Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 60 Entries. Saturday, April 18 View Page This year I decided to grow seeds form my 387.2 pound squash form 2008. I crossed it with a female 995 squash and male 966 pumpkin. I have named my squash Shan 387. Saturday, April 25 View Page Today I went out to my grandfather’s house to get some cow manure. This manure has been sitting in their barn a little over 20 years so it is very old. Surprisingly the manure looked and smelt just like is was fresh stuff. Saturday, April 25 View Page We’re home now spreading the manure on the field. ~ We worked in the manure and it worked into the ground real well. We also mixed in rotten hay with the manure to make the field richer for the plants. Sunday, April 26 View Page Here is a picture of my Shan 387 that I am growing the seeds out of this year. Tuesday, April 28 View Page I planted my Shan 387 today in a 4 inch pot using mix 1 professional potting soil. I have placed the pot out in my greenhouse so there will be lots of heat to make the squash grow. Saturday, May 2 View Page The Shan 387 has peeked threw the soil. Sunday, May 3 View Page I took the seed of the Shan 387 leaves. It looks really good! Tuesday, May 5 View Page The squash is growing quite well. I transplanted it into a 6 inch pot today. Sunday, May 10 View Page The squash is still growing like crazy. I have now transplanted it into a 9 inch pot. Friday, May 15 View Page The weather is looking cold this weekend. I think I might hold off setting my plant outside for a couple of days. Monday, May 18 View Page We had frost last night and looks like there is going to be frost again tonight. Tuesday, May 19 View Page The weather is looking really hot this weekend. Hope to get the plants in soon. Wednesday, May 20 View Page Today I planted my Shan 387 in the ground. I hit it perfect timing because its roots were just peeking threw the soil at the bottom. We had to put it in the ground too because it was getting ready to run in my greenhouse. The weather looks really nice for the next couple of day. That will be good for the plant. Monday, May 25 View Page Pumpkin/squashes enemies have just arrived. All my plants are covered in Cucumber beetles. My dad sprayed the plants tonight. Hope they kill most of them. Tuesday, May 26 View Page My Shan 387 is doing really well. The ground is getting hard and dry. Hope for a good rain tonight! Tuesday, May 26 View Page So, because the ground is so hard, we got out our tiller to work up the land. Tuesday, May 26 View Page As you can see in this picture, the ground is all worked up. It looks good and ritch but I would still really like that rain to come soon. Tuesday, May 26 View Page Sorry but my picture of the land does not seem to want to work. Wednesday, May 27 View Page So you can see in this picture, it is raining good and hard on my deck! This will do a world of good form my pumpkin/squash plants. Friday, May 29 View Page My unwanted friends have arrived at my pumpkin/squash patch again. The plants were loaded with cucumber beetles! My dad sprayed them again. Some of the plants leaves are eaten pretty well. The warm weather and sun will do the plants a world of good now. Saturday, June 13 View Page My Shan 387 is starting to run. The main vine is only about a foot and a half long. It is growing well! Saturday, June 13 View Page The ground is hard again so dad is working it up again to get the oxygen into the ground to make the pumpkins grow BIG! Friday, June 26 View Page My Shan 387 is growing like a weed right now. It grows about 8 feet a day. Its secondary vines are coming on it. It’s about 10 feet ling right now. In the picture you can see that there is a female blossom on the main vine. It’s about 8 ½ feet on the main vine. I hope to pollinate this one. It is at the right distance for me. The plant is really green and healthy. I hope that it keeps growing and stays this green! Friday, June 26 View Page The picture of the Shan 387 will not add. Friday, June 26 View Page You will never believe what happen at our place at 3:00pm today. We got a 5 minute down poor of hail. It was the size of math balls! My dad and I ran out to the patch to put on greenhouses on our 3 best plants. The Shan 387 is one. The hail was so big it heart the top of our heads. It came down so fast that when we looked at the field when we were leaving, the field was snow white. Hear is a picture of the greenhouses we put over our best 3 plants. Saturday, June 27 View Page This is the hail damage that was done to a Vader plant leaf right beside my plant. Saturday, June 27 View Page Here are the leaves on my Shan 387 right after the hail. It is a god thing that we got my Shan 387 covered first! Sunday, July 5 View Page My Shan 387 has got really nice colour to it and is growing really well right now! It is about 14 feet wide and 11 feet long right now. Sunday, July 5 View Page It’s time to weed the patch. This year where I have the pumpkins there is a lot of vine weed. It likes to rap around plants then chokes them out, so today I am going through the patch pulling all the weeds that I can find. Sunday, July 5 View Page My Shan 387 has a female blossom on it about 8 feet out and looks like it is going to open tomorrow. I have covered it with a plastic bag so that it does not get crossed pollinated. I have done the same to 3 male flowers. This is the right length for a pumpkin to get set on my plant. Tuesday, July 7 View Page Tonight I worked at pruning the vines and re-directing the vines to where I want them to go. I am doing the spider pattern this year. Wednesday, July 8 View Page Sad news. The female blossom never opened and the pumpkin aborted. That means that I am going to have to wait until the next female blossom comes on the plant to set a pumpkin. Hopefully the next time the blossom will open. Saturday, July 11 View Page Tonight dad and I worked at barring the vines on my Shan 387 because the wind was starting to twist the vines on us. This way the vines are anchored and will not get twisted any more. Sunday, July 12 View Page Good news! The other female blossom on the main vine opened this morning and I pollinated it. Now I have a pumpkin set on my plant!! Saturday, August 1 View Page Day 20 OTT- S-S=50+F-B=50+Circ=72 OTT= 172 Est weight= 118 lbs The Shan 387 is growing very well and the plant is very healthy. Tuesday, August 11 View Page Day 30 OTT- S-S=65+F-B=65+Circ=106 OTT=236 Est Weight= 286 lbs Friday, August 21 View Page Day 40 OTT- S-S=75+F-B=74+Circ=125 Ott=274 Est Weight= 439 lbs Monday, August 24 View Page Our sling is now made and ready to lift the pumpkins out of the field when harvest season comes. We harvested this pumpkin for Harvestin' the County. It weighed 415 pounds and the sling worked well! Monday, August 31 View Page Day 50 Ott- S-S=81+F-B=80+Circ=136 OTT=297 Est Weight= 555 lbs With cool nights, the Shan 387 has slowed down in growing. I have started covering it at night to keep the warmth in the pumpkin. Thursday, September 10 View Page Day 60 Ott S-S=84+f-B=83+Circ=143 Ott=310 Est. Weight= 629 Lbs The Shan is still growing well even with cool nights. Saturday, September 19 View Page We knew that frost was on it's way for the weekend but we didn't expect to have frost last night. At 6:30 a.m. the ground was snow white. We had a really heavy frost. The leaves look a little damaged at I didn't cover the plant. Hopefully there isn't much damage done. Sunday, September 20 View Page Day 70 Ott S-S=84=F-B=84=Circ=149 Ott=318 Est. Weight=678 Lbs. I'm glad to say that there wasn't mush damage done from our first frost. We had another frost again last night. Some of the leaves have turned brown but overall the leaves are sill looking good. Tuesday, September 29 View Page Day 70 Ott S-S=85+F-B=85+Circ=154 Ott=324 Est. Weight=716 Lbs. The Shan 387 is still putting on weight even with the cool nights. Sunday, October 11 View Page Today Dad and I decided to take the pumpkin out of the field because they are calling for frost every night this week and cold weather. So, at 2:45 p.m. dad headed out to harvest the pumpkin. When dad got over to the pumpkin, he felt sick. Dad was very cautious when he lifted the pumpkin up to put on the skid. Sunday, October 11 View Page Dad lifted the pumpkin up a little ways and checked it out. Dad noticed water on the ground under neath it. Sunday, October 11 View Page Dad checked the pumpkin out and on the right side on the bottom water was running out. There is about a 6" square soft spot with a crack in the center. It is where the water was coming from. Sunday, October 11 View Page Sadly we cannot take me pumpkin to Wellington Pumpkin Fest but at least I had a blast growing it. I also had a great time getting pictures with my pumpkin. Dad is going to take it up to the house to weigh it and put it out front on display for people to enjoy. Sunday, October 11 View Page Here is my pumpkin on the scale. It weighs... 840 pounds with the skid!! Our goal this year was to grow an 800 pound pumpkin. We sure did. Dad is going to weigh the skid latter to know what the pumpkin weighed by itself. Sunday, October 11 View Page Here is a picture of dad and I with my 1132 Vincent-McGill squash. I am planing to take my squash to Wellington Pumpkin fest. Sunday, October 11 View Page Here is great picture of my Shan 387 and 1132 Vincent-McGill squash. The other pumpkin in the picture is also a Shan 387. I just wanted to get a couple of pictures at the house with the pumpkin and squash together before we put the squash away for the pumpkin fest. Friday, October 16 View Page Here is my 1132 Vincent-McGill squash loaded and ready to take the trip to Wellington. Friday, October 16 View Page It is a really nice day in Wellington today. Here is my squash getting brushed off so that there is no extra weight from dirt that could be underneath it. Saturday, October 17 View Page The squash is getting lowered on the scale. It measures: S-S 84 + F-B 84 + Circ 128 Ott= 296 Est Weight = 550 pounds. Hope it goes Heavy Saturday, October 17 View Page My squash ended up weighing..... 661.6 pounds!!!! 20% heavy!! I am so very happy. I ended up placing 2nd with my squash which was great! My goal was to be in the top 5. Saturday, October 17 View Page Here is a picture of the the Giant Pumpkin Growers at The Wellington Pumpkin Fest. Saturday, October 24 View Page Here is a great picture of all the giant pumpkins that my family grew. All these pumpkins are over 300 pounds. Saturday, October 24 View Page Here is a picture of one of my favorite pumpkins. This is also a Shan 387. The thing that I like most about this pumpkin is that the colour of it is PINK! I have never seen grown a pink pumpkin before. Saturday, October 24 View Page Here is a picture of my dad and his favorite pumpkin. He liked this one the best because of the shape, beautiful front and colour. This is a 993 Vincent-McGill pumpkin. Sunday, November 8 View Page To end the season of giant vegetable growing, we sent up a giant cabbage to the Royal Winter Fair. When the nights started to get cool, we put one of the green houses over it to keep the frost off. To our surprise, it started to grow with the green house over it all day. So on Thursday, 5th John Vincent came over and my dad and him dug out the cabbage and put it into a tarp ready to go up to the fair. The hope of the cabbage placing in the top 5 was our goal. To our surprise, the cabbage placed 1st weighing 53.8 pounds!! We are so very proud! Thanks John for taking the cabbage up for us! Monday, November 30 View Page I would just like to say it was a great year for growing giant vegetables! I learned a lot as we had hail and other setbacks that my family had to work threw with these giants. In the end, I achieved my goals and would like to thank my family and John for all their help and hard work that needed to be done. THANKS!!