Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 52 Entries. Friday, February 27 View Page Waiting for spring...digging through pics from past years...   Sunday, March 8 View Page Some of you may already have come across those funny collections of pics with hitchhiking animals: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/11447004/Piggyback-riders-16-funny-photos-of-lazy-hitchhiking-animals.html If you happen to have a synergetic mix of plants in your garden they might be tempted to do similar things: Some cacti love full sunshine, and as they canīt find it under the canopy of the AG plants (and thereīs no empty spot left in the garden, of course), whatīs better than riding on the back of a big big pumpkin ;-)   Sunday, March 8 View Page Ooops, pic hasnīt come through, will try it again. Some of you may already have come across those funny collections of pics with hitchhiking animals: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/11447004/Piggyback-riders-16-funny-photos-of-lazy-hitchhiking-animals.html If you happen to have a synergetic mix of plants in your garden they might be tempted to do similar things: Some cacti love full sunshine, and as they canīt find it under the canopy of the AG plants (and thereīs no empty spot left in the garden, of course), whatīs better than riding on the back of a big big pumpkin ;-)   Friday, March 27 View Page Moved some compost yesterday and found this rhino beetle. After taking some pics I relocated this little guy back to the remaining compost pile.   Wednesday, April 22 View Page Itīs line-up time :-) 619 Glasgow (2009 Wallace x self) and 1223 Radach (2009 Wallace x self) will share one spot, 1495 Stelts (no need to mention the cross) and 496 Geyelin (1730 Werner x 854 Frei) share another spot. The third spot will be shared by the 822 Bond (907 Wagler x 619 Glasgow) for a 150 sqft plant and a 298 Wagler (907 Wagler x 282 Scherber) for a slightly larger plant.   Monday, May 4 View Page Today I transplanted the last two candidates of my line-up into the patch (the 822 Bond and the 298 Wagler). Whereas these two plants (in the big pots in the greenhouse) had been one or two days ahead of the others which went into the patch earlier (see previous post), the other four plants seem to be one or two days ahead now.   Monday, May 11 View Page Another week, another update. So far, I canīt complain about our weather, it had been warm an sunny enough to keep the plants growing.   Monday, May 11 View Page 150 sqft contest 2015: My entry is the 822 Bond plant, and it will be the first time Iīll be growing a flag pattern (see location of the tunnel and the red lines which indicate the 150 sqft patch).   Monday, May 18 View Page Well, I canīt complain about last weekīs plant growth. Especially the 1495 Stelts and the 496 Geyelin found out how to grow...canīt wait to compare their fruit growth.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page Well, the plants could be larger, but weīve had some cold weather last week. Anyway, still happy with their growth so far.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page This is the first female on the 1223 Radach plant. Seems to be a freaky plant, just canīt get enough...1 female, 2 males, 1 tendril and 2 secondaries in one leaf node. Even though some sections of the main are flat and some of the first secondaries look like flat vines or clustered vine tips, the main vine itself looks pretty normal right now, so Iīll be patient and see what this plant will do the next 2 or 3 weeks.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page 150 sqft plant (the 822 Bond), now without fleece tunnel.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page There has been a week without diary update, I simply hadnīt been at home. Fortunately, the plants kept on growing (even though some of the secondaries decided to grow into wrong directions and then had to be moved into the right location). Still happy with the plant growth, and all plants had developed some females already (which I have removed, because there havenīt been any males available yet). Now each plant has a potential keeper female in the vine tip.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page Here are the girls (in the same order as the plants in the previous posts)   Tuesday, June 16 View Page For some reason the shape of the plants which grow in S-N-direction (top line) seems to be better than the shape of the plants in their back, which grow in N-S-direction. The 496 Geyelin doesnīt want to develop any males (the little male blossom buds just sit and wait until they shrivel). Females are developing nicely though. The good thing about back-to-back planting is that the 2nd plant in the same spot can tell you that it must be a problem of that particular plant, not a problem originating from soil conditions.   Tuesday, June 16 View Page Here are the females, it will take another couple of days until they open (itīs pretty cold now and weather forecast for the next week doesnīt look much better...in addition to cold itīs getting rainy).   Monday, June 22 View Page Itīs update time! Now the plants are too large to fit into a single pic taken from the fence of my patch, therefore here comes the whole patch view. The little red arrows indicate females which are pollinated now.   Monday, June 22 View Page ...and here are the girls. All of them have the shape I want to see. Fingers crossed that they will grow, and in about a week it will (hopefully) be warm enough for S-curving the vines.   Monday, June 29 View Page Some days of warm weather and the plants decided to kick into the right gear again.   Wednesday, July 1 View Page On my 822 Bond plant the first fruit aborted right after the second pollination (again 822 Bond x 1495 Stelts). No need to worry, this 2nd fruit looks like it really wants to grow :-)   Sunday, July 5 View Page My 150 sqft plant today: The first pollination aborted, but the 2nd one (again 822 Bond x 1495 Stelts, here and now at 6 DAP) looks like it wants to grow. Apparently, thermal vine termination (repeated sunscald for the last 5 or 6 days) had accelerated cell division and cell expansion at the same time.   Monday, July 6 View Page Being ahead of previous years doesnīt mean anything...none of the pumpkins pollinated between June 20th and 25th survived, the cold and rainy and cloudy weather in the last week of June made the plants deal with their own problems rather than having fun in raising a child. The pollinations between June 29th and July 3rd are looking much more promising (despite the heat weīve had the past week).   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Did some S-curves last year and this year, therefore I tried a complete U-turn with my 1495 Stelts plant now. Looks good so far, but Iīm waiting for the plant to understand this hint of "U-turn-on-the-engine-NOW!"   Wednesday, July 8 View Page This baby on my 150 sqft plant (currently something like a 110 sqft plant), 822 Bond (907 Wagler x 619 Glasgow) x 1495 Stelts seems to have the balls to turn on the engine early and to switch into higher gears even earlier...itīs just 9 DAP, Iīve never had a pumpkin grow like this before.   Friday, July 10 View Page Patch today: not much room left for further vine growth.   Friday, July 10 View Page Today I placed the first 3 out of 6 pumpkins on sand before they get too heavy. The 1495 Stelts seems to develop the color I want to see with a pumpkin on a 1495 plant :-)   Sunday, July 12 View Page Today the pumpkin on the 1223 Radach plant was placed in the final position. In this case Iīve terminated the main vine right after the fruit and Iīll try to let this secondary from the pumpkinīs leaf node continue as a new main vine.   Sunday, July 12 View Page This is a view along the main vine of my 1495 Stelts plant and I have noticed that this year I have significantly less weeds than in previous years. So what have I done this year?: As long as the plants were small I have pulled all of the weeds around the plants (even the smallest seedlings) and I have covered an area of about 4.5 x 7 ft with a thin layer of peat. After a couple of days I have again removed weeds (the few seedlings which had enough power to break through the peat surface), and then the germination of weed seeds seemed to have stopped. Now the areas with most weeds can be found around the leaf nodes, where I had added some soil from my patch. Next year I will probably use some peat based potting soil for burying the leaf nodes.   Wednesday, July 15 View Page Update: The 1495 Stelts, 619 Glasgow and 1223 Radach fruit have basically the same OTT, and the 1495 shows the color I want to see. The 822 seems to be something special, it started to grow like crazy and already has some ribs (fingers crossed that this doesnīt mean anything bad).   Wednesday, July 15 View Page Thereīs probably at least one person out there in this big wide world that has been wondering where this little bugger had been all the time...here it is, the fruit on my 298 Wagler plant. It received its floor out of a styrofoam sheet and sand today, it seems to want to grow (size-wise it is only one day behind the development of the 1495 Stelts fruit...not too bad...but color-wise....hm...I better say "BUTT color-wise"....).   Wednesday, July 15 View Page Last but not least, the 496 Geyelin. The plant seems to be sterile, at least as far as the first signs tell me (extremely strong plant, the 2nd best grower out of 6 plants, thickest main vine Iīve ever seen with my plants, absolutely no males had developed until end of june, thereafter some males finally made it into some flowers but without pollen and without stamen). Currently it looks like this pumpkin (496 x 1495) wants to grow, letīs see if it continues to grow for at least the next 10 days, then it will also receive a more comfortable seat in my patch.   Monday, July 20 View Page GAME OVER! for my 150 sqft plant (822 Bond). Have pulled it today, because the plant was sterile (empty males) and the fruit stopped growing at the age of 20 days (and a weight of about 50 lbs). No room left for further pollinations.   Monday, July 20 View Page The other pumpkins, which started to to grow in a much more "regular" manner (slooowwww) are still alive, growing nicely and kicking into higher gears now. Iīm happy with their growth so far.   Friday, July 24 View Page The pumpkins are growing. Interestingly, my 298 mimics the growth curve of the 1495 Stelts so far (fingers crossed that it will do that for the next couple of weeks and that both of them will bear a little surprise in terms of some % heavy). Funny shape of the 298, actually.   Thursday, July 30 View Page They are growing :-) Even though weīve had four days of cold weather and heaps of clouds, the daily gains havenīt dropped too much.   Wednesday, August 5 View Page My 1495 Stelts fruit, today, 6 days ago and 12 days ago. In addition to some growth a nice color seems to develop.   Wednesday, August 19 View Page Found a split in the blossom end of my 298 Wagler. Now it rests in peace, oops, in pieces, as the 463 (est/dmg) Wagler.   Wednesday, August 19 View Page The 463 (est.,dmg) Wagler 15 with its rather thin blossom end.   Wednesday, August 19 View Page The other three pumpkins are still in the race.   Thursday, August 20 View Page Every year the question comes up how to measure OTT. This pic shows the three measurements. - CC: WIDEST circumference PARALLEL to the ground (red line) - EE: Stem end to blossom end OVER THE TOP and with the tape going straight down to the ground (ground level indicated by the yellow bars) touching the ground at a right angle (green line) - SS: Side to side OVER THE TOP and with the tape going straight down to the ground (ground level indicated by the yellow bar) touching the ground at a right angle (blue line)   Monday, September 7 View Page Had been away for 2 weeks and was happy to see that the remaining 3 pumpkins are still alive and have added some pounds (even though Iīm not so fascinated by the powdery mildew I had found on some of the leaves).   Monday, September 14 View Page If you think they stopped growing, try this and you might find that they are still growing :-)   Monday, September 21 View Page Today I picked my pumpkins, but before I got them off the patch I decided to take some pics of their stem ends. I like pumpkins with a main vine growing for good, and therefore I create an S-curve in the vine, which allows the growing fruit to lift the vine as the fruit grows without picking itself (basically ripping itself) off the vine. Hereīs my 1495 Stelts fruit, thanks to the flexible main vine it was easy to create a U-turn rather than just an S-curve. Now you can see that the fruit has lifted the vine to some extent which made it necessary to cut one of the tap roots between stump and pumpkin and two tap roots in the other direction. Not too much loss of tap roots :-) Also, there was enough room for the secondary out of the pumpkinīs leaf node and I kept it all the time (sorry, I had removed the secondaries before taking the pics).   Monday, September 21 View Page This is the fruit on the 619 Glasgow plant, also with an S-curve in the main vine. The vine hasnīt been as thin and flexible as the one of the 1495 plant and it was a less than perfect S-curve. Hence, because of the smaller curve (and also because of the rather high wheel-shaped growth of the fruit) I had to cut 2 main vine tap roots between pumpkin and stump and 3 tap roots in the other direction. Also, I had removed the secondary from the pumpkinīs leaf node very early.   Monday, September 21 View Page This is the 1223 Radach fruit, the baby pumpkin was sitting at such a horrible angle with the main vine that I decided to terminate the main vine after the fruit and to use the secondary out of the pumpkinīs leaf node as a new main vine.   Sunday, September 27 View Page What can I say, Iīm happy I used this 1495 Stelts as pollinator for my other pumpkins :-)   Tuesday, September 29 View Page This is my biggest pumpkin this year. Two inches more OTT than my PB, but it went 12% light (with reference to the 2013 OTT chart). In addition to the wheel shape the rather thin walls around the blossom end made this fruit be so surprisingly light.   Tuesday, September 29 View Page And hereīs my third fruit, 706 lbs, 4% heavy with reference to the 2013 OTT chart. Although this fruit isnīt close to my PB, I need to point out that it was grown on a flag pattern plant (I decided to grow a flag pattern as soon as I found more than just one ribbon secondaries on one side of the plant). Also, I like the shape of this fruit (much better than a wheel-shaped pumpkin). If there are good seeds in this fruit, I will grow this cross next year. [2009 x self](going heavy) x 1495(going pretty heavy) shouldnīt be the worst foundation, genetically.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page The 1495 Stelts produced my heaviest (new PB) pumpkin this year, the 619 Glasgow produced my biggest pumpkin this year (but 798 lbs only), which was quite disappointing, because I thought the 619 would produce my new PB. The growth curve (derived from OTT measurements) was much better for the 619. Now the big question is, what is the potential in the seeds of my 1495 x 619 and 619 x 1495 crosses? The 2nd picture shows the "true" weight gains (I have multiplied the OTT derived weights with 1.14 for the 1495 (it went 14% heavy) and with 0.88 for the 619 (because it went 12% light). The new curves are quite interesting. Until 35 DAP the 619 might have been ahead of the 1495 with the true weight gains! So what made the curves cross around 35 DAP? There was an event around 35 DAP which caused severe damage to the 619 plant, this event was the combination of dry soil and the very thirsty 619 plant itself. Suddenly the leaves of this plant started to dry and to die. After some decent watering (and, in order to be on the safe side, an Aliette drench as well) this process stopped and the growth curve of the 619 fruit did continue "as usual", just at somewhat decelerated speed because of the 30 - 40 % leaf surface the plant had lost. In summary: Grower error, the 619 could have produced another 1000+ lbs fruit (probably, but who knows?).   Wednesday, October 28 View Page This pretty one (247 Graham x 173 Rudorfer) got opened yesterday (had plenty of seeds)...and will continue to live as a scary pirate for another couple of days.   Thursday, October 29 View Page Carved the next one today. The previous one was my 71 UOW Wagler 15 (forgot to mention that), and because of the cross I decided to call the pirate "Carltin". Now this scary lantern guy here is my 102.7 Wagler 15 (173 Rudorfer x 247 Graham), Iīll call him "Marl". Carltin and Marl are the scary Ruhamer brothers from Gradorf.   Saturday, November 14 View Page 67(UOW) Wagler 15 (153 Timm x 247 Graham), last lantern for this year.