Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 45 Entries. Tuesday, May 8 View Page Planted 2nd batch of 3 seeds today - first batch failed. I put the first batch in the Oven about May 1 and turned the light on only to find out that the light alone raised the temp to about 130 degrees, thus cooking the seeds before they had a chance. I ordered the seeds directly from Dills; they are from a 659. Friday, May 11 View Page After digging a 3 foot x 4 foot x 3 foot deep hole through some pretty miserable soil, I moved the plants to the yard. Put up a wind screen of painters plastic. Saturday, May 12 View Page After replacing the oven with a more mild desk lamp carefully positioned, the first of three seeds showed itself today. Wednesday, May 16 View Page All 3 pumpkins germinated, but one was rotten in the seed casing and had no flower. Down to two plants. Saturday, May 19 View Page Two remaining plants at one week's growth Wednesday, May 30 View Page The little guys got pretty badly sunburnt and it set them back. With such shallow roots I hat Tuesday, July 3 View Page First male flower showed up today at about the 8 week mark. Plant is growing well. Friday, July 6 View Page First Female blossom found today Friday, July 6 View Page First female blossom showed up! Its on a secondary vine about 8 feet out. Sunday, July 8 View Page Found 3 more very small females, including 1 on the main about 14 feet from the stump. Wednesday, July 11 View Page We've been having quite the heat wave, 90+ degrees. I turned up the watering time on the misting system and this morning I found a little mold on the vines and a couple burnt leaves. Gave the plant a good soaking this morning and turned the misters off. Sprayed the leaves with Daconil. Seems like quite a balancing act.... Wednesday, July 18 View Page Still no open female blossoms for me. The first few have turned yellow and aborted; some no bigger than a pea. The one that did get larger (maybe 1") never opened. I have one now that looks better than the others and praying it opens in the next day or so. It seems to be further advanced than the others. Suggestions welcome..... Wednesday, July 18 View Page First female flower looks like it will open in the morning.... I am ready to pollinate! Setting the alarm early! Wednesday, July 18 View Page This is the patch - its looking good but I am running out of space. Time to start cutting the tertiaries. Thursday, July 19 View Page Got up early and the first female opened! Pollinated it with four flowers - one with direct contact and scraped and dumped the pollen from 3 others and dumped it in. Its a four lobe flower and looks solid. Its on a secondary vine but very solid and probably about 16 feet out. Thursday, July 19 View Page All tied up after pollination. Bad news - I was repositioning the vine and broke the tip off about 3 feet past the pumpkin. What does that mean? Should I give up on this one? What a dufus. Thursday, July 19 View Page Measured the baby at 4.5". Don't really know why but it seems like I need to see if its growing. After work I gave it a foliar feeding of TKO and Cal Mag Max and a good dranch of Neptunes. Cut away the tertiaries and got caught up on vine burying. Looks like another female poised to open in a few days but still not on the main vine... Friday, July 20 View Page Pumpkin 1 grew to 5.25" cc overnight. Pollinating another in the morning. Saturday, July 21 View Page Scientifically extracting pollen from three males. Pollinated No. 2 today; a five lobe flower perhaps 10' off the main on a stout secondary. Pumpkin 1 is still growing and was at 5 5/8" this morning. Saturday, July 21 View Page Here's the pollen extraction photo. Posted the wrong one in last entry. Saturday, July 21 View Page Temps are in the low 90's today so I went to Wally World and found one of those great battery powered fans you all use for $6.97. Brought out the ice and found a couple chunks of styrafoam to make some protection for No. 2. We will see how she does. Tuesday, July 24 View Page P1 has not grown in the past 24 hours. I didn't ice this one and the hot weather may have prevented it from setting. We will see. Its still firm and shiny so hope is not lost on it. P2 has outgrown P1 and is about the size of a baseball. I've iced it the past two days and have it on ice again today although the temps have cooled to the mid 80's. P3, the first female bloom on the main to open was pollinated this morning. Hoping this one sticks! Feels like I am running out of time. New females are still starting but they are typically on vines extending outside the limits of my growing area (onto the patio, etc.) and aren't in favorable locations. Tuesday, July 24 View Page Did quite a bit of vine trimming tonight. Cut back all the tertiaries, some of the secondaries, trimmed off the tendrils. Its hard to cut the plant back the first time but the realization that this isn't a plant growing hobby, but a pumpkin growing hobby sets in. Wednesday, July 25 View Page This morning's measurements indicate that P1 is still not growing. No indication its rotting yet, so maybe the cutting I did will spur some growth. p2 on the other hand is growing and is the size of a baseball. Too soon to tell if p3 will set. Its cooled down into the low 80's now so that's a plus. Thursday, July 26 View Page P2 is growing well (pictured) having put on 2" overnight. P3 is just getting going. P1 is getting culled. Fruit apparently did not set. Saturday, July 28 View Page P2 is growing nicely; 15.25" cc and 2.5" overnight. This is on a primary vine but not the main. Still, its a grower so for now, it stays. Saturday, July 28 View Page This is P3, Pollinated 4 days ago and looks to be taking. Its on the main but not in the best place in the yard. Plus, like a clutz that I can be, I broke the main vine about 5 nodes past the pumpkin. It had grown up against the wall and when I tried to move it, it snapped as it was wedged between a brick and the wall. I've got a solid 4-5 feet of main behind the fruit so perhaps it will be ok. Time will tell. Monday, July 30 View Page P2 is growing nicely - it added 2.5lbs overnight but its still an infant at only 9 days old. P3 appears to have set and is adding a couple inches a day in cc. I've pollinated one more flower as a backup and have a couple more open females that nature may pollinate but I am not manually pollinating any more. P2, on a primary and P3 on the main will be the chosen ones. Ultimately I expect to choose as I only have 425 square feet of patch and its already growing off the edges. Wednesday, August 1 View Page Day 11 for P2 and it seems to be growing well - its at 73" OTT - about 10 lbs. P3 is still looking like a contender to keep as its on the main; its growth is on the same pace as P2. Just a few days behind. Its like Christmas every morning to go out to the patch and measure and see the growth! Wednesday, August 8 View Page Pumpkin P2 is growing well. According to the charts it weighs 57 lbs now at 18 days old. Despite cracks in the stem and the vine it is doing well. P3 is about 4 days behind and is also growing nicely. It put on 4 lbs overnight. Signs of splits in the stem though. Friday, August 10 View Page Can anyone help me identify what insect/ disease this looks like? It totalled out my daughters cucumbers pretty badly but has started to show itself on a few of the pumpkin leaves... Friday, August 10 View Page P3 is now being culled. Hard choices but a blessing to have a choice to make! Its hot here now, we are having a heat wave. Low 90's. Not sure how much this will impact growth. We've still got nice cool evenings in the mid-high 60's so hopefully the heat won't hurt too much. Should subside in 4 days according to the weatherman. Friday, August 10 View Page Finished the deed today - P3 is no more and P2 has a new name. In honor of its Canadian Ancestors, all our pumpkins will have Canadian names. This first one will be called Alan Thicke. Alan's growth overnight was only 7lbs - slower than anticipated. But I think P3 was stealing nutrients and its in the mid 90's now. Saturday, August 11 View Page Day 21 for Alan Thicke. Good growth overnight (for me at least) with +11.4 lbs and an OTT of 153". Est. weight is now at 84.5 lbs. When you're a rookie, every day is a new personal best! :D Tuesday, August 14 View Page Growing at about 10lbs per day on Day 24 - OTT is 165" and est 117 lbs. Its been in the mid 90's here and that may be curtailing growth Tuesday, August 14 View Page I have a handful of leaves that look like they may be infected with Gummy Stem Blight. I will post a picture tonight... Wednesday, August 15 View Page Day 25 and Est. 125 lbs. Average gains of 10 lbs/day over the past week. Hoping for an increase in gains now but steady as she goes is ok too. The heat wave was supposed to subside but its in the mid 90's and no relief in site. Wednesday, August 15 View Page Rechecked the 10 day and mid-80's are in the forecast after Saturday.... Monday, August 20 View Page Its Day 30 and Big Al is now at 169 lbs EST. Its growing slow; averaging about 7-8 lbs a day. Still haven't seen the huge growth spurt I had hoped for. But its still growing and looks good. Its going to be a nice Orange fruit - just not giant! Big, but not giant. Maybe this sidevine fruit will get to the 250 lb mark. Tuesday, August 21 View Page You know, these guys are going to learn to stay the heck out of my yard. Or die trying. Wednesday, August 22 View Page 31 DAP for Big Al. Est. 185 lbs. Days are cooling now and hopefully gains will go up some. 12 days of vacation and my co-grower will take over. Dreading leaving! Wednesday, September 5 View Page Back from 12 days of vacation to find Big Al having grown about 70 lbs. Steady as she goes, eh? I would like bigger numbers but at least its still alive. The plant is a mess. There's new growth all over the place, a female flower that may have been polinated, who knows what else I will find. Worse yet I threw my back out so I am having trouble getting around. But 268 lbs est. for a rookie isn't bad I suppose. It should get over 300 next week and maybe keep going a little longer. Tuesday, September 18 View Page The heat has stiffled what was any hope of growth. I think the kin is still alive, the vine is green and stout still but measurements indicate it isn't growing. It tapes right at 300 pounds and exceeded my goal for this first time out. Its a nice gourd with good shape and color and its been a total joy to grow it. Looking forward to seeing you Socal growers at Pumpkinmania in 6 weeks! Tuesday, September 25 View Page Well we went out and measured just for grins although no indication the fruit was still growing. We were pleasantly surprised to see that it has put on about another 10 lbs. I got motivated all over again and gave it a nice drench of miscellaneous joy juice all mixed together. The best news with a little growth is that it shouldn't rot out before the Oct 28 weigh off. Maybe we can even eek out another 10-15 lbs by then! We did get about 5 days of cooler weather but the 90's are coming back this weekend. ): Saturday, October 13 View Page Saw some signs that the pumpkin might be growing a bit and was pleasantly surprised that big Al put on another 13 lbs since we checked last. Its only a few inches of OTT but its still healthy. The cooler weather must've kicked it up. Of course, its going to be 90 degrees again this week, so there's that.