Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 82 Entries. Friday, April 22 View Page This is a test to see if I know what I am doing. MArc and I will be having a diary this year....HOPEFULLY if I figure this out. So if your into poor spelling and bad grammer feel free to check out what C@P are doing this season....More to follow....maybe DAN   Sunday, April 24 View Page Ok it seems like I managed to get the first entry correct. so here goes a little update on Team C&P. Background info....C stands for Carlson (Dan) and P stands for Petersen (Marc). We grow 7 plants.....6 at my house and one at Marc's Mom's place. We teamed up way way back in 2004 and have been enjoying working together sharing the grind of this hobby ever since. This diary will be our first (possibly last) effort to share some of our tech. and efforts on how and why we do what we do. This will be following one plant and one plant only. it will be revealed when we get it to germinate. Which, by the way, we have started to do or try to do today. SO the season has started as of 10:30 Am April 24th. Our Basic soil prep consist of the following. Fall we add green manure from a local diary. Dewatered manure actually and then cover with Maple leaves and till. followed with more leaves covering the patch and let it rest. Tilled this spring once we added some peletized gypsum and a little humic. That is basically it at this stage.Good luck to all. DAN   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Ok times are busy busy busy for us all...BUT really for me as we are having a wedding in about 4 days.. My son Nick will become a husband this Saturday!! YEAH!!! Anyways time to put a couple faces with the Team C&P. for those who don't know that is me, Dan Carlson, on the left sporting the World Champion Green Bay Packers sweat shirt and my growing partner since 2004 on the right Marc Petersen. Steve Krug check this picture out closely...there is something in it special for you!!LOL!!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Ok time to reveal the seed of choice for this maiden try at doing a diary. Thanks to Chris we are giving this one particular seed a shot.It will be the stud of all the plants we have this coming season.Thanks Chris for thinking of us little guys!!!!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page I forgot to mention Chris sent it to us a few days before Christmas and it was a wonderful surprise . All wrapped up and even a pretty little red bow on the envelope...Oh yea he even sent us a little message on the back. Best his little heart!! HUMMMM seems to me he knows us pretty well...   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Marc was given the daunting task of being the lucky one to either HERO or ZERO the 1810.5.....I "gave" Marc this task simply because flat out, no ifs ,ands, or buts about it..HE IS WAY WAY BETTER AT IT THE Me!!!!....pure and simple..Hence you see.....30 hours after start time he has us atleast headed in the right direction.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page This was taken about 3 days ago.....TADA!! Marc has done a wonderful job like always and the new seedling is resting safely in it's new patch location. Everything looks great and we are looking forward to sharing our ride with the 1810.5 plant through out the season. Thanks again Chris for the chance and we hope to do you proud... Team C&P   Sunday, May 15 View Page Ok it's been a while since i have been on and like most of you guys out there this time of the year DRAGS by. Things are progressing...Not the right direction but progressing none the less. Plant growth is very slow or non existent as the temps in Iowa continue to swing in extreme direction. frost and ice 2 days last week and then less then 6 days later 92 or 93 here. So it's tough to get things going but it happens. Here is the area where the 1810 will be grown.   Sunday, May 15 View Page Here is the 1810 seedling inside the little hut seen in the previous picture. A bit stringy for lack of a better tune but over all about as good as one could expect. We don't generally use heat in the later plants as we use in the fair plants or earlier sets do to the nature we generally don't need the heat. That said maybe it would have helped a bit this year..Live and learn. If the temps swing around I am sure the plant will respond. Time will tell   Sunday, May 15 View Page Yes I know I said this was a diary about one plant BUT I feel compelled to share sometimes what or how marc and I try and do things. That said the later plants at my house are struggling to say the least. 2 hills look about right maybe lagging a bit and the other 2 hills are stunted to say the least. basically I think they may have been frosted one of the 27° nights last week.Not sure because they were covered but the evidence points that direction. we had a couple back ups on the opposite end of the 1810 patch area that looked way better,. yea they are a bit big to be moving but here is a picture of them inroute to their new home. The shovels and sarah wrap method is how we have done it in the past and again this time..simple and in the past effective.here they are laying in the back seat of Marc's truck. this are easily twice the size of the plants they are replacing. desperate times need desperate measures. LOL!!   Thursday, May 19 View Page WOW look at me...another Diary update today!!! MArc sent me this picture today and I have to admitt it's been a while since i have laid eyes on the little guy but here is apicture of the 1810 today. I was out with a buddy putting out 400 hooks of trot lines for Catfish. I just might even post a picture of the nights catch.... Looks decent dispite Mother natures efforts this week to kill off everything. Frost 2 days in a row but finally things appear to have made a turn.Plants need some help and it all starts with warmer nights a few days of sun..Hopefully that will happen sooooooon. I can remember springs that were like this.Talking with Marc I can remember having all the later plants hanging around at the 4 or 5 leaf stage on the first of June....That said we hope we will be at that stage at least come June first...Weather will be the telling factor.   Thursday, May 26 View Page Well here we are on May 27th and things continue to drag along. Slow growth seems to be the thing this season and you gotta expect it given the temps we are experiencing again this week. Last nights overnight low was I think 42°.Finally got some rain and I know others out there are battling the opposite with way way to much rain so I am not complaining by any means. the whole state went thru that last season and I feel for everyone out there dealing with mother nature and her ways. it can be very frustrating but don't give up the fight June is almost here and our extended forcast calls for much needed sun and warmer nights which should really help us get the plants kick started. Here is a pic of the 1810 as of May 26th. Photo taken by Marc. More pics to follow as I believe we will be tiling around the plant and extending a windbreak. I'll get some pics of tonights work in the patch Good luck everyone   Friday, May 27 View Page Ok I did a little tiling around the 1810 today and after work in the afternoon Marc and I put up a little wind break to give the plant some protection as it is in the early stages of running. This is always a stressful time for me as I feel they are pretty easily damaged from wind until they sprawl out a little..So this is our way of helping them survive the next couple weeks. marc Some Cole with his back to the camera and marc is on the opposite end.   Friday, May 27 View Page the previous post should have read MArc's SON Cole....is with his back to the camera....sorry about that Anyways in this pic I just wanted to point out a couple things....Way off to the left you will see a couple huts or small cold frames or whatever you want to call them. There are plants in there JUST incase something happens to the prefered plant..In this case the 1810. We feel with all the great seeds out there it is pointless to just stick one seed or plant in per spot. If something goes wrong ...wind damage..flat vine....or whatever.....we simply pull the primary plant and let one of the back ups take over..and your still right on schedule. Usually we run alot of our own seeds as backups.. as far as the bags and stuff you see...Well we will get to that at a later date!!! Have a great memorial day weekend!!!!   Sunday, May 29 View Page well today since it is so nasty outside..currently getting pummeled with heavy rain and wind and whatever else mother nature has in mind I thought i would share apicture or 2 of something else I kinda do on the side.. I love ot fish and I fish several different ways. Last night I ran out a couple trot lines in the mighty mississippi river and took my son and daughter in law out for the first time. She was the netter in the project and I have to admit did very well./..we never lost a fish...here is todays catch...Glad we went early as the winds and rain would have made it terrible...   Sunday, May 29 View Page Same batch just tipped over....I eat a few but know several that just love catfish. SOOO I enjoy getting them and cleaning them is pretty simple ...so I and my buddy Ron Annear usually catch clean and give to friends....this batch will prolly end up in a couple farmers freezers... Just came back from my bedroom window...WOW the plants are flatened from the wind....damage will prolly be extensive to say the least....OH well you can't beat mother nature   Thursday, June 2 View Page Hey thought I would give a quick update on the goings on at the 1810 site. I have not seen it yet but marc informed me that we now are the proud owners of a damaged 1810 plant. :o( Bummer but it happens No it wasn't a storm that got it . but a little 4 legged furry creature picked that particular main vine to chew off...So a secondary will be come the new main roughly 4 feet out. Yea we are bummed BT we are not as bummed as that furry little creature....LOL!! We try and tell the little fellas to stay behind the temp wind breaks..BUT sometimes they need to be made an example of it!!!   Friday, June 3 View Page Ok I kinda left you all hanging there with yesterday's post..SO that said I can tell you this...Marc took me a couple pictures and has chatted with me tonight...So today I can show you this shot..Looks like a normal plant and a nice healthy one at that....No I have yet to see it but I was busy here doing afew things with the normal plants I have in my patch..Yes sherking my duties a bit but not just laying around LOL....   Friday, June 3 View Page This is a shot of the nipped end. Marc's has informed me that the thing has already turned it self off to the side and the new secondary is already headed right straight in line with where you would need it to be. we think in a couple days 3 maybe 4 that you won't be able to even tell something happened. The small piece you see nipped off above was indeed the main BUT that was 2 days ago so that has shrunk and dried up alot already . I think this is just a small hurdle and if this is the worse thing we face this season then the season should be decent. On a totally seperate note , Knowing this is my first effort at a diary, I was wondering if this is all worth while?? is anyone out there reading this jibberage ? any enjoying it? anyone learning anything? or should I just stop and save myself all the heart ache? drop me a note at pumpkinpack@mchsi.com so I can tell if there is atleast a small following...Thanks DAN   Friday, June 10 View Page Ok today I slipped over and got a shot of the 1810 this evening....the weather has been to the extreme this week...starting with 3 very hot mid 90's mon tues wednesday and followed that up with about 3 inches of rain so things have been hectic to say the least. Got hail at my house but not where the 1810 is growing so that is good!!LOL! anyways since the rabbit bit the main off that kinda throttled alot of juice back to the existing side vines which you will see in the picture. The new main is out a decent 3 or 4 feet already as the heat really pushed it and the sides have really taken off alos...the plant looks square compared to the traditional christmas tree shape you would normally see . I am sure in a few days it will all come around . The main is running towards the left side of the picture...side vines running towards the bottom of the picture.   Saturday, June 11 View Page Ok today you are all going to be so proud of me. I am making an effort to actually show exactly how Team C&P bring those LOOOONG stemmed green squash in with those perfectly straight stems!!LOL!!. We all know stem stress in always an issue and avoiding it can make a world of difference down the road for should clearence and a good healthy stem. Alot of growers use a blockign tech. with either wood or styrofoam. which we have enployed over the years also BUT we have been using the following tech. exclusively for the past 7 or 8 years and really like it. The picture above shows everything you need. Includes. 2 drywall screws,hammer, cordless drill,2 1x3's 4 foot long...1 1x2 4 foot long 2 bungy cords various length. driving took home made....2 homemade vine slings....instructions to follow   Saturday, June 11 View Page now of course this would normally be erected about 12 inches back from the main vine in the general area where you would want to support a vine near a fruit BUT for displayings purposes we will do it out in the open for all to see exactly how we do it. Here Marc drives Post #1 which is a 1x3 4 foot long. Drive tool is made so the wood doesn't split up from driving it in and a point is cut on one end to ease in the driving of the post. 1x3 works better then the 1X2 as it gives it more surface area and doesn't pull sideways in the ground as easily.   Saturday, June 11 View Page Post #2 is driven in roughly 30 inches from post #1. being careful to keep the 2 flat sides of the 2 post parallel with each other. center the gap between the 2 post about in the center of where the stem of the fruit is located. Again about 12 inches back from the actual vine. You want to try and ease the vine up and away from the fruit and you all know the fruit grows back towards the stem also so the added space will be needed sooner or later anyway.   Saturday, June 11 View Page now here Marc takes the 1X2 4 foot long and attaches one end to the post #1. using the 1 5/8" drywall screw. centering crossmember across the 30 inch gap between the post. leaving a bit stick out each end. The 2 flat sides should line up fairly close if you drove them in paying attention to keeping them parallel...   Saturday, June 11 View Page Marc attaches cross member to post #2 using the 2nd drywall screw. Member these boards are only 3/4 " ...notice he keep the cross member level above the ground roughly the height you need bepending on the lenght of your bungy cords   Saturday, June 11 View Page Here you will notice Marc has forgotten that the 1 5/8" long dry wall screw protrudes thru the 2 boards roughly 1/8". Thus he has now tried to attach the cross member AND his pointer finger to post #2..LMAO!! I can't say much as I have done the exact same thing myself!!!   Saturday, June 11 View Page Here you will notice Marc has forgotten that the 1 5/8" long dry wall screw protrudes thru the 2 boards roughly 1/8". Thus he has now tried to attach the cross member AND his pointer finger to post #2..LMAO!! I can't say much as I have done the exact same thing myself!!!   Saturday, June 11 View Page Here Marc is showing the vine slings used to distibute the pull evenly along the vine being lifted. I happened to use that heavy felt type material used in the blankets used for packing up stuff in a moving van But have also used old socks and just about anything else that helps distribute the pull along the vine.   Saturday, June 11 View Page Here is a second method using the same materials. if you have your cross member higher then your length of a doubled bungy simply sling thru both holes with one end of the bungy and then wrap around the cross member the till you reach the desired tension of pull on your main vine. the beauty of the whole system is your always working ahead of the fruit growth. your proactively putting some upward tension on the vine so your stem never sees any weight and your stems stays pretty darn straight.   Saturday, June 11 View Page Here is a shot from last years plants. here it shows what it would look like above the plant positioned over a fruit.   Saturday, June 11 View Page And again on last years plant here is what it would look like actually attached to a main vine and doing some lifting. we stay back a leaf joint or 2 depending on the situation and sometimes we add a second sling either ahead of or behind the fruit depending on what is needed. we adjust some tension to the bungies about every 5 or 7 days depending on what stage of growth you are at but by the time the fruit reaches day 40 your pretty much done with having to adjust. You can see the slings down around the vine and the bungies coming down. If you look closely you can see the one to the right is after the fruit . The stem of the fruit is pretty much centered up in the picture . I hope this gives you an idea on How we manage our stem stress and the advantages to this over say the blocking method. both work well but this way we don't have to be as diligent with watchign it daily. WOW that was alot of posting....I sure hope Erin (BOOM BOOM) is enjoying this!! LOL   Sunday, June 12 View Page taken by marc last night which would have been the 11th of june...this is the west side of the 1810 with the main (new) running right to left in the picture. Secondaries taking their time showing and running as is what normally happens for us when we have to train out a secondary to take over...new main 3 foot or so I imagine   Sunday, June 12 View Page Same date as last pic just a reverse side of the same 1810 plant....Again main now running left to right in this pic.everything seems fine...just not a giant plant yet these 50 ° mornings really slowed everything up ..OH WELL can;t fight mother nature!!   Tuesday, June 14 View Page Yep this is the first in what we hope is a whole bunch of male flowers from the 1810 plant... Marc took this yesterday   Tuesday, June 14 View Page A little guy setting off on one of the side vines... I got over tot he plant today for a little look around and the plant is doing pretty welll considering and no telling how big the plant would have been had it not been for the little furry SOB that took off the main...But you can't should all over your self so as it stands the new main runs about 5 foot or so and secondaries are showing up finally..soo all shouldbe well... DAN   Thursday, June 16 View Page the 1810 tonight after a little ground maint...wind break backa bit and everything looking hunk dory ....You can see how the secodnaries drag out and take their sweet time showing up aong the new main but they are there and they look normal which is a good thing..those stumpy looking stunted and runted ones always gives up fits...Seems like the cold wet weather causes them to to do that...but that is just a guess.   Monday, June 20 View Page a little guy located about 11 feet out on the new main vine....prolly not going to keep this one as we will be looking for more plant "behind" the pumpkin then what this one provides   Thursday, June 23 View Page Sorry no picture today...Marc has run off to do something of all things(WORK) in Michigan this week and has left me holding the reins for the week...Thank god he is back friday afternoon...After breaking off the new main and snapping 4 or the 5 decent sidevines left I am sure he will be real happy with what he has to work with !!LOL!! KIDDING JUST KIDDING.... I do know of someone who just snapped a main vine but we will leave his name out of it..won't we Greg!! LMAO!! ANyways just wanted to say we had a baby open on the new main today!! YEA!!! But I never did anything with it...just to tired to pollinate it..NOT ....just 2 close to the stump for our liking..Hence we wait for something farther out...That is all..   Sunday, June 26 View Page Here is a little pic of the baby that opened during the week...did nothing with it but thought you would like to see the little guy a couple days after the fact...not a bad little girl!!!   Sunday, June 26 View Page the over all shape the plant apppears to be really healthy..everythign ok and it looks like we will be trying for a pollination in a few days...july looks to be the time frame..new main is filling in..some sides are and or have been terminated at about 13 or 14 feet I am guessing..those first three on each side really took off when the main was eaten...I would expect the new sides to take off now that these three are terminated...Well there you have it... Oh yeah John Sheperd took a few males for a cross 2 days ago....hope it takes for him...it would be a 1135 Sliwka X with a 1810 Stevens His diary is Shep I do believe   Thursday, June 30 View Page the first one we pollinated on the 1810.s plant..nice little guy...would keep this one if we had to but would preferr the next..High heavy heat this week..PERFECT!! why does it always seem to go this way when it's that time of the year..Oh well....live with it... Oh yea..pollinated with our 1370 state fair plant...the 1370 will prolly be the one we use for the plant... several 1810 males have been shared with John Sheppard getting the most.... Alos my son has pollinated..Actually his new bride Heather has pollinated her first pumpkin this morning.using 3 1810's to pollinate Nick's 1370 C&P plant..Looks like agreat plant..he is doing well so far...   Monday, July 4 View Page This is proof there is other things out there to do this time of the year..LOL That is my son on the right who took his new Brother in law out "BASS" fishing on a flooded Mississippi river yesterday ...Look at what they ran into ona flooded Island in 3 foot of water tossing spinner baits...landed 17 over all....at one point they never moved the boat for an hour....Kept a limit of 12 and cleaned them..those Walleyes are one of the best to eat around here...Looks like they had a blast... Also Nick is a first year giant pumpkin grower...he has 2 plants....one is a 1370 C&P...and the other is a 1119 Mcmullen....Hummmm wonder where he got those seeds from!!LOL   Monday, July 4 View Page See there is a reason to get up at 4:30 and get the vines buried and male flowers harvested for your wife to pollinate at 7:45....so you can go back out and try that spot with your son and his brother in law...Nick had to work so we had to fish quickly.. here is what I cleaned after a couple hours goofing around on the water...started at 6 and done at 8......still catching but Nick needed to head to work...5 to big to keep leagally..biggest being 22.5" and 4 or 5 shorties (less then 15") all these in the slot and most were right in the 19 to 19.5" range... All caught in an area Nick was scoping out for some bass...throwing a chartruse spinnerbait in 3 foor of water over a flooded island.....Man they were aggressive..   Monday, July 4 View Page Ok back to the task at Hand..This weekend has been a busy one...Marc is out doing some family time In Washington DC so that left me here home guiding the ship.....Well as you can see in the 2 previous post while MArc is away I tend to get "side tracked" for lack of a better word...LMAO!! Anyways I shared some male flowers the past couple days..Hopefully the fellows using them will get some sets ... Beth Pollinated a couple here at my patch this Am and I did a couple yesterday as well here and YES a pumpkin on the 1810 as well on July 3rd... the pollen came from the 1370 C&P fair plant we are growing this spring for the Iowa State fair... anyways This is the one we would really like to keep if it sticks..the other one that opened earlier is also looking like it might have stuck....time will tell...no pics yet and no main vines turned but that will be happening soon   Thursday, July 7 View Page Decision time is near...Marc snapped a couple pictures off last nigth after a long hard evening getting everything caught up at My house. Things are progressing well but weather has not been the best but manageable...No rain now for quite sometime . We could use a little to say the least. Been having to run a couple yellow birds pretty regularly as the temps have been up there and this particular 1810 doesn't seem to like or handle the heat real well..young leaves mostly are the ones effected with some burn . Hence the times watering during the day. After the sprays have been set up this seems to have taken care of the buring for the most part... this is the left side of the plant looking from the growing tip back towards the stump   Thursday, July 7 View Page Here is a picture taken from the top of the deck looking down upon the entire plant.. the stump being off towards the left side of the picture and the main running towards the right. Plant looks almost back to normal at this point from when the Rabbit took off the main way way back in early june. side vines have come out of the new main and filled in nicely.   Thursday, July 7 View Page decisions decisions decisions.....come friday we will be cuttting one of these 2 off this main of the 1810 .Looks like we are hoping to to see continued growth of the smaller of these 2 fruits. If we do then prolly the biggie inside fruit will be culled off in an effort to establish a bit more plant between the stump and the selected fruit. As far as pumpkins go this plant seems to set or grow nicer shapped roundish type fruit. Over we can't complain. fingers are crossed ,we hope to cull off fruit friday and make a "Stelts 90"...Pictures will be included. Always a scarey time when your making that bend. OH yea the Stelts 90 comes from way back when I used to attend the Ohio Picnics. Scott Armstrong and I first saw it at Dave Stelts patch and doubbed it the Stelts 90 ever sense. Really helps with later in teh year if the pumpkins starts to get really big more to follow in a couple days   Saturday, July 9 View Page Well on July 7th We made one of those type decisions that every grower needs to make...Zdo you take one closer to the stump out out a bit father..Thought process was since we lost the made to the little furry chewer maybe we should get some more sides established before the fruit. Hence we decided to cull the earlier set and went with this one. Here it sets maybe 5 days old..Maybe only 4 not sure but I have it wrote down....Tonight we decided to make our "Stelts 90"....Dubbed so after Dave and his tech. of trying to get shouldering room for a large fruit..Works great but is sometimes scary ...this plants seems fairly flexible....Here is is before the bend   Saturday, July 9 View Page and now after the bend....you can see the space this helps create .....of course we did this before we culled the fruit that will be in the next picture...This way if we have a tragity then we will have a emergency back up plan!!LMAO!! see if you do this long enough..."grow pumpkins" You tend to need an emergency back up plan from time to time!!LMAO!!   Saturday, July 9 View Page And now after tge bend is complete I went back and made the cull on the 8 day old fruit..Early growth really doesn't mean squat but for you number crunchers out there this one sat at 24" Circumfernce at day 8.... Now we just keep our fingers crossed we don;t abort....always a threat in the Iowa heat! take care   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Ok I mentioned this diary was going to be for a specific plant BUT I ran into something I have seen many times before but never to this extreme...so these 2 following pictures are of a surrounding area near our state fair plant. I was out doing some tilling around the last remaining areas that the late fall plants have yet to fill up and I have some leaf bags in the area. Well when i moved the first bag I found this. Yes I was shocked to see roots this far from the side vines of the state fair plant...But there is no mistaking an atlantic Giant pumpkin root...   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Ok again let me say this about why I have leaf bags laying around. I ment to take pictures of this when we are actually using the bags but that particular feat i have yet to catch on film. The reason for teh leaf bags is we saved a whole bunch of them this past fall and we are using them as mulch under the canapy of the plants as they mature and fill out the areas. We really really hate weeding and we did this last year for the 2 state fair plants and really enjoyed the ALMOST hands free weed control. I know alot of people use sprays and such under the leafs with great results. BUT I personally have always been pretty scared to do it and I have before but did not like it as it always worrried me to do so. So we have tried this method now for the second year and are using the leaves under all the plants . yes it is a chore to get them down but the weed control and the moisture retention sees to be a great asset so we are doing ti. Hopefully we will enjoy it as much as last year. anyways I removed a second larger bag of leaves and to this day I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING quite to this extreme in our patched before. These plants seem to wow me every year one way or another. Have you ever seen this massive amount of root developement before.?? can you even imagine what it must be like down there underneath where you can't see it...AMAZING   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Today marks the begining of a long summer of watching this thing grow. let's hope the soil is right and everything runs it's course. Today is day 10 and we will typically take measurements every 5 days and record it. her eis ashot of the entire plant as she sets. a very nicely shaped plant healthy with a little leaf burn here and there but over all things appear to be in good shape. to the left of the pic you can see our little stump cover we make to help keep the stump area somewhat drier if possible . we think and I stress THINK it helps witht he health of the stump area but maybe we just feel better because we try and keep that area healthy. LOL!! anyways a very nice plant   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Here's the little guy at day 10. Main vine (new main ) set and I have not measured the actual distance so to be sure I will tape that off in the coming days and mention how far out the set is on the day 15 measurements.. Anyways she taped to 32" Marc told me and looks to be the one we are keeping. fingers crossed.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page the fruit hit day 15 and Marc took a couple quick snap shots...The fruit is not quite what we were hoping for but hey not everything can be perfect right..The fruit is somewhat misshapen on the shoulder pretty much directly over the stem...Marc and I refer to it as the "divot" Looks alot like the mark that Elin Left on Tigers face that oh so magical night...... LOL!! will it cause problems ?? we don;t know and don;t have the foggiest idea. What we do know is thisone will be the one we grow out. So it will be a wait and see. The plant has very little area to fill in..prolly by day 20 that will be done....so it will be full steam ahead from here on out. Here is the plant as it stands yesterday   Tuesday, July 19 View Page A close up of the day 15 fruit on the 1810 stevens. the picture kinda shows the area on top not quite filled out. What can you do...it looked perfectly fine when we decided on this one but hey....sometimes things show up later then you think anyways here it stands..Numbers are 42 X 42 X 59....nothing special but a start.... DAN   Sunday, July 24 View Page here isa picture of the stump of the 1810....nice heavy main on thisone and the following pic will show the seamless transition the plant made when the rabbit chewed off the main....amazing as I have never seen one do something that looks so natural... Anyways what a wild couple days. anyone watching the midwest weather the past couple days should have seen the amazing rains in this area and east. we were very very dry and we needed it but maybe not quite to that extreme I think we got about 7 inches at the patch here over 30 hours long..give or take a bit...everything is pretty swomped right now   Sunday, July 24 View Page this shows the original main coming from the right and the bump and the new main running out towards the left....very very smooth transition over to a new main...and we never cut anything off...this is just how it did it all on it's own.   Thursday, July 28 View Page Well you have to post and show the good times along with the bad times....today marks the beginnings of the bad times!!LOL!...you gotta laugh and take it as Last year we struggled thru and ended up posting a couple decent fruits..this season things will be different I suspect!!.....Anyways last weekend we ended a very very long dry spell with some seriously nasty rains...I am thinking we got some where in the 7 to 8 inch range between friday morning and sunday afternoon.and even trying to keep things moist during the dry spell when stuff like that happens it's going to cause problems...here is one of the problems. Marc took this shot of the stump of the 1810.....the tennis ball is in there for size references.... All pumpkins have takena hit this week on growth and such..this is not our only issue thru out the entire patches. Nick's fruits are having issues. Our's at my house also showing issues as are John Shepard's and it just goes to show....it takes a little luck along the way...anyways one more pic to follow   Thursday, July 28 View Page you simply can't add that much rain to a plant and not expect things to go wrong. coupled with 10 days of 90 and 100 heat and humidity temps prior to ...stick in 7 to 8 inches of rain in there over 2 days....follow it up with more 90 plus heat and you got MR. Foamy!!!!....started tuesday evening and this pic was taken wednesday...things are not looking so good...but it's apumpkin right...You can only do what you can do... Plant is pretty much terminated and growth rates have dropped dramatically as has all the fruits on all the plants we are growing. Good to see it happening with all of them ..hence you can lean towards it's a mother nature weather related issue verses something is particularly wrong with this or that plant. From all the heat and humidity the late plants appear to have been thru a war already...and the fair plants look worse...Hang in there the pain is half way over already!!LOL!   Friday, July 29 View Page Standard pic of the plant and continuing filling out of the square footage. We are leaving a few vines to continue to grow to help the stump and or foaming issue settle which we feel will be a mute point. Pretty sure the stump will be a goner sooner or later but with some vines stillgrowing it could only help relieve some pressures off the main . Anyways growth rates not the best but hey 7 inches plus of rain will do that.she seems to be regaining a little momentum but time will tell the plant   Friday, July 29 View Page the fruit at day 25....growth rate not what you would want at this stage but sooner or later you hope it will pick up where she left off...sign leaning towards that happening..in another 5 days we will know more if it will rebound...Like I mentioned earlier in a post. My son's and our's at my house all have mirrored this exact same issue...it has to be weather...not soil issues or plant issues...all plants have done exactly ythe the same things...so time will tell Good luck   Thursday, August 4 View Page Well it is better to have grown and failed then to have not grown at all...RIGHT!!! LOL!..today marks the end of a fun filled season (heavy on the sarcasm here) Beth and I were driving up to do a quick check on Nick's pumpkins since he is out of town...swung in and Picked MArc up as he wanted to tag along...along the way we decided to nudge the 1810 over to give it some vine space ....after teh move as I was backing out I asked marc these fateful words"what is that sticking above the blossom..looks like Grass"...Well GRASS MY $#S....turned out to be this little problem...   Thursday, August 4 View Page we ran up and did what we needed and MArc put a small dab on the area and we will try and get seeds from it but we wanted to take a moment to thank Chris for the seed and the chance to grow a special seed...Sometimes things don't turn out the way you would like but Marc and I have been down this road before and I am sure it won't be our last disappointment..after all we have 3 or 4 growing right now for the late season and they all look pretty disappointing also!!LMAO!! you know you have your mind in the right place when you can do all this work..all the effort....and in one second it's all for nothing .....and you can still sit back and laugh about it....It's just a pumpkin...it's just a hobby....your suppose to have fun doing it.We still are and we can still laugh about it...Take care and good luck to all... This is Team C&P signing off!!!   Tuesday, August 30 View Page Well today I decided to make yet another entry into the diary on the 1810..Marc and I felt it just wasn't quite right leaving where I had so today I will give you a run down of yesterday's events...Here she sits readyt o be taken out of the patch.   Tuesday, August 30 View Page A closer look at the healthy end of this fruit....She split thru the blossom when she was at 400 Pounds EST.....she was caulked that evening and has grown since..roughly 30 days...   Tuesday, August 30 View Page Marc and I posing for a final shot before hauling it to a scale...this fruit was a surprise in color as it did become quite orange as it aged...Nice smooth skin and very orange   Tuesday, August 30 View Page THe culprit of the blossom end split..Funny how an interior split lined up right over the blossom..She was nice and thick thru out but not over whelmingly heavy walled.But very even thru out the entire fruit shoulders to blossom..still a nice 6 plus inches on the blossom end...As you can see the fruit is still very healthy inside just starting to show softness.   Tuesday, August 30 View Page Split her in half so all the world can see....I and MArc both agreed the flesh was of a denser variety. The kind that really grabs a saw as you try and cut thru it. You just knew it was going to prolly weigh a little heavy. she taped right at 748 Pounds est by the chart....and when scaled it ended up at 940 even....Yea that was a surprise....A good surprise . !!! Anyways there you have it the 940 Damaged UOW C&P .....1810 Stevens X 1370 C&P   Tuesday, August 30 View Page One last thing...as great of time we had dreaming and enjoying growing this wonderful seed. I have to admit it has left a slight foul taste in our mouth..Not that is split and all....Just that in one last fatal stroke the 1810 gracefully left our truck into the compost heap giving us one last bitter disappointment...YEP not one seed inside....MAYBE 30 or 40 total but all were very very imature....SOOO that said I am sad to announce no seeds available from this fruit....DARN!!! DAN and MARC!!   Sunday, October 9 View Page well while everyone or alot of people are out having funa t late season weigh off Marc and I have started the process of getting ready for next season....typicall pile of gold at the local Dairy! wonderful stuff. ...dewatered and easy to work with....some of the pile available for use   Sunday, October 9 View Page fresh from the elevator as it gets moved from the dewatering pit to the slab where it drains down and gets moved to the previous post....   Sunday, October 9 View Page the only way to load this stuff. and this years hauler is alot nicer also!!!   Sunday, October 9 View Page action dump......maybe 5 scoops fills her up to the brim!!   Sunday, October 9 View Page hauled to the patch at myhouse ready for dumping....Which is never a smooth operation as it doesn't just flow out like rocks or gravel....so you end up with something like the next picture   Sunday, October 9 View Page a somewhat spread out pile or not!!LOL! this is where the works starts shoveling it around...will take my time and AMrc and I will get it spread over a 2 day period maybe three....looks like 2.5 loads will be enough..2 delivered and prolly one more split between my patch and then the other half to my Son Nick's patch. each load contains roughly 10 yards? give or take...we got over half spread already from todays 2 loads...the rest will be moved monday and then the rest delivered tuesday evening after work...remember what you do in the fall will have a huge effect on what you harvest in teh fall next year....work work work it never stops with these things!!LOL!   Wednesday, October 12 View Page somethings make you really proud.....and this season was one of those things. My son Nick bought a house last year and early in the fall he decided he was going to give his Old man and Partner Marc Petersen a run for their money in the world of giant pumpkin growing. Of course we signed on to give him gentle nudges in the right direction   Wednesday, October 12 View Page rolle dover blossom end on this picture. the previous one would be a side view of his fruit that went to Anamosa. White and kinda heavy looking ....thumped like a rock   Wednesday, October 12 View Page the little cut you see above the stem is where he started to saw her open to get the seeds out. Marc and I were up to help out. Nice fruit that could have been better had the plant held up to the nasty disease everyone experienced in this are of Iowa. Several growers ended up with none or one fruit...Nick was lucky to get this plant to hold on. August 14th we pruned off 500 square foot of plant all plant before the fruit. Laeving only plant after the fruiton covering maybe 100 Square fruit. it was so diseased we wanted it out of the patch and the main was so sadly softening that it was pointless to try and save it so we cut it off at the fruit and left the rest and hoped he held on so he could at least get a weight. Which we did October 1st at Anamosa . Taping 165 X 98X98 361 and est of 983" he actually weighed 1154.5 good enough for 7th..WOOOO HOO!! that a boy Nick!!!   Wednesday, October 12 View Page Nick and Marc Split her open length wise as I snap a couple pictures....I think she went 17% heavy and was crossed with the 1810.s Stevens WR from last year. That particular fruit we lost to a BES early and actually got a weight on it at some 940 & and it went like 25% heavy so this seed will more then likely see dirt here at Nick's place and maybe ours also....   Wednesday, October 12 View Page one of the sides laid over and exposed a solid 10 inches thru out prolly a little more in teh blossom end area. But over all solid with no defects inside... that Heavy dense flesh alos which prolly contributed tot he over heavy percentage   Wednesday, October 12 View Page The little one in the back ground is Nick's wife Heather who actually did the hand polination tot he cross. HER FIRST EFFORT EVER!! and she got one to stick right away!! awesome job and she actually did a little cleaning up with us that night also... this pic kinda shows the wall thickness better then the others as I did not use anythign for referencing ....you get the picture...Large dense fruit crossed with a heavily dense fruit...Lookng good for 2012 plantings...Take care DAN