Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Monday, May 25 View Page So to start off 2009. Today we are observing Memorial Day in the U.S., and here today the the very first red poppy opened in the wildflower garden. Memorial day and blood red poppies, both symbolic of the young soldiers who endured hardships and often died in pain far from home and before their time. Most every nation has them, and we who live in relative security should pause from time to time to reflect on exactly what the actual cost of that security is. Monday, May 25 View Page Ok so on a lighter note, so last week I get home from work, look out the back window, and this is what was on the back slope. I think she's kinda growing on me. Monday, May 25 View Page 'maters went in last week. Got the 448 Perry (cultivar 'church') a giant roma type called 'ballerina', 'Black Brandywine', 'Marlowe Charleston', 'Potato Top', and my favorite from last year called 'Sunset's Red Horizon'. My thanks to Ron Rahe and Duane Perry. Monday, May 25 View Page So the weather has finally warmed things up a bit and the pumpkins are for the most part in the ground. Before any more posts pass I should thank the group of great guys that were kind enough to send seed. Here they are in no particular order: Ron Rahe, Joannis Hollein, Frank Cook, John Van Hook, Jeff Lawrence, Peter Mohr, and John Vincent. Also Shannon Engle. Thank you very much! I'm feeling really good about what is going in the ground this year, and all of you have made this possible. You know I asked 6 people for seed, and each and every one of them were willing to send a few out to an unknown grower. Great group of people here! Monday, May 25 View Page Planting scheme. Space available is limited to a few strips that are only 9 feet (3 meters) wide. The strategy is to plant 6 plants, devoting a 15' X 9' area to each. That amounts to 135 square feet (15 meters) per plant. Enough space to get a 'big' fruit, though not nearly what they could do with more room. I'm treating it as more of a genetics patch. Tuesday, May 26 View Page Along the back fence: Cucumbers, Feigenblatt (C. ficifolia), 72 Rahe long gourd, 81 Moore Long handle dipper gourd, jack be little (C. pepo), and baby boo (C. pepo). Also growing Muscade de Provence (C. moschata), and Lumina. Behind back fence: The 711 Bosworth X Galeux d'Eysines (aka. 'the beast'). As for all the rest, I'm going for beauty. Some really nice potential lookers here: 1004 Mohr, 681 Zoellner, 594.5 Van Hook, 673 Lawrence, and 993 Vincent-McGill. Tuesday, May 26 View Page The 1004 Mohr, in the ground on the 24th of May. Tuesday, May 26 View Page The 681 Zoellner, in the ground on the 24th of May. Tuesday, May 26 View Page The 594.5 Van Hook, planted 24th May. Tuesday, May 26 View Page The 673 Lawrence, also put in on May 24. Monday, June 1 View Page Rest of the Cucurbits are in. The 993 Vincent-McGill has been a bit slow with what can be described as kinked leaves. Probably my fault, I damaged it a bit with the filing. Also in; the Feigenblat (Fig leaf gourd, aka Cucurbita ficifolia) the Muscade de Provence, the 72 Rahe long gourd, and Lumina white pumpkin. Wish the triamble squash seeds had germinated. May try that again next year. Monday, June 1 View Page I lost the Potato Top tomato that Ron gave me. Sorry Ron! Take a look at how twisted and nasty the plant got 2 weeks after transplanting. Monday, June 1 View Page Here's a closer look. Note the ligher-colored outgrowths on the stem. They started at the base of the stem right at soil level. This might be crown gall, a disease caused by a soil bacterium that invades wounded tissue. I replaced the soil surrounding the plant and put in a store bought 'sweet 100' for the kids. Other plants are doing fine. Have two more potato top seeds for next year. Saturday, June 6 View Page Wildflower patch is rolling right along. Saturday, June 6 View Page Another shot of the wildflowers. The mini ornamental corn is up in the east strip. Only few leaves' growth on the pumpkins since planting what with the nights in the 40's and no supplemental heating. Saturday, December 12 View Page Really got behind with posting to this lol. Highlights of the season, 1004 Mohr went flatvine and couldn't get a secondary off of it. Probably didn't matter anyway as some helpful someone must have sprayed 2,4D on the other side of the fence. Everything got curled leaves on new growth in the first part of June. Replanted gourds, jack be littles, babyboos, and the Cucurbita ficifolia. The 993 VincentMcGill and the galeux d'eysines X 711 Bosworth made it with just a few symptoms (they were on the east side of the fence). Other AGs were hit but never fully recovered. Saturday, December 12 View Page Here are, starting from the left and moving clockwise: Jarrdale, best looking 98 Beecher 09, C. ficifolia, Muscade de provence, and jack be little. Saturday, December 12 View Page From left clockwise: A rouge vif etamps (not grown at my place: fungus infected or a really cool mutant?), The 993 Vincent McGill, C. ficifolia, jack be little, and Lumina. Saturday, December 12 View Page The Galeux d'eysines X 711 Bosworth cross plant had two nice very solid pumpkins on it. The smaller of the two is cut off on the previous post. Here's the other: Note: Plant was very vigorous, recovered from overspray to set two solid, squat fruit. I eventually weighed them in December, 92 and 61 lbs after two months after harvest with mouse tunnels through one. This plant would do much better with some decent growing conditions. Saturday, December 12 View Page Check out that virus-infected one on the left (its a 89 Beecher self, not grown on my place). Saturday, December 12 View Page Long gourds. Supposed to be a mammoth... Saturday, December 12 View Page Trick or Treat! Saturday, December 12 View Page The motley crew! Saturday, December 12 View Page Other miscellaneous stuff: Grew out some Cucurbita foetidissima from my uncle's place in western Kansas. Woah the name fits. Seed is slow to germinate. The plants also seem to focus on establishing roots much more so than leaves. No fruit or flowers this first year. Suppose this makes sense given that this is a perennial. Saturday, December 12 View Page Went ahead with the first C.foetidissima grafting experiment using seedling material. Scion used was the C. maxima x rough vif etamps F2. Three approach grafts, tape, parafilm, and a pin. The pinned graft is the one that took. Planted it out and never watered it once. Here's a picture of the graft in early September: Cut off end of scion on right, carrot-like C. foetidissima taproot on the left. Saturday, December 12 View Page There's the vine, such as it is. The climate here is very dry. There's no way the pumpkin would have lived without the rootstock. As it is, the pumpkin is really stunted. Hopefully the taproot will survive the winter. It will be interesting to see what happens next year when I can graft to an established rootstock with more power behind it! Saturday, December 12 View Page Earlier picture of the grafted vine: Saturday, December 12 View Page oops here's the pic I meant: Saturday, December 12 View Page This is what the foliage of the C. foetidissima plant looks like. It has elongated silvery leaves with lots of hairs. Really rank smell if you rub the leaves. Saturday, December 12 View Page Here's what the fruit of that Galeux X 711 Bosworth cross looked like while still growing on the vine. Saturday, December 12 View Page Still my favorite beefsteak type tomato. Its a Russian heirloom that has been renamed Sunset's Red Horizon. Lots of 1-2 lb heart shaped fruit for me (Joe average grower for sure). The thing I like most about this one is that they crack much much less than other beefsteaks of similar size. Tuesday, December 29 View Page Atlantic Giant X Rouge Vif Etampes Crosses: This is a picture from last year showing the above crosses I grew out. Middle front is Ron Rahe's 55Rahe, far left and far right are progeny from my similar crosses from 2007. All three are the F1's from Atlantic Giant X Rouge Vif Etampes crosses. They were selfed to generate F2 seed. Tuesday, December 29 View Page F2 growout: Seed from the middle pumpkin of previous post (89 Beecher 2008 = 55 Rahe X self) was grow out on some of my friend Brad's ground. High-density mass planting on the edge of a field pumpkin plot. Approximatly 25 square feet per plant. The aim was to observe segregation for fruit color and shape. Tuesday, December 29 View Page lot#1 fruits 1 to 10. Wow look at the variation! More to come. Tuesday, December 29 View Page More of that planting. Nearly half of the plants contracted one of the mosaic viruses (coming in off the field?) Very little mottling visible on the leaves, but just look at fruits #14 through #18! Brad and I flipped for #15, he won so I took #14 home. Had to tell so many people that it was just a lucky accident and that the seed was no good. :( Tuesday, December 29 View Page Last of the 55 Rahe F2 growout: Fruits #23 and 24 have virus symptoms. The virus seems to cause variable amounts of bubble like distortions in the fruit surface as well as some retention of the immature green coloration. It doesn't seem to affect general fruit shape or mature coloration.