Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 45 Entries. Thursday, May 7 View Page As usual I'm late getting my grower diary up and going! I've offered to start giant squash and pumpkins for friends and co-workers this year so my dining room table is covered in pots, grow lights, and heating mats! I've shared both AG and squash seeds this year so we'll see how everyone does!   Thursday, May 7 View Page Various seeds started from April 22 onwards..about a week behind last year. My plan is to grow a 722 Mumford(1175 Holub x self) giant squash. The colour was great last year so we'll see how it turns out. For the pumpkin I have a 1213.5 Rea seed from Chad. Thanks Chad! I haven't had the best germination this year...not sure why. I've also got a space at a friends farm that I may put in another AG.   Thursday, May 7 View Page Started warming up the soil. I didn't make the patch bigger this year as planned but oh well. I amended each planting spot with 7-4-7, 0-0-50, kelp meal, and granular humic. I had a cover crop of fall rye that I tilled in about 1 month ago.   Thursday, May 7 View Page I decided to put some irrigation into the patch this year to reduce the amount of hand watering and sprinkler moving I've done in the past. Just a basic set up with a 90 degree spray head in each corner. Not nearly as fancy as Scott's set-up but it'll do!   Tuesday, June 23 View Page And in Giant Pumpkin news....this has happened! Still hoping for another female further out but pollinated this one just in case. Had to use giant squash pollen as they were the only flowers open.   Thursday, June 25 View Page Managed to pollinate my squash this morning, only about 6' out but I had a hard time with pollination last year so I'm trying every female I get. I then went down to the patch i have at the barn....the goats like to push over the fencing I've got up. The plant itself is fine and I pollinated it as well today. Off to the feed store to get an electric fence to zap the damn goats!   Saturday, July 4 View Page End of week 8. So far no successful pollination on the squash plant. Have one pumpkin growing about 5 ft out, another that may be pollinated at 8ft (we were away so hoping the bees did it) and one that I pollinated this morning at10 ft. Hoping the one at 10ft will be a keeper!   Monday, July 6 View Page Culled this pumpkin off of my giant today. It was only about 4-5ft out along the main vine. Fingers crossed the one I want to keep is as nice a shape as this guy was at 13 days old. I still find it hard to cut off pumpkins and worry that I've picked the wrong one!   Sunday, July 12 View Page Found a stem split about 5 ft out along the main. It looks all healed up and so i've made a cover for the stem with a ziploc container just to keep the water out of it.   Sunday, July 12 View Page Have these two guys along the main at 8ft and 11ft and another one at 13 ft. Am hoping to keep the one at 11ft. So far all of the pumpkins have a nice round shape. Thanks to Dave, Glenn , and Chad for putting up with my questions once again! Still no successful pollinations on the squash. Did a few more the other day and should know in about a week if they worked.   Sunday, July 12 View Page My keeper at 11 ft hopefully. Put it on a bed of fine sand and keeping the stem and and blossom end level. 1213.5 Rea X open (i was away but the bees must have done it for me!)   Monday, July 13 View Page So annoyed. All of the squash I've been pollinating have grown a tiny bit and then turned yellow. I've used squash pollen and pollen from my AG. Lots of pumpkins on the go but zero squash. Not sure what's happening this year. I NEED another green giant!   Thursday, July 16 View Page The pumpkin on the left was 12 days old and was only at 8ft so I cut it off slowly. The smaller one on the right is only 9 days old but at 11ft along the main vine. I should probably have kept my backup on a bit longer but it was hogging all the nutrients so I went for it. (There are a couple further out along the main just in case). Will start to terminate secondary vines over the next week or so. Hope to see some good weight gain soon!   Thursday, July 16 View Page So i've found 3 giant squash that seem to have pollinated successfully. Unfortunately 2 are on the first secondary and the other isn't much further along. I do have one to pollinate tomorrow about 12 ft out on the main. I'll see if it takes but not sure if it's too late. Will wait and see!   Saturday, July 25 View Page Success! Two giant squash growing now I just have to choose one. The top squash is larger but on a secondary vine. The bottom is smaller but in a good position at 11ft on the main vine. how do I choose!?   Saturday, July 25 View Page Start of week 11. Both the pumpkin an squash are doing well. Have my keeper going on the pumpkin and just have to choose one squash. We finally got some rain...hopefully not too much to burst any fruit out there!   Tuesday, July 28 View Page Day 20 for the 1213.5 Rea. Pretty happy with a circumference of 64" an OTT of 160". The squash is only on day 11 and not picture worthy yet. I went with the smaller one on the main so it'll have some catching up to do!   Saturday, August 1 View Page Day 25 for the pumpkin. It should be almost 200lbs by this evening! It's been gaining 20 lbs+ each day for the last couple of days. I'm pretty happy with the shape and growth...until I look at Scott's diary ('Spambie' lives close by and has amazing growth in his patch) The squash is not quite basketball sized so not picture worthy yet!   Thursday, August 6 View Page Day 30 for the giant pumpkin. Growing well and now at 328lbs! It's been gaining about 25 lbs a day! Fighting the mildew and hope it keeps going.   Thursday, August 6 View Page Day 20 for the 722Mumford squash. Waaaaay behind last year due to very late pollination. Ah well what are ya gonna do!?   Saturday, August 15 View Page The giant squash is finally picture worthy. Day 29 and only 122lbs so way behind last year. But hopefully it'll still end up a few hundred pounds. Pretty lumpy shape too!   Saturday, August 15 View Page Day 39 for the giant pumpkin and sitting right around 500lbs. Has been gaining 15-20lbs a day lately. I need to work on my measuring technique though it's hard to make sure the tape is sitting at the same spot each time. What does everyone else do? Tape the measuring tape onto the pumpkin? Had to build a larger shelter for it today since it outgrew the last one. Super happy with the colour and shape of this Rea seed!   Sunday, August 16 View Page Built a larger cover for the pumpkin and set one up for the squash too.   Monday, August 24 View Page My husband took great care of the garden while I was away competing at the Northwest Washington Fair just across the border. The giant pumpkin is now at 602 lbs! It's gaining 13-15 lbs a day right now. Going to try to keep the gains up for the next few weeks. It's getting more orange by the day!   Monday, August 24 View Page Side view. Such at nice shape and colour!   Monday, August 24 View Page The giant squash is still coming along slowly. Now at 239lbs and gaining about 13 lbs a day. It should start to green up in the next week or two. Not a record breaker but it'll make a good halloween carver.   Monday, August 31 View Page Finally have power and wifi back after a crazy storm came through. I'm afraid that the patch took a good beating and 60% of my leaves have blown over. What didn't blow over is now getting rained on pretty hard. Quite the change after 3 months of drought! The pumpkin and squash seem to be doing ok (as long as the giant fir trees beside them stay upright!). My gains will definitely drop but I'm still happy with the colour and shape of the pumpkin. It's been covered all season and it's still turning orange!   Monday, August 31 View Page Even with a protected backyard we got a fair bit of damage. Winds were up to 90km/hr. Almost 500,000 people in the Vancouver are without power.   Monday, August 31 View Page My husband being funny and trying to make the pumpkin look extra giant. It was sitting at 675lbs yesterday. About a month until weigh-off. The squash is around 280lbs... But it's too rainy/windy at the moment I'm not going out to take a picture of it!   Sunday, September 6 View Page Side view of the AG. Day 61 and sitting around 750lbs. Still gaining slowly and getting more orange.   Sunday, September 6 View Page Front view. Day 61. Lots of foliage trimmed off after our big storm but there's still nice fresh growth out at the ends. A little less than a month to weigh-off!   Sunday, September 6 View Page This is what happens when you try to grow a giant pumpkin in the same field as the goats and horses lol. They chewed on it pretty good early on but it seems to have healed up. Hopefully it makes it to Halloween to carve. It's probably about 300 lbs.   Sunday, September 6 View Page Took a few days away from the pumpkin patch to do a bit of fishing on the Fraser River. Caught a few Nice Chinook for the freezer. Here's my hubby with a good looking fish!   Sunday, September 20 View Page Checked in on the giant pumpkin today. Measuring at 785lbs with two weeks until weigh-off. Hoping it weighs heavy! Ps-I will be recruiting help to load it up onto the trailer! Will pay in beer!   Saturday, October 3 View Page All the pumpkins and squash are loaded up for the weigh-off tomorrow! Huge thanks to our friends who came out and helped. And to Glenn for the lifting tarp! Loving my super orange pumpkin this year.   Saturday, October 3 View Page Most women get flowers from their husbands....mine came home with brand new tie down straps for my pumpkins today.... Perfect!   Sunday, October 4 View Page Getting ready to be weighed. Beautiful day and great new location of Krause Berry Farms for our Weigh-off. Loving the super bright shiny orange that this turned out to be.   Sunday, October 4 View Page My husband (and co-grower when I'm out of town!) getting his picture taken for the local paper. We had a great turn out of growers and spectators. Scott (spambie) and his wife Kirsten did an awesome job with sponsorship and publicity for our event. Thanks guys! And thanks to everyone else who helped make everything run smoothly!   Sunday, October 4 View Page The only picture I took of my squash with my friend sitting behind it. 411lbs good enough for second place. Was from my 722Mumford (1175 Holub). I like the colour and smooth shiny skin of this seed. Will try it again next year and see if I can get an earlier pollination.   Sunday, October 4 View Page My goal for this year was to grow a nice shaped orange pumpkin. I can't compete with the big guys for size around here so I had to go for pretty. A new PB for me at 803 lbs and the Howard Dill award on my 1213.5Rea11 !!!! Huge thanks to Glenn, Dave, And Scott for the help all season long. So great to have so many helpful and knowledgable growers so close by. And to Chad who gave me the seed...and to Glenna Rea..for growing it in the first place!   Sunday, October 4 View Page Oh and my 803 lbs was good enough for 6th place! Now it will live in the front driveway for the neighbourhood to see and then carved up for Halloween.   Monday, October 5 View Page We definitely got some funny looks driving to the weigh-off on Saturday!   Monday, October 5 View Page My patch is pretty small compared to most growers...just 15x13 ft in the backyard. This year it produced both the 803 lb pumpkin and 411 lb squash. Just goes to show you don't always need a huge plot to grow in. And they're way more fun to grow than a boring old back lawn!   Saturday, October 31 View Page All carved up! Lots of seeds but only a few dozen were mature. Looking forward to the trick or treaters seeing it tonight!   Saturday, November 7 View Page Last stop for our giant pumpkin and squash. They'll be fed to our friend's pigs! Saves me having to compost them in our tiny backyard bin.