Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 166 Entries. Thursday, April 30 View Page Here' my incubator. It worked like a dream. Planted 2 seeds, and when it worked so slick, I planted another 8. I'm holding 4 seeds in case of emergency. I held the temperature at 85-90 F and the first two which I planted late Friday afternoon were up on Sunday morning. Of the 8 I planted on Sunday, 7 were up Monday evening. The last one was a dud, an empty, a blank. I filed all seeds before planting directly in pre-warmed potting soil. Monday, May 4 View Page After transplanting everything into larger pots -- plastic coffee cans, 1-gal. milk jugs, 2-gal tree pots for about a week, couldn't plant them because everything was so darned wet. Today I got them in the ground. All labeled correctly and surrounded by rabbit-proof fences. I don't suppose with everything so green the rabbits are particularly hungry; they'd probably just go boppin' past and say, "Hey, there's a potential world champion! I think I'll just nip it in the bud!" and there you go...More rain is predicted for this week. Hope the hail stays away, because what we are, we are now is. Monday, May 4 View Page Boy, they looked enormous in their little pots, like big strong teenagers! Now, out in the garden, with thirty feet between them, they look like poor little susceptible naive babes in the dirt. Tuesday, May 5 View Page Good thing I got my babies in the garden. It's raining again. 1/10 so far. Everything is mucky, mucky, mucky. The pumpkins are just sitting there, rejoicing in the 68 degrees and fine misty rain. They look bigger than yesterday... Friday, May 8 View Page Yesterday the temperature was in the high 80's. Forecast for severe t-storms during the night. Covered the pumpkins with 5-gallon buckets to protect them from possible 1/2 dollar size hailstones. At four this morning, I woke up, listening to wind, heavy rain, but no hail. As I lay there, I realized that I had planted every last one of the pumpkins 180 degrees off, with the desired direction of growth toward the FIRST TRUE LEAF! OH, NO! Got up early this morning, almost 3" of heavy rain. Went to the garden in muck up over the foot of my boots, and turned them all 180 degrees. Hope for the best. Thursday, May 14 View Page Cucumber beetles! Oh, NO! Just checked them and they have bugs! Ran to the house for the camera and the Sevin. This is a temporary fix. Will head for the hardware store in the morning and get some kind of systemic spray. Ohmigosh! I'm so glad I checked them again this evening. Seven of the nine have obvious bugs AND DAMAGE! Friday, May 15 View Page This entry is out of order; it should have been posted before the previous one, but somehow didn't go through. Rain, rain, go away! It rained .1 on Sunday, another .8 on Tuesday. Tuesday night I put inverted 5-gallon buckets over them to protect them from hail again. Here it is Thursday, and more rain in the forecast! Yesterday we were forecasted to get t-storms. Here in this neck of the prairie, that most assuredly gives a chance of hail. So,we made half-hoops out of 1/2" hailscreen like little quonset huts, and covered the pumpkins inside their chicken-wire rabbit-proof circles. I know that we'll be begging for rain in July and August, but right now we could stand a break in this weather pattern. Somebody reminded me that if it rains on Easter Sunday, weather lore says it will rain on the next 6 Sundays. Four down, two more to go...They're really growing fast, most of them would not fit under the 5-gallon bucket today. Friday, May 15 View Page Well, it's Friday morning now. I've driven the 40-mile round trip to the hardware store, bought the necessary poisons and spread the stuff. I misunderstood; I thought it was a spray. I have now spread granulated Merit on the pumpkin patch. Rain is predicted for this afternoon and on through tomorrow, so after the rain stops, I'll spray everything with Bifenthrin. This pumpkin growing ain't for sissies. Sunday, May 17 View Page All bugs seem to be dead. What a relief. Not enough rain fell to dissolve the Merit granules, so will hook up to water this afternoon and soak everything down. This picture is of Tom, the tailless guard cat. I hope he'll eat all mice that come near, although he's not nearly so alert and he wants a person to think. He and Gus, the black lab, are the best of buddies, and accompany me to the garden. Tuesday, June 2 View Page After a fairly uneventful week, just a few bugs here and there, I found this today. I've found some squash bugs and some cucumber beetles, but have them under control. Today I saw these shriveled leaves and found the yellow stem which was split open and full of stinky yellow-orange stuff. I ran to the house, amputated the nasty stem and sprayed it heavily with strong bleach/water solution. I noticed several other stems on other plants now have the same yellow-looking stems. If anyone can offer me some help, I'd appreciate it. Too much water, not enough water, Sevin damage?, bugs, mildew, or what??? Thank you. And did I do the right thing by amputating? Tuesday, June 2 View Page This is what it looks like inside the amputated vine. Smells nasty, too. Sunday, June 7 View Page Two surprises today. The first was the first blossom (male) to open on a pumpkin vine The second was that there are new striped cucumber beetles and squash bugs on the pumpkins this morning. They didn't seem to be dying, either, but rather planning on reproducing by their activities! It's been almost two weeks since I put down Merit, so I put down more Merit, watered it in (we needed the moisture anyway). If they're still around tonight, I'll sprinkle on the Sevin. I think I'll use spray on them tomorrow if it rains tonight. I started two more seeds on Friday but they haven't sprouted yet; this is an experiment to see how late I can plant and make a pumpkin. 88 degrees this afternoon It got up to about 94 yesterday. The pumpkins love it so far. I think they won't like it without moisture, but my soil is still nice and damp underneath. Monday, June 8 View Page Rain last night--.95 inche. That was nice, but the wind that accompanied the rain was awful. It was really strong, 40 mph, and blew from about 8:30 Sunday night till about 6:00 this morning. It tipped over four of my plants--I tried to gently turn the back, but heard a couple of snaps. Don't knw if it was a leaf or a major stem. The picture doesn't look as bad as the real thing. The vines have really grown overnight, though! Monday, June 8 View Page And the bugs are back. Everyday is a different challenge, and it's only June 8. Tuesday, June 9 View Page My first female blossoms appeared this morning, both on Bhaskaran pumpkins: the 940 and the 938.5. Most plants are now growing 6-12" per day. Tuesday, June 9 View Page Here's what 50 MPH winds with .70" of driving rain and hail in 15 minutes will do to a perfectly beautiful pumpkin patch This is the 838.5 Bhaskaran Tuesday, June 9 View Page 900 Langevin Tuesday, June 9 View Page This one is the worst, I think. It's my 1157 Bhaskaran, and was probably my nicest plan. This morning it was my nicest plant. Now it's sad. Wednesday, June 10 View Page Found deer tracks in the garden yesterday, too. Stupid guard cat was taking a nap and my husband nearly ran over his lazy butt with the lawnmower. Tomboy woke up when the mower was about 3' away... He's supposed to be keeping the wildlife out of the garden, not sleeping on the job. Stupid cat. Thursday, June 11 View Page All the pumpkins look good this morning except for the fact that they're now wearing lacy leaves. A few cucumber beetles and squash bugs are munching on them, but they don't seem aware of the fact that those leaves are filled with cackle, cackle deadly poison. I took away the partially amputated leaves. The hail didn't damage the vines as much as I feared. One secondary seems to be split. Will wait till tomorrow to decide on amputation. My mood is much better after this morning's inspection. It misted all day yesterday and rained a little overnight, so no tilling and no vine covering as yet. Friday, June 12 View Page Of the two seeds I just planted, one had a sprout so I put it in a pot till the garden dries out a little. It looks good, leaves coming out today. Hope I can plant it tomorrow (Friday). The other seed appeared to have some damage, a chip out of the outer shell. It hasn't sprouted so I suppose that it won't do it now. My gosh, do I ever sound negative! SMILE SMILE SMILE A monster lives and grows in the garden of champions! Pictures tomorrow! Monday, June 15 View Page Hot today--95 degrees. High humidity. That means only one thing here: STORM. High winds, heavy rain, golf-ball size hail, tornadoes, all within 20 miles of me in two directions. We'll see how the pumpkins survive this one. I'm worried about the pumpkins, but we also have wheat (our livelihood) that will be ready to harvest in about a week. Hail is NOT a good thing for man, beast, pumpkin, nor wheat. Monday, June 15 View Page Oh my. What do you suppose my pumpkin vines/leaves look like now? I'll know in the morning. This storm is past, and another on the way. Maybe it will miss us. Monday, June 15 View Page Here's the baby I planted Friday morning. Wonder what she looks like now? Tuesday, June 16 View Page Not a pretty picture. This is the baby I planted Friday Tuesday, June 16 View Page 838.5 Bhaskaran Tuesday, June 16 View Page 900 Langevin Tuesday, June 16 View Page 1157 Langevin Tuesday, June 16 View Page 938.5 Bhaskaran Tuesday, June 16 View Page 900 Langevin Tuesday, June 16 View Page That was the 938.5 Bhaskaran. My bad. Tuesday, June 16 View Page 940.5 Bhaskaran '08 Tuesday, June 16 View Page Oops. Here's the 983.5 Bhaskaran Tuesday, June 16 View Page 1157 Bhaskaran Tuesday, June 16 View Page 900 Langevin Tuesday, June 16 View Page Did I mention that my husband cultivated out my new zucchini plants yesterday? It doesn't really matter anymore, does it? I started more, and it only takes one. What a year for growing big pumpkins! Wednesday, June 17 View Page Not a bit good. I don't see much recovery as a possibility. I'll go down and cover what's left of the vines tomorrow while it's cool. Right now it's 91 degrees with humidity at 90%. Clouds are forming to the southwest. Looks like another round of storms. Saturday, June 20 View Page More rain today. I covered vines as best I could yesterday. After a hint from a fellow grower, I used plastic clothes hangers broken in half to stake down some of the vines, in case we get high winds, I think this will help. The two last seeds I planted Tuesday are breaking through this morning. They will probably be the last best chance for a real pumpkin, and they're only 1 day old. I need to start setting pumpkins about July 1. So far we've got no hail in this series, and no high winds. But more rain. It's predicted to stop this afternoon and not rain again until September! Sunday, June 21 View Page The damaged pumpkins seem to be doing OK after I staked them down before yesterday's rains. Everyone who told me that these guys have remarkable powers of recover were apparently right! Some of them are so damaged that it's hard to tell which part is the main vine now, so I'm just gonna wing it. The way the grass and weeds are growing, if it hadn't been for the hail, these guys would probably be 50 feet long by now! And no way to get into the garden because of the mud. Maybe it's a good thing the hail pruned them back. Maybe. Yesterday: 1" of rain plus 0.5" of rain plus 0.2" of rain. I cannot enter the garden today for chance of being sucked down by quickmud. A person might mire down and never return. Forecast for this afternoon: Possibility of scattered thunderstorms, some of them may be severe (again???). Forecast for the next 10 days: Sunny, with highs in the upper 90's, lows in the mid-70's. I'll be watering the garden by Thursday. My two last seeds are up. One looks more lively than the other. I'll plant them as soon as they get their first true leaf. Maybe all the heat will be good for them??? There isn't much soil remaining on the top of my garden! All of it seems to have migrated to the lower end of the garden, creating silt drifts of some magnitude. Maybe that's where I should plant the new pumpkins. Lots of maybees. Sunday, June 21 View Page The damaged pumpkins seem to be doing OK after I staked them down before yesterday's rains. Everyone who told me that these guys have remarkable powers of recover were apparently right! Some of them are so damaged that it's hard to tell which part is the main vine now, so I'm just gonna wing it. The way the grass and weeds are growing, if it hadn't been for the hail, these guys would probably be 50 feet long by now! And no way to get into the garden because of the mud. Maybe it's a good thing the hail pruned them back. Maybe. Yesterday: 1" of rain plus 0.5" of rain plus 0.2" of rain. I cannot enter the garden today for chance of being sucked down by quickmud. A person might mire down and never return. Forecast for this afternoon: Possibility of scattered thunderstorms, some of them may be severe (again???). Forecast for the next 10 days: Sunny, with highs in the upper 90's, lows in the mid-70's. I'll be watering the garden by Thursday. My two last seeds are up. One looks more lively than the other. I'll plant them as soon as they get their first true leaf. Maybe all the heat will be good for them??? There isn't much soil remaining on the top of my garden! All of it seems to have migrated to the lower end of the garden, creating silt drifts of some magnitude. Maybe that's where I should plant the new pumpkins. Lots of maybees. Monday, June 22 View Page Well, I did it. I planted the two new babies this morning. I took a deep breath and decided to put 'em out. It got to 97 degrees this afternoon, with a heat index of 103. I watered them well, even though the ground is soggy still, and tonight they looked fine, with the baby true leaf a bit larger than in the morning. This one is, of course, the 838.5 Bhaskaran. Monday, June 22 View Page And this is the 940.5 Bhaskaran. We got another 0.2 inches of rain last night. NO HAIL! I noticed a few cucumber beetles and a couple of squash bugs tonight when I checked them, so I gave them another bite of Merit and a light dusting of Sevin. I'll go down when it's cooler in the morning, like maybe 75, and give them all a drink. I'd better try to cultivate the dirt a bit first, so it doesn't crack open. That means I'll have to get up at the crack of dawn-thirty. Monday, June 22 View Page No, THIS is the 940.5 Bhaskaran. Forgot to attach the picture. Monday, June 22 View Page Heard the guard cat down by the garden, raising cain. Went to see what was there, and would you believe...? No, I suppose not. Friday, June 26 View Page Would you believe... Friday, June 26 View Page Most of the pumpkins seem to be recovering after the hail. Two of them are not going to make it. Friday, June 26 View Page My new combine. Well, it's new to us...quite old and well used, but newer than our old one was. After three successive days of 100+ weather, I'm glad the air conditioner works. 9 hours in the field would kill a person without it. Will head for the field about 10:00 today. The fields are muddy, but the wheat is dry. But my priorities are right. I've already taken care of the pumpkins. Friday, June 26 View Page Gus the guard dog, protector of all things pumpkin from all things dangerous. Notice his intent stance. Actually, he's waiting for me to move, so he can lie down on the cool wet patch I've created with the garden hose. Sunday, June 28 View Page I watered my pumpkins this morning; one hour later I went to show them off to my son, and two of them looked like someone sprayed it with 2-4-D or Roundup. Just now, 6 hours later, I looked and one looks terrible; the other seems to have recovered except for about 4 feet of new vine. Could this be Merit burn? All rec'd the same water, the same Merit and Sevin spray. Don't seem to be overrun with bugs. Maybe it's the dreaded SVB, but would that kill a whole plant at the same time, one that's rooted down nicely all along its vines? Will post a picture soon. Hot and tired, just off the combine. At least it's cooler today, only in the low to mid 90's. Sunday, June 28 View Page What the heck happened here? I watered it again and it's beginning to look better. Whatever, it almost put me into cardiac arrest... Monday, July 6 View Page It's been several days since I've written anything. We've finished the wheat harvest; my husband has been really sick with some sort of virus. He's the superman who never gets sick, and has been down for over a week now. Like not even leaving the house, sleeping most of the day. High fever, chills, sweating, a really bad deal. I think he's better today. I hope so. doctor can't identify the problem. Well, the pumpkins are doing fine. The problem in the picture with my last entry was apparently heat/low humidity stress. Since it's cooled down into the 80's and 90's and I'm watering more heavily, they are looking a lot better and not going into that wilt thing that scared me half to death. My dear husband tilled out one of the two plants I got from my last seeds, but it's OK. They're only pumpkins, I keep telling myself. I only cried for a couple of minutes when I saw the damage. It's only a pumpkin plant. It's only a pumpkin plant. I saw the new female buds today, the first since the hailstorm three weeks ago. The male flowers have been blooming for a week or more now. I wonder when I'm supposed to put the chastity belts on the girls??? Probably when they are a bit bigger--like almost ready to bloom. These babies are just starting. I marked them all with bright pink flags. Woohoo! Now I get to start a pumpkin!!!! Wednesday, July 8 View Page I pollinated my first pumpkin this morning! More later, along with pictures. Monday, July 13 View Page A lot can happen in five days. I've been up, down, up, down. I was hit a couple of days ago with squash bugs. I've done everything imaginable. I've dusted with Sevin, sprayed with Malathion, and sprayed again with Triazicide. I pollinated another flower two days ago, we'll see if it sticks. The first one shriveled and died away, poor thing... I'm watering more heavily now, we got about 3/4" of rain last night, too. Hoping to be able to pollinate two more flowers tonight. Not much worry about bees pollinating for me--I've killed every bug for twenty miles around except for the damned squash bugs. Tuesday, July 14 View Page OK, another day. Today is better. We got about 1" of rain yesterday and last night. I had watered the vines earlier in the afternoon. I pollinated this baby on July 12. It looks good! Hooray! I pollinated three more this morning. Not on the same plant, but at least the females are starting to show up. And OkieGal told me there are always enough bugs left to pollinate...how true. After all that spray yesterday, all blossoms, male and female, had living moving breathing bugs in them. I guess I'm going to have to call all these guys open pollinated, even though I do a manual assist. Man, it's hot. The sweat's just pouring down my face, and I only walked to the garden and back, didn't even do much but pull a handful of grass. I can hardly wait for morning to see if there is 1) hail damage and 2) a baby pumpkin or two starting! More rain tonight, and cooler, like only in the low 90's, for the rest of the week. I can stand that. Tuesday, July 14 View Page Does the fact that it's growing mean this one is a "take?" Sure hope so. It was over 100 today, dropped down to 93 now at 6:30 pm, with humidity the heat index is 100 even now. I've been marking the female blossoms with a pink flag, when I pollinate I add a blue flag. If I think they've set, I add a yellow flag. Isn't that circus-like? Wednesday, July 15 View Page Here's the baby today on the 838.5 Bhaskaran. I'm not sure it's going to stick, but we'll see. It's self-pollinated because I was so excited to see it that I grabbed the first male I could find and did the deed! Wednesday, July 15 View Page I did something this morning that I've been thinking about. I cut off a secondary (I guess it was a secondary, it's hard to distinguish since nothing is now hooked to the main stump) that had roots coming, dug a trench and buried the vine, then watered well. I put this where one of my first vines was killed by the hail. We'll see if it stays alive and bears fruit. Is that what these guys are calling "clones?" Two days ago I was whining because I had no pumpkins started. Now I have several on two of my vines, gonna have to pick one of these days, and several more getting ready to bloom. Had a light shower overnight, not measurable. Cloudy this morning, and much cooler, only about 80 at 7:30. Wednesday, July 15 View Page I did another experiment just awhile ago, too. I took half a 5-gallon bucket of liquid stuff out of the pig barn, filled the bucket with water, and put about 1/2 gallon of this lovely pigpoo tea on a couple of my plants. The plants are way smaller than everybody else, I don't hold out much hope for them. If they burn and die this afternoon, I'll know not to do it to the other plants. If I go out and they've doubled in size, I've done the right thing. Wednesday, July 15 View Page This is what I mean when I say nothing is still hooked to the main on some of my plants. There are healthy vines out in the distance, but not connected to the original stump. Thursday, July 16 View Page The 900 Langevin, Day 4 (I think) Thursday, July 16 View Page No, that was not what I said it was. It is the 838.5 Bhaskaran, and it is, indeed 4 days old. Thursday, July 16 View Page I wonder how long I need to wait before I decide if the pigpoo tea has burned/not burned my vines. Husband says it will burn the leaves almost immediately if you get it on the leaves, but this was mostly poured on the soil. Anybody reads this and knows how long it would take to know, please tell me. I have 10 gallons of the stuff, just brewing in the sun, waiting to feed my tender babies Thursday, July 16 View Page I thought this would really dump on us this afternoon, but it passed along with a lot of noise and rumbling and only a few sprinkles. Friday, July 17 View Page Tea, anyone? This pitiful little plant looks better than it has since emergence! Wednesdays' shot of pig poo tea seems to have really perked her up. I gave everybody a little tea this morning. It'll cure em or kill em. Friday, July 17 View Page 838.5 Bhaskaran 5 DAP 11 5/16 cc 17 1/2 OTT Saturday, July 18 View Page 838.5 Bhaskaran. This is the biggest of the pumpkins on this plant. However, there are now three distinct plants, none of them hooked to the original main stump. I may try to grow three on this group. What the heck. Decisions, decisions. I terminated the vine about a foot after this pumpkin. Saturday, July 18 View Page I did a lot of cleaning up of my vines this morning. Pruned away dead vines and leaves, making it a lot easier to see the true shape of the living vines. They really look a lot more defined now, and a little easier to distinguish the individual vines. I discovered that of my six living plants, only one, the Langevin 1157, is still connected to the main stump. All the others have rooted down and "cloned" themselves into a variety of separate plants. One has five distinct plants, none of them connected to any of the others by any root or stem system. On one, I can't even find the remnant of the main stump! I've decided that I am going to try to grow all four of the pumpkins, if they stay with me, on the #1, Bhaskaran 838.5. I had thought that the last one, the Langevin 900, would be my best bet, but I must have been mistaken, it has only one small chance attached to it. I have learned so much in such a short time...next year, as Steve Haberman said... Saturday, July 18 View Page I did a lot of cleaning up of my vines this morning. Pruned away dead vines and leaves, making it a lot easier to see the true shape of the living vines. They really look a lot more defined now, and a little easier to distinguish the individual vines. I discovered that of my six living plants, only one, the Langevin 1157, is still connected to the main stump. All the others have rooted down and "cloned" themselves into a variety of separate plants. One has five distinct plants, none of them connected to any of the others by any root or stem system. On one, I can't even find the remnant of the main stump! I've decided that I am going to try to grow all four of the pumpkins, if they stay with me, on the #1, Bhaskaran 838.5. I had thought that the last one, the Langevin 900, would be my best bet, but I must have been mistaken, it has only one small chance attached to it. I have learned so much in such a short time...next year, as Steve Haberman said... Saturday, July 18 View Page Hard day in the pumpkin patch. Put shade tarps over vines. They really suffer when the heat rises and the humidity drops. Hope this will help. They can't be growing pumpkins when the leaves are wilted for three quarters of the day. Came to the house for a glass of tea on the porch and heard a loud snap. One of the grommets had pulled out and the wind wasn't even blowing. Will put misters up tomorrow, I hope, so the upcoming 100+ won't do so much damage. Saturday, July 18 View Page Hard day in the pumpkin patch. Started weeding and watering at 5:45 am, worked for 2 hours. Then waited until the hottest part of the day to put up blue tarps. The vines really get wilty when the temp gets above 90 and the humidity starts to drop. Ms Curlilocks looks like there's a lot of humidity under that tarp... Sunday, July 19 View Page Pumpkins enjoyed night under blue covers. It was 56 F this morning at 6:00. If you're noticing some grass in this picture, it's not failure to control weeds. I prefer to call it "grassy waterway for erosion control." Ha I pulled weeds--really mostly grass--for over two hours yesterday morning. I have control pretty well where the vines are, but the spaces in between are--well, grassy waterways for erosion control. Sunday, July 19 View Page This is the 838.5 Bhaskaran which has completely separated from the main stump, which I pulled away yesterday. It has now rooted into five distinct plants. Since I don't know what I'm doing, I'm going to let a pumpkin form on each one. They aren't connected to one another, so bring on the pig poo tea and lots of water! Look out, Mo! Sunday, July 19 View Page My husband, good man that he is, helped me this morning finish up with the tarps. He also found the misters for me; have to get some hose to hook them up. Truth is, he did most of the work. He says the plants will suffer from lack of sunshine under the tarps; also that the wind will break them loose and they will whip the punkins to death. OH NO! Is any of this true??? Sunday, July 19 View Page I ran the tractor, disking the wheat ground this afternoon. My husband (the Duke) said he would install the misters, then work on his hot rod while I disked. Good deal with me. When the shackle bolt broke on the disk, I came to the house to find the misters not up, but the hot rod was more advanced. We put the misters up together. Tomorrow will add hose clamps. I think he's getting hooked on this pumpkin thing, too. After being sick for almost a month, he's starting to feel better. Also have to get sand in the morning to make pumpkin beds. And new shackle bolts for the disk, and finish disking the wheat ground. Got to ship hogs Wednesday afternoon, that's what he said set him back a few days last week after starting to feel better. Shipping hogs is a lot of work. Hope to have the disking done and maybe some of the barn washed before we go to a South Dakota wedding on Friday. The pumpkins really seem to approve of the tarps. I hope they like the misters as well. All vine parts not covered in shadiness wilted really bad again today. The pumpkins grew a lot today with the shade, also watered them pretty heavy this morning. And the pig poo tea seems to have given them quite a boost. 838.5 Bhaskaran still growing. Look out, Mo Monday, July 20 View Page Well, here she is today, Day 8. I think she's growing. Got the misters up yesterday, but didn't have hose clamps. I got the clamps today, but didn't need them. It rained most of the day. Had to let down a corner on each of the tarps as they were filling with water. I tried to direct the flow so it would run through the vines rather than away from them. All that lovely rain, none of it going to the drinking end of the vines. Tradeoff: sun and wilted vines or shade and no-drinky-in-the-rainstorm. Monday, July 20 View Page Oh, yes, and I went to town and got sand this afternoon. Put a scoopful under four different pumpkins. they look more comfortable now. I'll spray for bugs again tomorrow if it's not raining. Didn't run the tractor and disk today because of the rain. Did I mention that a big deer ran across the field as I was going to the field yesterday? And my husband hollered from the porch that a coyote was headed toward the garden earlier in the morning. When I asked where it was, he said it spooked and ran the other way. Hope to be able to run tomorrow since we've got less than 1/2"; however, the thunder is rumbling as I type. The weeds are coming, need to get it disked. We don't like okra or roma tomatoes. Nice crop, though. My onions, potatoes, zucchini and sugar baby pumpkins have all died of various causes. But my big pumpkins are lookin' good. I know where my priorities are. Monday, July 20 View Page the okra and tomato crop i forgot to include on the last picture. Monday, July 20 View Page Another drawback to the tarps. The wind has come up very strong, broke the ties on one tarp. It was flapping in the wind over my baby pumpkins, giving them a bit of a spanking. I tied it back up, as soon as this storminess passes, along with its lightning, I'll go down and tie them a little better. Tuesday, July 21 View Page 11:40 pm - It's been raining hard for over an hour, enough to shut down the satellite signal on the TV. Thunder, lightning, wind, and a little hail. I'd guess from inside the house that it's over 2" of rain. I'm afraid of what the patch will look like in the morning. I should have gone down and secured or removed the tarps but didn't because of the lightning. Electricity blinked off several times. Sounds like the storm is not leaving yet, either. Tuesday, July 21 View Page 3 1/2" of rain overnight. HIGH winds uprooted some of my vines. The wind whipped the big heavy tarp loose over my baby pumpkins. I think that's the end of their story. No more discussion of whether a stumpless vine can grow a prize winner. There's not much left to feed my babies on these vines. This is a down day in the pumpkin patch. I don't know if there's any more possibilities. There aren't very many days left, even for late bloomers. Tuesday, July 21 View Page Well, today I got the misters hooked up, not the final deal. Have to go back with pliers to adjust the hookup wires. Took down all but two of the tarps. Checked on the pigs, and look what else the storm did last night. What a year. Wednesday, July 22 View Page The damage may not be as bad as I first thought. I will wait till a couple of days have passed to make my final judgment. Put sand under four pumpkins this morning. Wednesday, July 22 View Page another view of the barn Saturday, July 25 View Page Sprayed the vines with triazicide this evening. Take that you dirty squash bugs! Actually haven't seen more than a few, but there are eggs again, so I'm sure they'll be hatching before long. Sunday, July 26 View Page I can safely say that all my formerly growing pumpkins are now dead. Soft and rotting. I removed them from the vines this morning. I also pollinated a female on a Bhaskaran 938.5. Several more females are appearing on the vines. I wonder what makes the fruits abort? Is it too little water, too hot, all of the above. The vines continue to look very good, but the pumpkins just can't seem to make a go of it. I know that the one I had hope for got a thrashing by the loose tarp in the windstorm, but the other two, I can't see any reason for their dying. I'll water like crazy, keep them cool and misted, and maybe I'll get a little one in the next two months. I'll carry some more pig poo tea down this evening, give them a tea party, then water it in real well. this is a lot of work and disappointment! NOT a relaxing hobby. Sunday, July 26 View Page and the fourth pollinated one just shriveled and died, as they sometimes do. I really can count to four. some days. Monday, July 27 View Page This morning when I took this picture, I was still wondering if the pumpkin was just scarred or if it was rotting. Tonight I know. It was rotting. <sigh> It was really gonna be a pretty color; the only pumpkins I now have are the ones that were pollinated this morning. There's still 69 days till the Smoky Hill weighoff on October 3. And lots of hot days ahead. Monday, July 27 View Page If any pumpkin vine needed a shot of pig poo tea, this one does. I've given it a serious drench, followed by water. We'll follow this one for a few days and see how it does. I'll put something in tomorrow's picture for size comparison. These leaves are pretty small. Monday, July 27 View Page At least my flowers have bloomed. The patch smelled so fragrant this morning. So many male blossoms have opened, and quite a few females. I'm going to experiment with what I still have; I may not have time to grow a champion this year, but I've still got about 90 days till frost, so I can still do a lot of learning between now and Halloween. Tuesday, July 28 View Page Isn't this a pitiful specimen? It's a cutting--fancy name for a vine I pruned from one of my plants. I just sort of shoved it in a trench filled with water several days ago to see if it would root and grow. Jury still out on that. I'm feeding this one tea on a regular basis as a noble experiment in overfeeding to see what happens. Nothing of great import to report this morning. No new females opening. Just this picture with a comparison to a pop can. I gave her another drink of tea this morning. No more watering today; there are storms coming for the next four days, and highs in the 80's. Kansas in late July? Doesn't seem like it. Off to the county fair to watch the kids show their 4-H pigs. Won't be entering any pumpkins this year! Wednesday, July 29 View Page ran to the patch, pollinated a handful of pumpkins while pies baked for the county fair. Got to deliver them, then come home and wash the barn, Not much time for pumpkins; fortunately the weather has turned cooler and wetter. Tomorrow I will pay closer attention. I'd have to call anything I get "open pollinated," even though I back it up with hand pollination, nothing is covered nor tied. Just making sure I get a pumpkin (I hope). I'm not raising seeds this first go round; just trying for pumpkins. I think there are actually several starting to grow. Thursday, July 30 View Page What's causing these leaves to be odd? Is it too much water, too little water, too much or too little of some micronutrient? They are pale, small, brittle. thick, and the veins are sort of purplish? Not all vines on the same plant are doing this. Not all plants, but some are. I staked down a lot of vines with bamboo skewers this morning in anticipation of another windstorm coming through this afternoon or tonight. New baby pumpkins are everywhere. Soon I'll have to make decisions on which ones to cull. And I thought I'd never get a pumpkin. This is an UP day in the patch. Monday, August 3 View Page this is the biggest pumpkin I have at this point. It's from a 938.5 Bhaskaran. Yesterday, at 5 DAP, she was 36 OTT. Today, at 6 DAP, she was at 51 1/2 OTT. Still not big enough to make the growth chart, but definitely growing. She's so beautiful! Wednesday, August 5 View Page Here she is. 8 days old. 69 1/2 OTT. Still not on the chart, but getting closer. Wednesday, August 5 View Page Little Peter Rabbit with an eye on my pumpkins. Run, Rabbit, run. Thursday, August 6 View Page That little rabbit isn't so cute today. I'm thinkin' about rabbit stew. Friday, August 7 View Page Plump Penny made it to the chart. 91" OTT, 10 DAP. She's lovely! She has some siblings that are coming on, too. Friday, August 7 View Page 97 degrees at 4:30. Heat index 102. UV index 10 (very high). Some vine are not getting full benefit of misters, and are wilty. Rest seem to be holding up well. Saturday, August 8 View Page Day 11. this is the 838.5 Bhaskaran (07). this morning she was 28-28-43.25 for a total of 99.25 OTT. Saturday, August 8 View Page 43.25 CC. Did I measure right this time, guys? Saturday, August 8 View Page Gonna be a scorcher! Sunday, August 9 View Page 31-34-48 this morning. That puts Plump Penny at 113 OTT at 12 DAP. Other pumpkins are doing well, but not like Penny. Monday, August 10 View Page What is this nasty slimy gel-like substance oozing from the stem of my pumpkin? It doesn't look like it should be there. I sprayed it with 10% bleach solution. Hope it goes away. Monday, August 10 View Page Here's this morning's picture of Plump Penny. Sorry it's a little out of focus, hard to hold tape and camera at same time. Her measurements are 33-36-52.5, or 121.5 OTT at 13 DAP. That charts her at 44#, up from 37 yesterday. I need to spray for grasshoppers, but I'm out of Triazicide. Hubby will bring some home shortly, then I'll spray those things to death. I have several others coming on, but none quite matches this first one. the second place is my #5; she measured 82.5 OTT at 10 DAP. And #6 was 70 OTT at 8 DAP. I know. I know. Don't measure till day 10! There are 14 pumpkins altogether growing in my patch right now. There are a few coming on still, and if they don't interfere with my big ones, I'm just gonna let them go and see what happens. I'm planning for next years pumpkin patch already. Monday, August 10 View Page Despite my promise to self not to do any more special stuff for new set-ons, I just pollinated my lovely 900 Langevin with a 940.5 Bhaskaran. It's the second female on the 900, and set just right. All my pumpkins are open pollinated, but I encourage pollination by adding manual pollination to the open flowers. It's the best I can do my first year. THis is the plant that only started to grow about 3 weeks ago, after a couple shots of tea. Plant is a perfect Christmas tree shape, I'll give her a try. Everything is sprayed with Malathion, will get more triazicide today. Take that, you dirty grasshoppers. Actually, I'd have let the female on that 900 go totally open, but for the fact that I probably just killed all the bees, gnats, flies, butterflies, squash beetles, ants, etc., for 40 miles. Hope I got the chiggers while I was at it! Tuesday, August 11 View Page 35-37-55.5 this morning, at 14 DAP. 127.5 OTT. The stem looks nice. Some of the smaller pumpkins may develop stem stress. I'll support them with styrofoam, even this one that looks like no stress. I've clipped all roots for two feet toward the stump, so nothing should be holding it down. Big difference between the CC weight chart and the OTT weight chart at this point, anyway. OTT shows about 5# daily gain; CC shows 10#. Time will tell. Wednesday, August 12 View Page Day 15: Outgrew the 60" tape today! OkieGal was right--what a milestone! I didn't think it would ever outgrow a 60" tape. 37-39-60 this morning. That's 136 OTT for 60#; or 73# CC measurement estimate. My pumpkin is becoming rather pear shaped, heavy on the blossom end. I wonder if this is good, bad, or indifferent and if it's just the way it is or is something I'd doing. One small pumpkin had some mold at the blossom end this morning. I sprayed with bleach, then wiped it off, but found softening at the blossom end and on the bottom. One less pumpkin in the patch. This one weighed (by the scales) 2 1/2 pounds at 11 DAP. Penny's OTT estimate was 26# at that age. What a difference. Not to make comparisons between my babies, mind you...they're all really beautiful. This lost pumpkin was in the part of the patch that has been making puddles beneath the fogger/misters. I knew it was too wet there, even with sand beneath the pumpkin, but didn't have much way to change it. Digging trenches wouldn't have worked--water won't run uphill; and downhill would taken the trench through the vines. Wednesday, August 12 View Page Autopsy of 2.5# small pumpkin with external fuzzy mold revealed extensive area of blossom end rotting. RIP Thursday, August 13 View Page This morning, 16 DAP, 40-43-63. Took this picture about 5 PM, CC is over 66. Where's that 100-ft. tape? And who's that cute chickadee in the patch with my pumpkin? Friday, August 14 View Page Next year's pest control program. 16 guinea keets arrived this morning in the mail. they are happy and cozy and already chasing flies. their names are, Left to Right: Malathion, Sevin, triazicide, merit... Too late for this year, but i'll be ready when next July gets here with a flood of hoppers. Saturday, August 15 View Page Day 18, Plump Penny is 43-48-71, total 162 or 96# on OTT chart. BiggySmall is now 12 DAP, at 35-36-52.5, total 123.5 or 46# on the OTT chart. I like the CC chart better, it shows them at 112# and 50.5#. Penny was 31-34-48 on day 12, or total 113, so there's not a lot of difference in the two. Penny's on my 838.5 Bhaskaran, and BiggySmall is on a Bhaskaran 940.5. Looks like rain today, it's clouding up steadily, and the temperature is still about 75, high today predicted about 85. we could really use some rain. Sunday, August 16 View Page the posting above this one says December 14. I'm pretty sure that wasn't yesterday. And yesterday, August 15, was really day 18 on the grand pumpkin. It says august 16 at the top of this page. Today. Sunday. And today she measures 44-49-73, or OTT of 166 at day 19 Monday, August 17 View Page Pretty color, interesting shape. Ain't she sweet??? Still growing, and she's got a cousin that's only 5 total inches/points behind her on 15 DAP OTT. Wednesday, August 19 View Page I'm wondering if I should tear out some of my vines. Several haven't yet started pumpkins, and our average frost date is about 60 days away, October 15 or so. If there's no chance of setting on a pumpkin, even if it's not a prize winner, should I just go ahead and pull the plant out? I'll check on the chat room opinions, then see what tomorrow brings. Today is cloudy, getting warmish, about 85, but sure not hot. Not good weather to make the pumpkins grow, but at least they aren't burning up. Thursday, August 20 View Page I thought this one had that lovely mottled color of Frank/Tina's prizewinner, but I guess I was mistaken. sigh Too much rain and not enough sunshine, I think. Thursday, August 20 View Page Out one end and in the other. Ashes to ashes... Thursday, August 20 View Page Sprayed with Imadocloprid. Did I spell that right? anyway, take that you nasty hoppers Friday, August 21 View Page Lots of dead grasshoppers on the ground this morning. Yesssss! Also a little toad was hiding under a leaf as I was weeding. Poor little bugger will probably starve to death now that I've killed all the nasty bugs. Penny still growing, 55-59-89, 24 DAP. BiggySmall is 44-45-73, 20 DAP. woo-hoo, I think they're racing, but Penny is in the lead at this point. Penny's fast approaching 200#. I'm still looking for those big gains. No. WAIT! I didn't write down yesterday's measurements (dumb attack), but that's a 41-lb gain from two days ago on OTT measurement. Ooh, ooh. maybe it's starting. But only 27 lbs. by CC. This is all very confusing. It was only 57 degrees this morning, and they might have kinda took a chill. I didn't cover them with blankets, just the sheets, so it may be a stupid-inspired setback. We'll see. highs today predicted for low-mid 80's, before warming up to 90's again next week. Summer's not over yet. Sunday, August 23 View Page Is this something bad and wicked? Or is this "cantalouping?" I hope it isn't a bad thing, whatever it is. Cold nights - 2 in a row. I hope this doesn't slow growth. Sunday, August 23 View Page We are leaving the pumpkins in the care of our son; we will return in a few days. He is not intrigued as yet by the process. I told him he'd have to cover them with blankets at night and uncover them in the morning. He asked if anyone who knows me is aware that I am covering pumpkins with blankets in the evening, uncovering them in the morning, measuring them daily...I want to find they've increased their size by 50% when we get home. Friday, August 28 View Page After being away since Sunday, I found that they had survived without me, gaining almost 15 pounds a day while I was gone. Sunday, August 30 View Page I found a near disaster a couple hours ago. I had used little bamboo skewers to stake down the vines, and BiggySmall had grown toward a skewer, impaling herself on it. I immediately removed the skewer and packed the wound full of talcum powder. I hope it heals well, don't think it went very deep; I was too traumatized to check for depth of injury. Dang it all, anyway. If it ain't one thing, it's another. Watered everything pretty well this morning, weeded some more, and realized I have about a dozen good, growing pumpkins. Every one should make well over 100# I think. And at least 3 will go big. I put a little more pig poo tea on a couple of the plants, the ones that are not growing special babies, just to see what a dose of it at this stage will do to the plants and the pumpkins on them. Funny, one plant has set on two "double" fruits." Conjoined twins. I'm just leaving them to see what comes of it. It's the only plant to do this, so I suppose it's some genetic thing. My friend Deb came out and looked at the pumpkins today. She was amazed to see these beauties. She finally rubbed a couple like a buddha's belly. I hope it brings her good luck! Just waiting now, for weigh-off. My husband is really getting into this now, although he's a bit leery of damaging them after cultivating one out back in June along with all my zucchinis. Will need to keep special track of at least CC on all growing pumpkins from here on out...there are two that I think have slowed wayyyy down already. State Fair is September (10?) followed by Assaria Weighoff Oct 3, then Boise City Oct 17. As soon as they slow/stop growth, I'll decide whether to take them to one of these weighoffs. I want to go to each! I think I'm hooked on this pumpkin thing! I wonder what I should do when they stop growing? Pick and let them just sit in a cool place? Remind self to ask this in the chat room. Sunday, August 30 View Page How many pumpkins have their own personal hand-made quilts? Nothing is too good for these guys. Sunday, August 30 View Page This is the stump of BiggySmall. It seems to have a lot of tension, and was cracking a little. I powdered it heavily with talcum. I think I'll terminate the vine in the morning, about 2 feet beyond the pumpkin, so that it will have a bit more "give." The vine grows from the left side of this picture to the right. I'll be terminating the vine to the right of the pumpkin in this picture. I hate to do it, because I don't want to reduce the feeding abilities of the vine, but it probably isn't getting anything from beyond, anyway. It's growing so well, I hate to disturb it in any way. Will decide in the morning. Sunday, August 30 View Page This is the stump of BiggySmall. It seems to have a lot of tension, and was cracking a little. I powdered it heavily with talcum. I think I'll terminate the vine in the morning, about 2 feet beyond the pumpkin, so that it will have a bit more "give." The vine grows from the left side of this picture to the right. I'll be terminating the vine to the right of the pumpkin in this picture. You can see the styrofoam that I've put under the vine on the left, and between the shoulder and the vine on the right. I hate to do it, because I don't want to reduce the feeding abilities of the vine, but it probably isn't getting anything from beyond, anyway. It's growing so well, I hate to disturb it in any way. Will decide in the morning. Thursday, September 3 View Page Pumpkins are steadily growing. Plump Penny maintains a steady 10-11 pounds per day; BiggySmall about 12, and Surprise is gettin' it on with about 15. I pruned a lot of vines that I should have done a couple of weeks ago. It was excruciating. I hope I didn't do damage to the pumpkins growing nearby (upstream) of my pruning. Once again, time will tell. I sure know a lot more about growing giant pumpkins today than I did a few months ago! It's been cool, highs only in the low 80's, for the last few days, and nights getting down into the 50's. Each night I tuck the pumpkins in with their quilts, and each morning I uncover them so they can soak up whatever warmth the sun has to offer them for the day. Thursday, September 3 View Page Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart of forever. 45 years ago today we tied the knot, all the old folks said it wouldn't last cause we were too young. Once again, time will tell! As you can see, we all have our hobbies. Some people collect salt and pepper shakers, he collects old cars. Kiss, kiss! Friday, September 4 View Page 1.3 inches of rain overnight. All day today has been overcast, but temperatures about 75-80. Good weather to grow in if you're a pumpkin. Tuesday, September 8 View Page I think my big pumpkin has slowed down a bunch. So, since it may not be the biggest one by October 3 weighoff at Assaria, I'm considering taking it to the Kansas State Fair for the weighoff this Friday...Here's the plan IF I do. Correct me anywhere I'm wrong, PLEASE! This one weighs about 425# by the girth measurement method, about 360# by the OTT. I really do like girth better at this stage! 1. Measure twice daily to assure accuracy of "growth analysis" of my biggest pumpkins 2. Get all the stuff together that it'll take to get her to Hutchinson 3. If there is less than 5# a day growth, we'll take her. Other than that, what's to know??? I know that I won't be a winner, but I'd like to participate anyway in the weighoff. The camaraderie, etc. And the corn dogs. And cotton candy. And funnel cakes. And lemonade. I have five that are growing really well. I think some of them will outgrow this one, anyway. I had a late set, about 30-40 pounds go bad yesterday. That really stinks, but it's amazing how much less traumatic that is at this point than it would have been 6 weeks ago! I powdered all the blossom ends with baby powder and/or sulfur this morning, just for good measure. It's raining here this morning, so getting a good measurement is easier said than done. I'll have to get Eric to help me out when the rain slows. We have two semi loads of feeder pigs coming in today, so when they get here, we'll be pretty busy for most of the day, unloading, sorting, etc. Tuesday, September 8 View Page A sad couple of ends. A stem end and a blossom end. Rest in Peace, sweet punkies. The bigger, oranger one, taped OTT 37-45-65, total 147 for est. weight of 74. Unofficial weight (my husband plus the pumpkin on the bathroom scales, put down six and carry five to the third power, subtract the weight of the tractor and add 12) was 72#. Pretty close. Small round, pretty shaped one with blossom end rot weighed 40#. Still have a good crew coming on to choose from for a later date. Wednesday, September 9 View Page Well. It rained over 3" last night, still raining this morning. The garden is once more a mucky mess. I don't think we could get a pumpkin out of the garden with anything less than some sort of all terrain vehicle. And besides that, Plump Penny must have heard us talking about cutting her off the vine and presenting her to the State Fair Weighoff. She gained 29 pounds since yesterday morning. Either that, or the rain made her happy. I had a sort of image in my mind yesterday of her taking a deep breath, exhaling, and going into a huge, steady growth spell. Perhaps that's what's happening now. I have everything up on an island of sand, hoping that will keep their undersides dry enough to hang in there till October. The plants which have refused to be fertile are now setting on pumpkins like crazy. since it's so late, and there aren't any giants which they'll interefere with, I'm letting most of them grow, culling only here and there. Wednesday, September 9 View Page This pumpkin is on a 838.5 Bhaskaran clone that was started on August 15. It was a trimmed-off-the-vine cutting about 2 or 3 feet long, just dug a trench, covered the vine and watered it. So in 24 days it's set down roots, bloomed, set on and grown this pumpkin, 140 OTT, est. 65 pounds and growing fast. Wednesday, September 9 View Page Plump Penny this afternoon. 263.5 OTT. Estimated weight: 378#. I'm the one in the overalls, Penny's wearing orange. You can see another one in the background. That one is on another piece of this plant that was destroyed early by hail, est. 88 pounds, up from 64 yesterday. Wednesday, September 9 View Page Here's a picture of that cloned plant, started August 15. All you see except for a tiny bit far back on the right are on this plant. Ain't she a beaut? And I'm not doing much trimming, just letting the pumpkins come as they will, trimmed the vines a little, but there are five decent looking jack-o-lanterns coming on this one. Hope for all of them to make over 150. We'll see! Wednesday, September 9 View Page The guy I grow (and live) somewhat compatibly with, accompanied by "Surprise," the one that grew out of nowhere, another piece of the 838.5 Bhaskaran that broke apart in one of the hailstorms. Thursday, September 10 View Page I tried to post this, and think my connection failed, so if it comes up twice, it's my error...Just about the time I think Mother Nature has handed out all the trouble she can, up comes another problem. This morning, found claw marks around the bottom of a couple of my pumpkins. I thought maybe skunk or raccoon. Even considered coyote, but my husband thinks they would have left tracks in the mud. Don't know what they are; they were not there last night, as you can see in the picture in yesterday's post. Thursday, September 10 View Page Another odd thing: a hole, about 1" across, fairly deep. I believe it's probably a mousehole. I dropped a mothball down the hole, and put mothballs around the other pumpkins where the digging was. Maybe something was digging for a mouse??? Thursday, September 10 View Page I took my guineas out for their maiden voyage this morning. Boy, are they dumb. Anyway. They hunkered down, some of them scattered and flew. I rounded them up and put them back in their house. I took 16 out, and put 15 back in. Boy, am I dumb. Maybe it will hang around for awhile and avoid death by cat. Friday, September 11 View Page Penny's at 271 OTT, for 412. That's a 24-lb gain from yesterday. I guess I'm going to start hitting her with the fert & water. Grow 'em or blow 'em. Just heard Kansas state Fair top weight was 832, so no new Kansas record yet. At 976.2 for the record, I've got only about 564.4 pounds to gain to beat it. Thursday, September 17 View Page So what is this? I assume it's powdery mildew. Thursday, September 17 View Page I thought this was just lime deposits from our incredibly hard water, falling where the fogger/misters kept the leaves moist. Friday, September 18 View Page All pumpkin leaves have now been thoroughly sprayed with Daconil solution to treat powdery mildew. Monday, September 21 View Page I ordered some of those emergency blankets made of mylar. Covered Penny with one, put another blanket over her and all the other bigger ones. She was a lot warmer this morning than the others. Second night of doing this. THere was condensation on her yesterday morning, but this morning, in the rain, she was dryer and definitely warmer than the others. We'll see how this plan works out. I order 10 for about $16.00 including shipping online. Wednesday, September 23 View Page Brrr--it was 56 degrees this morning. The pnks were happy that they had emergency mylar blankets beneath their quilts and regular blankets. I didn't uncover them till after 9:00 a.m., and it was still only about 65. They were merely cool under there, not cold. Hope this will help. I also covered one as an experiment with black sweatshirt fabric this morning to see if the extra warmth in the daytime will help the growth rate. Saturday, September 26 View Page 52 degrees this morning. Because it was raining last night, the pumpkins didn't get covered--I didn't want to deal with two dozen soggy-wet blankets. They don't seem to have suffered much. I calculate that if my biggest pumpkin now gains 25 pounds a day until Halloween, I MIGHT surpass the 1,200# mark. Fat chance of that! I'll probably not get anything past 500 this year, but for starters, that ain't bad. Today we are planning our strategy for picking up the one or two pumpkins we'll be taking to weighoff at Assaria. Tuesday, September 29 View Page 39 degrees this morning, up on the porch. Doesn't sound good. Walked to the patch, frost everywhere, You can see that it froze pretty hard on top of the old pickup. Scraped ice with pocket knife for this picture. a couple of hours will tell what's happened in the patch. Weatherman did not predict this. Maybe it killed the slugs that showed up yesterday. Friday, October 2 View Page Getting ready to make the big cut. I didn't sleep well last night, fretting about it. I think we'll go to Assaria with a smaller one, leaving Plump Penny and Surprise for the weighoff in Boise City in two weeks. Friday, October 2 View Page Lifting her up. Bottom is sound. Whoopee! No breaks. Didn't drop her. UFO's didn't snatch her up last night. Friday, October 2 View Page That last picture was a doozy--bet you other growers wish you could pick up a pumpkin horizontally! LOL! She's in the truck. We had to manually move her around a little bit because the stem that had been growing straight down into the earth didn't fit too hot on a wooden pallet. All is well at this point. It's done. Pumpkin on truck, truck in shed. Saturday, October 3 View Page I bit the bullet and cut Plump Penny from the vine. We are heading out in about 30 minutes to Assaria with our pumpkins. Plump Penny and BiggySmall. The tractor man says Plump Penny is a lot bigger than BiggySmall...the tractor did a lot of creaking when he picked her up. So off we go, one in the truck, one on the trailer. Big day for the Duke and Duchess of Gladsone! Saturday, October 3 View Page I forgot to put the picture in the last posting. We have her wrapped in a mattress, an old quilt, foam rubber pads, tied to her pallet and pallet tied to the trailer. She still wobbles a little, but I think it'll be fine. We found a nest of mice under this pumpkin when we picked it up, but NO DAMAGE to the bottom. Whew! All this stress for a 500-pound pumpkin, I can't imagine the stress of picking up and transporting a 1500-lber! We'll see next year! Saturday, October 3 View Page Forgot the picture again! I am stressed! Here it is, wrapped and ready to rock and roll. I hope it doesn't rock and roll off the trailer! Saturday, October 3 View Page Looking in the rear view mirror; one on the truck, one on the trailer. And we're away! Saturday, October 3 View Page Hooray! First place at the Smoky Hill Bison Co., Assaria, Kansas GPC weigh off. Plump Penny weighed 459. Saturday, October 3 View Page The Duke (Eric) with second place pumpkin at Smoky Hill Bison Co., Assaria Wednesday, October 7 View Page The weatherman said last night the overnight temp would drop to 38-39 degrees. We put the misters on the vines in the hope of keeping any frost at bay. I've just come back from the garden (7:30 am), and the temperature was 36 degrees. Anywhere the water fell looks fine, the majority of the leaves, however, are frozen solid. By noon, it'll be a sorry looking sight. I don't know if the remaining pumpkins will continue to grow as long as the vines aren't blackened, just the leaves, or not. Time will tell. Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun nights are predicted to be in the 30's again. I'd say the vines are probably cooked! Still and all, we still have pumpkins to take to Boise City. Unless light freezing will destroy the pumpkins, too. Monday, October 12 View Page Everything is tucked in down in the patch. Blankets over everything. Didn't qet so cold as we had been warned last night, but today is dreary, drizzly, and cold, in the 40's. tonight may freeze the remaining pumpkins through their blankets. I can hardly wait for Friday, to load up the pumpkins to go to Boise City, and then come home and be done with the pumpkins for this year. It's been a long summer! Thursday, October 15 View Page Loaded pumpkins for Boise City weigh off this morning. When we uncovered this one, which I called One East, it had split. Not clear through, but definitely cracked through the skin. If I had another week, it would probably heal, but I'm afraid it wouldn't stand the transit. So, instead of this nice big one, we'll be taking a small one it its place, along with Surprise. Thursday, October 15 View Page Loaded for Boise City. Surprise in the front, Five in the back. Thursday, October 15 View Page Gus thinks it's a parade and he's the star of the PUMPKIN FLOAT! (He also thinks he's a black cat) Sunday, October 18 View Page Made it to Boise City and back safe and sound. We took the pumpkin with the crack, and although it developed another somewhere along the way, none of them went deep, just stretch marks in the skin. We even made it home with no tragic results. 700+ miles they rode round trip and didn't split into the cavity. All the pumpkins from the garden except for one are lined up here in this picture. Quite a result from 7 plants; we are pleased with our first year's production! Friday, October 30 View Page Pumpkin display. Great attention-grabber! Tuesday, November 3 View Page This is part of the display at our son's house before Halloween. Sunday morning, the neighbor who'd bought one of our pumpkins for her yard called to say someone had rolled hers or tried to pick it up or something, and it was broken in the front yard. Monday, our son called and said that these three pumpkins had VANISHED from the front yard, and three little girls were crying. The bad guys didn't take the 459-lber, probably couldn't get it picked up. Next year we'll grow 'em so big that no one will be able to budge them! They were awesome while they lasted! Sunday, November 8 View Page Little addendum to the story of the guineas. I started with 16. Let them out, LOST 6, had 10. Went to store, bought 10 more, now at 20. One died, now had 19. Started letting them out on a regular basis, and by attrition we now have 15. That's in just a week. NOTE: Guineas are very expensive cat food. Saturday, December 12 View Page checking for seeds Monday, December 14 View Page 17 DAP 41-44-68. 153 OTT. OTT chart=83# . CC chart =100.6 Taped two 60" tapes together to get this measurement. Nice cool morning. watered a little last night, in places the fogger/misters don't seem to be getting. Lost another young pnkn to rot yesterday. I didn't think it would be viable from early on: slow growth, spots. There's a couple more that I expect to see go downhill, as well. Still should have half a dozen to pick from.