Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 31 Entries. Sunday, March 28 View Page Since I lost my beloved horse, Bri, last October to colic, I don’t have any more horse manure for the garden or my compost piles. My neighbor called me and said they were renting a Bobcat for the weekend and offered it to me to take all of their horse manure after they got done with their projects. They have about 4 years of it so it should be well composted. Today I went over and got a lesson in driving the Bobcat. Fun! Tomorrow I will get up early and start loading my trailer with it and making runs to my garden. I’m delighted as I made a new area for the giant pumpkins last fall and tilled some manure in but it needs more so I will amend it with this new stuff . I also need some for the new area where the tomatoes will go. I rotate my tomatoes to not be in the same place for three years so they will go where the pumpkins were last year. I can’t wait to get this stuff-it’s like gold! I will take some pics of the project tomorrow. Who would think one could get so excited over poop!   Monday, April 5 View Page Wow-when will the cold end? Here is our forecast for the next 4 days. Santa Fe, NM Monday 66° / 40° Tuesday 47° / 28° Wednesday 51° / 20° Thursday 59° / 15° One a good note, I was able to get about 14 yards of composted horse manure from my neighbor last weekend and about 9 yards went into the pumpkin patch. The rest will go into the veggie garden-and driving that Bobcat was a blast except when I accidently dumped a load over my head instead of in the utility trailer! Fortunately, the cab is covered!   Saturday, May 1 View Page Today I am planting giant pumpkin seeds! I will put them in 4"peat pots so that I can peel the pots away later without disturbing the roots when I transplant them. They grow really fast once they come up, so I will have to put them in the soil perhaps in 2 weeks. I will transplant them once the first true leaf comes out. You can tell which way the vine will grow as it will grow in the opposite direction of the first true leaf. This way I can place it in the soil in the direction I want it to grow. I am growing 4 giant pumpkins this year. They are: 817.9 Schieder 09, 1166 Mohr 09, 949.5 Harp 09, and the 895 Grande 08. They will go in my new pumpkin patch and I am growing another one: 352 Cabossel 09 (that's me!) for the community garden here in Santa Fe that I will plant when I teach a workshop on May 15th. I will try to break the state record here in NM this year. Have to beat 404 lbs-shooting for a 500-600 lb pumpkin..   Friday, May 14 View Page All the pumpkin seeds are up but the 817.9 Schieder 09. Hopefully it will come up in a couple of days. I noticed they seemed very cool when I touched them and then I felt my heating mat and found some cooler areas on it, especially around the edges so I moved them all into the center of the mat to warm them up. Still very cold here in Santa Fe, NM at nights-the forecast is May 15 (our last frost date)-May 18 in the mid-30's at night so it looks like I will wait to plant. That plus it has been horribly windy-45-60 mph winds many days. They can stay warm inside for now. Gonna be an interesting growing year..   Sunday, May 16 View Page Here are the pumpkins and one giant marrow coming up. I'm planting them by tues (gonna harden them off with a little sun gradually the next few days) now that the nights have warmed up into the mid-40's. Meanwhile they are in the house. Getting a late start this year-want to see if it makes any difference as it was so cold in May (many 27 degree nights, 50's in day) and I thought they would just sit there anyways. Hope they catch up! From left front row: 352 Cabossel 09, 949.5 N.Harp 09, 817.9 Schieder 09, Back row: 1166 Mohr 09, 895 Grande 08, 73.6 Wursten 09(marrow)   Sunday, May 16 View Page Well here are my all star giant tomatoes that are going out as soon as I harden them off in the next few days now that the nights are finally in the high 40's. They were out for about 45 minutes today in the sun and breeze today and that was enough for them. I brought them in and watered them with some organic seaweed and superthrive while they are going through the transition to help reduce stress. Maybe I should drink the stuff to reduce my stress (just joking)! I have in my lineup for giant tomatoes (6) Big Zacs (seeds from Totally Tomatoes), (1) 4.64 N. Harp 09,(2) 5.416 N. Harp 09, and (3) 7.18 N. Harp 09. As you all know, Nick Harp is a phenomenal giant tomato and giant pumpkin grower in the midwest that was kind enough to supply me a few of his seeds this year. Thanks Nick! I can't wait to see what these will do this year!   Thursday, June 10 View Page Sunday I planted my four baby giant pumpkin plants-949.5 N.Harp 09, 817.9 Schieder 09, 1166 Mohr 09, 895 Grande 08. I planted them at a 45 degree angle in the direction they will vine and up to the cots (baby leaves) so their stems will be protected from snapping off in wind. They are just starting to lay down so I built up the soil under them to support them. I placed them in the direction to grow out of the tunnels (remember to look at the second true leaf and that is the direction they will grow). I was worried that even with row cover over the top of the low tunnels, it would still be too hot for the baby giant pumpkin plants so I covered them with additional row cover. I had them in the windowsill but not outside to really harden off so I was afraid they would be really tender to the intense heat. I watered with Super thrive and seaweed fertilizer to help with the shock. In addition, I went out and got some shade cloth to put over the row cover and to shade the ends. That should help with the temperatures expected to be in the mid to high 90's the rest of the week. It ended up with much lower temperatures on Sunday- 86 degrees because a storm moved in all day and cooled things off and dumped some nice rain that night. Perfect planting weather! Not too hot. Nice lightning storm too. I checked them last night after a 96 degree day and they are doing well what with all the extra protection.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Late yesterday I noticed the row cover over the Grande 895 had blown partially off and some critter had eaten part of the leaves. I think it was a rabbit. I've been putting the row cover to ward off this kind of incident. Fortunately it didn't eat the whole plant so I think it will recover. When the plants get bigger, I think the rabbits won't be interested in the leaves. I have to reinforce the gates where I think rabbits can get under to get in the patch.   Saturday, July 3 View Page Finally we got some real rain. Thursday night we got 1.42 inches and last night we got over 1.30 inches which is a lot for Santa Fe considering our average precipitation is just over 14 inches for the whole year and we have been really short so far this year. The pumpkins are loving the rain and putting on some good growth with all this moisture which came from Hurricane Alex (although it is no longer a hurricane, just a tropical storm). Now if they could put on another 8 feet in the next week! LOL! In fact all of the veggie garden is growing like crazy with the rain and great temperatures. This picture is of our arroyo which flooded Thursday night. Haven't seen it running like this in about 10 years!   Monday, July 5 View Page Notice this tomato looks deformed and gnarly. Beautiful to my eyes! It has 4 little tomatoes that have fused together-kinda like Siamese twins only this one is quadruplets! Most giant tomatoes are a result of a megablossom where 2 or more blossoms fuse together. Many megablossoms do not pollinate fully and so they have a higher self abort rate. So far this one is doing well. I have a few other megablossoms right now but not many. Some varieties produce more megablossoms and hence more giant tomatoes. This one in the picture comes from a Nick Harp tomato seed. His plant grew a 7 lb+ tomato last year and he gave me a few seeds. I call his plants the ‘Harpies”! I have 6 growing right now. Hope this one becomes a monster!   Saturday, July 17 View Page I lost my 817.9 Schieder-just bit the dust. Wilted up. I looked for SVB but there were none and then I thought I 'd overwatered but the truth is it's been struggling with the heat too so I don't know. Been 95 degrees around here. May have been some kind of wilt too. The other three are doing fine. I'm not having the main ends shrivel up and die like they did last year. I wonder if that has more to do with an individual pumpkin's ability to handle the sun and heat. I am starting to keep the main vine ends under a small piece of row cover just in case but it blows off and they seem ok. Last year they would crisp up if that happened. Hope I get some pumpkins but not sure since I'm so far behind. Oh well. I'm not going to fret too much. I just got a bunch of stuff from Extreme Pumpkin and can't wait to start using them this weekend. Hope it makes a difference.. .   Saturday, July 17 View Page I'm growing one giant marrow that I got from Brad in the Netherlands. He said they don't like to be hot but it is doing well so far in our heat-95 degrees. I've got a bunch of male flowers coming on so the girls won't be far behind!   Tuesday, July 20 View Page The bad news is the 817.9 Schieder has bit the dust. Just started wilting no matter what. I looked for SVB but didn't find any damage. Started with the extreme heat we've been having 99-100 degrees. Just not able to recover even thought it had row cover on it. Then I thought maybe it got too much water and was drowning but the rest of the patch are doing ok. Then I thought it got some kind of disease but it doesn't matter -it's gone-three plants left.. The good news is I have a female flower on the end of the main of the 895 Grande. Yea! Maybe I'll get one yet! Still a little to close but I'll take it if some male flowers are willing and cull it later if needed.   Wednesday, July 28 View Page Pollinated 945 N. Harp with self on main vine on July 26 with 3 male flowers. Cool overcast day. Hopefully it will take. Lots of female blossoms now on all three plants. Got 2 more to pollinate hopefully this week on the main vines...Hope they grow like crazy as I am really behind. Luckily I don't need a world's record, only a state record..   Thursday, July 29 View Page Pollinated my 895 Grande with 945 N.Harp earlier this morning. I noticed last night that the female flower on the main vine was very big and turning orange which is an indicator that it will open the next morning. I had covered up the female flower last night with a piece of row cover to keep the bees out before I got there this am and when I came over with the male flowers and took off the row cover a bee was immediately there but I shooed it away and did the pollination myself. Hope it takes!   Monday, August 2 View Page Pollinated the second 945 Harp on secondary on Aug.1 with the 895 Grande because I had no male blossoms on the 1166 Mohr to pollinate it with.   Monday, August 9 View Page Pollinated another secondary of 945 Harpe with 1166 Mohr. Pollinated another secondary of 895 Grande with 1166 Mohr also.   Monday, August 9 View Page 12th day-945 N. Harpe main-51.5 OTT and 895 Grande main-47 OTT. Harpie put on 1.5 inches in circumference overnight..   Friday, August 13 View Page I don't believe it. I didn't measure correctly for OTT. I forgot to measure the length! Must be the heat. So the previous entry is incorrect. The 949 N. Harp pumpkin was 80.5 OTT (14 lbs)and the Grande 895 OTT was 85.5 OTT (17 lbs) Woo Hoo! The good news is it looks like they are here to stay as they haven't aborted as of now. I'm just glad with this year to get anything so far. The 895 Grande put on 1.5 inches in circumference from last night to this morning so it is starting to take off. Since I forgot to get the length last night, I thought I'd remeasure this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the Grande 895 grow like that in about 10 hrs time. I really like the 895 Grande. It is by far, my biggest plant with many leaves and now the pumpkin is starting to take off. Let's see where it goes. I also pollinated the 1166 Mohr main vine today, about 15 ft out. It was small and only had 4 lobes. I have not had a lot of female flowers to pollinate on the Mohr and this is the first female on the main of the Mohr. When I pollinated this morning it was about 75 degrees but got up to 93 degrees today. Hope the pollination takes...   Sunday, August 22 View Page My 895 Grande pumpkin who I've named 'Kong' (as in King) has put on 15 lbs a day for the last 2 days and is now up to 105 lbs and long and oval shaped. My 925 N. Harp who I've named 'Harpie' is 58 lbs and is perfectly round but the plant doesn't have that many leaves while the Grande plant has an enormous amount of leaves. I'm excited about the Grande pumpkin, Kong. Grow nagua, grow..   Saturday, August 28 View Page Ooo wee! Check out this giant marrow (which is actually a giant zucchini)! I don’t know how one measures for weight but I have several really big ones. One will go to the State Fair and the other up to the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers weigh off in Colorado if I can get it to last that long. It has been really fun growing it this year and watching the marrows grow. The Plant does fine in the heat and ultraviolet rays (we are 7000 ft high here in Santa Fe). No wilting at all. Grows like crazy. The only thing I will change next year is that it will go in the giant pumpkin patch where it will have more room to grow. It can duke it our with the giant pumpkins! Right now it is growing over everything and I already hacked it back twice! This one came from a seed from Brad Wuersten in the Netherlands who has the European World Record for it over there and was kind enough to give me a seed from one of his giant marrows.   Thursday, September 2 View Page My 895 Grande plant has produced one pumpkin I call 'Kong'that just hit 228 lbs. Putting on about 12-15lbs/day. With such a late start I don't think I'll break the NM state record but I'll have fun trying!   Wednesday, September 15 View Page Here is one of my smaller giant marrows I entered in our State Fair here in New Mexico. I'm holding on to my biggest giant marrow, giant pumpkin and giant tomato to enter in one of the GPC weigh-offs in Colorado. I also entered in a 'baby' pumpkin at the fair (not my biggest). I will go down this Sunday to the fair to see if any of them placed.   Saturday, September 18 View Page 'Kong' has grown to 360 lbs. It is now my PB (personal best), still putting on weight and looking good. I wonder what it will end up at. I'm going to the Oct 2 Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) weigh-off in Colorado Springs, CO. The New Mexico State Record is 404 and with this warm weather I have a chance to break it. A long shot but still a chance. So put a word out to the universe asking for Kong to break the state record! GROW KONG GROW!!!   Sunday, September 26 View Page I know this is no big deal to most of you growers who grow BIG but my little Kong has reached 396 lbs! This after a dismal start with such a cold June et al. Growing at 7000 ft presents it's own set of challenges. I am trying to get it past the New Mexico state record of 404 lbs by pushing it a little with fish emulsion,seaweed, Co2 and TKO every day. I have to be careful not to blow it up! It will be touch and go until the end when we take it on Saturday up to Colorado Springs, CO for the weigh-off this next weekend. Every pound is critical now. I won't know if it beats the record until they officially weigh Kong as I could be wrong on my measurements (wishful thinking?) or it could weigh light (or heavy).  I need at the minimum 10 lbs in 4 days and that is if the measurements are correct. The weatherman is predicting warm days in the 80's which bodes well for Kong. Grow Kong, grow.. Stay tuned!   Tuesday, September 28 View Page My giant pumpkin, Kong is now at 400 lbs and I must get to 405 lbs by Friday AM (when I cut it off). 405 lbs would just barely beat the NM State Record (404 lbs) and the weigh-off is this Saturday in Colorado Springs. I just found out there is another official GPC weigh-off on Oct 16th in Boise City OK (which is actually closer) but last year I waited till a later weigh-off hoping to get more weight and missed it because of a blizzard here in Santa Fe and in CO and my weighing it here on a certified scale didn't count as it has to be weighed at one of the GPC (Great Pumpkin Commonwealth) events to count. That plus my giant pumpkin buddies are in Colorado. I am going by an older weight chart which puts Kong at the lowest weight (400 lbs now). If I go by the newer charts, I've already beat the record. I'm leaning to going anyway this weekend as I already have a truck lined up to borrow and 6 strong guys coming out on Friday to lift it in the truck for me. And who knows how long this beautiful weather will last. I also have a giant zucchini that I have to get weighed as well. At last week's weigh-off at Jared's (they have three of these official weigh-offs in CO) the biggest zucchini was 4 lbs-my biggest is around 50 lbs! What a quandry...Grow Kong, grow..   Sunday, October 3 View Page Saturday, Oct 1, 2010/GPC Old Colorado City Weigh-Off, Colorado Springs, Colorado- Kong broke the New Mexico State Giant Pumpkin Record today coming in at 421 lbs beating the old record of 404 lbs! The record comes home to Santa Fe which is quite a feat considering our high altitude and short growing season. Kong also got a ribbon for third place in the weigh-off for 3rd biggest pumpkin out of about 25 contestants and $100 (yea-payed for my gas to get up there!). The first place was a 1109 lb monster pumpkin grown by a Colorado grower named Marc Sawtelle and second place was over 800 lbs grown by another Colorado grower named Doug (I don’t know his last name). These guys are my heros-they are really nice and share information about growing these monsters. My pumpkin was little by comparison but still bigger than all the rest of them. My giant marrow, ‘Big Zuc’, also got a ribbon for Best Squash. What a day!   Sunday, October 3 View Page Here's a pic of my marrow that took best squash-43 lbs.   Sunday, October 3 View Page What a way to end the season. Couldn't be better!   Sunday, October 17 View Page My biggest competition tomato comes from the 7.18 N.Harp plant and is 20.5 inches in circumference. It weighs 2 lbs-11.4 oz. This is now my personal best! Considering it was still 27 degrees on June 6th year I feel pretty good. I was going to take it to the weigh-off in Colorado but since it was still green and I wanted the seeds from it, I kept it home so it could get fully mature and red and let the seeds develop.   Sunday, October 17 View Page Here is the tape of the tomato. Isn't it beautiful!