Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 48 Entries. Sunday, March 11 View Page This year the Annual International Giant Vegetable Growers Convention was held at a different hotel than last year, but still in Niagara Falls, Canada. As I was waiting to cross the border I captured this different prospective of both the American and Canadian Falls than I have gotten in the past. I was honored to be a speaker at this year’s event and enjoyed the time I spent there talking with the other growers.   Wednesday, March 14 View Page Here is an early season patch picture. It is odd to see this much lush green this time of year as typically there is some snow still on the ground in my area. Overall it has been an unusual ‘winter’ with little snow fall and above average temperatures. The winter rye seems to be benefiting from the weather as I planted it in the late fall (Nov. 9th, 2011) and it is making up for lost time.   Wednesday, April 4 View Page With all the warm weather even the soil was warm for April, but I went ahead and buried the heating cables anyway, just in case the weather took a turn. Plant sites are marked and the anchors for my cold frames are in so I knew the area to put the heating cables so I dug the area out laid the cables in with bamboo stakes to hold them in place until I covered them up with soil so I could remove the bamboo stakes. Notice that this was a warm day, but also that the sun is out which I find makes the cables more user friendly to take on the pattern you see here.   Wednesday, April 11 View Page Here is my chosen seed line-up for the 2012 growing season… 1725 Harp ’09 (F: 1385 Jutras x self) 1634 Werner ’10 (F: 1421.5 Stelts x 1236 Harp) 1421.5 Stelts (F: 1385 Jutras x 904 Stelts) 1381 Checkon ’10 (F: 1288 Wallace x 1161 Rodonis) 1216.5 DeBacco ’11 (F: 1325 Hopkins x M: 1725 Harp) 1064.5 DeBacco ’10 (F: 1385 Jutras x M: 1421.5 Stelts)   Wednesday, April 25 View Page As the saying goes, “there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow” and as you can see here the end happened to fall right on my patch. So, (hopefully) this means I will have a ‘golden’ season, or I should look at digging up the patch;-)   Monday, May 7 View Page Well some of my patch work is done, but as you can see the rye has gotten a little taller. On the left side I used a scythe to cut the rye down. I will repeat this same procedure on the right side which will be followed by mowing, then tilling to incorporate the clippings and raking of the excess material to reduce the amount that is left on the surface.   Sunday, May 27 View Page Here you can see that I have followed my plan for the winter rye and was able to get my weed block down in the patch to reduce some of the work for now. What you cannot see is that the drip lines are also all in the patch so when the plants reach the weed block I can simply roll it back and the drip lines will already be in place.   Sunday, June 3 View Page All the plants have out grown their respective cold frames which are 5ft. x 9ft. I also set up some silt fence to buffer some of the wind as when the plants come out of the protection of the cold frame they are sensitive to wind damage. Other than a little weeding not much has changed since the last update, but the plants should be starting their exponential growth phase very soon.   Thursday, June 14 View Page The beach look has started with umbrellas shading hopeful female flowers to increase the odds of successful pollinations. Plants are really starting to grow so the weed block is being edged back to accommodate the main vine growth. Following pictures will show each plant on a quick walk around…   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1725 Harp ‘09 Overall a nice plant with even growth, but with the heat it seems to have the tendency to burn a little more than last year. However, I do not think this will have much of an impact as the overhead sprinklers I have are keeping the damage minimal.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1634 Werner ‘10 This plant seems to be right handed as the secondary growth is a little uneven at the moment. The vines on the left hand-side are there but just not growing with the vigor of the ones on the right side.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1421.5 Stelts ‘09 Probably the best plant in the patch at the moment, but it does seem to be getting more leaf burn as we get more hot days and is not responding to the mid-day mist as well as other plants. Nothing that is going to end the season, just a trait I am noticing.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1381 Checkon ‘10 This plant seemed to produce a lot of random vine growth right at the main planting site just after the cold-frame was removed. So, other than a little extra pruning this plant has been a nice average plant that is steadily growing.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1216.5 DeBacco ‘11 All season this plant has been a top-2 as it is hard for me to give my seed the #1 rank in the patch. However, this is probably the “best” cross I have made as this plant has been very impressive. Growth is great in both the vine and root departments so the potential for a truly big pumpkin is there for sure.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1064.5 DeBacco ‘10 This plant has been well behaved for yet another year which is welcomed. The leaves are low the same as last year so it looks like this is a consistent trait, now as long as the percent heavy also carries over it will have the best of both worlds (plant behavior and pumpkin structure) in one.   Thursday, June 21 View Page Well, of course I had to be outside in corn field taking June nitrate samples today. Took a picture of this thermometer as I passed by just to confirm that, yes it is hot out.   Saturday, June 23 View Page This is the last picture I have with all of my plants because there is virus spreading quickly through the patch. It is hard when all the work as been put in and there is no cure for virus infection.   Saturday, June 23 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) Today, I was in the pumpkin patch and noticed that this leaf does not look normal, as it appears to have a mosaic pattern. Not something you want to see.   Saturday, June 23 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) If you notice these two leaves toward the vine tip (newer growth) also have that same mosaic pattern to it. Since this is the early stages of infection the coloration differences are slight and the leaf does not have any change in morphology (shape).   Saturday, June 23 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) The shorter and overall smaller secondary is showing the mosaic symptoms and as you can see the other secondary to the right looks normal. What this pictures shows from a scientific stand point is the newer growth that is going through the highest rate of cell division is replicating the virus at the greatest rate.   Saturday, June 23 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) This zoom out picture of the plant stressing the point that the new growth is a tell tale sign of a viral infection. The leaves on the main vine still look normal as the virus replication rate is slower in this section of the plant. While I got a cucurbit virus screen to confirm the exact type of virus if you want a field diagnosis that will confirm a virus infect I suggest you look to the pumpkin. (Look at the following two postings for pictures of virus infected pumpkins.)   Saturday, June 23 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) If you look carefully at this pumpkin you can see a bumpy look to it. Now it was big enough to be set and it was still growing but seeing this bumpy appearance instead of the nice smooth look typically for a pumpkin of this age told me that the virus was altering the DNA and it would only get worse. So, even though it is hard to do this plant (1725 Harp) was completely removed shortly after this picture. This is the look that is more typical at initial onset and indicates that the plant is infected with a virus.   Thursday, July 12 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) After you suspect virus if you want further conformation look at the developing female flowers and pumpkin. What should be a consistent color will get splotches of other colors. Typically what should be a yellow color will get green colorations mixed in. Note that this will only happen when virus has fully spread though the plant and not necessarily on the initial on set.   Thursday, July 12 View Page Confirmed ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) This is another picture of what a pumpkin, pre-pollination can look like when it is infected with virus. You can compare it with the previous picture to get an idea of the variability in the appearance.   Thursday, July 12 View Page Well, after pulling out infected plants I immediately seeded buckwheat in. You can see here what a plant site (and a half) looks like only 20 days after removing the pumpkin plants and seeding the buckwheat. Since it is midseason I have decided the cut down the buckwheat before it seeds followed by a quick till and then adding contractor grade grass seed as my summer time cover crop.   Tuesday, August 21 View Page Here is how my patch looks now with only half of a plant:-( If that was not bad enough, the half of a plant remaining is severely ZYMV (Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus) infected. However, the pumpkin does appear to be growing so that is a positive. I know it is not going to be a personal best but I would like to still get it to a weigh-off.   Tuesday, August 21 View Page Early on when the plant became infected I was going to rip the entire plant out, but since this was the last one left I decided to keep half of the plant so I had plant material to get screen to properly ID the virus. As a result I did not move the pumpkin early on and it fell on the vine and as it grew which lead to it pulling itself off the vine. However, the plant was actually healing itself as the stem to vine separation was occurring resulting in the formation of callus tissue. By this time the pumpkin was only attached to about 1/3 of the full vine, and it was still growing.   Tuesday, August 21 View Page This picture shows my contractors grade grass seed growing along with my half of a pumpkin plant. You can notice that the new growth is virus infected but since infection occurred after the pumpkin was 20 days old (on this plant) the pumpkin is not showing any signs of virus infection as there is no change in shape or other odd visual characteristics.   Saturday, August 25 View Page Well after losing all of my plants I decided to go on a new patch tour. With the help of some fellow growers I ended up at this house. Does it look familiar to anyone? (See next post for the answer.)   Saturday, August 25 View Page It was great to see the actual Dill Farm in Windsor Nova Scotia and get to talk with Diana and Danny and get to see where it all began. The pumpkin in the picture is growing on the 1016 Daletas which was one of Howard’s favorites and I think by the picture you can tell why. Thanks for your hospitality!   Monday, September 3 View Page Woodstock Fair Here is the first official Team-Pumpkin and GPC certified Woodstock Great Pumpkin competition. There was a lot of work that went into this event but in the end it all came together. The growers had the pumpkins and the fair was willing to support our work making it a true team effort. This was especially true when the Skid-Steer broke a main hydraulic line. As you can see we had more than just giant pumpkins but many of the other categories were on show for the duration of the Fair. Norm was also nice enough to allow his pumpkin to be the show pumpkin and allowed people to clime right on and around for a photo.   Monday, September 3 View Page Woodstock Fair This was unexpected but a welcome surprise as we had a nice turn out in the watermelon division. I believe we had both a Connecticut and Massachusetts state record on display. Visitors were also impressed with the main vine that was on display.   Tuesday, September 4 View Page Well my goal of getting my pumpkin to a weigh-off deflated (along with the pumpkin) while it was on the trailer. It ended up taping 550 pounds (2008 OTT chart) which I was happy with considering my in-season challenges, but still I really wanted to get it to a weigh-off. Something’s you cannot control.   Tuesday, September 4 View Page This picture shows my hand selected field of monocots. I went through the entire patch (~6,000sq.ft.) and pulled out by hand all the Pokeweed, Pigweed, Galinsoga, and Nutsedge. This will be mowed down as I plan for next year;-)   Saturday, September 22 View Page Sanford Maine Well looks like another Team-Pumpkin road trip, this time to Sanford Maine. It was a great time to be able to talk with some of the more Northern New England growers. There was also an impressive squash showing here.   Saturday, September 22 View Page Sanford Maine First weigh-off that I have been to that has pumpkins being dropped from planes! One came very close to the target in the middle of the lake, but it was impressive to see the impact of the pumpkin when it hit the water.   Tuesday, September 25 View Page Here I am collecting clones from Ron’s 1725 Harp plant. The pumpkin sure looked impressive but little did we know that this was going to be the first ONE TON pumpkin! Thanks Ron for allowing me to take some plant material and congratulations on breaking into another level of pumpkin growing.   Wednesday, September 26 View Page Durham Fair It was a little bit of a challenge organizing two Team-Pumpkin weigh-offs but in the end everyone pulled together. You can see there are times when the tent was standing room only. Joanne is doing the best she can to keep up with all the questions, but I also want to thank Bart, Lloyd, Sue, Paul and others for the time they spent in the pumpkin tent.   Friday, September 28 View Page Topsfield Fair I know it seems the entire world heard the news from Topsfield, but I think this picture sums it all up.   Friday, October 5 View Page Just an update on how my patch looks today. As you can see the area has been mowed but there is a good ground cover established that I am going to over-seed some winter rye as there are some annual plants that will frost kill in the near future.   Saturday, October 6 View Page Frerichs Farm How many people does it take to properly measure a pumpkin? (Answer: an entire team;-)   Saturday, October 6 View Page Frerichs Farm Here is the Top-3 on display for their well deserved recognition… 1,872 Wallace (in the middle) also known as “The Pleasure Dome” 1,770.5 Lieber (the orange pumpkin on the right) 1,756 Lancaster (on the left)   Thursday, October 18 View Page New York Botanical Gardens Here is Gene and myself at the New York Botanical Gardens “back room” preparing for the seed harvest. It was great to be back for another year, and here is the standard pre-cut picture before things gets messy.   Thursday, October 18 View Page Inside The Pleasure Dome It was not easy but I managed to be able to get inside the pleasure dome. I want to make special note that the wall thickness was reduced so that I could fit inside and on the top left side is more representative of the original thickness. What was an interesting note is that most of the seeds were on the bottom floor of the pumpkin which I think related to the miles of travel that this pumpkin experienced while on tour.   Thursday, October 18 View Page Here is a reenactment of the carving that was completed last year at the Botanical Gardens. (I think the carving looked more realistic;-)   Thursday, October 18 View Page Here is some of the crew that was at the botanical gardens pictured with Quinn’s 209lb World Record Field pumpkin. Trust me it looked a lot bigger in person than it did on TV. (I thought the camera adds weight;-)   Thursday, October 18 View Page Here is Steve Daletas’s 1778.5 pound pumpkin that was just delivered. The crate that it arrived in was custom made by Steve Daletas and Jim Sherwood and all that I can say is the construction was, bomb shelter worthy.   Friday, October 19 View Page Grand Central Terminal Display There was a lot of action around the pumpkin as it was on display right outside of Grand Central Terminal in New York City but managed a quick picture. What the picture does not show is the lighting effect that the carvers worked on by getting just the proper wall thickness. (This was Steve Geddes 1,843.5lb pumpkin.) Since we were only there for a quick seed harvest we left shortly after this so we did not get to see the final display but it was great to be a part of the experience.