Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 43 Entries. Sunday, May 17 View Page This is my second year growing and I am doing this diary in hopes that you experienced growers out there can give me tips on how to improve. Email is [email protected]. Thanks to Ray, Gordon and the UGPG for all your help. Here is a shot of the 948 Israelson. The water bottles are to try and retain heat, still have lows in the 20s. I also put a plastic storage bin over the plant and bottles at night as temps in the hoop get below freezing. Also in the lineup this year, the 1408 Daletas, the 1689 Jutras, and the 1231 Pukos. Monday, May 18 View Page 1231 Pukos after a nice seaweed bath. Seeds were soaked on 4/24 and transplanted on 5/5. All went well until I lost the 1142 Van Kooten last weekend when I left town to take the kids camping and my wife "THOUGHT" she closed the hoophouse. Frost is not good for pumpkins. It was truly a shame, but she felt so bad about it I can't be mad. May nights are still cold here, but days are really starting to warm up-it had to be in the 80s today. Good luck everyone! Thanks for all your help. Wednesday, June 17 View Page Figure it's time to catch up on the diary. 1408 Daletas in foreground, 1231 Pukos top right and 1689 Jutras top left (plants are planted back to back). Growth has been VERY slow the past 10 days as weather has been super cold and wet. This shot was taken just a couple of hours before another storm rolled in. More wind, rain, and hail. This is very unusual for this time of year. Thursday, June 18 View Page Here is the 1408. I'm training the secondaries back on this one following the Thad Starr pattern. So far one female at 9 feet...I'm still holding onto hope that I can pollinate one at 12' plus, but who knows. Main has only grown about a foot in the last 10 days. Thursday, June 18 View Page Leaf on the Daletas. Grow baby grow! I just hope the storm isn't tearing this apart as I type. Thursday, June 18 View Page 1231 Pukos, so far the most aggressive plant. One female at 9', another just appeared today at 12'...that may be the chosen one, we'll see how it goes. My PB (and only pumpkin ever grown) was 286. I think I am well ahead of last year, hopefully I don't mess things up too bad! Thursday, June 18 View Page Last but not least, the 1689. You can see my mini greenhouse frames in the background. They are 8' x 8'. I thought they worked pretty good and I hope to get a few years out of the frames. Plants outgrew them at the end of May, but then the cold rolled in and havn't seen much growth since. If I had the time and $$ I would have tried to build bigger greenhouses. The Jutras had a bit of a setback when the main vine laid down and kinked a bit. I had a ramp of dirt under it but it didn't lay down perfectly. I also had to cut the the first secondary off as it was growing straight into the ground. I was worried about stress and twisting on the main so I removed it. Maybe that was a rookie mistake, but I didn't know what else to do. The plant still seems to be doing okay, 11' main, and a 4 lober at 10'. I still have high hopes for this one! Thursday, June 18 View Page Pic of the '08 weighoff. I know, it's nothing to brag about, but this pumpkin growing thing is FUN! As small as it is in comparison to most, the kids got a huge kick out of it. I've never met a nicer bunch of folks than fellow growers. Always willing to help a newbie out with info and seeds. Thanks again to everyone, and good luck to all! Sunday, June 21 View Page NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Sunday, June 21 View Page It's amazing the difference 2 minutes can make. Hail came down so hard it even dented and broke the vines. Weather this year has been more like Kansas than Utah. This is the 948 Israelson. I had high hopes for this plant, it grew a big one here in Utah last year. This one is in my backyard. Thankfully, I have an offsite patch that faired much better. I'm going to give this one a week or two before deciding what to do. Tuesday, June 23 View Page Leaves were drying out and rotting, so I cut off the shredded lettuce and left just a few of the leaves with the least damage. I also applied a high nitrogen fertilizer and fungicide. Thursday, June 25 View Page With all the hailstorms we've had, and high temps on the way, I figured it's time to get my shade cloth up. It can double as hail netting. While thinking of some options on how to hang the shade cloth, inspiration hit....... Thursday, June 25 View Page I decided to try to stretch steel cables between 2 1/2 inch square steel tubing that I bought cheap from a local steelyard (it was used). The tubing is pretty stout (1/4" thick) so I was hoping it would hold up. I bought long eyebolts so I could ratchet them down to create tension. The main reason I wanted to do this was to reduce the number of necessary vertical posts located within the patch. I didn't want to have to worry about hitting a bunch of poles when I'm dumping trailers of manure and compost. Time will tell if this was a good idea or not. Thursday, June 25 View Page Well the poles are bending and the cement footing is tipping. I guess there's more lateral force on the tops of those poles than I had anticipated. The 55' span was too much. As you can tell, I'm not an engineer by day, nor did I get an "A" in my college physics course. Thursday, June 25 View Page It's official...I'm insane. The neighbors tell me I'm crazy, my friends tell me I'm crazy, people I don't even know tell me I'm crazy, and now, even my wife tells me I'm crazy. I tried telling her- "I'm not the only one that does this. Look, here's an entire website full of people that do it too!" I had to put a pole in the middle of the patch to reduce sag. Here's a shot of the finished setup. Thursday, June 25 View Page Here is the 1231 Pukos, and the 1689 Jutras in the background. The warmer weather is helping them a bunch, but there's another storm in the forecast. The Pukos has the 2nd female at about 13', should open in a few days. The Jutras has it's second female (on the main) at about 11 feet, will probably open day after tomorrow. I havn't decided if that's too early or not. Suggestions? Email me at [email protected]. Both plants lost some leave to hail about 10 days ago but have recovered nicely. Thanks to everyone! Thursday, July 2 View Page Wow! Fruit is in season! I have had 2-3 sets per plant and with temps in the mid 90s I am hoping to avoid aborts. Could be much worse, 100 degrees plus is common this time of year. I am taking precautions with ice, shade, and misting to be safe. Here is a main vine set on the 1231 Pukos, crossed with the 1689 Jutras. Pollinated 6/28. Another main vine female should open by 7/5 and I will pollinate that one as well. Thursday, July 2 View Page Here is a shot of the 1408 Daletas. Pollinated a female on 6/30. Crossed it with a 1041 McKie. Special thanks to Brent Wolfley for providing the males. I didn't have a single male in the whole patch that day (due to my excessive pruning) and Brent hooked me up with some much needed pollen and great genetics to boot! Thursday, July 2 View Page Ahh, isn't she cute?!? 1231 Pukos day 4. I don't name them til I decide which one to keep. I couldn't cull something that had a name! I know, I need to get some sand down and adjust some vines. Monday, July 13 View Page Here is a pumpkin on the 1408 Daletas. This plant has crazy thick vines and is now the biggest plant in the patch. You can see a scar at lower left, I can't decide if this is going to present a problem later on. When the pumpkin was very young (and still sticking straight up) a windstorm rubbed a leaf stalk against the fruit. Of course the scar is getting larger as the fruit grows. Is this disaster waiting to happen? The fruit was set on 6/30 at 13.5 feet. I have another fruit set on 7/6 at 16 feet--I am wondering if it would be better to go with that one, assuming it continues to grow okay. Does anyone have experience with fruit slightly damaged when very young? Monday, July 13 View Page Sorry, damage on the pumpkin on previous post is lower right side. Tuesday, July 14 View Page Meet "Large Marge" on the 1231 Pukos. I wish I could say that's a 2 liter bottle (it's 20 oz). 48" Circ-day 16. Not world record pace, but I gotta beat what I did last year, don't I??? Will get some sand down tonight, any bigger and it will be tough to move. Tuesday, July 14 View Page Fruit on the 1689 Jutras. I don't exactly know what I did to this plant, but it has aborted all fruit after the first set. So even though it's ribbing up very young, and is going to go "wheel" I don't have much choice. Here's Sophie. 39" Circ day 17. 1689 Jutras x 1408 Daletas. Pollinated 6/27 at 11' out. Thursday, July 16 View Page Uh oh. I can't figure this one out. 1689 Jutras- day 19. CC is 46". Isn't growing too fast, no chemical fertilizers on the plants for almost a month. Is this salvageable, or should I just whack it now? I only have one other set that may work on this plant. It is at the end of the first secondary. I may be down to just 2 plants here pretty soon. At this rate, I'll be happy just to have something at the weigh-off. Friday, July 17 View Page Well, the splits were getting worse, so I decided to just cull the 1689. The sad part is I only have one more hope for a fruit on this one, it's about 12 feet out on the first secondary. Pollinated July 14. Not ideal, but rather than fight the splits on this fruit, that's what I decided to do. Monday, July 20 View Page Here's a pic of "Large Marge" (1231 Pukos) on day 20 - 64" circ She's starting to take off! I'm definitely worried about the structural integrity of the blossom end, but it's too late to turn back now, gonna have to roll the dice. "America" (1408 Daletas) is 61" circ today (day 20). Good shape and huge stem. This plant just keeps getting bigger-hopefully that translates into fruit growth in the near future! Tuesday, July 28 View Page Here's day 30 on the 1231 Pukos. Estimated 259# using OTT. This is my fastest growing pumpkin, but seems to have slowed some in the last few days(16lbs/day), has me a bit puzzled, I will fertilize tomorrow and see if we can pick up the pace. Either that or it will blow :-0! Tuesday, July 28 View Page Now on to the bad news...1408 Daletas has not grown in 4 days. Of course this indicates a serious problem. Here she is on day 28. Est 130#. Tuesday, July 28 View Page Stem on the pumpkin looks good, stump is solid and thick. No foaming or soft spots. Tuesday, July 28 View Page But the leaves go from this... Tuesday, July 28 View Page ...to this over about 5-7 days time. I removed about 8 leaves yesterday, and 3-5 new leaves seem to be affected daily. The problem started about a week ago. It started at the stump seems to be spreading down the main and out on the secondaries from there. I know the older leaves die off over time, but this has me worried because: 1) It seems to be a very acute onset 2) It seems to be spreading quickly 3) It seems to be taking its toll on fruit growth Tuesday, July 28 View Page One more shot of the problem. Tuesday, July 28 View Page Here is the 1689 Jutras on day 14. So far, so good. After the chosen one split, I am just excited to still have the possibility of a fruit on this plant. See, the thing with me is I can hardly hold in my laughter and excitement even when I see a 200 lb pumpkin, let alone anything bigger! Sometimes I feel like a little kid. I'm calling this one "Hope". Great shape, 5 lobes. I was wondering...when setting a fruit on a secondary vine, is it better to be further out on the secondary, or on a shorter secondary further down the main? An illustration: ____ ______X ____________ __________________ ________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________ ________________________________________Y 0 Do you take pumpkin "X" or pumpkin "Y" if "0" is the crown? (assuming all other factors ie positioning, shape, etc is the same) Saturday, August 1 View Page Had to pull the 1408 today. Fruit got soft spots and hadn't grown in a week. (Stayed at 130# est) Had a great start and was a terrific plant, it was just sick with something. I tried to set another fruit on the main on Wed. but it didn't take. Saturday, August 1 View Page Would love some help diagnosing this one. I checked in to getting it tested for fungi and bacteria, but it was about $250...just couldn't bring myself to do it. If anyone knows of somewhere cheaper, I would love to know about it. The leaves just turned yellow and died starting at the stump and spreading out from there down the main and secondaries. The hole in the leaf canopy you see toward the back is where I had previously removed leaves. It's all gone downhill in the last 10 days. Saturday, August 1 View Page Here's a close up for better identification. Saturday, August 1 View Page The only thing unusual I noted upon removing the plant, was that a 16" section of the very first sidevine was blown open. Of course i didn't notice this because it was buried, but maybe this was an entry point for spores or pathogens. What do I know. Saturday, August 1 View Page Main and stump. I also cut open the pumpkin. Was definitely rotting. I really wanted to keep this one, even for another month to bring to the fair, but it just wasn't going to happen. Saturday, August 1 View Page When pumpkin tradgedy strikes. It helps to take a step back and remember-they're just plants. Sure, we spend hours in the patch, $$$ on pumpkin supplies, we scheme, we dream, plan, and strategize, and obsess, but at the end of the day, there are more important things in life. Here's my 4-year-old at Willard Bay near our home. Saturday, August 1 View Page More bad news? 1231 Pukos has not grown in 3 days. Should be packin' on the pounds right now. Saturday, September 5 View Page I have pulled all plants due to disease with the exception of the 1231. It is also diseased and the fruit has not grown since late July. I'm just keeping it on hoping it doesn't rot before the weighoff. I thought it would have by now, but it's just sitting there, still solid. Measures 239" OTT. Something is better than nothing. Just hold on. Sunday, November 1 View Page Although it was a tough season, I was thrilled to have one make it to the weighoff. This one quit growing in July, never ribbed up, it just sat there and turned orange. I was amazed it never rotted out. This is my daughter in the McConkie 311 (1231 Pukos x 1689 Jutras) carved out for Halloween. Would have been nice to have some more weight on this one, but I thought the color and shape were nice. Sunday, November 1 View Page Here is my 2-year-old checking things out. Weighoff at Thanksgiving Point was awesome. The growers have inspired me to GO BIG next year. Andrew won it, Brent had a couple of sluggers, and watch out for the Foxes, they're CRAZY! Then there's the perrenial favorites-Gordon and Kenny. What does next year hold??? Time will tell. My gut tells me that Quigs has the bug and will be a contender in the next couple of years. Watch out! As for me, I'm contemplating retirement...or am I?