Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 59 Entries. Friday, January 1 View Page Google Maps put up a new satellite shot, and the screen house is in it. haha looks good! Lots of room for more. :-D   Tuesday, February 2 View Page Got a new toy to play with in the pumpkin patch!   Sunday, February 14 View Page My friend and fellow grower had the chance to borrow a dingo with a tiller attachment. He was good enough to bring it by to rip up the patch a bit! Sweet....   Sunday, February 14 View Page And while we are at it; might as well get a spot ready for a third plant! Only 2 in the Colorado Cave this year... The mini cave will have a single plant in it.   Monday, March 7 View Page I woke up early today planning to get lots of work done on the pumpkin patch! I got my soil sample and then it began to snow! DARN IT! frustrated I took a nap.   Monday, March 7 View Page Woke up a few hours later and it was sunny again and the snow almost gone. Hooray - got to get something done after all.   Monday, March 7 View Page With not much time left in the day I was able to go get a few bags of peat moss. In total this is about 4cf of clay busting moss! This with lots more compost I will continue my quest of fluffy soil.   Tuesday, March 8 View Page 2 yards of manure. Why so much peat you ask? Clay, lots of clay that I am trying to bust up with peat and compost. My only concern with so much peat is a PH drop however as I typically have a high PH as well as water that is usually about 8 I think I will be ok. Thoughts?   Tuesday, March 8 View Page Started to build some pony walls for the sides which will allow me to walk around rather than crawl around. 8"-12" I hit clay - I don't wanna dig the holes, who wants to come over and dig some post holes! :-D   Wednesday, March 9 View Page I think I have made my final seed selections. Long gourds, hot peppers, not giant watermelons, and 3 pumpkins! Lots of work to do... I also got my soil sample sent out last week however the post man took with box before I put postage on it. great... Called the lab and gave them the CC to pay for the postage due. lame....   Monday, March 14 View Page Put down a few bags of pearlite today.   Monday, March 14 View Page Happy with how the new tiller is working. Got it to the full 7" today and I also notice that I can take the depth pin out if I want for full burry! Miss Cheese is doing a good job on her patch at the top of mine.   Monday, March 14 View Page Side wall #1 is up. I will wait on the other side should I get lucky enough to have a dump truck bring the compost and not the back of my truck and a shovel! I am looking forward to this upgrade a lot! Should keep me NOT on my hands and knees as much. Also - the bad news... My soil sample seems to have gone MIA. Thanks mail man. *sigh* I guess ill send in another - I did want to have a starting sample first - oh well... I wonder what tilling will do to the sample.?.   Tuesday, March 15 View Page Added a few goodies today. Elisa in the back tilling in some stuff into her patch.   Tuesday, March 15 View Page Super happy with how its looking. The dirt is 7" of nice soft and fluffy soil! I like it!   Saturday, March 19 View Page The RMGVG had a good meeting, kind of dry with lots of house keeping things but excited to grow what the Wizz started!!!   Monday, March 21 View Page Got my soil test back... I suppose I was hope'n for more improvement. Phosphorus shot WAY up. Sodium WAY up... As always... Any and all suggestions are more than welcomed. PLEASURE haha...   Monday, March 21 View Page 800SF patch....   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 9 yards of the good stuff arrived today!   Tuesday, March 22 View Page Got some goodies to today.   Wednesday, March 23 View Page 70 outside and today a blizzard?? What the heck... Crazy weather!   Thursday, March 24 View Page Got these from Joe today, thanks a ton sir! Cecil was also nice enough to look at my soil test for me - I have ordered all that he recommended as well as my soil warming cables. Once that all gets here I will till it in, burry the cables and then I wait! And also build the house. Ugh lots to go and only about 2-4 weeks to get it done.   Monday, April 4 View Page Catching up on the diary... Cecil ran my numbers for me and adding his recommendations into the patch along with my great white and a hand full of other goodies. . . Copper, sulfur, borax, ECT...   Monday, April 4 View Page This is the correct picture. I think...   Sunday, April 10 View Page The weather all last week was no good. Today I did get some patch work done - buried the heat cables and also started my seeds! Going all rookie seeds this year. 1998 Jurtas 1662 DeBacco Miss Cheese says she will be growing the 1367 New All nice orange pumpkins with good crosses. If all goes to plan next year I will get a real nice pumpkin that I will cross back to the 1317 next year. Lots of IF's between now and then haha.   Sunday, April 10 View Page I took a incubator from my shop that seems to work fantastic! Temp and humidity alarms should something go horribly wrong.   Monday, April 11 View Page SO MUCH BETTER than last year... I like how its looking!   Monday, April 11 View Page I am NO carpenter AT ALL! But I managed to get a door to stay upright. I'm so happy... Way better than a piece of velcro which is what I had last year.   Thursday, April 14 View Page Woke up to lift off this morning! Mellon seeds started yesterday. Perfect 4 for 4 all at the same time. I like it! Snow and cold the next 4 days - I DONT LIKE IT!   Saturday, April 23 View Page The plants are growing quickly! I had better kick it into high gear. Power to patch ran, soil cable controller installed and powered up. Mini hoop house made and plants outside getting sun daily. Hoping for a transplant outside in the next few days. All that I really have to do is put the screen on the house - I can wait for that for a week or 2.   Saturday, April 23 View Page A side project for this year is to grow some hopps. This will also block the chickens from the neighbors. :-p   Thursday, April 28 View Page Hopefully not beginners luck!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Plants are in the ground.   Wednesday, May 4 View Page mood lighting for the young'ns   Thursday, May 12 View Page Where the side vine should be I'm getting double leaves and male flowers. What am I doing to cause this?   Thursday, May 12 View Page another shot   Thursday, May 12 View Page better picture of the main that looks good - just 2 leaves shooting out where just 1 should be.   Monday, June 13 View Page Been super busy lately - I have been keeping my Facebook page up to date, its a little harder to find the time to keep this one up to date all the time. Plants are growing well! Here we go.   Monday, June 20 View Page 7 more days worth of growth. The 1667 Debacco is NOT a happy camper when it gets over 90. I had a few days here in the low 100's and before I had a chance to reset my overhead watering 2 sets of leaves got full on on roasted, 2/3 more sets got part way roasted. I now set the overhead water to 10min - 4 times a day when the temp is much over 80. Seems to do the trick. . .   Tuesday, June 21 View Page A very nice football shaped 6 lobe on the 1998 about 12' out. Crossed with the 1367 New.   Friday, June 24 View Page 1662 Debacco. The weather has been in the 80's, I cut down my watering a bit, we got a bit of rain and whew we look at it grow. See next.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Just 24h worth of growth... I have been working so much its hard to tend the vines daily like they need to be. Just a few days and they are WAY past the last time I worked on em.   Monday, June 27 View Page 1998 Stump.   Monday, June 27 View Page 1662 Debacco   Monday, June 27 View Page 1998 Jutras 7 DAP   Monday, June 27 View Page 1662 Debacco - 6/23 - 5 DAP - crossed with the 1998 The is the plan A pumpkin... Behind it you can see the plan B pumpkin 10 days old - nice growth for only 10 days old!   Monday, June 27 View Page Plan B Pumpkin on the DeBacco - 10 DAP. Nice and round, no vine bend, and closer to the stump. I will see the size of the plan A pumpkin at day 10 and make the call.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1998 Jutras - I shall call him Little Richard. 15 days old and about 45 pounds.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1662 DeBacco 13 DAP. No name yet. I culled the plan B pumpkin at about day 15, if this one is like the last the next few days she will start to go go goooooo!   Thursday, July 7 View Page Look who came to check out the patch!!??!! The famous Matt was in town and wanted to check out the 1662 DeBacco plant that I am growing. Thanks for coming over Matt and giving me all kinds of GREAT info!   Sunday, July 10 View Page Record heat in Denver. DAMN! Next year I will invest in some more shade cloth for weeks like this...   Sunday, July 10 View Page 1998 Jutras 20 days old. Im well ahead of my numbers from last year and got a 2 week head start. Grow baby Groooooooow!   Monday, July 25 View Page Here is my 1662.5 DeBacco - 33 Days old. Doing about 35 pounds per day. I have decided to name her Bertha. Hopefully she will be BIG!   Tuesday, August 2 View Page I have been so darn busy this year with work. Which is a good thing as I own the business... Pumpkins are rolling big time! 1662.5 DeBacco has started to crack - hold together girl!!!!! Naturally this is while I am out of town for 10 days. Miss Cheese is in charge of the plants.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Little Richard has been a tank. Starting to orange up a bit thankfully! 1998 Jutras plant.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page Willing the 1998 to keep growing!   Sunday, August 21 View Page Little Richard the 1998 DAP 63. Still growing!   Monday, August 22 View Page The 1662.5 DeBacco was my faster growing pumpkin but just came to a stop at about DAP 40... 600-ish pounds. The stump and main vine on this plant was MASSIVE! I may try to grow it again.   Monday, August 22 View Page I am really happy with the this and last year in the current screen house but I think that if I had plants larger than 400sf that I could do better. Currently the house is 20x40... Im thinking next year I will try to expand it to 50x35, this would give my plants double the space and get them to a 'real' size.