Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 112 Entries. Wednesday, April 3 View Page Time to start this years diary! Going to grow four pumpkin plants this year, 500 sq ft per plant. Hope to get these seeds started on about the 14th april, a week later this year for me. Hope to grow 1694,1634,1596 not decided on the fourth plant yet. Best of luck to all for the coming season :)   Saturday, April 13 View Page Started pumpkin seeds today, filed and soaked for 1 hour   Saturday, April 13 View Page and then in to the propagator.   Sunday, April 14 View Page I always grow new potatoes in one of my poly tunnels, always plant them mid february. Its interesting to look back at pictures and compare seasons, this is this years crop on the 14th of april.   Sunday, April 14 View Page and heres last years, same variety planted around the same time. Its been a cold spring this year. As there is no Shepton Mallet show this year i had already planned to start my marrows later which is just as well!   Tuesday, April 23 View Page My line up. 1391 Wursching   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1694 Meier   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1634 Werner   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1098 Moretti   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1391 and its back up.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page Things are picking up now :)   Thursday, May 16 View Page 1391   Thursday, May 16 View Page 1634   Thursday, May 16 View Page Im down to two plants already as the other two ended up like this. Dont know why.   Thursday, May 16 View Page although it was not my original plan, its not all bad news as i now have room to grow 8 marrows. 4 x 66 Baggs 11 4 x 114 Baggs 12 all my own breeding :D. starting these on the 20th.   Monday, May 27 View Page 1391   Monday, May 27 View Page 1634   Monday, May 27 View Page Marrow plants.   Monday, May 27 View Page Marrow plants.   Thursday, May 30 View Page Planted my marrow plants out today. Managed to germinate three out of four 66 seeds so my line up is now 5 x 114 and 3 x 66. The 114 plants are showing more vigour at this stage. Here is a 114.   Monday, June 3 View Page Well things are picking up here after a week of good weather. Here is the 1391, main at 10ft now.   Monday, June 3 View Page and the 1634 is virtually identical at 10ft also.   Monday, June 3 View Page both with female flowers in the heads.   Monday, June 10 View Page 1391 plant, growing well. vines are a little skinny and not quite as vigourous as the 1634. First female flower will open Wednesday I think.   Monday, June 10 View Page 1391 plant, growing well. vines are a little skinny and not quite as vigourous as the 1634. First female flower will open Wednesday I think.   Monday, June 10 View Page 1634 plant, I also have a female flower on this plant which will probably open about the same time as the female on the other plant. Will try to pollenate them both but male flowers are short at the moment.   Monday, June 10 View Page and the photo   Monday, June 10 View Page and the marrow plants are growing well.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page Pollenated female #1 on the 1391 plant this morning using two 1634 males, one of the males was a day old but i had it stored in the fridge and the pollen still looked good. Four lobes, 11.5 feet out on the main. The next female is going to be over 15 feet out so i hope this one takes.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page Tied shut   Thursday, June 13 View Page Pollenated female #1 on the 1634 this morning, i self pollenated this one and it is 11.5 ft out on the main vine. However it is deformed and has some seeds in the flower so i will keep this one going for now and hope the next one is better.   Thursday, June 13 View Page The next female is right in the head of the plant which is now 15ft out, so im guessing it will be another 10-12 days before i can pollenate this one and its going to be someting like 18ft out.   Saturday, June 15 View Page Decided to cull the first pollenation on the 1634, thought about it and na, too early to go with one like that.   Monday, June 17 View Page The 1391   Monday, June 17 View Page 1391 pumpkin day 5. Not sure if its set yet.   Monday, June 17 View Page 1634   Monday, June 17 View Page and the next female flower, going to be another week.   Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1391, i have two pumpkins on this plant now. One at 11.5 feet and the other is at 18 feet. The second pollenation was done on the 22nd not sure which one im going to go with yet.   Tuesday, June 25 View Page 1634 plant, first two female flowers have been deformed with seeds in the flower, i have a third which will open some time next week which could be my last chance on this plant as im running out of space. Have had to turn the main around 90 degrees to make room for the third one. Shame because the plant is great, just the flowers seem to be mutilated.   Tuesday, June 25 View Page 66 marrow plant left, 114 marrow plant right. these guys have 300 sq ft of patch each.   Tuesday, June 25 View Page I also have two more 114 marrow plants that have 300 sq ft of growing space however one of them seems to have got its main vine twisted up like this. Im not going to give up on this one though, big marrows can be grown on side vines!   Tuesday, June 25 View Page Over in the other tunnel we have four more marrow plants, 200 sq ft per plant growing 3 ft apart back to back   Tuesday, June 25 View Page A close up   Thursday, July 4 View Page 1391 plant today   Thursday, July 4 View Page and the pumpkin at day 12, decided to go with the second pollenation on this plant.   Thursday, July 4 View Page and the 1634 plant   Thursday, July 4 View Page and finally a pumpkin i think, day 3 today. Not in an ideal position as its pretty much right in the corner of its patch and there will be little plant past the pumpkin but just happy to finally get one on this plant.   Tuesday, July 9 View Page 1391 looking good   Tuesday, July 9 View Page and the 1634 seems to have taken but grows slowly   Tuesday, July 9 View Page i have four marrow plants in here that are growing well and without issues but the other four that are in the same tunnel as the pumpkins are having issues with the side vines curling up again.   Friday, July 12 View Page 1391 pumpkin day 10, 134 ott est 60.7 lbs. Steady start but i love the shape and the color of this one.   Friday, July 12 View Page My only concern with this plant is some of the leaves look a little yellow and defficient in something, i gave the plant a foliar feed yesterday so hopefully that will help.   Friday, July 12 View Page 1634 day 11, more of an oval shape to this one. Its litterally on the end of the main vine so i dont expect this one to grow as well as the other pumpkin but looking good so far.   Friday, July 12 View Page my way of shading the young growth   Friday, July 12 View Page first marrow pollenated on the 10th so two days old today. a little earlier than i would like but im hoping to pollenate marrows over the next month and not all at the same time as i dont want all of my eggs in one basket so to speak lol   Friday, July 12 View Page Ive decided to pollenate just one marrow on each of these plants in this tunnel, hopefully at about 16 feet and then let 4 feet of vine grow past the marrow. In here i can tailor the watering to the marrows requirements and cut back on the water if i think its required. Dont want to lose all of them to splitting if i can help it. The other four plants in the other tunnel will be growing two marrows per plant at least. So trying different things. Ill have at least 12 marrow sets this year, they cant all blow up, can they?.   Friday, July 12 View Page 6 entries above should have read 1391 day 20!   Monday, July 22 View Page 1391 est 300 lbs day 30.   Monday, July 22 View Page 1634 is ugly, im just willing this one to split so i can pull the plant up.   Monday, July 22 View Page my best marrow plant, a 114. i have 6 114 plants going and two 66 and at the moment i like all 6 of the 114 plants better than the 66 plants. The 66 plants seem to have a real lack of vigour and are not doing great this year   Monday, July 22 View Page i like the look of the marrows on the 114 plants too, most seem to be the shorter thicker type   Monday, July 22 View Page the biggest marrow i have going is on a 66, probably going to split with a shape like this   Monday, July 22 View Page The plant that lost its main vine early on is doing well, i selected a strong secondary vine from each side of the plant and am growing them both with the plan to set a marrow on each vine. This has actually turned out quite well as i will have some later pollenations on this plant.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page 1391 stem, iv put a fan on this one today and it will stay on there now until the end of the season or until the pumpkin splits. Whichever comes first. There will also be one running on the pumpkin stem by day as well. Have had stems start to rot before, dont want to go there again.   Saturday, July 27 View Page 1391 picking up the pace now and showing personal best weight gains. Day 35 est 482 lbs, average 36.4 lbs per day last 5 days.   Saturday, July 27 View Page Really pleased with how the marrows are doing. 8 pollenations done, at least 5 more to do. here are three of my favorites   Saturday, July 27 View Page second   Saturday, July 27 View Page third   Saturday, July 27 View Page forgot to say 1634 aborted.   Thursday, August 1 View Page Day 40 on the 1391 today, 312 ott est 641 lbs. Average 31.8 lbs per day last 5 days. Weather has been unsettled and cool which has slowed it down a bit. Getting netting all over it now.   Thursday, August 1 View Page another view   Thursday, August 1 View Page vine will touch the pumpkin soon   Thursday, August 1 View Page but im not too concerned at the moment, taking a side vine off either side of the fruit would give me sufficient slack if neccissary. I see some people prune vines off either side of their fruit but i like to leave on as much as i can.   Thursday, August 1 View Page The biggest marrow in the patch is still the bent 66, stil think this one will split. 22 days old today   Thursday, August 1 View Page this one on one of the 114 plants looks more promising, 15 days old.   Thursday, August 1 View Page my last marrow to pollenate tomorrow. with the show 8 wks away im hoping im not too early.   Tuesday, August 6 View Page 1391 Day 35. 339 inches ott, est 819 lbs. circ 152 inches, est 814 lbs. Had trouble uploading a picture today. Lost three marrows to splits yesterday, two were over 90 lbs.   Sunday, August 11 View Page 1391 day 50. 359 inches ott est 970 lbs average 30.2 lbs per day last 5 days. heres a nice pic of my kids on the 1391.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page another marrow split today, 98 lbs dmg.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page as seen in this picture it kind of collapsed in on itself, and got a few more that look like they will go the same way.   Friday, August 16 View Page Lost another one! this time it was a good shaped one. 131 lbs. Iffy photo, my son took it :)   Friday, August 16 View Page maybe ill have a break from marrows next year and try somethin different!   Friday, August 16 View Page On a more positive note the 1391 is looking fantastic, Day 55, 374 inches ott est 1095 lbs. Slowing down now as expected, avrg 25 lbs per day last 5 days.   Friday, August 16 View Page had a caterpillar problem too, sorted now i hope   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Heres a 115 dmg   Wednesday, August 21 View Page 157 dmg.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page another shot of the 157. didnt even bother to weigh the ugly one. not many marrows left here now lol.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Theres one good thing going in my patch. 1391 day 60. 384 inches ott est 1184 lbs. average daily gain last 5 days 17.8 lbs so slowing down big time.   Monday, August 26 View Page 1391 day 65. 114 inches ss 99 inches ee 179 inches circ total 392 inches ott est 1259, or est 1261 circ only estimate.   Monday, August 26 View Page Another veiw of the 1391!   Monday, August 26 View Page and one more   Monday, August 26 View Page check out how healthy the leaves are   Monday, August 26 View Page the main vine is still in great condition too, been up through there on boards weeding and removing any leaves that were shading the vine. Just hope this one dont go the same way as the marrows, lost another 105 lb er yesterday.   Saturday, August 31 View Page On day 70 the 1391 tapes 400 ott, est 1337 lbs. Heres a nice pic of my girls with the 1391.   Sunday, September 1 View Page Lost my last two marrows this weekend, the bigger one weighing 140 lbs. Thats okay i just knew it was going to happen :)   Tuesday, September 10 View Page Day 80 for the 1391 and its 408 ott for an est weight of 1418 lbs. Hopefully a pb if i can get this one to the scales!   Friday, September 20 View Page On day 90 the 1391 tapes 413 inches for an estimated weight of 1471 lbs. Its pretty much done now i think but with three weeks to go till the weigh in im hoping it will tape 1500 on the pallet   Monday, September 30 View Page Not a great photo, but Jack wanted to take a pic of daddy with the pumpkin. So on day 100 the 1391 tapes, 104 ee, 121 ss, 191 circ so a total of 416 ott. 11 days till harvest day.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page Just had to post this pic, up to 420 inches ott.   Friday, October 11 View Page Last picture in the patch before the lift   Friday, October 11 View Page Dad and his good friend Clive fixing the lifting gear in place.   Friday, October 11 View Page Clive doing the honours   Friday, October 11 View Page Going out of the polytunnel. Fortunately the pumpkin was close to the door this year, so we could easily reach it with the forklift.   Monday, October 14 View Page nice   Monday, October 14 View Page guiding it on to the trailer   Monday, October 14 View Page no problems underneath   Monday, October 14 View Page all ready to go   Monday, October 14 View Page heres a nice photo of me and dad with Ian, or is it stuart? sorry guys I cant remember!   Monday, October 14 View Page heres a nice photo of me and dad with Ian, or is it stuart? sorry guys I cant remember!   Monday, October 14 View Page I didn't get many photos of the day myself but this pretty much covers it :)   Monday, October 14 View Page Me and the Thompson and Morgan representative presenting me with the cheque for £1000 for beating the UK record with a weight of 1,520lb. Only just beating Ian and Stuart's old UK record by 16lb.   Monday, October 14 View Page Thanks again to the XPG for putting on another great weigh off and everyone that helped out on the day. I think I had a lot of luck on my side this season, never expected to end up with the UK record. Although I now hold the UK record, I still consider Ian and Stuart to be the real "expert pumpkin growers" here in the UK and I thank them for all the help and advice they have given me in the past and just hope I am able to keep up with them next year when they find form again.