Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 40 Entries. Saturday, April 5 View Page First pictures of the patch. Both hoop houses are up and the soil heating cables are buried. The temperature inside has been reaching 120 degrees during the day and the soil has been staying around 80 degrees overnight.   Friday, April 18 View Page The 2014 seed selection is official. The seeds are in the germination chamber. 282 est Scherber 2013 454 LaRiviere 2013 432 Wexler 2013(OUW) 1463.5 Hoelke 2013   Wednesday, April 30 View Page All of the seedlings are up and the first true leafs are just starting to show. As long as the weather cooperates we should be transplanting the seedlings into the patch this weekend.   Saturday, May 3 View Page Five of the seedlings have been planted in the hoop houses. One 454 LaRiviere 2013, three 432 Wexler 2013(UOW), and one 1463.5 Hoelke 2013. Pumpkin power was worked into the beds and two brands of Mycorrhizae fungi was worked into each planting site. The 282 Scherber has been very slow to germinate.   Sunday, May 11 View Page The final pumpkin seedling was planted in the hoop house today. Due to the slowness of the 282 Scherber I kept it indoors for a few more days. This plant was very slow to germinate and develop its first true leaves.   Tuesday, May 20 View Page The plants are doing well. The six plants have been sprayed every Tuesday and Thursday with four gallons of soluble kelp, soluble fish fertilizer, and biomin calcium.   Tuesday, May 27 View Page We noticed today that one of the 432 Wexler's had a split main stem. We removed the plant. The center hoop house is now down to two plants the 282 Scherber and the 1463 Hoelke.   Wednesday, June 4 View Page I don’t like the look of the main vine on the 1463 Hoelke. About two feet from the base there is a one foot section of main vine that is yellowing and has a soft spot. I don’t see any insect damage. I'm going to need to do some research to determine what is going on. There is about three feet of healthy plant after this spot. I noticed some yellow spots on the leaves as well.   Friday, June 6 View Page The main vine on the 1463 Hoelke looks worse today. The browning and cell breakdown looks to be spreading further down the vine.   Friday, June 27 View Page Week 8 The plants are doing well. We did a lot of vine burying this week. The main vine on the 1463 Hoelke seems to have healed and the plant has really taken off. The main vine is about 12ft long. The side vines are also starting to run nicely. The 282 Scherber is still very slow, however it looks very healthy. It’s about 5ft long. The two 432 Wexler's are growing very nicely. They look healthy and both are about 11ft long. We had the first female flowers on the 432’s, however they were only about 8ft down the main vine, and there were no males to pollinate them. We are aiming for pollinations at least 12ft from the stump.   Friday, July 11 View Page Week 10 The main stem on the 1463 Hoelke is about 22 feet long. We would like to terminate it except we need to wait to see if last week’s main stem pollination set. We’ve been able to set two pumpkins on side vines but none on the main. We have another female at about 20 feet that we are waiting to open. Hopefully that one will set. The 282 Scherber is slow but steady, it’s about 10 feet. We are just waiting for females now. The 432 Wexler and 454 LaRiviere are doing very well. We set the first pumpkin on the 432 Wexler at 12 feet. Its round, nicely shaped and about the size of a cantaloupe. Last week we adjusted the vine, put a bed of sand down and the mill fabric on top of it. The pumpkin itself is under the sheet. We will get a picture of the pumpkin itself next time. We are still waiting for a good female on the 454. One should be ready to open in the next couple of days.   Saturday, July 19 View Page Week 11 This week we played catch up and completed all of the side vine burying. We are keeping the pumpkins under white sheets for sun protection. The plants were fertilized on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with foliar applications of Soluble Fish, Soluble Kelp, Biomin Calcium, and Nutri-Aid Blossom Booster and Fruit Finisher. We terminated the main stem on the 1463 Hoelke. It is about 26 feet long. This plant is huge and loves to grow side vines. The main stem pollination at 24 feet is looking good. The pumpkin is about the size of a small cantaloupe. The two pumpkins set on the side vines are also doing well. The 282 Scherber is slow but steady, it’s about 16 feet long. Oddly it has very few side vines and only two female flowers located at the same leaf axis. These should open over the weekend. The 432 Wexler is continuing to do very well. We set the first pumpkin at 12 feet. Its round, nicely shaped and about the size of a basketball. The plant has been terminated at about 22 feet long. The 454 LaRiviere is not cooperating. The main stem is about 19 feet long and we have only had one female which was pollinated this week. The plant continues to grow, hopefully the pollination will take.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Week 12 The pumpkin plants are continuing to do well. Most of our pollinations held and they are now starting to put on weight. This year’s naming convention is Italian Renaissance painters. The 454 LaRiviere is not cooperating. The main stem is about 20 feet long and we have only had one female and the pollination did not take. The plant continues to grow, however there are no female blossoms on the plant. We may pull this plant this week to give the 432 Wexler more room.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Week 12 The main stem pollination on the 1463 Hoelke is looking good. It’s growing slower then we want but it did pretty well last week. This pumpkin was named Michelangelo. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 20, the OTT measurement was 141 inches and approximately 67lbs.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Week 12 The side vine pumpkin on the 1463 Hoelke grew nicely last week. However I noticed that this pumpkin looks to have a vine borer hole in the side of the fruit itself. I put some sulfur and captan powder on the scar, hopefully it will heal over. This pumpkin was named Raphael. Raphael: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 19, the OTT measurement was 143 inches and approximately 69lbs The second main stem pollination which is about two feet from Michelangelo is about the size of a honeydew.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Week 12 The 432 Wexler is continuing to do very well. This plant has two main stem pollinations. The first pollination is set at 12 feet. Its round and nicely shaped. This pumpkin has been named Leonardo. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 27, the OTT measurement was 165 inches and approximately 105lbs The second main stem pollination is about the size of a basketball.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page Week 12 The 282 Scherber is slow but steady, it’s about 22 feet long. Oddly it has very few side vines and the only females blossoms set at the same leaf axis. The twins are about the size of cantaloupes, we need to determine which one to keep. The smaller one has a better stem location coming off the side of the vine. Whereas the larger pumpkins stem comes off the bottom of the vine.   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Week 13 We are battling a fierce infestation of vine borers this year. We removed 1 borer from the blossom end of Leonardo this evening. We believe that this vine borer is the cause of crack which has formed. The scar was cleaned out with a 10% bleach solution, dried, and treated with captan and sulfur powder. Hopefully it will heal over. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 35, the OTT measurement was 179 inches and approximately 133lbs   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Week 13 We removed 1 borer from the side of Michelangelo this evening. The scar was cleaned out with a 10% bleach solution, dried, and treated with captan and sulfur powder. Hopefully it will heal over. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 28, the OTT measurement was 185 inches and approximately 146lbs.   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Week 13 Raphael: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 27, the OTT measurement was 149 inches and approximately 78lbs We removed 1 borer from the side of Raphael this evening. The scar was cleaned out with a 10% bleach solution, dried, and treated with captan and sulfur powder. This pumpkin has stopped growing and we noticed that it is starting to go soft around the vine borer hole. We believe we have lost this pumpkin and it’s starting to rot.   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Week 13 Titian: 282 Scherber x 1463 Hoelke, Day 26, the OTT measurement was 91 inches Staying consistent with the 282 Scherbers behavior thus far the pumpkin is growing extremely slowly.   Wednesday, August 6 View Page Week 13 Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 26, the OTT measurement was 112 inches and approximately 34lbs. This is the second pumpkin on the 432 Wexlers main vine. We are keeping this as a backup due to the vine borer issues we had with Leonardo. This plant seems to be sending most of its energy to Leonardo as we would hope.   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 The vine borers have done a number on the leaves. I tried to kill as many as I could, next year we will need to change up the treatment. Due to various issues we lost two pumpkins this week and we are now down to three. Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Giotto.   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 Leonardo’s scar seems to be healing fairly well. He’s slowed down dramatically though. The ten day average was a mere two pounds per day. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 47, the OTT measurement was 189 inches and approximately 156lbs   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 40, the OTT measurement was 226 inches and approximately 261lbs. The ten day average was ten pounds a day. Nothing spectacular but at least he’s growing. Unfortunately, he has developed a very tight sag line about five inches below the borer damage. Hopefully he can hold it together.   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 Raphael: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, stopped growing at approximately 78lbs There isn’t much left of Raphael. This pumpkin rotted during the week. We will be removing it from the patch tonight.   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 Titian: 282 Scherber x 1463 Hoelke, stopped growing with an OTT measurement of approximately 105 inches Titian has rotted from the blossom end. It looks like the vine may have aborted the pumpkin on its own. This is a disappointment; we were hoping to get a decorative pumpkin from this one.   Monday, August 18 View Page Week 15 Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 38, the OTT measurement was 145 inches and approximately 72lbs. This plant was hit hard by the vine borers, we lost a lot of mature leaves on this plant. The ten day average was only three pounds a day.   Monday, August 25 View Page Week 16 Leonardo has slowed down dramatically, he's only gaining a pound a day now. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 54, the OTT measurement was 193 inches and approximately 166lbs   Monday, August 25 View Page Week 16 Michelangelo continues to keep growing. The sag line has squeezed together; we will see what he happens this week. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 47, the OTT measurement was 238 inches and approximately 304lbs.   Monday, August 25 View Page Week 16 Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 45, the OTT measurement was 155 inches and approximately 88 lbs.   Thursday, September 4 View Page Week 17 Michelangelo is holding together and continues to keep growing. He gained 24lbs over the last 9 days. The sag line has squeezed together and seems to be lengthening. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 56, the OTT measurement was 244 inches and approximately 326lbs.   Friday, September 5 View Page Week 17 Leonardo has continued to slow down, only gaining a pound a day now. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 63, the OTT measurement was 196 inches and approximately 173 lbs   Friday, September 5 View Page Week 17 After an unfortunate vine incident, we don’t expect much more growth from Giotto. He’s down to about 10ft of vine and he’s been severed from the main stem. Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 54, the OTT measurement was 157 inches and approximately 91lbs.   Tuesday, September 9 View Page Week 18 Unfortunately, earlier in the week we found two quarter size spots of mold at the crease of the sag line on Michelangelo. The crease has started to crack from the force of the pumpkin pushing it together. As a last ditch effort I painted some daconil on the crack and the mold to see if that will extend the life at all. Sadly, a few days later we noticed that the crack had split open and he is now starting to rot from the inside out. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 62, the OTT measurement was 244 inches and approximately 326lbs.   Tuesday, September 9 View Page Week 18 Leonardo seemed to have stopped growing. Leonardo: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 69, the OTT measurement was 196 inches and approximately 173 lbs   Tuesday, September 9 View Page Week 18 As expected Giotto has stopped growing. He’s a nice solid pumpkin though. Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 60, the OTT measurement was 157 inches and approximately 91lbs.   Thursday, September 25 View Page Week 19 Unfortunately, Michelangelo completely split open this week. We had to cut him up to put in the compost pile. He basically collapsed as soon as we cut into him. Michelangelo: 1463 Hoelke x 1463 Hoelke, Day 78, the final OTT measurement was 244 inches and approximately 326lbs.   Sunday, October 5 View Page Week 21 I cleaned up the vines from the 1463 Hoelke today, I found some very sickly looking vine borers in the stems. Hopefully I’ve managed to catch most of the remaining vine borers before they exited the vines and hibernated.   Sunday, October 5 View Page Week 22 Giotto's stem has started to rot, so we harvested him and moved him into the garage. Hopefully he will last until thanksgiving. He’s much heavier than we expected. I need to get a scale. Giotto: 432 Wexler x 1463 Hoelke, Day 86, the final OTT measurement was 157 inches and approximately 91 lbs.