Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 51 Entries. Wednesday, February 10 View Page Our first post of 2016! There are a couple things that will be different this year. Unfortunately, we are still in stage 2 drought with our water restrictions. We can water outside 2 times a week, 10 minutes max. It looks as if these regulations are until further notice. I give it a 90% chance they aren't going anywhere and waiting around to find out is too late of an option. SSSoooooo, I decided to let Joshua, my 5 year old son have the patch this year (with my help obviously), so he can grow his own fruit and I can help teach him. He is real excited. He says he wants to grow a fruit as big as our house! In our high heat area and almost no water to work with, the prospects of a large fruit are not very good to say the least. lol That is why I am taking the year off from competition at Pumpkinmania, just wasn't in the Lord's will. Mr. Chris Dunn, I was gonna give you a good run for your money this year and try to beat ya, but looks like I will be watching from the side lines again my friend! As Joshua's coach, I advised him that we were gonna take some risks if he wanted to grow a decent fruit. Risk number one, start seeds in February, looking to set plants out in first week of March. Now, we have a limited budget, so no frost protection will be used and no hot house will be build over young seedling. Old school, so depends on weather. And we are in an el nino year, so we could get some massive storms in late winter and early spring hehehe. We'll do what we can to protect the plant. No misting available, so only some medium shade cloth, gulp! If we get a fruit, it will grow through July, so shall be interesting. And we will be using a smaller plant size and not the whole patch. Watering is our biggest concern, or lack of. My fear is we might split a fruit if our soil goes from dry to moist with our limitations. Anyway, hold on, here we go. Gonna be fun Joshua!!!!!! Whatever fruit you get, be proud of it, cause it's not gonna be easy this year!   Wednesday, March 2 View Page Joshua and myself started seeds for his pumpkin patch. We traveled to Mr Vince's house since he has the warm seed starting hut. Mr Werner was kind enough to give Joshua 2 1491 werner's and one 1730 Werner. unfortunately the 1730 rotted. We started a 2008 Neptune in it's place and the seed rotted as well after germinating. lol Usually our seed starting is 100%, but not this year. So as of now, one 1491 werner is up and healthy and another 1491 was started and seems to be growing well with it's root but isn't up yet. So it is all 1491 werner, gonna be orange I think! Pictures to come soon.   Wednesday, March 16 View Page Sorry for the delay to Joshua's diary, been busy and then got sick! So, here is Joshua himself with his side kick andrew, brewing his first ever compost tea! We did some research and really liked the boogie brew tea. It's open source so you can see the recipe or even make it yourself. Never did tea before seriously, so it can only help our patch!   Wednesday, March 16 View Page The man and his patch! :) Go Joshua!   Wednesday, March 16 View Page here is the 1491 Werner plant A. Growing like a weed for being so young in cool temps. Funny part is it puts out leaves at 45 degree angles instead of the usual 180 opposite. Very healthy, aggressive. Was 85 plus today and it did not wilt or burn with no shade cloth, exactly what I was hoping for with no misting this year. Our big weakness, lack of water, so we will see how it does.   Wednesday, March 16 View Page 1491 werner B, stubby! I ripped off the seed leaves when the seed coat got stuck. lol A much slower starting plant as you can see, only started 4 days later, but not kept in a hot box at vinces after germination. The hot box really does the trick.   Wednesday, March 16 View Page Our water system, aka waste management! lol And our waterer, Joshua! He will water by bucket except two days a week for drip, all we are allowed to do.   Wednesday, March 16 View Page whole patch is tilled, but Joshua will use 300 to 400 sq foot, the other 400 sq foot will remain empty until july, then Joshua will use that half to grow a big max pumpkin for a local competition.   Sunday, March 27 View Page this is what happens when you give a 5 year old the patch, lol, he makes it into a sand box play pen   Sunday, March 27 View Page :)   Sunday, March 27 View Page 1491 werner growing well. I haven't given patch much attention lately. Our house has been sick on and off, so my energy level hasn't been there. We did get a gopher attack at edge of patch but operation "flood him" went well and all is ok:)   Sunday, March 27 View Page she is starting to creep out a vine. drip is still not functioning, pressure regulator failed, haven't got a new one yet   Sunday, March 27 View Page stubby is slowly coming along too!   Sunday, April 17 View Page A lot has happened since last post! We took out one 1491 werner and guess what? This is little back up stubby! lol The main plant doubled on us. Even though stub was a slow starter and not given same treatment, I'd rather have a plant that is normal and behind than aggressive and mutating. She's looking good with Andrew.   Sunday, April 17 View Page She's pushing 3 to 4 feet now and really taking off with our warm spell the last few days. I am teaching Joshua how to foliar spray in the photo! Good job buddy.   Sunday, April 17 View Page another shot of the little guy!   Sunday, April 17 View Page It has been a learning experience for me with the kids. I tend to take the plant too serious with my competitive nature! lol Joshua and Andrew pretty much run over the patch daily so the dirt is compacting, they also burst a drip line and sliced it :-D The shade structure had a triple failure in 3 days. First time was my fault, second and third times were just bizarre. Let's just say the supports failed and fell due to wind and probably kids. I gotta be honest, it is a miracle of the Good Lord that plant is in one piece. The supports that fell, fell at weird angles where the plant should have been crushed twice and both times, I don't know how, it some how missed the plant, and it was close. lol Anyway, lastly, never ever use miracle grow seed starting mix. Tried it via Vince's thoughts (thanks Vince lol), it killed 2 of my 3 giant tomato plants as seedlings, and ruined my zuchini seed that sprouted, and I believe took out the 2008 neptune after it germed. Roots seem to cook. Our last remaining giant tomato was taken from us by hail two weeks ago, snapped the little stem right off. Chalk one up for el nino. But the 1491 survived the hail. Been interesting and we will see what adventure comes next. Btw, never had a shade cloth structure fail on me in all my years growing and had 3 in 3 days. :-D   Saturday, April 30 View Page Joshua and his 1491 werner. Weather has been cool lately. Plant is well except got blown around by some windy days and some leaves got bent up pretty bad by the stump. Male flowers on plant are slow to develop, the first few by the stump withered and died, which I have ever seen before in a non heat environment. Male flowers are growing as vine grows, but I was hoping for an early fruit set, no other friends have plants yet so I am all alone, do or die with my flowers, and there aren't very many of them yet.   Saturday, April 30 View Page another view from the front, main is 9 feet now.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Look what we have here Joshua???? But I do not believe we will have a male for this one unfortunately. Time will tell.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Joshua is getting to be a tea expert!!!!   Wednesday, May 18 View Page The post will be the good, bad, and ugly! First off, the good. 1421 "looks" normal and healthy! :)   Wednesday, May 18 View Page the bad! First time in pumpkin history, we lost our main vine pumpkin to a tricycle! lol Little Andrew has not hurt the plant in 2 months, yet he managed to run over the main vine pumpkin days before pollinating with his tricycle when papa wasn't looking. It was a direct hit, vine was fine, but pumpkin was creamed! Joshua looks happy. :(   Wednesday, May 18 View Page The ugly! 1421 werner has sterile males. We have no plants anywhere in region to cross with since we started very early to avoid heat and water restrictions. We desperately pollinated this side vine fruit with a zuchini plant. I later read that pepo and maxima do not cross. Things look bleak!!!!!! I am letting the plant in the patch until we confirm the failed pollination, then we will start again. Teaching Joshua a great life lesson, never give up!   Tuesday, June 7 View Page took the family and my dad to the eastern sierras, amazing God inspired country! This is convict lake where we stayed. The boys loved it! As for pumpkins, the 1491 werner was pulled with no pollination. As for God's amazing ways, where I grow is not my property. A few days after I pulled the plant, the park owner informed me a new public light was being installed by my house, and the electrical needed to be dug right through the middle of my patch! lol Amazing. If I had a fruit going, it would have been pulled. They dug a big ditch right down the middle of my patch! God works in unique ways sometimes. We restarted a new plant   Tuesday, June 7 View Page One of the best trout days ever for me, Joshua, and my dad. We ran out of bait or we would have triple limited out! We caught 13 fish and lost one really big trout, or shall I say catch and release. We had no net since our car didn't have the room to pack it, we got the trout to shore and pulled it up on land about a foot, line snapped, fish was fiesty and big, dad, grabbed it, fish still managed to bounce back into water. I ran for it as if began to swim away, stepped back onto tackle box, which flipped into the air and spilled all our gear everywhere. Dad fell on his rear end and got wet. I was screaming with excitement, man, what a funny story and what a great day! Joshua was sooo excited as you can see. He told everyone we met on the trail back that we lost the biggest fish!!! My guess was the fish was between 2 to 3 lb trout. :)   Tuesday, June 7 View Page a few more photos, Joshua resting on the hike back   Tuesday, June 7 View Page the boys!   Tuesday, June 7 View Page enjoying the beauty of God's amazing scenery!   Tuesday, June 7 View Page papa walked an upper stream in little lakes valley for small fiesty brook trout!   Tuesday, June 7 View Page Joshua loved the snow the most. We were over 10,500 feet on our last day looking up at mountains over 13,500 all around us. We had a snow fight! Anyway, we now have a 1790 wallace in our patch and a 1662.5 Debacco as a back up. The patch is back in one piece after the light installation.   Tuesday, June 7 View Page The boys loved hanging out with grandpa the most!   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Joshua and his brother andrew with the 1790 wallace. Better late than never we hope! Plant size will be around 375 sq foot when filled in, just a small plant. So far so good, but who knows with these guys lol :)   Wednesday, July 6 View Page I started plant in middle of patch, will grow a flag pattern one way, the shade cloth is covering the edge or the plant would burn in the afternoon as it goes west   Wednesday, July 6 View Page the only pumpkin on main vine, the choosen one at 10 to 11 feet out. Let's hope andrew doesn't run it over again! lol. No other pumpkins on main, so if this doesn't go, it's a side vine pumpkin for sure somewhere. No more space for the main and no pumpkins on the tip. Very few fruit so far on this plant   Thursday, August 4 View Page My Vince came over tonight to look at the strange white disease that has popped up on the 1790. Vince's words, "strange", "That's weird", etc lol I said, "exactly my thoughts". I sprayed organicide tonight on the plant. Well, I wouldn't say sprayed, I drenched it lol :) Sorry no pictures yet. Joshua has a fruit at day 22. The fruit is not breaking any speed records for sure, so the disease is slowing it down or it is an under performer so far. But Joshua thinks it's big and that's all that counts. I promise some pictures when I get my camera charged in the near future. To catch everyone up, some kind of white "stuff" has infected the plant badly, it's not powdery mildew, not downy mildew. It wipes off when rubbed, but it is turning the plant snow white fast! Never seen anything like it in my 15 years growing. Seems fungal. A unlucky blow for Joshua to get some strange disease of unknown origins. It looks like the plant is in harms way right now.   Sunday, August 14 View Page Finally got the camera up and running. Ok, need help with Joshua's plant for what this disease is. I will list a few photos and then explain at end   Sunday, August 14 View Page another view   Sunday, August 14 View Page this is same leaf just pictured. I rubbed off the white "stuff" and leaf looks fine underneath. Yes, it rubs off even when thick   Sunday, August 14 View Page disease started out like this, round small dots. Actually, there were only a few, maybe even one dot per leaf, then it got more round dots before spreading everywhere.   Sunday, August 14 View Page older leaves, new growth infront. Mind you, the dots come right off too when rubbed. Leaves do not seem to die from this stuff, but fruit is not growing normal, so it must be affected the plant in a pretty bad way   Sunday, August 14 View Page these leaves have had it for a long time, sprays seem to actually spread it faster, used milk, organicide, even sulfer, nothing works. Looks like powdery mildew, but it is unlike any pm I have ever seen. All normal sprays would contain pm and pm doesn't wipe off, and pm kills leaves. Advice please? Joshua put in a lot of work but isn't getting to much back this year:(   Sunday, August 14 View Page pumpkin on 1790 is 220 ott, growing very slow, but Joshua is still excited   Sunday, August 14 View Page last view, it;s not pretty!   Friday, October 28 View Page We had to finish up our diary! Sorry it has been such a long spell. Joshua's season was one of hardship, but I'm proud of him! The disease took out the plant in about 3 weeks, incredibly aggressive pm from what we could tell, it ate organic sprays for lunch, which I have never seen before in our area in 15 years. We ripped out the entire plant except one secondary and let the secondary grow. It was severely diseased as well, but the fruit limped along, and I mean limped for about 60 days total. Estimated weight on the ott put her around 350 lbs. She oranged up too!   Friday, October 28 View Page the back side of the 1790 wallace pumpkin!   Friday, October 28 View Page Joshua got real excited for carving!!!!! Look at the smile :)   Friday, October 28 View Page My suspicions were confirmed when cutting her open. I thought she was a heavy fruit, she had a consistent 6 to 7 inch thick wall over the whole fruit, except the blossom end was a little thinner. I do not know what she would have weighed, but.....   Friday, October 28 View Page she also looked pregnant inside on the bottom! lol A solid large hump came up into the cavity, I cut through the bottom of the fruit to see thickness and got 6 to 7 inches as well. My guess is that she weighed at least 400, maybe even pushing 450 to 475. Who knows, since it was never weighed.   Friday, October 28 View Page top front area cut open on fruit.   Friday, October 28 View Page Joshua got so excited for the carving he said he changed his mind and wants to grow next year lol. Hhhhhhmmmmmm, we shall see buddy! The whole end of the season he said it was too much work and did not want to grow next year. L)