Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 24 Entries. Tuesday, May 5 View Page I planted my lone giant pumpkin plant this evening. It's from 603.5 Muller 03 seed! I started the two seeds I had of it, and thankfully one germinated. In 2007 I grew my personal best of 1041 lbs. from a seed from the same pumpkin. I really like the orange color this seed can throw. As I'm only growing one plant, my plan is to make a self cross. I'm hoping for a new personal best this year. If not, a nice looking orange pumpkin will do. Best of luck to everyone!   Thursday, May 21 View Page My lone pumpkin plant, the 603.5 Muller 03, is a double vine early on. It looks to be double for at least 3 leaf nodes in a row. This evening I watered it quite heavily with an overhead sprinkler(I don't have soaker hoses). I'm hoping it will come out of the double tendencies on it's own. I have no back up plants(germination troubles are partly to blame for this). So I'm all in on this plant. Should be interesting.   Sunday, July 5 View Page The vine on my 603.5 Muller 03 plant became a flat vine. At about the 4' mark, two single vines separated at the tip on the flat vine. One on each side of the vine tip. I cut out the center growing mess, and let the single vines grow out. One started growing at an angle soon after, so I cut that one off, and went with the straighter one. Now the single mainvine has grown about 8'. Two females have opened on this mainvine, but I cut them off. I'm waiting for the sidevines to grow out more, before setting a keeper. Which I hope occurs around the middle of July. The longest sidevine is only about 2'. So I'm hoping to grow more plant. I'm cutting out all sidevines and new vine growth on the flatvine portion. I'm just happy to be still in the game, with one of my favorite seeds of all time.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page My pumpkin plant looks healthy after the flat vine portion. The sidevines are starting to grow out pretty well now. I've started to burying the first three secondaries on each side. The flat vine set me back. I've got a female on the main that will open in about 2 or 3 days. I will likely skip that one, and try pollinating the females on the main, after that one. The summer has been a little on the mild side here so far. My vegetable garden has been growing well. I've got a lot of early fruit sets on my tomatoes. I think the mild weather helped with that. Now to keep the deer from eating the forming tomatoes. Warmer weather is on the way.   Wednesday, July 15 View Page My first attempt at pumpkin pollination this year, is planned for tomorrow. The next pumpkin on the main will open about 3 days after that. Hopefully one of these two will take, and be the "keeper".   Thursday, July 16 View Page I self pollinated the 603.5 Muller today. It was a four lobed female.   Thursday, July 23 View Page I have two 603.5 Muller X self pollinations on the mainvine of my plant. One pollinated on July 16 and one on July 19. Both seem to have taken well so far. The earlier pollination is exhibiting a round shape currently. The later pollination is more oblong. I'm hoping the first pollination will be the "keeper". I do worry a little with the early round shape. I've had a couple of these turn into wheels in the past. Hopefully this one stays round. Neither set is growing very fast out of the gate.   Monday, July 27 View Page Yesterday was day 10 for my pumpkin on the 603.5 Muller. It measured a circumference of 20.5". I cut halfway through the stem of my other pumpkin on the plant, as it wasn't growing much the past couple of days. Grow my pumpkin you can do it, grow my pumpkin there's nothing to it!   Tuesday, July 28 View Page We received 1.1" of rain last night. I'm grateful, as part of my garden was getting dry, and I would have been watering today.   Monday, August 3 View Page My 603.5 Muller pumpkin is still growing at day 18. I'll try and post the day 20 circumference number on it, on Wednesday. It's wider than long. Hopefully it keeps growing upright. It looks nice and round from the stem end. The color is a nice yellow, at this time. Maybe I'll post some pictures of it later in the season; we'll see. The plant isn't the fullest, as some of the earlier secondaries didn't grow out well. I have quite a bit of sunburned leaves on some of the fairly recent growth. Therefore, I'm still growing the plant out before and after the pumpkin. Hopefully this later plant growth will help the pumpkin grow more, later in the season. Grow my pumpkin grow real big, Grow my pumpkin grow like a pig.........or a sow even.   Thursday, August 6 View Page Aug. 5th was day 20 for my lone pumpkin. It measured 57.5" in circumference.   Monday, August 10 View Page I measured the circumference of my pumpkin this afternoon. It's at day 25. Circ.= 74.75". My plant is still getting some sunburn(or heatburn?) on newer growth. I don't know if it's caused by the genetics of the plant, or some other issue. Soil moisture has been good. Highs lately haven't been much over 80 degree's F. My plant is shaded by a tree, for a good part of the morning. Maybe this is the issue. When the sun does start hitting the plant, it's likely at a high intensity; instead of a gradual increase in intensity in a full sun situation.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page It's nice to see another grower growing the 603.5 Muller seed(VTSteve). I've been keeping an eye out for the new entries in his diary. My pumpkin with hit day 30 on Saturday. I'll be able to compare my OTT numbers to Steve's 603.5 then. I won't be talking any smack, but my goal is to grow a heavier 603.5 Muller pumpkin than Steve. Good luck Steve!   Sunday, August 16 View Page Yesterday was day 30 for my pumpkin. It measured a circ. of 87.5", side-to-side of 64", and end-to-end of 56". Therefore an OTT of 207.5". Hey my pumpkin, could you do me a solid, and grow bigger?   Wednesday, August 19 View Page I thought I'd take a little stress and worry off of the other Minnesota pumpkin growers, and let them know that there will be no state record pumpkins coming out of my patch this year. Mine isn't on that pace. Now maybe you all can sleep a little better at night. I plan to post the day 35 numbers for my pumpkin tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that, as many of you may lose sleep in great anticipation of those numbers. Sorry.   Thursday, August 20 View Page Day 35 today for my pumpkin. It measured a circ. of 96", side-to-side=69.5", and end-to-end=59.5". OTT= 225". It's estimated at 258 lbs. My pumpkin has averaged 10.7 lbs./day for the past 5 days. We've had some unseasonably cool days and nights lately. I'm hoping the next 5 days produce a little better daily gains. To my pumpkin: "I'm not impressed with your performance." In my best Georges St. Pierre accent.   Thursday, September 3 View Page Day 49 for my pumpkin. Circ.= 107", side-to-side= 77", end-to-end= 66"; for an OTT of 250". The estimated weight is 350 lbs. using the 2013 chart. If my math is correct, my pumpkin has averaged 6.6 lbs. for the past 14 days. The pumpkin has a nice orange color now. Of all the 603.5 Muller seeds I've grown, I think this one has the best orange color(excluding a lumpy one that may have had a virus...it had a very bright orange color, mottle with some green). I'm guessing this pumpkin will go heavy to the chart. It is sort of wheel-like, with a large proportion of the surface area on the stem end. It's upright, longer on the bottom, than on the top, which helped it stay upright IMO. Many of the 603.5 Muller pumpkins went around 10% heavy to the 2005 chart. I'm hoping this pumpkin gets over 500 lbs. if I get it weighed. I'll try and post pics of it at the end of the season.   Sunday, September 13 View Page Day 59 for my pumpkin. It measured a circumference of 111", side-to-side of 80.5", and end-to-end of 68.5". OTT= 260", for and estimated 392 lbs. The pumpkin averaged an estimated 4.2 lbs./day for the past 10 days. The theme for this year's pumpkin seems to be slow and steady, with an emphasis on slow. Overall I think the weather has been pretty decent here. The flat mainvine(early on), a relatively small plant, and leafburn on later growth, may have all contributed to the slow growth pattern. I'm happy with the color of the pumpkin, and the shape isn't bad.   Thursday, September 17 View Page Day 63 for my pumpkin. I only did a circumference measurement this afternoon. I came up with 112.75". It grew 1.75" in circ. during the past 4 days. Slow going, which I expected. The extended forecast looks good here. It's quite possible we could get through Sept. without a frost. I'm not sure if I'll get my pumpkin to a weigh off. It's too bad there's not one a Delano this year, as that was my go to weigh off the past several years. If I do get it weighed, it will likely be in Stillwater.   Tuesday, September 22 View Page I measured the circumference of my pumpkin today. I got 113.75". It grew one inch in circ. over the past 5 days. Thank you my pumpkin for growing.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page Today is day 76 for my pumpkin. It measured a circumference of 115", side-to-side of 83.25", and end-to-end of 71.25". OTT= 269.5", for an estimated at 435.5 lbs. If I get it weighed, it will be at Stillwater. I don't expect much more growth, as there are very few green leaves left. No frost here yet, but the plant seems pretty much wore out. The sunburned leaves didn't help any. I think this pumpkin has a shot at 500 lbs. It will likely be close though. I'm happy I got another chance to grow the 603.5 Muller this year. I like the fact that it tends to produce orange, and heavy to the chart pumpkins. If my pumpkin has good seeds in it, I may grow it next year. It's selfed.   Thursday, October 1 View Page I'd like to add that I didn't see any cucumber beetles or potato bugs/beetles in the garden this year, thankfully. It is/was a very good year for garden produce in the garden. One of my best seasons ever in this regard.   Sunday, October 11 View Page Well, I didn't get my pumpkin weighed this year. I was thinking of taking it to Stillwater, but decided not to. I went down there to see the pumpkins anyway. An impressive venue, with many spectators and many large pumpkins. I got to chat with a few of the growers, but not as many as I would have like to. I'll try and do a final OTT measurement on my pumpkin soon, and hopefully get a few pictures of it up.   Thursday, November 12 View Page Today I harvested seeds from my pumpkin. Thankfully it had a decent seed count. I'll call it the 435.5 Wallace 15 est. This is based on the last measurements I took on Sept. 30. I didn't harvest it until several days later, but I doubt it grew much, if any, since then. It's genetics are: 603.5 Muller 03 X self. I'm seriously thinking of growing this seed next year, and crossing big and orange into it.