Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 19 Entries. Sunday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year from Finland. It is going to be a good one, I'm pretty sure. No snow here yet, which is unusual. Saturday, February 11 View Page Waiting for the spring.....2 months to start germinating the seeds. My line up will be most probably: 1180 Pukos 1207 Young 1674 Marsh 1059 Vincent-McGill + some backups and Janowiak 988 for pollitation purposes (to 1059). I hope I will break the 1000 lbs barrier. I plan to transplant before the 1st of May and get the pollinations done before 25th June, which would then give enough warm days for the season to grow a beast. I still have work on my patches as the results of the analysis showed some overdose (K,P) and pretty high pH, because the limestone mineral soil I have. I "blended" the soil with some raw peat I managed to get a truckload, and must recheck the values when the snow melts. Mycos and Lithovit will be part of the program as well. Monday, February 13 View Page Luckily there is some growing one must do already when it is still freezing outside. This is my chili pepper grow room for seedlings. 3 ebb and flood systems for about 20 seedlings and about the same amount in peat/soil pots under fluoroscent and ESL lights. Saturday, March 3 View Page Avant, baby yeah! My latest toy, a 4WD miniloader/multi purpose work machine, Avant 218, I purchased last October. I also have a pallet fork and minidigger as attachments. It will ease the physical work with the maintaining the cottage, garden and pumpkin patches. Bye bye wheelbarrow. Lifts some 750 lbs, so I hope it cannot be used to lift my pumpkins next September. Home page of the manufacturer: http://www.avanttecno.com/www/index.php?PAGE=2&NODE_ID=2&LANG=2 Sunday, April 15 View Page The lineup is like planned. All germinated nicely with the zip plastic bag method in 36 hours, 1059 took a day longer. All are in pots now, and target for transplanting will be the end of April. The weather has been exceptionally cold in the beginning of the April, even though the snow has been gone a long time ago. Thanks Eddy and Kevin for support with the seeds. Sunday, April 15 View Page The chili pepper growing season has moved to a green house. Just finishing the 12 unit ebb and flood hydroponic system for chilis and tomatoes. Most of the chili plants moved there today. Now let's hope for warmer nights. Friday, April 20 View Page All seedlings have cots now and are under lights. There is a forecast of warm weather for the next week so I stick the plan and they most probably will transplanted as planned. I also acquired some small warmers and will set them in the hoop houses to avoid last year's sudden frost catastophe when I lost all the seedlings first night out. The hoop houses are raised now and should warm up the soil a bit with the sunny weather (??) to come. The spring is not here really yet. Monday, April 23 View Page All seedlings are pretty even in size, 1207 maybe a bit behind at this point. I got 1264 Kline and 1378 Pitura as backups and additions to my lineup. Some 5 days to go before transplanting them to hoop houses. Monday, April 23 View Page Hoop houses are ready but the scenery is still "brown", trees without leaves. According to the soil tests I had an overdose of about everything. Late auntum blended the soil with peat, which has made it a bit fluffy with high OM. And being still a bit wet decided to go without tilling to allow early start. Let's see where it leads this season. Monday, May 7 View Page Had some real problems with potting soil (I think). All went nicely to the point where the first true leaf was developing (just 2 days after the last photo of seedlings in my diary). At almost the same time all stalled and 1st leaves sort of dried and stopped growing. I transplanted them and found out that the root systems in all plants were really weak. The amount of fertilizers added to soil was too high. One should read the small text on the package. The main lineup is still alive growing slowly (partly due to the cold soil), but I have a new set of backups on the 1st leaf stage and I will transplant them 2 feet away from the original ones, then wait some 3 weeks and the stronger ones of the pairs will survice. What a lineup I had (I'm sorry guys), and again managed to mess up things. Second 1059 Vincent-McGill came up with 4 cots. Maybe that is a sign of better future. Never seen one like that before. Saturday, May 12 View Page From my backup lineup germinated in the beginning of May 1059 Vincent-McGill has 4 cots and 275 Van Hook threw a double first leaf. Something strange going on here.... Maybe I will double the fruit size as well? Monday, August 6 View Page After the initial drawbacks we have had a record cold spring and summer. Even in July day temperatures above 20 C (68 F) have been rare let alone the night temperatures. Lots of rain. Very late pollination close to mid July. Anyone growing 700 pounds in these regions without a heated green room, I salute you. The plants are really small because of the facts above, my 1059 Vincent-McGill is the only one even close to a decent pumpkin. Anyways the shape is perfect and the fruit beautiful. Saturday, August 18 View Page 1059 gaining some colour. Very symmetrical. No warm weather yet (and most likely will not come anymore) so I'm happy if it will get to 550 lbs. Now 39 D and about 300. Wednesday, September 12 View Page My only tomato is growing in an NFT (Nutrient Film Technology) type hydroponics system on the far end of the tube. There is a continuos flow of nutrient through the root system ( huge!), which is hanging partly in air to the bottom of the tube and getting lots of oxygen. I have not done almost anything with it other than contrilled the pH and EC. Now it is maxed to the limit with mostly K based fert, EC near 3. Unfortunately it is a jungle now as a result bad care. Some cucumbers and a Cape Gooseberry growing on the near end holes. Hydroponics in the hands of a person, who knows how to grow huge tomatoes, could produce records. Thats not me. Wednesday, September 12 View Page Here is the tomato estimated to weigh around 3 pounds at the moment. Still green and growing. This (if holds together) will be Estonian record. Very cold summer here, highest temperature around 25 centigrade and over 20 C days have been rare. Wednesday, September 12 View Page 1059 is beautiful and decent size, around 540 lbs. Some 15 days to go.... 650 would be nice. Considering this year's summer at least I have grown something. There is a warmer period (nights around 15 C, days not much higher than that) now, hope it keeps on growing. When it gets back to 10 C (even frosts in Finland this week) then there is not much happening at the patch. Monday, September 24 View Page Hopeful thinking with the tomato. Finally ended up with 2.47 lbs, so not even close to 3 like I tought. Ok for the first year with no attention. Next Saturday we have the weigh off here, rumour is that even though the summer has been coldest people remember, there may be a new Finnish record coming. Maybe the first 1000-pounder in this country......? 48 lbs of chili peppers out of which half is pretty hot C. chinense varieties, so I can live with that. In the picture a nice bucket of Naga Morich. Friday, September 28 View Page Got orange! This 1059 will be around 600 lbs tomorrow, I guess. With my luck another 2 pound improvement. It is going to take many years to 1000. Monday, October 1 View Page 608.9 Ollila 2012, Howard Dill Winner (1059 Vincent-McGill x self).2nd place in weight (bad year here). It is not so big but for sure orange, seeds will be available later. Third year within 6 lbs, but I guess this is by far the best. We had the worst summer ever, and my pb with a tiny margin. This is a beauty.