Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 71 Entries. Monday, April 23 View Page Got the season started on Saturday by giving the seeds a 4 hour soak and then into the incubator at 90 degrees. After 13 hours in the incubator germination started for most of the seeds. In the incubator are the following seeds. 991 Urena, 1789 Wallace, 1647 Wallace, 1605 Sweet, 1402 Urena, Two 723 Revier, Two 1630 Revier, Two 1723 Marshall, 1303 Sweet, Two 1560 Urena, and Seven 1023 Steil   Tuesday, April 24 View Page Sunday I got all the soil heating cables plugged in and the cold frames in place. Soil temp as of Monday was sitting at 72 degrees in the cold frames and 60 outside the frame. It takes about 1/4 mile of extension cords to plug in all the cold frames...lol   Sunday, April 29 View Page Plants are doing well except for one 1630 Revier, which is not going to make it due to poor cot development and both 1560 Urena's which are growing extremely slow. I will stick with them for a while yet to see if they kick it in gear.   Monday, April 30 View Page 10 day forcast looks really good with highs around 70 and lows around 50. Plants are going into the cold frames in about an hour. Soil temp is sitting at 75 inside the cold frames with heating cables.   Wednesday, May 2 View Page Survived the first round of hail last night. Cold frames did their jobs during the storms. Thinking I may need to add some hail netting this year over a couple of the better plants. After losing my plants two years in a row, it would be nice to see one of these get to their potential. After last nights storms I may have to make some late modifications to the patch.   Thursday, May 3 View Page The 1560 Urena's did not make it, neither wanted to grow past two small cots so they are done. Both had some kind of odd club root. The last three plants go in the ground today. Lineup should look like this. 1789 Wallace, 1789 Wallace, 1630 Revier, 991 Urena, 1303 Sweet, 1723 Marshall, 1605 Sweet, 1647 Wallace, 1647 Wallace, 723 Revier (1725 Harp x 1810 Stevens, 1023 Steil (1135 Revier Est x 1810 Stevens), the last spot is a double planting of 1360 Urena & 1723 Marshall to see who wins. I probably should have planted more of my 1023 Steil Plants, they have been the fastest growers out of the gate.   Tuesday, May 15 View Page Plants are all just about ready to touch down. The 10 day forcast looks very favorable for growing. Ironically the 1023 Steil that my son is growing is leading the pack again as far as early season growth. This could be the year he beats dad. Although I was on the road the last 10 days so he has been tending to all the plants and did a great job.   Wednesday, May 23 View Page The 991 Urena is going to outgrow the cold frame tomorrow so that will be coming down and new wind protection will go up. The 1789 Wallace will be out either tomorrow or the next day. The others should make it until the weekend before they outgrow their cold frames. Growth has been good, hopefully we don't get the 3 inches of rain they are predicting over the next 24 hours.   Thursday, June 7 View Page There has been some discussion about wind and I learned my method from Chad Revier and then expanded it some. I plant round-up ready corn on the outside of my patch, around the 6 ft wind green wind fencing. Then I divide the patch in half with the same green wind fencing. This year I also added black silt fencing around each 30 x 30 planting area. The key to silt fencing is allowing a few inches of space underneath to let air flow under also to prevent the wind shear you get from the turbulent flow over the top of it. Also, to alternate te stakes on each side of the fence as you see in the picture. Has worked great for me in a windy year so far. Won't stop the hail but I have the wind under control.   Thursday, June 7 View Page This is my 1303 Sweet. It is sitting at 9ft and has produced 3 females already, one on the main. There is one sitting on the tip that will not get pollinated but the next one in line is going to get it I think. Plant is doing good, could use some rain but other than that doing good.   Thursday, June 7 View Page This is the 991 Urena. It is the leader of the pack so far. It is sitting at 10.5 ft today and has a female on the tip. Still a little close for me but I may pollinate if it holds out until Sunday before it opens. Original plan was to start pollinating females after the 15th but this one is really tempting me.   Tuesday, June 12 View Page Got just over 1 inch of Rain on Sunday which was much needed. Three days of 30 MPH plus winds left the plants a little beat up. Managed to avoid the hail in the storms on Sunday as it went just North of us. Last night it got down to 47 here but the 10 day looks very favorable for growing, and pollinating if we can get through the storms they are calling for tomorrow. Plants are getting to that point pollinations are getting scheduled.   Thursday, June 14 View Page Plants got destroyed by two hail storms this morning. Hail was really bad and lasted about 15 minutes total. Didn't go in the patch but I can't see many leaves left. Good news is it is only June and all the main tips are covered. Will hold off now on pollinations and hopefully we can rapidly grow some new plant as long as the secondaries didn't get snapped off.   Thursday, June 14 View Page Here is an over the fence shot at my 1303 Sweet. Was doing well up until this AM. Not the end of the world though, you can see my Main Tip hail covers worked. Plant is well ventilated now. Will try to kick the plants into high gear with a "hail" plan after talking with Chris Stevens this AM. He went throught the same thing in 2010 and we all know how that ended up for him. As I said earlier, better now then Mid July like the last two years. I almost feel relieved now...lol..got that out of the way for the year...wishful thinking!   Thursday, June 14 View Page Well it is worse then I thought. I lost two mains, cracked completely through and it was hard to find a good secondary to go back to on those plants. Most plants lost 3-5 secondaries that were snapped off. Going to need some serious tertiary growth to kick in in order to salvage the year. Certainly is not over but it is much worse than I thought it would be. Hail netting from the start next year!   Tuesday, June 19 View Page My son Cole pollinated his 1023 Steil this AM with males from the 991 Urena. This one was just over 12ft and his plant has the least hail damage of all of them. I also pollinated the 991 Urena at 13 ft which has been a strong grower despite the bad hail damage. We are waiting on all the other plants to grow some new leaves back before we pollinate but the storms and rain every day aren't helping matters. The biggest issue we are having is the we lost a lot of secondaries to the hail on most of the plants and the main is growing way to fast now. If you look over Coles back you can see the damaged plant behind Cole.   Wednesday, June 20 View Page Pollinated the 1303 Sweet with the 1647 Wallace at 12ft, 5 lobe. I should have two more pollinatins in the next two days and then a huge lull until the plants with the really bad hail damage have recovered. It will be even longer for the plants that lost their mains.   Thursday, June 21 View Page Here is the 991 Urena. As you can see the leaves are well ventilated now to allow good air flow throughout the plant. This is one of the best growers I have and still is growing most of its secondaries. The ones that are missing are starting to grow tertiaries to take their place. One set at 13 feet on this one.   Thursday, June 21 View Page That was the wrong picture, same plant just before the hail. This is the correct picture after the Hail.   Thursday, June 21 View Page Here is the 1303 Sweet. As you can see it is missing about every other secondary but the tertiary growth is really kicking in so I will fill in with that. We had storms the last three days so I have double coverage over the pollination on this one at 12ft.   Thursday, June 21 View Page This is the 1630 Revier. I lost 5 feet of main vine on this one so I trained a secondary as the new main which is working well. The plant is recovering nicely and will be pollinated next week. It actually has most of its secondaries growing well yet and has been a good plant to grow.   Thursday, June 21 View Page This is the 1023 Steil my son is growing. It has the least leaf damage from the hail but lost a few secondaries. It has a pollination at 12 feet and will have another at 15 feet next week. This plant has been a great grower and I think Cole will have a good one off this plant.   Thursday, June 21 View Page This is the 723 Revier and it was a great grower until the hail. It lost 50% of its secondaries so the main is growing super fast. I will pollinate it next week, hopefully the tertiary growth really kicks in on this one. Before the hail this plant was really impressive. About 40% of the actual plant is gone.   Tuesday, June 26 View Page 4 Pollinations a day the last three days. 8 plants have pollinations on them. Both 1647 Wallace, 1630 Revier and 723 Revier should be pollinated tomorrow and that will mean I have one on all 12 if those take. The 991 and 1303 all have three pollinated already. I noticed some Downy Mildew yesterday so plants got sprayed last night to try to stay ahead of it. Thankfully we have had some dry days here to dry up the patch. I was really worried about Rot after the hail and rain but for the most part we may have avoided it. Most of bad hail wounds in the vines are dried out and healing now. Here comes the heat!   Tuesday, July 3 View Page Here are my twins on the 1789 Wallace. This one is going to be a tough call. The one down the main a foot farther is actually a day older, 2 inches bigger and probably going to be my keeper. But they are basically identical and growing good. Both of them also have the same cross 1789 x self. Been growing A LOT of plant lately trying to recover from the Hail but the heat is giving me fits trying to keep the new growth from frying. Had to overhead water several times yesterday, which seems to be helping. We managed to miss the bad weather last night but Northern MN and Western WI got it bad.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page This is the 1303 Sweet. Plant will be totally terminated in two days which ironically is also day 30. Plant is pretty healthy other than the original hail damage and some slight sun burn it has been a great plant to grow. Hopefully the pumpkin grows now as good as the plant.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page This is the 1605 Sweet. As you can see it is a pretty big plant and has some growing to do yet. Today is day 22 on the pumpkin. To early to tell if it is going to be a good one or not.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page This is the 1789 Wallace (a) plant. I am growing two plants and both are doing similar. It is day 21 on this one and the numbers are pretty good for day 21. This plant will be over 1000 sq ft when it is all terminated, which will be somewhere around day 30. It has been a great growing plant and really puts down the roots. Hopefully it starts to pick up steam in the next few days. It is in the dry part of the patch so I think the grower was holding this one back with lack of water last week but hopefully that has changed.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page This is the 991 Urena and this plant has an attitude. I am convinced this plant really wants to grow a giant this year. Day 30 is Thursday and the numbers have been good on it. It seems to have a perfect shape and continues to make steady gains. This plant has a little more growing room but will be terminated in the next 5 days. Since this seed germinated, it has been the leader of the pack so hopefully that vigor creates a giant in October.   Thursday, July 19 View Page For those of you that don't have to deal with Hail, this is what a hail damaged plant looks like a month after the hail. Essentially 100 sq ft of the plant is gone. Still have the root system but the leaves don't last long. Then you get to deal with weeds, which are now gone also. This is my 1723 Marshall that doesn't seem to mind a little hail damage, in fact, I think I may have just made the plant try a little harder. Day 23 on this one and making good gains.   Thursday, July 19 View Page We had .5 inches of Rain yesterday. That was the first rain since we had .5 inches exactly 30 days ago. Looks like a desert around here. Had to overhead water a couple times over the last three weeks to keep up and try to save the new growth from frying in the heat. Worked ok, but not ideal. Lots new growth has fried. Funny how some plants are so much better than others in the extreme heat.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Two inches of Rain this AM. Hopefully that doesn't mean splitsville for me. Normally I don't worry about splits but we have been so dry, this could be the year some split. Lets hope not. It appears I have one that has suddenly stopped growing but I can not verify that yet do to a wet patch.   Sunday, August 5 View Page This is the 1303 Sweet Day 46 and it is still putting on steady gains. I have had some stump issues with this one but pumpkin is still doing well.   Sunday, August 5 View Page This is the 1789 Wallace pumpkin. Today is day 40 and it was 336 OTT. I had some rot spots on the main of this one but it appears the Cleary's has it under control for right now. Plant got some wind damage Friday night but still doing well.   Sunday, August 5 View Page The 991 Urena is on Day 47 today and the gains have slowed some over the last few days but still a good grower. It had been doing 38 pounds a day for quite a while.   Sunday, August 5 View Page This is the 1723 Marshall. It is day 40 on this one also and it is sitting at 341 OTT. Plant is nice and healthy and it continues to put on good gains.   Thursday, August 9 View Page The first casualty of the year is my 1789 Wallace x Self. It suffered a BES, well a split near the blossom anyway. This one insisted on sitting on itself, which I knew was going to be a problem based on the shape of the underside. Anyhow, she went down today on day 45 at 358 OTT. The worst part is where she is in the patch I can't get my tractor in there with my scale to get a weight. This plant was super healthy so I am slightly bummed. Hopefully there are some seeds!   Thursday, August 9 View Page Cut open the split pumpkin and as it turns out it was not a BES but rather a split on a dill ring. You can see the crack in the picture, it ran around the entire pumpkin. It was just a matter of time. Had nice thick walls other than the crack. Can't help but think that this was grower caused by letting the plant get to dry a while back. Got a ton of 1789 x self seeds from it.   Thursday, August 9 View Page Under those sheets is a pumpkin that now has a fan on the stem and will probably cause some sleepless nights unless it blows up.   Friday, August 10 View Page Here is a picture of the patch from today. Most of the corn has been chopped down to allow sun on the West side of the patch. Some got blown over in last Fridays storm also and wasn't doing any good anymore. I don't recommend anyone try growing this many plants in one year. I am cutting back to 8 or 9 next year and will use the open space for Melons, which are growing on the East side of the patch this year.   Sunday, August 12 View Page Well, here is that pumpkin from under the sheet. This was my 1723 Marshall that I thought was going to be the biggest in my patch. It suffered a BES yesterday at day 46. Final numbers 175-97-96 for an OTT total of 368. The cross on this one was the 1723 Marshall x Self. An OTT of 368 is the biggest day 46 I have ever had. That is two of my "selfed" pumpkins that took an early exit now. Both of the ones that split had the same bad shape. Tons of seeds in this one also, hopefully that trend keeps up. I will be growing this seed for sure next year.   Sunday, August 12 View Page Kids turned a bad day into a good day for me! This may end up as the Steil Family Christmas card.   Sunday, August 12 View Page Day 45/46 seems to be a bad night for me. That is two now that split on the same day. This is the 1303 which has successfully made it past that day. As you can see it is getting pretty big now. Actually today is day 53 so I won't measure until 55 but it is getting hard to see Jadyn around it.   Sunday, August 12 View Page The 991 Urena has made it to day 54 and is the oldest pumpkin in the patch. Will do day 55 measurements tomorrow but should be just shy of the 1200 pound mark on the chart. It has been such a consistant grower I can just about tell you what the OTT measurement will be...lol I wish all my pumpkins had this shape.   Thursday, August 16 View Page That is the end of the 991. Rib split today. Will be able to get a final weight on this one at some point. That is a real bummer but these cold nights are causing big surges in growth followed by no growth. Probably isn't the last one to go yet.   Sunday, August 19 View Page I decided to put a patch on the rib split on the 991 Urena and will give it a few days. It should be at 400 OTT in the next few days and I will weigh it then. It continues to make good gains even though it has a rib split.   Monday, August 20 View Page If you want to blow up pumpkins over 1000 pounds, just water inconsistantly. I have two drip tape systems in my patch and one of them had a clogged filter (inside timer controler). There are actually 3 filters in each system and one I did not know existed got clogged and thus severly reduced water to 6 plants, three of which split. Once again, grower error. Every year I learn a little more, this one I should have caught earlier.   Monday, August 20 View Page I started pulling some of the 991 plant tonight and I thought I would share a picture of the stump on this one. This has been like this since the hail storm on June 14th. A golf ball size piece of hail put a hole in the stump and it started to rot. I got the rot stopped but the hole has been there ever since. Plant and pumpkin still grew great. I made a stump cover for this one to keep the water off.   Friday, August 24 View Page Here is a shot of the 723 Revier (1725 Harp x 1810 Stevens) x 1605 Sweet. You haven't seen or heard much about this one because the bad shape it has. Basically the blossom and stem ends seem like they touch. It is basically a big donut so the shape is limiting growth on it for sure. Still plugging along though albeit slow. Day 58 for it.   Friday, August 24 View Page This is the 1605 Sweet x 1789 Wallace and it is the best plant I have in the patch. The pumpkin on the other hand is a slow grower for sure. Hopefully the big healthy plant will push it the last part of the season and it ends up growing some. Day 60 today so I will get a measurement today.   Friday, August 24 View Page This is the 1630 Revier x 1647 Wallace. This one you haven't heard much about because it started of SLOW. I mean really, really slow. But, it has since picked up the pace and made it over the 1000 pound mark. I had a real issue with leaves burning on this one when it was hot so the plant is very young and healthy now. If the weather cooperates it may keep growing a while. Looks exactly like Chad's 1630 from last year, but smaller..lol   Friday, August 24 View Page Here is my 1789 Wallace x 1647 Wallace and it keeps on growing. This plant is in tough shape though after it got steamrolled by a storm about 3 weeks ago. The leaves laying on the ground started PM issues with the cold weather we had, plus there are other issues. Gains have slowed considerably now but it is pretty big already. Day 59 on this one.   Friday, August 24 View Page This is the 1303 Sweet x 1647 Wallace. It is still growing slowly at day 65. There is a slight dill ring that has developed that is giving me some worries but nothing I can do anymore. This one is the biggest one in the patch (without the DMG tag) right now and seems to be as solid as a rock. I would like to get this one to a weighoff. This one never really grew crazy fast, just consistant up to this point.   Friday, August 24 View Page This is the last look at the 991. We are going to get it weighed tonight and then it will get cut up. It is still growing really well but its time has come. The duct tape seems to have done its job but it has slowed since splitting. This one could have been a really good one, I am guessing it will be over 1400 when we weigh it tonight. Good reason to drink a few beers with friends!   Friday, August 24 View Page This is the my late pollination 1647 Wallace x 1647 Wallace on a side vine. There is no chance this pumpkin will hold together, even though it is on a side vine. The plant is way to big and stong and this one has the dreaded baboon butt shape. It will BES at some point because of the shape. One thing I guarentee about this one it is will be crazy heavy when we weigh it. Glad I used it as a pollinator on a few. I am really anxious to see what this seed will do new year.   Friday, August 24 View Page Well that went pretty well, other than almost tipping the tractor. Final measurements 182-106-105, so it never did really grow after the split. Final weight 1331.5 which is the biggest one I have ever grown, even though it is unofficial. Probably would have ended up as being a pretty good one by the end of September at the rate it was going. The walls were just over 11 inches thick and the split seemed to be kind of odd based on how good the interior looked.   Wednesday, September 5 View Page Here is the 1303 Sweet and it is still plugging along. Plant is very healthy and growing strong yet. This one is inching close to 400 OTT, so hopefully it keeps going. The weather has been above normal which really got the plant growing. Looks like cool weather is coming soon though, which may actually be a good thing with as warm as it has been this year.   Wednesday, September 5 View Page Here is my 1789 Wallace. This one is also inching close to the 400 OTT mark. This plant has been tough to deal with the last month when it got knocked down by the wind. I did let a bunch of new growth come up on this one to replace all the leaves I lost to disease, etc. I drilled a hole in the main vine last night at a secondary junction to release fluid between the pumpkin and stump, so I have another spot to watch. But, so far it is still growing slowly. Hoefully we find out these 1789 pumpkins are going to go heavy!   Tuesday, September 18 View Page 33 Degrees last night with a hard frost. I wasn't ready to let it all go so I broke out the big plastic. Somewhere under that 1200 sq ft of plastic is the 1303 Sweet Pumpkin. I also covered the 1789 Est Wallace last night. The others had to rely on some timely overhead watering this morning. Hopefully the damage is minimal as I would like to grow a couple more weeks.   Thursday, September 20 View Page The frost did some pretty bad damage to the plants. About 1/4 of the leaves were effected on the non covered plants. Add in the 40 MPH winds we had here yesterday and the leaves are now looking really bad. But, at this stange in the game I guess I am happy to still have some leaves and plant left. First weigh off this weekend in WI so the smallest of the 5 I have left is going on the pallet tonight.   Sunday, September 23 View Page Took the 1789 Est Wallace x 1647 Wallace to the Oktoberfest is Chippewa Falls this weekend. It was 399 OTT but went over 200 pounds light at 1169 pounds. This was good enough for second place. It was my personal best to the scale but hopefully my next two that go to the scale weigh significantly more. Chad and company did a great job organizing this event, thanks for all your work. I am thinking this pumpkin will make a nice canidate for the pumpkin drop in Stillwater!   Sunday, September 23 View Page I rushed home from Chippewa falls to get an enclosure built around the 1630 and 1303. They were calling not only for frost but a freeze....and we got it. I did get the two main plants covered but that only saved a few leaves. I did heat the enclosures to 70 degrees over night so the pumpkins were happy. Now we have to limp along with the suviving plant we have. The rest of the plants are done, they are black and laying on the ground already.   Tuesday, September 25 View Page I delivered the 1169 Steil 2012 to the Third Street Brewhouse in Cold Spring MN yesterday. Pumpkin was so light I was worried about it flying out of the back of my pickup, but we made it safe..lol   Wednesday, September 26 View Page Tonight is the last night in the 30's in the 10 day forecast so the enclosures over the pumpkins will come down tomorrow and the sheets/blankets will go back on. Pulling 1200 sq ft of plastic over the plants the last 5 nights is getting old fast!   Tuesday, October 2 View Page Here is the 1303 Sweet and the leaves aren't looking so good anymore...and this is on the plant that was covered and heated. At least the vines did not freeze, as this one has to make it until Oct 13th. The plants that were not covered, those vines froze and are now turning to mush. Cole was hoping to hold out to weigh his pumpkin until Stillwater but his may be riding with mine to Anamosa this weekend also pretty much disconnected.   Monday, October 8 View Page Cole took 5th at Anamosa Iowa this weekend with his first pumpkin over 1000 pounds. His 987.5 Steil 11 x 1647 Wallace 11 is now the 1027 C Steil 12. Congrats to him on a personal best and breaking the 1000 pound barrier.   Monday, October 8 View Page After 100 days of growing and 5 hours of driving I was a little dissapointed to have my 1630 Revier x 1647 Wallace crack during the unloading process at Anamosa and be ruled damaged. Although it went light, it would have been good enough for 3rd place and a ride in the parade (which is really cool). Oh well, just adds to an already dissapointing season.   Monday, October 15 View Page Weighed my final pumpkin of the season this weekend at Stillwater at 1450 pounds (1303 Sweet x 1647 Wallace) which is a personal best for me. Thanks to Joe and Chris and everyone that organized the weighoff, they really go out of their way to make sure that this event is run first class. Despite our tough/challenging growing conditions this year there were a lot of entries at the event and a good time. Ironically it rained during the weighoff, something my patch hasn't seen in 90 days.   Tuesday, October 16 View Page Weighoffs are over for me, patch has been cleared, ammended and the cover crop is about 2 inches high already. It has been a crazy turn around this year as normally my fishing season is long over by now. This year is a little different so I have to switch gears back to fishing as I hit the road this week for the FLW Walleye Tour Championship in Moline Illinois.   Tuesday, November 6 View Page Just got the 1450 Steil 2012 (1303 Sweet x 1647 Wallace) back from Third Street Brewery, where it has been on display. Seeds will come out tonight and then the deer will eat well for a Month. I also will be taking the seeds out of the 279 Steil 2012 UOW, which I grew on a 1647 Wallace genetics plant. The cross is the 1647 Wallace x 1303 Sweet Pollinator grew the 1450 Steil 2012   Tuesday, December 11 View Page All bubbles have been sent now. If you requested one, it went out this week. The 1450 was on display in town until early November so that was the hold up.