Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 94 Entries. Monday, January 4 View Page Here's looking out my north window. The greenhouse arrived December 17. It's covered with snow. And unassembled. This picture taken December 24, but nothing much has changed, except more snow. Monday, January 4 View Page T H E E N D OF 2 0 0 9 Monday, February 1 View Page The first guinea egg showed up today. Baby insect/reptile control prospects. Wonder how long till they're fertile? Tuesday, February 2 View Page Today I planted three pumpkins seeds for a germination test. Thursday, February 4 View Page the greenhouse is officially a work in progress. Got it built in the shop, carried it out to the site, anchored it down. Now have to wait for 50-60 degrees to put the panels in, silicone wants to be warmer. So do I. Snowy/rainy mix today. We had 12 days running of fog; weather lore says 90 days after fog is rain. oh, my! 17 days of fog so far this year. Our average is 13 days annually. Tuesday, February 23 View Page It's been such a long winter, and there's snow on the ground and ice on the trees, and even with sunshine today, it didn't melt away. So I was looking for a poem I'd heard, and look what I found! Well, if this doesn't absolutely fit. Take a look: http://www.stephaniedavis.net/talkin%27_harvest.htm Saturday, March 6 View Page March 6 already. We have robins in the yard, and a local turkey vulture sighting this last week. That means it's spring here! The greenhouse is showing signs of life. There's a lot of lettuce growing in there, some tomato seeds starting to show signs of leaves, too. I planted some of my pumpkin seeds a month ago for germination test. they are growing happily in the greenhouse. I plan to start my real plants for the local fair on Wednesday, March 10. That's my date. I can hardly wait. Each day I have to restrain myself from planting them. Season is upon us! Hooray! Can barely get to the garden. Mud mud mud. Didn't freeze last night. That's two nights in a row. Monday, March 8 View Page We are in spring. No frost again this morning, 8 days in a row. My greenhouse plants look very fine. I will plant my first real pumpkins on Wednesday, the 10th. They are for the local county fair, the last week in July. The two I planted for a germination test are growing in the greenhouse and lookin' fine. Maybe I'll go ahead and plant them if they survive in the greenhouse till planting time. I'm going to try to rig up an ebb & flow hydroponic system today and/or tomorrow for a few plants. Tuesday, March 16 View Page Planted two pumpkin seeds for County Fair. Saturday, March 20 View Page Planted three more seeds for the County Fair. Saturday, March 20 View Page FIRST DAY OF SPRING! 7 inches of snow and still falling. Saturday, March 20 View Page The hydroponic experiment. Timer comes on every two hours, pumping hydroponic solution via a garden fountain pump into the upper container. Cups are filled with perlite, the water comes in and hydrates/feeds the plants, then flows through holes in the plastic container back into the container below. I've planted lettuce, two kinds of mesclun mix, one tomato plant and a radish. Now hide and watch. I didn't put everything in black plastic, so it'll probably turn green and mossy. Friday, March 26 View Page Two of the three seeds have come up. The other one is a dud. Tuesday, March 30 View Page We planted the two verrryyy old plants in the garden. They are kind of stunted looking from being in their small homes too long. Wednesday, March 31 View Page Well, wouldn't you know. Yesterday it was 85 degrees, last night it frosted. The weatherman didn't say anything about this. I had three dozen tomato plants and the two old pumpkins out. We'll see how they look afterwhile. The broccoli and onions won't be damaged, but the pumpkins and tomatoes are very tender. Friday, April 2 View Page We planted the four young pumpkins in the garden today. Beautiful day, light wind, 80 degrees Monday, April 5 View Page Weatherman has predicted unsettled weather for this week. Must be Kansas. I covered the six plants in the garden with hail screen hoops. Heavy winds, 30 mph, with gusts over 45. Poor punkins. There may be frost Tuesday night, so I'll throw the blankets over the hail screen hoops. Tuesday, April 6 View Page Ooops. forgot to include the picture. My computer was on the fritz and I got way behind on posting in my diary. Guess I forgot how to include the pictures, too. Tuesday, April 6 View Page This morning it was over 80 degrees, with 35-40 mph winds. Now it's raining, and hailing. Same old story as last year, starting all over again. Wednesday, April 7 View Page Hail last night. We also had 1" of rain. Today it's 42 degrees, predicted to be 30 overnight. I covered all six pumpkins with blankets, and my three dozen tomato plants are covered with everything I could find: coffee cans, flower pots, milk jugs. I folded three dozen paper boat/hats, but the wind was blowing so hard, I didn't think I could hold them in place long enough to get dirt around them to keep them down overnight. And the mud! Up to my ankles. This year better start to improve in a hurry. Thursday, April 8 View Page Frost blankets in place. 36 degrees overnight, frost around this morning. What's underneath? Thursday, April 8 View Page Looks fine. Now if we can just get through tonight, we should be getting close to smooth sailin'! Thursday, April 8 View Page That picture of the frost blankets?...it was taken this morning APRIL 8, 2010. Not August. I hope I don't have to put frost blankets on in August. LOL! Sunday, April 11 View Page The garden looks nice. Weather is great! The 6 pumpkin plants in the garden are growing nicely, the two that were frosted are recovering nicely. Spring at last! Thursday, April 15 View Page When I checked the pumpkins this morning, there was a surprise waiting for me. One of the two plants that were started Feb 1 for a germination test (and met with a dose of frost the second night out in the garden) has a male blossom this morning, about 1 foot out from the stump. Poor pitiful little plant, it's stunted from being in a plastic milk jug for two months, then frosted after being planted in soggy wet soil! I wanted to see what would happen, I guess I'm gonna find out! It was just starting to look as if it might pull out of the stuntage, but it's sure not very big and powerful for starting to flower. And a storm forecast for tonight, too. I'll bring all my flats of vegies back into the greenhouse tonight. If the storm destroys my 100 tomato plants, I'll have something to replant with. Maybe I can catch a snapshot to post of my garden when I go down to put them inside. Monday, May 3 View Page Note to self on this year's calendar: Watch for striped cucumber beetles. Start spraying May 3. I should have started May 1. Note on next year's calendar. Spray in April. The six early pumpkins look nice. No hail storms have touched them, and they are beginning to stretch out. Quite a few flowers on the ones I planted Feb 1! I can hardly wait until next Monday, when I start the pumpkins for fall competitions. I have a huge garden, with 200 tomato plants in the ground, plus broccoli, lettuce, onions. The cuke beetles took care of first crop cukes and maybe zucchini. Will plant more this week. I have 100's of pepper plants still in the greenhouse. Why can't I do this normal-like? Saturday, May 8 View Page Despite what the records say (May 5 is frost-free date here), we had frost last night. It was light, and I don't think it hurt my pumpkins nor tomatoes. but it was definitely frost. Another year of heart-in-mouth weather has begun. Monday, May 10 View Page Pots are ready to put into the incubator for warming. Seeds are labeled and filed. No identity mixups allowed; I've marked the seeds, the pots, and put plastic markers in the pots as well. I'll draw a map of their planting locations as well. I'm so excited. I can hardly wait to stick the seeds into the pots! FINALLY! THE BIG WEEK HAS ARRIVED! Monday, May 10 View Page Forgot to include this picture of my 2010 lineup. I already have 6 in the ground, started with seeds from my 2009 pumpkin crop. My best guy has talked me down to just planting these 10 more, considering we have 250 tomato plants in the ground already. Wimping out so soon! LOL! Monday, May 10 View Page Skies are dark and gloomy, temperature is cool, and bad storms are forecast for late this afternoon, large hail and damaging winds. Friday, May 14 View Page So today I was gone all day to an "event," and when I came home the pumpkins were all breaking ground. And they were royally ticked off at me! They were in a dark germination chamber with the lid on all day, and their color ranged from pasty white to pasty light green. I took off the lid and had a moment of panic. Took the box to my rocking chair and crooned to them and rocked them for a few minutes, telling them I'll be better to them in the future. Sunday, May 16 View Page All the sproutlings have turned green. A couple are still just coming up. Some of them have roots coming up over the top of the peat pots. Is that because it's raining and the humidity is so high that they don't know they'll eventually have to send the roots DOWN? You can see them in the picture--they show up on the one on the upper right and the one on the lower left. That's not something else--it's really roots. I'm hoping for two days of sun so I can stick them into the garden. Right now it's a bit like mud soup. Monday, May 17 View Page Pumpkin starting 2 ft out. What kind of a deal is this? Seed planted Feb 1 Monday, May 17 View Page I went ahead and pollinated this female, just to see. Sibbed her. All six of the first plants are sibs. No other choices. Tuesday, May 18 View Page All checked into the Folgers Motel for about a week's stay. In this picture, they're soaking in the tub to get their soil dampened. Will take them out in about an hour, no need to get all pruney. The weather forecast is for up to 4 inches of rain over the next day or so. I set out about 80 pepper plants this afternoon; couldn't decide to plant or wait, so I planted. Too muddy, but it's going to be muddier for the next week. Right now it's sunny and beautiful. I'll put the pumpkins inside the greenhouse for the night; no forecast of the dreaded H word, but you never can be too sure. This IS Kansas. It appears that the 1164 Finders, the 1611 Daho, the 1126.5 Slone and the 1524.5 Liggett are leading the way at this point in time. It will be interesting to see if they continue to lead... Tuesday, May 18 View Page My beautiful flowers by the back door. I could have told you the weather forecast would be for heavy rain. Happens every year just when the peonies and iris are at their best. We'll see how they look when the rain stops. Thursday, May 20 View Page Caught two skunks this week, saw a third in the yard yesterday. This morning the trap had a 'possum in it. This hill is covered with wild animals. Do 'possums eat pumpkins? Saturday, May 22 View Page After a cold, rainy week, today was almost 90 degrees, with 40-45 mph winds. The baby punklets withstood the wind quite well, hiding a little behind the propane tank. I worried about them a lot, but left them out to face the elements. I put them inside so I can sleep tonight. There is a second true leaf now on the 833.5 Bhaskaran, 1126.5 Slone, and the 1164 Finders. The spots on the leaves in this picture are Daconil, to fight off powdery mildew. Saturday, May 22 View Page 1126.5 Slone Saturday, May 22 View Page The lineup before bringing them inside Sunday, May 23 View Page They're all in the ground. I'll take pictures of them in the morning. It's really too wet, but they needed to go into the big world. Monday, May 24 View Page Put imadacloprid on all the new transplants, and will water it in when it gets a little cooler this evening. It got up to 90 today, with fairly strong gusty winds. They look ok, a little surprised, but OK! Still 89 degrees at 4:30. Monday, May 31 View Page the new plants are two weeks old. It's been over 90 for a week now, every day. high humidity, moderate winds. the forecast yesterday evening was for severe thunderstorms, so we covered all the new plants with hailscreen hoops, except for one, which received an upturned plastic tub for a cover. I'll have to take it off as soon as the sun comes up. don't think we got any hail, I hope not, as the older plants had no protection. I got all my regular garden stuff planted yestrday, before the rainstorm came in. I'm done planting. The field pumpkins are partly up. The lettuce is ready, broccoli is brockling. Tomatoes are all setting on, but no signs of red yet. Monday, June 7 View Page We took a quick 4-day vacation to Wyoming. When we got home all is well, pumpkin plants have grown, looking great. Tuesday, June 8 View Page Rain yesterday. Rain overnight. Rain this morning. The pumpkins are happy. Friday, June 11 View Page My lineup. 2010. The six on the left are from my saved seeds; only one is bearing a pumpkin at this time. The other ten are for competitions in the fall. I sure hope they do better than the six on the left! Friday, June 11 View Page This plant is from my last year's pumpkin's seed. It was planted May 10. It is now 17 ft. long, 25 feet wide. It has scads of male flowers, but no female flowers. What's wrong? I have only one pumpkin on all six of my plants. It's going to be a tough go for the local fair this year. No showing off. Friday, June 11 View Page 1164 Finders. Sorry the pic is foggy, humidity is horrible Monday, June 14 View Page Last night's supper from the garden. (The tomatoes weren't as good as they looked, but about as good as store-bought). Monday, June 14 View Page Soil test Monday, June 14 View Page Soil test page 2 Monday, June 14 View Page Much changed since Friday. I pollinated two females this morning, one on plant A, one on plant D. I'm feeling much better Monday, June 14 View Page All ten of my "competition" pumpkin plants look good today. We had another 3" of rain last night, today the temperature is only 72 now, but they are growing. Lots of male buds starting, and tiny females showing up at the tips. The plants are all from 5 to 10 feet long now. Most about 7 1/2 feet. Monday, June 14 View Page About that picture from June 11...the seed was planted March 26, not May. The plant is 75 days old, not a month old. I was concerned about no females, but one opened today. I was tied up with a festival over the weekend and didn't pay proper attention to the plants. My husband told me this morning they had females starting on Sunday. He was right! Tuesday, June 15 View Page Rained about .1 again this morning. Tuesday, June 15 View Page Competition plants are now a month old. They range from 5 to almost 10 feet long. except for this one, all seem to be doing well. Now what caused this? Plant seems not to be broken, just shriveled and dying/dead. so much for the 1524.5 Liggett, I think. Wednesday, June 16 View Page First male flower opened this morning on later pumpkins; it's on the 833.5 Bhaskaran. There's hope. Friday, June 18 View Page The date on above posting is wrong. Today is June 18. First male flower opened on 833.5 Bhaskaran this morning. Saturday, June 19 View Page This morning I pollinated my 459(D) by 734 Daho, and my 459(A) by the 1265 Slone. Sunday, June 20 View Page I watered my pepper plants this morning with the dripper hose. Went to the wheat field, combined all day. When I came to the house, there was water running across the pumpkin patch. I won't have to water the peppers again for a few days. Try to remember to shut the hose off, next time! Monday, June 21 View Page Today an aneurysm popped in a garden hose in the pumpkin patch. Now I won't have to water that end of the patch again for awhile. Eric got the misters running on the upper part of the patch today. Just one more run and all the plants will be cool and happy all day. Fertilized several females on the county fair pumpkins. It's only 30 days till fair, though. Don't think we're going to make it on those. Monday, June 21 View Page Pollinated another female on 459(D) by 1611 Daho. Tuesday, June 22 View Page Pollinated my 459(E) by 1611 Daho Wednesday, June 23 View Page Pollinated my first "competition" late pumpkins this morning. I'm not sure if they were quite ready, but I did it anyway. 734 Daho x 1278.5 Slone 1126.5 Slone x 1311 Hester and my 459(D) x 734 Daho Thursday, June 24 View Page No new females to pollinate this morning. But everything looks very good. Some vines are not putting on secondaries, wonder why? Foliar feeding this morning, after plants dried (immediately), sprayed with spectracide. Friday, July 2 View Page I'm so upset with myself for not spraying with Daconil starting June 1, like my calendar note told me to do! Every single pumpkin plant has powdery mildew damage. They will mostly recover, but the early plant damage makes me sick. You can see from the following pictures exactly when the damage occurred. I won't make that mistake again. Saturday, July 3 View Page Pollinated 1611 Daho x 1348 Hester. Put sand under the 734 Daho baby pumpkin. All plants are starting to look better, after special care following powdery mildew attack. They are starting to put on good secondaries. At last. Did foliar fertilizer feed this morning. Saturday, July 3 View Page Woops. been trying to upload a too-large picture. I'll try it again, in smaller pieces. This shows some of the PM damage. Monday, July 5 View Page Pumpkin A has now been named "Alice." She's on my 459 Sigel. Yesterday, 20 DAP, 40-46-62, Est. 79#. Today, 21 DAP, 40-48-69, estimated 92#. Growing has begun. Three days of steady rain, 80 degrees, can't be all bad. Monday, July 5 View Page These guys need a half-twist! Ok, this also shows that Alice's naval is on top. I think it's because I let her tummy sunburn a little; she grows everywhere but where her sunburn happened. Tuesday, July 6 View Page 734 Daho, easily the most aggressive plant in the patch. Two females showing in this picture. Wednesday, July 7 View Page Dark, dreary days, rain, cool (80's), no sun. Flowers, male or female, not appearing like before the rains started. Saturday, July 10 View Page I took away Alice's tea towel yesterday, and covered her with a sheet. She's growing nicely, about 10# per day. Got a long haul until July 29. Don't think 200 pounds on top of her 125 will quite make a record on this one. Several other nice pumpkins starting, for later, though. Also, I have a lot of mottled looking leaves. I've been watching for squash bugs and cucumber beetles, and though I saw a couple of cuke beetles today, and will spray tomorrow again, it looks like more damage than the available bugs would make. another mystery. Sunday, July 11 View Page I wonder what this stuff is? Is it really powdery mildew or downy mildew or is it damage from cucumber beetles? Once you get past the damaged leaves, the vines look beautiful, but I think it may be spreading down the vines. If anyone sees this and can offer me some good advice, I'm more than willing to listen. I'll post the second picture showing how pretty the vines look once you get past this stage. Whether these things are related, or not I don't know: Leaves look like they have a whitish film on them (hard water?), then get turn gray/white and crispy then get holes, then completely die. Sunday, July 11 View Page See how beautiful the vines get once you pass the "creeping crud?" Sunday, July 11 View Page Here's Alice. Day 27--45-55-81. OTT 181, est. wt. 136 Sunday, July 11 View Page No, HERE's Alice. Sunday, July 11 View Page some of the spots, but not a very good pic. Tuesday, July 13 View Page Applied pigpootee to 833.5 Bhaskaran; 1164 Finders; 1348 Hester, and all of my 459 Sigel plants. Tuesday, July 13 View Page Applied pigpootee to 833.5 Bhaskaran; 1164 Finders; 1348 Hester, and all of my 459 Sigel plants. Wednesday, July 14 View Page This looks like the end of Alice. Wednesday, July 14 View Page Baby on 1126.5 Slone. 4 DAP 25-25-33. I am leaving for Wyoming in the morning, so will not measure anything until Sunday morning. I hope this one is still here when I get back, and needing a special name (Dwight?). Last night, I covered the mister nozzles with washcloths, and let them drip all night to water the plants. It worked well. No signs of any cucumber beetles this morning. woo-hoo! Wednesday, July 14 View Page 85 degrees, 83% humidity this morning at 5:30. "The National Weather Service has much of Kansas, most of Oklahoma and parts of Nebraska in either an excessive heat warning or a heat advisory through Wednesday evening. Afternoon temperatures will soar into the upper 90s and low 100s across the region. Now where the humidity is higher (central and eastern Kansas especially), heat indices will reach the 110-112 range." Monday, July 19 View Page 1355 Bhaskaran: 7 DAP: 28-32-41.5 OTT 101.5= 89.5# Monday, July 19 View Page That 1355 Bhaskaran is 8 days old. She was 24.5-28-37 yesterday at 7 days, 89.5 OTT =not quite on the chart Monday, July 19 View Page And this is the 1126.5 Slone -- 36-36.5-52.5 = 125 OTT, est. weight 50.7 at 9 DAP. Yesterday this one was 33-35-50, 118 OTT, est. wt. 43.7. This one appears to be the most likely one to make it for competition at this point, but only time will tell. I am now down to 5 growing pumpkins on my 15 plants. It's hellish hot, 100 every day in the forecast for the coming week. No females to pollinate, few males even; the heat is sapping everything. Wednesday, July 21 View Page 2.2 inches of rain last night. A little cooler this morning. No female flowers anywhere. Friday, July 30 View Page We had 1.8" of rain Saturday night, July 24. It's been hot and dry since. 100-ish every day. There is new growth on some of the pumpkin plants, and that's good, because most of the leaves appear to be dead now. I have three remaining pumpkins that are still growing: my 459, a Bhaskaran, and a Slone. Hopefully, some of the new growth will give me something to show, even though there's probably not much chance of a winner. It's a bummer. I hadn't had any flowers until yesterday, not even males. Today there were a couple of females and some males open, I pollinated two on new growth vines. Some of the flower that did open are weird. They seem to be gender confused. Monday, August 2 View Page I don't think my pumpkins are liking this at all, despite the fact we put up deep-soaking sprinklers and used them this morning... 6:00 p.m. Current conditions: 106°F Sunnny Wind: S at 20 mph Humidity: 20% Mon: Clear Hi-101°F | Lo-75°F Tue: Sunny Hi 103°F | Lo 74°F Wed: Partly Cloudy Hi-98°F | Lo-73°F Thu: Isolated Thunderstorms Hi-88°F | Lo 69°F Tuesday, August 3 View Page Yesterday the weatherman predicted 102. It got to a record for the date of 108. Today they're predicting 108. Where will it go today? Despite a lot of water, my pumpkins aren't happy. Not at all. Tuesday, August 3 View Page Started the sprinkler at 5:30 this morning. Didn't measure pumpkins, because it was too wet when I turned them off. I think the three are still growing. Got to 109 degrees today. Too hot for man, beast, or pumpkins. Wednesday, August 11 View Page Due to being sick, I've not been doing much gardening this past week; besides, it's been over 100 every day. I've started irrigating each area every third day. Lots of new vine growth. First female flower appeared on this new growth, then flowers exhibiting both male and female part, then finally male flowers, too. It's time to let Mother Nature take over. I may help out with some pollinations now, but the bees are going to have the biggest share of this job. Barring an early frost like last year (September 29), I should have just about 60 days till first frost. Maybe they can do it on their own. My three remaining pumpkins are still growing, two barely; the Bhaskaran gained about 15# in two days. Not a prizewinning gain, but she's only 32 days old. Maybe we'll hit 500#. That's a looooong way from 1,000# goal. I don't think pumpkins like 100+ temperatures for days and days on end. Saturday, August 14 View Page The heat continues Yesterday 106. Storm came through in the afternoon.. o.6" rain. Some hail on Thursday, 0.2" rain. I think we've hit 100 for about 10 days in a row now, but I've lost track. I'm sick. Eric sprayed yestrday morning for squash beetles. Haven't measured pumpkins for several days. It was 98 degrees last night at 10 pm. The last time I looked, the new growth was still coming on, with lots of flowers. I hope I get some late "wild" pumpkins to show off for halloween. Monday, August 16 View Page Weather has cooled considerably, only in the low 90's today. Hubby took me down, he measured pumpkins. They are growing slowly. Heavy rains are expected for tonight. Maybe this will bring on the wilding pumpkins.