Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 89 Entries. Thursday, January 5 View Page I spent the past season taking some pictures and writing a book called The Beginners Guide To Growing A GIANT Pumpkin. This book is to help a real beginner achieve success in the first year. We all know if you can grow one big pumpkin you will be hooked. It's a 40 page full colour book with lots of pictures and the most basic information needed to help grow a giant pumpkin. I was hoping it would be ready for Christmas but I had some delays. It would still make a great gift for a new grower just starting out their first year. It's available in the Blurb bookstore but they charge $10 shipping. http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2855262 If interested you can buy it directly from me for $16 shipping included anywhere in Canada or the US. Just send me an email with your address and I'll send out a PayPal invoice and get it in the mail to you. Thanks   Thursday, February 16 View Page Started my season today. Seeded giant cabbages Filderkraut and George Rogers strain. Also seeded some Giant Amaranth from Norm Craven. I would have like to start things a couple weeks earlier but just got back from a great 2 week vacation in Orlando.   Saturday, April 7 View Page What a spring compared to last year. All my ammendments are in and I was able to get the soil tilled and ready this weekend. The downside is it's really dry already and the river that I water the patch with is as low now as it usually is in the middle of the summer.It's usually full of trout and salmon this time of year and so far I haven't seen any. I think they are farther downstream learning how to walk.   Saturday, April 7 View Page I think I got my soil right where I want it. A soil test in a couple weeks will determine the last minute adjustments. Here's my "old faithful" tiller thats been in the family as long as I have been. A 1968 Ariens that's been souped up with a 1984 Honda engine, both of them bought new. I doubt when I replace this one that the next one will last as long. It's slow going and hard work but it does a great job.   Saturday, April 7 View Page Tilled and ready to go. I will be putting the hoop houses on the planting sites to maybe warm the soil a bit. Four pumpkins and four cabbages going in this patch.   Saturday, April 7 View Page I did a soil texture test and my soil is about 50% sand, 50% silt almost no clay, so it's officially a sandy-loam.   Friday, April 20 View Page Seeded 2 of my 155.5 Bushel Gourds today. The picture shows the bushel gourd seed before and after it's filed (AG seed for size comparison. Also seeded 2 - 224 Westfall watermelon and 4 - of my 1266's just in case the weather is great I will have an early start on the AG's. My main AG seeds will get planted on the 25th to 30th. The giant cabbages have been in for a week and are looking great.   Friday, April 27 View Page For those of you that don't know a whole lot about Canada, here's a pretty good geography lesson. See where the Maple Syrup comes from? That's why the big pumpkins come from there as well.   Monday, April 30 View Page The bushel gourds have been a tough one to germinate for a lot of people. Here is one of the 155.5 Nieuwenhoff's that just popped up. Seeded April 20th and broke ground on the 28th. I find that 90F seems to work the best and barely damp soil or they will rot likely because they are in the soil for 10 to 14 days.   Thursday, May 10 View Page The pumpkins are planted. The earliest ever for me, but the weather looked pretty good for the long range so I went for it. This is what made the cut; 1266 Nieuwenhoff, 1404 Bryson, 1381 Swarts, and together in one hoop house my 1088 Nieuwenhoff and a 1605 Sweet. The 1605 Sweet had extremely curled cots, then 3 leaves all at the same time and it appears to be ending in a cluster of something so I don't have high hopes for it. I had to go with the 1088 as the back-up as this plant is the most aggresive out of anything I have planted this year.   Thursday, May 10 View Page The pumpkins are planted inside my "hybrid" hoop houses. Reemay covering so they can breathe and not get too hot and shrink wrap on the bottom for extra wind and cold protection. This year I planted in an "Amelio type" mound so the vine has to climb slightly up hill for the first couple feet. This should help greatly when it comes time for the vine to lay down.   Thursday, May 10 View Page The cabbages are doing great the past couple weeks. Here is one of the Filderkraut Pointed Cabbages inside a 2'x2' frame.   Monday, May 14 View Page The Jarvis Enviroshield 2.0   Sunday, May 20 View Page The "Star of the Show" so far is my own 1266 Nieuwenhoff (1663 Zoellner x 1161 Rodonis). Not far behind is my own 1088 (reverse cross) that is planted for a backup of the not doing so well 1605 Sweet. The 1381 Swarts looks great as well and the 1404 Bryson (that I dropped from 4 feet off the ground when the lip of the pot broke) shows no signs of being roughed up at all. Saw thw first Striped Cucumber Beetle yesterday :(   Sunday, May 20 View Page Got the irrigation system hooked up today and watered in all the goodies I applied last night. I've added a couple more sprinklers this year to hopefully have more even watering. This a shot of the garden from the front, looking towards the hill that the 200 pound bushel gourd plant will be covering later in the season ;)   Sunday, May 20 View Page Pretty much everything is planted. The 155.5 Nieuwenhoff Bushel Gourd, a couple Long Gourds, a 224 Westfall watermelon, 2 Jeff Warner sunflowers, 2 Fred Hain sunflowers, and a few of my own 196" sunflowers from a couple years ago all went in the ground over the last week. The giant toamtoes were just seeded 10 days ago.   Sunday, May 27 View Page In a strange turn of events, less than 24 hours after I gave advice to a fellow grower (who's father is in the hospital) about getting through tough times even when you think you can't I've had to draw on that advice myself. My own father passed away yesterday. He was in hospital due to recent fall caused by weakness due to a bladder infection. He was supposed to go home yesterday but sometime during the night took a turn for the worse and ended up very, very sick with septicemia (blood poisoning, a bacterial infection through the whole body). The whole family was with him as he tried fighting the inevitable til the end. He always loved hearing the progress on the pumpkin plants and seeing the results and I'm sure he will still be following along.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page The star of the show now is the 1381 Swarts. My 1266 was the best one until I snapped the main vine. For some reason it just wants to grow in a circle, must have some NASCAR genes in it. Still ahead of last year by about a week.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page The long gourds just starting to reach for the netting.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page Sunflowers(from left to right) 2-Jeff Warner strain 2011, 2-my own strain 2010, 2-Fred Hain 2008.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page One of the 4 cabbages. There is a 2'x2' frame under there somewhere.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page While helping my mother go through some of my dad's papers last week we found this. It's from 1983 when Owen Woodman from Nova Scotia had the World's Largest Pumpkin that year with his 481 pounder! It's funny that he clipped that out of the paper and kept that stashed away all these years.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page Cabbages are doing well. I have four.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The sunflowers...Jeff's haven't caught up to mine yet despite his prediction and the Fred Hain ones are dropping way behind.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The Giant Bushel Gourd is just starting to take off. Just like last year it kind of sits there until the heat really hits.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The long gourds are right on track compared to last year.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page Giant tomatoes looking good. I have a few different ones...a couple each of Timms, Lyons, Hunts, and five of my own.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page ....and now the pumpkins....this is my 1266. It was the best one until a freak wind storm snapped the main vine off right where I cracked earlier in the season and it never healed fully. I should have just trained a secondary at that time instead of trying to heal the crack. I am left with training the second secondary as the new main. It's about 6 feet now. A pollination before July 10th is still quite possible.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The 1605 Sweet about 8 feet long with a female showing in the tip. May even get a June pollination on this one around the 10 foot mark by the time it fully expands.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The 1404 Bryson about 10 feet long. This was a slow starter but has really picked up the pace this past week.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page The 1381 Swarts is over 12 feet now with lots of females showing up. I've wanted to grow this one for a couple years now and finally got my hands on a couple seeds this year. I hope it pans out well as this is planned to be my main pollinator for the other pumpkins.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page I wish I had choices like this on every pumpkin!   Tuesday, June 19 View Page Saw this today...very fitting.   Wednesday, June 20 View Page Saw the first Squash Vine Borer moths today. With highs around 35C today and tomorrow it's way to hot to spray anything. I'll maybe spray tonight and water lightly in the morning and then spray again the first cooler day we have.   Thursday, June 21 View Page Big storm blew through today and blew the top half of this tree over into the river. It's literally 10 feet from the corner of my patch but unfortunately its not one of the trees that cast shade on the patch :( The pumpkin plants all seem fine, I can't even find a broken leaf. Thats one of the advantages of being in a "hollar", most of the winds blow right over top of the patch. It's just the odd freak wind that sneaks up on you and snaps a main.   Friday, July 6 View Page Well, I haven't updated the diary in a while so here's a few tidbits. This is the Top o The Hill shot. At the far end is the 1381 Swarts (Best plant so far), at 3 o'clock is the 1605 Sweet (pretty shaded spot, but doing well), at 6 o'clock is my 1266 (sad story....This was the best plant when I lost the main except for about 2 feet in a freak wind gust) First pollination on the new main didn't take and and 14 ... yes 14 nodes later a female is showing up in the tip. Maybe a July 15th pollination or I'll try it again next year. At 9 o'clock is the 1404 Bryson (biggest pumpkin but I've never had a plant burn as bad as this one). It doesn't seem to affect the growth of the fruit though as I've never had early numbers as good as this one. Growing in the foreground outside the patch is my daughters 1266 plant. She pollinated a few over the last few days including a beautiful perfect 6 lober. Also in the garden are the four cabagges.   Friday, July 6 View Page And speaking of cabbages (now spelled correctly) here is one of the George Rogers strain. It's about the size I ended last year with so I'm pretty pleased so far but its a long way to October.   Friday, July 6 View Page The 1381 Swarts with my new stump protector installed ($5.40 each in bulk including shipping from China in 7 days)Hopefully this will keep the stump area drier than last year and I can actually have stumps after day 30 on the pumpkin.   Friday, July 6 View Page The 155.5 Nieuwenhoff bushel gourd just self pollinated tonight on a secondary just off the main about 10 feet out. Last year I pollinated end of July and ended up with 155.5 pounds so here's hoping for bigger and better.   Friday, July 6 View Page Sunflowers are doing pretty good. The top of the pipe is 10 feet so I'll be adding a section on top tomorrow. From the left is 2 Warner strain, 2 Nieuwenhoff strain, 2 Hain strain (one flowered already)   Friday, July 6 View Page Long gourds just starting to pollinate now.   Friday, July 6 View Page The 1404 Bryson at Day 10, its now Day 14 and will officially outgrow the hamper tomorrow. Time to level the ground, install the mill fabric and get the sheet structure up for shade.   Friday, July 6 View Page The 1381 Swarts at Day 10 its now Day 12 and will outgrow the hamper by Day 14.   Friday, July 6 View Page The crosses I made so far this year are; June 23 - 1404 Bryson x 1381 Swarts. June 24 - 1605 Sweet x 1381 Swarts but will likely go with the July 1 - 1605 x 1404 Bryson. June 25 - 1381 Swarts x 1404 Bryson.   Sunday, July 8 View Page My pumpkin that ended up the largest last year (1266) was 30" cc on Day 13. Just measured my largest on Day 13 today (on the 1381 Swarts) and it's 40" cc.... YIKES!   Saturday, July 21 View Page 1381 Swarts day 26 with numbers well above my biggest from last year at this time.   Saturday, July 21 View Page The 1404 Bryson at day 28 with numbers below my biggest last year. Not surprising as this plant has an oozing stump and fries in the heat no matter how much misting and watering is done. I expect it to pick up the pace very shortly once all the secondary roots gets established.   Saturday, July 21 View Page The 1605 Sweet at day 20 with numbers on pace with my biggest last year. This one is growing in the poorest part of the patch so I'm not expecting much.   Saturday, July 21 View Page My own 1266 at day 7. This is the plant that I lost the main when it was 8 feet long and was left with two secondaries, one of which became the new main. I wanted to wait to pollinate until I had a decent amount of plant. With a July 14th pollination and a 300 sqft plant I should at least be able to see what it is capable of. It looks like it's going have nice colour which is funny because the reverse cross (my 1088) won the Howard Dill Award and any of those ones I've seen grown this year are white.   Wednesday, July 25 View Page The patch is pretty much full. Will have to start terminating secondaries soon. There is a big storm forcast for tonight with high winds, hail, torrential downpours, etc. With no significant rainfall here in 7 weeks I could use the rain, but I hope the patch still looks like this in the morning.   Sunday, August 5 View Page Five days ago when I measured the 1404 Bryson, it had dropped from 19 pounds a day for a five day average to 5 pounds a day. This pumpkin never really took off, never did over 19 pounds a day and was the worst plant ever for wilting and burning in the sun. I am assuming it stopped growing around Day 35 (400 pounds). We cut it up and removed the plant tonight and there was no signs of anything that would have caused it to stop so my guess is the weeks of extreme heat just made it abort, or there was something "wrong" right from the start. So I'm left with a 1605 Sweet with a big stem split that may open up into the cavity any day now, and my own 1266 that the main snapped off 2 feet from the stump so I now have a July 14th pollination on a side vine on that on that one. On a good note, I do have a 1381 Swarts that is 350 pounds ahead of my biggest one last year (1266) on the same day. I just hope it doesn't stop growing any time soon.   Saturday, August 11 View Page The GVGO patch tour was today and we were honoured to be one of the stops on the tour. I've been a little light on the diary entries because I wanted to keep things a bit of a surprise for the tour. So here is the update on my our patch. This is one you wouldn't have seen on the tour. It's the 1404 Bryson that stopped growing at just over 400 pounds. It either aborted due to the heat or possibly some rot travelled through the vine from the foaming stump to the pumpkin?   Saturday, August 11 View Page This is our daughter Larissa's pumpkin (1266 Nieuwenhoff). She is very proud of it, taps it every day, sprinkles some MYKE here and there, and waters it with the watering can. She's done all the vine burying and pruning (none) and it's sitting at just over 200 pounds.   Saturday, August 11 View Page The 1605 Sweet is just over 430 pounds and has slowed right down. It has a deep stem split that has ripped into the flesh and oozing quite a bit.   Saturday, August 11 View Page My 1266 is just under 300 pounds today (day 28) and just kicking in. Hopefully something for a late weigh-off if we have a nice fall.   Saturday, August 11 View Page The biggest one in the patch is the 1381 Swarts which should be just under 950 today (day 47) and been doing between 33 and 30 pounds a day for 17 days straight.   Saturday, August 11 View Page Other stuff in the garden....Sunflowers, a few over 16 feet, but pretty much done growing.   Saturday, August 11 View Page Filderkraut German Pointed Cabbage...it's very heavy but just about ready to split open any day. I'm hoping with the pointed head it may resist splitting more than a regular type.   Saturday, August 11 View Page George Rogers strain giant cabbage doing OK.   Saturday, August 11 View Page A couple long gourds in there somewhere. Biggest about 100 inches at 31 and doing an inch a day. I have a couple more just pollinated a few days ago.   Saturday, August 11 View Page Tomatoes never show up very well (big) on the plant in a picture, but the according to a few experts on the tour today this one may be somewhere between 4 and 5 pounds. It's on the 4.62 Timm that was in the GVGO seed pack this year.   Saturday, August 11 View Page Hmmm   Sunday, August 26 View Page It's never a good sign when your evening pumpkin patch work requires a saw, scoop shovel, bucket, and nose plugs.   Tuesday, August 28 View Page The 1381 Swarts. The OTT is the biggest I've grown yet and it's still doing 15.5 pounds a day last 7 days. A few days ago I found a #9 wire U shaped pin I used to pin down the main vine. I had forgotten to remove it and it was halfway between the stump and pumpkin and had girdled the main vine to half the size in that area....duh. Also pictured are my two biggest helpers....my wife helped with all the vine burying every single night I went out there....and no, she wasn't the one that left the wire pin on the vine. Our daughter has her own pumpkin as well that is getting close to 300 pounds!   Wednesday, August 29 View Page 4.90 pounds off the 4.62 Timm from the GVGO seed pack this year. If there's any out there not going to see dirt, I'll gladly take them off your hands!   Monday, September 3 View Page The view from our street. I usually have them them well covered but this time of year I like to get some sun on them once in a while. When I do it's a real traffic stopper.   Monday, September 3 View Page The 1266 Nieuwenhoff is going to be a real nice orange like it's pollinator was and the deep ribs of it's mother.   Monday, September 3 View Page My best chance at a personal best this year is the 1381 Swarts. Big, ugly, and fat (just as wide as it is long) and feels like a piece of granite.   Tuesday, September 4 View Page The 4.90 Nieuwenhoff (4.62 Timm x open)   Saturday, September 8 View Page 4.90 Nieuwenhoff starting to rot so I figured it was time to get the seeds out of it.   Saturday, September 8 View Page Backside of the 4.90   Monday, September 17 View Page The top of the hill shot. Two plants left, one on each end of the pacth. The cover crop (rye) filled in nice and quick where the other two plants were.   Monday, September 17 View Page I've never had plants this healthy in Mid September. Lots of fresh new growth too.   Monday, September 17 View Page A beauty off my 1266 Nieuwenhoff. This is turning out to be a real nice orange producer. So far I've seen two others this colour, one deeper orange, and one crazy red.   Monday, September 17 View Page Happy with the long gourds this year. The one on the left was a personal best when it stopped growing. The one on the right is still creeping along :)   Tuesday, September 18 View Page How's this for colour? Grown off the 1266 Nieuwenhoff 2011 - (1663 Zoellner x 1161 Rodonis)   Friday, September 28 View Page Global TV News Toronto came out to the patch today. They were here for a good hour and a half. Watched Conrad and I load for Port Elgin and did a pretty extensive interview. Our daughter stayed home from school for most of the day to be part of the show too. She even got to show them her 300 pound pumpkin and talk about it as well. It should air on the six o'clock news on Saturday or Sunday. I'll post a link when it airs.   Monday, October 1 View Page Had a great day at the Sunday weigh-off at Port Elgin. Won the Howard Dill Award with my now 808 Nieuwenhoff grown off the 1266 Nieuwenhoff and crossed with the 1381 Swarts. I also came in 10th with the pumpkin, 3rd with a tall sunflower, and 1st with a personal best long gourd (112").   Monday, October 1 View Page Howard Dill Winner 808 Nieuwenhoff. The 1266 Nieuwenhoff also grew the Saturday Port Elgin Howard Dill Award (1152 Wray)and there was also a 1095.5 grown off the seed too. Nice to see 1000+ pounders and HD winners grown off my seed. Feel almost as good as if I grew it myself.   Friday, October 5 View Page The 1381 Swarts, loading day, just waiting for the heavy equipment to show up.   Saturday, October 6 View Page 1381 Swarts loaded. Headed to the Erin Fair today in a brand new Silverado 2500HD thanks to Georgetown Chevrolet and Conrad for making it happen.   Sunday, October 7 View Page What a great day at Erin Fall Fair. A new PB for me... 1386...off the 1381 Swarts. It went a bit light but I kind of expected that as a lot of pumpkins have been going light this year. I got first place for the pumpkin, first for cabbage (36 pounds), first for sunflower, first for heaviest other. My brother also got a PB (976) off the 1641 Mongomery. A great weigh-off, and a huge crowd dispite the cold weather.   Sunday, October 7 View Page The nicest 1st place pumpkin award of any weigh-off, hands down. A hand blown glass pumpkin made by a local artist. This will definately have a special place in the trophy display.   Sunday, October 7 View Page The leaderboard...not a bad day for the Nieuwenhoff's. Three PB's, and our daughter was so excited and proud about her 352 pounder that she grew. That's what its all about.   Sunday, October 14 View Page Our daughter with her 352 pounder grown off the 1266 Nieuwenhoff. She planted the seed, planted the plant, watered and fertilized, pollinated the flower. She also checked on it every day and her special treatment....she patted it every day. She was very proud to place 11th out of 20 competing with "the big boys" at the Erin Fall Fair weigh off. Already excited about next year, she asked if she could have a spot in the "real" garden so she could bury vines too.   Sunday, October 14 View Page To recap the season, we won 1st for Longest Gourd at Port Elgin Sunday weigh off. It was 112 inches and a personal best. We also won 3rd for Tallest Sunflower at 192 inches grown off our own seed from 2010.   Sunday, October 14 View Page Also at Port Elgin Sunday weigh off we won 10th place and the Howard Dill Award for our 808 grown off the 1266 Nieuwenhoff and crossed with the 1381 Swarts (now the 1386 Nieuwenhoff).   Sunday, October 14 View Page At Erin Fall Fair weigh off we won first with our 1386 grown off the 1381 Swarts and crossed with the 1404 Bryson. We also won first for Sunflower 196", first for Bushel Gourd 135.5 Pounds, first for cabbage 36 pounds.   Tuesday, November 27 View Page Once again I have a limited supply of seeds to give away this year. Thank You to everyone that grew my seeds that I gave out last year. Here is what I have available; If you are looking for BIG & Orange I have some 1266's left from last year (1663 Zoellner x 1161 Rodonis) This was grown by several people this year and I know of 7 that were over 1000 pounds and two HOWARD DILL AWARD WINNERS in its first year out. The seeds I have left are ugly (they have mold spots on them due to a fan failure during drying) but they are perfectly fine. From this year I have my 808 Nieuwenhoff(1266 Nieuwenhoff x 1381 Swarts) I personally feel this could be a great big n orange seed as well and if you believe in hybrid vigor this should be a great cross. This won a Howard Dill Award and the pollinator grew my new PB which I also have seeds available from...the 1386 Nieuwenhoff (1381 Swarts x 1404 Bryson) the pollinator stopped growing mid summer during a heat wave, but I also think the vine had rot inside it that travelled to inside the pumpkin. Pictures of all these can be found in my diary from this year and last year. I also have some seeds available from my 135.5 Bushel Gourd (155.5 Nieuwenhoff x self) This one was bigger than my 155.5 from the year before but it rippened too early and started to dry. When I opened it up it had a large hollow area inside. Last but not least I have some seeds available from my PB 4.90 Tomato (4.62 Timm x open) #7 on the GPC listings. Since I have limited numbers of all these seeds to share I can't send them out to "collectors". If you plan on growing any of these next year please send me a letter stating which ones will see dirt in 2013 along with a stamped, addressed bubble. For outside of Canada growers please include a couple dollars and I will get the postage. Send to; John Nieuwenhoff 37 Stewarttown Road, Georgetown, Ontario, CANADA L7G 4S5