Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 16 Entries. Tuesday, July 3 View Page Little late starting a diary, but I figured the first pollination on the main vine is a good start. This 5-lober is on the 1157 Holland about 15ft out. Pollinated with the 1118.5 Holland.   Tuesday, July 3 View Page First year growing "real" AG's with good genetics, instead of store bought 'big max' and AG starts. What a difference, these plants are amazing. It's almost like sun came out on this wet morning just so I can pollinate, heh. This is the 1157 Holland (1161 Holland x 1142 Vankooten)   Wednesday, July 4 View Page And here is the 1118.5 Holland (1566 Rodonis x 1725 Harp) There is a female on the main that will be ready in about a week.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Three pollination's today this misty morning. This is the first female on the main of the 1118.5, a five-lober pollinated with the 1157. Pollinated another on the first secondary on the 1118.5. I also pollinated the second female on the main of the 1157 with self, also a 5 lober.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page First on the main vine of the 1157, day 7. Although you can't see it in the pic, the stem has two lengthwise splits one on each side of the stem, they aren't deep though.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page These plants are really rockin now since it has been super nice weather the past week. Really greened up and growing fast, I'm almost out of patch space. Left is the 1157 and right is the 1118.5. Shade cloth over the 1118.5, seems really vulnerable to sun scorching on the newer leaves, I can probably take those down now. In the back are zucchini, spirit pumpkins, corn, mammoth sunflowers 6-7 ft tall now, carrots, and potatoes.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Main vine shot to the pumpkin of the 1157.   Thursday, July 12 View Page The splits on the stem of the 1157 pumpkin got slightly bigger as it settled all the way down. For now I'm just going to leave it alone and keep it dry and see it if heals up. If it gets worse, I'll cut it off. I do have another one pollinated 2 days ago 3-4 ft down the vine.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page Got my tissue test results today that I sent a couple weeks ago. Everything was sufficient except high potassium and low sulfur. Magnesium and calcium where on the low end of sufficient though. To rectify I'm going to foliar spray epsom salt in a few days, (I just foliar sprayed biomin calcium last night) Up the dosage biomin calcium foliar spray, I was doing a little less than the lowest recommended dosage because I was holding back on anything with Nitrogen, not sure if that was the right thing to do or not. Odd, my soil test results from spring had high levels of sulfur, now my tissue test shows low sulfur. Hmmm. Overall though the tissue test looks way better than my soil test did from the spring, it was all over the place. over 1200ppm potassium, 2 ppm Nitrogen, 2! lol. Low calcium, and my soil test stated: "POTASSIUM in excess, may affect drainage and antagonize the uptake of calcium, leading to calcium deficiency disorders/poor quality." They got that right, all my other plants and AG's were showing signs of calcium deficiency in May and early June. I ordered biomin calcium, after the first foliar spray everything perked up and the necrotic areas shrank and stopped appearing.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page 1157 pumpkin day 14. It's growing decently, the splits aren't getting worse, decent shape. This just may be the keeper. But, The 'backup' a couple ft down is at day 7 and is slightly bigger than the first one was at the same age (even with the first one sucking up all the juices) it has no stem split and is the same shape as the first one. Hard to decide which one to pluck. I'm kind of attached to the first one now. :)   Tuesday, July 17 View Page Here is the potential keeper on the 1118.5, day 7. it is on a big healthy secondary. The one on the main is a lot smaller and lopsided. This plant has been stingy with females on the main, lot's of females on the secondaries though.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1157 Holland pumpkin Day 21, Growing a steady 3 in cc a day on these cool cloudy days.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Second on the main culled, it was virtually identical to the first one at the same age, culled several days ago.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Ummm, yeah, lol. Here is 5 of 6 of the last secondaries, lot's of juice going into these vines, instead of the pumpkin. I'll be terminating 1-2 of them a day, while keeping an eye on the pumpkin growth.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1118.5 Not doing to well. Day 14. Stem splits all around. However, finally pollinated a second female on the main vine 3 days ago, and 2 more on secondaries 4-5 days ago. I wish I would have pollinated more on the secondaries earlier instead of plucking them off, live and learn.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page I need a bigger a garden area. :)