Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 23 Entries. Thursday, April 29 View Page Started my 2010 PR hopefuls today: 1622 (1) Young (1207 Young x1385 Jutras)- Thanks Don! 1199 (3) Werner (998 Pukos x1161 Rodonis) - Thanks Quinn! 915 (2)Labosky (1161 Rodonis x985 Werner) - Thanks Mark! With more space than for 3 plants I would grow a 1462 Starr and 948 Young, but for now they will be Plan B until next year. The 915 will be my risk for the season and I hope to cross it with the 1199. Also thanks to Thad Starr for the awesome field pumpkins seeds and the Finders for the melon seed :) Thursday, April 29 View Page A picture of the 915 Labosky '09 Monday, May 3 View Page 1622 Young and 1199 Werner are showing signs of life! After an unexpected 100°F night in the seed toaster I was a worried they were damaged. Still crossing my fingers for the Labosky seedlings to make an appearance. Monday, May 3 View Page Bad news is the 915 Labosky seeds didn't germinate. I did a little investigation and found them rotten within their coats. The plan is to stick with my 1622 Young (fastest to sprout but boy is she ugly!) and 2 of the 1199 Werner, which I have good feeling about. Finals week. Blegh. Wednesday, May 5 View Page Got a chance to go home tonight and check on my plants. All 3 plants are now a deep, dark green. One of the 1199 Werner is especially aggressive and I hope it keeps it up. There were too many grubs in the patch for my preference and I plan on giving it a good soaking as soon as possible. Lazy chickens. Thursday, May 13 View Page After a week of high winds and tornado warnings, the pumpkins are still growing strong. The 1199 Werner continues to be the dominate plant but it is showing a few signs of infection or bug damage. I added a small dose of Agri-FOS systemic fungicide as an insurance policy in the over-wet soil and plan to dose with Daconil plus generic Merit when it arrives. Root rot has been a problem in previous seasons but so help me it will not be this year. I put black plastic over 30% of the patch to fry the persistent grass and will move it in a week to do another 30%. It is tempting to just Roundup everything but what's the point when there are non-chemical options. My semester is finally over - and there is a good chance it will turn out to be a 4.0 It was hard work and consumed my time but maybe it will pay dividends on the medical school application. Last night on the farm we had some trouble with a calf and had to milk the mother then force feed it. By the time we were heading home it was up and nursing by itself so thankfully there was no need to lose any sleep. Saturday, May 15 View Page Another rainy day, and with plenty more in the forecast. The Pro-Thor (Merit) finally arrived and I applied a .05%/25 gallon mix. Hopefully it was in time to kill the grubs before they begin their metamorphic molt into the dreaded enemy - squash vine borers. Sunday, June 13 View Page The 1622 Young is doing very well besides sending secondaries skyward. The main is approximately 9' and has its first female. I had to pull one 1199 Werner due to slow growth and club root. The other two 1199's do not have good secondary growth yet and one is aborting early male flowers. If the 1199 doesn't shape up I might have to find a different pollinator for the 1622 plant. I spotted two SVBs today and managed to eliminate one of them. The merit application is still working judging by numerous twitching cucumber beetles, so I am not extremely worried. I discovered a new product called Sea Grow Flower & Bloom (4-26-26) which has kelp, blood meal, and yucca extract in addition to some micro-nutrients. It was $12.58 for a 5lbs concentrate. The yucca extract is supposed to be a wetting agent. We'll see how it performs. Friday, June 18 View Page Forecast is 90+ for the next week. This picture reminds me how nice the weather was in Alaska last summer..May 14th. Friday, June 18 View Page 6/29/09 on a glacier below Mt. McKinley Friday, June 18 View Page I took a trip to Spain 4 weeks ago Friday, June 18 View Page Barcelona was my favorite city Friday, June 18 View Page Rome was good, too. Except for the lines for Vatican City. Friday, June 18 View Page The patch is looking much better by the day. On Thursday I applied 16oz of Liquid Gypsum with a hose-end sprayer and made sure to rinse it from the leaves. Last night I made a solution of Actinovate, kelp, and humic acid. Everything was splendid until the sprayer mysteriously lost pressure. After a little investigation, it was discovered that a small frog had taken up residence in the hose. Only his legs were recovered, and there is a strong odor de amphibian in the patch today. Maybe frog blood is what we are missing in our fertilizer program? Tomorrow I will apply Mosquito Barrier (it leaked in the package - UPS man probably went home smelling strongly of garlic!) and my 2nd dose of imidacloprid. My 1622 is the only plant doing anything spectacular. It is about 14' long with 10 or so secondaries in full flux. It will be pollination time within the week, provided that the plant looks vigorous enough to support a pumpkin. I'm currently applying roughly 105 gallons of water every other day over 1200sqft. In my area we are behind by 2.5" of precipitation for the month. Wednesday, June 23 View Page A rough week for the patch. We had several days of high winds with a heavy rain during the early morning hours. I had to remove both 1199 plants; one looked like it contracted a mosaic virus and the other was not growing well. My remaining 1622 is doing fantastic with all insect problems under control and only a small anthracnose problem to worry about. (Does anyone know if I can control it well enough with Daconil and Mancozeb? Should I use something like Cleary's just in case? E-mail me) Should be pollinating tomorrow morning and the plant looks like it could handle a pumpkin now. Average 95°F for the past week....wish me luck! Friday, June 25 View Page Still battling with anthracnose on the newer leaves. I've added mancozeb to my daconil rotation and also cut back on overhead watering. The 1622 is just under 400sqft now with another 350 or 400 to go. I may begin to terminate it early if the pollination on 6/23/2010 takes off. Burying all leaf nodes with myco and 0-0-60 muriate of potash. Sometimes I add in alfalfa or humic acid. I probably should have bought 0-0-50 The fruit pollinated on 6/23 is in an excellent position with 110° angles to the main. I missed the morning pollination on a 95°F day, so my fingers are crossed. Friday, July 9 View Page Pollination on July 1st was a 4 lober 8ft out on a side vine with 12 vines behind it. Friday, July 9 View Page Day 6 about the size of a small cantaloupe. I prop my vines up with bricks and read my pumpkin the story of the three little pigs every night before tucking it in. Friday, July 9 View Page Candidate number 2, 5 days old. Both pumpkins are very round with only moderate length. You can also see the blasted morning glories which are driving me absolutely nuts. I wish those things would all sprout at the same time but they have an inconvenient nature of taking turns. The crab grass is equally frustrating, but I admire its tenacity. Friday, July 9 View Page My plant is more broad than long due to an untimely burnt tip on the main. All secondaries are a minimum of 15 ft long with a few curving backwards at 25ft. I am also allowing tertiary vines to fill in behind the stump similar to what was done on the 1725. Friday, July 9 View Page Vine burying has got to be my second to least favorite aspect to this sport. Number one is anything to do with weeds or disease. Friday, July 9 View Page Name these paws Friday, July 9 View Page Did you guess raccoon? This little killer murdered a chicken in the middle of the night, sending my mom heroically dashing out to the barn in her pj's to catch him in the act. We were feeling merciful that day so he was relocated to a wealthy neighborhood where I hear he is growing fat from the trashcans and visiting all the koi ponds in his free time ;) am I joking?