Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 15 Entries. Saturday, April 16 View Page Not sure how much I will be on here documenting my progress; but I figured I would give it a go. I did an initial, shallow till yesterday to turn under last falls compost and winter wheat. Seeds are selected. Just waiting to start them.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page It never stops raining. Patch is too wet to get into. I did one shallow till to get the winter wheat and some compost turned in. That's it so far.   Friday, April 29 View Page I started my seeds today. I chose 3: Checkon 1421 Snyder 1418 Langevin 750 Once it is planting time, I will have to choose the single best looking plant. I have limited space and can only grow 1 plant, each year.   Thursday, May 26 View Page Finally was able to get my pumpkin planted on May 21. Better late than never. Just too much rain this Spring, to get in the gardens.   Thursday, May 26 View Page I ended up planting the Checkon 1421. It was the more robust plant.   Monday, May 30 View Page I noticed that my wind barier was causing the area around my pumpkin plant to warm up too much. It started getting wilty. I enlarged the area it was covering and left one side open a little bit, to allow me access to the plant. The plant immediately revived and is back on track. Nice heavy vine; very green. Just waiting for it to lay down.   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Been keeping weeds out, moving wind barriers, burying some vines and feeding the plant. I took this picture a few days ago. Yesterday I measured the main vine at ~12'.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Last Thursday, my plant sustained some wind damage. Some secondaries split and many leaves were knocked over.   Tuesday, June 28 View Page Vine is still going strong. Growning in all directions. I have had to remove my wind breaks in certain areas to allow the secondaries through. I have a few females on the secondaries that I will be able to attempt pollination with soon. On the main, I picked the females off until I got about 10' out. I planned on pollinating the first one past that point; however I am not getting many females. I have not had a chance to pollinate a female on the main, to this point.   Tuesday, June 28 View Page I have been using the SVB traps and cucumber beetle traps. I have been catching a lot of cucumber beetles. I have not a problem with SVB's; however I figured it would be prudent to try and catch any that are around before I have an epidemic. I have caught 5 in the past week. I have been spraying fungicide and insecticide. Hopefully everything keeps going strong.   Thursday, June 30 View Page Yesterday, I pollinated my first pumpkin of the season. I self crossed on a secondary. I have several pumpkins coming up next on the secondaries and the main. I figure I will pollinate several and see which ones take and are the most robust growing, before culling.   Friday, July 1 View Page I will be pollinating another pumpkin today. This one will be on the main, at about 14'.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page I have several pumpkins pollinated. Some I self pollinated. Some are open pollinated. I will give them week or so to see which is the best growing and cull from there. I also have a lot of side growth that is reaching the limits of my area. I will have to start dead-heading some secondaries soon. I purchased 2 sprinklers on adjustable tripods. I have them on opposing corners of my patch, so they both cover the whole plant. I have been using them in afternoon to cool the plant down. Temps have been in the high 80's with full sun.   Saturday, July 9 View Page My plant is outgrowing my patch in places. I have a limited area and it is really filling it up. Probably one of my best plants, ever.   Sunday, July 24 View Page Looks like my growing season is over. The only pumpkin I had left aborted. I have several, whole, secondaries that keep turning yellow, one at a time. The parts that are green are still growing; however I keep getting these yellowing secondaries. It is now the end of July and it would be another 2 weeks before getting another pumpkin set, as I have been picking off new pumpkins. I am going to take the whole vine out and burn it. I will get my soil samples sent in and start preparing for next year. I lost my pumpkin, cucumbers and zucchini this year. The bugs really did me in. I just was not able to win the cucumber beetle and squash bug battles.