Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 449 Entries. Tuesday, January 1 View Page Happy 2013 All You BP'rs!!! Let it Begin!!! Tuesday, January 1 View Page Some FP grafts to AG rootstock. Can see that true leafs are starting to come out. All grafted plants have been hardened off and out of the healing chamber now sitting under 48" bulbs for a few days before going into 1 gallom containers. Tuesday, January 1 View Page All grafts at this point are simple FP scion/AG rootstock. Tuesday, January 1 View Page FP scion/AG rootstock, will get better at this as I go along. Whats realy important is to see haw this grafts hold up with growth when I start to fertilize here in two weeks. Tuesday, January 1 View Page This graft again is FP/AG center hole insertion type,(can I say that on here?) The cool thing with this one is that the scion will be a double. There is another fp scion down in there that will emerge here in a couple days. Going to see if having two leaf systems will put back more nutrients into the one kin. Both leaf systems are tied together and should transfer back to the root system as nornal as a single main vine system (Plant), I hope so since I truely believe more wheight gain is acheived thru foliar feeding..someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this extreme idea, lol. Tuesday, January 1 View Page That last pick is one of the AG rootstocks that I cut off at soil level leaving it with no roots. Left the AG rootstock lay in a tray for about 30 minutes to go limp, (can I say that on here too?), doing so helps with the insertion of a double scion with out the cracking and spliting at the grafting area, that's what she said. Hope this does work because just thinking about the possible outcome of more growth just does something......yah..adds more wheight to the kin.thats right. Tuesday, January 1 View Page Heres a good pic of a single Cot graft. FP/AG graft and you can see that the one cot leaf on the left will eventually fall off and there will be a good solid graft on thee underside. True leaf already coming up..good sign in my book. Tuesday, January 1 View Page Heres the first mess of grafts and future second graftees under the lights this mornin. Wednesday, January 2 View Page Started Sicilian Saucers Mega Blooms (20ea)*I grew last year*,The following thanks to Mr. John Ciesielski: Carbon (Purple) Heirlooms (10ea), Golden Queen yellows (10ea), Large Roma (20ea), and Snow fairy Dwarfs (10ea). Also My 2012 Big Boys (20ea), Bell Peppers (10ea), Sweat Peppers (20ea), Bannana Peppers (10ea). I'm the only Grower in my area that Truthfully grows "All Their OWN" Produce and not buy it and pass it on as such, lol. Wednesday, January 2 View Page At this point and I fully believe the numbers will hold..I've got 40 % success rate with the grafts..not bad for only my third time attempting this feat. 45 degree grafting seems at this point the easiest to contend with in healing. All the single cot and the one hole insert grafts took. Once the healing is down to a science for me personaly I will go for the best grafts which is the tongue graft. More area of contact is what you want. My daughter and I have started 180 Tomato plants and 54 peppers...thats just starting, lol. Friday, January 4 View Page Second round of grafting FP' over AG's yesterday 1/3/13 Friday, January 4 View Page This round cut off AG rootstocks at surface and layed them out for an hour to relax to keep them from splitting. Friday, January 4 View Page Heres an example of root growth after 5 days of an AG being cut off at the surface and stuck back in soiless strat. Friday, January 4 View Page Double FP scion on AG rootstock graft attempt. Friday, January 4 View Page A bit larger scions than what I would like but think they will do. Would prefer the scions to be 3mm. Friday, January 4 View Page More FP's over AG's ready to go to healing chamber for 7 days..see ya's!! Also I've come up with an eye dropper to take up some sulfer powder and shoot a light dusting of sulfer onto the grafted areas on some of the plants to see if it keeps down fusarium I have been experiencing. Will post more pics after they all have grown quite a bit in gallon containers to see what the grafts look like and how the growth seems to be. My next projects will be some tongue grafts but am waiting on my new grafting clips to get here. Getting tube (tomato style) and melon (Plastic/metal spring style) Friday, January 4 View Page Here is a very interesting methode of grafting that I'm actually going to try next even before the tongue method while waiting to get my other grafting clips in. This seems very simple and easier to manage the graft. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=enomhe_clJw Friday, January 4 View Page Here is the 671 J. Young 2012,(1308 Barenie x 1365 Singelton) my daughter and I want to beat our PB. We had so much fun growing this Kin last year so we are going to grow it again for 2013 in a different patch location. Sunday, January 6 View Page Here is a very nice Field Pumpkin scion grafted to an AG Rootstock in a 1 gal container. Have 5 of these this good and 3 others that are passable but not this solid. If I can do this on a regular basis I may have something interesting here. I've got another 12 AG's poping up tomorrow out of the substrate and will start another twelve FP's in the morning for a technic of inserting very young scions into early 7 day old AG's. Sunday, January 6 View Page Get aload of how big those COT leaves are on that last plant..hope thats a sign of things to come, lol. Sunday, January 6 View Page Kinda funny how this FP/AG graft is shooting out this way. This is one of the "Not so solid" plants. The COT leaves are so big they'er spliting. Wonder if this is normal when grafting. If it is it's news to me, lol. Monday, January 7 View Page I want to thank cornhusker for bringing to my attention that these or any plants for that matter, maxamize their nutrient intake thru foliar feeding. I read a U of Illinois discussion that stated Faster, not Maximum nutrient intake took place thru the foliar spraying programs of commercial growers. Meaning you can correct nutrient balance quicker through foliar spraying but it is not the primary influent of nutrients. Roots are the number one example of nutrient intake or influent of microb laced nutrients. I also (Carefully) read a U of Minnesota report that stated the same thing in a user friendlier way, (my level) lol. Thanks cornhusker for bringin me back up on the surface of reality, lol. We've got a bunch of good growers I must say!! Never Forget...Input equals Output. I'm always seeking what Not to Do more than what to do!!! Monday, January 7 View Page Heres a definition of someone who has been reading to long in one sitting. That last statement of foliar and Maximum foliar feeding is INCORRECT!!!!!!!!!!!! You get your Most Nutrients into your Pumpkin through the ROOTS!! There I said it correctly!!! I know most of you growers know this but I'm making sure that I'm not handing out bogus Info to New Growers..Hell..I'm handing this crap out to myself!! Now I go and sit in a corner, lol. Tuesday, January 8 View Page I hope I have the same problem this year. Tuesday, January 8 View Page love it. Tuesday, January 8 View Page This is why I don't grow indoors! Tuesday, January 8 View Page Crazy temps this week 1/7-1/13 Tuesday, January 8 View Page 144 various tomatoes comin on strong. Can't wait to see the Carbon Heirlooms (Purple). Tuesday, January 8 View Page Theres a Methode to the Madness x 10 Thursday, January 10 View Page Here's the stage of the plants I'm grafting this time. The AG's on the on the have got full cot leaves and the beginings of the true leaf. The FP's are just breaking soil at 4 days started..very young. I'm useing a very thin tapered x-acto blade medium. Thursday, January 10 View Page The scion is very young like I said but I want to see how well it developes leaves and vine being grafted at such an early stage. The seed halves were not yet off so I removed them. I'll make a very sharp cut to a point, turn the FP scion 90 degrees and make another very tapered cut, insert it into the center hole making sure I put the cut side down. I'll carefully cut out the AG rootstock leaving the AG Cots in place. Thursday, January 10 View Page Here is the first AG with a FP scion inserted, waited about five minutes attempted to lightly pull it out and boy is it stuck..very good sign that it should take. Always misting the plant thru the process. Thursday, January 10 View Page Here are both FP's over AG's, both solid. Sorry for the blurred pic, I knocked my camera off the island and it didn't bounce very high..OUCH!!! I've got two more sets of these to do this evening and as soon as I get a set done of course I get them in the healing chamber. NOTE: I went to the seed store and bought up some grey watermelons seeds and am germing them as I type to be used for some double scion watermelon grafts in a few days...wish me luck, lol.I'll post pics of these on how they are doing if anybody out there is so bored as to be watching these posts, lol. Friday, January 11 View Page Heres another good looking FP/AG Graft..Notice the little female flower, lol. This type of graft is growing exactly how it should, evenly Friday, January 11 View Page Got my new grafting clips for tongue and one cot grafting in today!!! Perfect timing as I will me doing the Tongue and one cot leaf grafts around Sat-Sun with watermelon scion/AG rootstock. Friday, January 11 View Page Gunna be run out of house and home with plants before long. These are the first set of Tomato plants. Friday, January 11 View Page Just realized...Tell me this doesn't look like the start of "Little Shop of Horrors", lol!!! Friday, January 11 View Page These are same set of grafts I took pictures of as they were grafted yesterday evening. I pulled these guys from the healing chamber because the AG rootstocks had grown nearly twice as long over night. Thought I would go ahead and pull them out and stick them under some light so the FP cots can green up a bit but still constantly misting them. They look very healthy and I believe they will take just fine doing it this way. Saturday, January 12 View Page Put thee above FP/AG grafts in 1/2 Gal containers 1/12/13 because the roots are shooting out of the soil. Nice aggressive growth with these three sets of plants. Saturday, January 12 View Page Here is a double FP scion/AG rootstock I did late yesterday after getting the new clips in. Took it out of the healing chamber for a quick shoot with the camera, sorry for the poor focus. I am going to remove the AG Cot leaves on this one. Saturday, January 12 View Page Same Double FP / AG graft with AG Cot leaves removed. Put back into healing chamber for a few more days, heck might even remove it tomorrow if I'v got some sun shinin around here. I fully believe it will take and I made sure the positioning of the stems are in the correct fashion so it is a perfect match as far as nutrients returning from and too the roots and leaves and back to the Kin is as close to 100% as possible no matter what main is used in these set ups. I have never claimed to be an expert at this grafting Hoopla but I do believe one can obtain some pretty significant boost in growth by just simply strappin on another feed bag of nutrient intack on these Pumpkin Plants via an addition introduction of another feeding tube because lets face it a true conductive graft of an additional main vine will do just that........add twice thee amount of nutrients to the one fruit that is on the combined set-up. I have read and read and read and still cannot find any Info on how this set up would do anything but additionaly feed the Kin. Wow, I typed all that on one breath, lol. I may change my user name to "Wingin It". Will post more pics of this plant in the near future for records sake. I'm going to hate throwing these plants out when the time comes, lol. Saturday, January 12 View Page Forgot to mention on that last post: All three channels whithin the plant have good contact with useing the tongue graft method. Thats why I believe this technique is the best (More contact) = more fluid transfer..can I say that on here? Wednesday, January 16 View Page This is one of the FP/AG graft that was done in December. Man I wish there was someone close to me with a greenhouse cranked up for this one. It really should be in the ground, lol. You can see the graft is growing very good and look how much bigger the trunk of the upper FP is versus the rootstock of the AG..pretty cool. Too bad I don't have a greenhouse..next season I'm hoping too. Wednesday, January 16 View Page Another set of grafts getting ready for the healing chamber. These again are the FP scion / AG rootsock using the one Cot leaf method, seems to work pretty good for me. Also the smaller ones on the right of the pic are Watermelon(wal-mart test seed) scion over AG rootstock. Will know by morning if they take..I think they will except, one is wilting already and the rest are firm. Wednesday, January 16 View Page Close up of one of the FP/AG grafts. Funny lookin with the long FP Cot leaf and the short fat AG Cot leaf. These ought to do very well. C'mon Springtime!!! Thursday, January 17 View Page Carolina Cross scion/AG rootsock center hole method and FP/AG one cot methods are back in the ICU out of the healing chamber. I am having good success not leaving them in there for the seven days. They seem to be hardening off just fine if I keep them misted and under light. I also noticed the other day on a heating unit website that their induction heaters I think it was had a foil on the back of there elements so I took this idea and took out my 48" grow bulbs laid the lights on their backs and put alum foil down them shiny side out and wow are these lights bright. Other growers may want to do this when time comes or its a good winter project to do now. I've noticed I don't have to have the lights at that 1" mark from the plants now. Look close in these pics and you can see the CC's centered in the rootstock versus the one cot grafts. Thursday, January 17 View Page Another angle. If you look close to your left of the picture you can see one of the CC/AG plants. Thursday, January 17 View Page The yellow and brown marks on the Cot leaves are where with light deprivation in the healing chamber (total Darkness for 24 hrs) the plants grew upwards fast and layed against the heating elements, OUCH!! Thursday, January 17 View Page Just one simple request Shazzy, "Can you see if they can expand the parking lot a bit this year up at Bengston's?" Sunday, January 20 View Page OK...Like Ricky told Lucy.."You gotsum splainin to do! I've done a couple of these three way grafts already and yes believe it or not they take, lol. But I got wondering, (Lightbulb over the head) , I remembered the old stalk of celery and food coloring in 5th grade science class. This one, After it matures a week or two I'm going to put the roots of the outside two in red food coloring and if the roots along with the stems &leaves of the middle AG turn red...Bamm I'll have a setup that will feed off of all three plants and put back the juice into a single Kin, Theory wise that is. You can achieve this intertwineing via a tongue graft and thats what we have here if I'm not mistakin. Again, why do this....because I can, lol. I've got some more watermelon seeds germing to put one melon plant between two squash roostocks, lol. You don't know until you try I always say!! Sunday, January 20 View Page Closer view of thee insanity. Sunday, January 20 View Page Want to thank John Ciesielski again for all the tomato seeds. I will in fact be over run come april because I have got five flats like these lol. That Kin plant is a 5 day old center hole FP/AG graft that I did with a drill bit and two 90 cuts on the scion fp and dabbed a bit with tree pruning sealer, no healing chamber just misted on and off. The plant never wilted once and has started to put out the first true leaf, lol. Monday, January 21 View Page Tomato plants in the guest bedroom window.. are a nice addition.......please tell me I didn't just sound like Martha Stewart, lol. Put them there Doggone Mater Plants in them there Bloomin Winders of the Dadgum catchall..lol. I don't think Martha would approve of me deck screwin pieces of 1/4" plywood in the sill boarders! Friday, January 25 View Page Just from meeting George and Shazzy this last year I know they have worked hard to get ready for the ******IGPGA****** Live Auction this coming Saturday the 26th..your side swaggled Crazy if you don't attend on BP.com Live Chat. Look at the lots and you'll see this a Jaw Dropping Selection of seeds to Bid on. I had to turn George J. down on helping posting the results because I'm headed to the Hospital for a couple proceedures today..alls good. I'm missing out on this don't you!!! Maybe I can talk some Pretty Nurse out of a laptop while I'm in this weekend, lol. Also I'm backing off on my diary entries for awhile. The grafting is going good and again, not trying to set standards here just having fun for me, isn't that what its all about..so those of you out there with less than enthuseastic emails to me on the grafting subject..I'm goin underground...WHAA HAA HAA HAA. Probably will post my season close to nill and wait until their all grown up, lol, keep ya's wonderin. Will have a 40ft x 28ft screen house up by march. Again hate wishin my life away but, C'MON SPRING!!! Here's one last crazy thing I'm trying..going to see if I can keep a few of the strongest FP/AG Grafted plants going by trimming it back until april 1st and then set it in the ground..may fail big time but it'll be intresting to see how big the trunk will get, but more so the FP !!! Curious to see if the life span of the plant will hang in there. The growth rate can be held back to a point with reduction of light but keeping the nutrients up above par. I've got them on timed lights and in the process of mini misters so suffice them. I've held a couple of squash plants over before all winter with success just for kicks so we'll see, lol. Remember what Gen Custer said when he crested that ridge and turned to his troops,.... "All Right"!!!,... "I TOLD YOU, OFFER A PEACE PIPE, NOT A CRACK PIPE"!!! Sunday, February 17 View Page This flower with it being 19 degrees out was a nice suprise this morning. This is one of the AG/FP grafted plants I've still got growing. I've cut the main back twice now and so far it grows back bigger round each time. There are still plenty of other secondaries coming off so as long as I can I'll keep it going until I can put it outside in a cold frame come March and or April. Sunday, February 17 View Page Nice to see and smell in Febuary!! Monday, February 18 View Page I want to again Thank All of You for your Prayers and Well Wishes for my daughter Paytyn. We're off to Childrens Hospital in Peoria in the morning..I'll keep you posted. Joseph Sunday, February 24 View Page The first female on one of the AG/FP grafted plants. Sunday, February 24 View Page AG/FP grafted plant with the first female kin comin on. Its funny how I've got this thing to hang on to itself so It can be moved in the house..(for now)...Again Wish I had someone close to me who wanted this plant in their heated Greenhouse, it seems very aggressive. Trying to maintain it till the end of March indoors,lol. Friday, March 1 View Page OK...Somebody tell me whats going on here. This is the first female on one of the Field Pumpkin scion grafted to an AG rootstock. I have never seen a "Yellow" fruit on a Field Pumpkin vine before. I believe it is impossible for any traits of Atlantic Dill coming through via grafting with the rootstock being Atlantic Dill...If anyone has anything to the contrary as proof otherwise please let me know...Kinda wonder what in the world I've got growing on here, lol. Thanks for any and I mean,,"ANY"..input!! Friday, March 1 View Page Another view of the yellow Fieldpumkin Female, lol..or should I say another pic of the mess, lol. Friday, March 1 View Page Our cat sam tryin to warm up to some of the tomato plants. Friday, March 1 View Page Nice suprise in the mail today!!! Thanks Mark & Mr. Sweet oh yes and Marks grand baby who picked em!!! Friday, March 1 View Page Walked around the corner of the house lookin for the cat and seen this Bald Eagle across the road from us.....went back int the house to get the camera and found out what he was lookin over his back at on our front porch....See next pick below: Friday, March 1 View Page Had a talk with the cat.........told him not to bask in the sun lookin like road kill.....not good for your health!! lol Eagle finally flew off, lol. Friday, March 1 View Page Thought I would let ya'll know Paytyn is doing well. She has not yet had to have any surgeries as of yet..lots of visits and imagery..she didn't like having the air bubbles injected through an I V OUCH, Very painful...thought she was going to break my fingers cause she was squeezing so hard...took her mind off the pain because she could watch the bubbles enter her heart on the moniter...crazy technology..my little baby..I feel so bad for her right now. She like all kids are tougher than us adults I think, lol. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Theres way too much to list on here whats going on this end but heres a Huge bit of good news on one part..thee original diagnosis of a Ventricular Anyruism was found to be not as severe but she does has a rather large anyruism between the wall that seperates the two halves of the heart (4 chambers)...shes going to be OK with treatment. That is very good news where trouble still bares watching and is a mystery is the rapid deformity (large) bone growth that is seperating the lung wall and cavity area to the heart..forgive my less than knowledgable discription. Thanks to all and I mean All of you who has had contact with me about Paytyn. Thanks again to Mike Aasman for purchasing the 1650.8 Sproule seed. Please let me know you received it and in good condition. Words aren't enough to you All. Joseph Friday, March 1 View Page That pic of Paytyn in front of our barn is 3 yrs old...Barn has been tore down simce last year. Love this Pic. It was 14 degrees with a 20 mph wind..burrrr Saturday, March 2 View Page Property layout with the patches. Original Patches are outlined in blue and our new added Patch is outlined in yellow 70'x 110' another 7,700 sq ft patch for Field kins and Carolina Cross & Maters. I hope we have enough time! Saturday, March 2 View Page The East Patch, Feb 27th 2012 Saturday, March 2 View Page The East Patch, March 2nd 2013 Sunday, March 3 View Page I don't quite know how but I got the one Grafted Plant that is 7 1/2' long to the basement without breaking it and hurting the bloom that is on it. This will be an interesting experiment to see what if anything will transpire from this plant. Got all lights hung but 2 sigle growers with the plastic canopy attached and supported. The whole thing is 10' x 6' and is 3 ' off the floor on a 10' x 6' metal fab layout table. It is 64 degrees in the basement but I opened a few heat vents down there also got a "Vicks" vaporizer unit under the plastic for some warmth and humidity..I'll have to watch the humidity but I like how the vaporizer puts out co2 when I add plain seltzer water too it (The plants will absorbe it positively. I added some 0-25-50 yesterday and this morning add some Great White to the root nodles and the main grow pot. I am bearing the tap roots in some old transit windows filled with potting soil and peet. Sunday, March 3 View Page If it looks like a mess thats because it is, lol. It may not appear bright enough but believe me it is. These are the same lights I use to grow seedlings with the foil backed grow bulbs..I can't get the camera to flash because of them. Temp inside the plastic started at 64 degrees..15 minutes later its 75 degrees :) Sunday, March 3 View Page This bloom will be opened in a few days and there are about 4 males that should be open too. I have to remember I'm just keeping the plant itself alive until I can put it out in a cold frame in april or set it out in may. Sunday, March 3 View Page The graft on this plant is typical. Nice and even with no lateral gates in it to open up later as size increases..IHOPE, lol. (One Cot leaf graft style) Sunday, March 3 View Page Here is this plant about a week after grafting took place. The burn mark on the scion was from the heating coils of the egg incubator I used in the healing chamber I built. I kept the field pumpkin plants in there a day or two longer to get leggy with the light deprivation and boy did they. I like having longer stem plants that are going to be used for scions in case I want to use them for tongue grafting. There has been some question of whether or not I might have mixed up the AG scions with the FP scions (It doesn't hurt to question anything I do, lol) but I know for several reasons that in fact this is a true field pumpkin scion and not an AG especialy because all the fp's were allowed to grow longer and they all had burnt co leaves. In the end If I'm wrong you bet I will admit it..Photo's won't lie, lol. I also called my buddy where I bought the field Pumpkins from and he told me yes, he also noticed how some of the new kin blooms had yellow kins on them but in a week or so turned green like traditional fp's and squash. Sunday, March 3 View Page Doctors say let your kid do what she would normaly be doing......and heres the result,lol. I let her work on it a little at a time. We have a family thats going to lease it out until it melts, lol about a one week lease.... Sunday, March 3 View Page no ....you can't sleep out in it! Tuesday, March 5 View Page Put a 5" recirc fan on low in the top of the mini kin dome in the basement to bring the warm air from the top down and to move some air around. You have to look close to see it. Bloom is opening this morning, put a lamp closer to the best looking male trying to get it to open abit sooner..yah right! Tuesday, March 5 View Page Boy that sure looks like an AG Bloom..How the &^*(%$# did that happen. I'll swear up and down there is no way I could have grafted an AG scion on an AG rootstock..In my book it's easier to not mix them up but OH WELL! Like I posted earlier..pics don't lie. lol Tuesday, March 5 View Page AARG!!! Tuesday, March 5 View Page Pic thru the Plastic Tuesday, March 5 View Page Man if this don't make you want to be outside plantin, lol. A nice 5 lober opening up. What I now call the screwed-up Grafted AG, lol. A learning experience I'll chalk it up to. Tuesday, March 5 View Page Note to self: When using a compressed air aersol can for pollinating (The type you use on small electronics for cleaning) be careful how much you push down on the hammer to keep from exploding your flower, lol. Seems to not have harmed the lobes and definetly covered the lobes with pollin. got luky and had one male flower opening at the same time this morning....the fun continues. Tuesday, March 5 View Page OOPS!! You might feel a little pressure.... Wednesday, March 6 View Page I don't know if you all have noticed Black Pepper prices at the stores and if all goes well I won't be paying attention to them anymore,lol. These will grow to 10' vertical vines and be loaded with peppercorns to grind. You can grow them in pots and trim them back during the winter months and keep 'em by a window and they'll do just fine till spring and you can set them out again. They will still put out peppers all winter long they say but more in the heat of summer. Wednesday, March 6 View Page Started some Field Pumpkin, Watermelon and AG seeds this mornin for grafting...this time I'll be sure to keep my mind on what I'm doing..thats the plan anyway. Friday, March 8 View Page Made up (9), 1/2 pints of Strawberry Jam from Strawberries out of our patch last year via the freezer. Thats the last of 'em. Next Tomato Preserves, mmm, mmm. I've still got 70+ pounds of maters in the freezer from last yr. lol Friday, March 8 View Page Some Sicilian Plants. C'mon Spring..these are getting blooms on. Friday, March 8 View Page a Few Purple Carbons, Snow Fairys, Golden Queens and Sicilians Friday, March 8 View Page Beef Steak Blooms. 20 of these were all put in 1/2 gal. containers last night. Friday, March 8 View Page This is what I woud pick in a morning last year with 36 Sicilian, Beef Steak and Better Boy plants. After giving a bunch away last week I've got 112 Plants left to put out for us. I think I need more card tables for the Markets, lol. Friday, March 8 View Page Ooops, Pic goes with Info above. Note to self: Get out in garden earlier to pick Tomatoes. Friday, March 8 View Page OK? Pics stopped showing up..Hmmmmm Friday, March 8 View Page Test Friday, March 8 View Page Pic above is what I would pic every mornin last summer for the farmers markets and that was again with only 36 plants, this year we've got 112 plants. Thursday, March 14 View Page Hello there little guy!!..It's about time you showed up!! LOL. Good to see Spring is getting Near Thursday, March 14 View Page Put a few Maters and peppers out on the front porch this afternoon. 60 outside tomorrow supposed to get to 67-68 Wednesday, March 20 View Page Took me no time to get my Grow Lights set up! SEQUENCE_TABLE_ID = "DEQ_10" /*** TARGET PARAMETERS: Position , Velocity ***/ SC_TARGET_POSITION_VECTOR = ( -2095.4, 461.0, -1302.4) SC_TARGET_VELOCITY_VECTOR = ( 0.4730, 0.6368, -1.3571) TARGET_CENTER_DISTANCE = 2509.9 /*** TARGET WITHIN SENSOR FOV: Angles in ***/ SLANT_DISTANCE = 772.5 CENTER_LATITUDE = 34.58 SMEAR_MAGNITUDE = 0.04 RETICLE_POINT_LATITUDE = ( 33.38, 35.83, 35.76, 33.32) /*** Grow Bulb POSITION WITH RESPECT TO CENTRAL BODY of Pumpkin Plant ***/ SUB_Grow Bulb_LATITUDE = 34.56 SUB_Grow Bulb_LONGITUDE = 193.40 /*** VIEWING AND LIGHTING GEOMETRY (Bulbs) ON TARGET) ***/ SOLAR (simulated)_DISTANCE = 148263473.5 INCIDENCE_ANGLE = 34.90 PHASE_ANGLE = 34.83 /*** LIGHTING GEOMETRY FROM SECONDARY SOURCE (Sunlight through West Windows) ***/ LIGHT_SOURCE_NAME = Dual Blue/Red Spectrum Growth Full W/ Variance Bulbs END_OBJECT OBJECT = Pumpkin Plant (Dill Atlantic Giant) LINES = 32 LINE_SAMPLES = 32 SAMPLING_FACTOR = 8 SAMPLE_TYPE = UNSIGNED_INTEGER SAMPLE_BITS = 8 END_OBJECT OBJECT = IMAGE = BIG - FREAKISH ENCODING_TYPE = "CLEM-JPEG-1" ENCODING_COMPRESSION_RATIO = 2.49 LINES = 256 LINE_SAMPLES = 256 SAMPLE_TYPE = UNSIGNED_INTEGER SAMPLE_BITS = 8 MAXIMUM = 255 MINIMUM = 6 MEAN = 107.423 STANDARD_DEVIATION = 15.728 CHECKSUM = 378645223with respect to LGSC = Grow light needs to be moved just a little to the Right = Move Bulbs Back to the left .04687213000 DEG = Stop = Placement Satisfied in relation to pix angle down Bulb = diffusion = Grow Pumpkin END_OBJECT END Damn = forgot to turn on switch before climbing basement stairs = will doit = Later = True End Thursday, March 21 View Page Turned in manure, a winters long supply of composted coffee grounds, eggshells, tea bags and veggie scraps. put nearly 1000 lbs of regular yard compost on this north patch alone and will put about the same on the other two patches. Smelled good turning it all in. Thursday, March 21 View Page East Patched turned in great. The rest of the compost on the far end will go onto the new patch to the west side of the property after all three fenced areas are pulled up. Thursday, March 21 View Page West side Patch area to be cleaned up and turned in, tilled and compost introduced and chiseled. Thursday, March 21 View Page The Beast of a tiller that didn't sell at our sale awhile back. Runs great, but needs a rear gaurd put on. I picked this Roto Hoe up for $18.00 scrap price at the local scrap yard last fall, put an engine on it I had on the shelf that ran good and whalla...No one at our sale would make me an offer..Nothin. Probably because the way its missing the gaurds but thats an easy fix..OH Well I'll use it, lol. By the way, Why does a tiller need 4 gears? Next Pic Thursday, March 21 View Page Four Speeds, lol. I guess for different soil conditions and your able to really break the soil down finer. Friday, March 22 View Page Not a real big Tomato c'mon on but pretty nice Friday, March 22 View Page A better mega bloom..I should have pinched these guys back but I've kept a few on just because. About 35 ta 40 of the plants are now 35" tall in 1/2 gallon pots...Yikes!! Friday, March 22 View Page Reason number 597,632 why I wish I had a heated greehouse Saturday, March 23 View Page Have been pickin sweet peppers all winter, very nice Saturday, March 23 View Page mmm, mmm! Saturday, March 23 View Page Ground Hog making a break for it!! Saturday, March 23 View Page OK...Here is a Male Flower on another grafted field pumpkin scion to an AG rootstock. I think I have hit another high on the WIERDO METER on my grafting evolutions. If someone has had a bloom "JUST LIKE" this one let me know....Can't wait to see what a Female Flower off this plant looks like I may have one on this plant in a couple weeks...LOL Saturday, March 23 View Page I'm still lookin at this flower wondering who drug who to the wood shed, lol. Its like another bloom coming from the stamin...I can just hear the introduction...Nancy, Tom...Tom, Nancy, Tom, Nancy, Nancy, Tom...and so on and so on and so forth,lol. yes I just grabed those names out of thin air..lol Saturday, March 23 View Page Here is a song that goes perfect with the flowering pic above...Its Natures Way by Spirit...OH Ya you are welcome to burn some inscense while listening... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YSl-3Z84zQ Sunday, March 24 View Page North Patch this morning with the snow......Again. Whatya do if you can't work the Patch? Throw some coffee cakes together from scratch and put on another pot of , lol. Sunday, March 24 View Page Smells good in the house this mornin Sunday, March 24 View Page Now thats real Texas Coffee Cake! Monday, March 25 View Page Here is a Kids story out of , "Highlights" October 2011 my daughter found. Look real close at the name of who wrote the story...Hmmm... Wednesday, March 27 View Page Another weird male bloom on the same AG rootstock/FP scion. Have not had a female show up yet but can't wait to see what it looks like. Wednesday, March 27 View Page Different angle Thursday, March 28 View Page Another female on a grafted plant. Appears to be greener this time but its still early. Thursday, March 28 View Page This particular plant has been cut back three times now. You can see a couple males that I hope I can use to pollinate that female in the prior pic. You can also see how well the graft on this one is doing. Grafted this one I think back in Dec. Thursday, March 28 View Page Hole in the head project. It's only 36'x28'. Going to be a screenhouse for a single AG plant. Still have to get the double ridge put up and frame the end walls w/ one door. Runs East ta West. Thursday, March 28 View Page Has 36" side walls and is 10 ft at center. Had the boards left over from a building I had tore down and a couple buddies dropped of the pipes and screen material. Man what a suprise. What can you do besides put it up. Its taken me a long time just to get it this far don't know if it'll be done by May-June. I used 6' T-posts to anchor the sides down, Thank Goodness for front loaders to push the posts in. Saturday, March 30 View Page Slowly but surely got the center ridge poles up now for bracing them. Used the truck in the pic just to see size comparison. Plenty of room for the tractor to turn around in even with the cultivator on the back. Saturday, March 30 View Page Plenty big enough for 1 Plant, maybe even a Melon Plant too, naaaaahhhh probably not, lol. A couple of melons will be put in outside of the screenhouse to the left of it. Tuesday, April 2 View Page Pollinated this guy a bit ago x self. Tuesday, April 2 View Page Heres the fruit on this kin. Tuesday, April 2 View Page Nobody warned me about the "Hair Loss" associated with putting one of these things together. Makes me think Handyhomegrown wears a rug, Just kidding Mark, lol. This is turning out to be quite a task for me. Slowly but surely I'll have all my hair pulled out, lol. Tuesday, April 2 View Page Hope to have the far east end wall screened by weekend then I can do dirt work and amendments then put the other end screen up then hang the irrigation down the center. I'm running inverted lawn 360 pop head misters with a 15 pound loaded backflow prevention valve so my tanks wont siphon but the pump will break the spring pressure to water. They will spray upside down under the Kins Leafcanopy about 14 inches of the ground. The foliar mister will be on a seperate control valve that feeds from Tea brewers in the chicken coop behind the screanhouse. Pumps and all out of the weather and the sun..sorta like a pool room pump and filter station setup. Thursday, April 4 View Page Sister called me yesterday evening and gave me a number to a guy who was giving free horse poop away........called and three loads like this later...whalla. One load is broak down enough to use this season. The crazy thing is he is less than 5 miles from me and has a loader..too cool. I am sooo Thankful. Thursday, April 4 View Page )-; Broke Down :-) Saturday, April 6 View Page Got the screenhouse and dirt work finished and still have a little hair left, lol. Have got bad storms predicted for next week so should be a good preseason test..fingers crossed. Saturday, April 6 View Page With 36" side walls, there will be plenty of room for plant growth. I also am able to put the cultivator right up next to the edge and still have about 5 feet of head room sittin on the tractor. I made my own material clips from the next size up pipe so when time comes to get the tractor back in just pop up the cips and remove eight screws at the bottom. After this season I will have the end walls sewn onto the top..all one piece. Saturday, April 6 View Page Closer pic of the screen material. Heavy duty rowcrop insect smartnet. Saturday, April 6 View Page Heres another pic of the fruit off the FP/AG grafted plant. The stem is turning a darker green and is getting the squared look to it like a field pumpkin should. Also the last male flowers have all been normal and not wierd like in the past pics....Hmmmmmmm.. Monday, April 8 View Page AG and Watermelon seeds 24 hrs out of the germ chamber/papertowel ziplocs. I hull them prior to putting them in. Ready for seed starter soil pots this mornin. You can really see which ones are more aggressive at such an early stage this way. Wednesday, April 10 View Page AG line-up for 2013: 1451 est Scherber 2011 (cojoe beast) 1725 Harp x 1725 Sweet Clone, 1248 Sundstrom 08 1121 Bobier x 1402 Bobier, 1509 PSweet 2012 1107 PSweet x 1789 Wallace, Daughter has decided on growing the 596 Ciesielski 08 772 Poirier x 588 DYoung Big n Orange and some green, 711 Chenier 2012 squash 1002 Jarvis x 1037. Jarvis Wednesday, April 10 View Page Melon Line-up for 2013: 165 Cantrell '10 209 Kent '09 x 225 Bright '09, 177 Delaney '12 239 Leonard x self, 207 Cantrell '11 35 Kent '10 x 191 Carson. Sunday, April 21 View Page Evidence our old Tom cat Sam is still gettin him a little Tail, lol. The robin is still pullin worms and hangin around. Will be curious to see if the feathers fill back in..will watch. Wednesday, April 24 View Page Found I had some kind of contaminant in my potting soil, threw it all out and started over. Problem solved. I've been grafting again with great gains and better, more user friendly methods. Above pic is a very small bunch od germs since I've had the germing problem. Wednesday, April 24 View Page For the Growz'em Big section in the Wildlife arena. Here is an elephant I saw last week live on Africam.com. You can freeze a pic and save it as if you were on a safari with their wild life cam. The elephants are in rut over there right now and all around this guy smaller ones were battlin it out....not once did any of them challenge this guy why I was watching. He is so much larger than what this pic really shows..truly amazing length on his tusks..just thought some of you may enjoy this bad boy. My daughter loves in the morning to put this web site up and watch in real time the late evening goings on with different animals over there on the African plains..very cool web site. You never know what you'll see take place. Wednesday, April 24 View Page Melon Grafting, in particular this is a 207 Cantrell'11 scion to a White Giant Cush Squash rootstock. I did 4 of these particular ones. Somethin funny I did last week was graft a 144 Cantrell scion 4 ft down a field kin main vine...yes it's growing, lol. Time will tell, used a simple trick I picked up from John Ciesielski (drill Bit method) so you all can blame him if this plant takes over the world BWWWAHAHAHA. Like I said in a past posting..I've got some crazy stuff growing here...ALL UNDER CONTROL AND BEHIND LEAD DOORS OF COURSE!!lol. Man this stuff is fun. OH YA..Sand Bags are in place..and I aint talkin about the river, lol. Sunday, April 28 View Page Germination problems have been solved...Too Hot of a soil temp along with TOO MUCM HUMIDITY..didn't think it was possible until I realized the heat enhanced thee humidity levels via the available moisture in the lower pans I was providing just like real world enviromental evaporation off of lakes and general bodies of water..DUH again on my part, but its corrected and thats what matters so......these are 80 cucumber starts for the farmers market and I have 180 Carolina Cross seedlings germing for the markets as I type (Burpee says they will produce 200+ pounders readibly)..we'll see about that. I am going to selest a couple of these plants for growing big to see what I can get for wieght out of em. Sunday, April 28 View Page I like this 1248 Sundstrom plant. It's the youngest plant but the biggest. Sunday, April 28 View Page Here is my daughter and I's 2013 line-up hence losing all the prior seeds to dumbarsness disease. 1248 Sundstrom'08(1121 Bobier x 1402 Bobier), 596 White(Tom), (1462 Holland x 1277.5 Holland, 30% HVY), 1313 Matesa'12 (1495 Stelts x 1404 Bryson), 1149 Preis'12 (1331 Preis'08 x 1647 Wallace'11, 8.3 % Hvy), 1379.5 Banman'11(1489 Kline x 1121.6 Raflant), Daughter is growing the 596 Ciesielski'08 (772 Poirier x 588 D. Young). Melons(NON-GRAFTED): 207 Cantrell (35 Kent'10 x 191 Carson'91), 165 Cantrell (209 Kent'09 x 225 Bright'09), 161.5 PSweet (291 Kent'10 x 282.2 Dawson'2011. Melon Grafted: 596 T.White 30% HVY AG Rootstock/190.5 English Melon scion, 596 T.White 30% HVY AG rootstock/144 Cantrell'11 scion, 1143 Singelton'10 (1596 Wallace'09 x 1288 Wallace'08 rootstock/161.5 PSweet scion, 525 Puricelli'11 AG rootstock/161.5 PSweet'12 scion. Sunday, April 28 View Page Forgot to add to last post, Jeff Warner's 121.5 Pear Gourd Rootstock/207 Cantrell scion (two of these plants will be grown). FIELD KINS are as follows, Non Grafted: 125.5 PSweet '12 (150.5 Razo'11 x Open, 94 Lyons'12 (81 Wolf x Self), 89 Pound Fat Boy FP x Open '12 (Bought this Field Kin off a friend last season, Was a Huge Green square stemed Kin)nearly 42" tall thin walled, fed right this could be big. GRAFTED FIELD PUMPKINS: 596 T. White 30% HVY AG rootstock/89 lb Fat Boy FP'12 FP scion, 1143 Singelton'10(1596 Wallace x 1288 Wallace'08)AG rootstock/125.5 PSweet'12 FP scion, 1187 Johnson'12(1059 Vincent/McGill x Self)AG rootstock/125.5 PSweet FP scion, 1172 Singelton'09 (1385 Jutras'07 x Self Double Rootstock Tongue Grafted/89 lb.Fat Boy'12 FP scion. This plant may just shoot the kins right off the vine itself, sort of a punkin chunker in one, lol.Gowem-n-Blowem. It'll be an interesting year. Sunday, April 28 View Page My one wierd grafted AG/AG Plant is a single cot method grafted 1568 Connolly'08 DMG(1566 Rodonis'07 x 1689 Jutras'07)rootstock/1172 Singleton'09(1385 Jutras'07 x Self)scion. OK there's one more that is sandbagged, with all the rain & flooding around here I thought it should be. I will say the scion is an '06 AG ;.) Sunday, April 28 View Page This is the best and simplest way personaly I have found to heal grafts. A quick stop plastic drink cup w/ bottom cut off turned upside down and a plastic jelly, mayo, peanutbutter, whatever bottle turned uside down for the top. I mist the plant right after grafting place the cup, mist a bit in the clear plastic bottle and place over the cup. I set these over a low heat source or in my germ chamber if theres room at the time, "NOT IN A SUNNY WINDOW". I've tested the leggy plants since November and I am getting extra roots off the stems when buring them and thats a plus in my book. I pay close attention to the leaf growth of the scion, when the leaf growth has doubled I pretty much know it's healed no matter how long it's been covered..sort of a rule of thumb I've come up with over the how many days they take to heal method for me. This particular plant is one of the two Jeff Warner 121.5 Pear Gourd rootstock/144 Cantrell's that I just decided a couple days ago to combine. Remember..nothing is written in stone......except your divorce papers,lol. Tuesday, April 30 View Page ******CAUTION******If you have a weak stomach please, TURN AWAY NOW and tell the kids to LOOK AWAY!!! This is the rear differential in my Yanmar..you can't see the smaller output gear that drives the hub...the gear is totally stripped of teeth. The big gear you can see is the right Reduction gear before the Output Shaft to the hub. I even pulled out thee original dip stick that must have been lost from the previous owner....thanks for letting me know,lol. It will take more time than money to get her back in the patch via a complete tear down of the tranny assembly. OK If you looked I recommend using Peptobismol, it worked for me and counslers will be available as soon as they are counseled from looking at this set of pics. Wednesday, May 1 View Page Kin plants out in the west mud room. They go in the ground this comin friday. One new addition is the 1143 Singelton'10 (1596 Wallace'09 x 1288 Wallace'08) I think this is a potential Giant. 645 PSweet squash is also comin along good. This plant is hooked up to milli volts for stimulation. The fastest grower I have at this point in the game..Massive root system. It still won't say where Hoffa is, lol. Friday, May 3 View Page I'm gunna sign up for the "Hand me another Ale Program" after this one's over Friday, May 3 View Page had a Parts dealer in Alabama tell me it's virtually impossible to destroy a Bull gear in one of these John Deere/Yanmar tractors...I sent him this pic,........his return email read as follows; "I stand corrected, it is possible",lol. Monday, May 6 View Page 1248 Sundstrom, 596 Ciesielski(Big n Orange), 596 T.White and 1143 Singelton all in the ground. 1248 Sundstrom has Thee Honor of being the First AG in the Screenhouse. I've also got 24 Brocolli plants and 1 Sicilian Saucer Mega Plant in the screenhouse. No butterflys laying eggs on my broccoli this year and having to pick worms for hours on end. Grafted melons and non-grafted melons doing very well. Should be a wild season..hope to give those veteran melon growers a run this rookie melon season. I believe I just may. Field Pumpkin Scientific Freaks are doing well also..maybe too well WHA HA HA HA!!!.......OK time will tell. Plants appear very strong. Found a snack this morning also..I think they'er startin to pop here finally Wednesday, May 8 View Page Maters are doin good Wednesday, May 8 View Page Non Pumpkin related but man were these good...I yesterday for supper I made Yellow morels stuffed with provalone, wrapped with ham, double beer/egg battered. Shouldn't be legal!!! and yes you can still taste the morel, lol. Wednesday, May 8 View Page Mega bloom tomato comin on...Weird shaped..Has two balls and one strike, maybe this one will be out of the park!! Wednesday, May 8 View Page Tilled in 1800 pounds of sand, Borax, Epsom salt, kelp meal and some Mole's asses or is that Molasses in the screen house today. Had some good help. Copied Mark Clementz idea on elevated walkways for the vines to go under..Thanks Mark!! 1248 Sundstrom is very much at home in the screen house. Yesterday gave all the kins humic and soil blast injections are on the menu for tomorrow, yum, yum. Wednesday, May 8 View Page Wonder if we'll have apples this year, lol. The Peach Trees and both the Santa Rosa and Burbank plums are all like this too. This is the first year our pear trees bloomed too.Last years Hail storms stripped all the blooms. Can't wait for pickin time!! Wednesday, May 8 View Page Apple blossum pic from this morning Wednesday, May 8 View Page Grapevine buds opening. Heavy dew this morning Wednesday, May 8 View Page 1248 Sundstrum Wednesday, May 8 View Page 1143 Singelton Wednesday, May 8 View Page Graft, 1172 Singelton'07 (1385 Jutras x Self) rootstock/207 Cantrell scion. Wednesday, May 8 View Page Daughter watering the Brocolli, fun, fun. Thursday, May 9 View Page 596 T. White 30% HVY AG rootstock/89 lb Fat Boy FP'12 FP scion. I grafted this one when the FP had just broke surface of the soil and just started to bust the seed cover off..very early stage a couple days ago..you can see its going to do good. comes out of chamber in the mornin. Thursday, May 9 View Page 1143 Singelton'10(1596 Wallace x 1288 Wallace'08)AG rootstock/125.5 PSweet'12 FP scion. Same thing on this one..Very early stage on the FP scion for grafting but seems to work pretty darn good. I cannot wait to see what these field kins produce. Two other grafts in the healing chamber are the 596 T. white AG 30% HVY/144 Cantrell and a suprise plant......1076.5 Hunt AG Rootstock/150 Hunt'12 Watermelon scion via all in the Family. Naming this one "The Bunker Buster",lol. For Archie Bunker via all in the "Hunt" Family,lol. Wednesday, May 15 View Page one of the 596 T.White 30% HVY/89 pd. Fat Boy FP scions...Have plenty of time for it to grow..will put it in the ground today, its been out on the front porch for a few days now and handles the sun just fine hence the first leaf shootin up. The 645 P.Sweet Squash hits dirt today also. Hit everything yesterday with soil blast. Wednesday, May 15 View Page 1248 Sundstrom is doing great..really putting on vine size. I also set this plant up about 10" on a sand mixed mound with sand, kelp meal, great white, mollases, epsom salt, finely crushed egg shells and a 20 ft 1/4" perferated tube that I can add co2 to the root pit area. I also bought a used food processor for 3 bucks at a salvation army store and use it for chopping up styro egg crates for use in potting soil I make with my cement mixer, lol put a bunch of that chopped up styro in the root pit soil also. Mixed all this up in a new garbage can and dumped everything into the peagravel based root pit (48" x 48" x 24" deep) with 3" of volcanic crushed stone ontop of that soaked the stone with humic/mollases tea prior to putting in the mixed up spotting soil. This Plant is the best I've got out of the 5 kin plants growing..very aggressive. This is the plant I'm going to put blue BMW headlamp bulbs on at night for 4 hrs timed from under the leaves for cell stimulation in the leaves and will put a layer of co2 mist across the leaves 30 minutes before the lights shut down via and old self contained oxygen machine I found at the same store for cheap..and small fan on the same timer kicks on to broadcast the mist..I keep thinking of the old movie with the doctor on that Island.Island of Dr. Noe? or something ..lol. Wednesday, May 15 View Page When I worked in commercial real estate management years ago in the Dallas Fort Worth area I always seen the Plant proffesionals adding volcanic rock in the bottoms and mid sections of those huge plant pots like in malls and office lobbys..I was told that it provides very good oxygen to the root structure...so I've added it to the Sundstrom plant to see if theres a noticable difference because all the plants are getting the same feeding routines and products. I guess thats why I always wished for someone on the hawaian islands to grow an AG..lots of volcanic stone and look how well the vegitation grows. nuff said Saturday, May 25 View Page Messin around with the 8" telescope last night, Big full moon. Heres a couple pics. So bright you could see the coyotes out in the fields at 10:30 pm. Saturday, May 25 View Page Heres another, non-filtered pic at 9:00 pm. The impact areas are cool. and yes I did flip the photo's because the refraction telescope shows you images upside down, lol. Saturday, May 25 View Page OK one more..pulled in closer on an area WHAT THE.......Is that a Hoop House?,lol. Saturday, May 25 View Page Hung a few military mosquito bar netting for shading..doesn't look great but They work great..prevents flagging in the hottest conditions. Got a tarp over the 1248 Sundstrom, got some Thunderstorms comin this morning that Don Young is sending our way out of Des Moines, lol. Saturday, May 25 View Page 1248 Sundstrom under protection this mornin. Gave her a Liquid Kelp drench this mornin. This plant is very Strong. Saturday, May 25 View Page White arrow is where I am, pink arrow is where the rain is comin out of Des Moine Iowa area..Thanks Don,lol. Just a Npte..Mississipi river is "Well" above flood stage...keep yer eyes on the news..yuck!! Monday, May 27 View Page 1248 Sundstrom finding its way in the screen house...I can tell the Sand & Gravel in the root pit are doing wonders for this plant by the size and clarity of the leaves. After the Kelp Drench this sucker just stood up and Saluted, lol. Starting to vine out good and Strong. Came out here at around 11:00 pm last night and there were tons of worms on the surface...a good site indeed. I'm still pickin up worms after rains and putting them in the screen house for nutrient introduction. Monday, May 27 View Page IT HAS BEGUN!!! Monday, May 27 View Page Found that lil bugger within the field pumpkins Monday, May 27 View Page Mega Strawberries, lol Wednesday, May 29 View Page NASA Team says they have actually found a "SQUIRREL" on Mars at the white arrow in the pic from the Rover. Seriously, they have said this and have posted pictures of it....................I don't see it. It must have a really low matabolism to be able to live in nothing but Mars rock and dust. What will they see next for funding.........wait they say they have found something even better than a squirrel............. Monday, June 3 View Page 1248 Sundstrom begining to run good. Temps have been terrible. This morning it was 41 Deg F. Tap roots already appearing. Gave a foliar of Liquid Kelp and Molasses this mornin. All other Plants are very strong growing. I can't keep up with the P. Sweet 645 Squash,lol. The Grafted Melons are really beginning to take off and vine..Had some concern of their slow growth but not any more. Monday, June 3 View Page This is the trunk of the 596 T. White 30% Heavy AG rootstock/89 Lb Fat Boy FP. The vine on the FP is Huge..hope thats a good sign. This plant too was slow to start due to the temps but now has gone full throttle with last weeks warm temps. It may sound silly but I enjoy watching the daily progress on these grafted plants. Monday, June 3 View Page Peach trees are loaded and have not been knocked out by hail.............YET!! Plum Trees are loaded also. Added another apple tree yesterday bring total fruit trees to 17. I have alot of Bud Grafting next spring to do. Pear trees have put on 5 ft in height from last year. Thursday, June 6 View Page Did final soil amendments and final till in the screen house. The 1248 Sundstrom is at 7 ft and throwing out good secondaries now. I love walking into this thing because of the rich soil smell. There are so many night crawlers under this place from me picking them up after rains and tossing them in you can smell em just walking up to the screen house....should be a good thing. The soil has darkened up a few degrees from them for all the castings they are leaving behind. I also throw out cornmeal for them along with the old bread, egg shells and daily coffee grounds. I'll stop with the coffee grounds here in about a week to keep nitrogen levels at bay for setting. Put down 5 gals mollasses/Kelp/Calcium mix before final till. Before I start to till I run the tiller around and over thee entire the patch with out the tines engaged to drive the worms deeper so I won't just grind them all up, seems the vibration from the running tiller does this fine because I don't see any during tilling but every morning the casting are left by the pounds now. This should make for a perfect growing situation as to not having too much OM in the soil. Thursday, June 6 View Page I also took pap's advice and have the plant with the stump facing west so it gets plenty of dry time and hopefully won't have any stump issues with the sun getting to it regularly. Growing West to east. One week into June now and the plants really need to grow in order to set kins in time. My daughter is doing very good with her 596 Ciesielski she is growing. It's the 2nd biggest plant here and has graduated up to having silt fencing around it because of its growth rate, it was out growing thee daily adjustment on the hoop it was in. She won't let me come near almost,lol. Wants to do it "ALL" on her own this year. My Tractor is back together and yes I'm down sizing the width on the cultivator, lol. Saturday, June 8 View Page Tomatoes finally greening up putting out Mega's. Daughter killed first squash bug so I figure svb's aren't far behind. Saturday, June 8 View Page East Patch in the foreground is a 144 Cantrell, 1143 Singelton, Grafted T. White AG/89 lb. Fat Boy FP (Small White Frame), way down there black silt fence is the daughters 596 Ciesielski and after that on the end is the 1379 Banman Saturday, June 8 View Page Pinched first female @ 8ft on the 1248 Sundstrom this morning. Planted 80 Saticoy Canteloupes this morning. Wonder if Big Moon in CT has his going yet. I thank him again for turning me on to them. Monday, June 10 View Page ***TIP OF THE DAY*** Use old plastic drink cups, cut strips out of them, use a single or 3 hole paper punch and put holes in one end then snip the short part with scissors. You have simple cheap tags that will not blow off during storms to indicate what you have. I use these in the Tomato Patch to help keep track of my plants that have mega Blooms. I have 90 plants in just one patch so you see why I need to use these. I have mega bloom writtin on them with a sharpy and carry some in my back pocket before entering the patch. If I walk away to get something to mark it I won't find it again, lol. Just hang them on your twine or wire fenceing..whatever. Monday, June 10 View Page Tomato Patch growing good with some heat now. Monday, June 10 View Page 1143 Singleton. This Plant again is growing right over the old compost pile site. The trunk area is not over it per say but the rest of the plant will cover it. The old compost pile covered an area 16ft x 20ft. The trunk pit on this plant is over 3 ft deep and filled with volcanic crushed stone , creek bed sand and pebbles along with composted dirt and ammendments. Monday, June 10 View Page 1248 Sundstrom @ 9ft. Moved boards out a couple ft. When sidevines get out a bit more I'll carefully st them back in. Will be interesting when time comes to set a kin and have the board placing where it won't intrude on the Kin. Monday, June 10 View Page Broccoli comin in pretty good....keep yer eye on that little gal on the lower left. Put her in the screen house...This is the field Kin I bought Last year that reached nearly 42" tall but was kinda thin walled @ 89 lbs unofficialy. It's grafted to duel same rootstocks. I buried the graft wrapped it gauze coated in pruning sav. I tried this setup all winter but kept getting splits at the graft..until I wrapped it in gauze and goop. Should be interesting. Monday, June 10 View Page lol..Thought I'd post this here to remind myself what good shape I use to be when picking up F4 Phantoms and all, lol. 28 yrs old TDY at Sheppards AFB Witchita Falls, Texas. I'm the tall pumpkingoober on the right, my buddy Cantu from Austin. I remember that very same day tossin a cigarette butt down at the same time a Generals car went by the NCO Club..yes I was pickin up Butts in front of the Officers Club for the next two Saturdays, lol. Those were fun times... Following week found ourselves in Florida..Chem Warfare Training/survival..found out there was going to be a little thing going on in the Persion Gulf region. When I opened my Chemical Suit to dawn it on night at Eglin..found out they had givin me Alaskan Cold weather gear by mistake..lol..yes those were fun times.. Monday, June 10 View Page Simplest and most efficient way for me to spray the patches: 15 gallon 12 volt tank is for Kelp/Calcium/Potash, 2 gal pot is for Mollasses/Humic/ and 1 gal pot is for Fish. Weed Killer never touches this wagon.............NEVER,lol. All on a 4 day on and of so ea. actually get sprayed every 7 days. I'll stop the fish after fruit is set. Saturday, June 15 View Page Rain and Heat...A good combination here. 1143 Singelton w/ female out at 9 ft. Saturday, June 15 View Page 1248 Sundstrom w/female at 11 ft. This is such a Beautiful plant. I feel so blessed because my daughter and I were awoke by a pretty mean thunderstorm with very high winds around 2:00 am and at first light...all the plants in all three patches were untouched....truely Blessed. Saturday, June 15 View Page These are the leaf pattern of the Fat Boy Field Pumpkins.The wrapped hoops are 6+ ft across. If any of you have seen this style on any other FP kins please let me know the name of them, I would be interested to look for similaritys in the kins over all structures. Thanks Sunday, June 16 View Page I don't have to be a Storm Chaser.........The Storms are comin right here to my front door constantly it seems. 1143 Singelton took a direct hit last nightout of 5 AG plants. The winds were pretty bad. But in the next photo I'll show how I fixed this problem last year. Sunday, June 16 View Page ********TIP OF THE DAY******** I used this last year and it worked great. When I had stems that blew over I used some of these cheap plastic X-MASS light hangers I use on the gutters in conjunction with scewers ( Sunday, June 16 View Page Those plastic X-MASS Light clips also work great for holding up Tomato vines and long Gourd vines along wires or fencing. Sunday, June 16 View Page I need this stuff in my grow list. Sunday, June 16 View Page Someone once told me, "It's not healthy to Hate Anything or Anyone"..................there are exceptions of course. Thursday, June 20 View Page Good Mornin Sunshine Thursday, June 20 View Page 1143 Singelton came out of the storm damage in good form. The soil this plant has is the key, (I feel) to its recovery. Has two kins on it, 10 and 12 ft. All the plants get 1/4" x 24" x 24" stump covers today. Thursday, June 20 View Page 1248 Sundstrom is FINALLY putting out secondaries!! This plant is now 13 1/2 ft long with half the size secondaries..at least they are beginniung to show. Has a kin on at 12 ft just don't know if there is enough salad behind it...don't think so at this time. Patience...lol. Thursday, June 20 View Page Welcome to the Jungle...Giant Tomato Plants...Somewhere theres a KEEPER or TWO!! BigMoon, in the upper left of the pic is one of the rows of Purple Carbons, 80 ft of em commin on Strong along with, 80 ft of Golden Queens and 60 ft worth of Snow Fairys. mm good. Thursday, June 20 View Page AHH..Grapes love horse poo.......Excuse me while I get the oak barrels prepared... Thursday, June 20 View Page 144 Cantrell finally vine runnin... Patience Thursday, June 20 View Page Amazing what you can do with X-MASS Light Gutter Hangers and Cabbob Sticks. 1143 Has pretty much recovered from the storm damage. Saturday, June 22 View Page ****BABY ON BOARD**** 1143 Singelton x SELF 6/21/13 . Like the Shape. Saturday, June 22 View Page Simple Trunk Cover on the 1143 Singelton. Slanted for runoff. 24" x 24" Saturday, June 22 View Page That Pollinated Kin in the Last entry on the 1143 Singelton is sitting at 10 ft on the Main Vine. Main is in a Very Nice "S" pattern. Monday, June 24 View Page Pollinated a very nice 5 lober on the 1248 Sundstrom this morning x 1379.5 Banman @ 11-12 ft. All Plants have their secondaries buried/Kelped/Humic and tucked in,lol. 144 Cantrell is growing quick now.I am to report: All is Well in Pumpkinopolis and them some... If someone could send the Ag Teacher a Kayake to work his plants, I know He'd appreciate it....Dand thats alot of drenching!!! Good Luck to him. mm mm mm... Tuesday, June 25 View Page Log 6/25/2013....I............am entering..............the low..90's.........temperature wise today here on...Starship Pumpkinprise.........I.......just ...can't seem to .....type...like ....Captain.........Kirk....speaks. Pollinated #2 Kin on thee....... 1143 Singelton this mornin......... x Self @ 13ft on.......... Main Vine. Sitting back with one eyebrow.......... raised sipping a cup of coffee I......can't help to......think that thee......... experience...was......well............extra astronomical....Pumpkingoober out.....Spock.........SPOCK!!!!!!!!! Tuesday, June 25 View Page Yes Captain ...Spock here..... I need to inform you Captain that there are similarities between thee U.S.S. Interprise and Toilet paper .......you see Captain.......they both do in fact circle uranus in search of clingons....and that Captian........without a doubt....are the Facts. Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1143 Singelton #1 Polly, 4dap..getting fat n glossy,I think it took Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1143 Singelton #2 x SELF Polly this mornin. Like this Very Large Hub 5 Lober..Nearly Perfect in simetry. Used 10 males on 'er. Like Octo Moms Doctor once said..."Lets see what that does"......... Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1379.5 Banman this morning. Slow at first but coming around and filling out nicely Tuesday, June 25 View Page 645 P. Sweet Squash. Again with the cool soil temps in the beginning it was slow to go but now pushin on nicely. Tuesday, June 25 View Page 144 cantrell slow but sure. The plants that are 100 or more yards from the water tanks get milk jugs turned over with goodies inside at times. It takes almost 5-8 hrs for them to suck em dry. The Milk jug will be totaly collapsed when empty but I'm telling ya you won't have plants drying out and thats one thing I remember Ron Wallace saying on the DVD...."Do Not Let your plants dry out." Even though I knew this prior..he really means it on these AG's. So I put a about a 18" piece of rebar in the ground leaving about 8" up so when the jug empty's out it won't blow 5 miles across the bean fields,lol. I even just use straight water this way too on all my plants, 1 on ea. side of the stump area 3 feet out from center on my AG's. Tuesday, June 25 View Page Field Pumpkins comin along Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1143 Singelton under Hail Protection..Storms on their way. Wednesday, June 26 View Page Picking some Brocolli this morning with my daughter Sunday, June 30 View Page Pollinated a 3rd very nice 5 lober on the 1143 Singelton x 1379.5 Banman via main vine. I've had to train the secondairys to the front like birds wings moving forward on the first 4 sets. The Plant is huge at this point and will start this morning Terminating 1st 2 secondaries at 24 ft per side. 1st Kin was a slow grower but has kicked it in gear, 2nd is very nice but has not laid down in the most desirable position along the main and am slowly coaxing it along. Cucumber beetles have showed up in numbers now. Killed a Squash Bug with a bright floresent orange back....not an SVB but a Squash Bug. Never seen this variety before. Got an Inch of much needed rain yesterday to refill all the Tanks. Culled the only Kin growing on the 1248 Sundstrom due to not growing, will have another female ready this coming week. The daughters 596 Ciesielski has stopped putting out secondaries, will watch for a week to see if it starts to throw any more, will unfortunately have to pull it if it doesn't. I will turn the 1379.5 Banman over to her because she has shown me she really wants to grow a kin all by herself this season and I hate to see her not grow one after all the work she has put into this plant so far. Sunday, June 30 View Page Forgot to enter: It was 64 degrees F. this morning at pollination time on the 1143 Singelton. Sunday, June 30 View Page Here is a Mega Bloom I found this afternoon. It appears to have 9 to 10 Blossoms. It is Huge. A single Mega coming right out of the top center of the plant so the stem to it is also huge. I have 11 other plants like this..all putting out center mega's, they were all Volintary plants from some big tomatoes I found that had grown off the bottom of my plants that spoiled underneath, last season. All sicilian Saucers...When I planted them I broke off the bottom two leaf stems and half buried them. The Plants have grown very thick at the base and center trunks...should be interesting to see what they'll do. This bloom is nearly 2.5" across tip to tip. Sunday, June 30 View Page 1143 Singelton..Showing 10 days of growth on the plant. Have 3 kins on her right now and have begun terminating vines starting with the first ones. Doing two per day via paps advice from a post I had read. I've got a very good feeling on this plant. Sunday, June 30 View Page 1143 Singelton. Closest kin was pollinated this morning, next one back was pollinated this last week and the largest and first kin on the plant way back in there was pollinated on the 21st of june. Sunday, June 30 View Page The deer are eating my grapes..HMMM..they are also eating the new leaves on the apple, plum and pear trees...anyone have any "Proven" ways to turn their habits away please yell at me. They are getting bolder and bolder..can't blame them..this stuff is pretty darn tasty. Wednesday, July 3 View Page Had to post this, sorry. Just struck me funny. The first pic is of a Gentlemen holding the said to be world largest freshwater bass ever....the people at the Guiness book are actually taking this picture into account as being real and untouched. The pic on the left is a pic of the Mars rover finding a Voters registration line on Mars......believed to be the longest ever on Mars...Whats crazy about this is there are people out there who would actually believe both are accurate,lol. Have a great and Authentic Day!! Back To Pumpkin Growing,lol. Wednesday, July 3 View Page pollinated a 67 lb Howden Biggie '12 4 lober yesterday 7/2/13. Removed flower this mornin. Wednesday, July 3 View Page Pollinated this this 67 lb Howden Biggie 4 lober '12 FP (seperate plant) this mornin x 89 lb. Fat Boy '12 FP Like how big the stem appears to be vs the kin. Wednesday, July 3 View Page Pollinated @ 16 ft out, a 5 lober on the 1248 Sundstrom. Hoping this one takes with 63 for the temp this mornin. Wednesday, July 3 View Page 1248 Sundstrom Female.....that should about do it!! I like not having to close the flower to keep bugs out..the screen house is doing a great job keeping the bugs out. I use compressed air cans like for computor keys boards or blowing out electronics to give short little blasts to the flowers for getting the pollin in every nook and cranny. This works well if I pull a Tomato Bloom from one plant and cup it in my hands around a bloom I'm wanting to pollinate. Then I close my hand over the two, insert the tume from the air nozzle and give a few short plasts of air. I'll close a kin flower the same and insert the compressed air can tube and give a couple short blast with the male stamens inside like the pic here..works good. You can see how well the female is covered and don't close too tight on the flower with your hand..you'll blow the side out of it if your not careful,lol. Lecture over... Friday, July 5 View Page This one is a "You Have to See To Believe...Found this bloom yesterday evening. It is at a "Y" section on the main vine of a Sicilian Saucer Plant. You can see the stem is the same size as the regular main (1/2" across) in the pics. I'm thuinking about cutting off the other part of the main because there is alot of plant growth still behind this bloom...good thing is the bloom as pollinated open and very good chances are is from another very large Sicilian Saucer. This is NOW the Biggest one I have going Yet,lol. Friday, July 5 View Page I believe I've made the right choice on the 1143 Singelton. This pic is two days old and the kin is getting taller by the minute. Good shape and very big stem on it. Need to get something under it before its too late. still positioning it a bit to the main. It already is pulling up on the main more than any kin I've ever grown. Friday, July 5 View Page This is what I ended up doing with the Megabloom from earlier. It has started to fill out already into a "J" Shape. Thought it be fitting for my first name initial so my daughter and I will refer to this one as MegaJ,lol. It's going to be fun watchin this thing grow. Friday, July 5 View Page Nice field kin 2 dap, growing fast Saturday, July 6 View Page 1248 Sundstrom Kin is set and Growing!! 1143 Kin has a 35 circ n growing fast. Pollinated 2 Giant white Cushaw this morning and Isolated blooms. Didn't know the cushaws would open this morning so Got lucky..no bees this morning because of low 60's temps. Saturday, July 6 View Page Grafted 89 lb. '12 Fat Boy FP scion/1143 Singelton AG doing real well. All FP's are growing very well. Have sprayed once so far for bugs on all Pumpkin Plants Saturday, July 6 View Page Heres the 2 Giant White Cushaw that I pollinated this morning 7/6/13. Saturday, July 6 View Page Giant Corn in the East Patch this morning Saturday, July 6 View Page 1379.5 Banman in the background nearly colliding with a 67lb. '12 Howen Biggie coming from the left of the pick........that was close,lol. I think it's going to work. It's hard to tell from this angle but the Banman is nearly 40' long at this point and beginning just now to throw out good secondaries. The leaves on this plant are huge. I'm going to do a Panoramic of the Banman so I can see the just of thee entire plant Today. The field kin has a kin ready to open I think tomorrow. Saturday, July 6 View Page I activated Scary Barry from last Season out of barn retirement and ordered him to front perimeter duties. The deer are eating the ends of the fruit trees and well just about anything they want in the yard still at night. This is after two nights of shooting 12 ga. shells over their heads to run them off. So Scary Barry is holding a 4" metal fan that I bent one of the blades to wack the side of the fan when running to make an annoying sounds.........it is damn annoying and a very bright tennis court light brightens Barry up at night from the ground. The deer can see him 20 miles away,lol. They both come on at 9:30 pm and shut off at 11:30...no new indication of deer anywhere,lol......the nieghbors are lucky they are far away. Yes Barry likes to stare at OLD GLORY!! Saturday, July 6 View Page Authors Note: I can tell how well the people in our area care to know me....on more than one occasion I've seen different people wave at Scary Barry when they drive by.....LOL....They probably wonder how I get anything done just standin there all day starin at the flag and why I'm so stuck up......maybe I'll come up with a motion sensor and a motor for Barry to wave at them,lol. Saturday, July 6 View Page 1143 Singelton. Got it in position and sand underneath this morning Sunday, July 7 View Page Nice four lober on the 67lb Howden Biggie '12 x 89lb '12 Fat Boy Fieldkin this mornin. Temp was 68 @ 5:44 am. I started putting some males in before I took the pic as you can see so I put the rest in, blew some air and closed her up...its not right to say shut her up...just not right. Sunday, July 7 View Page Heres a FP on a plant I couldn't throw out at the begging of the season...so what did I do...put her in the Tomato Patch...makes perfect sense. The plant has gone crazy in size and so I pollinated this one x 89lb Fat Boy '12 about 14 ft down the main and WHAMO. Growin quick Sunday, July 7 View Page That was suppose to read "Beggining of the Season.......Need more Coffee in me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday, July 7 View Page 1143 Singelton 16dap 40cc 31ss 32ee. Sunday, July 7 View Page 1248 Sundstrom getting cooled down Monday, July 8 View Page 5-1-1 (No Heat Emulsified Fish) Foliared all plants with no kins set & Drenched and Foliared all Kin plants this mornin with Calcium/Mag/Phosphorus/Boron 12% over all. Got a female on the 1248 Sundstrom covered right now since it's raining here. Left it 12 % since its raining..just hope the 1143 Doesn't explode. Monday, July 8 View Page 1143 Singelton males getting ready inside because of the rain this morning. Used cookie cooling racks and a shoe box to keep them..............you guessed it........erect.. Was going to take them out earlier but the rain has yet to let up. 1248 female is covered by a freezer bag. Monday, July 8 View Page Field Pumpkin 2dap on 89lb Fat Boy/1143 Singelton AG. Growing fast. This Plant is in very good condition and size. Monday, July 8 View Page A couple other Field pumpkins that are off my 67 lb '12 Howden Biggie. This Howden Biggie Plant in '12 had around 5-7 other pumpkins on the vine so I'm very curious to see what kind of whieght I can get off of managed plants this season....they are growing pretty good. These two are at 4 dap. My money is on the Grafted Fat Boys I got goin in the previous pic. Tuesday, July 9 View Page I think the 1143 Singelton is headed for a blossom end roll over. Wonder how bad this will be and what the heck precautions do you take? Tuesday, July 9 View Page My daughter and I's Zinnia Patch this mornin..growin in very well Tuesday, July 9 View Page Got a cover put over the 1143 Singelton this morning in the 1,000,000% Humidity. Tuesday, July 9 View Page Picked a couple quarts of these Blackberries...Took for ever.....it well heck trying to get that tiny sling on them to lift them into the container. Thursday, July 11 View Page 1143 Singelton boys this mornin all spiffy, happy and ready for...huh...well....ya know........ Thursday, July 11 View Page 1379.5 Banman big 5 lober x 1143 Singelton this mornin. 65 degrees very low humidity..Nice. Friday, July 12 View Page Cut the button off of the 1143 Singelton and put some sulfer on it yesterday evening. This morning looks good so far. Friday, July 12 View Page 144 Cantrell is now at 85 ft of vine so with what Handy said I'm going to leave this melon on 10 ft out on the center vine. Have got two others that are nice and long I'm going to pollinate this morning. Still don't know what I'm doing with these melons but practice makes perfect..or close to it if yer lucky,lol. Saturday, July 13 View Page I fed a bit too much Calcium yesterday to the 1143 Singelton. I Found this morning....Packed it in sulfer. The kin put nearly 12" in Circ last night. Whoops, I think its done. Next pick will show what I feed them from Wally world..you can see how fast they take it in. Saturday, July 13 View Page I added 2 tbl spoons/gal, hot water @ four gals of 1000 sq ft plant. GREEDY?....ME GREEDY?...NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Saturday, July 13 View Page I could try and hang on to it..use it like the old movie, "Attack of the Killer Tomatos", Only it would be, "Attack of the Pumpkin with Two Brains", from the looks of it,lol...Its hard to laugh about this but I'm trying, sniffle, sniffle:-( Saturday, July 13 View Page This thing was pushin hard. I do have another that is growing on the main here at abut 24 ft..and growing fast I might add...if it doesn't explode... Saturday, July 13 View Page Shuvin 0-0-50 @ 12% two days prior to the Calcium probably didn't well either Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is a nice Fat Boy FP this mornin. 8 dap. Like that Stem. Yes I'm feeding this the Calcium and 0-0-50 also....I advice you to look away. Saturday, July 13 View Page Polyd another 67 lb '12 Howden Biggie x 89 lb '12 Fat Boy in the south east Patch this mornin Sunday, July 14 View Page 1143 Singelton aka ("Scarface") this mornin. Seems to be OK at this time. Now the main vine is beginning to bind on the backside of the kin. Its growing still after the major surface cracks and not any sign of letting up Sunday, July 14 View Page OK, some of you out there may remember during the NFL games "YOU MAKE THE CALL", well heres the Pumpkin version..I've got scarface growing good at 10 ft out, theres another kin growing at about 24 ft out and theres another new female opening up this morning at 28 ft out. What do I keep, "YOU MAKE THE CALLLLLLLLLLL"!! lol. If anyone has any input that would "wiegh" into this matter please let me know what you think. I don't want to take anything from Scarface but he does have the cracks..he put on another 10" in circ over night, 166 ott and the cracks are stretched a bit one is about 2" from blossom end but not open to cavity...."YOU MAKE THE CALLLLLLL,lol. Sunday, July 14 View Page Daughter this morning readying and pollinating her 596 Ciesielski x 1379.5 Banman. Sunday, July 14 View Page Daughter with the Tall Corn this morning..she is 5"1" so the corn is doing good at this point. One of the local farmers had to stop by and ask what the heck type of sweet corn I was growing,lol.. Sunday, July 14 View Page Pollinated the 645 P.Sweet greenie x Self this mornin also Pollinated the third kin on the 1143 Singelton...Remember from the post above..."YOU MAKE THE CALLLLLLLLL !!!!!!!!!lol. Also pollinated three Field Kin of the Fat Boy 89'12 Sunday, July 14 View Page Nice shape on the 1379.5 Banman this mornin Sunday, July 14 View Page Told Big moon I'm going to cull the 1143 Singelton (Scarface) starting this afternoon..Well after further review I have to give it a solid week to see what it looks like and what the numbers show me. Still have two back up kins on the same main in case I decide to rid of it. Boy this is a tough decision. Went out to the patch after lunch to cut the first notch out of the stem and just couldn't bring myself to do it at this point, lol. Will wait a week on Scarface. Monday, July 15 View Page Here is FP Frankinkin @ 10 dap this morning. Growing very well. Nearly twice as tall as it was two days ago. Got all the vines buried on this plant yesterday evening and drenched all nodes with Kelp and Humic prior to burying the vines. Monday, July 15 View Page Heres an intresting little bit. I grafted this FP tip with kin on it onto one of thee 1143's 18' secondaries tip....was very precise on diameter matching the two pieces up. This pic was two days ago, this morning took the clamp off and seems to have takin,lol. The FP tip is very crisp and not limp. Monday, July 15 View Page 1248 Sundstrom (1st set)12 dap starting to pick up steam. Monday, July 15 View Page Scarface this morning doin nothin but puttin wieght on..decisions...decisions Monday, July 15 View Page And for my next Trick......... Monday, July 15 View Page Just wondering whats up with the 645 P.Sweetsquash. Partially opened yesterday so I pollinated it and tied it off. Noticed last night that the bloom hadn't wilted any and this morning it had poped off the ties and had bloomed again this morning so before the males opend I isolated them covered the female and later on at around 7:00 am this morning pollinated it a second time.....man is she demanding or what,lol...no offense ladies.. Monday, July 15 View Page Scarface unplugged at 168 lbs unofficial, 22dap. Why do I feel this was the wrong decision... Monday, July 15 View Page I now feel the blossom end would have probably been OK........wheres the duct tape Monday, July 15 View Page Thick, Thick, Thick Monday, July 15 View Page Here is the new and improved 1143 Singelton 6 dap/ 24 ft on main. Like the shape and I've got the main nearly 90 degree for awesome positioning. Monday, July 15 View Page Dang...I hate movin!! Tuesday, July 16 View Page 1248 Sundstrom cranking along. Put a board and sand under it yesterday evening. Sprayed all plants for squash and cuke bugs. Also applied captan on all AG's & FP's. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Right about now I'm feeling Lukes Frustrations of growing these things,lol. Went out to the 645 P. Sweet Squash and found this in the right pic this mornin. split stem opening up. Did an emergency surgery on it, packed with sulfer and gauze wraped with strips of duct tape,lol. should heal up. If not theres another female 3 ft out from it comin on. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Forgot to mention, the pic on the left in the previous post is a pic taken the day before..you can see a small tear in the stem half way down on the left of the stem and a drip of moisture coming from it an inch below. If I would have notice it I could have had it wraped up to prevent it from opening........Lesson here ...look at your stems very close..they do this especialy growing quickly from time to time but major splits like this one can be avoided if caught the day before or sooner. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Found some big big mega maters growin in the jungle low this mornin. Unless you get in here and dig you won't find 'em. Also found some yesterday evening after it cooled down. Tuesday, July 16 View Page Heres a simple Daily Growth chart I threw together, works fine. Copy and Print if you need. If you've got something better, please let me know, I'll use it instead lol. Wednesday, July 17 View Page One of the Sicilians coming along..better get a strap holding this one soon. Wednesday, July 17 View Page All my Competition Maters are Sicilian Saucers from Seeds that Jim Hudson Sent me Jan of '12. Thanks again Jim. These Maters are Delicious to eat also. I had customers at the Markets last year get hooked on these real quick. These guys started off slow this year but now the heat is bringing them on in good fashion. I've been giving KMAG to all the maters along with humic and 0-0-50. I like the looks of this one. I have around 40 something like this that are going to go big. Don't have thee ability to maintain all the plants for competition so we'll see how it goes from here. Wednesday, July 17 View Page Worked on the 1248 Sundstrom this morning to get the vine freed up and the kin placed properly for good hasel free growth. Thats the theory anyways. Wednesday, July 17 View Page Frankinkin at 14 dap. 42" circ Wednesday, July 17 View Page Screen House keeping the Stink Bugs out. Wednesday, July 17 View Page CORRECTION: Today is thee 17th, so that makes the Frankinkin FP "11 dap" not 14. Sorry to ME Wednesday, July 17 View Page 1248 Sundstrom is growing very Quickly...Maybe too quickly...just a bit of stress around the base of the stem ya think? Holding my breath...................... Wednesday, July 17 View Page The 645 P.Sweet is stressed abit in the 99 degree temps. Misted it and it snapped right back in less than ten minutes Wednesday, July 17 View Page Have to see if I can hire out Handyhomegrown to set up my long gourds to grow out here. Seems simple enough. Thursday, July 18 View Page What a Week..Spotted a foaming stump on the 1143 Singelton as it just started. Stump is solid w/no mush. Dug out stump to the crown as you can see. Drilled 3/16th holes in it at an upward slant for drainage, flushed out with 10 percent peroxide then packed with sulfer after watching it a bit..stopped foaming before peroxide flush then afterwards packed with sulfer. Stump is pretty good size to support this huge plant. Again probably watering the sump area too much with this heat we're having. Thursday, July 18 View Page Heres some other angles of this 1143 Stump. Hopes its OK. Thursday, July 18 View Page OK , My experiment from this past winter has taken off,lol. Over this last winter one of the things I wanted to do growing in my basement under lights was to graft a field kin to an AG rootstock and bring a kin to term for the seeds crossed with something unique and heavy hopefully, well I was told after posting a question about a yellow kin on a field kin grafted to an AG, I was told that most likely I had made a mistake and grafted an AG to an AG because the kin started out yellow. I think Linus mentioned a FP that started out yellow. Well trying to make this short I had a second and third plant going, second being another Fat Boy FP scion/AG graft and the third plant was a type of heavy gourd that is of course a "Pepo" white in color. As you can see in the pics this field kin started out brilliant white and at 3 dap has begun to turn green and has a.....you guessed it, a Pepo Squared stem. At 3 dap it is growing very nicely..I have two other plants of this seed going...Will be interesting to watch it grow and mostly the color it ends up with. Thursday, July 18 View Page Meant to add earlier in addition to the hurdles of this week so far, I lost the first squash on the 645. There is another comin on for this weekend. Saturday, July 20 View Page 1143 Singelton foaming stump is still foaming and more so oozing gelatinus crap from another demention. Is it to close to circumstances of me culling Scarface two days prior to this beginning?....HMMM. I feel I will lose the plant if it continues because the kin at 24" has not grown much. I have drilled, bleached flushed, peroxided, Fanned, Sulfered, flushed, bleached..etc, etc, etc. Whats left but to yank it out of the ground. Too Bad. Saturday, July 20 View Page Casper the Friendly Field Pumpkin is getting white again as it gets bigger this mornin. This ought to be very interesting as time goes by. Saturday, July 20 View Page A couple more pics of Casper, I like how long he's gettin. Theres another good look at his squared stem. Again this is off a plant I cross pollinated with a very heavy type pepo squash last winter. I've got another kin comin on in a few days I'm going to "Self" pollinate to try and keep this cross pure if it turns out to be good. Saturday, July 20 View Page Alot of people think that all Squash are Maxima...there are a very limited few that are not...with alot of reaserch I found one that has got a +87% pepo strain in it and was able to land some seeds (a variety of White Large Cushaw Pumpkin) so thats what I used on this experimented cross,lol. Saturday, July 20 View Page 144 Cantrell this mornin. Just a pup at 36 cc, heavy lil bugger. Not a record breaker but fun learning. Saturday, July 20 View Page Field Kin on the grafted 89 lb. FP '12 scion/1143 Singelton AG rootstock. Saturday, July 20 View Page 1248 Sundstrom this mornin growing very well and beginning to fill out. 17 dap Saturday, July 20 View Page Side view of the 1248 this mornin. 17 dap Saturday, July 20 View Page Frankinkin I think may be slowing down. Only put 2" on in the last 24 hrs. Wait and See, may just be the high temps. Today is going to be chilly at 87 degrees...burrrrrrrrr Sunday, July 21 View Page Pollinated this Beauty 6'er on the 645 P.Sweet. x Self @ 7:00 am, nice cool mornin at 67 F. Sunday, July 21 View Page 1248 Sundstrom this mornin.18 dap. Will certainly meet the 70" cc by day 20 that I'm shootin for and then some. In the mid 80's this next week. Good growin temps. Sunday, July 21 View Page Pollinated a nice big 4 lober on the 1143 Singelton this mornin x 1379.5 Banman at 32 ft. Got one on at 24ft, 28ft and this one at 32 ft. Will most likely cull the one at 24 due to it only grew a half inch yesterday. Might be due to stump seeping still. ****Please let me know if I can cut the stump off and the kins will still grow any size.**** This plant is now 40 ft x 40 ft. I've got the main coming back around due to my peppers and Cushaw squash growing nearby. Sunday, July 21 View Page Casper the Freindly Fieldkin this mornin. Going to get a board and sand under her this mornin. Sunday, July 21 View Page Thank God I have the right here to Stand My Ground when it comes the these guys and my crops on my "Private" property. Took this pic while I was pollinating the 645 P.Sweet Squash this mornin. She's about 75 yards away. The scope on the slingshot is set for 100. Sorry for quality, I was still shaking after I noticed it was a 6 lober,lol. Sunday, July 21 View Page Yesterday got a rain tarp put up in the screen house for the 1248 Sundstrom. The daughter has claimed it to listen to music and to read. The Sundstrom Likes Damn Yankees, ACDC and pretty much anything Uncle Ted cranks out at 250 WATT, especially Strangelhold. Nice!! Sunday, July 21 View Page 1379.5 Banman...AH YES...Day 10 @ 29" cc. Like the shap of this lil bugga. Sunday, July 21 View Page On Casper over the winter I crossed the Fat Boy c. pepo with the Giant White Cushaw c. moschata. The White Cushaw is a very large and rock solid squash very heavy for its deminsion so I'm trying to incorperate that into the Fat Boys deminsions. I had Giant White Cushaw seeds from some I bought last year and got the seeds out of. Of course both the Fat Boys and the Cushaws were open polinated but with that said they were in huge open fields so I'm hoping the bees stay somewhat confined to those areas and by the first looks of the fruit I have coming off...they may well have done just that. Heres a link that helped me to decide on what to cross the Fat Boy with: http://www3.ag.purdue.edu/counties/allen/Documents/Hort%20ACH31%20Cross%20Pollination%20in%20Cucurbits.pdf Sunday, July 21 View Page First Giant Cantaloupe goin for the season 6 dap. I use nylon screen and a couple of closepins to isolate these things the night before. This one is one of the longest I've ever started and is growin very good. It's close to the stump but should still do good Sunday, July 21 View Page Saticoy melons are on the vines thick!! Sunday, July 21 View Page Another Saticoy Sunday, July 21 View Page The 1248 Sundstrom this evening 18dap, 171 OTT. 69 cc, 51 ss, 51 ee. Sunday, July 21 View Page What a Sunset this evening. Took a panoramic shot of it. Sunday, July 21 View Page A few mega's out of around 70 or so that are Isolated right now. Never plant 268 Tomato plants and expect to keep up with them and stay Sane.I've got around 40 big full plants I haven't even got into to see whats growing in them yet...their over 6 ft tall and over 5 ft wide,lol..no kidding they are very full. All Sicilians,lol. Sunday, July 21 View Page I love the looks of these, but if you could Bigmoon or somebody..please tell me what these are. I've got 14 of these plants and I don't have a clue what they are, All I know is that they are delish. If they weren't growing on tomato plants I would have called them peppers,lol. Monday, July 22 View Page Yesterday's 1379.5 10 dap was 31" Monday, July 22 View Page Casper the Friendly FP's circ was 33", ss 20", ee 23" at 6 dap and solid. I'll post pics of his half sister this morning,lol. Monday, July 22 View Page My Kid at sunset Yesterday...It was a good day Monday, July 22 View Page That last entry should had read, "My Whole Life" at Sunset Yesterday. Monday, July 22 View Page This the White Cushaw that I got the seeds to grow the plant to cross (Pollinate) the Fat Boy FP last winter that grew the kin that produced the seeds that Casper is grown from. I guess its Caspers Grandma,lol. This cushaw is not all that big in size but it was a solid 26 lbs. Monday, July 22 View Page Here is one of the cushaws grown from the seeds I harvested last year that grew the Pollinator for Casper the Friendly FP. 16 dap. I guess you could call these his half Sisters,lol. All in the Family being played out here,lol. This girl is heavy and very Fat..but not in that order,lol. I might add is still growing and has a long way to go, trying for a record White Cushaw here!! I'm going to try and get a bathroom digital scale under it this mornin. Monday, July 22 View Page Casper this mornin up off the gravel and the pic of Caspers half Sister this mornin. Monday, July 22 View Page 1379.5 Banman 11 dap 34" cc 25" ss 28" ee. Put up 8' x 8' Rain Tarp over it today. Monday, July 22 View Page Thanks to Mr Ciesielski on reminding me that these are Polish Linguisa tomatoes. Got these and many others from him that my daughter and I are growing this year. Thanks again John for thee Info. Tuesday, July 23 View Page File Name: 'People are Funny',Found an email this mornin from a grower telling me that my joke of a white field pumpkin was funny at first but now its getting annoying and that for my dignity I shouldn't drag it along like I am...well ..in an effort Not to annoy...here a pic this mornin of Casper on the vine,lol...Not a big deal, just something I'm doing. People are funny Bless their Hearts. loL..I assure you all my name isn't listed on the New Royal Baby's list of Uncles so I'm not too concerned about my dignity at this point in my life,lol. My Son and My Daughter are together MY Whole Life and how I look to them is what matters,lol. Tuesday, July 23 View Page Pic of Caspers Stem this mornin Tuesday, July 23 View Page 1248 Sundstrom this mornin. Put 14 lbs on since 7:00 pm yesterday. 74cc 55 ss 55 ee. Was hoping this kin would be long like the 1248 was but for now I'll take what she,s puttin out....sorry Tuesday, July 23 View Page Rain Tarp We got up over the 1379.5 Banman yesterday. 7/22 measurments were 34 cc, 25 ss, 28 ee @ 11 dap Tuesday, July 23 View Page Found this 1941 Silver Mercury Dime right in front of the 1248 Sundstrom in the mud after it rained the day before yesterday so the 1248 is going to be named......you guessed it ........Liberty..my daughter likes the name because of the John Wayne Movie, "The Man who shot Liberty Valance" Tuesday, July 23 View Page Just looked up sittin at thee ole computor and saw a groundhog exit my shop and proceed towards the melons and squash plants. Grabbed my daughters .410 (less collateral Damage around plants) and hurried out the door quitely. Got up to the Patch fence and this lil guy was sniffing the 2 dap 645 P.Sweet set about to enduldge when..... I whisted and when he took one step back..... there he lays. The plant and Fruit Set didn't come out unscaved. The main vine after the set caught a pellet and I had a rag over the set for the sun but a pellet hit the rag tearing off the blossom end and another pellet nicked the stem. Here we go again on the squash stem. Tuesday, July 23 View Page That was close, maybe too close. Tuesday, July 23 View Page The main past the set and the stem where they got hit in the cross fire. It was a crazy moment both plant and animal knew not, which way to run. Wednesday, July 24 View Page 645 p. Sweet Squash stem is still seeping this morning where it was nicked by the shotgun pellet. Put some pruning sealer on it. 1143 Singelton is having a tuff time getting a set to grow. Plant is huge so you think there would be enough to grow something. Two sets on it and they just sit there at one size. Will pollinate a kin on a secondary about 29 ft out off the main and six ft out on the secondary just to see if it will grow, if it does then I will cut the main and train that secondary, not the best end result but a result.... possibly. Wednesday, July 24 View Page Culled the kin at 28 ft on the 1143 and pollinated a kin on a secondary on the 1143 Singelton. This is the last attempt on this plant for the season. Wednesday, July 24 View Page Frankinkin has stopped growing bigger so I cleaned up the plant abit and will cull It to set another on at a much greater distance off the trunk. Thursday, July 25 View Page 1143 Singelton Trunk this morning. Looks like heck but after all the foaming has ended for three days it is still solid and growing Thursday, July 25 View Page 1248 Sundstrom 22dap this mornin 200 ott. This thing is as smooth as silk...no ridges yet, I'm wondering if this is a bad thing or a good thing. It is now sarting to get some length to it. It is solid as a rock with all the KMAG, 0-0-50 and Liquid Calcium via Hot Water I've been pumping into it,lol. Thursday, July 25 View Page 1379.5 Banman this mornin 14 dap, 30 cc, 102 ott Thursday, July 25 View Page Casper the Friendly FP had a real boost of growth yesterday, now it is beginning to point upwards. I'm going to get some relief on the vine this morning. Also has a growth lump area on the front and back of the kin. It's growing very good at this point Thursday, July 25 View Page 645 P.Sweet this morning after being caught in the horrible gun shootout with the groundhog. The shot off blossom end seems to be healing ok and drying up. Thursday, July 25 View Page Giant Lope is doin great this mornin. Getting even longer. Thursday, July 25 View Page Daughter planted small various Gourds, Miniature White Pumpkins and Miniature Orange Pumpkins. I planted today the 2nd Round Field Pumpkin Patch to really push for size. Friday, July 26 View Page Can easily tell it's my first year for melons..next time I'll plant them in the middle of the patch,lol. This is another Plant, 60 Ciesielski '12 (185 Cantrell x Open) with a very nice melon on it. Friday, July 26 View Page 1248 Sundstrom this morning 86 cc @ est 212 lbs 23 dap. 20 lbs in the last 12 hrs, not great but not bad. Raining at 7:21 am, 69 degrees 7/26/13. Saturday, July 27 View Page Pollinated this Sicilian Saucer Mega Bloom 3 days ago and it has now taken off. It may be hard to tell but this is in fact one mega bloom. The stem is larger than the base of the plant,lol. Is about three inches across at this date and all parts appear to be fully pollinated together evenly. Time will tell. All the other really big mega's I have going are doing very well. 55 degrees this morning..this has to be affecting things. Sunday, July 28 View Page melon off of my 34 lb'er, getting longer. Been feeding it 0-0-50 and K-MAG she is growing fast..maybe too fast..refer to next pic. Same seed that grew Caroline Phillips 45 lb'er '12. Sunday, July 28 View Page Melon..growing too fast?,lol. Lets hope so but hope it don't blow... Sunday, July 28 View Page Stripy the W. Melon is growing rapidly..first year doing this so I really have no experience to compare. Grew out of its first shelter so yesterday threw together a 4 ft long x 6 ft half radius one. He Tried to get a bathroom scale under it yesterday but stopped when I went to try and lift it,lol. Its all there. I also have another problem at this patch..there if a chipmunk burro just out on the left side of the shelter so I've got a trap installed for it. Sunday, July 28 View Page Trap for chipmunk.One way trap door style I've made Sunday, July 28 View Page This Ciesielski melon is growing very fast also Sunday, July 28 View Page Casper the friendly FP still growing good this mornin Monday, July 29 View Page You know you've reached a new Low in your Virtual Life when you get rejected from a "Yahoo Group" request, was simply looking to gain more knowledge of melon growing from more people....just found this in my email this mornin: Hello, Your request to join the bigwatermelons group was not approved. Your membership was automatically rejected because the moderator didn't approve it within 14 days. We do this to provide a high quality of service for our users. I think I'm Proud of being rejected,lol,lol Rejecting my application provides better service for the other members,lol,lol. Now that truly is damn funny!!! Monday, July 29 View Page 1248 this evening @ 26 dap, 229 ott, 276 lbs.20+Lbs/day the last 3 days and gaining Getting some wide shoulders. This kin is still like glass, shiny with no ribs to speak of as of yet. Monday, July 29 View Page 1248 Sundstrom rear view. Found an old post in message board in '08 posted by the late Randy Sundstrom where he said the 1248 '08 was really woody. From the looks of the back of this kin it may be woody also. Pushing sap really hard now. Please stay together,lol. Monday, July 29 View Page 1248 Sundstrom in its home sound and secure. Took a panoramic shot of the screen house. Did alot of vine cutting and cleaning out bad leaves and 3rd line vines. Terminated the rest of the secondaries and only have the main going. Kin should start reall putting some wieght on now and the rest of the house should fill in when I let the finale vines fill in later for last month grow support.Also removed the broccili plants that were up front but still got the massive Sicilian plant in there. Wednesday, July 31 View Page Talked to Handyhomegrown on the phone the day before yesterday and asked what his thoughts on culling this 38.6 pound melon and going with a more desirable shaped melon. He told me to wait a few days and watch the numbers on both melons. Good Advice in my book. Well mark as I was measuring the 38 pounder this mornin I noticed a wicked underside stem split...It sorta made the decision for me,lol. So we start again on the 144 Cantrell but even with short time growing ahead I feel good about this next Long lil Melon. Theres a whole lot more vine behind it starting out. Thanks again Handy for taking my Call. Wednesday, July 31 View Page Heres the new melon on the 144 Cantrell. Pic taken Yesterday, this mornin its 5 dap and nearly 9" long. Wednesday, July 31 View Page This melon is on the second 60 Ciesielski plant @ 3dap. Like the uniform shape of this lil bugger too. 5" long. Wednesday, July 31 View Page 1248 Sundstrom hit 237 ott over night @ 28dap this morning. Back into the 80's for the rest of the week and weekend with more ran forcasted. Culled the second squash of the 645 P.Sweet yesterday evening. The shotgun blast was too much for it. The small nick on the stem has continues to open up like glass running its crack. Should have just let the Groundhog eat it,lol. Got another nice 5 lober set out on the main with another coming on after that. Lets just hope 3rd times a charm. Wednesday, July 31 View Page This is my biggest Mater growing so far @ 7dap. Got a support set up on it this morning finally to support the stem area. I've never seen a stem this big nearly 1" across when the tomato is only around a pound. Wednesday, July 31 View Page Looks like one of the Butterflies off the Jerry Lewis movie, "Ladies Man",lol. If you've never watched that Movie you need too!!! Wednesday, July 31 View Page I positioned this Fat Boy FP early on so it would grow sittin on the blossom end to see if it would help it put more weight on. This is 6 dap and growing nice. Going to start taping it today. It will be known as Lucy from Narnia. Wednesday, July 31 View Page 1379.5 Banman yesterday. Getting longer. Wednesday, July 31 View Page 1248 Sundstrom @ 305 lbs est. Blossom is going by by it appears. Wednesday, July 31 View Page Hard to imagine for me this is 17 days of growth between the pics. 10 lbs - 316 lbs Wednesday, July 31 View Page Another nice Fat Boy FP. 6 dap and growing fast. Friday, August 2 View Page Went up to our local recycle yard looking for some old "T" Posts that people bring in...I can buy them at 18 cents a pound from the scrap Yard. Found this Mighty Mac 206 cc Chipper Shreader sittin there. It's got 16 Hammer Blades. Will take up to 2 7/8" limbs. Got it for 18 cents a pound. They loaded me, I took it home put new gas and oil in it......runs like a Champ and boy does it shread. $1200.00 new I gave just over $27.00.......Feel like I won the lottery,lol. The mulch pile begins. Friday, August 2 View Page This is from just one pass of one side at rows of 25 ft. We picked last night. Snow fairys, celebritys, Polish Linguisa, Golden Jubs, Purple Carbons(Thats a 2 1/4 Pounder right in front by the way), Sicilians and Golden Queens, 15 more rows to go on this Tomato Patch..Farmers Market in the Mornin to go to. Friday, August 2 View Page 1248 Sunstrom,30 dap update 104.5 cc, 74 ss, 71 ee, 249 ott @ est 351 lbs. Still no ribing occuring but boy the sap is comin out the backside as you can see from the cantalouping and also beginning to see some around the front button. Still shinny slick on the sides and Top. The white on the leaves is 0-0-50 foliared. Shot the leaves yesterday evening in preparation of thunderstorms.........didn't end up raining. Watering as I type. Sunday, August 4 View Page Giant cushaw squash is beginin to get some size Sunday, August 4 View Page 1248 Sundstrom is really showin her Wallace and Bobier Genes. 43 pounds in the last 24hrs. It is doin very well and its funny how they seem to morph right in front of your eyes. Can't believe what its #'s are now @ 32dap...We are really close to beating our PB of 671 last year at 32 dap,lol. I studied this seed last winter and after realizing the 1068 Wallace was through out this seed my mind was set. One problem I'm having is that the kin is getting longer fast but it is growing to the rear just as fast as to the front and I've got a vine against the kin. I dont trust myself to try and move this beast at this point,lol. Will try to just move vines and block. Monday, August 5 View Page Going to cut the stump of the 1143 Singelton. You can see I lost the battle over the foaming stump. Culled the 4th Kin from this plant. Will see if I can get a kin to set for a local weighoff that is new this year at one of our Farmers Markets in October. Monday, August 5 View Page 645 P.Sweet aborted also. Plant is Huge and in very good condition so I'll see if anything will set and just grow on its own,lol. I'm down to one good Kin, the 1248 Sundstrom...wondering if its because it's in the screen house and away from pests...probably so since I'm battling yellow vine on nearly everything else. All types of Melons are growing good. Wednesday, August 7 View Page We picked Casper yesterday. 103 ott est 22 lbs but uow is 26 lbs on digital postal scale. Not big but solid for its size. We had very low temps during its growth period. Will wait about 3 weeks before harvesting seeds. Will grow these same seeds over the winter x self to try and lock in the variety of this color gene. Wednesday, August 7 View Page Got about 1/4" of rain this morning around 6. 1248 Sundstrom put on 28 lbs. from 7:30 pm yesterday to 6:00 this mornin. This kin is really pushin it now that its warmed up. Got a fan 24/7 on the back side stem area. Going to hold off on numbers for a month..I believe even I am going to be suprised,lol. I told another grower on here that I love walking into the screenhouse knowing no Squash Bugs or others are getting to this Kin...puts a smile on my face everytime I look at it. lol Wednesday, August 7 View Page 1248 Sundstrom 35 dap Wednesday, August 7 View Page 1248 Sundstrom Wednesday, August 7 View Page 1248 Sundstrom 35 dap Wednesday, August 7 View Page A Quick look at the 1248 Sundstrom 35 dap this morning...Hope you enjoy!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu6yOKk4GZo Thursday, August 8 View Page Sundstrom is really packing it on. Yesteray evening gave it a Humic/Mollasses/0-0-50 Foliar spray and drench. Today it has put on an est 19 lbs since late this morning. Keeps going up and out,lol.. Saturday, August 10 View Page This is "Mater The Hut" the biggest I've got going so far. Its right at a week n a half old and growing very well. Look close in the picks and you can see a sheppards hook with a spring bungee holding it up,lol I am keeping this one wrapped up to keep the sun off of it. These are my latest Sicilian Saucer volinteer plants that were buried half way for more root system. Every plant is loaded with these type of megas. Saturday, August 10 View Page "Mater The Hut", Different angle. Every four days I am hot drenching with molasses and Castings tea, wait 2 hrs then followed up with 9-24-21 Foliar and drench before 10:00 am. Leaves are not curling so I'll keep it up,lol. Saturday, August 10 View Page One more look at Mater The Hut. Forgot to mention, Every time I foliar feed the mega's I add 4 drops of dish detergent to the tea for a contact agent and for the phosphates,(spelling)?,lol I use the soap on the kins too when I foliar...learned that years ago feeding roses..It also gets rid of mites..its a win, win!!! Saturday, August 10 View Page Ciesielski Melon crankin along Saturday, August 10 View Page Got it on its own water tank now. I put my tanks on 4 x 4 runners so I can fill them with the barn gutters when it gunna rain and latch on too them with the truck or tractor and pull them where I need too. Had to lock the truck into all 4 because this tote was plum full. Saturday, August 10 View Page Dollar General had Boogie boards for cheap, they make great pads for the melons,(won't let them roll over)and keeps the bottoms dry. Saturday, August 10 View Page 144 Cantrell 15 dap. Will start taping Monday the 12th. Boogie Boardin,lol. Saturday, August 10 View Page 1248 Sundstrom 38 dap. Is it ever going to start ribbing? Is this a good thing or a bad thing. I thought at one point it was going to go long like its mother..Nope, just wants to keep going up and out..if you know from experience either way please let me know if you think its good or bag not ribbing at day 38. still smooth and shiny on top and sides. Thanks and Oh Yah....If you need a wrecking Ball that ressembles an AG....let me know,lol. This baby is solid,lol. Saturday, August 10 View Page Top View 1248 Sundstrom 38dap Sunday, August 11 View Page Had to move Liberty (1248 Sundstrom) yesterday out 5". The growth rate is so fast this is the 3rd time we have moved it 5" out towards blossom end. Useing the front loader hooked to straps hooked to the vine side of the front of the board she's sittin on, works pretty slick. Its been a day and already showing true signs of needing moved in a weeks time again,lol. Only thing is it for some strange reason the kin seems to be getting heavier and heavier. 144 Cantrell melon is very long now for 16 dap. It has now passed up the Ciesieslki 3" on the ott. Monday, August 12 View Page 1248 Sundstrom day 40 Monday, August 12 View Page 1248 Sundstrom day 40 Monday, August 12 View Page 144 Cantrell, 17 dap, 50 cc, 24 ss, 34 ee, est 39 lbs. Too inexperienced with these melons to know if this is good growth,lol. I feel it is very long for its age, I may be wrong. Friday, August 16 View Page 144 Cantrell surfin along well Friday, August 16 View Page Courtesy Table I set up out by my Rd. I'm selling this year via U-Pick .25 cents/pound...All older folks coming out no younger people, not even in the 30's or 40's. I love talkin with the older generation any ways,lol. I pick so many and the people have showed me they do like to pick their own. All but the Sicilians and Beefsteaks are Ciesielski Seeds..Thanks John again. I tell everybody where the seeds came from..they also say Thanks!!! Friday, August 16 View Page 1248 Sundstrom is now really starting to show signs of ribbing at 44dap. Reallt taking in the water, Kelp, K-mag and 0-0-50. Still heavy blankets at night but the weather here is starting to warm back up. Friday, August 16 View Page Sundstrom starting to show ribs. I'm 6'1" and can no longer just reach over and measure the cc...I have had to start to use duct tape..I like this problem I also like having to reach out to touch the top and not down, getting tall ;-) Friday, August 16 View Page I have to move her tomorrow due to growth towards the vine. It will be the sixth time for this..fingers crossed because of its weight now, I guess another good problem to have. Tuesday, August 20 View Page 1248 Sundstrom this morning @ 48 dap. Beggining to rib out and forgot to mention last week it shattered our PB 671 pounds '12, so I am very proud of that and now believe I made the right choice to put this seed in the soil and in the screen house. Colors are looking excactly like its mother ship still wish it had its length but will gladly take what we have sitting here. Liberty is one nice "Wrecking Ball" of a Kin. Tuesday, August 20 View Page 144 Cantrell as wide as the boogie board already, 24 dap. Saturday, August 24 View Page MELON SURFIN USA!!! 144 Cantrell Saturday, August 24 View Page and on the 9th day... the fermenting began... Saturday, August 24 View Page 1248 opposite side coloration @ 52dap Saturday, August 24 View Page 1248 stretching a bit Saturday, August 24 View Page 1248 Sundstrom aka Liberty aka The Wrecking Ball. One funny thing to mention this morning I realized the weight of the kin is batwinging the plywood up on the outer ends on all four sides,lol making it read lighter by the numbers meaning the center weight of the Kin is creating the outer edges of the plywood to lift up and have a shorter measurment than whats accuratly being measured. I'm confident I'm at least 150 pounds light on measuring because of the lifting of the outer edges. It ought to make for a very nice surprise when it gets measured on an even surface or when the darn thing is actually weighed. Thursday, August 29 View Page Overhead shot of the 1248 Sundstrom this am, butt ugly Kin,lol. Thursday, August 29 View Page 144 Cantrell has picked up steam with the heat,she's out grown her boogie board, may have to get her a 9' board cowabunga!!! Friday, August 30 View Page 102F. for the temp in the screen house this afternoon. Terminated all vines on the 144 Cantrell past two days. Spread sand and buried all remaning vines and watered Termed ends. 144 Cantrell has out grown its first 4' x 6' tunnel. I'm not suggesting it measure that it's just you want enough distance from the sides so thhat the radiant heat from the sun doesn't cook it, but it is growing nicely. Will replace it with the larger tunnel that was on the Cielsielski Melon before the vine went on it. The Cielsielski Melon by the way weighed 72 lbs uow and was darn tasty to boot. 34 days old and was as red and sweet as could be, no kidding. I didn't know watermelon got ribs on them, the 144 Cantrell is again kicking into over drive with the heat and ribbing now and like I said has out grown the first tunnel I put over it. 1248 Sundstrom is still growing, so much so I'm now concerned about a center post 4 x 4 just inches to the right of it...Can you say "Sister Brace"? Handyhomegrown knows what I mean,lol. Wednesday, September 4 View Page Was able to get the sling around the 1248 Sundstrom and move it sideways (Kids Don't Try This At Home). Using the front bucket controls my daughter pulled the kin tothe lft while I watched and it worked. Was growing really close to the 4 x 4 post on the right and didn't want to do construction around and over the kin. The 1248 has really put weight on but I think it is slowing down a bit with the declining plant condition so Its September and I'm letting all new growth do its thing. Wednesday, September 4 View Page The 1248 is getting really woody likes its mother ship in '08 did. The constant stretching and skin splits then healing over have made it so cantalouped its appearance is becoming unreal. Yes that is a Calf Feeder hooked up and drip feeding the stump,lol. Figured I would try this mid august and seems to be working fine with no apparent side affects, lol. 0-0-50/liquid calcium/boron/magnesium/kelp all mixed in micro count on a rate of 600 cc daily drip I've got calculated...I've watched way too much M*A*S*H,lol. Sprayed the tap area with willow tea/sulfer and seems to have healed up fine. The plant is actually pulling in the mixture at about 600 cc daily, you watch it pull the drips in,lol. I can say it hasen't had any adverse affects as of yet,lol. I tapped into the first upper root nodule on the main actually. For whatever reason, the kin is still packing on the pounds, no record breaker here put can't wait to see what "Liberty" scales out at. Wednesday, September 4 View Page Woody Saturday, September 7 View Page 30 more 1/2 pints of seedless Blackberry Jellies. That makes it over 380 1/2 pints of various flavors I've made and gave away to Tomato customers, family and friends. Life is sweet!! One Tomato customer has traded me tons of canning jars for tomatoes...Sweeet!! Sorry not pumpkin related Saturday, September 7 View Page 1248 Sundstrom '08 getting taller and showing its true colors Saturday, September 7 View Page Like a Rock... & growing Saturday, September 7 View Page 1248 backside netting Saturday, September 7 View Page Nother angle of the stem side Monday, September 9 View Page I'm quickly loosing the battle with powdery mildew on the 1248 Sundstrom plant. Was hoping it would hang in there longer. Figured its the 36" x 16' metal panels along the screen house bottom sides keeping enough air flow across to keep out the lower standing humidity. We live and learn. Next year will use them on thee outside for wind protection during early spring storms and remove them in the summer growing season. Setting them on the outside will keep me from trampling down the plant...thats why they're still there dangit. Tuesday, September 17 View Page Lost the 1248 Sundstrom to a lower soft spot yesterday. The daughter is having fun while I'm crying, lol. Tuesday, September 17 View Page Bitter Sweat End to a Great Pumpkin Season Tuesday, September 17 View Page Both a bitter sweat and "SWEET" end to the Season. Aggie Spell Check. Tuesday, September 17 View Page Getting ready to see what she ended up at "UOW DMG" on a certified scale. Tuesday, September 17 View Page 835 lbs - 26 lb pine pallet - 8 lb sling = 801 lb UOW DMG J. YOUNG 2013. 570 viable seeds were taken out, many, many more were bad. Cut up and put on compost heap. sniffle, sniffle. Tuesday, September 17 View Page No bad oder so it must have not been too long into going bad. Dangit, Dangit, Dangit. Still got a descent Melon to take to Anamosa..............for now anyways,lol. Friday, December 13 View Page Been gone for a spell. Well a Winter storm is bearing down on us here in Midwestern Illinois on the Mississipi so the best thing I figured to do after stocking up on food and TP.....break out the germin box and start on some Carolina cross seeds to do some various grafting Techniques. Going to use a rooting hormone on the grafts to try and get extra roots to take above and below the graft area creating a triple root system and bury it all providing juice to a single scion. Am also doing some grafting of cantaloupes to carolina cross rootstock and will grow them in the basement for a spell through January just to observe the stem area/rootstock growth in 5 gal containers heated. Two AG seeds that will see dirt in the Spring here are the 1872 Wallace and the 1756 Lancaster to start with. Had some testing done and found out I need to stop feeding Molasses to the AG's in the later stages of growth...Thats what blew out and rotted the 801 this last season. Too much of a good thing so I'm going to use the mollasses on the same schedule as all Nitrogen, use it up till fruit set and then back off about 95%. Its still great for the early soil and root structure but bad for the set fruit..nuff said. Merry Christmas to ALL and Happy New Years to Come!!! Friday, December 13 View Page 2014 Lineup lookin good. Also going to plant my 801,'13 uow. Anybody got a 1365 Singleton I would love to find one...Bob...Are you out there,lol. Friday, December 13 View Page Flag on The Play...Just realized I don't have a freakin clue on what size pumpkins these seeds came from that I bought recently..there is zero INFO on the packets that say what "Actual Wieght" the Pumpkins were that these seeds "ACTUALLY" came from. Tried to look them up on the Net...NADA!!! I'll toss these and start over...Sucks, LoL Sunday, December 15 View Page Started these Carolina Cross seeds Fri 12/13 @ 4:30pm here are tap roots on Sun 12/15 @ 5:40am, not bad. I have the Germ Box set @ 91 degrees and the Temp Probe in the pots read 88 degrees, perfect in my book without cooking the seeds. Also This morning set the Grow lights in the Hot Box on the Timer for sun up, sun down to incourage growth. I've got 16 pots going for double rootstock graft testing with rooting hormone in this group. Will post pics when the plants break surface. Monday, December 16 View Page Carolina Cross seeds broke surface so I put them under grow lights. 11 of the 16 seeds started germed.I also started 5 seeds from my 801 dmg/uow '13 AG. Allso going to try and use Rooting hormone to stimulate roots at the graft area and put graft just at surface level to try and enhance a double root system useing a tongue graft and doing away with the undesired scion. Monday, December 16 View Page Don emailed me with the Info I needed on the seeds I got. 401.5 Buck '13 (1872 Wallace x 2009 Wallace), 632 est. Buck '13 (1756 Lancaster x 2009 Wallace). I'm definetly putting these seeds in the ground now that I know exactly what they are. Still don't know how big the kin Don grew that made his 2009 x 2009 '13 cross. If anyone knows drop me a line or I'll bug him again,lol. Thanks Tuesday, December 17 View Page First Melon double rootstock graft attempt using an Approach Graft instead of a Tongue type. They have great roots for the technique. As you can see in the pics I cut out half way on the thickness on all three layers of the stem and applied rooting hormone on the cuts before the clamping. Also applied hormone into below soil level then mixed in and also on the area of the graft before covering with dirt then set grafted plants into the germ chamber with a humidity level of 76% @ 91 degrees and using a smaller planter covered it up to cut down on light stress but yet it has holes to allow air transfer to the soil for humidity contact. Fingers crossed. I will mist with water about 6-7 times daily for 3 days then rmove top and leave in chamber for one additional day then remove one scion and grafting clamp. Fun Fun AG seeds are doing well in the chamber. Saturday, December 21 View Page C.C. over AG grafts out of the healing chamber growing on their own. Will remove one AG cot leave/day the next two days. The Endo Mycro seems to be helping in root base and strenght for the plants. Saturday, December 21 View Page Double rootstock AG graft with a Single Carolina Cross center position scion grafted in. The double tongue graft has taken and just need to wait a couple days to start trimming back AG cot leaves to see if the C.C. scion suggests the root systems are working which at this point show they are. Should be neat if it will. This plant along with two more I will choose from to grow in the basement. It is all set up and ready to take on a viable grafted plant with misters and canopy locked and loaded. I've never tried growing melons indoors before. Saturday, December 21 View Page I have to say I've got the plants plugged into a 1978 Ventures Christmas Album,lol. They seem to enjoy it. Saturday, December 28 View Page Heres something I did a few weeks ago. Found a couple electric blankets for $5.00 ea. at a consignment shop and tore them apart to harvest the thermal wired units from them for growing in hot beds. I have the cable unit in the pic here in soil in the basement set on a setting 5 out of 10. Soil is in the mid 80's. I've got the connectors 6" out of the soil up off the surface to keep them dry. Unit will shut of automatically after 10 hrs so I have them on a timer that shuts off for 20 minutes every 8 hrs to make the units reset on their own timer. Theunits are thermo controled theirselves so its not like they run 24/7 anyway. Both units have 60 ft of cable loop rated at 180 watt 120 volts. Again they are from used electric blankets. This is not written in stone and I am being very careful as not to submers any controls or connector parts in moisture. The cables themselves are very well made to put up with moisture if you get my meaning. So far the plants are doing well with them. I have two double rootstock AG plants going into a single Carolina Cross scion growing very well. I think my lighting could be better but so far so good on the fusion of the grafts and no splitting or desease at this point. I'm not saying these stripped electric blanket units are better than regular ground cables, their not but so far what I'm using them for is working. Also with the other set I direct germed some seeds using just the cables in the soil and every seed germinated fine. My basement soil box set up is 8ft x 6 ft, small but good testing. The plants are growing in 5 gal buckets with no bottoms sitting on the 6 x 8 12" raised beds and the roots are far out in the lower bed areas which is good and I have had minor root surfacing issues. With the help of 1/4 round trim laid across the soil surface and plastic of that the soil stays warm but yet air can flow across. Will be a pain when time for tap roots come along,lol. All in fun and learning.