Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 116 Entries. Monday, April 5 View Page This is the area I have to work with this year. My previous patch was just too small for what I need, but here I have all the room in the world. I'm thinking at least 50' x 35', enough to fit three or four plants in.   Monday, April 5 View Page My lineup for this year will depend on the size of my new patch, but the three seeds I'm most likely to put in the ground are 1194 Northrup, 498 Van Hook and 1054 Van Hook. I'm really excited about the 498 seed (1385 Jutras x 1450 Wallace). If those aren't good genetics...   Tuesday, April 6 View Page My tentative selection for the upcoming season: 498 Van Hook, 905 Van Hook, 1194 Northrup...   Saturday, April 10 View Page OK, so still wavering over seed selection, but work on the patch is underway. Most of the sod is still there, but that should be fixed tomorrow. I know it's a bit late to be starting a new patch, but nothing a bit of manure and gypsum (apparently) can't fix. I think I'm going with three seeds instead of two as several people have recommended. I'm not really growing for world record size, and if worse comes to worst and one of them is crowding the others I can just pull it.   Monday, April 12 View Page Got my 1194 Northrup and 1002 Kline from Dill Seeds. The 1194 is cracked on both sides, so hoping it will germinate. I hastily bought the 1002 before I knew how generous people at BP are, so I'll be saving it for future use.   Wednesday, April 14 View Page Just sent a last-minute soil test to A&L Eastern. Hope it'll get back in time for me to turn in some amendments if necessary.   Sunday, April 18 View Page I'm hoping to get seeds started next weekend. Eventually I'll have to build hoop houses, and I guess it's just PVC framing with plastic tied to it?   Monday, April 19 View Page Here are my choices for the year (thank you to Matt and John for very generous gifts!). I'm planting three, one of which will be the 498. Any advice on what the other two should be is appreciated (though I might save the 275 until I'm more experienced and confident with my soil). The image is a tad blurry towards the bottom, but you can still make out the text.   Wednesday, April 21 View Page Before I start filing and soaking my seeds, I decided to practice on a few less-than-usable ones (thanks to Susan for kindly sending me some!). Here are my supplies...   Wednesday, April 21 View Page Me in the process of filing said practice seeds:   Wednesday, April 21 View Page A filed seed:   Wednesday, April 21 View Page The end results soaking in water. I'll put them into soil in a couple hours (fingers crossed!)   Saturday, April 24 View Page Practice seeds show no signs of activity yet.   Friday, April 30 View Page As soon as I can get the supplies needed for my germination chamber, I'll be able to start seeds. Hoping that's soon...   Saturday, May 1 View Page We put down two yards of manure/mulch mix on the patch, going to have it tilled it in soon.   Monday, May 3 View Page Here are my filed seeds soaking in straight water.   Monday, May 3 View Page And my germination chamber. Heating pad turned to low inside a plastic seed-starting box. I have a thermometer in there so I can constantly monitor the temperature. So far "low" is about 80F, or a bit above; "medium" was too hot. Not ideal either way, but a few degrees too cold is better than cooking them. :)   Monday, May 3 View Page I tried posting a picture of my seed selection several times, but it won't go through. In any case, I started one of each: 275 Van Hook, 498 Van Hook, 566* Winey, 713 Winey (backup), and 1194 Northrup.   Friday, May 7 View Page My seeds are being magically propelled upwards from the dirt!   Friday, May 7 View Page My 566* had rooted, but it seemed to have stopped doing anything after that. I dug it up and it smelled weird, and had black splotches on the inside of the seedcoat. I figured it had rotted or something, and replaced it with another seed. Hope I made the right call, but worst case scenario is I'm 6 days behind what I would have been.   Sunday, May 9 View Page 713 Winey, my most advance seed so far.   Sunday, May 9 View Page *blows on his 275 lightly, as if a dwindling spark in an attempt to create fire*   Monday, May 10 View Page My 275 as of a couple minutes ago. It's growing, but still very slowly (I know the soil looks too wet, but I just transplanted it and that's how the potting mix came in the bag).   Wednesday, May 12 View Page Cool pic of my 713 Winey. This plant is awesome; I'm now hoping to grow it.   Saturday, May 15 View Page Put up deer fencing around the pumpkin patch. Took a couple hours maybe, and hoping to plant tomorrow.   Wednesday, May 19 View Page 566* Winey a week and a half (?) after germination.   Wednesday, May 19 View Page 498 Van Hook in the hoop house.   Monday, May 24 View Page 275 Van Hook   Monday, May 24 View Page 713 Winey   Monday, May 24 View Page 498 Van Hook   Monday, May 24 View Page 566* Winey   Monday, May 24 View Page ...and my pollinator plant for the 566* Winey (thanks Deb!) - I'd like to have some pure green genetics for next year, and I'm not about to trust self-pollination.   Monday, May 24 View Page Soil test results still haven't been sent by A&L Eastern. :( They apparently got the soil on April 15.   Monday, May 24 View Page This is more for my own tracking purposes rather than to share useful info, but this evening I documented and saved the important dates in my growing season thus far (when I started the seeds, when each one germinated, etc.) This way, it'll be easy to make my AGGC entries next October nice and comprehensive!   Tuesday, May 25 View Page Plants are really starting to have at it now. Figure they'll be down and vining in two weeks or so, and at an acceptable pollination size by July 4. Thought I was behind schedule, but after reading many diaries over the past couple days, it seems to me that seeds started way early and forced in heated coldframes aren't that much more advanced than seedlings planted outside in mid-May. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to pollinate my 275. Might go scavenging for pollen from other growers? Or I could pollinate it with my 713, but who wants the same (nearly) immediate genetics on both sides? So much to ponder...   Thursday, May 27 View Page Panorama of my patch in its early stages.   Thursday, May 27 View Page Trying out a new way to post pictures of my pumpkins with only one diary entry. Probably didn't need to post these just yet...   Sunday, May 30 View Page My plants as of tonight. From the bottom-left going counterclockwise: 713, 275, 498, and 566*.   Wednesday, June 2 View Page My 'mater is double-vining!   Thursday, June 3 View Page My 481* Preis snapped at the stem somehow and I found it massacred by cuke beetles. Oh, well. Nice looking plant, too.   Saturday, June 5 View Page One picture of my most advanced plant, the 713 Winey. Getting closer to touching down. Speaking of which... I'm under a tornado watch until late this evening, and 2 inch hail is possible. Just hoping for the best.   Sunday, June 6 View Page After four years of losing my AG plants to groundhogs, and spending dozens of hours working on the new patch this year... two of my most beautiful plants, the 713 Winey and 275 Van Hook, were eaten. Both have their main vines and vine tips intact, so I'm hoping they can recover – although that puts me a couple weeks further behind. My 498 Van Hook and 566* Winey suffered only minor damage.   Sunday, June 6 View Page And the 275, which still has most of its leaves left, thankfully.   Sunday, June 6 View Page All is not lost. My 498 Van Hook and 566* Winey are looking better than ever.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Put in my backup 905 Van Hook plant next to the obliterated 713. Still hope 713 recovers, but I'm hearing mixed opinions...   Monday, June 7 View Page Gotta give credit to my 713. One and a half leaves left, yet the vine tip is growing unimpeded. Just a strong, aggressive plant overall.   Monday, June 7 View Page Oh great...   Monday, June 7 View Page Ain't it purty? :)   Monday, June 7 View Page 275 main vine tip doing just fine. If the groundhog had to devour my plants, I'm thankful he left the most important things alone.   Monday, June 7 View Page 498 is definitely starting to run, in other news. Squash is doing fine as well, but I won't bore you all with more pictures of that.   Thursday, June 10 View Page I present to you the Recycling Bin Shot (patent pending).   Thursday, June 10 View Page Counter-clockwise from bottom-left: 713, 275, 566*, 498.   Friday, June 11 View Page Groundhog came back and ate the tip off my 713. Trying to stop him, but this is getting ridiculous. Have to train a secondary as the main fine now.   Sunday, June 13 View Page 498 Van Hook is on the ground and running.   Tuesday, June 15 View Page Received some seeds last night for next year (meaning anything beyond this season), which got me in the mood to do some snooping at AGGC! Hard to find anything on there with "bad" genetics, whatever that may mean. Plant-wise, the 713 is hanging in there and I've picked the side-vine I'm going to use as the new main. 275 is recovering nicely and starting to pick up the pace a little. Still looks healthy. 498 is the only one on the ground yet, and it's about 4' long now. There's a smooth, brown area on its stump with a couple dried-up scars. It's not mushy or soft, and I see no other damage, so I'm hoping it isn't rot. I guess I just have to keep the area dry and wait a bit. 566* is looking great; broad, dark-green leaves and an incredibly thick main/stem. If my soil ends up being OK, I think this plant has a lot of potential. Gave them all an increased dose of fish last night. I think a couple more weeks of this feeding regimen before I migrate to something else. No signs of the groundhog the past few days after I reinforced the fence and used some repellents.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Here's the stump issue on my 498 I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry. It still doesn't look or feel soft, so could it just be some discoloration? Also note the kink in the main vine and the ribbon secondaries... lol   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Buried my first couple leafnodes (hopefully correctly) on the 498, though!   Wednesday, June 16 View Page The Jolly Green Giant... err, I mean 566* about ready to lay down its tree trunk on the ground.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page 275 VH   Friday, June 18 View Page Got some seeds from Dill for future use. Always exciting to see bubbles in the mail... :)   Saturday, June 19 View Page 566* squash plant doing exceptionally well.   Saturday, June 19 View Page 275 trying its best   Saturday, June 19 View Page 713 hanging in there while I work on a new main vine   Saturday, June 19 View Page 498 picture didn't seem to go through, so here it is again.   Wednesday, June 23 View Page 498 as of this afternoon   Wednesday, June 23 View Page 566*   Wednesday, June 23 View Page 275   Wednesday, June 23 View Page Cute little female on my squash plant I'm really hoping ends up being around 10' out before it opens.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Pollinating 498 and 566* tomorrow. I don't think I'll have any males ready for the squash, so I guess I'll just have to cross it with a pumpkin.   Monday, July 5 View Page 498 Van Hook x self – 5 lobes, two males, approx. 14 ft 566* Winey x 713 Winey – 5 lobes, one male, approx. 10 ft No squash males, but if this one doesn't take (which I hope it does) I have another female in the tip.   Tuesday, July 6 View Page 566*   Tuesday, July 6 View Page 498   Tuesday, July 6 View Page 275 Van Hook x open. I think this will be my fair pumpkin, since the plant seems to continue to have issues.   Tuesday, July 6 View Page 713, with secondaries and third-stage growth flying every which way. I guess the one pointing to the bottom of the patch is the new "main", but at this point I think the difference is marginal. I need to do some serious work to get this plant back in shape... I sort of lost confidence in it after seeing it in shambles for two weeks or more.   Tuesday, July 6 View Page And one of my beautiful field pumpkin (regular field, not giant) plants. Hoping for some nice Thanksgiving decorations. I have four of these in the ground right now. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures: my lens is having some issues and I forgot to turn the ISO back down after Sunday's fireworks, etc.   Tuesday, July 6 View Page Female set to open on the 713 tomorrow. I plan to cross it with the 275.   Wednesday, July 7 View Page 713 Winey x 275 Van Hook – 5 lobes, 3 males, approx. 8 ft out on secondary vine   Wednesday, July 7 View Page 713 set to open on another vine in the morning. I picked some males from both the 498 and the 275, so I'll decide in the morning what to pollinate it with.   Thursday, July 8 View Page 713 Winey x 498 Van Hook – 5 lobes (deformed), 2 males, approx. 8 ft out on new main   Friday, July 9 View Page It looks like my first two pollinations (566* and 498) took without issue; both are about the size of baseballs now. Pretty incredible, considering the only things I had to fend off the 102-degree heat were a few cardboard boxes and some ice cubes.   Sunday, July 11 View Page 3 more pollinations tomorrow morning.   Monday, July 12 View Page 566* Winey x self – 5 lobes, 2 males, approx. 20 ft out on main vine 275 Van Hook x 498 Van Hook - 4 lobes, 2 males, side vine approx. 8 ft from stump 713 Winey x 275 Van Hook - 5 very deformed lobes, 2 males, approx. 12 ft out on new main vine   Tuesday, July 13 View Page 498 Van Hook x 275 Van Hook, 4 1/2 lobes, 2 males, approx. 20 ft out on main vine as a backup in case my initial set fails.   Wednesday, July 14 View Page 275 Van Hook x self – 4 lobes, 3 males, side vine approx. 8 ft out from stump I'm hoping that's the last of them for the season. I still don't have any fruit set for sure, other than a questionable squash, which will likely be replaced by a more suitable candidate in the next week or so. Had to cull my 498 fruit, which got to about soccer ball size, due to a split after heavy rains. That plant has a new pollination on it, which I hope takes, since the main vine is fast approaching the end of the patch. 713 has three pollinations on it – two on the new main vine and one on an initial secondary – of which only the side-vine one is set and growing. One about 8 ft out on its main vine looks like it didn't take, but the one further out is still up in the air. Secondaries on the 275 are filling out, and I now have two pollinations on it. We'll see...   Monday, July 19 View Page 275 Van Hook x 498 Van Hook, 5 lobes, 2 males, approximately 12 ft Have fruit set on all plants (including 275, but on a side vine). Squash is getting big now (probably around 90 lbs, but I'm not going to measure until day 20).   Wednesday, July 21 View Page Some updates... 713 has two fruit set on it. One is 14 days old and set on a secondary, the other is on the main vine at 9 days old. 275 also has two fruit set, although both are young. Even though the plant was slow out of the gate, it's aging very well compared to the others. 498 had a nice fruit set on it, but it split after a rainstorm. I tried to set another one on the plant, but after a week, it looks like it's aborting. Main vine hit the end of the patch, so I'm turning it around to try and get a late fruit set. Female should open on Saturday... might be able to get a few hundred pounds off it in August and September. 566* has a 15 day-old fruit that's set and growing. I'm not measuring anything until day 20, but given current growth rates on it, I think I have a shot at a pretty decent fruit. Unfortunately this is the one I had to cross with a pumpkin, but there are plenty of seeds out there. Overall I'm pretty happy with how my first real AG growing season is unfolding. I've learned a lot, and I know exactly how to improve for next year. I'm hoping I have something to bring to a local weighoff, but failing that, some porch decorations would be nice.   Thursday, July 22 View Page 566* squash   Friday, July 23 View Page Yup, 498 will be a fruitless plant. Quite a shame, but there's nothing I can do. Just part of growing.   Saturday, July 24 View Page Going to examine the plant one last time, and barring a glimpse of hope for a late-set fruit, I'm going to pull the 498 and get a few more field pumpkins in the ground. Might as well, right? Glad I still have one more 498 seed for use in a future year.   Sunday, July 25 View Page ...and then there were two. 275 fruit appear to be aborting, alas. Good thing I decided to grow four plants this year!   Sunday, July 25 View Page Did my first (very rough) measurement on the 566* at day 20. Approximately 122 OTT.   Thursday, July 29 View Page RIP 498...   Thursday, July 29 View Page 713 fruit   Friday, July 30 View Page Squash day ~25   Saturday, July 31 View Page Bountiful zuke and mater harvest this year. Some of the nicest produce I've ever seen coming out of the garden. I got all sorts of fun varieties in mind for next year, and I'm reading a book on how to breed veggies. Look out, my experiments of any kind usually don't turn out well...   Monday, August 9 View Page Just came home yesterday after a nice beach vacation. Squash had filled out a bit but hasn't grown much. I think it needs water, but I'm afraid to soak it after a week of dryness... I think I'll have to ease moisture back into it. 713 pumpkin grew nicely, and is starting to orange up. If it can make a couple hundred lbs by the end of the month, I'm thinking I might take it to the county fair and show it off a bit. Got a whole bunch of little field pumpkins as well that are adding some dots of orange to my patch.   Friday, August 13 View Page 713 on day 32   Friday, August 13 View Page 566* day 39   Tuesday, August 17 View Page Looking towards next season. Any more room? Let's see...   Tuesday, August 17 View Page Room for another plant here.   Tuesday, August 17 View Page Room to double my patch (or better) here.   Tuesday, August 17 View Page Overview to accompany the last few pictures. All tentative planning at this point, but if I'm going to expand the patch, I'd like to do it soon to maximize time for soil amendments and preparation. Four plants just didn't satisfy me this year, and there are quite a few seeds I'd like to try, so I wouldn't mind having six or eight plants to tend to.   Thursday, August 19 View Page Got to maintain my reputation for secrecy, so I'm only going to show you the blossom end of my 713 (day ~38, I think?).   Thursday, August 19 View Page ...meh, fine, here's the other end. Huge stem, and the crack that initially had me worried healed over nicely.   Thursday, August 19 View Page Squash putting on the pounds on day 45. Excuse the weeds.   Thursday, August 19 View Page Got maters? A most bountiful harvest this year.   Monday, August 23 View Page Since my 713 fruit (bottom-right) really wasn't going anywhere fast, and I wasn't going to win any weighoffs with it, I cut it and brought it to the county fair. A nicely shaped, orange fruit deserves to be seen by a couple hundred thousand people. :) Now the 122 Diamond est (713 Winey x 275 Van Hook). I'm happy with it, given that the plant was reduced to a stalk and a couple mangled leaves early in the season. After the fair I'm going to retrieve the fruit so I can eventually harvest the seeds. Visually, my squash (still on the vine) is about twice the size of the pumpkin, so if all goes well, I'd like to bring it to Fairfield to get it weighed.   Tuesday, August 24 View Page Sent my autumn soil test to A&L in California. We shall see...   Wednesday, August 25 View Page Won second place in pie pumpkins at my county fair.   Friday, August 27 View Page Greenie is the only thing left in my pumpkin patch, but I'm proud of it. Next year... watch out.   Wednesday, September 1 View Page Ugh, noooo. :( My perfect gray and green squash is turning orange at the last minute. There goes my chance at winning anything at a weighoff.   Friday, September 3 View Page Sure enough... one less asterisk in the world. Still a nice solid fruit though!   Tuesday, September 14 View Page Fruit is starting to rot, so here it is: 170 Diamond EST (566* Winey x 713 Winey).   Saturday, September 18 View Page Got hundreds of perfectly well-developed seeds from the 713 Winey (1353 DeBacco x 275 Van Hook) fruit. Fruit was pollinated with the 275 Van Hook (1443 Palmer x 1407 Wolf). They're drying right now, so if anybody wants any seeds, just shoot me an email and I'll take care of the bubble etc. juliancolton2@yahoo.com   Saturday, September 18 View Page A picture of the 713 fruit with our new French Mastiff.   Tuesday, September 28 View Page Here's my first soil test for the new patch... some obvious issues, but any suggestions appreciated at my email.