Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 29 Entries. Sunday, March 8 View Page Hello BigPumpkins! Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. It's been 13 years since Emily and I last grew. We last competed in the 2013 season, winning the VT state weigh-off with a 1,290-pounder (throwback photo attached!). For the past decade, I poured my obsessive energy into Ironman triathlons. It was an incredible journey, but Ironman is a lonely sport. You simply can't take your family out on a 120-mile weekend training ride. I missed the patch, the biology, and the community. But mostly, I wanted a hobby we could share. Emily and I now have a 4-year-old son, and I want him in the dirt with us. It feels great to be back. Let's grow them big! Tuesday, March 10 View Page Beat the weather window today! Soil cores have officially been pulled and are heading to Western Labs in Idaho tomorrow morning to get an exact read on the native dirt. I also managed to get the clear plastic pinned down over the patch footprint. The goal here is twofold: shed the upcoming spring moisture and trap the solar heat to accelerate the thaw. I'm on a really tight schedule between now and seed-starting, so I'm doing everything possible to ensure this ground is dry, warm, and ready for tilling by early April. The 2026 season is officially underway! Saturday, March 14 View Page The Ground Game - Turning Clay into a Pumpkin Patch Every season starts from the ground up. My future 750-sq-ft patch is currently just a backyard lawn. Because this is my first year in this location, my focus is simply building a healthy foundation. I shipped core samples to the lab, but I already know the physical challenge: native clay silt loam. It's heavy, sticky, and holds water. Since these plants love a highly oxygenated, fast-draining medium, I'm heavily modifying the top 20 inches. (I should probably announce that this season is brought to you in part by Pro-Mix HP and perlite.) As soon as the ground thaws, I'm adding: - 30 Bales Pro-Mix HP - 15 Bags Coarse Perlite - 5 Yards Seacoast Compost Once I get the lab results back, I'll learn how to properly dial in the pH and nutrients. Monday, March 16 View Page The Heat Is On! I'm seeing some encouraging progress with my early patch prep. Just a few days ago, before I put down the clear plastic tarp, the native soil was sitting at a chilly 39.2F. I just checked under the plastic today, and the greenhouse effect is already doing some heavy lifting. The soil is up to 45.9F, almost 4 degrees higher than the uncovered grass! I also took an EC reading while I was poking around under there. It's sitting at a super low 0.11. I'm taking this as a really great starting point. It tells me the native dirt is basically a clean slate with no leftover salt or chemical buildup from previous use, which should make a perfect, neutral base for my amendments. Hoping this trapped heat continues to wake up the soil biology before I fire up the tiller in April! Sunday, March 22 View Page From Florida Sun to Vermont Snow (But the Patch is Heating Up!) Here in Vermont, Mother Nature isn't quite in the pumpkin-growing mindset yet. I just got home from a sunny Florida work trip to find six inches of fresh snow in the yard! The first thing I did was grab a shovel and clear the snow off the 6-mil clear plastic covering my patch to take full advantage of the UV solar gain. The plastic is doing an incredible job. Despite the freezing air and snow, I measured the soil temperature under the tarp and was thrilled to find it at a balmy 49.3F! To put that in perspective, the bare, uncovered ground right next to it was practically frozen at 35.3F. That is a massive 14-degree difference just from trapping radiant heat. We are knocking on the door of 50F, meaning the soil biology is actively waking up under there. Not long now until seed starting! Tuesday, March 24 View Page Nematode Eviction Notice Got my Western Labs test today. Good news: zero Root Knot. The catch: 620 Root Lesion nematodes. They won't kill a giant outright, but they chew up roots and leave the door open for disease. Then I had a realization. That clear plastic warming my soil (55F today, almost 20 degrees warmer than outside!)? It's creating a "green bridge"; an all-you-can-eat warm buffet for nematodes to feed on the grass and multiply before the pumpkin gets transplanted. So, I'm issuing an eviction notice. Instead of tilling the grass in, I'm using a sod cutter to peel off the top two inches of turf. This physically removes the root mass and carts the highest nematode concentration right out of the patch. Then, I'll broadfork to crack the hardpan, and throw the clear plastic back on to bake the bare dirt and starve the rest. What's your go-to for nematode pressure? Mustard crops, bio-drenches, or physical removal? Let me know! Thursday, March 26 View Page The Seedling VIP Treatment: Rolling Out the Microbial Red Carpet I'm experimenting with a 2-zone system in 2-gallon pots to completely eliminate transplant stress for a 3-week indoor grow. The inner 4" zone will be clean Pro-Mix HP, providing a sterile-adjacent germination environment for the first week. I'm currently pre-charging the outer zone, which will act as the biological engine. My thinking behind the outer zone: - Water Prep: My tap water uses chloramine, which won't off-gas and suppresses biology. I neutralized it with ascorbic acid, then pH'd to 6.5 for the peat medium. - Worm Castings (6%): Blended into the Pro-Mix to act as physical housing for the microbial network to colonize. - WOW 5:2 (Humic/Fulvic + Seaweed): Added to feed the biological community as it establishes. - The Inoculants: Mycorrhizae, Azos, and Trichoderma incorporated throughout. This outer mix is pre-charging on an 80F heat mat for 7 days to activate the spores. When the root pushes out of the clean inner zone, it drops right into a living, fully functioning ecosystem. Ill fill 2 gallon pots tonight. Overcomplicating? Likely, but I can't help myself. Sunday, March 29 View Page Seed Selection: Next Generation Heavy Orange After 13 years away from the patch, it feels incredibly good to be starting seeds again. There are so many amazing genetics available now I've easily spent hours going back and forth on strategy and which seeds would best execute it. Where I landed was attempting to create a cross that expresses both heavy-to-chart density AND Howard Dill-potential orange. This year's cross: 2741.5 Haist (f) x 2453 Sherwood (m). The "why" behind the genetics: The Haist brings three generations of accelerating density with same-patch, same-year standout heavy-to-chart performance. The Sherwood is the largest Howard Dill winner ever recorded, bringing elite size and color genetics. What's even more compelling is that this Sherwood seed produced five Howard Dill winners in its first year out. Beyond their individual traits, a four-generation pedigree analysis shows only ~19% shared ancestry between these two lines meaning roughly 81% genetic divergence. That divergence will hopefully result in hybrid vigor. The primary goal isn't a pretty pumpkin this year. It's seeds for a future generation that are both predictably heavy AND beautiful. Seeds are soaked. Two Haist, two Sherwood. Fingers crossed I don't fry these in the wet paper towel! Tuesday, March 31 View Page The Sod Slog This weekend I spent two days removing 750sqft of sod. The patch transformation has begun. Two inches deep, completely saturated from a wet Vermont spring. Rough estimate somewhere around 6,000 lbs moved twice; once into the wheelbarrow, once out as fill. My back knows all about it. There's actually a practical reason beyond just clearing the ground. My soil test came back showing Pratylenchus lesion nematodes at levels worth paying attention to. My guess is they are concentrated heavily in the top couple inches of soil where the sod root mat is thickest. The clear plastic I've had over the patch the last two weeks brought soil temperatures up to 60 degrees, so I'm hoping they woke up and started migrating into the top couple inches. Pulling that layer out physically removes a big chunk of the population before it will ever see my pumpkin roots. No chemistry needed yet, just a lot of trips with the wheelbarrow. I also didn't want the sod breaking down in place, as it robs nitrogen from the soil. A lot of heavy lifting still ahead. 5 yards of compost being delivered next week. Tuesday, March 31 View Page They're Alive! Four seeds started. Four seeds cracking. I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I haven't done this in 13 years and I was starting $300 worth of seed genetics all at once. The process was pretty "straightforward." I sanded the edges of each seed lightly to thin the hull and help moisture penetrate faster. Just the seam edges, not the faces or root tip. Then soaked them for 90 minutes in a diluted seaweed extract and hydrogen peroxide solution using John Young's paper cup trick to keep them submerged. From there, damp paper towels soaked in the same seaweed solution, seeds wrapped up and sealed in zip lock bags. Heat mat connected to a temperature probe tucked right against the bags to hold 85-90 degrees. Dish towel over the top and underneath to insulate and hold the heat in. 33 hours later, all four seeds had root tips emerging almost simultaneously. Both Haists slightly ahead of the Sherwoods, with one Haist leading the pack. Carson was pretty excited to see the little white roots poking out of the seeds. Honestly, so was I. It always amazes me to watch a seed wake up from dormancy. Now we get them in the ground before those roots get any bigger. Tuesday, March 31 View Page Officially Planted! After 33 hours in the paper towels, all four seeds had radicles emerging and it was time to move fast. Only an hour after first checking with Carson, the Haist radicles were already noticeably longer. Dusted each root tip with Azos and added mycorrhizae directly to the planting hole so the radicle made contact on the way down. Covered, wrapped in saran wrap, heat mat dialed to 82°F at the soil probe. This year I'm starting about three weeks earlier than I typically would. The thought is to have the height of the growth curve roughly DAP 30 through 60, where a well-managed pumpkin is putting on 50 lbs or more per day, land squarely in the warmest nights of July and early August. Vermont nights start cooling meaningfully in late August, and cell expansion is temperature dependent. Timing matters. It'll also give the pumpkin a full 100-110 days of growth before the Vermont weigh-off on September 19th at Sam Mazza's Farm. Now we wait. Cotyledons should push through the surface in the next few days if everything goes right. Fingers crossed they all emerge! Friday, April 3 View Page 48-Hour Emergence, Helmet Heads, and Toddler Evasion: All four seeds broke the surface in about 48 hours! The two 2741.5 Haists are looking incredibly strong and pushed up clean, sitting slightly ahead of the 2453 Sherwoods. One Sherwood is battling a stubborn "helmet head". In hindsight, I definitely should have filed the edges of that massive seed a bit more. I'm keeping the shell moist to soften it up before I attempt any manual surgery. With cotyledons opening, they'll get their first feed: a diluted kelp and fulvic acid drench. Water prep remains strict: tap water neutralized with ascorbic acid to strip the chloramine, then pH'd down to 6.5 for the Pro-Mix sweet spot. Honestly, the biggest threat to these genetics right now is my 4-year-old son who is obsessed with checking on them (warms my heart). A toddler's hands somehow touch everything in the room simultaneously, but by some miracle, he's managed to keep his mitts off the actual seedlings. So far, so good! Saturday, April 4 View Page Trunks, Tacos, and the First True Leaves The 2741.5 Haist seedlings are absolutely cruising. I definitely pushed the limits on light intensity the last couple of days, running the Mars Hydro at 8 inches (25 percent) made the cotyledons curl downward ("taco-ing") a bit to hide from the photon overload. The silver lining? The etiolation response was completely shut down. The hypocotyls are built like tree trunks. Im also running a light fan and dropping nighttime temps to 68F. There is zero stretching. But the biggest news is right in the center of the V: the first true leaf is officially pushing up! That tiny, fuzzy leaf means we are transitioning from the seed's internal battery to the vegetative engine. Tomorrow I'm backing the light up to 12 inches to let the cotyledons relax and flatten out, and I'll be shifting gears on the feed. They will get a micro-batch of kelp, fulvic acid, fish hydrolysate, and RAW Aminos to start priming those calcium channels. The engine is officially running! Thursday, April 9 View Page The "Day Off" The definition of a relaxing day off from work: manually wrestling a broadfork 14 inches deep into native compact soil. I'd be perfectly fine if I don't look at that tool again for the rest of the year. Phew. But there's a vital reason I chose this painstaking chore over simply firing up the rototiller. Running a tiller through heavy, early-spring soil smears the earth at the bottom of the tines, creating a compacted hardpan that acts like a bowl. Giant pumpkins absolutely hate wet feet. If those taproots hit a hardpan barrier and sit in stagnant water, they suffocate, inviting root rot and disease. Broadforking breaks up the soil 14 inches down while keeping the natural aggregate structure intact. Less resistance for the roots, far better drainage. Happy roots make heavy pumpkins. With the fracturing done, tomorrow is all about building up. I'll be layering 6 inches of fresh material across the patch, a custom blend of leaf and yard compost, Pro-Mix, coarse perlite, and dry amendments. No stones unturned. Literally, I turned them all. Now, time for some ibuprofen. Friday, April 10 View Page Day 10: Ahead of Schedule and Calling an Audible We are 10 days out from placing seeds in the dirt, and I am very happy with the progress. The plants are robust, and the Haist genetics in particular are well ahead of schedule, already pushing first true leaves over 8 inches in diameter. However, that rapid growth created a slight bottleneck. Because the Haists expanded so quickly, I started seeing calcium stress; a yellowing along the outer edges of the leaves. The plants were building cell walls faster than available calcium could keep up, resulting in pale outer margins. To correct this, I called an audible. Instead of waiting on the calendar, I bumped the plants up to my Week 3 nutrient schedule early to match their actual biological development. Here is the breakdown of the Week 3 mix and why each component matters right now: Ascorbic Acid: Added directly to the water first to neutralize chloramine. This protects the delicate soil biologicals from being wiped out by municipal water treatment chemicals. Calcium Nitrate: Provides highly soluble, instantly bioavailable calcium to correct the pale margins, plus the nitrogen to fuel continued vegetative growth. RAW Aminos: Calcium is difficult for roots to absorb on its own. The amino acids act as chelators, wrapping calcium ions so they pass easily through the root membrane and stay in plant-available form. Liquid Opulent Boron (1ppm): If calcium is the building block, boron is the gatekeeper. It facilitates calcium uptake at the root membrane and helps bond calcium into the cell wall structure where it is needed. Fulvic Acid and Kelp: Fulvic acid is a natural transporter that makes the entire nutrient mix more bioavailable. Kelp provides natural hormones � cytokinins � that signal the roots to expand and support the top growth. RAW Silica: Acts as structural reinforcement inside the plant's cell walls, giving the leaves rigidity and strength. Critically, I use RAW Silica because it is pH neutral. Traditional liquid silicates are highly alkaline and will instantly react with calcium nitrate in the mixing jug, causing the calcium to precipitate out as useless sludge. RAW Silica prevents this reaction, keeping both nutrients fully available. The plants responded exactly as intended. By the next morning the leaves had flattened out, the drooping stopped, and the inner canopy was already darkening up. Friday, April 10 View Page What It's All About: We had some friends over tonight, and Carson was excited to show everyone the grow tent. They all crowded around to check out the plants and even picked their favorites. It's so easy to get caught up in the minutia when growing these giants, but seeing how much fun the kids had tonight brings it all back down to earth. This is really what it's all about; the kiddos, and of course, the pumpkins. ?? Tuesday, April 14 View Page Peeled back the tape on the clam shell slit of my most aggressive 2741 Haist seedling today. Roots are white, healthy, and already within 1.5 inches of the pot bottom at two weeks. These plants are ready to find some real soil. Transplant into the hoop house is two to three days out max. Can't wait to see what happens when this root system hits open ground. Thursday, April 16 View Page I've been hardening off the last few days. Overall they have taken the outdoor sun fairly well. Thursday, April 16 View Page I've been hardening off the last few days. Overall they have taken the outdoor sun fairly well. Thursday, April 16 View Page My most aggressive plant, one of the 2741 Haists. Took a sneak peak at the roots. This thing is ready to exit its 2 gallon pot. Soil temp in the hoop house is 70. Tomorrow is planting day! Saturday, April 18 View Page 75 and sunny today. Snow tomorrow. Planting day is today. This "seedling" has outgrown its 2 gallon pot just 16 days from planting and has a vine ready to run. Preparing the hoop house with a space heater and two buckets with 90 degree water with heaters on them. In combination with the soil heating cables hopefully that does the trick over the next several days. Carson is enjoying the hoop house. Saturday, April 18 View Page I burried soil heating cables last weekend. Using Travis G's method of going deep and layering. I started the first level at 24 inches deep then another at 16 and another at 8. As of this morning the soil was 68 degrees down at 24 inches and 71 at 6 inches. Saturday, April 18 View Page Official planting day for the 2741 Haist! I'm really excited about this one. It stood out from the rest of the seedlings right away. Thick stems, the fastest growth, zero issues, and an incredibly aggressive root system. It's only been 17 days since the seed went into the dirt, and she's already pushing the main vine and starting her first side vine. I gave the first true leaf a slight nick while taking the bucket off, but overall, the clamshell pot method made the transplant incredibly easy. We dusted the hole with WOW starter packs, Azos, and WOW granular mycorrhizae, then watered her in with a warm brew of kelp, fish hydrolysate, fulvic acid, and Mykos WP. It was awesome having my right-hand man, Carson, there to help settle her in. The real test comes now, though as we've got nighttime temps plunging into the high 20s over the next few days. Time to see what this setup can do. Sunday, April 19 View Page Welcome to spring in Vermont: 75 and sunny yesterday, windchill of 27 and snowing today. To fight the freeze, I built a secondary wall using 2-inch rigid foam insulation around the plant to catch and hold the heat from the space heater. Tonight, I'll drop another foam board right across the top to lock the warm air in completely. There is a silver lining to the weather, though. The gloomy, overcast skies mean minimal transpiration stress on the canopy, allowing the plant to focus 100% of its energy on early root establishment in the new mound without fighting the sun. Pushing a plant out this early is always a gamble. But if we can grind through these cold snaps now, the bet pays off with an early pollination, putting our peak pumpkin growth perfectly in sync with the warmest nights of July and August. Sunday, April 19 View Page 24 hours post-transplant, 19 days after planting the seed, and the 2741 Haist is looking incredibly happy in the dirt. The vine tip is already stretching, and the leaves have fully perked back up from the move. The thermal bunker is doing exactly what it needs to do, holding a perfect 70 degrees inside while it sits at 35 degrees outside. Looking back at the indoor stage, we battled a brief nutrient deficiency that looked like a magnesium lockout. Checking the deep, consistent green on this newest leaf growth, I think it's safe to say we have that completely sorted out. It seems the roots are already firing on all cylinders after yesterday's biological spa treatment. Sunday, April 19 View Page All tucked in for the night. The final 2-inch foam board is in place, officially sealing up the thermal bubble. Between the space heater, the 90 degree water bucket, and the soil cables running at 70, hoping she won't even know it's snowing outside. Catch you all on the other side of the freeze! Monday, April 20 View Page Well she made it thru the night happy as a clam. Kept at a steady 68 degrees all night. The real test will come tonight as we are expecting windchills in the mid teens. Tuesday, April 21 View Page Temperatures plunged into the teens last night, but the 2741 Haist seems to have only built momentum. The thermal bunker held the line perfectly. Between the 2-inch rigid foam, a 1500w space heater, a water bucket set to 90F, and the soil cables dialed to a steady 72F, all systems are a go. The forecast calls for warmer but still cold nights ahead, however the worst of the deep freeze seems to be behind us for now. Wednesday, April 22 View Page Backyard rave? Nah, just giant pumpkins. After giving the 2741.5 Haist a few days to focus on root establishment while minimizing canopy stress, it's time to shift gears. I'm adding supplemental lighting from 6:00-10:00 AM and 6:00-10:00 PM to extend the daylight hours. I'm using a LumiGrow Pro 600, dialing in that classic pink mix�pushing heavy red for raw photosynthetic power, balanced with just enough blue to keep the vegetative growth thick and tight. Emily might be slightly embarrassed by the glowing pink yard, but I think it'll grow on her. On another note, I've given away two backup seedlings and some seeds to friends just starting out. Hopefully, they catch the bug and help grow the hobby locally. At 22 days from seed, the main vine is moments from touching down in the dirt. It's almost go time!