Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 32 Entries. Thursday, June 18 View Page Here is the first of three fruits to hand-pollinate successfully. It's next to a tennis ball for reference. I haven't done any measuring yet. This is from store-bought AG seeds. The vine starts right behind my house. This one is on a secondary branch. There is one fruit about 2/3 the size of this one that is on the main branch. Do I keep the biggest one or the one on the main branch? Tuesday, June 23 View Page Giant pumpkin patch behind the house. Fencing is to keep terriers out. Tuesday, June 23 View Page Option no. 1 Tuesday, June 23 View Page Option no. 2 Tuesday, June 23 View Page Triple Treat patch along back fence. Tuesday, June 23 View Page Triple Treat first pollinated. I'm growing as many pumpkins as I can on this vine for pie. Tuesday, June 23 View Page I wanted to test weight calculations when the pumpkin is at a small size, because the charts start at 21 pounds. So when I culled a small fruit today I did the 3 measurements and two calculations from the article on this website. Circumference was 21". Blossom to Stem (ground to ground) was 16.5". Side to side (ground to ground) was 16". Using the OTT (over the top) method the estimated weight is 4.68 pounds. Using the Circumference method the est weight is 4.33 pounds. The actual weight on a kitchen scale is 4.22 pounds. Not too bad considering the formulas were built off data from much larger fruits. So the OTT method was only 7 oz or 11% off and the C method was only 2 oz or 3% off. Friday, June 26 View Page Finally got down to business and cut the biggest fruit off because it was on a secondary vine. Last year I didn't even have anything pollinated until well into July so it seems wrong to cut a 22 pound fruit off right now. Hopefully the smaller one on the main vine will really take off now. Sunday, June 28 View Page The one and only giant pumpkin at my house is about 43.75" in circumference. 29.5 lbs? Wednesday, July 1 View Page Biggest single day growth yet - 8 lbs. Considering no soil preparation, growing on a lawn, I'm pretty happy with that for now. I added a new shade structure out of bamboo I got from a friend and dried, and doubled-up recycled shade cloth (from another project that came down). I also put burlap and 2 inches of play sand underneath the fruit today. Last year I used 1 inch of sand over bricks and just added bricks and sand as it got bigger. That was before I read about burlap. Circumference 51.13 in. Thursday, July 2 View Page Minor disaster. I watered the roots of the vine on the lawn this morning. Some water runoff collected in a low area right next to the pumpkin's new sand pad. The sand acted like a wick today and sucked up water. So this afternoon I reformed the soil area to keep drainage away from the sand pad. Unfortunately as I spoon fed dirt into the area with a shovel I scraped a big 3 inch long 1/2 inch deep cut into the pumpkin! Idiot! I hope it heals like the dog scratches did last year. Thursday, July 2 View Page Circumference = 53.25" Friday, July 3 View Page Store bought AG seed. Gash courtesy of my shovel. Friday, July 3 View Page The three creatures in back are (we think) Airenji (Airedale x Basenji), Poodle (Poodle x Poodle), and Staffollie (Staffordshire Terrier x Collie). We're dogsitting the Poodle. Sunday, July 12 View Page Finally got a female to open for pollination on my backup plant. This is another store bought seed but it's the best I'll have until next year. I haven't had any AG females get to pollination stage since early June. It's been too hot and I hadn't tried cold pollination process until this one. I practiced with my dollar store foam coolers and water bottles on triple treat pumpkin females for two days before the AG females were ready. Two females were ready at once only about 3 inches apart on vine. "In the end there must be only one." Tuesday, July 14 View Page Mystery illness on leaves. This photo is top view. Was on a couple leaves before. This morning all over. Maybe 80% leaves. Also a couple leaves now on backup plant too. Tuesday, July 14 View Page Bottom of leaf view of mystery illness? Do you know what this problem is and how to fix it? Biological control prefered but I will consider any option. It's spreading fast. Thursday, July 16 View Page Here are some photos of the new misting system. Only took about $30 worth of equipment. That's because I tapped into the existing sprinkler system and computer that was installed with our lawn a couple of years ago. My Dad helped me fix the broken extra station and I added 1/2" tubing and (Agrifim?) tornado misters. The hanging structure I made out of thick bamboo from my buddy's yard waste for the posts. The horizontal beams I made out of thin bamboo from my dad's yard waste. The binding agent for the bamboo was 40-year old insulated wire leftover from a building project of my grandfather's. And I tied the tubing to the bamboo with some leftover zip ties my dad had hanging around. I also don't have a very big patch so that helped. Thursday, July 16 View Page More new misting system Thursday, July 16 View Page More new misting system Thursday, July 16 View Page Pumpkin at about 65" circumference. What can I say - it's growing slow but I'm just thankful it's still growing. Thursday, July 16 View Page More on new misting system Thursday, July 23 View Page Applied 10% milk spray for first time. Used a small pump pressurized sprayer on bottoms of leaves. Very time consuming because I didn't have a wand sprayer. Actually I have a wand sprayer but I use it for spraying neem oil and I'm trying to keep my substances separate. Thursday, July 23 View Page A table of growers in hot climates gathered from the past few years' GPC results on BigPumpkins.com. I used a cutoff of avg daily high temperature in July > 90F. Also here is a list of people on BigPumpkins.com with diaries that fit the 'hot' category... (Name, City, State, PB?) estaban Santa Ynez California 790 OkieGal Boise City Oklahoma 425 WDB(phoenixaz) Phoenix Arizona 230 Carolyn Phillips Nauvoo Alabama Amigatec Haskell Oklahoma DannyO Las Cruces New Mexico Kpatch Collierville Tennessee Mary, ocala FL Ocala Florida KsLambert Lawrence Kansas EndlessTrail Fresno California nascar fan Highland California Tuesday, August 4 View Page Culled one ('primero') at 46" circumference on backup plant. Segundo is 56.25" circumference and growing about 5 lbs/day on backup plant. I just brewed and applied my first batch of compost tea. I used watering can for soil and sprayer for leaves - top and bottom. I used the tea on both plants even though the original plant's fruit has almost stopped growing. I'm hoping if I can keep it healthy for another couple weeks I can eke out a 100 pounder. Thursday, August 6 View Page second (and only now) fruit on backup plant is now 59.5" circumference for est 65.9 lbs. It is growing about 4.5 lbs/day. If it can keep this up it will pass the est 93lb. fruit (which has stopped growing) on the main plant. I sprayed Neptune's harvest (1.5 oz) on leaves of both AGs and both triple treat plants for first time tonight. Now a couple hours later the whole yard smells like fish. I also saw 'Food Inc.' the movie. Great documentary. Sunday, August 16 View Page This is the fruit on my backup plant. It is now only about a pound short of the one I grew on the main plant. It has started getting wrinkled skin. I have no idea why. Sunday, August 16 View Page Here are the stump roots on the main plant. Sunday, August 16 View Page Here are the sprinkler system modifications made to add in a mister line. Sunday, August 16 View Page My AG pumpkin season is over I think. Just found a split all the way to the inside on the blossom end of my last remaining fruit. Thursday, August 20 View Page First soil test results. Getting ready for next year. Thursday, August 20 View Page First soil test results page 2.