Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 29 Entries. Wednesday, January 27 View Page Looking for the pumpkin fairies to help me grow a bigger pumpkin in 2016. Wednesday, January 27 View Page Auction seeds arrived. I'm shooting for my 1st 1000lb'er. I'm reading everything I can to reach my goal. Wednesday, April 13 View Page Cleaning out a few stumps to make life easier with the rototiller. 04/08/16 Thursday, April 14 View Page 1st soil test on the patch. How can you have too much compost! Sunday, April 17 View Page Seeds have been started. Cooler with 15 watts bulb. Maintains 80 degrees with lid cracked. Tuesday, April 19 View Page Hot houses built. Now I need to figure how to layout my patch. Sunday, April 24 View Page 4 of 8 seeds germinated, 1719 Daletas 14, 1127 Companion 15, two squash 746 Keim 15, Started some new backups. Wednesday, May 11 View Page Had a setback. After placing my plants in the hot house we had a week of cold cloudy weather. I had to go away on for a few days and the sun came out with 70 degree temps. Either they got sunburned or the hot house got too hot and they baked. Either way I'm stating some new Keim 746. Tuesday, May 24 View Page Back up plants popped out of the ground 4/29 Horton 1438, Roots are looking good. Tuesday, May 24 View Page Backup #2 Daletas 1778.5 emerged on 4/29. Baby'd these and made sure it was hardened off before planting. Tuesday, May 24 View Page Horton 1438 Planted this one on an angle to get it started in the right direction. Thursday, May 26 View Page Cucumber Beetles are here on day two in the patch. I sprayed with Seven to take care of. Sunday, June 19 View Page Its been a slow start but the vine's are starting to stretch out. Daletas 1778. Friday, July 8 View Page Daletas 1778 was mated with Companion plant on 07/05/16 Friday, July 8 View Page Daletas plant is getting that christmas tree shape. Front of plant is already 25ft wide. Friday, July 8 View Page Companion 1332 will be propagated tomorrow . 07/09/16 Thursday, July 14 View Page Daletas 1778 is off to a good start. I need to move it perpendicular to the vine and release a bit of the vine. Thursday, July 14 View Page Forgot to attach the pic for previous comment . Thursday, July 21 View Page Daletas 1778 Got it to move and finally decided its a keeper, Lets hope it keeps on growing. Thursday, July 21 View Page Call me stupid. I cut this one off the vine at 12 ft and kept the previous pumpkin at 9ft. I may regret final decision but needed to move on. Monday, July 25 View Page Daletas 1778 just starting to take off. 98lbs Tuesday, August 9 View Page Daletas 1778 Now estimated at 300lbs. It added 200lbs in 11 days. 19lbs/day while I was on vacation. Thanks to having pumpkin sitters. Monday, August 22 View Page Daletas 1778, OTT of 306 hit my personal best. 629lbs. The stem was getting slimy so I rubbed and powdered it with sulfur trying to keep it dry. Need it to make it one more month. Plants are getting hit by powdery mildew. Wednesday, August 31 View Page Put a fan on the stem to dry it out. I'm hoping to make it till Sept 23rd. Last Ott measurement was 318 (700LBs). and only gaining 14 lbs a day. I fed it some powdered milk and some 5,10,10. STILL a chance of hitting 1000lbs. Friday, September 9 View Page Left the sprinkler running overnight and when the water pressure dropped the stream of water really tore many leaves. Daletas 1778 is really slowing down during the month of Sept. Last OTT = 327 on 9/05/16 I'm not going to measure it again until picking time. Thursday, September 22 View Page Moving the Companion 1332 that was planted for male flowers and I ended up letting a pumpkin grow. Thursday, September 22 View Page This is the Daletas 1778 being picked. I measured 330 OTT Thursday, September 22 View Page The trailer is loaded up Saturday, September 24 View Page So close to hitting the 1000lb mark. Pumpkin was 15% over chart. 979.5lbs Lesson learned is to never give up. I was thinking id was going to hit the 800lb mark.