Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 129 Entries. Sunday, March 16 View Page Here is a picture of a woodpecker that my wife took. I took a picture of the picture from the display on the camera so this one is not real clear, but it is still cool anyway. Doing this to test the iPad.   Sunday, March 16 View Page   Saturday, March 29 View Page Tomatoes were started on march 28th. Line up: 5.59 Zappa 5.8 Osmala Megamarv Brutus Magnus Delicious ( Hunt )   Saturday, March 29 View Page Tomatoes were started on march 28th. Line up: 5.59 Zappa 5.8 Osmala Megamarv Brutus Magnus Delicious ( Hunt )   Saturday, March 29 View Page I got to fish the Niagara river last November. Excellent fishery up there. We caught a few each, but unfortunately our trip on a charter had to be cancelled due to winds the day before that muddied lake Erie, which feeds the river. We fished on the shore and as the day went on the river got muddier.   Saturday, March 29 View Page A decent Lake trout I caught in the Niagara River last November. What a great fishery they have up there !   Saturday, March 29 View Page Having some issues posting pics for some reason, lol ! Sorry for the doubles.   Wednesday, April 30 View Page Started Pumpkins on 4/23/14 Line up : 1613 Wallace (1647 Wallace x 1807 Stelts) early plant for fair, started about 2 weeks ago. 1582.5 Werner 1779 Joe Werner (1623 Wallace x 1756 Lancaster) 816 est Zappa 2013 (1582.5 Werner x 1872) 150 sq. ft. contest Back ups : 1292 Stelts,1582 Werner,319 Mohr, 1770 Lieber and a Checkon seed, 12_ _ something, can't remember now.   Wednesday, April 30 View Page Melon line up: 316 Edwards, 266 Neptune, 260.5 Clementz, and 229 Edwards. Some of these for back ups as well. Everything germinated a few weeks ago and looking ok, besides a little leggy.   Wednesday, April 30 View Page All giant tomatoes germinated great. Line up: 5.8 Osmalla, 5.59 Zappa, 5.08 Maston, Brutus Magnus, Megamarv, and Delicious ( Hunt )   Friday, May 9 View Page I decided to take a half day of vacation and go crappie fishing in the morning yesterday. I was so focused on getting to the boat launch , which is only 5 minutes away, I forgot something VERY important. Yep, I never opened the two hoop houses that have plants. I did not even think about the hoops until 1:45 pm ! Did I mention it was in the low 80's with full sun. When I made the 5 minute drive home, I did not even pull the van in the driveway, I left it on the road and ran to open the two hoops. It was at least 120 degrees in the hoops, but to my amazement, the plants looked ok. I had all of my giant tomatoes in pots, and 6 ag pumps in pots. What saved me was that I had watered very well the prior day and the ground was very moist still. That was a close one.   Friday, May 9 View Page A note to the last entry.... The crappie fishing was outstanding ! I got all my competition pumpkins in the ground this morning and the hoops are open, lol ! I also put 2 melons in this morning. one was a 260.5 Clementz and the other was the 316 Edwards. I have two more melons to put in.   Thursday, May 29 View Page This is the 319 Mohr plant that is for the 150 sq. ft. contest.   Thursday, May 29 View Page Pumpkin plants are all looking good, melons are way behind last years. Should get veges in this weekend, and get drip system started.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page 319 Mohr, for the 150 sq.ft. contest. Hoop is down, and I have 4 stakes with surveyers tape on them and string for the perimeter. I decided on 10 foot x 15 foot. No pollinations yet. have one at 6 or 7 foot, and another just developing that should be around 10-11 foot out next week.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page This pic is for future reference. Melon patch is way behind previous years with the cold spring. Sprayed manzate, neptunes and just realized that I did not put any insecticide in the mix. Dang, gonna have to spray again tomorrow. My best plant is the 260.5 Clementz. It had heating cables, and seemed to have helped.   Sunday, June 22 View Page 319 Mohr, 150 sq.ft. plant.   Sunday, June 22 View Page 319 Mohr x 1582 Werner, pollinated one on the main this morning about 7 foot out.   Sunday, June 22 View Page One more of the 319, showing how the vines are bent to stay in the boundary.   Sunday, June 22 View Page And one of the back side of the contest plant. Almost have the first 3 sides terminated.   Sunday, June 22 View Page I had a terrible accident today out in the patch.Pulling weeds near the main vine of my 1582 Werner plant, I felt my hand bump something, and heard a small snap noise. I bumped the flower off of an immature female. I already had the vine bent and ready to pollinate in a few days. That will put me back at least a week on that one, :(   Friday, June 27 View Page Pol 1779 J. Werner x 1582.5 Werner this morning. 3 lobe :{ 1st one on main about 11 foot out, and was very small in size. 1779 is a nice growing plant.   Thursday, July 3 View Page 1st pumpkin on main vine for the 150 sq ft contest, day 11. Not sure if I am going with this one or the one in the next pic.   Thursday, July 3 View Page #2 for the 150 sq. ft. contest, at day 3. Great vine position, but I may have not left enough room to grow over 500 #'s, as it is only about 3 feet from the corner boundary.   Thursday, July 3 View Page Melon plants are kicking it up now. No pollinations as of yet. Need to get them set these next few days.   Sunday, July 13 View Page 319 Mohr, 150 sq. ft plant. Going to probably cull the small one under the table this week.   Sunday, July 13 View Page 319 Mohr fruit at day 20. Doing well for a small plant.   Sunday, July 13 View Page 319 Mohr, day 20.   Sunday, July 13 View Page This is one of my better tomatoes.   Tuesday, July 15 View Page 1 inch of rain last night. Lower part of patch really needs to dry out.   Tuesday, July 15 View Page I hope I made the right decision. This was a side vine fruit that was growing on the 1582 Werner plant. It was doing 5 inch circ a day for the last several days. Actual weight was 192 lbs. Had to cut it in quarters to get it out of the patch. I have a day 10 on the main that has the same long egg shape. It had a few seeds in the blossom, so it may be a little risky, but I am all in now. I did not want another side vine fruit.   Saturday, July 19 View Page 319 Mohr at day 25 taken on the 18th. Been very cool the past few days, with night temps in upper 40's. No big growth yet, maybe this week with the heat expected.   Saturday, July 19 View Page 5/8th inches of rain today, lower end of patch is very wet again.   Saturday, July 19 View Page I believe that this is downey mildew starting on my 1779 J. Werner plant (my best looking plant). The underside of the yellow spots look water logged. Not good. Been spraying like a madman every six days with all the rain too.   Saturday, July 19 View Page One more.   Monday, July 28 View Page Resizing test...   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Here are a few photos from my patch that was a stop this season for the OVGPG Patch Tour, for those that could not make it.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Patch view   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Had to settle for a side vine pollination on the 1613.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 1613   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 1613 plant around 600 sq ft   Wednesday, July 30 View Page The 1779 is the first 3 lober that I have grown. Not the prettiest shape for sure, it is triangular looking.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page back edge of patch   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 4 melons going. The biggest with the earlier pollination is the 260.5 Clementz x 316 Edwards, around 71 pounds on Sunday morning.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page did this cross too.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 15 tomatoes going for the early weigh off.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page This plant has been too wet for too long. Vine growth has slowed, but the pumpkin has been growing fair. Going to be tough to get a personal best with the cold wet weather.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page This 1582 this year is producing loooong fruits. Everything on the plant has been long. All fruits on the main also had seeds in the blossom. Main vine is growing still and planning on letting it grow till the end.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page My wife made all the awesome signs for the patch tour. She did great as always.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Here is the 319 Mohr, for the 150 sq ft contest. It is not putting on the pounds, just like the rest of my fruits, but I think this one is going to go heavy.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Here is a pic of my Clementz fruit. Been doing 4.5 pounds a day. I expect the gains to drop when I check on Sunday.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page The kids loved our chickens.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Question and answer time.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page I was very surprised to see 4 world record pumpkin growers that made it to the tour, as well as many other great growers !   Wednesday, July 30 View Page A big thanks to my family for all the prep getting ready for the tour. The weather turned out to be great last Sunday. The rain held off until evening. We ended up with around 2 inches between last Saturday and Monday evening. Standing water again in the lower end of my patch.   Thursday, July 31 View Page My best mater going this season. Looks to be a triple, possibly a quad. This one is growing on a Brutus Magmum from Dr. Marv Meisner. I actually cut one off that looked nearly identical. This fruit should be in the upper 20 day range. I don't expect it to get much more than 4 lbs, but we shall see next month.   Thursday, July 31 View Page I finally figured out what has happened to my plant. What I originally thought was that this was spray damage. But, it was only on one of my 4 plants when I first noticed this. It was on several leaves on this particular plant.   Thursday, July 31 View Page Then, after a week or more, I noticed that it was spreading , and I then became concerned. The closest thing that it looked like is the 2nd pic of spray damage on Matts "leaf problem" section. I started to spray my fungicides even more often.   Thursday, July 31 View Page It starts out yellow then turns brown, then the brown gets holes like its being eaten.   Thursday, July 31 View Page Progressing   Thursday, July 31 View Page It does not always start at the older leaves near the stump, it can appear anywhere on the plants, as it did on all of my plants including my zucchinis, cucumbers, and cantalopes. Only on curcubits.   Thursday, July 31 View Page I called Western Labs to see about sending a tissue sample. I spoke with Harry and he asked me to send him a few pics. He got back to me right away and said that it appears to be " bacterial leaf spot ". He said to apply copper fungicide right away. The copper seemed to stop it pretty good. I had to apply another time after last weekends rain. It seemed to get some spreading again. This bacteria spreads like wild fire under warm humid conditions. Rain makes it spread even faster from water splash. And I usually spray with a stihl fogger in the morning,when the dew is all over my plants, probably spreading the bacteria myself. The absolute giveaway to know for sure if you have this , is the water soaked appearance to the back of the leaves. The next pic will show the back of a leaf with the water soaked look.   Thursday, July 31 View Page I may have posted this pic before by mistake. Anyway, the dark spots on the underside of the leaf, are the water soaked look that I mentioned that is a giveaway to bacterial leaf spot. I will email Matt D. to see if he wants to add these pics to the "leaf problem " section, for future reference.   Sunday, August 10 View Page My biggest tomatoe on a Brutus Magnum. Somewhere around day 35.   Sunday, August 10 View Page My best melon on the 260.5 Clementz at day 40 yesterday, 157.5 ott, 114 pounds. Going to be a tough year for any personal bests. Cold nights all week the past week. Only 3.3 pounds per day the past 2 weeks.   Sunday, August 10 View Page This ones the 1779 J. Werner at day 43. around 299.5 ott yesterday, for 596 #'s. What a shame that this plant is suffering bad from Bacterial leaf spot. It is still gaining weight to my surprise. Around 20 #'s a day the past week. This is the highest fruit that I have ever had, and its a 3 lober. This one would have been huge on a normal summer.   Sunday, August 10 View Page 1613 Wallace, at day 54 yesterday. If this one were only on the main vine ! Bummer Also suffering from Bacterial leaf spot. Still doing 14 #'s a day the past week. Ribbing up nicely, skin still baby soft. Sounds like a balloon though. 298 " ott for 591 #'s.   Sunday, August 10 View Page Stem end of the 1613 Wallace. Rather small short leaves on this plant.   Sunday, August 10 View Page Ok, this is my son Collin with my 150 sq. ft. plant, the 319 Mohr at day 47 yesterday. Another plant with bacterial leaf spot. I cut probably 1/3 of the leaves off, and it seems to have hurt the gains. Only doing about 9 lbs a day the past week. Around 273 " ott, for 458 pounds.   Sunday, August 10 View Page The star of the week is the one that was suffering for weeks in the soggy patch, which is finally drying out. The 1582.5 Werner at day 35, and my healthiest plant, with only minor bacterial leaf spot. I cut a few leaves off last week to get this to stop spreading. Been spraying copper twice a week. Just got a new copper product and sprayed yesterday. 282 " ott for 504 pounds, up 184 pounds this week. Should be ramping the growth rate up this week with warmer nights.   Wednesday, August 13 View Page A nice single on a MegaMarv.   Wednesday, August 13 View Page Around 3 lb 2oz, unofficial weight.   Monday, August 18 View Page 3.36# from a Brutus Magnum. A solid bottom double, unofficial weight. Not going to get any officially weighed unless 4 lbs. or better.   Monday, August 18 View Page A very nice one going about a week old. This is my only tomato that I don't know what plant it is from. Looks like a triple, possibly a quad.   Monday, August 18 View Page Thanks for the Westfall plant Allen. My plant is pretty sick with bacterial leaf spot as much of the patch is, but this lope is still growing. It is an open pollination, and around 2 1/2 weeks old.   Monday, August 18 View Page The chickens have been eating very good with all the tomato and melon culls. They eat just about anything.   Thursday, August 28 View Page I don't think this one will make it to the weigh off, lol ! Sorry Allen. I may have to try these again in the future.   Thursday, August 28 View Page Some better news now. I got this one officially weighed on Monday August 25th.   Thursday, August 28 View Page Notice that the right side is much smaller and tighter looking than the left. That is because about 3 weeks earlier the stem pulled away from that side of the growing fruit. I'm not sure why, since it was sitting on a bucket the entire time , but I guess it happens. I figure that I lost at least 1 pound because of that.   Thursday, August 28 View Page The bottom is all attached, one good solid tomato.   Thursday, August 28 View Page The brown area is where the stem pulled away from the fruit, on the right side.   Thursday, August 28 View Page one more bottom shot.   Thursday, August 28 View Page And the official weight is 4.625. I guess that will be rounded up to 4.63 Zappa 2014. This tomato was grown from a Brutus Magnum. Thank you for the seed Marv. I had another similar looking tomato about the same age that I culled near the end of July. This one was close to 60 days old.   Thursday, August 28 View Page One more.   Thursday, August 28 View Page Found some nice ones going for the later weigh offs.   Thursday, August 28 View Page May be getting another one weighed this morning, or possibly in a day or two.   Thursday, August 28 View Page It's still growing ,so we will check it tomorrow. It gained around 3/16ths circ over night.   Thursday, August 28 View Page I believe this one is also a Brutus Magnum, I will check the tag next time .   Friday, August 29 View Page I picked it this morning, and it grew a tad more over night again. The bottom was very red, so I did not want to chance it cracking on me.   Friday, August 29 View Page Here is a pic of the bottom with me holding it.   Friday, August 29 View Page 5.28 lbs. official. 26.375 inches circ. Grown on a Brutus magnum again. My two biggest came from the Brutus Magnums this year.   Friday, August 29 View Page This is a pic of my 150 sq ft pumpkin. May have a mouse under it :(   Tuesday, September 2 View Page Spots on all my maple trees leaves this year. We had a very wet summer.   Tuesday, September 2 View Page Back side of a leaf. This pic is a little blurry, but the spots appear to be showing better only on the top side.   Tuesday, September 2 View Page I tried to get a close up shot. I do not see any black spores in the center of any of the spots.   Thursday, September 4 View Page Melon plants look really bad compared to last years. Lots of leaves turning brown and falling off. A few days ago this one taped out to about 163 #. This is the 260.5 Clementz. Melon was only averaging 2 lbs a day.   Thursday, September 4 View Page Same deal with the 316 Edwards plant. I am wondering if the fabric is holding too much moisture. Melons never gained more than 3 lbs a day.   Thursday, September 4 View Page my 150 sq. ft. entry. To the left of the pumpkin is some original growth. Main vine is still growing and giving me the new growth in the next pic.   Thursday, September 4 View Page Right side of plant, much better. That is all new growth from the end of July. Only good news is the stem is in great shape on this one.   Thursday, September 4 View Page 1582.5 Werner. Down into the single digits now.   Thursday, September 4 View Page 1779 J. Werner. Very hard to get a good cc measurement. Between 860 and 900 #. Growing very slow also. Got a brand new plant behind it though. Lost 90 % of the original plant to bacterial leaf spot.   Thursday, September 4 View Page Looks like some of my photos did not go through :(   Friday, September 5 View Page Correction on an above post..... My melons did do over 3 lbs a day looking back through my diary. They did 4.5 pounds a day briefly at the end of July.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page My Canfield fair entry. 705 #, grown from the 1613 Wallace on a side vine. It started leaking yellow water from the bottom. It is now compost.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page Just got to have a picture of Mr. Buds. I heard we have been getting a ground hog visiting the patch.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page This thing is just SICK !! LOL, Why could I not get this one back in July. Looks like maybe 8 or 9 fused. I have one that was set 2 weeks ago that will be my keeper. I will leave this go for a while though. It is also about 5 feet up .   Wednesday, September 10 View Page This one is the keeper. It's about 4 feet up and growing out of a sucker, so I don't expect much, especially with the cold weather coming.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page Here is another decent one, unfortunately it looks like two separate tomatoes. I think I am going to pull the right side off soon since it is not as dense as the left half.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page Had to do some surgery on my 1779 J. Werner pumpkin. Cut the main after the pumpkin at the stem and sliced the main nearly 10 inches going from the pumpkin back to the stump. It was full of liquid and rot was setting in. I doubt it will gain any weight at all now, just want to keep the stem in good shape for another 3 weeks if possible.   Friday, September 19 View Page Now that it is a little bigger, I am still saying that it appears to be 8 or 9 fused together. On a megaMarv. Maybe next year.   Friday, September 19 View Page A pic from underside. Impossible to get the entire tomato in a pic, it wraps around about 320 degrees. The stem is a wide ribbon about 3/4 inch wide. Tomato is about tennis ball size.   Sunday, October 5 View Page Side view before harvesting. 1779 Joe Werner. Great seed, to bad I had disease issues.   Sunday, October 5 View Page 319 Mohr, before harvesting this past Friday.   Sunday, October 5 View Page I should have mentioned in the above post that this is my 150 sq ft entry.   Sunday, October 5 View Page last pic of the 319 and the vines. I left my string up all season to be sure I kept all vines in. If you have a good phone or pad, you may see the string. I left sticks at the 4 corners, with surveyor tape, all season as well, for the patch tour and for other folks to see.   Sunday, October 5 View Page Thanks Chris for letting me borrow your trailer !   Sunday, October 5 View Page My 150 sq.ft. entry, 617 pounds, 7% heavy. Thank you Pete Mohr for the seed.   Sunday, October 5 View Page My other entry, the 1779,good enough for 11th place. Great seed Joe, thank you !   Sunday, October 5 View Page This is from the 260.5 Clementz seed. Mine went light , but it sat attached to the vine for about a month after it finished growing. I think the aphids sucked the juice out of it , lol !!!   Sunday, October 5 View Page Sue with the new Ohio record melon. That thing was SOLID ! I don't think the bottom was even flat !   Sunday, October 5 View Page the board.   Sunday, October 5 View Page Some very nice carvings. Very cool place for a weigh off.   Wednesday, October 8 View Page 1582.5 Werner day 86. Just a youngster because of a later pollination. I took a chance on a blossom with seeds in it. A little deformed, but I think it will hold together when I pick it up. I am glad I did not keep that side vine fruit that I culled. Warning, objects appear bigger than they are ! I wish I could say that I am standing upright, lol !!   Wednesday, October 8 View Page I pulled the remaining plant from my 617#, 150 sq.ft. plant. I got the entire main vine laid out in a straight line. I let the main grow up till about 3 weeks ago. I kept wrapping it around inside my allotted space of 10'x15'.It did almost 2 complete circles. It must be close to 60 feet long.   Tuesday, October 14 View Page This was a big surprise. I had no idea it was going to be that big. The sunflower head measured 28 inches, good for a new PA record.   Tuesday, October 14 View Page A head on shot of it.It was touching my chest.   Tuesday, October 14 View Page This is a pic of Matt with his monster before it got weighed. What an accomplishment for a third year grower!   Tuesday, October 14 View Page My giant pumpkin entry weighed in at 1100#'s. It went around 6% heavy. Grown on the 1582.5 Werner x 1779 J. Werner.   Tuesday, October 14 View Page Cover crop is all planted. Patch is getting ready for a year of rest and so am I. No giants next year, just some maters and sunflowers.