Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 212 Entries. Tuesday, January 6 View Page I forgot to mention that my daughter Jessica entered the pumpkin recipe contest and won the Hall of Fame award for the 3rd time. Pumpkin Cheesecake Egg Rolls. Delicious, but I'm allergic to the cinnamon in them. Its tough to try to lose weight with her and her Mom's great cooking, but I'm down 15% from my "personal worst" high weight. I still have a long way to go.   Thursday, February 5 View Page Darren C. started something, showing aerial views of his pumpkin patch and asking others to do the same. This is a wide view showing our acreage and pumpkin patch with a bunch of the neighborhood. From all of the trees, you can see why I have problems with deer and other critters.   Thursday, February 5 View Page This is a close-up view of the garden. It looks like it was taken mid morning around the first of June, 2014. The gourds in the middle were the only part of the garden that did well after the big flood that hit at the end of June. There are some trees along the creek that shade the garden in the morning. The flood cut the bank real close to them and another one like it might drop them. So this spring Jacob and I will cut up the trees for firewood. We will anchor pine trees on the base of the bank to catch sand and heal up the bank so it doesn't erode into the garden. Jacob and I did our best to thin out the deer herd last fall and so did our neighbors.   Friday, March 6 View Page It has been a long winter, and it is great to see a forecast like this.   Sunday, March 15 View Page I was given some seeds from the world record bushel gourd, so it looks like I have a new project for 2015. I have a garden spot that used to grow long gourds that will be the new bushel gourd home. I did a cheap soil test on this spot through Iowa State. They said the P and K were way high, but they were fairly low for growing AG's. PH was a little high, because it is real close to the road and catches a lot of limestone dust. I piled on a lot of grass clippings last fall, and they are now well composted. So I will till them in with a little sulfur and nitrogen and see what happens. I have a world record long gourd seed to grow, as well as a 2000+ and 1900+ pumpkin seed and several selfed 2009 and 1985 Ag's and some great field pumpkins to grow. Now all I need is to have the weather cooperate. After 2 drought years and a cool flood year, we are due for a good year.   Tuesday, March 17 View Page The three trees that were shading the garden in the morning are now on the ground and partially cut up. I did the felling and limbing, and Jacob will buck them up and load the logs on the truck. We started working on our long gourd trellis this afternoon. I had left all of the old vines on till spring so they would dry out and be easy to remove in the spring. I never had a problem doing this in the past. But last year our vines were thicker than ever, and in February we had a storm that dumped 11" of heavy wet snow on the thick vines. The cattle panels got knocked to the ground and all bent up. But we will be able to straighten them out. We will replace the steel fence posts with treated wood posts that are at least 3' longer. That should get the trellis high enough that we won't have to dig holes for the gourds. In the future, vines get pulled off the trellis in November.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page These trees won't shade the garden anymore, I hated to have to cut them down, because I planted them about 25 years ago. But the creek undermined them and they would be gone in a few years anyway.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page It looks like the creek is real close to the tree but it is worse. The bank is undercut and over half of this tree's root system is gone. A tree fell in on the opposite bank and caught sand and deflected the current towards the bank. Later this year we will cut out that tree. We will anchor pine trees on the bank closest to the garden. They will trap sand and silt, rebuild the bank and protect the garden.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page Scotch pines only live 15 to 20 years around here, then they get fungus disease and die. I will use these to rebuild the creek bank, so they aren't a waste. It is a bioengineering technique I learned from my 30 years with SCS/NRCS. I already have the OK from our DNR and just need to get Jacob to drag them to the creek.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page Long gourd trellises aren't supposed to look like this. The panels will be salvaged. I will get one more panel and taller treated wood posts. We will cut back from 5 plants to 4, and might build another one. After getting the state record, our next goal is the world record. Plus I'm sure we will have to better just to keep the state record.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page One of our AG sites. After the flood I planted rape and radish for a cover crop. I kept it mowed to keep the weeds from going to seed. Then I added chopped leaves mixed with grass clippings and covered it with compost. I used a total of 7400# of Cedar Rapids compost on the whole garden. I will add a few more amendments, some nitrogen to make up for what the leaves tie up, and till it all in. I might have to pull out the long gourd shells if they don't break up well.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page We usually grow some pumpkins for good color and some for size. Usually The orange ones seem to get bigger anyway. We ended up with seeds from 4 Howard Dill winners to go along with Jacob's winner from 2011 It is going to be hard to choose which ones to grow this year. What ever doesn't get planted this year will be saved for next year.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page I thought I had my seed lineup for size set until I met up with some other growers last Saturday. Now I have the problem of deciding what to plant. But it looks like we have next year's seeds covered too.   Wednesday, March 18 View Page It looks like we will be planting Fred Ansem's world record long gourd and his second longest too. Of course we will plant my Iowa Record nd Jacob's 123" as well. Maybe one more if we get more trellis built. I did get all of the trellis cattle panels cut loose from the posts so we can get things re-built. But I have to wait for the ground to thaw so I can pull the old posts. A warm rain would help, but we have been dry for 2 weeks with no significant rain forecast in the next week.   Saturday, March 28 View Page No seeds sprouted yet so I upped the wattage on the germination box. The long gourd trellis is finished and 7 hoop houses are done. I picked up a bag of kelp meal yesterday, and a bag of 0-0-50 and 4 bags of poultry compost pellets today. Tomorrow I spread things on the patch. The only tillage so far has been with a fork in the hoop houses and the gourd spots. The garden is really getting green with grass and weeds but they will soon be sprayed with glyphosate. I have a lot of worms and I don't want to chop them up too much. It will probably be mid May before the tiller gets much of a workout.   Wednesday, April 1 View Page Monday Jacob and I did some work around the garden. As we were picking up firewood, Jacob found our pest control crew having a group hug. Hopefully it will result in some more mouse eaters. We got all of the long gourd trellis panels pulled out and the vines piled up. Tuesday I got the vines burned and half of the steel posts pulled. Today I pulled the rest of the posts, got the new trellis staked out, the center ditch dug out and low spots on the raised beds built up. I spread about 8 wheelbarrow loads of compost on the gourd site. Still lots of work ahead.   Thursday, April 9 View Page Most of the electric fence has been replaced. I an just about ready to install the new gourd trellis. All of the AG hoop house sites have been tilled 12" deep, 6' X 6' with a manure fork. Most of the hoops are in, but plastic needs to be installed. Most of the soil amendments have been spread, but I still have to get a little more. I found a new organic fertilizer with lots of beneficial bacteria for the seedling sites and vine trenches. I ordered my Pumpkin Pro from Wallace WOW on Monday and it arrived on Wednesday. Very fast service.   Monday, April 13 View Page Opening day of the turkey season is today. I only managed to call in a hen. I started some bushel gourds and watermelons this morning. I may need to increase the wattage of the cfl's in the germination box to get the temp up for the gourds. Long gourds will get started in about a week Ag's about 5 days later, and field pumpkins after that.   Saturday, April 18 View Page I made some progress on the garden this week. 6 hoop houses are warming up soil for the AG's. The gourd trellis is nearly complete. I went fishing with my brother today and brought home 2 dozen crappies. That made 6 sets of fish remains that were buried deep for each long gourd plant. Last year the gourds grew great with trout heads, so I hope they like crappie even better.   Tuesday, April 21 View Page Lu Ann, Jacob and I got to the trout stream Monday morning right as the rain was stopping and the high winds were starting. By the time we were done our fingers were numb but our limits were filled. I'm going to see if pumpkins like trout heads like the gourds did last year. I baked some for supper tonight and will start brining the rest for the smoker tomorrow. A second day of high winds and the hoop houses are still standing. Looking for frost tonight. The bushel gourds and 2 watermelons are up, but won't hit the dirt for a few days.   Saturday, April 25 View Page Weather was cold and windy the past week, with rain yesterday and today. But forecast is for mid 70's by May 1, so I started seeds. I was a little disappointed that one seed I wanted to plant was just an empty shell, but that happens. I have so many it was hard to choose anyway. I have 7 AG spots and started 8 seeds. I also started 4 gourd seeds. If germination isn't great I still have plenty of time to get more going.   Monday, May 4 View Page 5 of 8 AG seeds germinated. Of the 3 that didn't germinate, I has spares of the same seed for 2 that were started today. The only seed that I didn't have a spare for was the 1374 Engel :( But I have an extra 359 Foss that I started in its place :) 4 of the 5 are in the ground and the other will go in today. The bushel gourds will go in today too. The watermelons and long gourds need more growth but will get planted this week. Field pumpkins will be started in a few days.   Monday, May 4 View Page This is the plot where I just planted a 1928 Globus. It looks like a weedy grassy mess, but inside the hoop it was tilled deeply with a manure fork. After the flood last year I planted groundhog radishes but the weeds still came on strong. So I kept it mowed and added lots of grass clippings. Then I add leaves and compost. This spring it was so mellow I could push in all of the hoop anchor rods by hand. I spread my spring amendments on top to let the rain start soaking it in. I sprayed with glyphosate last week. When the grass is dead I will mow and till once. I don't want to leave loose soil for a flood to wash away. Further weed control will involve spray, hoe and mulch.   Monday, May 4 View Page My new long gourd trellis. I will get the vines up to it with tall tomato cages and wires or twine. Nothing down low for a flood to wash out. We have 137.5 and 139.25 Ansems and 129 and 123 McWilliams plants ready to go in. I hope they like crappie heads as well as they liked trout heads last year.   Monday, May 4 View Page 259.5 English bushel gourd. I have one at each end of a 12X25 tilled plot with grass to run on. PH was 7.5 so I added a little sulfur. Iowa State soil test said it was way high in P and K for a normal garden, but less than what I want for AG's. So I added some 0-0-50 and chicken manure compost.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page I'm getting nervous about the weather. 3 days of rain and the forecast is for 5 more before we get a break. The fields are saturated and the creek is up. Just south around Iowa City they had heavier rains and small streams like mine flooded. I hope it isn't a repeat of last year.   Friday, May 8 View Page All 4 long gourds were planted today. A nice cloudy day for them. The next 2 days are also supposed to be cloudy/rainy. I applied 2 pounds of Osmocote Plus on twice the recommended area for the gourds. I hope it provides 6 months of a light feeding of a lot of micro nutrients. The AG's early true leaves are showing a little sunburn; I guess they weren't hardened off enough. Rookie mistake that a veteran like me should not have made. But newer leaves are OK so they should take off and grow.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Every year in mid May we seem to get a frost. Looks like tonight is the night. The sky is clear and the air is dead calm. The cold air will sink into our valley. Jacob and I got everything covered so we hope our plants survive. The AG's and long gourds could look better, but the bushel gourds and tomatoes are doing great.   Sunday, May 17 View Page This what my weedy mess from the May 4 post looks like now. Before I till I till dig out the green grass clumps and put them on the compost pile. The 5 AG's in the hoop houses are looking good, but 2 more hoops are empty. I have more started: they will be a little later than I like, but we will see what happens. Due to weather and family commitments, I rushed the hardening off of the long gourds. My 129 is about toast but I have another started, Both of the Ansems gourds are looking good. 2 Clementz watermelons are in the patch and looking great.   Tuesday, May 19 View Page It looks like all of my field pumpkins have germinated, as well as my 129 long gourd backup and one of my 862's. The pumpkins in the hoops are doing OK and getting ready to lie down and run. All but one is going 90 degrees off from where I want it to go. The one odd one wants to 180 degrees off. Seems like this happens every year even though I line them up to run opposite the first true leaf.   Thursday, May 21 View Page I got my 862 AG and 129 gourd along with 6 field pumpkins to the mini greenhouse to harden off. A couple more field pumpkins will go out later. I started a 200+ Cinderella today, a previous start hasn't germinated yet. I also started a 123 long gourd back up and 4 more field pumpkins. I isolated my germination problems to a bad bag of Jiffy Mix. It was real heavy on vermiculite and had very little peat moss. The seeds in that batch didn't germinate but everything else grew just fine.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page The first 5 AG's in the patch have main vines and secondaries starting out, but the 2036 is starting to go to a double vine. I have given them 3 light shots of fertilizer at 1 week intervals, and they have recovered well from the transplant shock and cold weather. The long gourds are finally doing well, and I have a bunch of field pumpkins in the ground. I lost one to a groundhog digging. The electric fence is now on and hot. My 862 is way behind, but if we have a good season and a late frost it might make something decent.   Friday, June 5 View Page My Wife Lu Ann, daughter Jessica, son Jacob and I got to go trout fishing this morning and we all caught our limits. 12 rainbow and 5 brook "stockers" and 3 wild brown trout. Jacob made a fortunate discovery. He saw little green worms dropping into the water and the trout gobbling them up. We used those worms to catch 12 of our fish, including all of the browns, The browns are very spooky and hard to catch, and we usually get only 1 or 2 in a year. The trout will go on the smoker tomorrow, and the heads and guts will be buried in next year's gourd patch.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page Had to take down most of the hoop plastic and water pumpkins in the 90 degree heat yesterday. Best looking plants are 359 Foss and 1493 Witter-Benson. The long gourds are starting to climb; 139.25 Ansems is growing the fastest. I heard from my main gourd competitor in Anamosa, and he has one of my 129's over twice the size of our best gourd plant. I gave him plenty of seeds and he started plants for two more growers. If the weather cooperates, we could have some good gourds by October. Our tomato plants (for eating, not competition) are looking better than ever. The ones I started in bigger peat pots are way ahead of the ones I bought in the store in root bound 4 packs.   Friday, June 12 View Page We had about 2.5" of rain last night, but luckily we missed the 4.5" that fell in a short time just 20 miles to the west. The weeds are coming on like crazy now. Goon thing the local farm store has a sale on glyphosate.   Sunday, June 14 View Page The double/ribbon vine on the 2036 Glasier continues, with few secondaries developing. I tried snipping some of it today so I will see what happens. On the other end of that bed I planted tomatoes and beans to give it a rest for next year. I has a volunteer from last year's Survivor come up. That one just won't quit. If the 2036 doesn't straighten out, Survivor's offspring will get to grow. Jacob hoed all around the electric fence so it won't short out. We need to spray glyphosate on a calm day to knock out a bunch of weeds. The field pumpkins will get a cultivation a week later to loosen up the soil before they state vining. We also need to apply some Merit and Companion when the weather straightens out. Heavy rain is forecast for tonight.   Saturday, June 20 View Page The rust fungus is taking hold on the long gourds, probably because of the wet weather. They got foliar and root drench Companion, and will get more AgriFos and Daconil when today's rains are over. The Glasier ribbon vile is now starting to curl up like a pig's tail. I did more surgery on it, but I think I will be keeping the volunteer from last year's Survivor in its place. It will be a bit of a problem because the stump is right next to a row of tomatoes. The McMullen, Globus, Witter-Benson and Foss pumpkins are doing great. I may be pollinating in just a few days. My 862 is going, but a couple weeks behind. The field pumpkins and Clementz watermelons are also looking good.   Saturday, June 20 View Page We had a big storm move through over the noon hour. Heavy rain, wind and pea size hail. This the 1692 McMullen. A little rolled up and some hail damage, but it will survive if another storm doesn't take it out.   Saturday, June 20 View Page This is the 1928 Globus with more hail damage. I leave a little plastic on the hoop to protect the stump. But the next storm that is popping up west of us has me worried.   Saturday, June 20 View Page This is what is worrying me. The creek is nearly bank full and the soil is saturated. Radar shows that the developing storm is going to "freight train" over us like the one earlier in the day. This is the bridge about 400' upstream from our patch. I'm sure our neighbors are glad they got the creek bank riprapped last fall. The flood last June nearly took out their driveway.   Monday, June 22 View Page I got up this morning and saw on tv news that a big storm with high winds is bearing down on us. My first reaction was to go out and bury vines better. But it is so muddy that would do a lot of compaction. So I will do nothing and hope that the storm fizzles out. At least they said the winds have dropped from 100 mph to 60 mph. We survived 80 mph just a year ago, of course most of the plants were washed out by then.   Monday, June 22 View Page We got lucky. The winds stayed to the north and the rain wasn't as bad as last Saturday. But the creek is up and another storm is rumbling to the west. I hope Pete Caspers had his wind protection up because it sounds like his area got hit fairly hard.   Monday, June 22 View Page 2nd severe thunderstorm warning of the day. This one has a little wind, heavy rain and hail. Is Mother Nature trying to tell me something??   Monday, June 22 View Page The hail here wasn't too bad, but I could hear some hitting the windows. My daughter was a few miles south and ran into bad hail. This is one she saw, about tennis ball size. She saw at least one car with a shattered windshield.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page I just got done surveying the storm damage. There are a lot of shredded AG leaves but they should pull through. The only vine damage was a huge split on the 2036 ribbon vine. I will train a secondary to take over, but it looks more like the volunteer will take its place. The long gourds didn't fare as well. I lost the end of the vine on the 137.25 and the 129, and the 123 got a split and kink in the main. The 129 has another growing beside it, and the broken one looks like it may rot off close to the ground from the brown fungus. The Companion seems to be helping as I saw no more infected leaves. The watermelons aren't too bad and the field pumpkins were mostly undamaged. It looks like I won't get any green beans: the rabbits are eating them off. I ran 2 little ones out of the patch. I guess I need to hire Elmer Fudd to come over with his shotgun.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page I just got done surveying the storm damage. There are a lot of shredded AG leaves but they should pull through. The only vine damage was a huge split on the 2036 ribbon vine. I will train a secondary to take over, but it looks more like the volunteer will take its place. The long gourds didn't fare as well. I lost the end of the vine on the 137.25 and the 129, and the 123 got a split and kink in the main. The 129 has another growing beside it, and the broken one looks like it may rot off close to the ground from the brown fungus. The Companion seems to be helping as I saw no more infected leaves. The watermelons aren't too bad and the field pumpkins were mostly undamaged. It looks like I won't get any green beans: the rabbits are eating them off. I ran 2 little ones out of the patch. I guess I need to hire Elmer Fudd to come over with his shotgun.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page I did major surgery on the 2036, and cut off the splintered ribbon vine back to decent secondary. Then I found a blowout in the main of the 1493 Witter-Benson. A lengthwise split and a crosswise split that cuts off a third of the vine. It must have been the wind, and I will lose about 4' of the main. I will trim it back and let a secondary take over, if it survives today's storms. Forecast is for heavy rain, large hail and 70 mph straight line winds, with flash flood watch. OK, I get the hint Mother nature, but you aren't going to stop me. Just wait till next year, as the Cubs always say.   Thursday, June 25 View Page We missed the big hail that hit just to the west, and the creek didn't flood. Maybe we can salvage the season if the weather straightens out, Forecast is for a chance of rain 6 of the next 7 days.   Friday, June 26 View Page I should have pollinated a 1928 Globus by now, but it aborted without opening. I'm blaming all the clouds and rain. I have another one 4' farther out. I have a couple females now on the 359 Foss. We need dry weather so we can get the weeds under control but the forecast is rain for at least the next week.   Wednesday, July 1 View Page Pollination has finally started. Its a little late due to the cool wet weather. I selfed a 359 Foss on a rear secondary as a backup. It will have 2 on the mail opening in the next 3 or 3 days. I also selfed a 1928 Globus 5 lobe 12' out on the main. The leaves on that plant and the 1692 McMullen are smaller with shorter stalks than normal. It might be genetic, or nitrogen leached out from the rain or was tied up by wood in the compost. I guess I just wait and see what happens. At least we will have cool weather for the next week so the pollinations should take off well.   Friday, July 3 View Page I found the first vine borer adults today, so I sprayed with bifenthrin. I will spray merit again a couple days just ahead of the next rain and follow up with Eight after it dries out. Rust fungus still showing on the long gourds so I gave them the triple treatment of Agri-Fos, Daconil and Companion. I had mulched the gourds heavily just in case it was a soil borne fungus, but it must be airborne. Lots of trees and shrubs in the valley have it too. The mulch kept the soil cool so the growth is a little behind last year, but a lot fewer weeds. But at least we haven't been flooded yet. Next year I will have a smaller garden and the gourds will get hoop houses for a better start. And black weed fabric instead of grass clipping mulch.   Saturday, July 4 View Page The past few dry days have allowed me to hoe a bunch of weeds close to the plants. All the rain really got them going. Today I got out the glyphosate and sprayed the weeds that were a safe distance from the plants. The 2036 still needs some work because I let it go while it had the ribbon vine. Mow I have to do something about all the rabbits. They wiped out my beans so far. Fox urine and dog hair for repellants. I may have to send Jacob out with his airsoft gun to let them know they aren't welcome.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Volunteer that came from last year's Survivor. That one won't give up: survived a flood, mice ate into the pumpkin and it rotted, seed on the ground all winter, planted when I tilled for tomatoes. It came from Joe Scherber's Colorado state record, which grew in the toughest climate around. I just had to let it grow.   Saturday, July 4 View Page End of the ribbon vine on the 2036 Glasier. It had about 6 growing points so I cut it at a good secondary. Not to many rear secondaries on it. I'm just afraid mice will move right into the vine.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Left to right: 123 McWilliams, 139.25 Ansems, 129 McWilliams, 137.5 Ansems. The 129 was started a couple weeks later than the others. The first had transplant shock, then the brown rust, then the main was broken off in the hail. I'm glad I had the backup. I already culled 3 females on the 139.25 that were only 4' off the ground.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Close-up of the brown rust fungus. I blame it on the super humid microclimate and poor air circulation. Lots of trees and shrubs get it too.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Pollinations on the 359 Foss. 5 lobe on July 1, 4 lobe today. Both are selfed.   Saturday, July 4 View Page 359 Foss is most aggressive plant in the patch.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Open spot on 1692 McMullen where secondaries didn't grow. I will let a couple tertiaries fill it out.   Monday, July 6 View Page I got the Merit applied this morning, just minutes ahead of the rain. So no need to water it in. No sign of SVB since I sprayed bifenthrin. One made a mistake of landing right in front of me and got a good dousing. No cuke beetles or squash bugs have appeared yet. Much better than the years when the cukes attack hours after setting out seedlings. Pollination is progressing, about 2 per day are ready. Plants looking good after the hail.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Rabbits!! This is the end of the 1928 Globus main. I'm glad that I already had 3 pollinated on the main. The for is dog hair. My daughter has her border collie trimmed up for the summer and saves the hair to use as rabbit repellant. The groomer even gave her the hair from another dog. I needed a little slow release nitrogen for some plants so I got blood meal. I've heard it repels rabbits. I need to get more fox urine and get out the pellet rifle. I also got a bag of dry beans to plant to draw the critters away from the garden.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page The spots on the leaf are glyphosate drift. This is on the ribbon vile plant. I wasn't giving the weeds enough attention on this plant so I got a little closer than normal with the spray. It isn't enough to do any real harm. Can't do much outside work today. The smoke from Canada fires is thick and I don't want to set off an asthma attack.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page I made an interesting cross this morning. I had a female open on the 233 House, the largest Cinderella pumpkin I have seen. There were no males on the plant yet, So I used the 359 Foss. If this takes off, it will be interesting to see what the offspring will look like.   Saturday, July 11 View Page Yesterday I buried more vines and side dressed the last 50# bag of chicken manure compost. It went on 13 field pumpkins and 6 AG's, so they all just got a very light feeding. This morning I pollinated some more pumpkins just ahead of the incoming rain. Every AG except my late start 862 have something pollinated. The 260.5 Clementz watermelons have some babies and are almost totally weed free. I have been able to stay ahead of weeds this year, but next year the patch will be much smaller. Just too much hoeing for my messed up shoulders.   Monday, July 13 View Page Weather has gone from cold to hot. 100+ heat index today. I'm glad most of the pollination of AG's is done. A few plants were wilting so I sprinkled them, We were supposed to get heavy rain Saturday through today but only got a couple tenths, Some plants were looking a little starved for nitrogen so I mixed up some generic soluble fertilizer in a 35 gallon trash can in the sun so it can warm up. Tomorrow I plan to start placing the fabric and sand under pumpkins.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page I pollinated a 5 lobe female on my 862 McWilliams with the 359 Foss. It is a late, small plant in the lowest, sandiest part of the patch. The offspring should have great orange color. My 233 House Cinderella keeps putting out female flowers but no males, so I am using the 359 Foss on that one too. I want to try selfing one to preserve those genetics if it ever sets a male flower. Field pumpkins are all open pollinated, but I do help out the bugs to make sure they get enough pollen. The skeeters and deer flies are bad now, so I have to use insect repellant any time I'm in the garden. My daughter's dog came down with Lyme disease. so I have to look out for ticks, too.   Sunday, July 19 View Page I have a hard decision to make on the 359 Foss. I first pollinated on a secondary and then on the main. The secondary fruit is growing real fast, but so is the main. I had to give the plant nitrogen as the new leaves were yellow. Now they are green but I don't want to blow up a pumpkin. I didn't get the rots released on the secondary so the stem has a downwards bend. I think I may cut off the secondary pumpkin a little bit at a time over 3 or 4 days so I don't cause the main fruit to blow up. The 1928 Globus first pollination is going now and the next two after it aborted. I have a couple going on the ribbon vine plant and the 1493 Witter Benson. Long gourds are up to the top of the trellis with some females starting to show. A few secondary vines are growing along the ground and starting to root down. That shouldn't hurt. The Daconil/Agri Fos/Companion fungicide trio seems to have slowed the spread of the rust. All new leaves are looking good.   Monday, July 20 View Page View of the main field pumpkin patch with pretty decent weed control. 11 plants here, 2 more in the main garden. If I can afford to rent a machine this fall, I will lower this spot by 15" and use the soil to raise the main garden. Hopefully I can get the main garden higher than most floods. And with my bad knees and shoulders I don't need the extra work. If I don't get the dirt moved this fall, next year it will be planted to deer food and soil building crops.   Monday, July 20 View Page 1928 Globus hiding out under a flour sack towel. It is growing fast, and has weed fabric and sand under it. I'm glad the first min pollination took off as the next one aborted.   Monday, July 20 View Page Long gourds in the background reached the top of the raised trellis. The 129 McWilliams is the runt but was started later to replace a hail damaged plant. In the foreground is the 1493 Witter Benson. It has the most aggressive leaf growth but I lost the end of the main to wind. The pollination on the secondary that took over for a main aborted, so I'm going with one on a secondary a little farther back.   Monday, July 20 View Page A pair of 260.5 Clementz watermelons at the end of the field pumpkin patch. This sure looks better than the weedy muddy mess I had for a watermelon patch last year. I'm hoping for a new personal best, and I'm keeping up with regular feedings.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The 233 House Cinderella still hasn't set a male flower, and now all the females I pollinated with the 359 Foss are aborting. I guess that the genetic anomaly that made the pumpkin so freakishly large made the offspring sterile. We still have 7 AG and 13 field pumpkins doing OK. We really need rain. This year is almost a repeat of last year, without the flood. Wet May and June and dry July.   Saturday, July 25 View Page My daughter took this photo at our neighbor's this afternoon. Looks like he must have run into a problem. Happens to all of us. I have one about this size myself that I cut off this week: should have cut it a week earlier. Now it is time to go out and water again. We need rain.   Sunday, July 26 View Page 1928 Globus, 25 DAP. This is the largest pumpkin on our patch so far. 5 lobe self pollinated 12' from the stump on July 1. We will probably start measuring on August 1.   Sunday, July 26 View Page 359 Foss 24 DAP. Self pollinated 5 lobe 14' from stump on July 2. We culled one that was pollinated a day earlier on a secondary. Most of the vine growth has been terminated. We usually let the main and a couple secondaries grow to keep some fresh leaves on the plant. Plus there are always a few pop-up tertiaries that we missed that get snipped when they show up. I tape a sharp pocketknife to a pole for terminating pop-ups so I don't have to wade in and compact the soil.   Sunday, July 26 View Page Stem end on the 359 Foss. It is already starting to get the nice orange color that seed is known for. I have to get a bigger shade cloth or put up a tarp over this one. The 1928 Globus already has both.   Sunday, July 26 View Page A field pumpkin that appears to be larger than my 67# personal best, with a lot of growing to do. This one is growing on an 80 LaRue. It is a seed that Scott West sent to Dan Carlson to get to me. I put it in one of the better spots in the patch and it is doing great. Thanks Scott and Dan! Jacob is real impressed with the size of the stems on some of our field pumpkins. They are bigger than some AG stems. The fish heads that I buried under all of the seedlings seem to be helping the growth this year.   Sunday, July 26 View Page We had a light shower this morning but not enough to do any food. But we have more storms coming and I'm starting to hear thunder. We really need rain. Time to unplug the computer: we have had way too many electrical items wrecked by lightning in the past few years.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Things are starting to look up on the long gourd trellis. These are on the 137.5 Ansems, and we have some on the 123 McWilliams. Soon we will begin foliar feeding.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Finally we have watermelons going on our 260.5 Clementz patch. We had 3 rounds of rain yesterday. The first one went mainly north of us and only gave is sprinkles. The second one started breaking up as it got to us just before noon, but it gave us a good inch. Third storm went to the south and only gave us sprinkles. I guess we are luckier than some parts of Iowa that have been drowned this year.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page I found the first striped cucumber beetle today. I was going to spray fungicide after yesterday's rain, so I added insecticide. Rabbits won't stay out of the patch, so now I'm taking the .22 revolver loaded with birdshot to the patch. I can't get close enough to hurt them, just noise to scare and maybe a bit of a tickle. I have some fox urine to try to repel them. I have been using dog hair in strategic places and planted beans to try to draw them away. In about a month when the season opens, I will start using lethal methods to put them in the frying pan.   Saturday, August 1 View Page 1928 Globus 31 DAP 243" est weight 323#. Still a ghostly white color. This was the fastest grower in the patch, but another has passed it up. With 60 days to grow I hope it can make at least 1000#.   Saturday, August 1 View Page 359 Foss 30 DAP 248" OT est. weight 343#. Not only is this one developing nice color, it is our fastest grower. Growth is probably due to being in the lowest, wettest part of the garden during the recent dry spell. We have needed rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. We could use a good inch if we can get it.   Saturday, August 1 View Page We have some others that are a little younger and smaller. 1493 Witter-Benson 25 DAP, 221#. 1692 McMullen 27 DAP eat 221#. 2036 Glasier, one at 22 DAP 188#, the other 25 DAP 166#. We also have much smaller pumpkins on the late start 862 McWilliams and the volunteer. Hopefully they all get in gear and start putting on weight.   Monday, August 3 View Page I found a secondary vine on the 1928 Globus was all wilted this evening. 3 leaf nodes had holes/rotten spots. A vine borer might have gotten to it. I cut it back into good vine, removing about 15 sq ft of leaf area. Tomorrow it gets treated with Agri Fos and Companion. The fruit is growing, and is developing 2 big lumps on either side of the top. 2 months until weigh off is a long time for more to go wrong, but hopefully it holds up. The other plants are doing fine but we need rain.   Tuesday, August 4 View Page It is dry with no rain forecast for the next wek.ut temperatures will be nice, Mid 70's to low 80's day, around 60 at night. We will have to keep up the daily watering for now. I made measurements this morning, 3 days after the first measurement. 359 Foss is 33 DAP est weight 418 gaining 25# per day, 1928 Globus 34 DAP est 381# gaining 19 # per day. 1494 Witter-Benson 28 DAP est 268# gaining 16$ per day. 1692 McMullen 30DAP est 268# gaining 22# per day.I know these aren't fantastic numbers, but the 359 and 1928 are way ahead of any we have had at this date in the past. Even the smaller ones are on a pace to beat our personal bests. I just hope they are getting to the stage where they will really kick up the growth pace. Some rain and slightly warmer night temperatures would help. This is more like early September weather than August.   Friday, August 7 View Page My wife and I just got back from a 3 day 2 night road trip to far north east Iowa. Trout fishing, sight seeing and shopping. The pumpkin patch was in Jacob's capable hands. Unfortunately the blossom end on the Volunteer plant rotted out, but that is no major loss. Jacob put out more fox urine repellant but it didn't phase the rabbits. They attacked the 1692 McMullen. Not serious but we need to eliminate the problem before they get to the 359 Foss. I guess its time to go Elmer Fudd on those wascally wabbits. Will get measurements tomorrow to see how they grew in the past 4 days.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Measurements and estimated weights this morning with average gain over past 4 days. 2036 Glasier West pumpkin 32 DAP 245# @ 12#/day. East pumpkin 29 DAP, 327# @ 21#/day. 1493 Witter Benson 32 DAP 372# @ 26 #/day. 1692 McMullen 31 DAP, 352# @ 21#/day. 1928 Globus 38 DAP, 452# @ 18#/ day. 359 Foss, 37DAP, 536# @ 37# day. The 359 is keeping its great shape and color just gets better. The Volunteer pumpkin was blossom end split to the cavity at about 150#. Jacob and I will need to cut it up, haul it out and pull the plan. I could let a new open pollination go, but no sense in just pulling more nutrients out of the water. It will give us a chance to get an early cover crop growing.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Mistake on the last post. The 359 is only doing 30# per day, not 37. Still not bad for our patch. We just need more rain. We will be watering twice per day until we get some. There is just a slight chance tonight and tomorrow. Our tomato patch is finally giving us some ripe fruit. We have 21 quarts canned so far with more to do today.   Sunday, August 9 View Page We had a secondary vine on the 1493 Witter-Benson with a hugt blowout near the stump. It would flag quickly in the heat of the day, so we gave it extra water. Our hope was that the vine roots would pick up the water. But the leaves started yellowing like we would see when we got the root rot in the past. So instead of risking the entire plant, I cut off the weak vine. It will get a foliar treatment of Companion and Agri Fos tomorrow and a drench of those the next time we water. We had a good over-night soaker starting Saturday 10 PM and lasting until 9AM Sunday, so it will be a few days before we have to water again.   Sunday, August 9 View Page RABBITS! The dog hair and fox urine around the pumpkin, cat and dog doo doo around the outside of the garden, an electric fence and alternative food plantings away from the garden didn't work. I even tried scaring and tickling a few with .22 LR bird shot from a pistol, but they still hit the 1692 McMullen. I'm going to have to try some commercial repellant, and starting September 5, they will end up in my frying pan.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Side view of the 359 Foss showing the nice stem. The color is coming on nicely. I have to protect this one from the rabbits. By Monday morning it should be getting close to 600# with 53 growing days until Anamosa Pumpkinfest.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Blossom end of the 359. I selfed this one so I hope it preserves the good traits. If I get viable seeds from this one, the first bubble I send out will be heading north to Minnesota. THANK YOU BILL for the seed!   Sunday, August 9 View Page First long gourd isn't looking too good. But we have more coming on so hopefully we can get something decent this year.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Some growers on the New Growers message board had questions about tertiary vines and what the new vine buds look like. This is what happens when you don't nip them in the bud and they pop up in the plant. I use a knife taped to a stick to cut them off. Next year I will have a smaller garden and will do a better job of nipping these things off early.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Here is the tertiary that I snipped off. At the right you can see how the tendril, male flower and tiny new vine bud all grow out at the leaf node. I hope this helps new growers know what to look for.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page I took measurements today after 4 days. 2036 Glasier west fruit 36 DAP, 278# gaining 8#/day. 2036 Glasier east fruit 33 DAP, 404# gaining 19#/day. 1696 McMullen 38 DAP, 418# gaining 17#/day. 1493 Witter-Benson 36 DAP 452# gaining 20#/day. 1928 Globus 42 DAP 509# gaining 14#/day. 359 Foss 41 DAP 642# gaining 27#/day. Night temperatures have been in upper 50's which could be slowing growth. But the 359 could beat my personal best in 10 days and top 1000# by Aug 25. We are running into stem stress on the 1692 and may have to cut off the main at the fruit if we can't release it. The 1928 is getting some splits and oozing on the wine close to the fruit and will need some treatment. The 359 continues to be problem free, but we have 52 days for something to go wrong.   Thursday, August 13 View Page I was able to relieve the stem stress on the 1692 McMullen without cutting off the end of the main. It just cost 2 short secondaries. Thanks for the advice, Bill. The 359 Foss went from a very smooth appearance to lumpy in just one day. I guess that means it is growing. Still looking good. and fingers crossed. I chased a rabbit out of an adjacent plant with a new leaf in its mouth. Those critters are really getting under my skin. It looks like the the 239 House Cinderella plant finally has some pumpkins growing. Still no male flowers. I have never seen a plant do that before.   Saturday, August 15 View Page Long gourds are looking bad. The leaf fungus is coming on strong and no good gourds going yet. I will have to trim off all the bad leaves and give it the triple fungicide treatment. At this point I would be happy to just have a decent entry for the weigh-off. Pumpkins are doing better. 1493 Witter Benson at 39 DAP estimated 519# gaining 22# per day. At this rate it will soon be our 2nd biggest. The 1928 Globus is 45 DAP, estimated 654# gaining 18# per day. The 359 Foss is 44 DAP, estimated 713# gaining 24# per day. Comparing the 359 to my personal best on August 12 it was 109# heavier and gaining twice as fast. In just 8 or 9 days it could beat my personal best and top 1000# by September 1. But a lot of bad stuff could happen.   Saturday, August 15 View Page Mistake on last post. The 1928 Globus is only 564 pounds, not 624.   Monday, August 17 View Page This is a new pumpkin on the 80 LaRue field pumpkin. I like the size of the stem on this one. This plant has a fully grown pumpkin that will easily make a personal best, if it last until October, and another big one that is still growing.   Monday, August 17 View Page we have some leaves on another field pumpkin that started going yellow. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I suspect nutrient deficiency. They are all on tertiary vines that haven't rooted down and are around a big cluster of large developing pumpkins. I'm sure the last week og hot dry weather didn't help.   Monday, August 17 View Page No mistaking powdery mildew on the same field pumpkin plant. It is the first to show up and I'm not surprised. The past week we have had evening valley fog, 100% humidity. Time to get out the Daconil and milk and spray everything.   Monday, August 17 View Page This is a secondary vine on the 1493 Witter-Benson. This plant has huge vines, so even though we lost the main in a windstorm, we are getting decent growth rates.   Monday, August 17 View Page The 359 Foss keeps on growing and looking good. Pushing 800# now with 44 days to grow.   Monday, August 17 View Page I like the long stem on the 359 Foss. I just cut 2 main vine roots on each side of the stem, blocked it up with one piece of Styrofoam and held the end of the main away with one fiberglass pole. Absolutely no stem stress so far, with plenty of room to grow.   Thursday, August 20 View Page Measured pumpkins today after 5 days growth. That was 5 hot, dry days around 90 degrees, then 2 cloudy, wet cool days with night temps the last 2 nights of 58 and 51. West 2032 Glasier pumpkin 44 DAP, 352# gaining 9#/day. East 2032 Glasier pumpkin 41 DAP, 509# gaining 10#/day. 1692 McMullen 46 DAP gaining 8#/day. 1493 Witter-Benson 44 DAP, 630# gaining 27#/day. 1928 Globus 50 DAP, 661# gaining 19#/day. 359 Foss 49 DAP 816# gaining 21#/day. The weather forecast for the next few days is for highs in mid 70's today, then upper 70's to low 80's with night time lows from upper 50's to mid 60's. Hopefully we can get some decent gains the next couple weeks before the eventual September slowdown. I am hopeful that we can finally break the 1000# barrier and even do it with 3 pumpkins.   Sunday, August 23 View Page We got some needed rain last night. Forecast for next 6 days is low 70's in the day, upper 40's to low 50's at night. Should slow down pumpkin growth, but at least they won't cook like some previous years. POM is spreading from field pumpkins to AGs. Sprayed Companion, AgriFos and Daconil. Will spray milk tonight. Long gourds are going down to the brown rust. Only one foot long baby so far has not rotted at the tip. Rabbits continue to attack a couple of pumpkins but so far repellants have protected the 359 Foss. Field pumpkin vines shorted out the electric fence and a groundhog chewed a smaller watermelon. Then to top it off another deer fly bit me on the eyebrow and my eye is trying to swell shut. Sounds like a whole bunch of problems, but it is a lot better than last year. We still have a shot at getting at least 1 pumpkin over 1000#, and maybe 2 more.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page Measurements this morning after 5 cool days and cold nights. 2036 Glasier west pumpkin 49 DAP, 372# gaining 4#/day. 2036 Glasier east pumpkin 46 DAP, 624# gaining 23#/day Maybe we should have just grown one on this plant, but the ribbon vine made us think it didn't have this much potential. 1692 McMullen 51 DAP, 519# gaining 7#/day 1494 Witter-Benson 49 DAP, 713# gaining 17#/day. 1928 Globus 55 DAP, 726# gaining 13#/day. 359 Foss 54 DAP, 903# gaining 17#/day. We are in for one more night in the upper 40's, then we get a warm-up to 60's for night temps. Needed rain is supposed to come by Friday. Hopefully gains will pick back up. The 359 is just 2% from my personal best 919.5. We have 38 growing days until we harvest for the weigh-off, and we are hoping to have at least 2 break the 1000# barrier. 1493 Witter-Benson 49 DAP,   Tuesday, August 25 View Page I measured our first field pumpkin today, est. 85# which beats our personal best by around 20#. Our biggest watermelon measured 75#, which ties our best. With 38 days to grow we are hoping for at least a respectable melon for Pumpkinfest. I also culled a few little pumpkins and then saw something white under the huge, tall leaves of the 1493 Witter-Benson. It is way too heavy to lift and removing it would do more damage than good. So this plant will have a "shock absorber" if we get a heavy Rain between now and October 3. And we may end up with a nice, ghostly white decorative pumpkin too. I sprayed milk and a little foliar fertilizer this evening. I'm trying to keep the PM in check and the plants growing. It looks like this will be a fight until October. At least it isn't too bad on the AG's, but some of the field pumpkin leaves look a little white. The yellowing of the leaves on the 95.5 House field pumpkin is progressing. Tomorrow we start removing more infected vines and leaves.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page This is what's left of our first long gourd set. At least it didn't rot at the end.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page This is what the brown rust fungus does to the older leaves. I need to find a better fungicide product.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page This might be our last hope. I traced the vine back to the 137.5 Ansems. Last year at this day our gourds were done growing and the second crop was going down to the rust. I will hit this with everything we have, feed it and hope for the best. We have plenty of time before weigh-off, but I wish it was growing earlier in the year with more sunlight. Next year I plan improvements to the trellis and some pruning so the plants don't get so overloaded with foliage. Maybe fewer leaves and better air circulation will help.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page 1928 Globus. Still white and getting lumpy. The split on the blossom is less than 1/8 inch deep and healing over. Over 700# with a shot at 1000# if everything goes well.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page Rabbit damage on the 1928 Globus. I put out more fox urine, garlic and blood meal and they seem to be staying away. In 10 days rabbit season opens, and instead of them eating me pumpkins, I will be eating them.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page I finally got a few pumpkins to set on the 233 House Cinderella. It never set any male flowers and my pollinations with the 359 Foss all aborted. This is the craziest pumpkin I have seen, but the others look like normal Cinderellas.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page The biggest pumpkin on the 2036 Glasier. Not bad for a set on a secondary off a ribbon vine, a small plant and another one growing on a different secondary.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page The 1692 McMullen is getting some orange color. Rabbits nibbled on the bottom of this one, but it has healed over. I'm just a little disappointed with the size, but maybe it will go way heavy like its parent.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page The 1493 Witter, growing on a secondary after we lost the main in a storm. It has huge vines, but they have a few splits and blowouts. I also found a 100#+ hiding out under the huge leaves. It is over 700# and fastest grower in the patch now. We really hope this one makes 1000#.   Wednesday, August 26 View Page The 359 Foss is still hanging in there. The color is getting better. Even late in the evening, under the tarp it still stand out in the patch. I try to keep a sheet on it too. The last couple of weeks it will get full sun to bring out the orange. It gets the most rabbit repellant and mouse bait too. It is right at my personal best with 37 days to grow.   Saturday, August 29 View Page My daughter Jessica came down to the garden and wanted her picture taken with the 359 Foss. We got a good inch of much needed rain last night, better than the 4" they got near Waterloo. It should hold the patch without watering for a few days. Today it was cloudy and misty, mid 70's. Forecast for the next week is mid 80's day, mid 60's night. Hopefully the pumpkins, melons and the gourd will keep on growing. They are now getting daily feedings, just a light shot of Miracle Gro tomato food. We don't want to blow them up, just keep them moving along.   Monday, August 31 View Page End of August measurements today. The cold weather really slowed things down. 1692 McMullen 57 DAP, 288", 536# gaining 3# per day. 2036 Glasier 52 DAP, 312", 687#, gaining 9# per day. 1928 Globus, 61AP, 325", 767# gaining 7# per day. This one is getting a lot of surface splits and oozing. We don't want it gaining too fast and blowing up. 1493 Witter-Benson 55 DAP 328", 788# gaining 13# per day. This one is now our second biggest and fastest grower. We think it has a good shot at 1000# if it keeps on growing and goes a couple percent heavy. And it has a pumpkin that we missed culling that looks to be at least 200# and growing fast. It is the best looking, healthiest plant in the patch. 359 Foss 60 DAP, 350", 948#, gaining 8#/day. As long as it doesn't weigh too light it is a new personal best, and hopefully it makes 1000#. I measured the 2 biggest watermelons, both 144", 88#. The one I measured 6 days ago grew 13#. I hope they keep up that pace for the next month. Forecast now is for a week of mid to upper 80's and mid 60's at night. I hope that gets the gains picking back up and doesn't end up cooking the pumpkins like previous years.   Friday, September 4 View Page I measured the 3 biggest pumpkins this Morning. 359 Foss est. 986# gaining 10#/day. 1493 Witter-Benson est. 823# gaining 9#/day. 1989 Globus est. 802# gaining 12#/day. 137,5 Ansems long gourd 74" long and still skinny. The weight of the vines is bending the cattle panes so I have it supported with a 10' board. Hopefully I will need to dig a deep hole again unless I can get the panel raised up more. Next year I will make more improvements on the trellis. We also have one growing on my 129 McWilliams. It set much lower on the trellis so I hope we have do dig half way to China for this one. It might get into the sand layer and the water table from the creek. We have some great field pumpkins going but they are full of PM. I keep spraying milk and Daconil. A little is getting on the AG's but its not spreading. I sprayed bifenthrin for cucumber beetles 2 days ago but they are still flying around. I have a different spray to use tonight after the bees are gone. The rabbits got another watermelon. I put out fox urine yesterday and blood meal and garlic today. Jacob and I do a daily patrol to keep the weeds and vines off the electric fence. It stops the groundhogs, coons and deer, but the rabbits just run right through it. Tomorrow morning some of them will get high speed lead poisoning. The weather has been hot and humid. Highs near 90, lows in mid 60's. Sunday we are supposed to get rain and then cool down to normal. We need a little rain. I watered some this morning and have the garbage cans filled to warm up for evening watering.   Sunday, September 6 View Page Jacob picked our bushel gourd today. It had stopped growing and the leaves were shriveling up. It just made 71#, but it was growing in a shady spot with higher than desired ph. He self pollinated it so we saved the good genetics from the 279.5 English world record. And we have a couple more of the 279.5 seeds. If we grow it again, it will be down by the pumpkins with better soil and sunlight. Cucumber beetles were really reduced but not eliminated by the new insecticide. I can hit them again on Wednesday. I will use the Daconil again on the AG's to try to knock out the PM. I add milk to the foliar feedings and it at least is keeping it from spreading. The watermelons are still growing and we hope a few of them will hit our 100# goal. 92 degrees today, but a cool down with rain is supposed to start tonight.   Monday, September 7 View Page We got a half inch of needed rain overnight. Unfortunately the National Weather Service is forecasting 2" to 2.5" for tonight. I just hope we don't get any surges and splits. We have let smaller "shock absorber" pumpkins grow on all but the 359 Foss. We are under a flash flood watch, but I think it would take at least 4 or 5 inches to flood the creek at this point.   Monday, September 7 View Page The gourd on our 129 McWilliams is going down to the blossom end rot. But the 137.5 Ansems is growing like crazy. It is just under 8' long now with plenty of growth left in it. I propped up the sagging cattle panel, but the gourd will touch down before it hits the 10' length. So I will be digging a hole again this year.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page The 137.5 Ansems put on a few inches overnight. The storms aren't here yet, so I got out early and attached it to the top of the trellis with cord and tape, and taped the lower end to a fiberglass electric fence post shoved into the ground. Hopefully that will stop it from swinging if we get wind. But that is only temporary. I dug a hole under it so I can support it better. I will put a screw eye in a 12' 2x4 and tie that to the trellis with the bottom on the ground taped to a post. Then tape the gourd on with electrical tape. I'm just concerned about a very small spot near the blossom end that I will have to wipe off with alcohol or bleach water. Praying and hoping it holds up as it will be my only gourd this year.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page The big storm fizzled out so I got the gourd secured. 12' 2x4 with screw eye tied to the trellis. The gourd is taped on 4" from the top, so if the bottom gets near the end of the board I will know I'm in record territory. I will just be satisfied with any gourd that survives to weigh-off.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page Bottom end of the gourd and the hole. The fiberglass pole is to keep the board from moving. I use electrical tape because it will stretch as the gourd grows.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page I like showing off the 359 Foss. Today it taped 363", 1049#. It gained 16# per day the past 4 days. The warm weather got it going again. This is the biggest OTT measurement we have seen in our patch. I just hope it holds up until Pumpkinfest.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page The 1493 Witter-Benson at estimated 881#. It gained 15#/day for the past 4 days. This one has a shot at making 1000#, I hope.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page The 1928 Globus, estimated 851#, gaining 12# per day. If it goes heavy it might make 1000#. The 2036 Glasier has a 720# and 452# growing slowly. The 1692 McMullen is getting nice orange color. But it is only 582#, growing slowly and has lots of rabbit scars.   Thursday, September 10 View Page It looks like our only long gourd will be lost to blossom end rot. Most of our field pumpkin leaves seem to be dying from the stump out. Not sure if it is age, disease or both. They did have a lot of PM and were probably planted a couple weeks too early. My big concern is that it seems to be spreading to the watermelons. We lost 2 melons to rot. One caused by a rabbit attack and another to unknown causes. We still have 3 left on each plant, with personal bests on both plants. AG's are still holding up well. I decided to hold off on the insecticide until tomorrow, as the cucumber beetles still aren't too bad. I'm switching from foliar feeding to root drench. I was noticing some residue on the leaves from the fertilizer. 22 days until we harvest for Anamosa Pumpkinfest, but some may stay in the patch another week for a later weigh-off.   Friday, September 11 View Page I put out fox urine 2 days ago to repel rabbits. I hadn't seen any for a while but wanted to be safe. It rained last night to wash it away. Tonight when I went out to cover pumpkins for the low 40's, I found they hit the 1493 Witter-Benson again. Instead of a few nibbles they skinned an area the size of my hand. I have healed worse groundhog damage, and I painted it with Daconil and dusted it with sulfur. I found some wire fencing in the garden, just enough to circle the damaged pumpkin. I have found they will keep returning. I also re-applied fox urine. Tomorrow Jacob will be hunting and spreading garlic powder. I will get some chicken wire to protect the 359 Foss. For the rest of the season, no going to the garden un-armed. I have taken out 2 already and found another dead one by the garden, but that wasn't enough.   Sunday, September 13 View Page Main damage that the rabbits did to the 1493 Witter-Benson. We are thinking of taking this one to a weigh off after Anamosa so it gets an extra week to heal up. The fencing should help keep the varmints out. It taped 347", 925# today. 9# per day average for the past 5 days. That included 2 days over 90 degrees and 2 nights near 49.   Sunday, September 13 View Page The 359 Foss taped 368", 1089#. 8# per day the past 5 days. It is getting dry so we will start watering again. And keep up the light feedings. Not enough to blow it up, just keep it going. Weather is supposed to warm up again so I hope the gains pick up. I got 2 rolls of chicken wire, enough to protect 3 big pumpkins and 3 watermelons. The rabbits might be able to squeeze under near the stem, but they usually attack the blossom end. I think they don't like fighting through the prickly vines to get at the stem.   Sunday, September 13 View Page 1928 Globus got a protective cage too. It taped 343", 895#, gaining 9# per day.   Sunday, September 13 View Page This watermelon taped 148", 95#. A shorter, fatter one taped 151", 101#. We have 2 more that are under 70# and a smaller one. With 19 growing days until harvest I hope we can meet out 100# goal. But we are getting a lot of leaf disease in the patch.   Sunday, September 13 View Page This long, skinny field pumpkin taped 159", 83#. We have several taping over 80#, and a lot of 40 to 60 pounders. The leaves are starting to shut down, starting at the stump and working out. Hopefully the roots keep feeding and growing the fruits.   Sunday, September 13 View Page I thought the long gourd was a goner. The tip was shriveling up and had a brown spot on it. But today the tip had filled out and the brown spot was gone. I guess the AgriFos that I gave the plant did its job and stopped the disease from progressing. Just a little over 100" now. You can see how it is stretching the electrical tape, so I need to re-tape it. I guess you should never give up. I should have learned that last year.   Thursday, September 17 View Page Main field pumpkin patch is shutting down for the year. Lots of PM, competition for moisture from nearby trees. Still we have lots of 60#+ pumpkins. Some should go over 80#. The 95,5 House pumpkin in the main AG patch was pulled yesterday. Lots of PM and another disease. The smaller young pumpkins were starting to rot. The AG's are hanging in there. The 1493 should recover from the rabbit attack. No sighs of rot and it thumps like a rock, I'm sure the second pumpkin on the plant that got started under the cover of shoulder high leaves is taking some growth. It looks to be at least 400# now. Jacob's big ugly 1928 Globus seems to be solid, but the 359 almost rings like a bell when thumped. I hope it doesn't go too light.   Thursday, September 17 View Page It looks like I'm losing the battle with the long gourd. I just want to get good seeds, because I only have one of the 137.5 Ansems left in the seed box.   Thursday, September 17 View Page Both spotted and striped cucumber beetles just 2 days after spraying. This is the first striped one; all before were spotted. We have rain heading in later this morning and more due tomorrow. I can spray with bifenhtrin on Saturday and go back to the new spray a few days later. The last few years the cukes have only come on after the first of August, when they have more leaves to hide in. at least they didn't hit the day I set out seedlings and eat up the plants like they did one year.   Thursday, September 17 View Page I have researched the disease on the long gourds and I think it is anthracnose. No lab diagnosis, funds don't allow the cost of testing this year. But I have lots of it on the trees and other plants in the valley. Brought on by humid conditions and poor are circulation, which describes our valley. At least I have an idea of what fungicides to use. I am going to modify the trellis to allow more room for growth and air circulation. And I will cut back from 4 plants to just 3 and do some vine pruning. Since I have gotten fertility levels up the plants get much bigger that they used to get.   Friday, September 18 View Page I took measurements today after 5 days. It was one cool, dry day, 3 hot dry windy days and yesterday warm with about an inch of rain. 1493 Witter-Benson up to just 933# at day 73. only 2# per day. 1928 Globus is 910# on day 79, gaining 3# per day. 359 Foss is at 1121# on day 78, gaining 6# per day. It is supposed to rain again today, with temperatures the next week going from 71 to 78. Night lows are supposed to be in upper 40's to mid 50's. So the blankets will go back on for the cooler nights. It is tough to measure with the rabbit cages, so I probably won't measure again until we harvest for Anamosa Pumpkinfest.   Saturday, September 19 View Page I made a quick trip to the patch this morning. Over 3" of rain in the last 2 days had me worried. But no splits were seen so we are good to go. Our soil should have enough moisture for the rest of the season. Only thing I will need the hose for is cleaning up pumpkins for the weigh-off. I have a potential buyer for 2 of the smaller pumpkins, but the patch needs a little drying so we don't tear it up.   Sunday, September 20 View Page I haven't totally given up on the long gourd yet. I cut off the rotten stuff and painted it with Daconil. Maybe it will heal over like a pumpkin will. I have nothing to lose at this point.   Sunday, September 20 View Page The rabbits gave me something else to try to heal up. The larger pumpkin on the 2036 Glasier. We have almost 3 weeks for it to either heal or rot before our second weigh-off. I will get more chicken wire for protection. The damage is being treated with Daconil and sulfur. If we can find the rabbits they will be treated with lead. Problem is that they are going strictly nocturnal. Next year I will be a lot more aggressive in rabbit control, especially when they are young and stupid.   Sunday, September 20 View Page I had another long gourd get started on my 129. But at about 5' long it decided to curl up, long before it got to the ground. Just how our gourd season has gone this year.   Tuesday, September 22 View Page My attempt to save the long gourd failed. The rot is progressing. I sprayed bifenthrin 2 days ago and killed hundreds of cucumber beetles. This morning there were clouds of them flying around. They will get hit with a different insecticide this evening.   Tuesday, September 22 View Page The cucumber beetles got a one day stay of execution. I picked up a plastic sack that had blown out into the yard and found out there were yellow jackets under it. Multiple stings in 2 fingers. I can't bend the fingers and they feel like they are on fire. Tomorrow not only will the beetles die, but so will yellow jackets. My daughter is allergic to them but her insurance company won't cover an Epi Pen. They say all the bees are dormant now.   Sunday, September 27 View Page I got curious, so a worked around the chicken wire cages to get measurements. The 1928 Globus has stopped at 910#, and we hope it holds up 6 more days. The 359 Foss taped 376", 1154#. It is gaining 4# per day with 5 days to grow. If it goes a little heavy it might make 1200, but I'm figuring it will be a little light. The 1493 Witter-Benson taped 358", 1010#. day 82, gaining 9#/day with 12 growing days before it gets weighed. I'm thinking this one will go heavy. The 2036 Glasier taped 774#, gaining 3# per day. It gets to grow another 12 days too. Both the Glasier and Witter-Benson pumpkins are turning a light green on about a third of the pumpkin. Our watermelons are taping 47#, 69#, 95#, and 101#. The two biggest are the best we have ever grown. We have several field pumpkins taping over 60#, at least 3 more over 80# and one at 101#. Beats our best of 67# last year.   Monday, September 28 View Page We loaded up a couple of small pumpkins to take to the grocery stores in Anamosa and Dyersville tomorrow. Our neighbor, who is a second year grower stopped to see why we were loading up so early for Pumpkinfest. He already weighed a 600+ in Wisconsin and has one that is double his pumpkin from last year. Whoever wins the guess the weight can keep the pumpkin if they want. This one was planted late and only got about 100 sq ft of vine. But it is a good cross, my orange 862 from 2 years ago pollinated with the 359 Foss. If the winner doesn't want it, I will take it for the seeds.   Monday, September 28 View Page This is the small pumpkin from the 2036 Glasier, on its way to Dyersville. Both fruits on that plant along with our 1493 Witter-Benson are getting real green at the stem end. The pumpkins heading to Anamosa are much bigger, one white and one kinda orange..   Tuesday, September 29 View Page We got an inch of rain last night and this morning. Good thing we got the pumpkins to sell hauled out yesterday. I hope the rain adds a few pounds on by harvest time Friday When I made the delivery run to Dyersville, my big truck started making a thump in the front end and the brakes started scraping. Luckily my repair shop was able to get it in right away, so it should be ready to haul pumpkins. Weather forecast is for dry and just a little cool for Pumpkinfest on Saturday. Everyone coming to Anamosa, I hope you have a safe journey and your pumpkins all go heavy.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page Only 3 days to the big event. Signs like this have been up for a couple weeks on the edges of Anamosa   Wednesday, September 30 View Page The Anamosa Journal-Eureka put their annual 8 page Pre-Pumpkinfest insert in the weekly paper and Town Crier shopper paper. The cover features last year's winner Scott Steil and the theme for this year's celebration" BACK TO THE FUTURE - PUMPKIN TIME MACHINE". There is supposed to be a Delorean in the parade: Does that mean Sky Wizzy will make an appearance and then vanish back to the past at 88 MPH???? Lots of fun events going on, It will be a great day for the whole family.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page After I tucked in the pumpkins for another cold night I checked on the extra pumpkin growing on the 1493 Witter-Benson. I first found it on August 25 when it was around 80#. I didn't put a tape on it, but it looks to be at least 600#. That is a huge amount of growth for the month of September. I left it in because I didn't want to hurt the vines and affect the first pumpkin. It obviously robbed a lot of growth, but the first one is the second largest we have measured in our patch. Not bad for both pumpkins on secondaries after wind broke the main. I learned to keep a better watch for pumpkins to cull, bury vines better. and grow that one next year.   Friday, October 2 View Page Getting ready to load up. The 1928 Globus, Jacob's pumpkin, had great leaves right up to the end. We quit terminating tertiaries except for the ones getting on the electric fence in late August. The vines got a little crowded the last month.   Friday, October 2 View Page The stump wasn't looking too good. One secondary was rotted off.   Friday, October 2 View Page The Globus main vine about 5' out from the stump had a big split and was getting a little rotted. Probably why this one slowed down to soon.   Friday, October 2 View Page It looked like something tried to dig under the Globus. We will find out if it did any damage when we lift it.   Friday, October 2 View Page Jacob's Globus with the vegetation, tarp and chicken wire removed. It grew in the same site as his personal best 866 a few years ago. This spot benefitted most from the spring tree removal.   Friday, October 2 View Page The stump on my 359 Foss is in better condition. I did pull off a couple of "stump sucker" vines before taking the photo.   Friday, October 2 View Page The 359 was the most trouble free I have ever grown. No vine splits or borers, no stem stress or disease. I put one shot of sulfur on the stem/vine junction as a preventative.   Friday, October 2 View Page I just hope we can get this safely loaded on the truck and in to the weighoff.   Friday, October 2 View Page Jacob's white pumpkin and my orange one in the back. Now we have to pick out our field pumpkin entries. I have several big round ones about the same size and Jacob has several tall ones close to the same size. I think we will take the bathroom scale and a chunk of plywood to set it on down to the patch to make the decision. Biggest ones go to Anamosa, the next ones get weighed the following week.   Friday, October 2 View Page My wife Lu Ann came down to take some photos before she left for work. We are getting ready to lift Jacob's pumpkin. Since it is his, he gets to do the muscle work on the hoist.   Friday, October 2 View Page Jacob is sweeping off the bottom of his pumpkin and checking it for damage. Good to go!   Friday, October 2 View Page Jacob is guiding the pumpkin as I back the Ranger under it. Loading went well,. A big sigh of relief.   Friday, October 2 View Page Lu Ann was impressed with the stem on my 359 Foss. she set a 32 ounce PowerAde bottle next to it for a size comparison.   Friday, October 2 View Page Setting up the tripod at the Foss pumpkin. I used to do this by myself, but I'm too old for that now. Its nice to have a 24 year old, 6'1" 230#+ former wrestler to help.   Friday, October 2 View Page My pumpkin so I have to do the muscle work. If I grow one any bigger I'm going to get a 2 ton hoist with a better gear ratio to make the lifting easier.   Friday, October 2 View Page Bottom of the 359: slightly concave, clean, no damage. Another big sigh of relief. And a big thank you to God for a fantastic growing season.   Friday, October 2 View Page If trucks could talk to each other: Ford - Does this pumpkin make my butt look big? Dodge - Not as big as this orange one makes my butt look. And with that color, everyone will be staring at my butt!   Friday, October 2 View Page Jacob with the 1928 Globus. Final measurements Cir. 153", EE 88", SS 102", total 343", 895#. 2" less than my previous measurement, probably due to where the tape was placed. Maybe it will go way heavy and break 1000.   Friday, October 2 View Page Me with the 359 Foss. I'm not agile enough to climb in the truck like Jacob did. Final measurements Cir 160". EE 106". SS 112" total 378" est. 1170#. Maybe it will go 3% heavy and hit 1200. Everyone going to weigh offs tomorrow and the next couple weeks, I wish you all safe travels, heavy weights and personal bests.   Saturday, October 3 View Page My personal best, 1047.5. Good for 14th place overall, 1st place for Jones County Growers. I was a little disappointed that it went about 120# light and didn't get the Howard Dill award. I just have to work harder next year.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Jascob's personal best 899#. Weight right about on the chart estimate.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Getting ready to weigh John and Merri Barlow's Wisconsin state record and Anamosa site record 2034.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Scott Steil's winning long gourd and Minnesota state record 128.5". Just missed my site record from last year by 0.5".   Saturday, October 3 View Page Jacob's personal best field pumpkin took 5th place.   Saturday, October 3 View Page My personal best field pumpkin took 4th place.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Travis Halverson's Howard Dill winner, 1444#.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Megan Miller won the ugliest pumpkin award.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Jacob's personal best watermelon.   Saturday, October 3 View Page My personal best watermelon finally topped 100#.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Carlson and Peterson grew the biggest pumpkin in the state of Iowa this year.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Scott Steil won the field pumpkin, long gourd and watermelon categories this year and took 2nd in the giant pumpkin competition.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Pumpkin Master John Dirks gest into the spirit and does an excellent job of getting the huge pumpkins safely to the scale.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Caleb Jacobus took 3rd place and got to ride on the Pumpkinfest Parade float.   Sunday, October 4 View Page I made a mistake on a previous post. I got 13th place not 14th. This was sure a better year for growing than 2 years ago when I took 7th with just a 862#. The 1047.5 is still on the back of the truck. I plan to take it down to DeWitt so my parents can see it. My Dad is 86 and recently had hip replacement surgery. He is getting along great but still isn't back to normal and I want him and Mom to see it. Plus I have a bunch of field pumpkins to take to relatives. It was a great year for them too.   Sunday, October 4 View Page The top 3 pumpkins get to ride in the parade down Main Street. John and Merri Barlow rode on the flatbed truck with the Pumpkin Master, followed by Scott Steil and Cody Jacobus on the trailer.   Sunday, October 4 View Page Sky Wizzy, was that you who dropped into the parade in your DeLorean???   Sunday, October 4 View Page My neighbor on the next farm to the north, 2nd year grower Rusty Caspers had a new personal best. That 3 personal best pumpkins grown less than a quarter mile apart. Rusty had a very successful field pumpkin stand on main street too. Rusty's son and grand daughter brought in personal bests too.   Sunday, October 4 View Page My daughter got a good photo of me and Jacob together with our personal bests. Now it is on to fall patch clean-up and getting ready for out final weighoff. I have one taping a little over 1000#, but if it goes heavy it just might be a new personal best. And Jacob's might top 800 if it goes a little heavy too.   Tuesday, October 6 View Page These 8 pumpkins all grew on the same plant that grew my 89#. Plus there are 5 more on the vine that are in the 80# range. I will pick out the heaviest to take along to Pawnee City on Saturday.   Tuesday, October 6 View Page The rabbit damage on the 2036 Glasier healed over nicely. It just barely broke the skin. I wiped the fungicide off and no rot. Jacob will be taking this one to Nebraska, as long as the bottom is OK.   Tuesday, October 6 View Page The 1493 Witter Benson healed up too. It is still growing, as a few minor surface cracks are showing up and leaking just a little sap. A week ago it was taping just a little over 1000#, and it thumps like a rock. Since my 359 Foss went 11% light, this might make another personal best. So we will be off to Pawnee City and try to git-r-done.   Wednesday, October 7 View Page The day after Pumpkinfest, my daughter Jessica and I drove the 1047.5 the 55 miles to DeWitt so my parents could see it. Dad is getting along much better with his new hip and had to come outside and check out the pumpkin. We sure had a bunch of thumbs up, honks and waves on the highway. Jessica had success at Pumpkinfest as well. She won the Hall of Fame award with her Pumpkin Cheesecake Egg Rolls in the pumpkin recipe contest.   Sunday, October 11 View Page We went to the Pawnee City weigh-off yesterday. They had a famous former resident come to see the pumpkins, some guy named Dan Whitney. He must be something special: they have a billboard with his picture at the north end of town and they even named a street Dan Whitney Drive. For some reason, everyone called him Larry. Well, even if they confuse the name of one of their own, when it comes to putting on a small town celebration and a giant pumpkin weigh-off, they sure know how to git r done.   Sunday, October 11 View Page I took first place with my second best field pumpkin ever. Jacob finished just out of the money at 4th place. We took first and second with watermelons, but since no one else had one that wasn't hard to do.   Sunday, October 11 View Page Jacob took 3rd place with his giant pumpkin   Sunday, October 11 View Page Sorry, here is the photo of Jacob.   Sunday, October 11 View Page I took 2nd with me second best pumpkin. I didn't get 2 over 1000# this year, but their average was just over 1000. The best year we have ever had.   Sunday, October 11 View Page Winner was Don Young. Brenda Christiansen won the Howard Dill award with great, shiny orange offspring of the 1399. We had a great time, and the people of Pawnee City are friendly and welcoming. Its a long drive but we plan to do it again.   Thursday, October 15 View Page I rented a skid loader yesterday and dug out some topsoil from part of the garden. It was too close to the trees and plants didn't grow well there. And I was ready to cut back on the garden too. I just piled up the soil on the lowest parts of the garden. I didn't spread it out because the loader was really packing the soil. I didn't get the borrow area smoothed out like I wanted because the loader got a flat tire just before I was dine.   Thursday, October 15 View Page I use a rake and the tiller to level out the soil piles without compaction. You can see one area that has been worked and another one that needs leveling. It is hard work but I am doing it a little at a time. Jacob can help if he wants to grow next year. Now I need to get a soil test. I plan to add manure, compost. leaves and rye cover crop this fall. In the spring after it settles I can till and re-level and add any additional nutrients.   Monday, October 26 View Page All the piles of soil on the garden are leveled out and a soil sample has been sent off for testing. The borrow area where I got the topsoil has ben seeded to rye. The garden spots will get applications od manure, leaves, chopped pumpkins and compost before rye seeding. Hopefully the mild weather continues for a few more weeks. Deer control season is under way. Seed harvesting and drying has started, more will be done as we carve a couple giants and a few field pumpkins. We are planning on improving on this year's success and doing even better next year.   Wednesday, November 4 View Page A little late posting photos of our big pumpkins carved for Halloween. This is Jacob's 899 and one of the field pumpkins.   Wednesday, November 4 View Page My 1047.5.   Thursday, November 5 View Page When we came back from showing my parents the 1047.5, we saw where someone in the town of Wyoming, IA thought they had BIG, BIG pumpkins to sell. Jessica and I couldn't resist taking this picture.