Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 94 Entries. Friday, April 10 View Page Here Comes Trouble. Hope everyone has a great 2015 season ahead.   Friday, April 10 View Page Picture of my 1170 which was a 1985 Miller sibb. I had sent out 200 packages of seeds across British Columbia from this pumpkin should be awesome genetics in their.   Friday, April 10 View Page Picture if my 1177 which was another 1985 Miller Sibb. I had given out 200 packages of this seed too. In each package i had sent out their was 2 seeds from the 1170 and 2 seeds from the 1177.   Friday, April 10 View Page Here is a picture of 3 of my pumpkins going on display. I didn't know but i guess i should have taken these to the weigh off too. I only figured you were allowed 1 pumpkin so i just took my biggest and my squash to the weigh event.   Friday, April 10 View Page Here is my newish patch. I added quite a bit of material this past year. I have already amended the soil from 5.2 ph just got the results back and it's 5.9 right now. I just tilled more Oyster Shells to keep the profile of the ph up through the growing season also put in 350 pounds of ag lime. This should get me to 6.8 ph.   Friday, April 10 View Page My lower patch has 3 quadrants this one is 95 foot by 32 foot. All the posts are from my new Netafim Coolnet misting system that is going it. I will have 98 4 way misters to cool my patch this year. Last year i was spending too much time in the patch trying to keep the sun scald at bay. This year I am focusing on Automation so i can "Set it and for Get it"   Friday, April 10 View Page Here is my middle quadrant it is 80 foot by 32 foot. My organic matter is pretty high at 32.4 % the soil is draining well.   Friday, April 10 View Page Here is my top quadrant it is 70 foot by 33 foot. My CEC exchange very high 48.4. I am excited about growing in this patch this year but i think their will be it's own set of issues in here. I hope with the high organic matter and show by the CEC the water will drain and not just sit in the lower profile of the soil. If so i will just till in some pumice for next year which will give it the extra drainage it will need. I got to wait another two weeks take another soil sample and get it tested before i do anything else.   Friday, April 10 View Page Well I said i would never grow in my upper patch again but i guess i Lied!!! I was able to get for free 4 dump truck loads of mushroom manure and was able to till it in during a dry spell we had back in March. I Put in 500 pounds of AG lime, 300 pounds of dolopril, 250 pounds of Oyster Shells, 100 pounds of feather meal, 300 pounds of special blend of fertilizer with high Boron. I tilled it all in and then seeded it with Buckwheat which you can see is coming up.   Friday, April 10 View Page Soil Test from my new growing area in 2015.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page Finished putting up all my Greenhouses today here are three in my lower patch.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page Here are two more greenhouses in my lower patch. I have a total of seven 7'x10' greenhouses in my lower patch.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page Here are another two in my lower patch. I got my misting system installed it's almost ready to test.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page An angle shot of the lower patch. I grew 6 millers last year and will be planting mostly all my sibbed 1985 millers from last year. So far i am super impressed by the vigor of the seeds from one of my pumpkins last year.   Wednesday, May 6 View Page My Upper patch i currently have 7 Greenhouses up here with 12 pumpkins growing. In some greenhouses i have two pumpkins growing side by side i will cull the slower one in a week or so.   Friday, May 8 View Page Some plants are doing very good since being put into the soil and a few others have stalled. I been just watering them until they lay down then it's time to ramp up the ferts.   Wednesday, May 13 View Page Got my cooling system setup. I will be adding an injector so i can apply very weak dose of my special blends.   Saturday, May 16 View Page Pic of my 1177 put in the ground after 1 week pushing dirt and been in the ground for two weeks now. My first batch of plants were started filed put in water and plunked into a plastic bag April 22, The second batch of plants started on April 27th and third batch on May 3rd. The 1177 so far have had the most vigor. They have been preforming better than all the other plants i have. The worst has been the 2096 that i have it's been very very slow and the root system on the Meier when taking it out of the pot was very small compared to other plants.   Saturday, May 16 View Page Another one of my 1177's, my fertilizer program is dialed in from last year and so far i am getting really good gains. This time of year i have been restricting water so my plants gain deep rooting just incase something goes wrong with my cooling system while i am at work.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page A side picture of my 1170. We have had some very good weather month of May with record sunshine days for the month. I would assume most growers in this area are seeing record growth. I have been increasing my PPM's of my fertilizer and should be at full strength in another 10 days. I feel the extra growth is not a good thing for me since it's very hard to manage all the plants and give the attention they need. I am so glad i staggered my germination into 3 different times.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Leaves are in good shape with good colour, I have been proactive with my spraying program for bugs. No need for fungicides since it's been unusually dry here.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Might be a keeper will see how it develops.   Monday, June 15 View Page no pic for this post. The weather has been California dry for the past 45 days and now my well is totally dry. I normally do all my fertilizer mixing with the well water and this well also is used to power my misting system in my lower patch. My well water tested very good and has been a great source for my Micro's with around 200 ppm's. I had to pipe in a total 600 feet for city water to get to my lower patch which will now be running my misting system. Had to adjust my PVR so my misters will work correctly.   Monday, June 15 View Page My Dosatron has been a life saver this year. It so easy to adjust and mixes great. It can be quickly adjusted to do anything from 50 to 1 down 500 to 1. I have been using it for both my drip lines and quickly attach it to my misting system. I use to have a 4 gallon backpack sprayer where i would spend 1.5 hours every night doing something of either chemicals, fertilizer's or even biological's. Now to completely spray 7 plants in my lower patch it only takes 5 minutes.   Tuesday, June 16 View Page Let there be WEEDS!!!! yup have not had the necessary time to keep things up in my upper patch. I will be putting in the drip tape tomorrow night after work. We had the hottest day of the year today and my upper patch was fine but on my lower patch is a whole different story. With the extra growth comes very tender leaves.   Tuesday, June 16 View Page Got my drip tape in all 3925 feet of it. Plants down here are growing very fast. I been using a LOT of Fish Fertilizer this year and i have noticed a big difference. The bigger plant down here is just over 20 feet long and 20 feet wide. Will have lots of pollinating going on over the next 7 days. I did get a bit of fert burn on the odd leaf when i was watering with my 25 gallon wagon. Guess I should pay a bit more attention to not drip any of my toxic sauce on the leaves as only the roots can handle it.   Thursday, June 18 View Page Had a request for a pic of my propagation timers that run my misting system. I run two zones each zone draws 5.6 gpm at 65 psi. Currently each zones is goes on every 2 minutes for 8 seconds. So every minute something is happening from 10:30am to 6:30pm. I had a major issue the other day when my well went dry during the hottest day of the year so far. I fried a few leaves on my plants only down in my lower patch my upper patch has no issues with heat.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page From my upper patch, the 1177 is performing very well and responding awesome to the fertilizer program this year. Although i planted later than last year the weather has been very good. I am excited for next year as i already know what i will change to get some increases. I ended up tilling in my upper patch over the weekend and putting in 2200 feet of drip tape.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Crappy photo, But it's from a slightly deformed 4 lobber which i cut off today it was not growing fast enough so I traded it in for a nice football shaped one which i had pollinated yesterday.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 2096 Meier which has been my main pollinator for all my pumpkins so far, is doing about the same as the 1985 miller that i planted this year, just ok. I will note the 2096 Meier was an extremely slow starter it might be my fault for not juicing up enough it was planted before the 1985 Miller.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page my 1177 got the brunt of the sun scald when my misting system well ran dry. The misting system went down for maybe 2 hours during the hottest part of the day and scorch a few leaves. My misting system is now on city water, just using well for the drip tape.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page My 1177 in mid lower patch, starting to terminate sides almost 30 feet wide now. Had my very first unicorn pollination today I sure hope it sticks. I did make a mistake and forgot to spray my preventative pesticide application as per my schedule and a few of my plants have some showings of critters got some Intercept on them all tonight should be good until my next application.   Thursday, July 2 View Page Picture of my upper patch. Plants are growing nicely. It requires triple my time to attend to my plants up here. Always have to be monitoring the soil moisture and leaching of the fertilizers it's very difficult to manage these plants up here vs the good soil in the lower patch. If i didn't have an EC meter i would be hooped. I 100% won't waste my time and grow in this crap soil after growing in normal soil.   Thursday, July 2 View Page Lower patch is Ez-Mode growing. I been traveling lots lately and have hooked up another great timer that controls both my dosatron and my 250 gallon premix of goodies. I can go for a week and all is good besides a shit ton of vine burring when i get back. Only issue is I have missed a few very good pollinations. I am thinking next year i can get a drone and figure out a way to Pollinate while i am out of town (lol joking)   Friday, July 3 View Page Big pollination day for me today. 4 plants it's their first female out and 3 got in a backup in-case the other pollination don't catch so 7 in total today. I have 1 plant left still with no female out yet, it's my fault i should have switched my fertilizer 1 week earlier to push the females out.   Thursday, July 9 View Page Pollinations have mostly been grouped together. With my traveling for work i have missed great pollinations. I Have my first set of 3, 20th DAP on this Sunday. I have another batch pollinated June 29th and another Batch July 3rd. Everything is pollinated now just waiting to see if they all stick.   Monday, July 13 View Page Picture was taken on day 20 from my 1177. Been just giving it water will start up the program on Monday.   Monday, July 13 View Page my 1170 smallest of the first 3 pollination that i kept.   Monday, July 13 View Page from my 1060 day 20. It's been the only plant that i had to fertilize because the leaves were showing pre-deficiency signs.   Monday, July 13 View Page The only Miller 1985 i planted this year.   Monday, July 13 View Page From 2096 Meier   Monday, July 13 View Page Another 1177 the stem on this pumpkin is like a fricken tree trunk already.   Monday, July 13 View Page my 1060 the last pumpkin I Pollinated on July 7th   Monday, July 13 View Page I was able to catch up on some vine burring over the weekend. I still have a shit ton of weeds throughout my upper patch maybe a little too much fertilizer during spring prep.   Thursday, July 23 View Page July 22nd is day 30 for my first batch of 3 pumpkins. I am surprised they are all pretty close in size. This one is 120-77-76. ott is 273   Thursday, July 23 View Page This one has a cir of 117 and the plant behind it is very big   Thursday, July 23 View Page another day 30 this one had a cir of 120.   Thursday, July 23 View Page Got something growing on the Meier 2096. This plant has required some additional attention then all my other plants.   Thursday, July 23 View Page Glenn told me to step it up for 2015 because he was going to be bringing his A game this year and my response is "This Pumpkin". To date this is my fastest growing pumpkin i have ever grown picture taken on July 22 day 15. This was the last plant i had planted it was filed and put into my plastic bag May 3rd and put in the ground may 14th. It was the last to get pollinated July 7th. I will point out that it still has not really rained and I am going to be worried if we get heavy rain without a few day warning so i can flush my patch. I will be on the lookout for Glenn doing a rain dance around patch.   Monday, July 27 View Page Past 5 days we had a bit of a cold snap with zero sun with high's in the low 60's also we had our first rainfall where i live since April 20th with 2 inches of rain. It's day 35 for 3 of my pumpkins today they are still all very close in size with this one being 133-85-85. I am pretty surprised with the gains since we had no sun it had gained 159 pounds past 5 days. This week is going to be hot and sunny i sure hope it will ramp up again and i can get some good numbers next 10 days.   Monday, July 27 View Page This is day 20 and still trucking along my biggest day 20 ever at 85-53-58 shaped like a submarine. My other day 20 cir is 79" first female didn't take. Wednesday is day 30 for my Meier 2096 my 1060 and my 1170 nothing exciting in this batch hope the weather will change things up, next 10 days should be exciting.   Saturday, August 1 View Page My goal was to get 3 pumpkins over 700 pounds before the end of July and i was able to get err done.   Saturday, August 1 View Page Another shot from a different angle. This is the lower patch east side you can see two pumpkins and the end the third one is my on "fire pumpkin" it will be day 25 tomorrow for it and it's going very strong.   Saturday, August 1 View Page This one is pretty long too, you can't tell by the picture tho. My big one is now in hiding and might make a guest appearance once one of my younger ones pass it. So far out of the 11 Plants I have only had 1 abort and that was due to my own fault got another on that one growing good now.   Sunday, August 2 View Page Sure would be nice if I could use our sprayer on my upper pumpkin patch. Having to resort to my pull wagon sprayer is a pain.   Sunday, August 2 View Page My field of wheat in 2014 just after harvest. I have Canola growing in it this year, I am trialing a new in crop Foliar product with a Silica / Fertilizer combo with good success.   Thursday, August 6 View Page Day 30 today for my fastest grower ever. I am not going to bother posting the numbers for day 30 today because it's just stupid. I will post the numbers for day 40 if it holds together.   Thursday, August 6 View Page Day 30 i was planning on pulling this plant from the beginning because it's too crowded in my lower patch. This plant has seen ZERO vine burring and very minimal weed pulling. It has secondaries and tertiary vines all over the fricken place. I have surprise 10 pound pumpkins hiding in it. Today it measured 117 Circ. and plant is in fantastic condition.   Thursday, August 6 View Page My last day 30 measured 113" Circ. My second group of pollination's are doing just average and not photo worthy this year. This includes the 2096 Meier which the plant looks awesome but the pumpkin is not so good. I will probably squeak a 1,000 pounder out of it.   Tuesday, August 11 View Page Man way too many plants to keep up with the weeding. I am going to pull the 1985 Miller plant they keep aborting. I am not sure why each pumpkin aborts, each one started out like gang busters and then around 300 pounds the skin gets all slimy.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page I am hoping these leaves will give me good gains through September.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page A picture of my lower patch. I been dialing in my program and will be excited for next year.   Monday, August 17 View Page No picture got too dark when i got home. Past few weeks it's been crappy weather cloudy drizzle with highs in the 60's and 70's and low's have been mostly between 50 to 56. It's day 40 today for my 3 youngest pumpkins. Biggest of the three for day 40 was 157-85-91. It sure don't look like 803 pounds the pumpkin is not high but more like the Blob. My 3 biggest pumpkins since day 40 have dropped off the pounds pretty sharp. Two of my biggest pumpkins since day 40 have straight lined for 16 days at pretty much 21 pounds a day. I was hoping for more but this flat line is pretty nice i sure hope it continues into September.   Saturday, August 22 View Page I have been away for the past week fishing up in Haida Gwaii formerly known as Queen Charlotte's Island.   Saturday, August 22 View Page I got the attention of some eagles holding a Black Bomber. He did his lookout pass and I threw the fish behind the boat and he swooped back and got the fish you can see the 5 pound fish in his talons.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page Some storm damage a tree fell right on the middle of one of my plants.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page We were blocked in my area by fallen trees. This was a cluster of trees hard to see from the picture but at the base of the cluster it was 25 feet long.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page Blocked at another route out.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page The issue with the fallen trees was the power wires i was freaked out because i had no idea if the power would be turned on if i got out to move the trees.   Saturday, September 5 View Page Thought i would post a few pictures of some pumpkins in my patch.   Saturday, September 5 View Page The cool temps are settling in this morning it was 44 outside burrr.   Saturday, September 5 View Page Forgot to mention it is day 58 for the first post on September 5th it's Cir was 185"   Saturday, September 5 View Page I been trying to just measure every 10 days. I don't want to change much this late in the game.   Saturday, September 5 View Page I have 6 pumpkins that are fairly close in size. It sure would be nice to have 3 or 4 over 400" This time of year seems like the time people have been loosing their pumpkins so i have been keeping that in mind.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page Ding, 1307 first pumpkin over 1300 for one of my oldest pumpkins day 77. My youngest which is at day 60 will be over 1300 tomorrow and should be my largest pumpkin in another day or two. Another older pumpkin day 77 is almost 1300 and hope it will break that mark in another 4 to 5 days, it`s slowed down to about 7 pounds right now.   Saturday, September 12 View Page My plants look awesome but i am wishing i would have not left so much in the tank. I will juice them up a bit more next year. I decided to get a new tape measure which has given me fantastic gains. The new tape measure is on top my old one which is now in the garbage is on the bottom.   Monday, September 14 View Page Picture of my only squash plant. The plant didn't throw out a first female flower until 20 feet. While i was out of town for 5 days the stem split into the squash. I had set another squash and today is day 40. Looks like i will be bringing a squash to a weighoff.   Monday, September 14 View Page Picture from my upper patch. Instead of measuring daily gains in pounds i am now measuring in micro-grams. My plants in the upper patch that didn't get destroyed by the winds and are in great shape and zero powdery mildew. The great shape of the plants are not converting into daily gains tho. I got a bunch of new growth that i am going to remove tomorrow.   Monday, September 14 View Page This is my squash plant. It's fricken huge and has not got much attention with removal of weeds. Pumpkin update, all have slowed down even in the nice weather we had past few days. I was finally able to get an accurate measurement of my youngest pumpkin and it hit a cir today of 191"   Wednesday, September 30 View Page Had some pretty good success in my lower patch this year out of 7 plants i will have 6 that have made it over 1,000 pounds. The 1 plant which was the only 1985 miller i planted this year, I could not keep any pumpkins growing on it. They would start out crazy fast grow the hugest stem and then just abort around day 20. I attempted 4 times then just pulled the plant. This is a picture of a pumpkin that won't make it to a weighoff this year. The picture is of a 1060 Carley.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page This is the Beni Meier 2096. It didn't get pollinated properly or maybe got to hot and the back end just didn't fill out.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page My back up for Central Market if something happens to my other pumpkin I hope this one is gonna be weighed for exhibition. It's a Carley 1177.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page Had my first weighoff down in Washington and I was able to sneak in and pick up first place with a 1427.5 pounder. I got lucky because the big growers down their had brought their small ones saving their biggies for other weighoff's with more cash prizes. It was a very nice event which ran smoothly considering how many pumpkins needed to be weighed. Still 1k is pretty nice and will be spent on finishing my automation for 2016. It will include 7 growing zones which i be able to control each zone with it's own drip tape and over head watering. This will enable more accurate fertilizer applications depending my my different zone EC readings.   Wednesday, September 30 View Page A side view of my 1170 Carley pollinated with 2096 Meier. The 1177 Carley was a Miller 1985 Sibb. In 2014 I had grown 5 Miller 1985 plants.   Wednesday, October 7 View Page This photo makes me think of how much i have left in the tank on all my plants. It's October 7th today and all of my plants still have pretty much zero issues and sure wish i hit them a bit harder. I will post some pics of the great weighoff this past weekend at Krause Berry Farms.   Friday, October 9 View Page Heading down to Washington tomorrow all loaded up for Central Market. I am hoping my squash will be a new BC Record but it will be close. My big pumpkin I am a bit worried about seen some very similar shaped Blob's go very light and this one looks the same. I also have a backup i am bringing just incase i crack one on the way down. Looks like the 4K club is in the bag if the blob goes heavy I can make the 4,500 pound club. But with my average on all my pumpkins being between 6% to 8% 4,500 it will have to wait for another year.   Tuesday, October 13 View Page Top 10 Krause Berry Farms in Langley BC   Tuesday, October 13 View Page Top 3 Pumpkin and First Place Squash.   Tuesday, October 13 View Page Me getting another exhibition weighed. Jeff and Glenn did and awesome Job announcing during the event. Maurizio, Caroline and Andrea did a fantastic job with running the event.   Tuesday, October 13 View Page The dreaded look of someone who's pumpkin went light for the first time since growing pumpkins. Everyone was surprised the pumpkin thumped solid.   Tuesday, October 13 View Page Picture of my winning pumpkin at Krause Berry Farms. My Wife and daughter in the pic. Big shoutout to my wife who helped organize the Krause event with Glenn.   Sunday, October 18 View Page Central Market Weighoff, Weather was horrible but they were well prepared with large tents and lots of seating. The event was very well organized and I met lots of super nice people. First Place was with a 1519.5 from Cindy Tobeck The Picture is of my 3 that i had entered 2 pumpkins 1 which was exhibition and 1 squash for Central Market October 10th. I was hoping my biggest OTT pumpkin of the year was going to go heavy but it ended up being my first light pumpkin of the year, go figure. My squash ended up beating the BC record which was set last year by Kate Mumford. This year was great I was able to meet my two goals 1 which was grow a pumpkin over 1,400 pounds, I grew a 1427 and 1411 and get in the 4,000 pound heavy hitter club which gets me a fancy Jacket. I won two weighoff's this year with heaviest pumpkin overall. I entered 3 weighoffs this year and had a total of 7,270 pounds weighed including my exhibition pumpkins.   Sunday, October 18 View Page Picture of my 2096 which was my main pollinator plant this year. Either I didn't pollinate it properly or maybe it got too hot first few days after pollination when my shade cover blew off because i went out of town on business after i pollinated. The back end of the pumpkin never really filled in. But holly crap, today I was able to borrow a scale and I could not believe how heavy this Heifer is, 23% heavy!!!. Heaviest i grew last year was a 19% heavy Squash. I am super excited about this result I am hoping my 1427 and 1411 can benefit from the super heavy 2096 pollinator and big shoulders. 2016, I will only be growing in my lower patch where everything is fully automated. In my lower patch their are 7 growing spots, each spot is at least 35 feet by 35. I will be growing Three 1427 and one 1411 and one 1305 and two others which are undecided until i get the seeds.   Thursday, December 31 View Page 2016 will be 1600 pounds or bust!!! Happy New Year...