Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Sunday, April 22 View Page Hoop house goes up on April 22 - looking forward to an early start this season   Tuesday, June 12 View Page Solid start to the plant - just starting to outgrow hoop house   Tuesday, June 19 View Page strong growth - main at 10' and first female visible   Tuesday, June 26 View Page first pollination at about 10'   Tuesday, July 10 View Page All systems go - big plant - 5 pollinations - should be a good year.   Thursday, July 12 View Page Big hail storm last night - my season is over :-(   Thursday, July 19 View Page One week after the hail devastation new growth started to emerge all over.   Sunday, August 26 View Page Now a month and a half later I have a plant again - a little too late...   Sunday, August 26 View Page I do have this little guy at around day 7 though. If frost holds off for another four weeks I may have something over 100 lbs.   Thursday, October 4 View Page Well after the major setback in July (see previous entries) my 'quest for 500lbs' was over. I had to reset objectives and decided that if the plant could come back I would shoot for something I can enter in our local pumpkin fair - their minimum weight requirement is 50lbs. The plant did bounce back in late July early August but we had our first serious frost last night so I had to harvest - timing is good since Smokey Lake weigh-off is this Saturday. You big-time growers will scoff at my little gourd but after a pollination date in late August I'm pretty proud of my 70+ lb 'kin. It's off to Smokey Lake with the kids Saturday - they love the fair and as a grower you get preferred treatment so this little guy will take part in the official weigh-in.