Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 64 Entries. Monday, April 13 View Page I started my pumpkin/squash seeds this morning, this year im hoping to grow three pumpkin plants and one squash. I planted nine pumpkin and three squash seeds so we'll see what germinates before deciding what this years line up will be.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here's a picture from last year which i never got round to putting on my diary, This is what my 1582 lb pumpkin looked like inside. There were no dill rings or any imperfections it was as solid as a rock.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page There was a good loadall bucket full of chopped pumpkin after i finished cutting it up   Tuesday, May 12 View Page which i fed to the cows.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page After i removed all of the vines last year i gave the patch a good layer of manure.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page My line up for this year, first up this is this 2102 Meier. The leaves have quite an amount of yellowing on them. Im hoping it will grow out of this.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page 2102 Meier, one of the first leaves was growing under the vine, i had two options cut it off or dig a hole to drop it down in.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page i decided to cut it off, the vine should eventually lay down flat now without any kinks. i made a mound of compost for it to lay on so it doesn't come down all at once.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page That yellow one was the one i removed so no great loss.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page 1024* Daho squash. This is a great looking plant.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page 1102 Meier and 1024* Daho are growing 4ft apart back to back.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page My third plant is a 1726 Cutrupi.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page And finally my last plant is a 1239* Berrens. Another squash sneaked its way in to my patch after poor germination with some of my pumpkin seeds. Thank you to the EGVGA for once again putting together another great seed package and to Beni, Mehdi and Luc for sharing their seeds, and thanks again Stefano for sending me some of your 1726 seeds.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1024 Daho squash is looking good!   Wednesday, June 3 View Page the 2102 is also looking good, its grown itself out of the yellow leaf problem and looks healthy.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Daho side view   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Meier side view   Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1024 and 2102, The main reason im growing these back to back is because I don't want to disturb roots when I come to burying the last of the vines. So although they may be competeing with each other a little, im not growing a plant towards another ones stem.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page and the picture   Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1726 Cutrupi this plant is growing ok but is a little bit skinny.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page the 1239 Berrens is also a little behind the others but is a stocky plant.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page We also have the watering system on a timer now so mum wont have to keep popping out to turn water on\off and are working on getting a supply brought in from the river.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1024 Daho squash plant is looking very nice.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1024 Daho squash day 4. I self pollenated this one on the 19th of june, the flower was a nice six lober and I only had one available male flower so fingers crossed it will take.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1726 Cutrupi plant, this plant has really took off, it was a bit of a slow plant to get going but is looking great now.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1726 pumpkin looks great too. Day 3 today, I pollenated this five lobe flower on the 20th of june using three 2102 males.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 2102 plant is a very vigourous plant   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 2102 pumpkin day 6. I selfed this one on the 17th of june. There are a couple of small splits in the stem of this pumpkin but im hoping they wont be too much of a problem.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1239 Berrens squash. So far this has been the 'problem' plant. The vine is quite thick and towers towards the sky, I had a fruit lined up on this plant which would have been up for pollination today however it blew its stem off. Should get another shot at a pollination some time next week.   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1024 Daho plant.   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1024 daho day 15. It suddenly lost its nice shape and im not sure wether or not to keep it. I have no more pollenated on this vine as I was sure this one would have been the keeper. There is a flower which will open tomorrow which will be on the end of the main, ill pollenate that and leave this one going for the time being.   Saturday, July 4 View Page 2102 Meier is my strongest plant   Saturday, July 4 View Page 2102 Meier pumpkin day 17. A lovely shape   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1726 plant   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1726 pumpkin day 14. Not growing at a great pace but another nice shaped fruit   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1239 plant   Saturday, July 4 View Page i open pollenated a flower on the 1239 plant this morning, it will be my last chance to get a fruit set on this plant as were at the end of the patch.   Saturday, July 4 View Page i think ill be terminating all the main vine tips this week, 1726 tip on the left 2102 tip on the right   Saturday, July 4 View Page A few weeks ago someone e mailed me asking if i was still growing marrows, so for anyone that's interested heres what im doing this year. Looking back at my diary from 2013 its pretty obvious ive got to make some changes. I set a dozen marrows that year and they all split! so heres four indoor plants ive got going, these four plants im growing just a main vine only and burying it.   Saturday, July 4 View Page and heres one of five outdoor plants ive got going, these plants are going to be 8 feet wide and im going to grow them over a layer of manure with no vine burying at all. Ill just peg the vines in to position to stop them getting blown about in the wind. All plants are from my 114 seed so ill be self/sibbing these. We'll see what happens.   Saturday, July 4 View Page The outdoor patch, started all marrow plants on the 1st of june this year so hoping set marrows early august.   Monday, July 20 View Page 2102 Meier day 33. Day 33 it tapes 259 inches est 373 lbs Day 30 it taped 212 inches est 293 ibs   Monday, July 20 View Page 1726 Cutrupi day 30 today, it taped 241 inches est 303 lbs. Both pumpkins growing at my usual sort of pace so fairly satisfied with them at the moment.   Monday, July 20 View Page 1024 Daho day 31. on day 30 it taped 212 inches est 211 lbs. A little slower growth than the pumpkins but that's ok. I like the color of this one   Monday, July 20 View Page but I still have some concerns about the shape, this area is kind of caved in like its not developing properly. I attempted to set another fruit but it aborted and so did the fruit on the 1239 plant so I had to pull the 1239 plant.   Monday, July 20 View Page Heres a view from the north end of the tunnel   Monday, July 20 View Page and from the south end.   Monday, July 20 View Page the marrow plants are doing ok other than a few issues with them not developing side vines but im happy to just let them do their thing and let the vines I have fill in the gaps. they'll sort themselves out.   Saturday, July 25 View Page Lost the Daho squash a couple of days ago. Was looking good till a couple of stem splits that go in to the cavity showed up. So no squash for me this year   Saturday, July 25 View Page a closer shot.   Saturday, July 25 View Page the 2102 is plodding along ok taping 290 ott or 518 lbs on day 38   Saturday, July 25 View Page and the 1726 is growing at a similar pace taping 276 inches est 448 lbs at day 35. I prefer the shape of the 2102, this ones gonna suck its blossom end right in.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page Well ive not put much on here lately pumpkin growth has been quite slow here this year so with the kids being off school the pumpkins have not been top of my priorities. Here is the 1726 Cutrupi, it stopped growing a couple of weeks ago so although it still seems sound I think it must have aborted.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page The 2102 is still plodding along ok its taping 376 inches on day 69 so 1112 lbs est weight.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page the leaves don't seem to be ageing as fast this year, its been cooler here and the leaves have had no heat stress at all so haven't aged as fast although I think cooler weather may have slowed the growth of the pumpkins a bit.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page not sure how im going to fare with the marrows yet, here are the four I have growing on the main vine only plants. these four are all about 4 weeks old and should be able to make 100 lbs each although im not that happy with the shapes of them so expect to see some splitting soon   Wednesday, October 14 View Page just a few photos to finish off my diary for this year. Heres my pumpkin all loaded and ready for the weigh off.   Wednesday, October 14 View Page and a photo from the other side   Wednesday, October 14 View Page heres the results of our weigh in   Wednesday, October 14 View Page my pumpkin behind ian and stuarts monster   Wednesday, October 14 View Page we had a great afternoon and it was nice to catch up with the other growers.   Wednesday, October 14 View Page i didn't have a great season with the marrows again. Everything i had growing outside either rotted or splitted. However i did manage to keep a couple marrows from my indoor genetics plants in one piece. This one weighed 76 lbs and is a 114xsibb   Wednesday, October 14 View Page it was mainly green but there was a little striping trying to come through   Wednesday, October 14 View Page the other marrow weighed 78 lbs and is also a 114xsibb. both marrows grew on about 12 feet of main vine only.