Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 39 Entries. Tuesday, April 19 View Page My plan for giant pumpkins this year is one plant of the 1734.5 Clementz 15 and one plant of my 435.5 Wallace 15 (est.), which is the 603.5 Muller 03 X self. I started two seeds of the 1743.5 and seven seeds of my 435.5 yesterday.   Wednesday, April 20 View Page Correction on the previous diary entry. I started my giant pumpkin seeds on April 19.   Friday, April 22 View Page All the giant pumpkin seeds I started this year germinated. I'm not surprised, as they were 2015 seeds. My seed starting method is a 3 hour seed soak; then I put them in most paper towels, inside a zip lock bag to germinate(with an added heat source) I planted my two 1734.5 Clementz seeds, and five of my 435.5 Wallace(est.) seeds in pots this evening. I planted peas and onions in the garden today. I'm hoping to get the potatoes planted tomorrow, as well as few other vegetables. I'm growing 3 potato varieties I've never grown before.....Carola, Desiree, and German Butterball.   Thursday, May 5 View Page I planted two 1734.5 Clementz 15 plants, and four 435.5 Wallace 15 plants(two on each end) out in the patch this evening. My plan is to end up with two competition plants; the best plant of each. One reason I went with four plants of my 435.5 Wallace, is because it's a 603.5 Muller 03 X self, and the plant last year was a flat vine early on. I didn't get the hoophouses over them yet. I hope to on Saturday. They are protected by wire cages though.   Sunday, May 22 View Page All my pumpkin plants are still chugging along. Without soil heating cables, or electric heat in the hoop houses, my plants aren't very fast out of the gate. But I'm used to that. One of the 1734.5 Clementz 15 plants has two leaves at the 5th true leaf node. The other five plants look normal so far. I'm glad I decided to start both of the 1734.5 seeds I had. I was a little hesitant about starting two, but with only two competition spots, I thought it was the safest thing to do. I really wanted to grow the 1734.5, which is a 1317 Clementz 13 X self. I think it has very good potential for large and orange. My plan is for the following crosses: 435.5 Wallace 15 est. X 1734.5 Clementz 15....which would be (603.5 Muller 03 X self) X (1317 Clementz 13 X self); and 1734.5 Clementz X self. Both competition plants will get about 500 square ft. each.   Thursday, June 2 View Page I'm down to one plant in each of my three hoop houses(down from two in each). I went with the most vigorous plants in each spot. Out of the four 435.5 Wallace 15 est. plants I had in the patch, 3 were looking normal, and one had double leaves for at least 2 leaf nodes, near the mainvine tip. This plant was also smaller than its companion, so it got pulled. Now I have two 435.5 plants in the patch, on opposite ends of the designated plant area. I can let each grow for quite awhile before I decide on the keeper. Both of the 1734.5 Clementz 15 plants were significantly more vigorous than all four of my 435.5 plants. I'm guessing it's the genetics. The 1734.5's were in a little bigger hoophouse, but I don't know if that makes a difference? The 1734.5 I went with had about a 6" longer mainvine, and a longer distance between leaf nodes. The one I pulled had a yellow colored vine, whereas the one I kept has a green vine. I'm looking forward to seeing what this plant can do. Maybe I hit the lottery and got the best seed out of the 1734.5. One can hope.   Thursday, June 2 View Page This afternoon I constructed a larger hoop house over the 1734.5 Clementz 15 plant. It had one that was about 4'X 3'. Now it's got one that's about 10'X 6'. I'm hoping that by keeping a hoop house over the plant longer, I'll be able to increase the rate of plant growth, resulting in an earlier pollination date. Of course I'll have to keep a close eye on the temp. in the hoophouse, so I don't fry the plant on the warmer days.   Monday, June 6 View Page Unfortanately, due to my carelessness, I don't have the 1734.5 Clementz plant anymore. I worked PM shift yesterday. Before work, I opened up the hoop house on both ends of the 1734.5, because it was a warm day, and quite sunny. It was also breezy and this concerned me, but I thought/hoped the plant would be O.K. The mainvine of the plant was around 3.5' long. When I checked the plant today, the mainvine was blown back towards the stump of the plant. The stump(basil crown?) was almost broke completely off. Maybe 1/5th of it was still connected. I briefly thought that maybe I can still grow something off of it. But as I moved the plant, it broke completely off. I had the mainvine supported underneath by sticks. If I would of had the sticks over the mainvine to anchor from blowing, I think it would have be O.K. A learning experience I guess. As the saying goes, "It's no use crying over spilled milk." I'm sort of surprised I'm not more upset over this, as I really looked forward to growing the 1734.5. But I figure, now I'm down to one plant...my own 435.5 Wallace 15 est.(603.5 Muller 03 X self). I'll try and take good care of it, and stay on top of the weeding, vine burying, etc. My goal is to top my personal best of 1041 lbs. and hopefully have a Howard Dill award contender. On a happier note, the rest of the garden is doing quite well....many vegetables/fruits(for consumption, not competition).   Tuesday, June 7 View Page The mainvine on my 435.5 Wallace plant is around 3' long. The 435.5 plant at the other end of the patch is smaller....I'm keeping this plant for awhile as a last resort. I'm likely looking at pollinations starting around the first week of July.   Sunday, June 19 View Page We just had a short period of hail come through. A few of the hail pieces were quite large, around golf ball size. I'm hoping the damage in the garden isn't to severe. If the rains stop, I may have a chance to check it out this evening. Hail is my greatest fear for the garden.   Sunday, June 19 View Page I just checed the garden out, to see what damage the hail did. Fortunately the pumpkin plants only had a few holes in the leaves. I didn't notice any vine damage...although I didn't get real close to the plants. Thankfully the duration of the hail was short, and was relatively sparse.   Monday, June 20 View Page The main vine on my 435.5 Wallace 15 est. plant is 8' 5" today. No females noticed yet, which is fine with me. I'm not measuring the backup plant, as I'm hoping I won't need it.   Thursday, July 7 View Page Two females were ready for pollination, on the main vine of my 435.5 Wallace 15 est. plant. I didn't like the lobe configuration of the first one. So I only pollinated the second one(one leaf node later). It has 4 lobes. The cross is 435.5 Wallace 15 est. X sibling. I used one male from the backup 435.5 Wallace 15 est. plant for the pollination(I pulled this plant today, as it was encroaching on my other plant). As a side note, the back up plant had a nice 6 lobe female on the main, that was ready today. Now I'm down to one plant. This plant has been growing quite well lately, and I'd say it's one of the best looking plants I've had at this point of the season. What time is it my pumpkin? I'd say it's GO TIME!   Monday, July 11 View Page Saturday night we received 2" of rain. Sunday night we got another 2.1". It just started raining again now. We needed rain in the area. Hopefully now it doesn't become so much that it becomes a problem for the farmers. Lower areas in some of the fields have standing water. My garden looks fine so far.   Thursday, July 14 View Page My first pollination this year was on July 7. Just by eyeballing the pumpkin the past two days(days 5 through 7), if it's grown any, it hasn't been much; which isn't a good sign. There's an open pollination that opened on July 12, further down the main. Hopefully the bees did their job. The next female on the main looks like it may open this Saturday. I started terminating a few of the first sidevines 2 or 3 days ago. I'm anxious to get a pumpkin moving on this plant.   Saturday, July 16 View Page The first pollination has been growing, but slowly. It hit day 9 today. The circ. is roughly 12". Very slow growing so far. My second pollination hit day 4 today. It seems to growing decently, thus far. My third female on the main opened today(open pollination). Hopefully one of these three females will emerge as a clear winner, and I can focus on that one. I'm guessing it will end up being one of the first two.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Day 10 for my first pollination is today. It's circ. measured a meager 14". I believe this is the smallest day 10 measurement I've ever had. It grew about 2" in circ. in the past day. The next pollination hit day 5. I decided to measure it and it's 10.5" circ. I'm tempted to cull the first one, in hopes that the second one with have a better growth rate. But I know this is risky, because the second one could be aborting, in favor of the first one. So for now, I'll wait a see how it plays out.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page I decided to cull the first pumpkin on my lone plant today. It was day 12 today for it, and it's circ. was 19.5" I thought about just cutting half way through the stem, and finishing it tomorrow. But what the heck, I cut it off completely today. I figured it wasn't growing very fast anyway, so hopefully the sets further down will be O.K. if they get extra "juice". I've got two open pollinations further down the main vine. They were pollinated on July 12 and 16. Both seem to be growing for now. I like the early shape of the second pollination(oval), better than the one I culled, which was roundish.   Friday, July 22 View Page Day 10 today for my second pollination. It has a circ. of 24". Much more respectable than first one I culled. I'm liking the shape so far as well. In the past week I caught up on weeding, vine burying. and pruning. The rest of the season is the easier and exciting part....I hope.   Monday, July 25 View Page Nice growing weather here lately. I am getting some sunburn on a few of the leaves, but not a big problem IMO. Yesterday I culled the back up pumpkin on the main vine, so now I'm down to just one, that was pollinated on July 12. I didn't measure how far out on the main vine it is set, but I'm guessing it's around 17 or 18'. The pumpkin therefore has a nice amount of plant behind it. No cucumber beetles noticed this year(or last year for that matter). I am leaving some of the developing male flowers on the plant, in case I get a late infestation of cucumber beetles. In the past I've noticed they seem to prefer the male flowers, as opposed to munching on the pumpkin leaves. The pumpkin has nice oval shape early on, and is yellow in color. My 435.5 is 603.5 Muller 03 X self, so I'm hoping I've captured the nice orange color, and heavy to the chart genes that the 603.5 Muller progeny exhibited.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page Day 15 for my lone pumpkin today. Circ.= 47.5".   Saturday, July 30 View Page Day 18 for my pumpkin today. Circ.= 61.5". It should be around 70" for day 20, I'm guessing. Yesterday I was weeding around the stump of this plant, and noticed some twine I had tied around it(with plant label info) early on, was getting overgrown by the stump. The twine was digging into the stump about a half inch on the underside of the stump. I extracted the twine. Hopefully this won't cost me much in pumpkin pounds.   Monday, August 1 View Page Day 20 for my pumpkin...circ= 70.25".   Saturday, August 6 View Page Day 25 for my pumpkin...circ. is about 89.5". I have a feeling this pumpkin is going to grow relatively slow and steady like most of my pumpkins do. The day 30 numbers should give me a better idea if this pumpkin has a shot at breaking 1K.   Thursday, August 11 View Page Day 30 for my pumpkin....circ.= 103.5". I saw my first cucumber beetle of the season today. I was hoping they wouldn't show up this year. Hopefully it was a loner. I don't consider myself a violent person, but I made short work of it.   Saturday, August 13 View Page More cucumber beetles noticed today. They seem to be mostly immature ones, I'm guessing, by the looks of them. I have all but two secondaries terminated now. I may leave them grow awhile, to provide the flower blooms that the cucumber beetles like to congregate in. My reasoning is that this may keep them from munching on the leaves, or the pumpkin(which has happened in the past). I would have preferred leaving the main vine growing instead, but I terminated it several days ago, due to the fact that the newer leaves were burning on it. I don't use pesticides in the garden, as I use it for many edible vegetables as well. If it was earlier in the season, I'd likely order some Garlic Barrier. But I'm hoping the cuke beetles won't do much harm at this point. I may put up some yellow sticky traps soon.   Sunday, August 14 View Page Day 33 for my pumpkin today. I did the OTT measurements on it for the first time. Circ.= 111", e-to-e= 72.75", s-to-s= 71.25"; for a total of 255". Using the 2005 estimating chart(which I'll continue to use in this diary) the pumpkin weighs and estimated 357 lbs.   Tuesday, August 16 View Page The day 35 numbers are in! Circ.=115.5", e-to-e=75", s-to-s=73.5"; for a total 264". It's estimated at 394 lbs. It averaged an estimated 18.5 lbs./day for the past two days. I've been comparing numbers with my personal best from 2007 (1041lbs.). This pumpkin is estimating 38 lbs. less than that pumpkin, on day 35. Also, the 2007 pumpkin was pollinated 10 days earlier. So breaking 1000 lbs. this year might be a stretch. Though I think it is still possible.   Wednesday, August 24 View Page Day 43 for my pumpkin. Circ.=127.75", e-to-e=83.5", s-to-s=81.75"; for an OTT of 293". It's estimated at 533 lbs. Looking back, it's 1" OTT larger on day 43, than my 1019.5 Wallace 09 dmg pumpkin. This year's pumpkin was pollinated 5 days later though, and will likely be picked 2 or 3 days earlier. I'm still hopeful to break 1K this year. The plant pretty good for this stage of the season. I'll need nice weather, and thick walls to help me out.   Monday, September 5 View Page Last week I noticed what I'm guessing was small critter damage on my pumpkin. Some minor scratches, and a few chewed? marks. It was on the upper part of the blossom end of the pumpkin. These have healed over fine, and are superficial. Frustrating to see though. My previous measurements may have been a little off. I've been measuring with jute twine that has a marking of tape every 60". I think the twine must have stretched, because the I remeasured the 60" mark, and it was off by maybe .75 to 1". So the OTT totals I reported may have been a little off(on the low side). If I grow these kins next year, I should invest in a measuring tape. I'll likely not measure any more this season. As long as my pumpkin is sound, I trust it is still growing.   Wednesday, September 7 View Page Grow my pumpkin show your worth, grow my pumpkin increase your girth!   Friday, September 9 View Page Day 59 for my pumpkin. I measured the circ. and it was 142", for an estimated 681 lbs., using the 2005 chart. Significantly less than I was hoping for. About 2 weeks until I harvest it for the weigh off. I'll do another circ. measurement in about 5 days. It doesn't look promising to make 1000 lbs. LOL. I did have a pumpkin go over 25% heavy once though. With the 603.5 Muller genetics, I expect around 10% heavy. So I'm thinking it will end up around 850 lbs. being the optimist that I sometimes can be.   Monday, September 19 View Page I think you should grow more my pumpkin! Putting on more weight would be especially flattering to your figure.   Monday, September 19 View Page Day 69 for my pumpkin. Circ.= 145.5", for an extimated 725.5 lbs. So in the past ten days, my pumpkin put on an estimated 44.5 lbs. The growth rate has slowed down more than I expected. I'm hoping for quite heavy to the chart....aren't we all?   Friday, September 23 View Page Today was loading day for my pumpkin. When the pumpkin was lifted, we found a mouse nest under the pumpkin(between the pumpkin and the pulp mill fabric). Three mice scurried away...............................................   Friday, September 23 View Page I did a quick inspection underneath the pumpkin, and didn't notice any damage. Hopefully it will be judged a sound pumpkin at Gale Woods Farms tomorrow. Have a safe trip to the weigh offs everyone!   Friday, September 23 View Page My pumpkin is a pretty nice kin. I think it's the kind of pumpkin a guy would be proud to take home to his mother.   Saturday, October 22 View Page It was a beautiful fall day here today! I had a productive day at home. I dug up more potatoes, stacked firewood, and planted garlic. I better watch out, if I keep this manual labor up, I may become musclebound. I'm down to just some carrots and Desiree potatoes left in the garden. I enjoy growing giant pumpkins, but if I had to choose between the pumpkins vs. vegetables/fruits, the pumpkins would loose out. Thankfully I have plenty of room for both. This evening I had potatoes, squash, cucumbers, and carrots from the garden. Yum!   Saturday, December 31 View Page I realize I didn't post the final weight of my pumpkins from last year. It was 852 lbs.; weighed at Gale Woods Farm.