Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Monday, April 7 View Page Hello 2014! Well after a ton of troubles in 2013, I am anxious for the season to get started. Turned the soil last weekend and fired up the tiller for the first pass mid-week. The soil just looked so bad but after I turned it it looked much better. My forearms are rubber; its like holding onto a 100 lb Rottweiler on its first walk in weeks! We visited the local green waste facility this weekend and got 4 yards of nice black organic compost and spread a good 8" in the patch. We will let it sit for a few weeks before tilling it in. Added about 5 lbs of 16-16-16, 5 lbs of bloodmeal and some alfalfa to just get things going. Have a batch of seeds from last years auction so I will post a list to see what you all think I should start.   Wednesday, May 14 View Page Season has started! 4 seeds this year. Best one wins.   Sunday, May 18 View Page Pleased with the early results. The 1623.5 was the first one up, followed by the 1610. The 806 is pushing soil. The 1548 hasn't shown any signs yet at the five day mark.   Monday, May 19 View Page 3 of the 4 are doing great 6 days after planting. The 1623.5 Wallace is leading the way and I can believe how fast it is growing. Great color and leaf shape.   Monday, May 26 View Page Plants are in the ground! 1623.5 on the left and 1610 on the right. The 1610 will be the backup. It's a funky looking plant and I don't have much confidence in it so really banking on the 1623 to be the producer. I have a 1548 Starr that just germed if needed.   Saturday, June 7 View Page So far so good. Weather has been cooperating. Hottest days in the low 80's lately. I'm still keeping a little extra shade cloth on the young plant just to give it as strong a start as possible.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page Culled the 1610 plant last night; the 1623.5 Wallace has looked stronger from Day 1. Main is out about 3' now.   Sunday, June 22 View Page Today was a thrill as I found myself in Rhode Island. What's a giant pumpkin grower to do when he finds himself in RI? Why go see the Wallace's that's what! What a treat to get to meet Ron and Pap in person and get to see their patch. It was a thrill of a lifetime and I am so grateful for their warm hospitality!   Sunday, June 29 View Page Plant is looking great. Gave it a dose of Bayer fruit and citrus today and started burying vines. I've got a female at 15' on the main in the vine tip so very hopeful that will be the one   Tuesday, July 8 View Page First pollination today on the 1623.5 Wallace. It's about 14-15 feet out on the main. Female wasn't perfect but not bad. Also found first sign of PM. Way earlier than ever but we had a few days of 90 degree weather. Hopefully I can   Tuesday, July 8 View Page One male flower was quite funky with a double stamen   Wednesday, July 9 View Page Gave the plant a drench of Neptune's/Vf-11/worm tea tonight. No more signs of PM after cutting the one infected leaf. Following Ron's advice and making sure the plant doesn't go to bed wet so if I need to water in the evening it isn't going to be a foliar. This 1623.5 Wallace plant is doing very well. The mature leaves have developed yellow spots which I suspect is early disease but they seem to be holding up ok.   Thursday, July 10 View Page The first pollination about golf-ball sized today, 2 DAP.   Sunday, July 13 View Page P1 5 days after pollination. Not entirely convinced this one has taken. We should know my the end of the week. P2 is about 17-18' out on the main and will open tomorrow   Monday, July 14 View Page Pollinated P2 today - 17'- 18' out on the main. I had nine female flowers to extract pollen from, the most I've ever had in one day. P1 is growing at a snails pace; still not sure if it's taken and today is 6 dap. It's only baseball size.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page Pollinated P3 today. Nice looking uniform 4 lobe flower It's on the 1st secondary off the main though. Not ideal.   Sunday, July 27 View Page After a week away from the patch I had a lot of work to do. Lots of cutting and burying vines and so on. A mild case of PM started this week so treated that also. There are three pumpkins on the vine. A side vine kin about soccer ball size (p3) 10 dap. There are two on the main. One about a size 3 soccer ball @ 12 dap (p2) and a softball (p4) that open pollinated on Tues 7/22. Pl didn't take. As has been said here before the side vine fruit is growing faster than the one on the main, at least so far. Decision time is this week!   Wednesday, July 30 View Page This is Day 16, and P2 on the main putting on nice overnight growth for a little guy. 6.09 lbs since yesterday. 99 OTT and just a shade under 40 lbs. Decision time looms but the main vine kin seems to have caught the side vine kin which is two days ahead. The Styrofoam is leveling the kin to reduce stem stress.   Friday, August 1 View Page Culled P4 off the main as the one above it, P2 at 17' looks to be a keeper. OTT is 120" DAP 18 for 56 lbs. Gained 9 lbs overnight; not bad for a little guy. P3, the side vine kin will get culled. Just as expected, the main vine kin started slower but its growth overnight was nearly double. Sprayed sodium bicarbonate for PM last night. We will see how that does controlling it. So far the outbreak has been pretty mild and I've only had to remove a handful of leaves.   Friday, August 1 View Page Correction - Potassium Bicarbonate was what I sprayed for PM   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Seeing a bit of improvement in the growth rate now. Have to keep my expectations in check as this is a small plant; 400 square feet isn't going to yield the same result as 700-800 square feet or more. Its at day 23 and weighs 84 lbs est. It did just under 9 lbs overnight. I've sent the first tissue test in; we will see what it needs and perhaps it can be juiced a bit! This 1623.5 Wallace plant is my best so far. Great root structure, healthy leaves, big thick stems, etc. Still hopeful for a personal best!   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Seeing a bit of improvement in the growth rate now. Have to keep my expectations in check as this is a small plant; 400 square feet isn't going to yield the same result as 700-800 square feet or more. Its at day 23 and weighs 84 lbs est. It did just under 9 lbs overnight. I've sent the first tissue test in; we will see what it needs and perhaps it can be juiced a bit! This 1623.5 Wallace plant is my best so far. Great root structure, healthy leaves, big thick stems, etc. Still hopeful for a personal best!   Saturday, August 23 View Page The 1623.5 Wallace continues to plod along. Its at Day 40 now and has an OTT of 224, having gained 12 inches since day 37. Est. weight is 255 lbs. Its gaining at the rate of 11.5 lbs/ day over the past week. Not setting the world on fire but its on a pace to be a new PB for me if it can posts gains like that for another 10 days or so. PM is still a battle and I've got more leaves that I am going to have to remove. The weather has been pretty darn good this summer with only a few days in the low 90's and overnight lows in the 60's. Hoping that Flash Gourd-on, as its been named, will get a little streak of Orange in him.   Wednesday, August 27 View Page Day 44 and Flash has broken the 300 lb mark. Still 11 lbs per day. Personal Best by Day 48?   Saturday, August 30 View Page Day 48 - the 1623.5 Wallace grew an estimated 68 lbs in the past week, indicating its starting to slow down. Starting to get some canteloping and maybe a little hint of orange. OTT is now 243 inches and an estimated 323 lbs. That will make this a new personal best for me if it can make it to the scales.   Wednesday, September 3 View Page Day 50 OTT 248 CC 104 and 343.28 est. weight Some dummy dropped his cellphone on his pumpkin. Doh!!   Sunday, September 7 View Page This plant is looking pretty haggard...the PM is winning the battle. Some leaves are yellow and splotchy; others are sunburnt and who knows what other diseases are lurking here. But the lizards still like hanging out in here.   Sunday, September 7 View Page plant   Sunday, September 7 View Page Front View of the 1623.5 Wallace at Day 55. CC is 108", still growing slowly. OTT 257". Cool to see the Green and Orange coming in now.   Sunday, September 7 View Page She's a fat bottomed thing... "Fat Bottom Gourd you make the pumpkin world go wow!"   Sunday, September 14 View Page Looks like the pumpkin has stopped growing now. We've had a nasty heat wave with temps in the 100 degree range. I measured after a week and there was zero difference in s to s and e to e and although there were a couple more inches in cc, I had a hand measuring so I suspect its just a more accurate read this week than last. The PM has overtaken most of the whole plant now. Lesson for next year to not take a week off treatment. We will see what happens. The skin is canteloping now and streaks of Orange and Green are coming in. Hope it stays intact for 6 weeks and makes it to Pumpkinmania!   Sunday, September 14 View Page OTT 259 Circ 111 est. Weight 390   Wednesday, September 17 View Page Dagnabit. Went out this morning to find green goo dripping down the front of the kin. What the.....STEM ROT. Sulpher and Fan for now. Surgery tonight. Crap. We had 15 minutes of pouring ran yesterday; the first rain this pumpkin has ever seen. Maybe that did it.   Thursday, September 18 View Page Soft/ rotted portion of the stem wasn't terrible. It was an area about the size of a half-dollar and maybe a 1/4 deep. Scraped off soft spot and treated with sulfer and daconil and put the fan on it. Fingers crossed it makes it....   Sunday, September 28 View Page Flash Gourdon is on life support. You know it's bad when you find those fruit flies hovering about the stem. Found more rot/ soft spots today and the result was cutting the pumpkin on the vine. Its four weeks to Pumpkinmania - no way to tell if its going to make it or not. That's a long time for it to sit in the patch when its still 85-90 degrees during the hottest part of the day. Last measurement showed him growing a couple more inches and is now at 404 lbs est. Sad to know he's going to be losing weight now.   Saturday, November 22 View Page Planted my first cover crop today; Kodiak Mustard. Added a couple bags of chicken poop to the patch give it a little winter boost.