Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 62 Entries. Monday, May 19 View Page Pollination on 829 Young today for State Fair on 5/19/14   Monday, May 19 View Page Pollination day   Monday, May 19 View Page Smothered with pollen. Later a drip line popped off and drenched this female bloom. Hope it still takes. 829 Young.   Tuesday, May 27 View Page This plant is massive and it has a ton of energy in the soil. Thank you Don Young.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page Okay this 829 Young is a keeper. Should be about the size of a volleyball in the morning. 16' out on the main. Main vine is about 25 ft. long now. Crazy big plant.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page Oh ya I've been selling Maters for a month too.   Thursday, May 29 View Page My goodness if I have any luck on growing a few pumpkins like I grow Maters I'll have a lot of fun. Picked over 1000 lbs of tomatoes tonight. This is just a partial picture.   Saturday, May 31 View Page Day 13 on my 829 Young.   Saturday, May 31 View Page Day 13 pic on 829 Young   Thursday, June 5 View Page 829 Young hiding in the jungle on 6/5/14   Saturday, June 7 View Page Ok we went from drought to flooding everywhere in 4 hrs and it keeps on raining. We've had more rain in 4 hrs than we've had in the last 2 1/2 years.   Sunday, June 8 View Page Day 21 on my 829 Young (2009 Wallace x 1725 Harp) picking up pace. 2 months to the Iowa State Fair.   Sunday, June 8 View Page Day 21 pic   Sunday, June 8 View Page Blowing out the high tunnel.   Sunday, June 8 View Page Blowing out the high tunnel.   Sunday, June 15 View Page State Fair pumpkin is looking good !   Wednesday, June 18 View Page Calling my State Fair pumpkin "Bob"!! This stuff works great on these pumpkins.   Friday, June 20 View Page 5 lobe pollinated on 1985 Miller at 12' out on the main today.   Sunday, June 22 View Page Seen a couple adult squash bugs and a vine bore moth today for the first time this year.   Thursday, June 26 View Page 1985 Miller 6 Dap.   Thursday, June 26 View Page State Fair plant. Crazy big. Pumpkin is doing well.   Tuesday, July 1 View Page 1766 Debacco, 1985 Miller, 1985 Miller and 1734 Steil.   Saturday, July 5 View Page Found a 33 lb'r hiding in the jungle on my 829 Young State Fair plant. Cut it open and liked what I seen, THICK WALLS all the way around.   Sunday, July 6 View Page Day 16 on 1985 Miller.   Sunday, July 6 View Page Lesson learned. Dont wait to pull drip lines after plants were in the ground in the middle of May. Good lord. 30 x 120 patch.   Friday, July 11 View Page #2 pollination 1985 Miller x 1766 Debacco. #1 pollination 1766 Debacco x 1985 Miller today.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page Fans on the blossom end, stem, stump and high speed fan with misters going on the State Fair pumpkin. Still looking good.   Sunday, July 20 View Page 1734 Steil x open. Torpedo on secondary.   Sunday, July 20 View Page 1985 Miller x Sib # 2 plant. Day 13   Sunday, July 20 View Page 1985 x self # 1 plant.   Sunday, July 20 View Page 1766.5 Debacco x 1734 Steil 7 DAP   Sunday, July 27 View Page Lost my State Fair pumpkin. Noticed soft spot on front bottom. Game over. Mouse nest under pumpkin. Not sure if that was the cause. Also serious stem issue showed some cause for sure after opening it up. 331 OTT 2 weeks ago when it shut down. Weighed pumpkin up yesterday and harvested seeds. 783 lbs. Good thick walls all around pumpkin.   Thursday, July 31 View Page 1766.5 Debacco x 1734 Steil 20 dap. OTT 159. Definitely seems this pumpkin is going to be a wheel. Small plant and planted late. 1734 Steil on secondary looks like its going to abort. Way behind with a 1985 on a secondary.102 OTT 16 dap on it.   Thursday, July 31 View Page Can someone tell what pest is. Found it dead in the patch. Warrior is working well. Haven't seen any of these before.   Thursday, July 31 View Page With lows in the mid 50's just a little worried about pumpkin growing. High's are great at upper 70's to 80 degree's. We don't normally see this in iowa. Usually its 95 and humid as hell. I have been seeing black wooley worms for a week now. Just saying ah oh.   Monday, August 18 View Page 1766 Debacco x 1734 Steil 48 dap at 271 ott 447 lbs. Its a wheel but I just hope to have one for Anamosa. No fault of the seeds or genetics. I have to get my calcium levels up next year along with other nutrients. That doesn't happen in a year.   Monday, August 18 View Page 1985 Miller x Sib. Day 40 was 2 days ago ott 301.5 at est. 613 lbs. Pumpkin took off like a house on fire then has slowed dramatically. Thin blossom end. Hope it doesn't crack. Blossom plug fell out a week ago. Sulfured and crossing fingers. Beautiful front shoulders and stem.   Monday, August 18 View Page 1766 Debacco is 38 dap not 48 oops.   Monday, August 18 View Page Front of the 1985 Miller.   Friday, August 22 View Page Who cares about pumpkins.When you get to take your grandson on his first tractor ride with your new toy, it doesn't get any better than that.   Monday, August 25 View Page Ok 4 inches of rain in 4 days and heat index over 100 degrees is not helping. The nice front on the earlier post of the 1985 Miller now looks like this. Huge cracks on the front of it now. Crap.   Thursday, August 28 View Page Ok everyone. This is my late back up at 20 days old. Once Don and Julie Young see this they are going to be nervous LOL. 737.5 Davis 2013 dmg x open. I'm going to lose my 1985 from stem cracks. 4 1/2" rain last week and 2 1/2" in 3 days this week has blown it up. 1766 x 1734 still growing and cracking but so far they are healing. It is solid. More rain in the forecast.   Friday, August 29 View Page 1985 Miller harvested because of stem crack. Dap 53. OTT 307.5 est. 650 lbs. Final weight on certified scales was 657.55 lbs. It is still raining here and the patch is water logged. My only hope is that the patch is on a hill side. Crazy weather.   Sunday, September 7 View Page Getting ready to hook the tractor and calf puller onto my 1766.5 Debacco x 1734 Steil to give it about 3 more feet in length!!!!   Tuesday, September 9 View Page Okay it is absolutely pouring here. Might see Noah go by or a couple pumpkins wash up hill.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page Well my rain gauge goes to 5" and it's overflowing. Who knows what we got. Most of it came between 9 last night to 2 this morning. 30 minutes south of me in Kirksville,Mo. Had 9 1/4" of rain. New long crack in back side of 1766.5 Debacco. Hope it heals like the front ones did.   Wednesday, September 10 View Page She got a big drink of water.   Friday, September 12 View Page Non conducive forecast for more growth on giant pumpkins. This is a bummer.   Sunday, September 14 View Page 1766.5 Debacco still growing. "Not much". Saturated soil and cold temps are slowing things down. Temporary greenhouse and heater at night to keep it warm. Crack on back side hasn't opened up anymore so I think it will be ok. Last year at this time we were in a drought and heat index was still over 100 degrees.   Sunday, September 14 View Page 737.5 Davis still growing. Wished I would have started it a month earlier. Decent shape on this one. Super long stem. Healthy pumpkin.   Sunday, September 21 View Page Awful quiet out there. Must be a lot of chess and poker being played with these giants lol!!   Thursday, September 25 View Page This is about as orange as that orange ball was setting in the sky tonight. What a perfect fall evening.   Wednesday, October 1 View Page Great day I'm a grandpa again. Khoen was right on Chart. 8 lbs and his EE measurement was 19.5 inches. How many of these pumpkins are that big in the 1st minute lol.   Friday, October 3 View Page Gonna dress warm for Anamosa Saturday brrrrr!!   Friday, October 3 View Page Loaded and ready to take off early for Anamosa in the morning. Its going to be fun and just flat cold.   Friday, October 3 View Page For all you pumpkin growers out there my nickname on this diary is Sheriff. You should know that I like having fun just like everyone else and I really am the Sheriff of Davis County, Iowa. With that being said I also have to be honest in my line of work and away from work. So here it goes I'm telling you that the winning pumpkin in Anamosa tomorrow will weigh over 1,800 lbs. I said I had to be honest, but I didn't say I would tell you who would be bringing it. So now that I've got your minds racing and wondering who will bring it you should know that it doesn't do any good to duct tape your pumpkin back onto it's main vine and grow another week. If you thought you had the biggest one coming to Anamosa and you're not in that category you better think again. I will see you at the weigh off.   Saturday, October 4 View Page My 1766.5 Debacco is now the 721.5 Davis. Just a touch light. Thanks Matt for the seeds. Was glad to have a pumpkin for the Anamosa weigh off. There was some excellent pumpkins there today and records were falling everywhere in all categories. Mr. Norlin heads up a super weigh off site and his volunteers that help make this a wonderful event. All these individuals should be commended. 5 states had competitors there today and I am impressed on how many good growers were there. All good people. The forklift was really worked today.   Sunday, October 5 View Page New lawn ornament!!   Saturday, October 18 View Page Soil test in Oct. 2013 in outdoor area after harvesting a 737.5 bogie kin. I put a small high tunnel up that month in that area and added two truck loads of horse manure mixed with oak wood shavings. The horses are fed only alfalfa hay and in stalls so no weed seeds to worry about. (Alfalfa and oak wood shavings breaks down into potassium). I added a carbonized lime and gypsum with some commercial fertilizer as well. I put some winter rye down for cover crop and watered the soil good. I also added some liquid humate, 2-5-.02 fish and molasses to feed the microbes. This is where I was growing the 829 Young for the state fair.   Saturday, October 18 View Page Okay this is March 2014 soil test of the high tunnel. Holy crappers. As for the NPK levels I was really worried about the nitrates. I watered a lot to try and tame that down. I let the plant grow to a 35 x 35 area in this 20 x 30 tunnel. I didn't prune many vines because I worried about blowing this pumpkin up. I had 3 1/2' tall leaf stalks on a lot of the plant. This was a huge plant and the 829 Young (2009 x 1725) was taking it and it's a grower. I noticed it stop growing 30 days before weigh off at an OTT of 809 lbs. 2 weeks later found soft spot and large crack on bottom front of pumpkin. 2 weeks later harvested and weighed 783 lbs.   Saturday, October 18 View Page Oct.2014 soil test in tunnel. I didn't pull the state fair plant until Oct. 5th even though I lost the pumpkin in July and weigh off was in August. Must have been 20 pumpkins after July that I sold or threw to the cows. 80 - 310 lbr's. I had happy cows lol. If you compare the soil tests it kind of gives you some Idea what these things eat and how much. I transplanted into tunnel April 6th. I was suprised how much phosphorus was taken. I fertigated with some stout potassium that had some nitrate and calcium as well. I never watered after mid July. Going to use mainly organic this next year.   Friday, October 31 View Page Best pumpkin all year 9 lbr. Love my grandkids.