Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 31 Entries. Friday, June 19 View Page June 16-Finally temperatures are warming up at night, getting out of the 40's. Here is the 1108 pappas doing well so far. Just getting out of the low tunnel at 9 feet. Have two plants this year Translanted both the 1108 pappas and the 1118 peters in April under low tunnels and heated soil cables. Both are doing well so far... Monday, July 20 View Page These shots are from July 12. The round one is Pappas 1108 and he oval one is Peters 1118. More are on now.Will take pics this week.. Monday, July 20 View Page Opps-this is the Pappas 1108. The other one is the Peters 1118. Don't know how to submit multiple photos.. Friday, July 24 View Page Here is a 1118 Peters pumpkin taking off. It's name is King Kong. Friday, July 24 View Page Here is a 1108 Pappas. It's name is The Hulk. Friday, July 24 View Page Here is another 1108 Pappas. It's name is Hercules. There are more coming but I won't name them until I know they won't abort. Have had some abort due to heat. Found squash bugs 2 weeks ago so I killed all I could find and am going over every leaf (phew) every 7 days. Found out on the net that the eggs to nymph stage of the squash bug is 7-10 days so I.m trying to keep ahead of them. Covered whole patch with row cover as well and take it off edges when I need to pollinate. Working well so far... Sunday, July 26 View Page Went out to patch today and pumpkins really grew but didn't have time to measure them. Can't wait to measure them tomorrow. Saturday, August 8 View Page Hedre is my patch covered with row cover. I only have two plants and keep them covered until I want to hand pollinate. I covered them as the squash bugs started to come on and I found out on the internet their life cycle of eggs to nymph is 7-10 days so I check out all the leaves every 7 days and it is working. At first I had about 25 nymph, two adults and leaves with eggs. Yesteday I had 5 nymphs, no adults and no eggs on leaves. Plus I spray it with neem to help with the nymphs and also powdery mildew. Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is Hercules trucking along.. Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is Juni on the pappas 1118. Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is the front garden gate with my sunflowers and scarlet runner beans. Saturday, August 8 View Page Well I guess I went nuts with all these tomatoes. All heirlooms. Guess I'll try selling them at our farmers market nect month. 38 plants and very healthy! Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is a pic of more of my tomatoes, plus cukes and beans. The rest of the garden is doing great-hope the pumpkins do as well. Tuesday, August 18 View Page It's a jungle out there.. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Hercules put on 44 lbs in 4 days. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Me and Hercules-now 167 lbs Tuesday, August 18 View Page Peters SS-look at that stem. If it grows into it.. Tuesday, August 18 View Page juni-grow nagua grow.. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here's a german striped at 17.5". It won't get any bigger as it is turning color. Tuesday, August 18 View Page These are Chinese noodle beans from the garden. Red and 12" long-suppose to be good in stir fry. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Red sunflower-I like it! Tuesday, August 18 View Page Me at sunset at the garden gate with the giant sunflowers- almost ready to bloom. Wednesday, August 19 View Page Hercules continues to grow well but slow-OTT204.It is putting on between 10-12 lbs a day. Wish it could put on more. Anyone having any ideas? Let me know. I'm at 7000 ft high and am thinking of blanketing it now at night-54-55 degrees. Increased its water to 2 hrs a day (total) starting ar 4 am and then another at 1:30pm. Fertilize with fish emulsion and seaweed several times a week. Once a week fertilize with 17-19-29. Just deadheaded all secondaries and buried with Mycorizzial. I have one more on that vine that is 100lbs and am leary to cull as I've lost so many due to the heat in case Herciules goes. Any Help? Saturday, August 29 View Page Hercules (the biggest one so far) has already broken my last year's record of 217 lbs (Godzilla). It is currently at 243 lbs and continues to grow about around 8 lbs a day. Saturday, August 29 View Page My second biggest, Juni is at 140 lbs and I'm thinking of taking it to the state fair because it shares the same vine as Hercules and is taking away from Hercules full potential growth. Then I'll do some fundraiser with it. Saturday, August 29 View Page My last one, SS,(Superstar)is on another vine and currently at 123 lbs, growing well but slower. Saturday, August 29 View Page These will be my two. Hercules,open pollinated from the 1108 Pappas and SS,(hand pollinated with the 1108 Pappas)is from the 1118 Peters. Growth slowed considerably for a few days but is picking up with the temperatures rising again. Continue to blanket them. Rained last week for two days. Yea! Don't know if I'll beat the state record but having fun trying! Don't sweat yet Danny, I got a long ways to go!About 30 days to go to weighoff... Thursday, September 17 View Page Well, Hercules continues to grow although slowly it seems. Here it is at 305 lbs taken on Monday. I'm pretty sure with the colder nights (49 degrees) that it won't overtake DannyO's record of 404 lbs. Breathe a sigh of relief Danny! I will take it to the Longmont,CO weigh-off on Oct.10 which is still 24 days away to give it my best shot! Saturday, October 10 View Page Well we decided not to go to the Longmont weigh-off due to bad weather up there. Snowing forcasted for both travel days. Turned out good choice as they had a foot of snow as of Friday night where we were going to stay. Super disappointed but I found a certified scale and am planning to get it weighed there next week when I can get the boys to pick it up and the Extension agent there as a witness. I'm shooting for Wednesday to get it weighed. We'll see soon. Saturday, October 10 View Page Just read Longmont Pete's diary today and it looks like I made an excellent call-the Longmont, CO weigh-off was cancelled today anyways due to snow! Man, I feel bad for all of them up there. They will have to find a certified scale also. Good Luck to all those who were waiting for that weigh-off! Tuesday, October 27 View Page I couldn't go to the rescheduled Longmont weigh-off so I had my pumpkin weighed at a certified scale at Capitol Scrap Metal here in Santa Fe. When I asked if they have big enough scales, they told me they have scales that go to 100,000 lbs!I had the Santa Fe Ag Extension agent,Pat Torres, as a witness. Too bad I couldn't make it to the weigh-off cause it would of taken 4th at the weigh-off. Wah. Anyways the official weight of my pumpkin, Hercules was 352 lbs which is the second largest pumpkin ever in New Mexico. This is a picture of me and Hercules in front of the studio.