Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 69 Entries. Sunday, February 21 View Page Started veggie seeds and melon seeds, included in the mix are....Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers...Speckled Roma, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Giant Belgium, the 6.83 Boudyo, 6.16 Foss, 7.10 Foss, 285 Edwards 165 B Cantrell and the 291 Kent :)   Tuesday, March 1 View Page That's it Heather get those a amendments ready..(40 lb bags) those giants don't grow themselves...:)   Saturday, April 30 View Page 285 Edwards after two weeks in the ground. Putting out side vines. :)   Saturday, April 30 View Page Giant Cabbage growing...:)   Saturday, April 30 View Page Some nice BIG blooms on our maters....:)   Wednesday, May 4 View Page The 6.16 Foss, cross your fingers we get this one to take.:)   Wednesday, May 4 View Page 6.16 Foss...after this pic I took off the extra blooms above my finger hanging down...????   Saturday, May 14 View Page We had 4 mega blooms open at the same time on 4 different plants. Well 3 of them have taken. This one is on the 6.16 Foss plant...now the real fun begins..????????   Saturday, May 14 View Page We had 4 mega blooms open at the same time on 4 different plants. Well 3 of them have taken. This one is on the 6.16 Foss plant...now the real fun begins..????????   Saturday, May 14 View Page 285 Edwards coming along nicely... :)   Thursday, May 19 View Page Here is our other big one we have going. It is on the 6.83 Boudyo. :)   Thursday, May 19 View Page The other side....brown spot is where a bug tried to take a bite out of it last week...????   Saturday, May 21 View Page :)   Tuesday, May 24 View Page Leaves on the 285 Edwards right now...:)   Wednesday, May 25 View Page We think this is gonna be our shot at a big one(we hope that is) Had to support the stem...???? 6.83 Boudyo   Thursday, May 26 View Page :)   Thursday, May 26 View Page :)   Saturday, May 28 View Page The fun begins...She grew 1 inch in 24hrs :)   Sunday, May 29 View Page She grew another inch.. So if she stays on this path in 9 days we will be headed towards a new personal best..our PB is 4.6 pounds. :)   Monday, May 30 View Page Pollinated the 285 Edwards, on the main vine. :)   Monday, May 30 View Page 6.83 Boudyo :)   Monday, May 30 View Page 6.16 Foss :)   Monday, May 30 View Page 7.10 Foss just starting :)   Monday, May 30 View Page 1947.5 Clementz Captain the Enterprise has landed :)   Friday, June 3 View Page 285 Edwards :)   Saturday, June 4 View Page 6.16 Foss :)   Wednesday, June 8 View Page This pic was taken yesterday...Day 8 on the melon...   Wednesday, June 8 View Page 6.16 Foss :)   Wednesday, June 8 View Page 6.16 Foss :)   Wednesday, June 8 View Page 6.16 Foss :)   Friday, June 10 View Page Picked cabbages tonight due to HOT weather......biggest was 15 pounds...will give this another shot, prob mid to late winter next time....2 pounds shy of PB...:)   Friday, June 10 View Page Day 10 melon measurements (yesterday was day 10) SS-16 FB-21 Cir-32 Today melon grew 7- 3/4 inches in total OTT :) Sorry for the unpainted nails... been busy...   Monday, June 13 View Page :)   Monday, June 13 View Page Ok she is still growing. Gonna just give her water next two days. She is getting stretch marks and I don't want to over due it and make her explode(even if it brings growth down) need her to stay solid. Now with all that being said 1 more inch baby and we are over our PB (est that is)   Wednesday, June 15 View Page As I tuck her into bed, I pray she waits to turn red, I give her roots water twice a day, Also give her leaves a nice water spray, So please tomato grow for me, So I can weigh you and get a new PB   Thursday, June 16 View Page We are at our PB est according to the chart., chart says 23=4.5+ pounds.. This morning she measured 23 1/2 ??????   Saturday, June 18 View Page Ok it's hard not to keep the grin off my face but in the end the scale tells what she will weigh. Est at 5+ pounds now...Still growing and not turning yet. I look her over each day to see if there is any sign of turning and praying I don't find any pink. 6.16 Foss   Thursday, June 23 View Page With tomorrow being another day at 100 degrees we picked her tonight.We have a new Personal Best .She is just shy of 5 pounds 4.12 Finders. Thank You Bill Foss for giving us a chance to grow your seed.   Friday, June 24 View Page Correction: weight should be 4.75 :)   Sunday, June 26 View Page Second of our 3 big tomatoes this season. We will weigh the other one tomorrow night, est 3.5 pounds..????   Monday, June 27 View Page Just a 2 lber :)   Monday, June 27 View Page Our last big tomato :)   Tuesday, June 28 View Page I always love this Burying Vines view. We are a couple of weeks behind norm due to the fact we want a pumpkin for our fair in Oct but with waiting means we have to deal with pollinating in 100 degree weather. Cross your fingers for us..we are gonna need it. This plant flat/ribbon vined on us. It went into two growing tips, we stopped one and grew it a bit more but flat/ribbon did not stop so what you see here is one of the side vines we took from the left of the plant and it is now shooting out third growth that is why in the background the other side vines are so long. We have up and coming males and females on this plant so pollination soon...:)   Friday, July 1 View Page Pollinated the 1947.5 Clementz this morning x Self   Sunday, July 3 View Page Cobra vines from free nitrogen   Sunday, July 3 View Page As you can tell from our last entry, our vines grow like cobra's ready to strike. The funny thing is, that we tested very low for N and that I never did added any N fertilizer. The only thing we did add were all purpose fertilizers that had all NPK's but in very moderate amounts. The only thing I can think of that causes this spike in N uptake is that the organic matter we added pre season has been decaying very rapidly due to the extreme heat this year and has caused a prolonged surge of available free N to the plants. It has caused the death of male and female flowers and dark wrinkly leafs. Nr 1 symptom though are the cobra vines. Tell tale and unmistakable.   Sunday, July 3 View Page And unfortunately we chose the hottest year in the last 6 years to take up growing again. With a string of 7 day of close to 100F and over, its hard to keep the plants in a good shape, let alone flourish.   Sunday, July 3 View Page Roots crawling over the sand. It's like they know to grow over the sand layer and right inbetween dirt and sand. Definitely need a thicker layer of growing soil next year!   Monday, July 4 View Page 100% shade might no be enough, the devil would be hot in sc right now !   Monday, July 4 View Page 100% shade might no be enough, the devil would be hot in sc right now !   Monday, July 11 View Page Another pumpkin aborted. So we have come to the reality that we will not be getting a pumpkin this year. For the next week and 1/2 temps will be at or above 100 degrees. Next year we will start our normal start date. We really wanted a pumpkin for the fair that is why we started so late this year. Normally we have a pumpkin set by now.All the hours and days spent almost feels like time wasted at this point. Sucks Bad. :(   Wednesday, July 13 View Page This is how our season is going.The big one is the one I thought we had a shot at,aborted day 5 all others various sizes the smallest one I left open. ??   Wednesday, July 13 View Page First post went to wrong account so sorry for the repost. I did the cooler thing today. Well big flop. She was under 30% shade netting, cooler, ice, a table over the cooler and a towel. Plus had two fans blowing on her. Temp gauge says it got down to 55 but then it went up to 99.so she is fried.So as in previous post... Looks like a no go for a pkn.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Can't even post right lol   Saturday, July 16 View Page So we have decided to go down fighting. Last pollination we tried the cooler method and it did not take. The next day we tried 3 jugs of ice, 2 fans, insulated cover, shade net, and covered by a table and still it did not take. The temps the next 3 days in the low 90's instead of 100+ so gonna try using the tomato blossom set spray to see if it will help.The plant is about 600 sq ft now,next pollination prob Monday/Tuesday.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Going to use our melon for a display at work. Funny that it is a baby to us, by the biggest fruit others have ever seen. It was a solid fruit, wish we could have seen it grow all the way out. Rough and tough season here in SC.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Ok last shot on the pkn plant. If no set then plant gets pulled this weekend. It sucks but the hard part of growing is pulling a perfectly healthy plant.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Ok took off the back 2 side vines in hopes it sends a signal to the plant that there is less plant to feed and it is time to grow a pumpkin. At this point we have tried everything.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page This plant is healthy all around. Leaves green, stump solid, and tap roots are green on the inside. Another reason we will be pulling her if this female doesn't take. We don't want to leave a plant in in hopes we get a female and the plant gets sick and next thing you know the patch is sick too.   Friday, August 5 View Page Day 10 and CC is 25 inches on the 1947.5 Clementz. :)   Saturday, August 6 View Page We are suppose to get some rain starting tomorrow night so sprayed some fungicides tonight(ps glad I built that table for Frank, without it I would not be able to get the sprayer on my back by myself)   Saturday, August 20 View Page Est 100 pounds...She wont be big at all but with any luck a nice Halloween Pumpkin...Was a tough year with the 100+ heat for the entire month of July...:)   Saturday, August 20 View Page Also a SQ just set this week for us...:)   Sunday, September 4 View Page Well she is still growing,up 41 pounds for the week. We still have 36 more days till the fair so hoping she makes it till then but that is a long time. Closing in on 120 pounds.   Wednesday, September 14 View Page Est 162 pounds...Hope she gets to 200 for the fair...was a tough year but its better then nothing...:)   Sunday, September 25 View Page Est 198 pounds..almost 200...Fair is two weeks away...:)   Saturday, October 1 View Page A first for The Finders Patch, we have a fruit still on the vine into Oct. Vine is solid too, no rot spots. We took all green out except the main and the side vine that is connected to the Squash(greenie). Lady Bug is Est 210 pounds and she will stay this way till next Sunday's delivery to the fair. She is 18 FT down the main and 16 ft out on the side vine. Not the ideal spot but all we could get this year.   Monday, October 10 View Page Lady Bug made it to the fair.Fair starts Wednesday :)   Monday, October 24 View Page Super excited that not only did Lady Bug make it to the fair and win a blue ribbon, she has made it through the fair and a first for us to have something on display for Halloween :)