Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 88 Entries. Saturday, March 12 View Page soil a little strong, but going to add 5lbs of Epsom salts to try and bring calcium magnesium ratio a little closer to balance. first year i'm ahead of the game, just hope I keep it up. but doubt I can. leaning toward squash this year, think I might do 2 or at least put one in the better half of the garden for a change.   Saturday, March 12 View Page ph 6.91, Buffer ph 7.92, organic matter 4%, P2O5 (kg/ha) 2614, K2O (kg/ha) 439, Calcium (kg/ha) 5771, Magnesium (kg/ha) 386, Sodium (kg/ha) 44, Sulfur (kg/ha) 20, Aluminum (ppm) 878, Boron (ppm) 0.76, Copper (ppm) 4.96, Iron (ppm) 318, Manganese (ppm) 58, Zink (ppm) 26.20, Salt (mmhos) 0.097, CEC (meq/100g) 17.2, Base Sat. K (%) 2.7, Base Sat. Ca (%) 83.7, Base Sat. Mg (%) 9.3, Base Sat. Na (%) 0.6, Base Sat. H (%) 3.7,   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Purging some old seeds if you want any please let me know in the next week 1522 Sproule 2012, 1048 Cox, 1532.5 Pugh 2011, 1618.2 Bryson 2010, 1426 Wolf 2010, 972.1 Finders 2012, 695 Johnson 2012, 1218 Bryson 2013, 1135 van Kooten 2009, 1532.5 Pugh 2011, 121.5 Warner 2012 Pear Gourd, 135.5 Nieuwenhoff 2012 Giant Bushel Gourd, I apologize for not growing these but some were given me by a second party and my garden is small.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Seeds I will hold on to but would be willing to trade. 1221 Barber 2015, 1312 Weston 2013, 1556.5 Werner 2007, 1402 Chapman 2014, 985 Turner 2015.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page I have decided to go all green this year as I just don't have the garden to compete with the pumpkins here. But I tend to place high when I do squash. So seeds that I really like and will hold onto until next year are. 1318 Tingley 2015, 1117 Tingley 2015, 978 Tingley 2014   Wednesday, April 6 View Page My Green Line up. 1203 Jarvis (23% heavey - 1264 Pierpont x 1023 Martin) 1245 Jarvis 2013 (1135 Jutras x 1486 Jarvis) 892 Jarvis 2015 (1060 Jarvis x 1421 Jutras) 836 Jarvis (1421 Jutras x 776 Butler) 1060 Jarvis 2014 (1023 Martin x 1264 Pierport) Watch this one, 800 Neily. enough said.   Thursday, April 7 View Page Feb, was so warm, I was hoping to start on the 10th. But march and now april is so cold, I will likely start on the 25th as usual.   Friday, April 8 View Page WHEEEEE more snow sunday. 6" more inches lovely lovely just f ing lovely.   Saturday, April 9 View Page well I gave away over 100 giant pumpkin seeds on Kijiji to a lot of people. that should get start a few new growers here.   Monday, April 25 View Page planted today   Thursday, April 28 View Page all up on another snowy day. (except 800 neily)   Thursday, May 5 View Page all in the ground today in mini greenhouse. I like transplanting on rainy days personally. and here in nova scotia that's usually everyday. 4 going head to head on the better side of my garden 2- 1060 and 2-895 and 4 going head to head on poorer side of garden are 1203 Jarvis, 1245 Jarvis, 836 Jarvis, and finally the 800 Neily which is way behind as it just started to shoot a root. the rest have 1 true leaves out. but were not root bound by any means. planted back ups incase I screw up   Sunday, May 8 View Page mayfly hatch is on so gone fishing for next 4 days. about 15 mile canoeing with 4 portages for about 1 mile. to the deep northern nova scotia wilds. will be getting a few hundred 2lbs brook trout, yummy. my plants usually do better when i'm not around bothering them anyway.   Thursday, May 12 View Page culled a few slackers today 1-1060 Jarvis(double vining), 1-1245 Jarvis and the 800 Neily (it started super slow and only had I starter leaf and no sign of a vine.) 3 more have to go but not sure which ones yet as they are nip and tuk. they are 1-1060 and 2-895 on one side. and doing the best by a fair margin the 1203 and 836 Jarvis on the poor side of garden. today was the first nice day here for me.   Sunday, May 15 View Page i'm glade I left my marked pots by plants, as I made a mistake. as I actually had my 1060 and 895 on opposite sides than what I thought. so on one side I'm down to 2-1060 as they were clearly out performing the 895's. On the far side there is a definite front runner but it's being unruly and might crack so holding onto my back up there. right now plants are small, just 3rd leaf starting.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page the best I've ever been at this time of year is 1'and 2' on the 25th well I don't think this is the best year then.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page oh culling is done now just a 1060 and 1203 Jarvis's. 1203 is in the lead and with the heat was able to get her growing the right way. placed light in front of her and hope it keeps it going east.   Thursday, May 19 View Page 1203 last night photo. Did a few inches last night and likely 1' this morning   Thursday, May 19 View Page 1060 did 2" last night so a good 1'   Saturday, May 21 View Page last year on this day my first true leaf opened and I got 985lbs. this year my vine today is 17+". But still plenty of time for disaster.   Sunday, May 22 View Page both plants are tied at 2' today. that now puts me 3 day's or 6" ahead of my best plants ever in this patch.   Monday, May 23 View Page looks like I might have a little roundup damage. I think it's insignificant but hard to tell as leaves were all a little yellow from cold nitro starvation. only time will tell, but got 3" last night. 1060 just took the lead.   Tuesday, May 24 View Page 2'5" this morning with a female already going to fall at 2'6", not usually a good sign in my opinion.   Thursday, May 26 View Page 3' today which puts me 5 day's or 10" ahead of my best here. I know that does not sound like much, but for in the city and right on the ocean (always foggy cloudy and cold), I'm happy with it. For I get great falls. last September I put on over 250lbs on my 985lbs pumpkin. Also it barely had it's 3rd leaf opening this time last year   Monday, May 30 View Page posted yesterday from cell with pic, don't know were it went? today 4'6" with side vines just starting to run 3 sides 6". now 9 days ahead of best or 20".   Thursday, June 2 View Page people are garbage. went to garden this morning to find a man and kids foot prints in my overturned soil also they slashed open one end of my green house. I've wanted to install cameras for a while now but no money in my budget for it. Im going to have to find it. 5'7" today.   Friday, June 3 View Page 1060 is 6' today. the 1203 is shorter but definitely bigger. 1203 getting me worried as its main has 3' of vine over 2' in the air, and cold all week will likely snap her.   Sunday, June 5 View Page 7' today. that puts me a week or 3'2" ahead of my best salad.   Sunday, June 5 View Page Here's the 1060 its not as good as the 1203   Monday, June 6 View Page So I have 2 plants at 7'.... I would ideally like to set a fruit on at 12' on june 23rd. But I will still be happy for july 1st....the earliest I have ever set is july 9th. and last years PB 985 was set july 16th. But the weather for next week here is all rain and cold.. high's of 15c or 60f.. Also heating cable I got only worked for 1 day :( but I still think I can do july 1st.   Wednesday, June 8 View Page 8' puts me 3'6" and 9 days ahead.....its weird, the leaves over 2 females have flopped over. it almost looks like their trying to get sun to the females. so far I have 3 females on the 1060 all good sized with long stocks. on the 1203 I have 2 that look small and stocky.   Friday, June 10 View Page 8'11" which puts me 10 day's ahead of my best. Which would give me a set on june 29th at 15'. still cold and looks like another week of cold before I get weather here in Halifax. 2nd female on 1060 will open tomorrow but no males even close to opening yet. the first few males along with my first female turn yellow and fall off.   Saturday, June 11 View Page 9'4" today with 2nd female opening today at 5' nice uniform 4 lober (first female just fell off) still no males close to opening. 4th female just coming out of the head so female 5 and 6 will be my targets.   Saturday, June 11 View Page 5' 4 lober great Wall thickness when cut in half.   Saturday, June 11 View Page Due to an assembly I have to help prepare for and attend this weekend coming, I will have to remove my hot house Wednesday evening. temps still going to be cool here until that Saturday but plants will have out grown hot house then anyway I think.   Monday, June 13 View Page despite the cold growth is not bad. 10'4" or 11 day's ahead of my best. 3rd female opened at 6'. again it was a nice clean 4 lober and when sectioned had good looking potential for thick walls. just hope the one I eventually set is the same.   Tuesday, June 14 View Page 10'10" today, now 12 days ahead, which in theory would give me a 15' set on the 27th. The 1203 has 2 females just come out of the head. the newest will fall between 11-12'   Wednesday, June 15 View Page 1060. 11'4" survived first day out of hot house even during anothe cold and windy day   Wednesday, June 15 View Page 1203. 10' 8" better looking plant   Friday, June 17 View Page wow 2 celceuis last night. so that is the end of the cold. 12' 1060 and 11' 1203, lets now see what they can do in decent weather.   Saturday, June 18 View Page 1203 not adjusting to life on the outside yet. hope this morning was last morning I will need my winter jacket to look at plants. 1060 12'6"   Monday, June 20 View Page 13'7" today. looks like the 1060 has finally adapted to life on the outside. I must say their are a lot of differences between the 1060 and 1203. I just hope that I am able to cross these two and get something even better.   Wednesday, June 22 View Page 1060 14'5". and my 5th female is out of the head. it should fall just under 15' and shes the one, as I fell in love with her at first sight lol but does that make me a pedo as not blossomed yet. 1203 13ish' this is Kodi's plant it has its 5th female about 2 leaves in the head and will also fall just under 15' and it's the one Kodi hopes. hoping to set 1060 on the 29ish and the 1203 2ndish   Thursday, June 23 View Page 1060 15' today with a 5 lobe female opening at 11' (hope this distant shrinks). took off 2 females from 1203 both were 3 lobers. these ones also have thick looking walls. still no males have opened. concerned but not worried yet. but if your growing squash in nova scotia let me know as I may have to bum a flower.   Sunday, June 26 View Page 1203 is 14'6" with 3rd 5 lobe female opening at 11'6" wall thickness not quit as good but real good blossom and shoulder thickness. its 5th female (Keeper) is just out of the head. 1060 about 16' still no males blossomed yet but looks good for when keepers blossom   Tuesday, June 28 View Page 1203 11' blossom   Tuesday, June 28 View Page Another 3 lober with super thick shoulders   Tuesday, June 28 View Page 1203 now 16'   Tuesday, June 28 View Page 1060 now 17' 3". I think both males and my 15' keeper female should open in 2 days   Tuesday, June 28 View Page revision: looks like 3 males on the 1060 and 2 on the 1203 will open tomorrow, of course in a rain storm, but I have them protected and hope to save pollen for 2 dayish pollination   Wednesday, June 29 View Page 4 out of 5 flowers had no staman. The 5th looked like this. My female has progressed quickly through the night. She will open tomorrow with nothing to pollinate with. Blue nosers Help please.   Thursday, June 30 View Page Earliest pollution ever for me by 9 days. At 15'   Thursday, June 30 View Page Nice 5 lober cross is 1060 jarvis by 1279 kline all thanks to Paul MacQuarrie   Friday, July 1 View Page 1 DAP. I hope she caught. Again 1 male opened on both 1060 and 1203 and still sterial. 1203 keeper still 2 days away. Just 91 more sleeps to weigh off lol.   Saturday, July 2 View Page the 1060 is definitely pollinated and her little sister on the next leaf opened, again a 5 lober. I pollunated her with the 1533 kline. the pollen is old but I don't want her anyway. Some may wonder why I used a 1279 kline for my keeper cross. the reason is no one else is making this cross, several are doing the 1060 x 1533 also the 1279 kline is a dark green with aggressive looking traits of the 800 neily showing through, which I want.   Sunday, July 3 View Page 3 DAP looking pretty good.   Monday, July 4 View Page Houston we have a problem. We are about to land but our navigator is going away. Well have to use the new untested system the KODIAK.   Friday, July 8 View Page Day 8. The landing crew KODIAK. performed perfectly. Main navigat or may not be needed   Sunday, July 10 View Page Day 10. Well my motto is start small end big, start big end small. At least that's what my triple hormone cocktail does. CPPU, GA and ?. Anyway I wanted a 21-25" day 10 circumference but only got a 20". OTT was 51". Maybe 3lbs   Friday, July 15 View Page 15 DAP. 36"C 90"ott . There may be a few bluenosers who have caught up by now. But if you are not ahead of me by August 1st. I think I got ya. Cause that's when I have the better weather.   Friday, July 15 View Page .   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Plant is OK but not great   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Possible early issue signs. Maybe low mag. Or low nitro. Or something else   Tuesday, July 19 View Page This is what is happening to vines closes to squash. The vine tips have been going yellow and peterin out. So I'm lacking something.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page I think mine is aborting. I don't think it will come out of this 3 day progressive slow down. At this stage it should be accelerating right now. it only did 2.5"c today so DAP 20 is a dismal 132" ott or 54"c   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Like the bean this kind of makes me want to sh1t   Monday, July 25 View Page 25 DAP NO GOOD. 165" OTT. I have nothing to blame. I think I may give up growing until I can move out to the country, where I can have a real garden. or until the new system.   Tuesday, July 26 View Page .   Saturday, July 30 View Page this is my best worse year to date. it will end up being just my worse though. it's my best year in that I'm still a day ahead pounds wise, to my best year to date, due to my early start. but this is likely my worse day 30 #'s. 83"c 161.5"ott or 172lbs ish. Not to mention I dropped my keys on this fruit early in the season, digging in some nice holes but also my boy shot my squash with his bb gun by accident leaving a wound that will likely kill this fruit. oh well, I will just have to take his fruit if he kills mine :(   Saturday, July 30 View Page sorry last post was supposed to be 195.5" ott   Monday, August 1 View Page day 32. With 87.5"c and 205"ott and 197lbs. This is my best Aug. 1st weight to date. But only looks like it's going to be a 600lbs at best.   Monday, August 1 View Page Well the bullet wound my boy inflicted on my squash is getting deeper so I will try to set this one at 35'. I will skip my steroids on this one, as not enough time for them to pay off. Once set I will terminate all growth and dead head at fruit. 1060''s are slow starters but strong finishers but I will try to turn it into a quick up front grower.   Friday, August 5 View Page DAY 36. 223.5" ott. Set back up today as bullet hole still may take me out. 5 lobe @ 35'.   Friday, August 5 View Page .   Saturday, August 6 View Page just crunching #'s and realistically My squash is only going to be 688lbs and Kodi's maybe 750lbs. a good start for Kodi, but kind of crappy for me.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page DAP 40. Not good. 300lbs today. What you can do in 20 days I can do in 40 lol. Something I've learned though is never give up. Looked like someone pushed their thumb into my stock, or rat bit. I caught a rat in garden this morning now just have to catch human just to be sure.   Sunday, August 14 View Page Day 45 367lbs day 45 is usually my 1/2 way point. So maybe 734lbs end? DAP 9 16.5"C   Friday, August 19 View Page DAY 50. At least it's still growing slooooow. 426lbs. Today my boy finally caught me but wiggling his seems heavy. But mine I can't even wiggle so positive mines heavy. Positive note. Yellow sunscorch section turned green whew! Also positive dill rings do not go diagonal so I must have a solid nose I hope.   Tuesday, August 30 View Page Day 61 550 lbs and still growing slowly.   Sunday, September 4 View Page My biggest squash from this patch was 338"ott but went a little light at 795lbs. Hoping I can squeeze mine up from 299" to 318"ott also hoping it goes heavy enough to beat my best here.   Tuesday, September 6 View Page just looking at old squash to see my heaviest to modern chart. it was over 12%. can I get more???   Wednesday, September 7 View Page I have enough GA3, ???, and CPPU, to blow the crap out of 1000 young pumpkins. Let's see what it will do to a whole plant. It takes 8-12hrs to breakdown ??? so will be applying tomorrow.   Thursday, September 8 View Page Day 70. 605lbs.so that's been 2lbs a day the last 5 days so I juiced the hell out of her this morning. I hit Kodi''s while I was at it. Nip and tuck with Kodi at 599lbs   Friday, September 9 View Page BAM!!!! 18lbs last night and no explosion. Went from 1/2 circumference gains for last 5 days up to 2" circumference gain last night. Why stop know, someone get me some gin with this juice.   Sunday, September 11 View Page Well I actually only had enough GA3 and ??? for one big hurray. Yesterday's growth was still up above earlier average. it was 7 lbs today pretty much back to my normal growth 5 lbs. but I do have one more extreme trick using CPPU that is risky So I will only do 5 days before harvest. I'm still concerned that I may lose her like Curtlava and other 1060 growers. But I always like to swing for the fence. playing it safe is for 2nd place finishers. But looks like Jeff Reid has 1st and 2nd rapped up so doubt I will get 3rd. I hope this ground ball slips passed the short stop.   Tuesday, September 13 View Page I've come to a screeching halt 2 day's ago. aphids, powder mildew and cold nights have shut me down at 635lbs. I'll hold off on my final trick until 25th hope that gets me to 309.5" 650lbs hoping for +13 percent. so 735 at best 600 at worst.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page pop pop, rot rot, that's the sound 2" of rain makes. Just hope its not me.   Thursday, September 29 View Page based on last years results from Glad Gardens in relation to the Windsor squash weigh off. I'll do good to be in top 10