Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Thursday, April 19 View Page Finally getting a diary started for this year. My line up will include 8 of the 12 seeds in the attached picture. I started all 12 of these seeds on Sunday the 15th and the best 8 of them will hit the dirt in the patch around May 1st. Sunday, June 3 View Page This is my 1476 Daletus with the Main at about 7'. Took the greenhouse down today and had a little wind so the plant looks a little ragged in this shot. The plant has been fairly aggressive but the main and secondary vines are not that large so the jury is still out on this plant. Thursday, June 14 View Page This my 1474 Daletus with the main out about 11 feet. There is a female on the end of the main that should end up around 13 feet that I hope to polinate in a little over a week. If things work out, it will be the earliest polination I have ever had. Sunday, July 1 View Page 1474 Daletas on day 7, about the size of a softball. The bloom had the little extra lobe on it that now has some seeds showing. This is the earliest polination I have ever had so hopefully it will be a keeper. Only had a couple flowers to self polinate this one so it is a wait and see proposition to see if it will stick around. Thursday, July 12 View Page This is #1 on the 1476 Daletas on day #18. It is about about the size of a vollyball and growing slow and steady. I'm not sure of the shape so I am still in a wait and see mode with this one. It is my earliest polination ever and could compete with the 1053 Pugh in "Cindy in Little Rocks Pumkin Palace" for the Puyallup Fair if I decide to keep it. First cc measurement will be on day 20. Thursday, July 12 View Page 1476 Daletas #2 on day 6. I like the shape of this one and it seems to be picking up speed so #1 may be unlucky this time. It is also further outon the main, about 15' which I like better than the 12' location of #1. Monday, July 23 View Page This the 1474 Daletas #2 on day #14. I made the correct choice and culled #1 a few days ago. #2 is way ahead of the pace #1 was growing and picking up speed.CC is around 30" in this shot taken on the 21st. Monday, July 23 View Page This is the patch at my Dad's place in Little Rock Wa this year. We have the biggest and healthiest plants in his patch that we have ever grown. Dad is burying vines on the 1393 Pugh that is the plant in the foreground. In the back right is our 922.5 Briggs, the left front is the 1192 Harp, and the 1272 Barker is in the middle at the back. Monday, July 23 View Page This is the nice pumkin on the 1393 Pugh with dad on the right. Monday, July 23 View Page This is the kin on our 922.5 Briggs on about day 10. This plant flat vined and this is on the secondary we turned into a main after cutting the flat vine at about 2'. I really like the shape of this one so I guess we will see what happens since the plant flat vined. Tuesday, July 31 View Page Here is our 922.5 Briggs at day 22 with a CC of 53". the size is not to bad for day 22 in the northwest and this one looks like it might even have some orange in it. Tuesday, July 31 View Page This is #2 on the 1393 Pugh on day 22 measuring 50cc. We finally made a decision today and culled #1 that measured 62cc yesterday on day #29. The location and shape of #1 worried me so a decision had to be made. Hopefully #2 will take off now since it should receive all the energy from the plant now. Tuesday, July 31 View Page This is the 1272 Barker on day 22 measuring 55cc. Not sure about the shape of this one. It is long and a little bit flat. The upside is that this is on maybe the best plant I have ever had and is picking up over 4" cc a day which is as fast I have ever had a pumpkin growing at this age. Should be interesting from here on. Could it be that elusive first 1000 pounder? Wednesday, August 1 View Page This is my 1476.5 Daletas on day #25. Turns out I had the size of mom wrong on a couple of posts. Sorry Steve! The cc on this one is 62" on day #25 and it has on ott of 155. I am trying to figure out how to increase my gains with this pumpkin. The weather is supposed to be warming up so that should help but I am also looking at some additional potassium and more water to see if that will pick up the growth rate. Some of the leaves on the plant are over 3' tall and the end of the secondaries that are not terminated grow straight up so I am wondering if my nitrogen may be too high. Wednesday, August 8 View Page This is my 1476.5 Daletas on day 32 yesterday. Up to 25 lbs a day the last two days and picking up speed despite cooler temperatures. I have high hopes for this one. I am headed to dad's tonight to check on the 1272 Barker and the other plants going down there. Sunday, August 12 View Page Here is the 1192 Harp on day 23 at dad's patch. CC isn't great, 49" but I can't wait to see the color of this one. Looks like it will be bright orange. Possible a Howard Dill contender? Sunday, August 12 View Page This is the pumpkin we finally got to set on the 1355 Bahskaran. It was an open polination so I'm not sure of the age. Best guess is around 23 days and the cc is 55.5 on the 8th. This looks a lot like our beautiful orange 804 from 2010 that was also on the 1355. Monday, August 13 View Page Sad day in my patch yesterday. Came home in the afternoon to find my 1476.5 Daletas go down to a stem splt. Final numbers were 251 OTT, a little over 350 lbs on day 36. By far my biggest ever at day 36. Days like yesterday make me wonder if all the time and effort put into growing these monsters is worth it? Wednesday, August 22 View Page This is the 1272 Barker on Day 44 a liitle over 500 lbs. It is doing a little over 20 lbs a day with a good sized crack in the stem. Wednesday, August 22 View Page The 1355 Bahskaran on about day 35. The ott is 226, about 266 lbs. Wednesday, August 22 View Page This is our 922.5 Briggs, day 44, OTT of 258, at 389 lbs. This one has really picked up speed the last week but the pumpkin looks pretty old for 44 .days Intersted to see where this one ends up. Friday, August 24 View Page Since I started pulling vines in the patch at my house yesterday, I thought I would talk a little more about the demise of my 1476.5 Daletas. This is a shot of the split right after I found it on August 12th. In retrospect, I think increasing my watering after my timer was shut off for two days accidently probably did it in. Friday, August 24 View Page Now fast forward to yesterday 12 days later. This is my last picture of the 1476.5 yesterday with some of the vines pulled around it. It has somehow chugged along at around 25 lbs a day for the last 12 days with half a stem and the water completely turned off. It measures around 650 lbs on what would have been day 46. Makes you wonder what might have been if I hadn't screwed things up. The main and stump will be pulled tomorrow. Wednesday, August 29 View Page Here is the latest shot of our 1272 Barker on Sunday the 26th on day 49. It was 298 OTT or 591 lbs when this shot was taken. Still doing about 20+ a day with 48 days to go before the Central Market weigh off. We still have a chance at a new PB if it can average arround 10 lbs a day until the weigh off. Tuesday, September 4 View Page This is our 1272 Barker on day 57. It is still moving along at more than 16 lbs a day the last four days since the stump was lost. Ott is now 320, or about 726 lbs with 40 days until Central Market. We are crossing our fingers hoping that this one keeps going at a decent clip for the next few weeks. It is suppossed to warm up into the mid 80's the next four days so that should help. Tuesday, September 4 View Page I had a nice surprise when I went to dad's patch yesterday and measured the pumpkin on our 922.5. For some reason, it unexpectedly picked up speed to about 18+ per day the last 4 days. It did warm up a bit but still a nice surprise. The current numbers are 295 OTT and 574 lbs. I was going to take this one to the Puyallup Fair this Friday but the increase in growth has caused a change in plans. It will either go to Scholz, Central Market, or possible even the Terminator down in Oregon if it is still growing. Tuesday, September 4 View Page This is the pumpkin on the 1355 Bahskaran. It is a little over 400 lbs and should make a good carver for someone later on. It has slowed down some and does not have as much color as I thought it would. This is just a wait and see situation to see where this one ends up. Wednesday, September 12 View Page This is the 1272 Barker on 9-11-12 still doing over 10 lbs a day. The OTT is currently 334" with an estimated weight of 821 lbs with 33 days to go on about day 66. We had some pretty serious damage to our plants the last few days that we think was from frost so hopefully it will keep going. Wednesday, September 12 View Page This is our 922.5 Briggs on 9-11-12. It is now at 306" OTT around 638 lbs ad also doing about 10 lbs per day. The 922.5 was 17% heavy on the old chart and I think this one will also come in heavy. It is like a rock and looks just like Mom. Wednesday, September 12 View Page This is our 1355 Bahskaran at around 475 lbs. This one has a great shape and some color and will probably be carved by somebody. Friday, September 21 View Page The 1272 Barker on 9/18/12 still going strong at 345 Ott around 900 lbs with 25 days to go. Thursday, October 4 View Page Latest shot of 1272 Barker with 10 days to go. Thursday, October 4 View Page This our 922.5 Briggs estimating about 740 lbs. It is headed to the Scholz Farm weigh off on Sunday. The 922.5 was almost 100 lbs over the new chart so hopefully this one will also go heavy. Monday, October 8 View Page This the 859 Briggs 2012 right before we loaded it on Saturday. It was grown off our 922.5 from last year. Estimated weight was 724 lbs so it came in at 18.6% over the new chart! I will be growing our 922.5 again next year and may try this one also. The polinator was the 1355 Bahskaran and the 922.5 was grown on the 1080.5 Hunt. Seeds will hopefully be available if anyone wants to try this one. Wednesday, October 31 View Page A nice shot of me with our 944.5 carved by Russ Leno at the Seattle Aquarium. Wednesday, October 31 View Page Underwater pumpkin carving at the Seattle Aquarium.