Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 116 Entries. Saturday, April 5 View Page Hello from windy CA high desert (Phelan). This is phase one of my first year growing giant pumpkins. This part of my yard has some of my best soil. The manure from up hill had blown to this patch of soil for many years. The natural soil is a sandy loam if it has not been blown away. The top soil is deepest here. Saturday, April 5 View Page Here is another view of our first plot in the making. We are working on building a fence to keep the rabbits out. Ground squirrels and even rats and mice can be a problem too. We plan to grow many pumpkins with hope that they don't eat them all. Sunday, April 6 View Page Have you ever seen so much chicken, turkey and duck poo? I swear I just cleaned this. Sunday, April 13 View Page My very first attempt at starting a seed failed. I think I cooked it. My next atempt was April 7th. I soaked 3 seeds in 10% peroxide/90% water for 5 hours. Wrapped them in a paper towel. I then put in a canning jar and then in my yogurt maker without the lid so I would not over heat them. They spouted in 36 hours. This picture was April 13, the day before I left to Maui. My daughter is plant sitting for the week. I came home to the pool full of water and even water puddles in my house. Monday, April 21 View Page The trip was good but I lost one pumpkin due to to much water. I can't belive my daughter is 25 years old and never heard of over watering. What was she thinking. One other pumpkin broke below the soil line and died slow. One is left so I started more seeds. This is much harder than I thought. Tuesday, April 29 View Page He is a few of my new manure makers. Tuesday, April 29 View Page Here is my husband (Joel) starting a compost pile. It is a little windy. If you look just to the left of the Joshua tree, you can see my neighbors windmill he uses for power. We have wind most of the time here. Tuesday, April 29 View Page Joel wants to have a contest to see who grows the biggest pumpkin. One of his pumpkins is two weeks ahead of the rest of our pumpkins but I agreed. While he worked on the fence I prepared my soil for my first pumpkin. I used my homemade compost (poulty, pig, goat and horse manure mixed with alfalfa) and some store bought compost called Gardner and Bloome. It is a mixture of forest humus, chicken manure, worm castings, bat guano, gypsum, kelp, oster shell, lime and domolite limes plus mycorrhizae. Tuesday, April 29 View Page We are having 90 degree plus weather. I decided to risk putting my first seed in the ground (April 27th). The seed was pre spouted inside but directly planted in seed starter mix in the garden. I hope it works. Fingers crossed. This is 1130 (uow) T. Kline (670 Diagle '03 selfed). Tuesday, April 29 View Page This is my second pumpkin in the garden. This just came up late yesterday. This is 614 H. Dill (1370 Rose selfed). The 607 & 614 Dill grew on the same plant. I have two of these seeds started. Thursday, May 1 View Page This is my husbands pumpkin that he started on April 7th. It stayed in a large pot until yesterday. Big mistake!! The roots where all the way to the bottom of the 17 inch tall pot. You can see where the cots where damaged by our cat. Hungry I guess. This one he did not kill but I do think he broke mine. We bought this seed on line at giantpumpkinsonline.com. This is what it said about it. 1182 Parenty 07 1347 Wallace x 1502 Wallace This pumpkin was growing at a 1400 lb pace before it developed a crack on August 22, 2007. The 1502 Wallace cross should make this a real contender for 2008. I hope it does good for us but I still want to grow the biggest pumpkin for my grandson. Thursday, May 1 View Page The Nursery by my house tells the locals that we can tell when our last frost is over when the pin oak and the scarlet oaks break dormancy. Both my pin oak and scarlet oak are getting leaves. I am still waiting on the two pumpkins I planted direstly in the soil after they geminated. They still have not popped out of the ground. The weather seems warm enough. 70-90+ this last week. Nights have dropped in the 50's. Is that to cold? I have corn that think it is warm enough. We have so much to learn. Friday, May 2 View Page This is another 614 Dill (1370 Rose selfed) that we planted last night. It has one curly cot. It has been outside for the last week but the curly cot did not straighten out. It looks happier out of his pot today. Friday, May 2 View Page I so happy. Both the direct seeds are breaking out of the soil. I was worried because it has been 6 days since I first seen roots. This is one my husband is growing. It is a 1012 Simpson (602 Simpson X 801 Stelts). Saturday, May 3 View Page First snake I have seen this year. Scared me but it was dead. Don't know what kind it is. Anyone know? Monday, May 5 View Page This weekend we worked on Phase two of our pumpkin and garden patch. The flat area on top of the patch does not even grow weeds. That worries me. Monday, May 5 View Page This is the lower part with alot more weeds. Monday, May 5 View Page My husband does most of the tilling. I get in alot of pain when I till to long. Uma's getting to old for this. Thank goodness Ompa can still do it. Monday, May 5 View Page Here is my Black Spanish hen turkey in the weeds. Monday, May 5 View Page You can see two of her babies in this pic. She has 3. I have had hens have up to 21 babies. She is a good mother. I usually lock my hens up when they start sitting because it is that time that I will lose them to peditors. Never could catch her. (Hope nobody mines my bad spelling. I have no spell check.) Monday, May 5 View Page Here she is again. The chicks stay in the taller weeds on the other side of the fence. It ravins see them, they will eat them. Monday, May 5 View Page Even my youngest daughter and my grandson are in the yard working. This is across from my pumpkin patch. My daughter lives on our property. I am lucky to have them close by. Monday, May 5 View Page This is my handsome Grandson Sebastian. I am a stay at home Grandma. He is our first. Monday, May 5 View Page You can see he gets his good looks from his Grandpa. Monday, May 5 View Page This is how I start my seeds. I soak them in water and use a paper towel and baggie. I use a small yogurt maker with the lid off for heat. On the paper towel is a few Carolina cross watermelon seeds that are starting to get root. This is 24 hours and over half have roots. Monday, May 5 View Page Here is a few of the gang. Monday, May 5 View Page This is some of my sweetcorn and peas. I am growing things I think my grandbaby will like. What fruit and veggie is not good for you??? Father is a picky eater. I will have no picky eaters. He is in the garden with me (weather permitting) everyday and loving it. Monday, May 5 View Page I thought I would show a picture of my husband with his pretty fish he caught when we where in Maui. Look how big that reel is. Friday, May 16 View Page I thought it was time to update my diary. I had started some seeds that I bought from GiantPumpkinsOnline.com. The all germinated and was ready to go into the soil. My post office was not open yet for me to pick up the BioGrow Endo Plus I bought from HollandsGiants.com and I needed to get to Las Vegas. I planned a mother daughter trip with my oldest daughter for Mothers Day. I gave my husband his honey do list. I went over everything with him. He did pretty good but he forgot to put the seeds on the grow mat. I was gone for 4 days and nothing was up. This is my daughter at the M&M store in Las Vegas. I had a great Mothers Day. I just love Las Vegas. I have to get there every few weeks. I hope my pumpkins can handle that. Friday, May 16 View Page These are the seeds that my husband potted for me. Still nothing comming up so I peaked and found two of my favorites had turned to mush. I have my fingers crossed on the rest. Friday, May 16 View Page Here is some more pots of seeds that I started 5/14. I bought these seeds on Howard Dill site. Some are orange and some I have no idea because they had no pictures. Since I don't know genetics anyway I just pick from my gut feelings. I do have favorites. Friday, May 16 View Page This is one of my gut feelings. This is 1130 (uow) T. Kline (670 Diagle '03 selfed). This little was planted on April 29th in the garden from a spouted root. We direct seeded in the garden during a warm spell. On May 2 it broke ground but has just been sitting there doing nothing. I am not giving up on it. Friday, May 16 View Page Here is my husbands 1012 Simpson (602 Simpson X 801 Stelts) he planted the same day as my little one. Friday, May 16 View Page This is my second 614 H. Dill (1370 Rose selfed). The first one went Poof. Don't know what happened. One day it was just gone. Nothing was eaten from my garden. It was windy. Maybe it got blown away. Not a sign. We have seen one baby rabbit get in the fenced off area. It got in from my neighbors fence line. We need to double fence since there dogs did not keep the baby rabbit away. I have also seen a few fresh holes in the ground twice now. Something is getting in. My husband put chicken wire around each plant when I was gone in Las Vegas. This one seems to be doing alright considering it wasn't pretty to start. Friday, May 16 View Page This is my husbands 1182 Parenty 07 1347 Wallace x 1502 Wallace. A few of the leaves have ripped. I think from the wind. I try to put some wind blocks up but it is pretty useless in our wind. Friday, May 16 View Page Here is some Howard Dill Atlantic Pumpkins I bought for 1 cent on E-bay. I thought I would plant them as a control for my good genetics. I put one in the ground last night. I will get pictures up soon. My yougest daughter has my camera. She is taking my grandson to Disneyland today. Monday, May 19 View Page This is my grandson Sebastian at breakfast at Disneyland this weekend. He is still a handsome boy with egg on his face. I love being a Grandma (O'ma). We are having a heat spell. I went to a poulty sale down the hill from me in Riverside this weekend. Many birds died in the heat. None of mine. It was nice to get back to a little cooler weather were we live. It is still hot but not killer heat. So far the pumpkins seem to like the heat. I am lucky they have been in the ground awhile before this heat hit. I have not seen any heat stress yet. Tuesday, May 20 View Page The heat spell has given the pumpkins a good boost. I think most of them have doubled in size since my post last Friday. I have not had any heat stress so far. I turn on micro misters mid morning and let them run until it cools down. Yesterday was 99 but today has cooled down to 73 with high wind warnings. Gust about 35 miles a hour. This is the 614 Dill. Tuesday, May 20 View Page This is the generic Alantic Giant I planted 5 days ago. Seems happy so far. Tuesday, May 20 View Page I still have one more generic Atlantic Giant to plant. I thought I should wait until the wind stops blowing. Tuesday, May 20 View Page My 1130 Kline is still the midget of my patch. Poor thing even had part of his biggest leaf eaten or torn off. It is getting a second leaf. Finaly! He is the same age (April 29th) as the next one I will post. Tuesday, May 20 View Page This is my husbands 1012 Simpson. Tuesday, May 20 View Page This is my husbands 1182 Parenty. Tuesday, May 20 View Page I have to post two more pictures of my Sebastian at Disneyland. It was very hot this past weekend. Look at the red cheeks. Tuesday, May 20 View Page This was at Breakfast. OH OH before I forget, I fertilized with fish emo today. Wednesday, May 21 View Page Crazy weather. I wish the wind would stop. Even Friday- Sunday has a chance of rain. We don't get rain here. To weird. This is about today... Mostly sunny. Areas of fog in the morning on lower coastal slopes with visibility one quarter mile or less at times. Highs 60 to 70. Winds west 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 50 mph...becoming 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon. Gusts to 60 mph at the Ridgetops and on Desert slopes at times.Lo: 41°Mostly clear. Lows 39 to 49. Winds northwest 15 to 25 mph. Gusts to 40 mph in the evening. I am charging the battery on my camera so here is another picture of my Grandson with his half bother. Thursday, May 22 View Page High wind gust all day long yesterday. The news said we had 65 mile a hour wind gust. I covered the pumpkins with the first thing I could find. Old sheets and blankets. Thursday, May 22 View Page Our plants are in the lowest part of our poperty. I think it gets a little less wind down hill. I also planted the pumkins in a hole rather than a mound. I noticed the one I planted flat on the surface of the soil was blown away. I think the hole protects the young pumpkin some. My reason started as a acident but I also think it helps keep the soil cool when it gets hot here. My soil drains fast due to it being sandy and deep. Thursday, May 22 View Page All the pumpkins made it this time through the wind. This is the 614 H. Dill. I hope I can make you proud Howard. We have a 30% chance of rain today. A 30% chance of snow tomarrow. It is not unusual to get snow in late May. Our growing season is short with some of the toughest growing conditions. Thursday, May 22 View Page I guess it is time I updated my lastest seeds that I started. The seeds my husband planted all rotted. I wonder if the Farmers Almanac was right. It said for May 7-9 Any seed planted now will tend to rot. These where started right after. They also wanted to rot but they made it. The cots look horible but they are getting there first leaves. Thursday, May 22 View Page Here is another view. They have been outside several times but they still seem leggy. I will just plant them up to the leaves and get more roots. I had planed on putting them in the ground over this holiday weekend but they will go into larger pots until better weather. Thursday, May 22 View Page Here is a close up of the moldy cots. The soil stuck on them like a gummy mess. I have never had good luck with peat pots. Don't know why I used them. I also will never use this seed starter mix for pumpkins again. The mix I used earlier this year was much better. This pumpkin will be OK. It is getting tiny new leaves. Thursday, May 22 View Page I forgot to give my line up of my new seedlings. (1) 715 Lewis/Marrone - 125 Wolf X 998.6 Pukos (2) 668 D. Dill - 805 Pukos'00 X 735 Dill'01 ( This is the one pictured here. Both pumpkins are my most vigorus of all the seedlings so far.) (2) 756 Aten - 1502 Wallace X 723 Bobier (This one looks good too) (2) 740 Beard - 1181.5 La Rue X 1101 Northup (3) 975 Kline - 730 Dill X 670 Daigle Thursday, May 22 View Page This is a 975 Kline with one cot. I don't know if one rotted off or if it hatched this way. It is getting one leaf now. Otherwise looks good to me. Saturday, May 24 View Page We have had rain most of the morning and afternoon. Above me tonight is clear but as you can see the next round of the storm is comming. The Mountain you see is Wrightwood. Some people know it as Mountain High. The news said they got more snow last night than they have had in May in 25 years. I might even get snow tonight or tomarow night. Our lows should be getting in the low 30's. Saturday, May 24 View Page I am packing some old rags and clothes around and under the pumpkins for insulation. I just need them to stay warm until morning. The wind factor is what I am worring about most. Saturday, May 24 View Page I lighly covered the pumpkin with a old sweatshirt. Saturday, May 24 View Page Then the whole thing is covered in three layers of blankets. The last blanket is a waterpoof horse blanket. Hope this will keep them from freezing overnight. I realy don't want to lose them. I know we will have warm weather again soon. We always have this freaky last frost in late May. I was hoping we would miss it, but I wasn't that lucky. Saturday, May 24 View Page You can see the clouds on all sides of my property. The horses here are great manure makers that need good homes. If you need a good manure maker give me a E-mail at [email protected] Saturday, May 24 View Page I even tried to cover the tomatoes. Saturday, May 24 View Page Now we just have to wait until morning to see how they did. Saturday, May 24 View Page It looks like the pumpkins did OK through the cold night. We did not get rain or snow. It should get in the 50's today. I know I was cold last night. I think the pumpkins had all our blankets. Sunday, May 25 View Page My 1130 Kline is about a month old and just is not doing much. I decided to dig it up and pot it so I can give it some TLC. It roots where only 3 to 4 inches long. It has yellowish leaves even with folar feedings. If it takes off, maybe a different spot in my patch will do it good. For now I bring it in at night to keep it warm and see it that helps. Tuesday, May 27 View Page These are the moldy seedlings moved to a bigger pot. They are looking better to me. I am leaving again to Las Vegas for a few days with my husband and a group of friends. My daughter is plant and animal sitting again. I hope to come home to live plants and my house not flooded. The weather should be ok for the plants that our out in the garden. Highs 70's lows 40ish. Getting warmer every time I check the forecast. I put some wind breaks up. Have not had them up long enough to know if they will work. Wishin for Luck in Vegas and at home. Sunday, June 1 View Page I am back from Las Vegas and nothing died while I was gone. My daughter did good this time. She only water once. That seemed to be enough. We worked ibn the garden all day. Weeding, a little tilling, and fertitizing. I side dressed my 614 Dill (1370 Rose selfed) with Espoma Plant Tone, alfafla and compost. She looks pretty good. Her leaves seem nice and big for a plant that only had one tiny leave and curly cots when I planted her in the garden May 2nd. Sunday, June 1 View Page She out grew her chicken wire cage from two weeks ago. I put some plastic around her to block the wind. I hope she takes off soon. So far I don't see a main vine but I don't know what to look for since this is my first year. Sunday, June 1 View Page This is my husbands pumpkin that he started on April 7th and planted out May 1st. The 1182 Parenty 07 1347 Wallace x 1502 Wallace has been in the ground for one month today. I think our cold weather has heald them back. My leaves are much larger but this plant is progessing more. I am not worried since mine was started later. About a week or more later. It is warming up now. It was a nice 78 degrees today. I think this thing that is sticking up is the main vine but I am not sure. We are slowly trying to bring it down. If that is the main it was going the wrong way. I hope we are doing this right. I do wait until later in the day to poke it with sticks to move it a little. Sunday, June 1 View Page We finaly planted the last of my generic Alantic Giant pumpkin seed I bought for 1 cent on E-Bay. The people I bought them from said the seeds came from Howard Dill. We will see what they do. I grew out two of the seeds. They where the same size until the cold spell came. The one that was planted in the garden must have gotten stunted some from the cold. This one was taken inside where it was warm. I think it even looks like it has a main growing or something in the middle. We will see which one does better in the end. This one was in a one gallon pot a long time. Sunday, June 1 View Page I started taking my pots outside to get then some sun. They are all growing at different paces. I have some ugly ones. Tuesday, June 3 View Page "O'ma, Do you think O'pa is going to Kill you when he sees what you did to his pumpkin?" Tuesday, June 3 View Page Maybe he won't notice. I covered it with tape. Tuesday, June 3 View Page From far away you can hardly see the tape. Do you think it will heal itself? Tuesday, June 3 View Page My pumpkin looks good. Even some of my new babies are enjoying playing in the sprinklers. They have now been staying out all day and night. Wednesday, June 4 View Page My grandbaby turned 1 year old June 4th. Boy they grow faster than pumpkins. Thursday, June 5 View Page He would not try the cake. Not even one bite. He just played in it. Thursday, June 5 View Page My 614 Dill (1370 Rose selfed) made it though the last three day long wind advisory. It has a few rips in the largest leaves. Today was a nice sunny day in the low 80's with a little breeze. Thursday, June 5 View Page Here is a shot of some of the new growth. Thursday, June 5 View Page Another shot of the 614 Dill (1370 Rose selfed). Thursday, June 5 View Page My husbands pumpkin seems to be doing alright since I snaped the mane. The tape is holding it together and it is not wilting. It is not going the right way now, but I am not touching it. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Here is my 614 H. Dill with his main starting to lay down. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Here is another view of the 614 H. Dill. I like this plant. It takes my heat and wind pretty good. I don't know why I just get big leaves but the main is only about 18 to 24 inches long. My weather this week has been in the 80's and nights in the 50's. Wednesday, June 11 View Page I am trying to turn the main a little to the left. Wednesday, June 11 View Page The bottom middle of this picture I think is my back vine or second main. I don't know what I should do with it. Do I cut it or let it be? Please let me know! Is this causing my main to slow down? It is only growing about 4 inches a day. Is that slow? Help, I am a newbe. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Looking back at my June 3rd picture, I guess it has grown alot. Thursday, June 12 View Page This is my husbands 1182 Parenty that I split his main in half. I left the tape on. It seems to be growing good and laying down. The split doesnt seem to effect anything so far. Thursday, June 12 View Page This is my husbands 1012 Simpson. It is starting to get bigger leaves but it is one of the smallest of the older plants we have. It was easy to get it to lay down but it too is going the wrong way. I wish I would have known the trick on how to plant these going the right way. It would not have helped with this one since it was planted directly in the soil to start. Thursday, June 12 View Page This is my newest plant that I started on March 14th and finaly got around to plant June 8th. It is a 668 lbs. D. Dill, 805 Pukos ‘00 X 735 Dill ’01. It is doing good so far. It has grown alot since it was planted. I don't know what the yellow color is on the leaves. Thursday, June 12 View Page This is #1 generic Dill's Atlantic Pumpkin. Something has been eating on the leaves. I will have to find out what. It is smaller than my other generic pumpkin planted at the same time. Next Picture. Thursday, June 12 View Page This is #2 generic Dill's Atlantic Pumpkin. It is going to lay down easy and in the right direction. Yeah! Thursday, June 12 View Page Here is another picture of that vine I can't figure out. It seems to be comming out of the side of one of my oldest large leaves. In this picture the vine is going to the right. The main is going to the top of the picture to the left. Saturday, June 14 View Page This is my husbands 1182 Parenty. We have our first male flower open. You can see where the break in the main is. The silver tape is still holding it. Saturday, June 14 View Page My husbands 1182 Parenty again. We dusted all the plants with seven last night. Seems we have a few bugs chewing on the plants. I am no expert but they look like mites and tiny grasshopper looking things. Saturday, June 14 View Page This is 1130 (uow) T. Kline (670 Diagle '03 selfed) that I started April 27th. Yep I said April 27th. If anyone thinks they have a slow grower just look at this one in my diary. I think I finaly figured out what is wrong with it. It was planted in my garden and did not grow. It had these funny curly leaves and yellow molting and thick brittle leaves. I thought some deficiency yet it was planted in my best soil with all the goodies. I also though Mosaic virus. It was not right from day one. So I took it out and brought it indoors to keep warm. That did not help. I put it in a larger pot. It had the tinyest root. Just was not growing. Then I read some of your post. I looked for mites and sure enough there was mites. I dusted it 4 days ago. This plant is finaly growing again. I can see such a difference. Poor things. I feel so bad. At least I did not give up on it. Sunday, June 15 View Page Happy Fathers Day Everyone! I know I have mentioned it before but if anyone needs any manure makers or knows anyone that could use one let me know. I have Paint horses and baby goats. They are free to a good home. The horses need training in everything except making manure. I have a hard time taking care of them since my acident. Give me a e-mail at [email protected]. Sunday, June 15 View Page Part two of my pumpkin patch did not turn out so great. I decided to not use this plot of ground. I think it had way to much manure and some black ucky stuff down deep into the soil. Sunday, June 15 View Page We are going to give this area a try instead. Sunday, June 15 View Page The soil here has never been planted with anything but weeds. There is aged manure from horses and wild rabbits and the soil is deep and nice. Sunday, June 15 View Page Here is Joel digging me some holes. We have 10 pumpkins that need to be planted. Monday, June 16 View Page In the holes we put a flake of alfalfa, manure, peat moss, calcium nitrate, and gypsum. Monday, June 16 View Page This is the #1 756 lbs. A. Aten (1502 Wallace ’06 723 Bobier ‘99). Monday, June 16 View Page 975 lbs. T. Kline (730 Dill ’06 670 Daigle ’03). This pumpkin had only one cot. Monday, June 16 View Page Here is the 975 lbs. T. Kline in the ground. Monday, June 16 View Page This is my #2 668 D. Dill. Monday, June 16 View Page #2 756 Aten. Monday, June 16 View Page #2 756 Aten. Monday, June 16 View Page 740 lbs. Berard (1081.5 LaRue '05 1101 Northup '04). Monday, June 16 View Page I just wanted to remind you all how bad these plants started out. Monday, June 16 View Page You can see the one cot plant here. Monday, June 16 View Page Here is the 1130 Kline when it was sick with mites. Monday, June 16 View Page Another shot. Monday, June 16 View Page Today he is back in the garden. I am sure it will take off now. Color is getting better everyday. Monday, June 16 View Page This is my husbands 1182 Parenty. One vine is going foreward and one in the rear. At the tip is the first female at about 3 to 4 feet. It has had to male bloom so far. seems to be growing fast now that I snaped the main vine in half. Monday, June 16 View Page Here is a close up of the tiny pumpkin. Tuesday, June 17 View Page I noticed since I weeded my tomatoes that something is eating things. I think I left the ground squirrels with nothing left to eat except my plants. I have also seen some rabbits sleeping in the shade durring the day. They like the damp soil. Before only corn, peas and peppers where touched. Now one tomato and our potatoes are chewed on. I seen one leave on my pumpkin eaten last night. Tuesday, June 17 View Page So last night in the dark I set two traps (Rat Traps) with dates and peanut butter. One ground squirrel had finished eating the vine on my 614 H. Dill this afternoon. This is that vine I never knew what it was. Now it doesn't matter. I removed it. I found the ground squirrel a few feet from the vine. I guess he likes peanut butter and dates too. Tuesday, June 17 View Page My 614 H. Dill looks so small with that vine removed. We put up more plastic around it as a barrier and wind break. We need to do that to all of them. I reset the trap to see if can get her friends.