Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 54 Entries. Wednesday, April 25 View Page Planted 10 seeds this year as not to be short during transplanting time during first week of May. 1794 first up, 1789, 1723 x 2 and my 1184 (1421x985) 3 main plants this year. 1 for 5 year son off to side, he is like me and wants to grow stuff. Extras will be given to neighbor. One 1789 and both 1647 Wallace did not make it up. Now comes the fun part of moving seedlings in and outside...Patch prep will occur later this year then usual. Planting sites will be prepped soon as the rain has hindered that. Kids grow up fast.   Wednesday, May 2 View Page Plants in the patch on April 30th. 1794, 1789 and 2 1723's. My kid is growing a 1723 and we may do a 1723 x sib. Lets hope for a good year in CT. We are going to try pallets this year for working on around basal crown areas. I liked what I saw in the Wiz's patch with his pallets. Again i am using my christmas light timer to turn on my heat lamps from dusk to dawn. It worked last year.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page Plants are dragging this week with the highs of 60 and lows of 50 with the rain and clouds. Looks like I have ozone damage again. Hoops are still on. I thought I had bigger plants then previous years but this week slowed me down, but 90's are coming by Monday...   Monday, June 11 View Page Potatoe beetles in patch, cuke beetles too, now we are just waiting for SVB's and squash bugs....   Tuesday, June 12 View Page SVB eggs found on plants, 75 merit applied via mist blower. now just waiting for squash bugs...   Sunday, June 24 View Page First squash bugs seen, ortho max has been misted on. I have killed 3 by hand so far...last year they ended my season, this year i will apply insecticides every 4-5 days to stay up on this problem...my neighbors pumpkins already have the eggs beneath the leaves since they don't spray...   Sunday, June 24 View Page hopefully did final pollinations on the 1789 and 1723. Today wil be D10 for the first 1789...   Monday, June 25 View Page Seeds in blossum on 1723 and deformed lobe on 1794. I cut off 1789 day 10. It did not make the numbers. I hope to get everything done by the end of week. I thought I would be done already but you always get curve balls...   Tuesday, June 26 View Page Large thunderstorm moved through yesterday. It put tears in all of my new small leaves. Plants are getting beat up lately. Then temps dipped to 51 last night...   Thursday, June 28 View Page pollinated one on sons 1723 plant x 1794 and one on my 1723 x sib. My plant was a surprise. It appears about half of flower wanted to open and the other not. So we shall see. My son's 1723 is looking better then mine.   Sunday, July 1 View Page 1789 x 1794 on Friday, Son's 1723 x sib today. The 1794 pumpkins don't seem to be growing. They stay real small and wheel shaped then the main vine area starts to crack as the stem thickens up and they won't lay down...time will tell, the 1789 2nd set is growing and the 1723 is starting to grow. However plants look like crap with the hot temps burning all the new leaves....   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1794 plant   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1789 plant   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1723 Plant   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Been on vacation a lot this year. Trying to let the plants take care of themselves.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Neat   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Camping!   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Took a trip to Willaimsburg VA and the OuterBanks NC...It is hard to leave the kins behind...   Wednesday, July 25 View Page Ride the wave Landon   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1789 Day 3   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1789 Day 15   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1794 day 14, very slow and weird shaped, seed cavities in all culls were distorted upon inspection by dissection...very sad bec the plant is beautiful   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1723 Day 15.Looks like her mother a tad bit...   Sunday, July 29 View Page Competition season is over for me. Foaming stumps and I ripped out half of each plant to stop the spread of the diseased tissue. Vacation is good but tough when you can't keep a constant eye on the kins. 1789 was largest I have ever had by the end of July. It was a true screamer for sure. I have also learned not to bury vines as it encourages rot. Keep small well manicured plants for easy misting ensuring better coverage as the interior of my 2 800sqft plants have aphids and I have sprayed every 4-5 days. Next year I will not grow any seconaries on the stump area and up 3 feet so I do not lose as much plant when my stumps foam and I may just remove stumps when my plants are ample size. I also do not like the silt fence anymore as it does not allow ventilation. I am thankful I did not terminate the main at the kin, at least I still have 200-400 sqft to grow a pumpkin by backfeeding... stay tuned the vine bores have also aerated my mains and the 1789 still did 37lbs per day from d20-d34....it could of been a record breaker for sure   Tuesday, July 31 View Page Some quick pics of the kins. This is to document the end of July for 2012. These are the largest I have ever had in the patch at this time. But I also have lost half of the plants due to foamers so we shall see where half plants get me and a high bug and disease pressure...enjoy I know I have....   Wednesday, August 1 View Page Sorry The pics won't load for me to the site...something about a server error on the bigpumpkins.com end....   Wednesday, August 1 View Page 1794 around 500lbs   Wednesday, August 1 View Page 1723 around 700 lbs   Wednesday, August 1 View Page 1789 Ron Wallace is at around 800lbs   Wednesday, August 1 View Page Half of patch removed from faoming stumps. 1794 was largest stump i have ever had. Lets hope we can coast along and at least get some 1k pumpkins to a weighoff....   Friday, August 3 View Page D39 about 740lbs estimate. 1794 just waiting to blossum end split.   Friday, August 3 View Page 1723 D40 about 880lb est. Just waiting for this one to rib slit....avg 40lbs/day the last 3 days. 36.0 avg from 20-40 days   Friday, August 3 View Page 1789 D40 about a 970lb est. Has avg about 36.8lbs for the last 20 days but only 33lbs for the last 3 days. Plant is tired. Does not look big in picture because it is growing on incline over on its stem. Would like to grow 3 of these next year. Crossed with 1794. Lots of fruit flys causing rot.   Monday, August 6 View Page 1794 with rotten spot on back side. Fan has been applied. Slow going.   Monday, August 6 View Page 1723 from Alaska. Still has not split and at D43 has reached 1000lbs est. Gaining some serious weight so I think it will go light....   Monday, August 6 View Page 1789 Now has a dill ring forming from its massive growth rate. Probably would have occurred sooner if the back half of plant had not been removed due to disease issues. This has reached a 1100 lb est. at D43...   Monday, August 6 View Page Landon trying to lessen stem stress on the 1789. It did not help. Thanks for trying buddy!   Friday, August 10 View Page Season is now officially over. 1794 is now rotting. Sitting at 850lbs. Flys and the smell and soft on back side now. 1789 is around 1200 now at day 46 but the plant has vine rot and some other vine disease. I expect it to finish in a couple more days. 1723 has a blossum end pin hole which I caught quick and hope to grow it out like Carlson Peterson 1432. Wishful thinking right? It is 1100 at 46 days and has always been 100 lbs behind the freak. So there you go, what a great hobby. Thanks to Russ, Dale and Ron for the seeds and Ron for the soil advice this year!   Saturday, August 11 View Page 1794 Final around 850 lbs OTT. Would have went heavy. You can see the juice leaking on bottom right. Vine was healthy on whole remaining plant except it was foaming next to stem. I do have some seeds. 1794x1789   Saturday, August 11 View Page 44 Days old. Thick shoulders and still meat near blossum.   Saturday, August 11 View Page 1789 still creeping. Leaves are now slowly flagging, wilting and dieing towards the pumpkin. Any day now it will stop...Over 1200lbs est OTT.   Saturday, August 11 View Page 1723. Did a inch still 2 days ago but last night nothing. This Will be cut up soon! I still had this on a whole plant so I was expecting this to make it to 1700 like its momma. 1100 est OTT. BES!   Thursday, August 16 View Page 1723 1 week with BES and still growing. Almost 1300lbs OTT now. Man I wish this held together. Dale it is a beaut!   Thursday, August 16 View Page Front shot covering up the split. 1723 is a tank!   Thursday, August 16 View Page 1789 is still creeping slow. 1330 lbs OTT with a 5 ft main and 4 secondairies....lets hope we can make a weighoff.   Thursday, August 16 View Page 1789 is not tall or long but has a large CC. Lets hope she goes to chart or heavy.   Saturday, August 25 View Page Two pumpkins in patch over 400 OTT. The 1723 just passed the 1789 and it has a BES still. Vine stem intersection on 1789 getting dry rot like and growth is way down. Either woodstock or durham, but durham may be too far away for my 100sqft of plant to last...   Tuesday, August 28 View Page 1789 will be getting weighed in patch. Dill ring on it is soft and flies were on it today...sorry no woodstock fair.   Tuesday, August 28 View Page 1789 Wallace is now the 1464 DMG EST Traylor. 190-112-106 OTT. Pumpkin was soft. Cut open to find soup inside. Small split on bottom dill ring was culprit. Would have went heavy like everyone says, Thick shoulder and blossum area with ball like calcium deposits inside. Nice! Grown on 100 sqft of plant the last 3 weeks.   Wednesday, August 29 View Page Poking around the 1723 the caulk job was moving and then i removed it to find this. Nice, 2 big pumpkins in 2 days...   Wednesday, August 29 View Page Dale thanks for letting me grow it. It was 1 inch less then the 1789. Now known as the 1454 Est DMG Traylor. I could not weigh this one either, it was a real mess inside. Nice and uniform inside though. 182,114,111 OTT. 1723 x 1794. I had a great year getting some big OTT's early but with splits and rot could not get one to the scales. My sons 1723 is still going maybe around 400lbs and it looks as though he will beat me this year...ha   Thursday, September 13 View Page Landons 1723 went 13% heavy at the Woodstock fair. It is a 1723x1794 cross. He may grow this seed next year and beat me again. He has a good growing coach.   Saturday, September 29 View Page A Large Pumpkin...Nice job Ron and PAP! 3 hours driving in the rain and traffic was all worth it.   Monday, October 15 View Page Landon got his picture in the paper. I shortly had to remove the pumpkin from his school since somebody stabbed it 3 times and it started to rot. Thanks to Flemmings for moving the pumpkin for us.