Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 76 Entries. Thursday, May 1 View Page Started my seeds today. 804 Vincent and a 966 Vincent. Filed the seed coat, soaked in water/peroxide for 6 hours, and then placed in moist papertowel into a tupperware container. Places container on sattelite receiver for temperature. Thursday, May 1 View Page Heres my new tractor. This baby will get lot's of work in the garden. Saturday, May 3 View Page Checked on seeds today. Nothing happening. Starting to get worried. Checked moisture and temperature again. Still good. Monday, May 5 View Page Checked on seeds again today. Seeds are starting to mold. Not sure whats wrong here? Contacted John Vincent reference the mold issue and requested some new seeds. John said come on over and grab some. Monday, May 5 View Page Went to John's place. Picked up 3, 804 seeds and 2 more 966 seeds, 804's have seemed to be a 50/50 chance of germination. Some of te seeds sound hollow when dropped. Took 3 that sounded full. Went home and repeated process again. Filed the seeds, soaked for 6 hours in water/peroxide solution. Placed into container with moise papertowel and placed ontop of sattelite receiver again. Tuesday, May 6 View Page Checked on my seeds. nothing happening yet. Papertowel was dried out. Re-moistened the papertowel and placed ontop of receiver again. Checked temperature. Temp is at 87 and constant. Thursday, May 8 View Page Checked seeds again. Temp is at 87, but nothing is happening. papertowel is dried out again. Re-moistened and placed back on the receiver. Friday, May 9 View Page Went back to check on the seeds. Still nothing happening. papertowel was dried out again. I think I may have hurt the seeds by letting it get to dry. DOH, I forgot to place a lid on the container. That would explain why there was no moisture in it. Re-moistened towel and placed a lid on it this time. Friday, May 9 View Page Got my new tractor today. Went to start working up the garden. Im late at working it. Used the furrow plow and plowed it all up. Picked out all the nice large rocks and let it sit. Now I need a rototiller. Maybe I will borrow one from my g/f's dad. Saturday, May 10 View Page Checked on seeds again. Moisture level great, Guess I should have placed that damn lid on in the first place. Stupid me. Oh well, cant blame it on age. Temp still nice and steady at 87. Saturday, May 10 View Page Took a soil sample from the Garden and brought it into the Foxboro Co-op. This should help me narrow down what I need to do to the soil and if I have a chance. Should have my sample by end of next week. Went to look at the garden. Still no tiller. I think ill wait. Saturday, May 10 View Page Checked on my seeds again. Things are looking good. Nice temp still 88 degrees, lot's of moisture but not too much. Seeds look to be doing something, and the coats are softer. Placed back ontop of receiver. Sunday, May 11 View Page Went to Kaleigh's parents place. Asked about their tiller. Took it home. Man this thing is old. It's about 6:30pm now. I want to start tilling. Give the thing a pull and the recoil is gone. Guess I need to take this thing apart. Fixed the recoil about 8pm now. Too late to do anything. Sunday, May 11 View Page Checked over them again. Oh, 1 is up and nice root. I had better plant it. Got my bio-pot and place my pro-mix in it. Placed my seed in and covered up. now I need a heat source. Hrmm. Wont fit ontop of the receiver and have light at the same time. Took upstairs to the spare bedroom and placed a lamp with a energy daylight bulb over it. That should do it. Monday, May 12 View Page Checked the seeds. Looks great. I see a bit of root. Very small, but its comming. This is a good sign. Check over the moisture and temp and place back on top of the receiver. Was going to start tilling, but had a meeting to go too. Hopefully I will start tomorrow. Monday, May 12 View Page Oh two of the 966's are up, and the other 2 804's are up. Better plant em all while im thinking of it. same routine as yesterday. Found an old scarf and placed it under the window sill to keep any breeze away. Hope the temp is good fo these things. Tuesday, May 13 View Page Decided to start tilling. Got almost the entire garden done, which is like 46X33 or so. Man this thing hurts the hands. blisters like crazy. had to stop tilling for the night as I broke the belt on the tiller. Better call Sears and order a new one. Oh good. they have one in and I can pick it up tomorrow. i will finish tomorrow evening blisters or not. Used my tennant to help with the garden tonight. Had him help swap with rock picking manually tilling over with the fork after it was tilled and trading off with tilling duties. nice to have a helper for a change. Wednesday, May 14 View Page Checked on my plants this morning. I can see the seed coat comming up through the soil on 3 of the plants I believe it is the 804 and the two 955's. Im getting excited. Give them a bit more water, and make sure the light is still working as its my only heat source until I buy a heat blanket tommorrow. Oh well, off to work I go. Saturday, May 17 View Page Okay so I think I have this picture thing up and running. So, I decided to change up the way I was warming my pumpkins. I decided to buy some grow lamps, and a heating pad. I built a trellis that I can also use for my hoop house when the time comes. Monday, May 19 View Page There growing! Friday, May 23 View Page Well, Today I received my soil sample back. Contacted John, and we figured out what I needed to add to my patch. Added 2 bags of Sulfur, and 75lbs of Kamag. Tilled it all under, and just waiting for tomorrow to start planting in the garden now. Sunday, May 25 View Page First hoop house going up. This will house my 966 Vincent. Sunday, May 25 View Page Black landscape fabric for heat, as well as keeping the weeds away from the 966. Sunday, May 25 View Page The 966 Vincent finally in the ground. Sunday, May 25 View Page Another of the 966 enjoy its first look at real sunshine.. Sunday, May 25 View Page A shot of thr 966 in the ground under the hoop base. Sunday, May 25 View Page First sides on the house. Sunday, May 25 View Page Side shot of the first hoop house. (Okay not really a hoop but you get the idea) Sunday, May 25 View Page 966 all cozy. I decided to use tuck tape to seal the seams. Sunday, May 25 View Page Another of the 966. It started to wilt once I put him into the ground. Sunday, May 25 View Page Im using a heating lamp on the 966. It has a red 175w inferred lamp. Sunday, May 25 View Page 966 with a moisture meter beside it.. Sunday, May 25 View Page Moisture is great on the 966. Sunday, May 25 View Page One side of the house open, and this is the temperature and humidity inside the hoop. Sunday, May 25 View Page Another shot of the 966 Vincent. This one is hopefully going to be my best plant. It definitely grew faster then the other 4. Sunday, May 25 View Page Second hoop house. Housing an 804 Vincent. This plant had weird cots. But hopefully it will take right of being outside now. Sunday, May 25 View Page Shot of the 2 hoop houses. One at each end of the patch. Sunday, May 25 View Page Another shot of the two houses all complete. I decided to make a neat door system on them.. Sunday, May 25 View Page I had some Plexiglas lying around from work, so I made a hinge system and put it on there. That way the wind is blocked all the time, and I can still open the house on nice days to let the heat out of there when it gets to hot Sunday, May 25 View Page Close-up of the door system. Sunday, May 25 View Page This is how I am going to control my lights in the hoops.. I found this at TSC and it seems like it will work. When it gets dusk the lamps turn on, and when it gets light in the morning, the lamps turn off. Sunday, May 25 View Page All done. Now its just weeding and watering. I still need to add my boards back into the patch so I don't compress the soil, but other then that. It looks good. Monday, June 2 View Page I Received my misting system today. As you can see, everything I need to treat my plants is here. I chose the red Tornado Misters, for my plot. They should do the job. Friday, June 6 View Page 34 Degrees out here today. And Sunny. Over 2" of rain last night and a wicked thunder and lightning display. This warm weather is suposed to carry on all weekend. Hoping to have my pumpkin start some more growing. might not even need the lights in the hoop tonight depending on the evening temp. Was 70 in the houses last nite at 9:15pm with the lights on. Wednesday, June 11 View Page This is my girlfriends 804. It was slower growing in the house, but once outside its really taking off. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Here is my 966. As you can see, it is doing well. It has been in the ground for about 14 days now. Roots should be established, and after the heat we had, it has almost doubled in size.. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Here is a picture of the misters finally all set-up. It took me about an hour to run all the tubing and, and about another hour to poke all the holes in the 1/2" tube and put all the emitters together. Wednesday, June 11 View Page Finally, Done. Here is the end result. 32 misters in the garden. All set at 5 feet between each. These misters are rated at 40psi to do 11.2Gal/per hour. These should be enough for my plot while attached to my automatic digital timer. Im hoping this will replace me having to use a lot of my limited well water. Sunday, June 15 View Page Here is the 966, as you can see from the picture it has nearly doubled in size since the other day Sunday, June 15 View Page Another of the 966, I think the misters have really helped with the growing. Sunday, June 15 View Page And Kaleigh's 804. It is still out-growing the 966. Sunday, June 15 View Page And the last one for today. Another shot of the 804. Sunday, June 15 View Page So, from today on, I am going to submit 1 picture of each plant every 2-3 days, and we will see the difference in growth, and the speed at which they are growing. Im going to have to be careful with my water consumption as I ran out almost today. Friday, June 20 View Page Well, today I gave the plants a little treat. For prevention I sprayed both plants with Premetherin, just in case. Then I watered them with some 5-1-1 muskie emulsion, which was graciously provided by John Vincent. I think I could see the smile on their faces as I applied it hehe. Thursday, July 10 View Page John Vincent came over today and dropped off my water tank. Should help the patch out a lot. Also, weeded the patch a bit, and added some compost tea to both plants. The patch looks great asides from the weeds.. Saturday, July 12 View Page Plants got 200 Gals of water today. And mixed in some crop booster. Hopefully that should help them out. Sunday, July 13 View Page Burried some more vines tonight. Trying to get those roots situated as best as possible. Also removed from Terturaries (sp) little buggers trying to drink my the fruits water. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Pollinated the first female today. A gorgeous 5 Lober on the 804 Vincent. I crossed this with a 966 Vincent. Hope everything goes well. Tied the female shut and we will see in 10 days time as of tomorrow what we are looking at. The female on the 966 should open in the next few days. Thursday, July 17 View Page Another female opened today. This time on the 966 Vincent. Went out to find a pollen donor last night and was graciously donated the goods from a 998 Pukos provided by John Vincent. Female was a nice 4 lober, perfect shape. Did the pollination at 6:15 this morning, tied her shut, and placed a lawn shair overtop of her, as it's supose to be in the 85-90 range today. Wish me luck Tuesday, July 22 View Page Did some serious patch work tonight. Previous to this post I was letting all the grass grow around the patch as high as it wanted. It was over waist high, and my mentality was it was a natural wind block for the plant while it was growing. Well now that the plant is bigger, I decided to mow the entire thing off last night. Made room for my secondaries which were growing out about 10 feet from the main through the grass, and weeded the patch beside mine. It was in dire need. Tomorrow night I hope the rain holds off again and I and I can get the rest of atleast another block of the patch weeded. Wednesday, July 23 View Page Pollinated another 4 lober on the 966 this morning. This time I crossed it with the 804 which is the other plant in my patch. I was going to use some more of the Pukos genetics, but I decided to see how much of a difference I could notice between the 2 pollinations. Wednesday, July 23 View Page The fruit on the 804 is looking good. No 10 day numbers yet, but its about the size of a volleyball. Looked like a female was going to open ahead of this one, but it was a no go. Flower didnt open and it looks like is dead now. Not sure what would have caused this? Too much rain? first set taking from the growth? Not sure. Have another female looking to open about 4 feet from the first and it should go in a few days. Saturday, July 26 View Page Wow what a rain. Measured 2" today. No power for most of the day, and made any work in the patch impossible. Rain decided it was going to let up in the evening and the sun came out. FINALLY did my 10 day measurement, The 804 Vincent measures in at 75" OTT, thats above the 1200lbs benchmark, and the fruit looks great. Nice and round. Let's hope it keeps on this track. The 804, was Self pollinated with the 966 Vincent. This is a project pumpkin for 4-H. Let's hope she does well. Saturday, July 26 View Page Well with the rain finally letting up and calling for nice weather tomorrow, I decided to go out and foliar spray my plants. Mixed a concoction of Premetherin, Funginex, Crop Booster and Fish Emulsion. Each plant got a nice dosing. Sunday, July 27 View Page WOW, checked the patch this morning, seems the emulsion I made yesterday really perked the plants, with all the rain, and now the vitamins in the girls, They are almost neon green. So bright and healthy looking. Nice thing about all this rain is I wont have to irrigate for at least a week. Monday, July 28 View Page Applied 10 litres of compost tea to each plant last night. Hopefully they were thirsty after all the rain we have had Tuesday, July 29 View Page Pollinated a deformed 5 lober this morning on the 966 and crossed it with a male from the 804. We will see how this one does. This makes the 3rd pollination on the 966, and the 804 only has one. Thursday, August 7 View Page Checked the patch yesterday. Things are really doing well. No 30 day measurements. That will be tomorrow. The 966 which was moving slowly, has caught up to the 804. And i suspect the 966 will take over the 804 in size within the next few days. Although I really like the shape of the 804. NO ribs, perfectly smooth, and just overall nice looking. I will try and post some pics. My internet is down at home and I can't upload from work. Saturday, August 16 View Page This is a picture of the 966. OTT Today is 216, CC = 93 Saturday, August 16 View Page Another of the 966 Saturday, August 16 View Page And one last of the 966 Saturday, August 16 View Page Here is the 804. OTT today is 212, CC = 91 Saturday, August 16 View Page Another of the 804 Saturday, August 16 View Page And one last of the 804. Monday, September 29 View Page Well growth is slow but steady. Starting to tapper off. About 3 lbs a day now. Getting really cool. about 4 celsius over night and highs around 12-20 during the days. We will see what happens by the 18th of October. Powdery Mildew has taken over most of my plant. No matter how much I spray now, its just not controlling anything. Hopefully the new growth on the plant keep it going. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Well, the year has ended. Here is a picture of my 966 Vincent Mcgill 07 pollinated with the 998 Pukos. The end result was 558/lbs. I received the best 1st year grower award, and also placed 13th overall at Wellington Pumpkin Fest. Good luck to everyone, hope you have a great year!