Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 66 Entries. Saturday, April 4 View Page Starting my second year growing atlantic giants. I'm looking to beat my personal best of 365 lbs grown last year. Saturday, April 4 View Page Getting started early this year as I will be growing within a 20' x 20' hoop house. The design is based on the Hanley hoop house: http://kerrcenter.com/organic-farm/hoop-house/ Saturday, April 4 View Page The hoop house is ventilated via roll up sides and zipper door. Ropes hold the plastic tight to the hoops which were bent from fencing top rail. Wiggle wire and channels hold the plastic to the end walls. Saturday, April 4 View Page I will be growing in a soilless mix of pumice and composted pine bark in raised root pruning troughs. Saturday, April 4 View Page Seed starting mix is 2/3 composted bark, 1/3 pumice Sunday, April 5 View Page Here are the four seeds I am starting now. Sunday, April 5 View Page All four seeds were soaked in warm water overnight Monday, April 6 View Page Seeds placed into moist napkins and baggie, nested within a lunch box cooler with a heating pad and towels. Temperature stabilized to 85 F. Tuesday, April 7 View Page The 1320.5 Lombardi was quick to germinate. Thanks Mark! Tuesday, April 7 View Page The 1779 J. Werner was also quick to germinate. Wednesday, April 8 View Page The 1832.5 Midthun took an extra day to germinate. Wednesday, April 8 View Page The 1597 Menting also took an extra day to germinate. Thanks Kaarina and Joe! Thursday, April 9 View Page Seeds were put into air pruning pots to promote finer feeder roots. Heat provided by fluorescent lights above and heating mat below. Saturday, April 11 View Page 1779 cots coming up Sunday, April 12 View Page 1320.5 cots open Sunday, April 12 View Page 1779 cots open Sunday, April 12 View Page 1832.5 coming up Tuesday, April 14 View Page Shade cloth made of snow Wednesday, April 15 View Page Hardly any snow all winter, then we get this in April! Saturday, April 18 View Page Seedlings seeing sunlight for the first time. Still waiting for the 1597 Menting to come up. Sunday, April 19 View Page I made a time lapse HD video of the emergence of the 1779 J. Werner seedling, posted to Youtube here: https://youtu.be/VMLPUIoYCjE Be sure to watch it in 1080P. The video was created using an AC powered Canon DSLR set on a timer to capture an image every 5 minutes. Time lapse starts on April 11, 2015 at 12 PM and ends on April 16, 2015 at 7 PM, covering a total of 5 days, 7 hours. Frame rate is 30 frames per second so every second in the video covers 2.5 hours of plant growth. Grow lights were constantly on throughout the time lapse. Sunday, April 26 View Page The 1779 was put into its air pruning "Stump Box" that I built over the weekend. It holds about 8 cubic feet of substrate. Sunday, May 10 View Page 150 sq. ft. contest early photo, 15 ft. x 10 ft. marked in red, 12 Fl. Oz. can on top of fence post. Saturday, May 16 View Page After a slow start, the 1779 is starting to pick up in growth. The first tendrils showed up this past week. Saturday, May 16 View Page I am experimenting with a 30 gallon tote buried in the ground to hold and re-capture/recycle nutrient solution. A water pump sends nutrient solution through 1/2" tubing to multi-stream drippers circling the stump. The plant is currently watered once a day. Sunday, May 17 View Page Started tomato seeds today, 5.30 MacCoy Sunday, May 24 View Page All 5.30 MacCoy tomato seeds germinated in less than a week Sunday, May 24 View Page It was a cold and wet week. The hoop house has helped to keep up growth. The tip of the main will be out of the stump box soon. Time to build the main vine grow trough. Sunday, May 24 View Page The main is coming down, landing on large pieces of pumice added today. Secondaries are starting to push. Wednesday, May 27 View Page Main vine trough is up and filled with substrate. Wednesday, May 27 View Page Main vine hit the 2 ft mark today and is just about down. Monday, June 1 View Page 1779 close to 4ft in length Monday, June 1 View Page I over fertilized last week, a couple leaves are burnt at the edges. I also removed the drip halo around the stump and will be hand watering for now. Time to build the secondary troughs. Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1779 pumpkin #1 around 4.5 ft out Wednesday, June 3 View Page Veins Saturday, June 6 View Page Secondary reaching Sunday, June 7 View Page First male flowers on the 1779 opened this morning Sunday, June 7 View Page Spent a few hours this morning digging this hole. A larger nutrient reservoir will be going into it. Sunday, June 7 View Page Here is the 100 gallon reservoir in place and filled with nutrient solution. I also ran a 1/2" PVC from the stump box to the reservoir for recirculation. Styrofoam goes over the top to keep birds, dust, and light out of the solution. Thursday, June 11 View Page 1779 pumpkin #1 settled down around 6ft on the main Thursday, June 11 View Page Six secondary troughs down, about 16 more to go! Thursday, June 11 View Page Tip of the main is close to 8 ft long. I will be training it to the ground over the next few weeks. Sunday, June 14 View Page Pumpkin #1 on the 1779 bloomed this morning. I had my camera out to capture the event. Here is a 24 hour time lapse: https://youtu.be/31tGqYQ6-G8 Monday, June 15 View Page Tip of the main is at 10 ft today, reached the end of its trough. Monday, June 15 View Page Culled pumpkin #1, here is a cross section Wednesday, June 17 View Page Pumpkin #2 is showing in the tip of the main. Every secondary is also showing pumpkins, I culled all of those. Friday, June 19 View Page Getting the main to the ground safely is going to be interesting. This is my version of the S-curve, vertical instead of side-to-side. It looks like pumpkin #2 will be around 12 ft from the stump. Friday, June 19 View Page I have 10 secondary troughs up so far. Temperatures are rising here, getting into the 90s first time this year. Saturday, June 20 View Page OK lets see if this will work, shade cloth strips tied off to make mini hammocks for the main. I plan on loosening the strips each day and slowly bring the tip to the ground. I estimate pollination will be in a week. Thursday, June 25 View Page Main vine is on the ground and tomorrow I will be pollinating the pumpkin on the right. Thursday, June 25 View Page Male flowers to be used for pollination tomorrow morning Thursday, June 25 View Page Secondaries near the stump stopped growing this week. I could have been over-watering the stump. I have a few strong secondaries down the line, hopefully they will continue to grow. Friday, June 26 View Page I pollinated the 2nd pumpkin on the main vine this morning. 4 lobes and it is 13 feet from the stump. Friday, June 26 View Page Keeping the pollination cool with cooler and frozen bottles Saturday, June 27 View Page My older leaves near the stump are not looking so good and my secondaries closer to the stump stopped growing last week. Here is what the top of the leaves look like. Is this angular leaf spot? Saturday, June 27 View Page The underside of the leaves look very odd. Any idea what is causing this? I did spray Daconil a week ago but it appears to be spreading to other leaves. Saturday, June 27 View Page I pollinated the 3rd pumpkin to show up on the main this morning, 4 lobes and 14 ft out from the stump. Sunday, June 28 View Page Both pumpkins are 1779 x self Saturday, July 4 View Page Here are the pumpkins on the main. Pumpkin #2 on the left is 8 DAP and pumpkin #3 on the right is 7 DAP. Saturday, July 4 View Page View from the other side of the two pumpkins. #2 on the right and #3 on the left. Saturday, July 4 View Page Pumpkin #2 has a curve in its stem and its blossom is pointing upwards. I will need to tilt the pumpkin and lift the vine to correct this. Pumpkin #2 is also more spherical and a little taller. There appears to be a scar below the blossom that I believe was caused by young leaf stalk. Its secondary vine refuses to grow. Saturday, July 4 View Page Pumpkin #3 has a straighter, longer stem. I will need to curve the main away as it is too close currently. #3 is more egg shaped and not as tall as #2. Its secondary vine is growing well. Beni says this vine is important so I would like to keep it if I go with this pumpkin. Thursday, July 9 View Page I kept pumpkin #3 on the main Friday, July 17 View Page Growth has been slow, 90 OTT Tuesday, July 21 View Page Game over! Wednesday, July 22 View Page Every growth tip on the 1779 was dead, including the main, so I pulled the plant. I will now have to see what I can do with my back up plants.