Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 106 Entries. Thursday, April 30 View Page Well, It's time to start the 2009 diary, my second year growing. It's been a long winter with great anticipation for this years growing season. I aquired some great seeds this year and I think the patch and I are better prepared than last season. Here's a pic of the 993 Vincent-McGill some great genetics here. Thursday, April 30 View Page Here's the 1180.5 Pukos. I have high hopes for this one as well. It's the same cross as the 1385 Jutras that has gotten so much attention. Thursday, April 30 View Page This is the 1269 Hunt. It was on world record pace until It went down to BES. Phil and Jane cut it up and weighed it at 1269 est at the end of August. Phil says he's never had a plant grow like this one before. They say it had bark on it! Thursday, April 30 View Page These are my 489 Matesa 08 seeds. I've given a bunch of these to friends and co-workers. Thursday, April 30 View Page After a light file around the edges all the seeds go in for an 8 hour soak and then into paper towels and into the "GERMINATION CHAMBER" Friday, May 1 View Page Here's the 993 Vincent-McGill. This seed was pre-germed inside the pumpkin so the seed coat had a split down the one side. Friday, May 1 View Page Here's the 1180.5 Pukos. Just the tip is comming through after 24 hours. Into the pro-mix they go. Friday, May 1 View Page 1269 Hunt after 24 hours. The seeds are going into Pro-mix that the manufacturer has added Myco into. I added a few "pinches" of the RTI Myco myself just for good measure. Friday, May 1 View Page These are the 489 Matesa's. All are looking good including a couple melons and a few tall sunflowers. So far in the last 2 years including test germinations over the winter I am batting 100% using Jordan Rivington's method found on the GVGO website. Tuesday, May 5 View Page Here's the 993 this morning looking the best out of the gate. Tuesday, May 5 View Page This is the 1180.5 Pukos Tuesday, May 5 View Page This is the 1269 Hunt. The cots are a little curled and stuck together at the base. I'm not too worried though. I've heard that plants sometimes have 1 cot or such and they still grow fine. Tuesday, May 5 View Page This year I have my fingers crossed on the following crosses 1180.5 Pukos 07 X 1269 Hunt 08 1269 Hunt 08 X 993.2 Vincent-McGill 08 993 Vincent-McGill 08 X 1180.5 Pukos 07 Thanks Phil for the suggestion! Wednesday, May 6 View Page I had a dump truck load of mushroom compost delivered and the truck got stuck in the mud in the entrance of the field....Total disaster! I had to dump the whole load down the street. I've been hand bombing 16 000 lbs of the stuff for the last 3 days. Wednesday, May 6 View Page I spread another bag of kelp, 150 lbs of black earth humic, 30 lbs of K-Mag and then covered with all the compost. Then, like an angel, This man appears from out of nowhere with a tractor to till it all in for me. The neighbours called Steve to see if he would be kind enough to till it for me....Can't thank you guys enough! Wednesday, May 6 View Page All finished...looks awesome...bring it on! Friday, May 8 View Page Put the hoops up today. Before putting the plastic on I spread Blood meal and bone meal in the 6 X 6 ft planting areas where the hoop will rest. I'll wait a few days to put the plants in their new homes. I'm so relieved to have all the major work done on the patch. Now the real work begins. Saturday, June 6 View Page I lost all my plants to a deep freeze 2 nights in a row... Had to start all over again. It's a little dissapointing to lose some great seeds. This is the 1343 Lyons. Saturday, June 6 View Page This is the 1005.9 Werner. This one and the 1343 Lyons are in the same hoop and I will have to get rid of one of them...tough decision Saturday, June 6 View Page The weather here in Ontario SUCKS!! I was 2 weeks late getting the patch preps done because it was raining all the time and the night time temps now are very low. The weather is finally starting to warm up a bit...not enough yet. Sunday, June 7 View Page This is the 1187.5 Hunt. It's in my prime spot and it's looking nice. Best plant so far! Friday, July 3 View Page Well, I hope to just get a few decent pumpkins this year. I'm way behind in plant size because of losing all my plants. I'm still optimistic about the rest of the season though. Friday, July 3 View Page Here's a shot of the 1187.5 Hunt. Great lookin plant. Friday, July 3 View Page I ended up picking the 1402 Bosworth (1068 X 1068). It was 1 seed in a lot that I won in my first seed auction. It hasn't looked all that good but that's what I'm going with. Tuesday, July 7 View Page I ended up going with the 1343 Lyons. Good genes in this one. Friday, July 10 View Page Here's the 1187.5 Hunt. This plant is a beast. Friday, July 10 View Page This is the 1402 Bosworth. It's starting to pick up a little. Friday, July 10 View Page This is a patch shot. I got rid of most of the weeds and have tried to keep up with the vine burying. Overall, I'm really happy with the progress considering I basically started these seeds at the beginning of June. Thursday, July 16 View Page 1343 Lyons Thursday, July 16 View Page The 1187.5 Hunt. I left the structures for the hoop-houses over the pumpkins this year to be able to protect them from any early season hail storms. Thursday, July 16 View Page WOW!! The 1402 Bosworth is leaving the 1343 Lyons in the dust. I'm really impressed with the way this plant has taken off. I'm lookin forward to some late (but good) pollinations. Saturday, July 18 View Page Here's the 1343 Lyons. Right in the middle in the "pitchfork" you can see a pollination I made from the 1187.5 Hunt. I'm aggresively pruning this plant in a spider pattern...Practice for next year. Saturday, July 18 View Page The 1187.5 Hunt is the best looking plant I've ever had. (Only my second year though) Saturday, July 18 View Page Here's a female I pollinated on the 1187.5 Hunt. The cross is an 1187.5 Hunt x 1402 Bosworth. Saturday, July 18 View Page The 1402 Bosworth. Saturday, July 18 View Page This is a female on the 1402 Bosworth. The cross is 1402 Bosworth x 1187.5 Hunt. Friday, July 24 View Page Here's one off the main on the 1343 Lynons. It's 8 days old today. Friday, July 24 View Page The 1187.5 Hunt. Friday, July 24 View Page Heres one off the main on the 1187.5 Hunt. It's 6 days old today. Friday, July 24 View Page The 1402 Bosworth. You can see the pumpkin right in the front middle. Friday, July 24 View Page This is the Pumpkin on the 1402 Bosworth. It's also 6 days old today. I'm not sure if it took but we've had cold nights and bad weather...seems like forever now. Friday, July 24 View Page I pollinated this one yesterday in the rain as a backup and to see if it would take in the rain. It's on the 1402 Bosworth also on the main. Friday, July 24 View Page The plants are lookin healthy, much better than last year. The fruit I have pollinated look good also, they all have great stem angles and length. If the first set of pollinations take, I fell pretty good about beating my PB of 489 last year. Monday, July 27 View Page The 1343.5 Lyons. It looks like the main pumpkin has aborted. I'll wait and see. Monday, July 27 View Page This is the pumpkin on the 1343.5 Lyons. I think it's aborting Monday, July 27 View Page The 1187.5 Hunt. The cross on this plant is 1689 Jutras X 1631.5 McKie. It's my strongest looking plant. Monday, July 27 View Page The pumpkin on the 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth. On the main vine. Monday, July 27 View Page The 1402.5 Bosworth (1068 Wallace X Self) Monday, July 27 View Page The pumpkin on the 1402.5 Bosworth X 1187.5 Hunt. Has some storm damage on it, from before I got the shade structures up. Friday, July 31 View Page My friend rick is growing one of my 489 Matesa 08 seeds from last year in his backyard. He planted it in a nice patch of good old dirt and is growing it across the lawn. Friday, July 31 View Page Here's the main pumpkin on the 489 Matesa. It had seeds in the blossom...but we figured why not. Friday, August 7 View Page Here's the main pumpkin on the 489 Matesa. It's been growing pretty good...I might get beat on my own seed! Friday, August 7 View Page Another one of the 489 Matesa. Friday, August 7 View Page This year the patch has almost completely filled in. I'm almost done terminating the vines and only have left a few growing as a buffer from all the crazy rain we've been getting. Friday, August 7 View Page THe Pumpkin on the 1402.5 Bosworth Friday, August 7 View Page 1402.5 Bosworth X 1187.5 Hunt. OTT 117.0 app. 43 lbs You can see the hail damage and rubbing from the wind. I have a couple of backups that were pollinated much later. Everytime a female opens, it's on a day of torrential downpours so I gotta go with what I got. Friday, August 7 View Page 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth. OTT 146.0 app. 76 lbs. This is my best pumpkin going right now it's on day 19 and starting to put on some weight. Friday, August 7 View Page Another shot of the 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth. It looks like it might be nice color and shape. Friday, August 7 View Page Well, with all things considered, I would say this season is already a success. After losing all my first plants to frost and starting these over a month late and battling the constant cold nights and storms I would be happy to get something in the end. Saturday, August 8 View Page This is the 1343.5 Lyons. Every fruit on this plant has aborted. I pollinated one this morning. The plan is to let nature take it's course on this one and hopefully I can get a few halloween pumpkins. Saturday, August 8 View Page Here's the 1402.5 Bosworth X 1187.5 Hunt on Day 20. I thought it stopped growing but it put on 5 inches in 12 hours since last night. Saturday, August 8 View Page This is the 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth on day 20. This one put on 8 inches in 12 hours since last night. Tuesday, August 18 View Page 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth Wow! Just got back from a weeks vacation in Cuba, The night time temps have really gone up and we've had some very favorable growing conditions. Tuesday, August 18 View Page This is a blossom end shot of the pumpkin on the 1187.5 Hunt. Thanks to my parents for watering the patch while I was gone. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Day 30 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth. OTT 241.0 app. 303 lbs. thats an average of 22.7 lbs per day for the last 10 days I'm going to name this one Butterball 2. It's in the exact same place as Butterball from last year. I had to cut off more secondaries and leaves around the pumpkin then I would have liked but I was trying to relieve stem stress that was causing some stem cracks that thankfully have stopped at the pumpkin. I also applied some Sulphur paste. Tuesday, August 18 View Page This is the pumpkin on teh 1402.5 Bosworth. I didn't have a chance to measure as it was getting dark but it put on some size while I was gone. The blossom end has me worried. I have another one a few weeks old on a secondary that I will leave on...I've had ones with blossom ends similar to this that end up splitting. Tuesday, August 18 View Page I was finally able to get a measurement on this crazy looking thing on the 1402.5 Bosworth. 211 OTT app. 208 lbs Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here's one on the 1343.5 Lyons. It's about a week old. Hopefully turns out to be a nice porch pumpkin. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here's another that looks OK on the 1343.5 Lyons. I'm letting a few pumpkins go on this one as all my resonably early pollinations aborted on this plant. Tuesday, August 18 View Page Sorry no pic on the last one These were open pollinations. Tuesday, August 18 View Page And another one on the 1343.5 Lyons. The plant is HUGE but the pumpkins go lumpy like this and then abort. Hopefully I can get 2 or 3 off this giant plant. Tuesday, August 18 View Page WOOHOO! Butterball 2 on the 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth gained 30 lbs in 24 hours!!!!! This is the first time I've had a pumpkin gain weights at this pace. Hopefully I can keep her going and we get lucky and have some beautiful weather in September. Saturday, August 22 View Page Here's Butterball 2 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth. OTT 273 app. 434 Lbs 5 day average of 26.2 lbs and a net gain of 131 lbs. Saturday, August 22 View Page Here's me with Butterball 2 Day 35. I'm pretty excited! Butterball 2 is already bigger than last year's (my PB) OTT. Nice color and it's just starting to develop some ribs. Cant wait to get day 40 measurements. Wednesday, August 26 View Page Here's the Pumpkin on the 489 Matesa. Looking pretty good for growing on the lawn in my friends backyard. Wednesday, August 26 View Page Another one of the 489 Matesa. The Mother was really orange and went 20% heavy! This one is sitting at around 250lbs. Thursday, August 27 View Page Here's a shot of the patch. The plants still look very healthy this year. I've been spraying regularly with pHortress, kelp and Calcium with liquid Carbon (fulvic/humic) Thursday, August 27 View Page Day 40 for Butterball 2. Late Pollination Thursday, August 27 View Page Day 40 for the Molar. Man, I can't believe how much this thing looks like a big tooth OTT. 250" app. 337 lbs The crazy thing is that I didn't like the look of this one from the beginning so I left another one on a side vine. It's around 200lbs on the same plant...Looks just like this one!!!lol Hey Brooks, you sure make em purdy! lol Thursday, August 27 View Page Here's my 21 Month old with Butterball 2 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth Day 40 OTT. 294" app. 539lbs. Tuesday, September 1 View Page Here's a shot of the 1402.5 Bosworth. You can see the Molar and another one on the side vine. I left 2 on this plant because I was never sure about the molar on the main...wish I would have left just one. Tuesday, September 1 View Page The Molar. look at this thing! Most of the marks on the skin are from very early hail damage and wind blowing leaf stalks around. Day 45 today OTT 265.5" app. 400lbs. might even break my PB on this one...keeping my fingers crossed. Tuesday, September 1 View Page R.I.P. Butterball 2 1187.5 Hunt X 1402.5 Bosworth It's really dissapointing to lose a pumpkin this late in the game. If you look closely you can see the blossom end split right in 2. I couldn't even bring myself to taking a close-up of it It's still been a very positive 2nd year of growing for me. I started this plant very late on June 1st because my first set of plants went down to extreme frost. I learned that my soil is healthy enough to grow a monster and hopefully i can get a big one to the scales next year and build on all the things I learned this year. Day 45 app. 620 lbs!! even with the real low temps we've been seeing here. Butterball 2 still managed to put on just over 100lbs in the last 4 days!!! Thursday, September 3 View Page Here's the Molar.Day 47 OTT 275" app. 444lbs. This one is taping bigger than my PB of 489lbs. I'm hoping the blossom end doesn't give me any trouble. Thursday, September 3 View Page Thanks to Brooks Bosworth for the tip on putting the credit cards between the folds. I'll move them everyday and hopefully it will keep the folds from crushing against eachother. Thanks Brooks! Thursday, September 3 View Page Here's Butterball 2 after the Blossom end Split. I decided to see how long I could keep her going so I filled the split in with Silicon and made a nice patch over the crack. You can see the silicon across the blossom. I figured it would move with the crack and it would keep the air out of the cavity. The split hasn't got any worse. Since patching it up Butterball has grown 7" in OTT in the last 3 days!!! Day 47 OTT 315" app. 659 lbs. Wednesday, September 9 View Page Here's a stem shot of the Molar on the 1402.5 Bosworth Wednesday, September 9 View Page Here's a patch shot. The molar is in the forground and Butterball 2 in the background. The plants still look relatively healthy fo this time of the year. They're still growing! Friday, September 18 View Page Here's the Molar 1402.5 Bosworth X 1187.5 Hunt. It's starting to get some color which is a surprise. Still growing. Day 62 OTT 306" app. 606lbs Saturday, September 19 View Page Here's Butterball 2. It's amazing to me that this thing is still growing after developing a nice blossom end split that went all the way through a couple of weeks ago. I patched the split with silicon and it has held up nicely. It's gained at least 200lbs since splitting. OTT. 340" app. 826lbs. Saturday, September 19 View Page Went flying the other day. I wanted to get a patch shot from the air. Saturday, September 19 View Page Beautiful from up here!!! Saturday, September 19 View Page Turned out blurry but here it is. The patch from 2500 ft! I have some other pics on another camera that turned out but I have to figure out how to get them off. Saturday, October 10 View Page Here's The Molar getting ready to hit the scales. I am hoping it goes heavy. Saturday, October 10 View Page Asking a few questions... Saturday, October 10 View Page ...Reading the scale...764 lbs! New personal best. The smile on my face says it all. The 764 Matesa 09 1402.5 Bosworth X 1187.5 Hunt 6% heavy after "Kirking" the tape. Saturday, October 10 View Page Here's my Friend Rick explaining that he had never grown one of these before and just let it grow across the lawn. It was grown off the 489 Matesa 08 seedling I gave him. It weighed in at 423.4 lbs. Nice color and solid as a rock Saturday, October 10 View Page Here I am getting my 5th place ribbon at the Rockton World's Fair. Wednesday, October 14 View Page Here's the last picture of Butterball 2. She split long ago and I wanted to see how long I could keep it going for. It's taping just under 1000lbs and turned a real nice color. Well, my second season was a rollercoaster ride! first set of plants got fried by a late frost, experienced my first 30lbs/day gain woohoo, experienced my first Blossom end BLOWOUT boohoo, beat my personal best by 275lbs. Learned a ton!! I have some sick seeds lined up for next year and my goal is the 1K mark. Thursday, October 22 View Page Started fall preps today...that's a lotta crap Thursday, October 22 View Page That's the first pass...more to come. That's 2 year old manure. sure beats spreading it by hand. still have a few more things to add and will let it sit for the winter. Hopefully I can get the winter rye to germ before it's too late. Saturday, October 31 View Page Here's my son with my 764 on Halloween Saturday, October 31 View Page Here it is in the dark. I had a traffic jam in front of my house with people stopping to take pictures Sunday, November 8 View Page This is the patch with the manure sitting on top for a few weeks. Dan cam by with his Massey Ferguson and plowed the patch for me. Sunday, November 8 View Page The right side is the plowed side. The plow went over a foot deep. I know I have compacted the soil like crazy over the last 2 years and I thought this was the best way to aerate it. The farmer said it was some of the nicest soil he'd ever seen!! Lots of giant worms too!! Sunday, November 8 View Page Well that's it for this year. I've added all my amendments for the year and will let the soil "rest" for the winter. Can't wait until next year! This season was a rollercoaster ride. I improved my PB by 275 lbs and split my first real big one. Couldn't have done it without all the help from so many people! Thanks!!