Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 118 Entries. Wednesday, April 29 View Page Seeds I'm trying to germinate right now: 1568 Connolly 2008 (1566 Rodonis x 1689 Jutras) - for weight 1272 Brunst 2008 (1689 Jutras x 1631.5 McKie) - for weight 741 Brunst 2006 (1370 Rose x 1420 LaRue) - for orangeness Jumbo Pink Banana - for fun Wednesday, April 29 View Page Non-sprouted seeds of 1568, 1272, 741 Wednesday, April 29 View Page Sprouted 1568 Seed Wednesday, April 29 View Page Sprouted 1272 Brunst Thursday, April 30 View Page this morning Thursday, April 30 View Page this morning Thursday, April 30 View Page tonight Thursday, April 30 View Page tonight Thursday, April 30 View Page Here's the grow light set up I have for the seedlings. Friday, May 1 View Page 1272 5/1 Friday, May 1 View Page 1568 5/1 Saturday, May 2 View Page 1272 5/2 am - The 1272 Brunst 2008 seems to be doing the best. Saturday, May 2 View Page 1568 5/2 am - The 1568 Connolly is doing well. One cotyledon seems to be a little damaged in the middle. I think the seed had a crack on one side. I wonder if that's why. Saturday, May 2 View Page Here's a picture of the whole seedling growing area Saturday, May 2 View Page I've had a request to write more text. I started my other 741 Brunst seed (supposed to be an really orange one) the other day and it didn't sprout either. 741 is 0-2 on germination. I may just plant a jumbo pink banana in the place I was going to plant the 741 in the front yard. I didn't say on here yet, but I'm going to plant the two big ones at a generous neighbors house a over closer to the river. He's set me up with to 750 sq ft plots which he's even tilled for me. I put down my starter fertilizer last weekend. Urea (for N), mono-ammonium phosphate (for P and N), Potassium Sulfate (for K and S), some 10-20-20 (for N,P,K,S in other forms), plus Iron sulfate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, borax (for Boron), Manganese sulfate (for Mn) and sea salt (for Na and Cl, the chemical analysis of pumpkin leaves that I've seen had a fair amount of Na, so I thought it couldn't hurt to add a little just in case). I also added some Mycogrow mycorrhizae and beneficial microbes and some sugar to get the microbes going. Saturday, May 2 View Page The 2nd 741 Brunst 2006 seed sprouted today! I checked it one last time as I was about to throw them both out and it had sprouted. So I guess I will plant that one in the front yard after all. Sunday, May 3 View Page Here's the 1272 sprouting its first true leave this morning. The whole thing is 8 inches tall already 7 days after I started the germiniation. It's kind of flopping over though, but still looks healthy. Sunday, May 3 View Page 1568 - also starting true leave. The two big ones are neck and neck. Sunday, May 3 View Page I added another light and they really seemed to like it. Monday, May 4 View Page 1272 Brunst - 5/4 pm first true leave out, starting second. Monday, May 4 View Page 1568 Connolly - Also starting second leaf Thursday, May 7 View Page Pumpkin Patch A - the 1272 Brunst will go here Thursday, May 7 View Page Pumpkin Patch B - 10 ft east of patch A - This is where the 1568 Connolly will go. Thursday, May 7 View Page Here's the supports to the mini-greenhouse in Patch A (Patch B got one just like it) Thursday, May 7 View Page Here's the completed greenhouse in patch A. Notice the gallon jugs of water inside to help regulate the temperature. No plants yet. That comes Saturday evening. Thursday, May 7 View Page Here's a picture of both patches (A's closer). I was originally hoping to get the patchs tilled one more time, but we got lots of rain to wash the fertilizer in and the soil looks great. Thursday, May 7 View Page Everything's getting hardened off a little this evening on the front porch; getting a little direct sun for a couple hours and tonight getting a little cool air overnight. It's fairly protected there. Tomorrow night they'll go to a little colder spot. Then out to the mini-greenhouses in the patch for a couple weeks until the nights get a little warmer. Saturday, May 9 View Page Both the 1272 and 1568 got planted this evening. Here's a pic of the 1272, buried on its side up to the cots Saturday, May 9 View Page Here's the 1568 just planted Saturday, May 9 View Page I put a wall-o-water around the 1272 to help it get aclimated. Under the greenhouse the soil was 60F and the water in the jugs was 85, so it was pretty warm in there during the day. Saturday, May 9 View Page I had another wall-o-water, but I only brought one over to the patch by accident, so the 1568 got all 4 jugs of warmed water instead. That should be pretty good at keeping it warm overnight. Tomorrow I'm taking the plastic cover partly off both plants so they don't over heat. It's supposed to be in the 70's. Tuesday, May 12 View Page I put another wall-o-water around the 1568 this morning, its supposed to be into the 30's tonight. I'll probably take both the walls-o-water off on Saturday morning when the warm weather comes. Saturday, May 16 View Page I took the plastic off the pumpkins this morning for the warm weather. Also planted the 741 Brunst in the front yard today. Sunday, May 17 View Page 1272 Brunst - it's taken a little slug damage and maybe some heat damage, but still looks good. Sunday, May 17 View Page 1568 Connolly - looks strong, no slug damage or anything else wrong, but seems to be a leaf behind the 1272 Brunst at this point. I'm not worried though. Sunday, May 17 View Page Here's the 741 Brunst I planted last night in my front yard. It had a really good root system going and had a good stocky top. I put the wall-o-water over the roots to keep that part warm without overheating the top. Saturday, May 23 View Page 1272 Brunst Saturday, May 23 View Page 1568 Connolly Saturday, May 23 View Page Took the plastic off the greenhouses...hopefully for good, unless we get some more nights in the 30s or low 40s. Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1272 Brunst - Starting to vine - looking good Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1568 Connolly - Really getting a good vine going - looking a little yellow and some edge of leaf burn - added some soluble fertilizer. Tuesday, June 9 View Page Found deer poop in patch. Wednesday, June 10 View Page 1272 Brunst - buried stems Wednesday, June 10 View Page 1568 Connolly - buried stems Wednesday, June 10 View Page The plants have been in the ground for one month! 4 more to go. Wednesday, June 17 View Page 1272 Brunst - buried more vines today - some female flowers starting. Wednesday, June 17 View Page 1568 Connolly Wednesday, June 24 View Page 1272 Brunst - first female opened today - no males to pollinate her. Wednesday, June 24 View Page 1568 Connolly - first female opened today on secondary - no males to pollinate with. Wednesday, June 24 View Page Here's the female flower on the 1272 Brunst that opened today. It was a nice big 5 lobe female about 9 ft out on the primary vine. I would have liked to pollinate it just for practice but no males were even close to ready on any of the plants. There are a lot more females and a lot more time left so I'm not worried yet. Some males are starting to get bigger. Wednesday, June 24 View Page Here's another shot of the first female on the 1272 Brunst from the side. It wasn't perfect because the stem was joined with a secondary and it wasn't pointing the right direction. Wednesday, July 1 View Page 1272 Brunst - 2 females pollinated yesterday 1 today Wednesday, July 1 View Page 1568 Connolly - No females pollinated yet. one tomorrow it looks like. Wednesday, July 1 View Page Here's an extra male flower from today. Monday, July 6 View Page I've been pollinating both plants all last week. It looks like most if not all of them have taken so far so I've got some choices to make in a few weeks. The plants have grown a lot last week with the hot weather. I've been watering a lot too. Deer ate off the tips on the main and a couple secondaries on the 1272 Brunst. Other growing points were still intact so it should be ok. I put up a partial fence with material I had to try to deter them and protected the main on the 1568 Connolly. More fence of some kind will be put up soon. Wednesday, July 8 View Page 1272 Brunst - many fruit set Wednesday, July 8 View Page 1568 Connolly - several fruit set - a few days behind the 1272 though. Wednesday, July 8 View Page Here's a weird fruit from the 1272 - note the seeds outside of the top of the fruit. Friday, July 10 View Page Plants have been in the ground for 2 months now - 3 to go till the weighoffs: Oct 3rd – Bauman Farms, Gervais, OR Oct 10th – Seaside, OR Oct 17th – Terminator (location to be announced) Sunday, July 12 View Page I had big plans to get a lot done in the patch this afternoon, but I got rained out. I did get some fertilizer down before the rain got too heavy, so at least it got washed in well. From the radar it looks like at least a half inch fell, up to 3" fell in some places. Sunday, July 12 View Page 741 Brunst - I haven't posted much on this one because I'm not really going for a super big one just a nice orange one. It's in my front yard. Got a late start. Went flat/ribbon vine earlier in the season, but recovered after a long leaching. 2 or maybe 3 possible keeper fruit set, now. I'll probably get it down to one eventually. Monday, July 13 View Page Here are some culls that were baseball size or bigger from both plants. Wednesday, July 15 View Page 1272 Brunst (foreground) - many fruit set - culled several already. (That's the 1568 Connolly in the background, if you're wondering) Wednesday, July 15 View Page 1568 Connolly - several fruit set - culled a few here too. Don't have a favorite yet. No standouts, but several candidates. Wednesday, July 15 View Page Here's my favorite fruit so far. It's on the 1272 Brunst. It was from the first day I pollinated anything in the patch. It isn't the cross I wanted, but I may still go with it. The 1568 Connolly all have the cross I want (which is 1568 Connolly x 1272 Brunst) so I'll get the seed one way or another. Tuesday, July 21 View Page 1272 Brunst - It has grown a lot in the past week - down to 1 and 1/2 fruit. Tomorrow it will be 1. See next pic. Tuesday, July 21 View Page 1272 Brunst fruit - day 21 since pollination. It's all positioned and ready to grow. Note the gallon milk jug for scale. This fruit has really taken off in the last week. I need to get some measurements on it, but keep forgeting the tape. (Sorry it's a little out of focus.) Tuesday, July 21 View Page 1568 Connolly - This plant has taken off in the past week too. The good fruit got set a few days later than the 1272 Brunst, so they aren't as big yet. It's down to 2 fruit though. I'm waiting a couple days for them to sort it out. One is on the main vine. It is presently smaller, but pollinated later. Both of them are in good position now. We'll see. Wednesday, July 22 View Page 741 Brunst - in my front yard, not getting enough care. Must have over-watered or over-fertilized. Looks cool though. Still have one fruit that's ok on this plant. Thursday, July 23 View Page Brusnt 1272 - Down to one fruit - OTT 163" today = 102 lbs Monday, July 27 View Page 1272 Brunst - day 28 - OTT 208" = 200 lbs Tuesday, July 28 View Page 1272 Brunst - plant - still growing an amazing amount since last week. It's getting some sort of leaf wilt disease on the new lvs. Tuesday, July 28 View Page 1272 Brunst - fruit - OTT this morning was 218" = 225 lbs. I didn't measure tonight when the pic was taken, but I'm sure it grew more today despite the heat. It was noticably bigger. Note the gallon milk jug for scale. Tuesday, July 28 View Page 1568 Connolly - plant - looking good, still growing well. Seems to have less of the leaf wilt the 1272 has, but still has some. Fruit is starting to take off. see next post Tuesday, July 28 View Page 1568 Connolly - Fruit - pic taken today, but not sure what day this is since pollination. It may be 7 or 10 days behind the 1272, I need to check that. 155" OTT = 89 lbs. Sunday, August 2 View Page A picture of the 1272 Brunst and the boy (for scale). Sunday, August 2 View Page 1568 Connolly and the boy. Wednesday, August 5 View Page 1272 Brunst - Plant Wednesday, August 5 View Page 1272 Brunst - Fruit - OTT= 242" = 307lbs Hot weather or something has slowed both fruit down a lot, but still gaining. Hopefully they will pick up again. Wednesday, August 5 View Page 1568 Connolly - plant - It's getting harder to take a picture of this plant because the 1272 is in the way. Wednesday, August 5 View Page 1568 Connolly - fruit - Pollinated 7/6 so Day 26 - OTT = 209" = 202 lbs (This one grew 60 lbs in two days during the first two days of the heat wave, but then slowed down a lot.) forgot to say: 1272 fruit is day 32 Friday, August 7 View Page 1568 Fruit - covered with a blanket - I keep them both covered to protect them from scratches and moderate fruit temperatures. Friday, August 7 View Page 1272 Brunst - Day 38 - OTT = 258" = 369 lbs Tuesday, August 11 View Page 1272 Brunst - Day 42 - OTT = 277" = 453 lbs Tuesday, August 11 View Page 1568 Connolly - day 36 - OTT = 241" = 303 lbs Thursday, August 13 View Page 1272 Brunst - plant Thursday, August 13 View Page 1272 Brunst - fruit - day 44 - OTT = 281" = 472 lbs Thursday, August 13 View Page 1568 Connolly - plant (and fruit) - I'm going to start showning the 1568 wide view from this angle. My other standard plant photo angle isn't working anymore. Thursday, August 13 View Page 1568 Connolly - Day 38 - OTT = 250" = 337 lbs Both the fruits grew a little slower the last couple days (only 10-12 lbs per day). It's been in the 70s during the day and cool nights. Thursday, August 13 View Page This is a graph of the cumulative growth so far. They are actually both on pretty much the same trajectory. The 1568 just got pollinated later. Thursday, August 13 View Page This is a graph of the average daily growth between measurements. The first dip is the hot (105F+ days) and the downward trend lately is cool weather (<50F at night, <80F days). (They are out of phase because of the pollination day difference.) Sunday, August 16 View Page 1272 Brunst - OTT = 296" = 550 lbs (26 lb per day) Sunday, August 16 View Page 1568 Connolly - OTT = 274" = 439 lbs (34 lbs per day) Tuesday, August 18 View Page 1272 Brunst - OTT = 306" = 606 lbs 1568 Connolly - OTT = 280" = 467 lbs Wednesday, August 19 View Page 1272 Brunst - day 50 Wednesday, August 19 View Page 1568 Connolly Wednesday, August 26 View Page No pics this week. The 1272 has not been growing at all the last few days. Not sure why that is. It might have picked up a little yesterday, but didn't get a chance to measure. The 1568 has been slow but not stopped like the 1272. Not sure what's up. I gave them both a extra good drink of water, hopefully they'll grow and not crack from it. Monday, August 31 View Page 1272 Brunst - day 62 - Plant Monday, August 31 View Page 1272 Brunst - Fruit - No measureable growth last week still about 600 lbs. Monday, August 31 View Page 1568 Connolly - Plant - Day 56 Monday, August 31 View Page 1568 Connolly - Day 56 - OTT = 300" = 572 lbs Thursday, September 3 View Page 1272 Brunst has officially stopped growing. :( It is stalled out at ~600 lbs est. It hasn't grown since Aug 18th really. I've been in denial since then. Aug 18,19 were in the upper 90's for highs, so I'm attributing the stoppage to that. Friday, September 4 View Page The 1568 Connolly is still growing at about 12-18 lbs per day. It was 314" OTT = ~653 lbs this morning. It's hard to measure by myself. I thought it was up to over 700 lbs, but my re-measurement was more reasonable. Sunday, September 6 View Page 1272 Brunst - with the kids for scale Sunday, September 6 View Page 1568 Connolly - again with the kids - she's only 40 lbs and I told her to sit still. Sunday, September 6 View Page 741 Brunst - in the front yard - OTT = 204" = 189 lbs Friday, September 11 View Page So it turns out my string method for measuring the OTT lengths is biased, but it is in my favor! I was using a reference section of string that I measured at 30", but I guess the knot slipped or something, because it was actually 32.5 inches when I did a QC check today. So all of my past distance measurements have been under by 8.3%. The weights are basically distance^3 so that's a huge mess up on my part. As of this morning the estimated weights are: 1272 Brunst - OTT 341" = 833 lbs - day 73(maybe still growing just a little) 1568 Connolly - OTT 357" ============ ~950 lbs - day 67 and still growing ~20 lbs per day over the last 10 days. It might make 1000 lbs after all. 3 weeks till the weigh off. Monday, September 14 View Page 1272 Brunst - plant - Still growing bigger leaves out front (on the right). The rest is declining a lot though. Monday, September 14 View Page 1272 Brunst - Still not growing, but getting more orange though. Although the fruit has generally stopped, it still seems to be growing some knobs here and there. Monday, September 14 View Page 1568 Connolly - plant - The photo doesn't show it but the older leaves are really suffering some browning and looking bad. The newer leaves all look great still. Monday, September 14 View Page 1568 Connolly - stump view - Here you can see the clear line between the crispy brown leaves in back and the nic green leaves in front. Not sure what's causing that. Monday, September 14 View Page 1568 Connolly - fruit - day 70 - It just keeps getting bigger. I'm taking a cue from the experienced growers and won't be posting the weight from now till the weigh off. You'll just have to wait and see. Wednesday, September 16 View Page Starting to plan for next year already. Time to get that cover crop in ASAP. Tuesday, September 22 View Page 1568 Connolly - day 78 - still growing Saturday, October 3 View Page 898.5 Holub 2009 (1272 Brunst 2008 x open) 14th Place over-all - Bauman Farms Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off - Oct 3, 2009 First Place - Novice division Saturday, October 10 View Page 1169 Holub 2009 (1568.5 Connolly 08 x 1272 Brunst 08) 3rd Place - Seaside's Great Pumpkin Weigh-off Sunday, October 11 View Page The photo is the 1169 Holub Pedigree for next year's seed. Going back another year or two and adding things up it looks like this: 845 Bobier 846 Calai 898 Knauss 723 Bobier 705 Stelts 712.2 Kuhn 30% 27% 22% 16% 7% 5% Wednesday, November 11 View Page 265 Holub est (741 Brunst x self) - Another nice orange one from the 741 Brunst. Grown on a small patch.