Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 49 Entries. Monday, March 28 View Page We've been having way too much rain this month here in Northern California. In the first 28 days of the month we had 22 days of rain. I've got some flooding at my patch. I think this is an omen...that it is going to be a lousy year.   Monday, March 28 View Page I've had to dig trenches in the slop and install drain lines. I have 4 submersible pumps going and extension chords running through standing water. I had 12 inches of water standing in this shed a few days ago. My patch is a soggy mess and my cover crop needs to be cut and tilled in soon. I think it is going to be a bad year.   Monday, March 28 View Page Here is a trench I dug for a drain line to move water away from the front of my patch to the behind my patch, so I can pump it away from a single location (instead of two)...and to keep my shed from flooding. I haven't had so much fun since the time my mother-in-law invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and she discivered that she hadn't turned on the over until an hour before it was time to eat (she doesn't cook much). I think it is going to be a bad year.   Monday, March 28 View Page I came home the other day after digging in the slop for several hours and found my dog dead on the floor. I think it is going to be a bad year.   Monday, March 28 View Page Two posts back I wrote "over" instead of "oven". I can't even spell. I think it is going to be a bad year. This picture is of the transition area of the first Vineman back in 1990. There were cars parked in the transition area and it was a mess...that was really a bad year.   Friday, April 15 View Page The bad luck just keeps on coming. Yesterday I fired up the tractor and was starting to get some things done and I got a flat.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page I started my seeds yesterday morning and tonight the following seeds were showing roots and are now in pots: 1409 Miller, 1622 Young, 1161 Rodonis, 1725 Harp, and 1325 Stevens!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page I'm happy to report that I had 100% germination this year! My nine seedlings are now safely growing in the patch in their hot houses. This is the 1325 Hopkins looking particularly good!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page I've been building a board fence around the perimeter of my patch. It will help block some of the wind and will keep the worst varmits of them all out of my patch. Last year (and this spring) I have been having a problem with people coming into my patch and "messing" with things.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page My hot houses are approximately 10'x10' for each plant.   Sunday, May 22 View Page My plants are getting ready to start running! They all have tendrils, a 6-9 inch main, and a whole bunch of leaves. A week from now they will probably have vines that will hopefully be on the ground. This is my 1622 Young pictured here.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Here is my 1325 Stevens. I have no complaints here!   Tuesday, May 31 View Page Over the Memorial Day weekend all but one of my plants had their main vines hit the ground. This is the 1325.   Tuesday, May 31 View Page My only problem child is this plant: my 1288.5 Pugh. It is growing straight up in the air and has a nasty looking mis-shapen main vine...and it is starting to go double. I don't know how patient I'm going to be with this one. I'm growing 9 plants, and if I only have to bury vines on 8 it will not be the end of the world!   Friday, June 3 View Page This is NOT what you want your main vine to look like! I think it is quadrupling. This is my 1288.5 Pugh. I plan to cut off this mess soon and grow out a secondary that looks more normal.   Friday, June 3 View Page This, on the other hand it EXACTLY what you want your main vine and plant to look like. This is my 1622 Young. We have been having crappy weather (highs in the low 60's) but my 8 good plants are all cranking along putting out nice secondaries and growing their main vines.   Sunday, June 5 View Page One way you can tell tht it is time to start taking down you hot houses is when they start falling apart. We've had a week long rain storm that is supposed to be over tomorrow (Monday), then I will start letting my plants out into the real world. I'm very glad that I have large hot houses considering the weather we've been having. Here in Northern California our rain for the year should be over by the first of June...but we are still getting winter storms.   Sunday, June 5 View Page Yesterday Owen and I went to the Giants game. It was raining pretty steadily up until game time, then the sun actually came out! After the game we drove back to Santa Rosa where it had been raining the whole time, and continued to rain overnight and is still falling today.   Sunday, June 5 View Page My first female of the year showed up today on my 1622 Young! It is between 5 and 6 feet out. I think that the 1622 is going to grow me a real slunger.   Friday, June 10 View Page As of today my plants are all out of their hot houses. This is my 1421 Stelts.   Wednesday, June 22 View Page Each year on June 21st I like to measure my vines for the sake of record keeping. This evening I measured my vines and this is what I came up with: 1425 Stelts 12.5' 1409 Miller 12' 1622 Young 12.5' 1161 Rodonis 12' 1725 Harp 11' 1325 Hopkins 9'...this one would be a lot bigger but I broke the main and re-trained a secondary as the main a couple of weeks ago...it was my biggest plant. 991 Urena 11' 1566 Rodonis 9'...something seems to be wrong with this plant. It never has been vigorous and the vines are scrawny, kind of like they get when you get a really big pumpkin going on a plant and taking away the energy from the vines...but this one does not have a pumpkin. 1288.5 Pugh 5'...this is the mutant plant that I cut off the quadrupling main vine and trained the best looking normal vine. I think it has a chance to recover and be OK. The plant in the pic is my 1622 Young this evening with a female that will open at about 10.5 feet tomorrow.   Sunday, August 7 View Page I've been busy putting on races (July 17 and July 30), but now they are over and it is time to get back into the world of pumpkin growing!   Sunday, August 7 View Page The is my fruit on my 1622 Young. This pic was taken on Saturday morning (day 36) when it measured 299 OTT. Tonight it measures 308 OTT (day 37). It is a nice looking fruit on a beautiful plant and is growing like a rocket ship blasting off. On Friday it put on 45 pounds. I'm afraid that it is going to blow, but if it holds together it is going to be real big.   Monday, August 8 View Page This is the fruit on my 1421 Stelts at day 30 (August 4th) measuring 268 OTT (412 lbs) making it my largest day 30 fruit ever. We'll see if this one holds together as well. The plant looks great (900+ square feet) and is healthy as can be. It is just a matter of if it has too much firepower behind it or not. It is another one that will be "Victory or Death." Scary.   Tuesday, August 16 View Page I love August. I like the excitement of "knowing" that I contenders growing. I like to compare the growth of my good ones this year to the growth of my good ones in past years. This is my 1409 Miller fruit on day 40 at 298 inches OTT.   Tuesday, August 16 View Page This is my 1421 Stelts fruit at day 42 and 334 inches OTT. This one has me excited.   Tuesday, August 16 View Page Here is my 1622 Yound at day 48 and 354" ott or an estimated 930 pounds. All of the 1622's last year that made it to the scales were 10% to 15% heavy. If this one keeps going steadily it will be one to be very excited about! I love August.   Tuesday, August 30 View Page My 1622 Young fruit continues to make steady gains. Today is day 61 and it measured 182" circ. x 113" side-to-side x 104 end-to-end for a total of 399" OTT or an estimated 1327 lbs. It is still gaining 2-3 inches a day. The plant looks great, the pumpkin still looks young, and our ten-day weather forcast is projecting 80-90 degrees every day with overnight lows in the low-to-mid 50's. The pumpkin doesn't appear to have any real problems...so with a little luck I'll have a good one for Half Moon Bay!   Tuesday, September 6 View Page My 1622 Young fruit continues to grow! Today is day 68 and it tapes 410.5" (191" cicr, 114.5" side-to-side, and 105" end-to-end). It has put on an additional 10.5" in the last week. Hopefully it will keep on going!   Tuesday, September 6 View Page As I have been focusing on the 1622 Young fruit, I'd kind of lost track of the wheel growing on my 1161 Rodonis. I keep it covered up just about all of the time and since it is difficult to measure, I have kind of just left it alone. I opened it up last week and thought it looked pretty big. Then I taped it and found out that IS pretty big. This morning it taped to 391" OTT (186" circ, 111 side-to-side, and 97" front-to back). I guess I'm going to have another good one to take somewhere. It is 63 days old and has put on 27" in the past week.   Wednesday, September 14 View Page I loaded up my 1421 Stelts fruit to take to the weigh off at the National Heirloom Festival here in Santa Rosa. It started to get a small stem split about 3 weeks ago and quit growing measurably, so I cut off it's water about 10 days ago and let the split heal up, rather than try to blow it up.   Wednesday, September 14 View Page It weighed out at 1051 lbs and measured 369.5" OTT. 161 circ, 108 s/s, and 100.4 e/e. It placed first in the contest and won $1000! That's a nice start to the weighoff season.   Wednesday, September 14 View Page Before the weigh off yesterday several growers visited my and Russ Pingrey's patches. I learned that I had been measuring the big wheel on my 1161 very conservatively. It is growing propped up against a mound of soil to keep if from falling over. I was just measuring to the top of the mound. Pete Glasier & Gary Miller measured it and came up with 411" OTT. My latest measurement was 10" less, so it was kind of like getting a bonus 100 pounds! This fruit, which is on my 1161 Rodonis is still growing a couple of inches a day...so now I have two bigg'uns to fantasize and obsess about. I'm going to be worthless for the next month.   Saturday, September 24 View Page This is my 1622 Young fruit at day 84 taping bigger than all but a couple of the pumpkins I've seen in my life. Don Young e-mailed me a week or so ago (and about 7 inches OTT ago) and said "it looks like you've got a new state record there...or more." I'm amazed every morning when I tape it and it is another inch bigger than it was the day before.   Saturday, September 24 View Page This is the fruit growing on my 1161 Rodonis plant. It is the largest fruit OTT that I have ever seen. It is still going 2+ inches OTT every day. The estimation chart only goes to 450" OTT. If I hold it back for Half Moon Bay on October 10th...let's see that is 15 more days of growth...I don't know if I have the guts to let it keep growing that long. Victory or Death. I love September.   Wednesday, September 28 View Page I sent Mark Shymanski cuttings from both my 1622 plant and my 1161 plant yesterday and today they are busy sprouting roots to become newly cloned plants! Mark is collecting up cuttings from some of the most promising plants of the season and plans to grow clones and cross the best-of-the-best from the 2011 season! He'll have a new generation of "super seeds" by planting time in the spring. That is pretty cool.   Wednesday, September 28 View Page This evening Owen took our 1725 Harp fruit to the Sonoma County Fair's kid's contest. I'm happy to report that it went 2% heavy! The 1725's that I've seen weighed have gone significantly light. Owen had a good time.   Wednesday, September 28 View Page Here is Owen with the 1067 Pugh '11 as it gets weighed. Owen turned on Monday. Ten years ago when he has three days old I took my first pumpkin to a contest...it weighed 131 pounds.   Wednesday, September 28 View Page By the way...the biggun's continue to grow. This morning the 1161 fruit added 1.5 inches OTT, and the 1622 fruit gew another inch OTT. It is unseasonably warm this evening, so I'm expecting good gains overnight. The 1161's skin is starting to crack as it stretches itself ever closer to going off the chart at 450 inches OTT. With good weather over the next eleven days (until Half Moon Bay) this baby could end up well over 450 inches OTT. The plant is healthy, huge, and giving every sign that it wants to be the first 2000 pound producer!   Saturday, October 1 View Page The 1622 Young fruit was loaded up today, padded, wetted-down, and shrink-wrapped to the pallet. Here Owen and his buddy Chase struggle to look over the giant mound on the trailer. We are heading out at 4:30 AM for the GPC Weigh-Off at Elk Grove. It will be a fun day!!!   Saturday, October 1 View Page The 1161 fruit continues to grow in the patch. Another inch this morning in circumference. Ten days and counting until the "World Championship Weigh-Off" at Half Moon Bay. Come on sun...keep on shining so it will grow.   Sunday, October 2 View Page I just got back from Elk Grove this evening after spending the day at the festival with Leonardo Urena & Walt Dabel and our top three placing pumpkins. My 1622 Young fruit went 1532.5 pounds, which was about 118 pounds light. The contest was very exciting...there were a lot of bigguns. I counted 7 fruit which looked like they could beat mine if they went heavy & mine was light. It was a lot of fun. Anyway...I got back home tonight just before dark and stopped by my patch to check on my 1161 Rodonis fruit. It looks great...then I measured it...and it has put on another 3 inches since I last taped in on Thursday! Watch out Chris...here I come!!!!   Tuesday, October 4 View Page There is a storm coming in tonight! We are supposed to get a half inch of rain overnight and another half inch tomorrow. The monster is covered up, tarped, and then tarped again. It has grown yet another 2 inches OTT since Sunday night. 5 more days left to grow!   Tuesday, October 4 View Page We used plastic and plywood to cover up the path we will be following to load the two pumpkins which will be going to contests this weekend. If we get more rain than expected, we want to have a somewhat dry path to get them from their growing spots to the trailer. The pumpkin on the left is on my 1325 Hopkins plant and it is going to Useugi Frams on Saturday...and the tarped fruit on the right is the 1161 Rodonis fruit which will be going to Half Moon Bay on Monday.   Thursday, October 6 View Page This is the 1533.5 Pugh grown on the 1622 Young placing second at the Elk Grove Weighoff. They officially taped it to 427 inches OTT.   Thursday, October 6 View Page The 1161 fruit continues to grow! Another inch and a half in the past 48 hours. Our rain storm which has been here for the past two days (and left us 1.5 inches of rain) has passed and the sun has returned. With 3 days left to grow I think it should be able to add a couple more inches. I'll be glad when it is over, but part of me wonders where it would end up if it was allowed to continue growing.   Sunday, October 9 View Page All along my motto has been "Victory or Death!" This afternoon we harnessed up the 1161 Rodonis fruit to get it on a pallet and in the trailer to take to Half Moon Bay. As you can see this baby is enormous It is pictured here inside my six and a half foot wide box trailer, where I thought it would small, because it is a huge trailer. It just makes it look bigger.   Sunday, October 9 View Page Its OTT measurements put it at 448 inches or an estimated 1865 pounds. By the way if you've ever looked at the current estimation table you'll see that 448" does not exist, but rather 477" is listed twice...maybe that has some significance here. When we got the pumpkin up in the air we discovered a small soft spot on the bottom...and as it was hanging in the air the rope started to dig into another soft spot near the front of the pumpkin. The spot on the front was not through to the center cavity, but after removing the soft flesh the one on the bottom was into the cavity. It will officially be a damaged pumpkin. The world record of 1810.5 will live on! Congrats Chris, it was fun chasing you, but it looks like I've tripped and broken my leg about 100 yards before the finish line of the marathon of growing this thing. Victory or Death! It has been a great ride, and I wouldn't have changed a thing...other than the soft spot. I'd like to thank everyone for their encouragement and support as we've all followed this pumpkin's phenoneminal growth ofer the past 40 days. It has been amazing. It will be weighed tomorrow at Half Moon Bay and I will be there to cheer on the champion!   Saturday, December 31 View Page 2011 was an exciting growing year for me. As we head into 2012 here is a pic of my cover crop which is getting things ready for another great year in 2012. I can only hope that lightning will strike again in my patch in 2012 and that I'll be able to give Leonardo a run for his money!