Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 53 Entries. Thursday, February 18 View Page FlatNorm has everything he needs for the trip to the UK next week. When he returns it will be time to begin working on his plan for the 150 square foot contest. He heard a rumor that somebody is going to try to break the 1k barrier in the 150 patch.   Friday, February 26 View Page FlatNorm made it to the UK   Friday, February 26 View Page Where he saw the Team-Pumpkin banner displayed   Friday, March 11 View Page Flatnorm made many new friends while at the Big Show in the UK. Here he is with Udo and Jürg.   Friday, March 11 View Page He was invited to go on tour with his new German friends. This driving on the wrong side of the rode was a bit un-nerving.   Friday, March 11 View Page Flatnorm always wondered what the inside of the ferry looked like.   Friday, March 11 View Page What is that through the window behind our roaming Flatnorm?   Friday, March 11 View Page Once outside its much easier to see, its' Dover !   Friday, March 11 View Page Flatnorm attends a new grower presentation hoping to pickup secret German grower tricks from Udo.   Sunday, March 13 View Page Marley says to have these two ready for him at the weighoff this year. Grow Scott   Tuesday, April 5 View Page 5 April and Flatnorm wants to know what is that stuff in his 150 patch. You can't grow a pumpkin in that.   Saturday, April 16 View Page There aren't to many option on where to put his hoop house in the 150 patch so that looks to be a good place for it.   Saturday, April 16 View Page Flatnorm needs a hole to install his soil heating cable   Saturday, April 16 View Page This is how Flatnorm arranges the cables in his 150 square ft patch. He will pull the bamboo sticks out after he refills the hole.   Saturday, April 16 View Page All that work and doesn't look any different than when he started.   Sunday, April 17 View Page Flatnorm doesn't use a conventional hoop house in his 150 patch. This one is so much easier to build and seems to be very resistant to wind problems. Once his seedling is installed he will provide openings for some ventilation so it doesn't become to hot inside but for now let it cook.   Thursday, April 28 View Page After a few days vacationing at the Bates and cared for by the non-flatnorm, the seedlings are back home and in their hoop to begin FlatNorms season. They started as 3 seedlings in one pot but one was to funky and culled the first day in the patch. FlatNorm will wait before deciding which will survive and be the champion of his 150 sq ft patch this year.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page 150 square ft patch, May 3. It looks like FlatNorm forgot to post this picture. As you can see the plants haven't grown much.   Wednesday, May 11 View Page 150 square ft patch and things are slow mostly due to 11 days without sun. Neither of FlatNorms remaining plants is doing better than the other but they are growing.   Sunday, May 15 View Page 150 sq ft patch, 4 days of better weather and the plants respond. Looks like FlatNorm will have a winner soon.   Wednesday, May 18 View Page last evening both plants were standing up and Flatnorm planned to cull one today but this morning the 'chosen' one was laying down and didn't look right. Flatnorm opened the small hoop to inspect the damage but doesn't see anything wrong with the plant other than its down. It must have fallen over night. Now he will have to wait and see what happens to it.   Saturday, May 21 View Page 3 days later and it looks fine so guess what happens next.   Saturday, May 21 View Page Flatnorm sharpened his knife and whack, off with it.   Saturday, May 21 View Page We have a survivor, the last of Flatnorms 3, 1000.5 Gansert seedlings has the 150 sq ft patch all to itself   Tuesday, May 24 View Page Flatnorm decided to re-post the measurements for his 150 sq ft patch even though it's the same each year due to limited space.   Thursday, May 26 View Page it's coming out day for Flatnorms plant.   Thursday, May 26 View Page His plant looks so all alone way down there.   Sunday, May 29 View Page A couple days out in full sun make all the difference as you can see.   Friday, June 3 View Page look what Flatnorm found ! May be a little to soon yet   Monday, June 6 View Page plant is starting to fill the 150 patch, looking good so far.   Tuesday, June 21 View Page The patch is nearly full and Flatnorm must start making choices about which one to cull. He has done 4 pollinations and its time to cull.   Wednesday, June 22 View Page Its day 10 for the first of his pollinations and time to sharpen his knife again. He decided to cull the gnarly female from the 17th knowing he had better options. 48 hours after pollinations on 12th and 18th he applied the "Anthesis" in hopes of improving his weights. Its time to cull the one from the 12 June. his current plan is to 'keep' the 18 June pollination. Just in case he did another one yesterday.   Wednesday, June 29 View Page 150 patch for Flatnorm is all in now that he has made his selection and culled the competition. Flatnom is impressed with the length of the stem on this one.   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Flatnorm terminated the main just after the pumpkin. Secondaries will fill in any available space around the pumpkin. Day 11 and the patch is almost full.   Friday, July 8 View Page Day 20 for the pumpkin in FlatNorm's 150 square ft patch. Almost all the vines are terminated and the silt fence is still in place to contain the plant in its 150 square feet.   Friday, July 8 View Page FlatNorm likes the looks of this one in his 150 sq ft patch, should be very orange and round   Friday, July 8 View Page Another view of FlatNorm's pumpkin.   Monday, July 18 View Page Hard to get a good look at FlatNorms pumpkin hiding in the leaves at day 30 but he likes the color.   Monday, July 18 View Page When Flatnorm looks at the patch next to his he sees a lot more space and a bigger pumpkin but its an ugly color.   Thursday, July 28 View Page day 40 and FlatNorm's pumpkin is still growing.   Saturday, August 6 View Page Flatnorm won't be home to take the d50 picture so one day early will have to do. Want to know how flatnorm gets his pumpkin to look like that? Well he credits his patch companion the patch pig who is usually hiding in the leaves and vines but today he wanted his picture taken also. Flatnorm thinks he needs to feed that pumpkin a bit more if he wants to win the 150 contest.   Thursday, August 11 View Page FlatNorm took the sheet off his 150 sq ft pumpkin today and its still a looker which is more than you can say about his patch neighbors. Sheet on ...sheet off, they still look the same.   Thursday, September 8 View Page Flatnorm had to let his pumpkin out in the sun for a couple hours this morning to dry everything out after some recent rain. The color of this one is still good even in bright sunlight. Won't be long now, 82 days and counting.   Thursday, September 8 View Page Flatnorms neighbors have a nice view of the patch   Saturday, September 10 View Page Sorry for the missing size reference but it was hot in the full sun at 2pm while FlatNorm was working in his 150 patch and took this picture. At 84 days this is one of Flatnorm's oldest pumpkins. He is in his 10 day countdown to the weigh off.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page FlatNorms view from behind his pumpkin shows it is trapped and will be hard to get out. The other 2 plants along with zinnias and the head end of the drip system are all in the way.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page As FlatNorm begins removing obstructions we can get a better view of his 150 square Feet pumpkin for the first time.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page FlatNorm tries to protect his orange pumpkin while he uses his tripod to pull the pumpkin out of the patch to a location where it can then be lifted properly.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page one more time and he will be ready to lift.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page Finally on the road   Tuesday, September 20 View Page This beauty makes it easy to get through busy intersections.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page Finally on the scale. 793 isn't to bad for a 150 square feet patch. FlatNorm is happy!   Monday, September 26 View Page The 150 square ft patch is complete for FlatNorm this year. He has had a busy few days but his Howard Dill Award winning 793 is home again and on display. As he looks around he sees a large empty space in the patch next to his but his other patch mate is still growing and will go to a weigh off in the near future. (that Bart guy is having a fun year)