessly right after this picture was taken. Not the first pest I expected to see, but the battle has begun. Wednesday, June 4 View Page This was the Pitura on Monday morning, 2 days ago. It still looks great, I looked at it again yesterday while fertilizing and it's starting to push on the row cover a little bit - time to make the tent bigger! Wednesday, June 4 View Page And the Eaton, a little more compact and sturdier looking. With all the rain we've had lately and 90 degree weather coming this weekend, I have a feeling these guys are about to take off! Sunday, June 8 View Page The 842 Eaton last evening, starting to vine, of course in the opposite direction that I want it to go in. Nothing a little gentle turning can't fix! Sunday, June 8 View Page Here is the 1378 Pitura last evening as well. As you can see the vine is off and running, today both plants will get their 10x15 foot piece of row cover over them which will keep the bugs off until they outgrow it. In this heat, that won't be very long! We had our first wicked-hot day of the season yesterday with 3 more to follow, then it is "cooling off" to the upper 80s. Don't stand close to the plants for too long, they might run you over! Sunday, June 8 View Page Strawberry season is here, and there are just a "few" this year (ha ha). :) Sunday, June 8 View Page Here is a photo of our new and improved tallest teepee ever, 12 feet high in the center. Special thanks to Nick and Chelsie for the extra hands putting it up. Thursday, June 12 View Page Ahhhhhhh, the first mating squash bugs of summer, on one of my regular pumpkin seedlings. I hope they had fun, because it was their last act before they were beheaded. Thursday, June 12 View Page Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the first mating cucumber beetles of summer - OK, by now you should know what happened to them. Thursday, June 12 View Page The 842 Eaton last night. It is a thing of beauty right now, I hope I can keep it that way all year. Thursday, June 12 View Page Me standing between the new and improved larger tents that the giants are under right now. The row cover is rolled up a bit at one end so I can make the tents bigger when I have to, which is going to be shockingly soon! Thursday, June 12 View Page And the Pitura last night, starting to grow some legs! Thursday, June 12 View Page The Pitura is sporting the first female flower of the season! Sunday, June 15 View Page The 842 Eaton this morning, finally starting to go in the right direction. The stem on this plant is very thick and has been getting wider and flatter lately, and today it looks like it is splitting into 2 vines. Sunday, June 15 View Page Here's the tip of the Eaton, dividing into two "main" vines. Definitely interesting. Sunday, June 15 View Page That stem is just crazy right there. Sunday, June 15 View Page The Pitura, starting to get side vines and starting to put down roots along the main vine. Pretty soon I'm going to have to stand across the street to get the whole plant in one picture! Sunday, June 15 View Page "I love the sexy slither of a lady snake. Ohhhhh, baby." - Barry White Thursday, June 19 View Page The 842 Eaton last evening. Thursday, June 19 View Page And the Eaton from another angle doing it's best serpent impression, sticking it's head up to see where it wants to go next. I love this picture, it makes the plant seem like it has a mind of it's own. The growing tip of the plant has split into two vines, one of which is low to the ground and the other one you see sticking up here. Thursday, June 19 View Page Here's a good shot of the double vine that has developed. The upper portion is still rather thick, I wonder if it has the potential to split again? Thursday, June 19 View Page And one more shot from head-on, this photo kind of reminds me of the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors". I could've sworn last night while I was in the patch I heard someone say "Feeeeeeeed Meeeeeee"! Thursday, June 19 View Page And here's the Pitura now, not quite as photogenic, but I won't hold that against it. It is sending out crazy amounts of side vines already, I have to make some pruning decisions very soon. It will also outgrow it's row cover tent before the Eaton will, possibly as soon as Friday it will be uncovered and fending for itself against the forces of nature. I've also started mounding the soil around the main vines of both plants to help facilitate the extra root growth which occurs at every node. Sunday, June 22 View Page The uncovering of the plants happened yesterday even though they both still had a little room under their tents. It was a nice calm day with very little wind so I decided it was about as good a day as any. Here is the Pitura, almost 9 feet long now but still without any more female flowers on the main stem. They should be appearing very soon, I hope! Sunday, June 22 View Page Here is the newly uncovered Eaton, after it's pruning which I decided was necessary. After some research and thought, I decided that one half of the double vine had to go. Ultimately there will only be one pumpkin growing on the entire plant, so the other half of the vine would just be growing vegetation and robbing the growing fruit of nutrients and water. I took off the half that was sticking up like a serpent head in a previous picture, it had fallen to the ground under it's own weight and the stem was kinked, kind of like what happens to a hose sometimes. Not broken, but not ideal either, so I decided to leave the other half. However, when I made the pruning cut I ran into another predicament....... Sunday, June 22 View Page Here is a closeup of the stem of the Eaton after it's pruning. If you look into the center of where I cut off the extra vine, there is a hole that you can see right through into the remaining main vine. Usually, there is a solid membrane at all connecting points on the plant (anywhere stems branch off or leaves are attached) to create a natural barrier in case leaves or stems break off so that insects and diseases can't just walk right in to the vine. I couldn't just leave a hole there large enough for insects to enter, so my solution was to cover it with a piece of aluminum foil for now. I will check it in a week or so to see if it heals closed. If not, I will probably have to keep it covered all season. Even rain water getting in there could be bad, it could start to rot the vine from the inside out. Sunday, June 22 View Page It's a two horse race, with the Pitura in the background holding almost a two foot lead. Thursday, June 26 View Page Here is a new picture of the plants from last night. It has been very dry lately, luckily we got a storm on Monday night but it didn't amount to a lot of rain. I've been watering them when I can but they are starting to require more and more as they grow and I hope Mother Nature can help out with that soon! Thursday, June 26 View Page The Pitura, now near 11 feet. There are a couple of female flowers appearing on side vines, but still no more on the main. I will wait a few more days before I start to panic! Thursday, June 26 View Page And here is the Eaton, still without a single female flower in sight. I began feeding them a fertilizer 10 days ago called "Blossom Booster" with a crazy formula of 0-52-34. I am going to boost me some female flowers out of these plants one way or another! Thursday, June 26 View Page Here is the biggest female on a side vine of the Pitura. I didn't even notice it until after I snapped the photo, but you can see that something made the vine break just beyond the flower. That needed to get pruned off and the female flower will eventually too. I am leaving it for now, if for no other reason than to make me feel good about having a female flower! Thursday, June 26 View Page Here is the biggest female on a side vine of the Pitura. I didn't even notice it until after I snapped the photo, but you can see that something made the vine break just beyond the flower. That needed to get pruned off and the female flower will eventually too. I am leaving it for now, if for no other reason than to make me feel good about having a female flower! Thursday, June 26 View Page Just a little perspective on how big some of the leaves are. I didn't measure them, but I think some are 18 inches across. Thursday, June 26 View Page Here is Larry the trailer inspector and rodent patrol specialist with the pumpkin patch in the background. Thursday, June 26 View Page Here is Larry the trailer inspector and rodent patrol specialist with the pumpkin patch in the background. Sunday, June 29 View Page Here is the Eaton this morning. My organic method of insect control (which I call "spray and smash") is working well, there are just a few cucumber beetles which I can live with as long as I can keep their numbers small. I spray Pyola on the stems and sometimes the surrounding soil and I grab and smash any that try to get away. It can be time consuming, but it is recreational for me. They don't need to be eradicated, just kept under control, and by not spraying chemicals we have a healthy spider population and other beneficials that help out. I occasionally spray the soil thoroughly as well to allow some Pyola to soak down to the root system - this takes care of eggs and larvae, thereby hitting all stages of the cucumber beetle life cycle. This is key to population control. Sunday, June 29 View Page Whoops, that was the wrong photo. Here is the right one. I guess I should only do one thing at a time! Sunday, June 29 View Page And here is the Pitura this morning. Now at 14.5 feet, it is finally showing a tiny female buried in the tip of the main stem. It is too small to photograph, I had to be extremely careful looking for it so as not to break the tip of the plant. It is probably two weeks away from being ready to pollinate, which is later than I had hoped, but maybe that will turn out to be good. They say that the biggest pumpkins typically will be 14 to 18 feet out from the stump, and that's right where it will be! Sunday, June 29 View Page Here is the biggest female on a side vine of the Pitura. It has developed quickly and looks like it will open tomorrow. Even though it will be removed before too long, I am planning on pollinating it as a practice run for when the real important ones are ready. Sunday, June 29 View Page Here is the first female showing up on a side vine of the Eaton. The main also has a tiny, tiny female still buried in the tip, but it is still nice to be able to see one coming, especially on my birthday! Sunday, June 29 View Page Here is my aluminum foil covering on the Eaton where I took off half of the double vine. I looked in there this morning and the hole doesn't seem to have closed at all, so this might have to stay on there all season. Sunday, June 29 View Page Here's a head-on shot of both plants as they march forward, and towards each other. It is nice to see the soil moist for a change, we had a whole quarter inch of rain yesterday, but it's better than nothing. The majority of the storms in this area have missed us lately and it was starting to look like the desert up there. Sunday, June 29 View Page A shot of the "other half" of my pumpkin patch, a nice variety of pumpkins, gourds and winter squashes. Wednesday, July 2 View Page Here is the Eaton as of today. The plants are getting harder to manage by the day, with all the side vines that need to be buried now, and pruned, watered, fertilized, etc. It's definitely been worth it though, they look great. Wednesday, July 2 View Page Here's the Pitura. As you can see, the ground is back to dust, no rain since Saturday. Wednesday, July 2 View Page Here is the female coming on the Pitura's main stem, finally. It is going to be about 17 to 18 feet from the main stump, should be a very good spot. Wednesday, July 2 View Page This is the female I pollinated Monday morning on a side vine of the Pitura. It is almost baseball sized already! Wednesday, July 2 View Page Here is a little perspective on how large some of the leaves are. I'm also trying to teach the plants how to produce paper money, but so far that's been very unsuccessful. Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is the Eaton today. I didn't measure it, but I'd say it's getting close to 17 feet. Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is the female on the Eaton main stem that I am hoping will be ready to pollinate in about 10 days. There's one on a side stem I'm going to pollinate in a few days just like I did on the Pitura, for practice. Sunday, July 6 View Page Some of the roots along the buried stems are exposed a little bit after the rain we had yesterday. The plants are developing some massive root systems right now so they can make a massive pumpkin! Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is the Pitura today. It is probably getting close to 20 feet in length. You can see the tip of the Eaton in the lower right as well. Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is the Pitura's female coming on the main stem. It is more egg-shaped than the Eaton's fruit, and it's a couple of days ahead of that one as well. I'm hoping this one will be ready in a week. Then it will be go time. Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is the side vine fruit on the Pitura that I pollinated 6 days ago. It looks good, it's about the size of a large grapefruit and it's got a super awesome long stem. I hope the one on the main develops that too. This fruit will get cut off probably a few days after I pollinate the main flower, once I am sure that pollination was a success. We want every ounce of energy going into one fruit and one fruit alone. Sunday, July 6 View Page Here is an awesome six-lobed male flower on the Pitura. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here is the female on the Pitura that is going to open tomorrow. I had estimated that it would be a least a few more days but apparantly this one is chomping at the bit to get growing! It looks like it has a beautiful long stem just like the one on the side vine. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here is one of the Eaton males that will be doing the impregnating early tomorrow morning. With my help, of course. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Us crazies who like to perform exact crosses with our plants must cover the flowers the night before they open so bees don't contaminate the pollen inside with foreign pollen. Here's the same Eaton flower with a small piece of row cover tied down over it. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here's the first Eaton female on the main stem, also ahead of schedule from my original estimate. Maybe opening Friday or Saturday? Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here's the Pitura female all ready for tomorrow. Tuesday, July 8 View Page Here's a shot of the giants side by side. They continue to amaze me, I think I am hooked on this insane pumpkin thing. It is also a very anxious time right now since bacterial wilt has shown up on the zucchini in our main garden and we have had bouts with it before. It is spread by the cucumber beetles, whose populations remain fairly low. Unfortunately, it only takes one infected beetle to spread it and with the rapid growth of all our cucurbits it's becoming very difficult to keep a lid on them. I'm already thinking about improvements for next year, like maybe using nematodes to kill the larvae and keeping row cover on longer. For the rest of this year I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying, both approved organic methods! Wednesday, July 9 View Page Here is the Pitura fruit this evening after what I hope was a succesful fertilization this morning. Wednesday, July 9 View Page And here is the Eaton female ready for action tomorrow. Wednesday, July 9 View Page Here is the Pitura side vine fruit that I am probably going to give the axe this weekend. It's about the size of a large honeydew melon. It also has a big crack in its stem running lengthwise, I don't think it would be a problem but I still hope the others don't develop that. Sunday, July 13 View Page Here is the Pitura today, with heat wilt in the middle of the day. The ground has returned to desert-like conditions, we've had exactly a half inch of rain so far this month. We're watering from dusk 'til dawn and from here to eternity right now and could really use a little help from Mother Nature........hello up there? Sunday, July 13 View Page Here's the second female flower on the Pitura main vine which I pollinated yesterday morning. I watered these plants thoroughly yesterday, it just seems the Pitura is more prone to heat wilt than the Eaton has been. Sunday, July 13 View Page Play Ball! Here's the number one fruit on the Pitura 4 days after pollination. I recently read that a benchmark to shoot for is a 27 inch circumference 10 days after pollination. If you make this mark, you have a decent shot at a 1,000 pounder. Sunday, July 13 View Page And here is the same baseball next to the Pitura side vine fruit which I cut off today. It has been 13 days since it was pollinated, measures 37.5 inches in circumference and weighs 23.6 pounds. It was really starting to pack on some pounds in the last few days, I can't wait to see what develops on the main vine! Sunday, July 13 View Page Here is the Eaton today, eatin' up the hose which has only been laying there a day and a half but now has tendrils grabbing onto it. Sunday, July 13 View Page Here is the number one on the Eaton main vine 3 days after pollination, much smaller than its Pitura counterpart. The Pitura was probably this big on pollination day! This one does have a near perfect canopy of leaves over it though, the Pitura is pretty exposed. Sunday, July 13 View Page And here's the second female on the Eaton which appears to be aborting. It hasn't grown much in the last day or two and today it started turning a funny color. As long as the first one is OK it's not a big deal, but I would like to see that first one growing well soon. Stay tuned....... Tuesday, July 15 View Page First, the bad news. Something weird is going on with the Eaton and I'm not sure what. This is the tip of the main vine and there are 5 of the shorter side vines that are showing these symptoms too. I don't believe it's bacterial wilt, 98% of the plant looks phenominal and the symptoms are not spreading. The main vine also doesn't appear to be growing any more while there are many other side vines growing very well and producing good looking females. It looks like I may have to make the biggest side vine the new main and do some unplanned pruning soon to remove the affected areas, but we'll see. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Here's the first Eaton fruit on the main aborting and about to be cut off. Notice how awesome the leaf looks at that node. Two leaves down is where they start to look weird. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Here is the Eaton main on the left and one of the side vines on the right, quickly catching up and looking as healthy as could be. There is a female on it that I pollinated this morning. In the upper center of the picture you can also see a short side vine with a wilted leaf. These symptoms did appear during very dry and sunny weather which made me think maybe they were sunburned, but would that make fruit abort and the vine stop growing? Could it have actually killed the tips of the vines? I just don't know, it's real cucurbit conundrum. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Yes I know, I forgot the word "a" before "real cucurbit conundrum" in the last entry, sorry. So here is the Eaton plant as a whole and it looks great except for those few vine tips. Hopefully I get one to grow on the big side vine and there is a happy ending to the story. If not, hopefully I learn something from it so if anyone reading this might know what is going on I'd be happy to know. Now, for some good news............ Tuesday, July 15 View Page Here is the #1 Pitura fruit at six days old, with a circumference of 14.5 inches. It is somewhat elongated like the practice fruit was that I just removed from the plant. However, by 13 days that one was much rounder and taller. All of the side vines on the Pitura have now been snipped at the ends so the plant will focus all its energy on the fruit, except for the main vine for now. This fruit looks like it has a lot of promise. Tuesday, July 15 View Page I'm keeping this one around for a few more days as insurance, the second one on the Pitura. It's 3 days old and looking good but there's only one per plant allowed here in this part of the patch! Tuesday, July 15 View Page The Pitura as a whole. We finally got rain Sunday night and Monday morning which everything needed badly. Overall, I'd say a great season so far considering the excessive dryness at times. Still a lot of promise for a monster pumpkin and still a lot to learn and improve upon. This basically marks the halfway point of the growing season here in PA. The first half is getting the plants pumped up to produce the biggest pumpkin possible, the second half is watching (and helping) them do it. I can't imagine it getting any less fun from here! Thursday, July 17 View Page Here is the Pitura fruit at day 8, circumference 21.5 inches. Looking good and we just got .35 inches of rain this evening which was totally unexpected and very much appreciated. Thursday, July 17 View Page Here is the Eaton side vine fruit pollinated two days ago. It has not grown much and now the symptoms are beginning to appear on this vine as well. I did remove the other affected vine tips the other day but now I have noticed that the symptoms are spreading very slowly. I'm convinced it's a nutrient deficiency (despite the fact that I've been feeding them plenty) or a virus (despite the fact that it doesn't really look like one). I continue to be baffled but maybe an answer will come soon. Thursday, July 17 View Page I wasn't going to terminate the tip of the Pitura yet, I wanted it to continue to produce some new leaves for a while but yesterday I noticed that it had broken off. I guess that was a sign that it was supposed to be terminated! A lot of growers do this anyway, so I'm not upset - this could actually work out for the better. Tuesday, July 22 View Page I have some catching up to do with my diary posts, so here it goes. Here's the #1 Pitura fruit, now at day 12 with a 33 inch circumference. It was 29 inches at day 10, so it's circumference growth has slowed a bit but that's because it is now getting taller and more round-shaped like I was expecting it to do. Pitura plant still looking great! Tuesday, July 22 View Page Here is the Eaton plant now, symptoms have slowly spread and there is one plant in my patch of other pumpkins and squashes showing a similar condition. I am convinced it's a nutrient deficiency and over the weekend a professor of organic horticulture from Delaware Valley College was over and she said it might be iron. I gave the plant some greensand that evening (since I had some lying around) and I also ordered an iron sulfate product that I will feed to the plant when it gets here. I'm not going to give up hope for this plant at least until the calendar turns to August! Tuesday, July 22 View Page Here is the tip of the Pitura with the short side vines I am letting grow for now, all braching off the main vine past the #1 fruit. Tuesday, July 22 View Page Here is maybe the last hope for the Eaton plant to produce a pumpkin. This is on one of the few remaining side vines that still looks good and is growing well, without the deficiency symptoms. I pollinated it on Sunday, July 20th, so this is the fruit at one day old. It has grown since I pollinated and the vine still looks good, so if I can figure out the plant's problem it could still produce a nice pumpkin. That would be pretty cool after all this plant has been through, let's hope for the best! Tuesday, July 22 View Page Here is that healthy-looking Eaton side vine coming out of the jungle in the front and center of the picture, you can see the fruit back a few feet on the vine with the flower tied up. Tuesday, July 22 View Page And here's the whole Pitura plant, now dwarfing the Eaton by quite a bit. Last night I finished cutting off the #2 fruit on the main vine, so the fruit under the chair is now all alone on this plant. I've been ramping up the feeding program as well and I'll be taking measurements every 2 days from now on. Sunday, July 27 View Page Just wanted to provide an update for those of you still following my diary, and unfortunately it is not good. The #1 fruit on the Pitura is now aborting and that plant appears to be beginning to show minor signs of the nutrient problem that the Eaton has shown for weeks now. It is looking like my hopes of a giant pumpkin in 2008 are going down the tubes. It is dissapointing, but it is OK if I figure out what's going on and learn from it. There will be major changes for next year including a SOIL TEST, which I thought was not neccessary, how wrong I was! I'm strongly considering sending a leaf of the Eaton off to be analyzed by the Penn State Coop Extension Service so I have something concrete to go on for now. The iron sulfate fertilizer I ordered just arrived so I might as well try that in the meantime, but even if it works it's probably too late to make much of a difference this year. On top of all that, our digital camera just stopped working so I temporarily can't even take pictures! All of this has made me realize how much more I need to learn about giant pumpkin growing. I will continue to provide updates occasionally as warranted but they will be less frequent from now on. Thanks for coming along for the ride and hopefully things will be much more exciting with a happy ending in 2009. It will be here before you know it! Wednesday, August 20 View Page I figured it was time for an update so here is a current picture of the Pitura. Older leaves continue to slowly turn yellow but the plant also continues to put out new side vines and flowers (including females) like a real trooper. When I officially threw in the towel a couple of weeks ago, I figured it would be a lost season and there would be no giant pumpkins this year. So, of course, this plant has decided to mock me and over the last two weeks a pumpkin has been growing in the untended jungle of vines.... Wednesday, August 20 View Page Here is the fruit growing on the Pitura with the ever-present baseball for size reference. I haven't measured it but it appears to be just about the same size as the first fruit I removed early in the summer, which was 37 inches around at the time. So while my hopes of a fruit weighing 4 digits might be squashed until next year, 3 digits is still very much within reach! Wednesday, August 20 View Page Here's the spot where the Eaton still lives, all the old leaves are very crispy now and the plant is still struggling along but with a lot less vigor than the Pitura. A soil sample has been sent out for analysis and I'm expecting the results very soon. In the meantime I went through and inventoried all my seeds to begin the selection process for what I want to grow next year. Doing that got me all excited for 2009 - I definitely have the pumpkin fever! Friday, September 12 View Page It has been a long time since an update, I have been such a slacker! Here is the fruit growing on the Pitura that is still alive and kicking. I last measured it on Wednesday, Sept. 10th and it currently stands at 70.5 inches in circumference for an estimated weight of 113 pounds. It is still growing at about .75 inches per day but is gradually slowing down. As of Sept. 5th, the ground was absolutely bone dry, not a molecule of water anywhere that didn't come out of a hose. In the past week we've gotten 4.6 inches of rain (most of that from TS Hanna) and that doesn't include what is falling today. Typical weather for this area, from one extreme to the other! Friday, September 12 View Page Here's a shot of the Pitura plant with lots of dead and semi-fried leaves, but it's still in better shape than the Eaton! This is basically what total neglect will get you (haha). It's amazing that a plant in this condition could still produce a pumpkin that could reach 150 pounds, and on a tertiary vine no less! It proves to me the power of these plants and gets me all revved up for next year. I'm ready for fall and winter - so it can be spring again! Friday, September 12 View Page I found these beautiful but stingy saddleback caterpillars on some corn the other day. Usually when I find them, I am yelling "YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" :)