Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 46 Entries. Sunday, April 24 View Page The seed line up is being sorted out this week. Two pumpkins this year at home, may try out a squash at the barn. Have lots of nice orange to choose from thanks to the goodies Nana Rea sent! Decisions, decisions....   Sunday, April 24 View Page Starting a few for friends and neighbours too!   Wednesday, May 4 View Page Planted! Eeek! My 1213.5 Rea11 is on the right. Its pretty small so we'll see how it does. The 1327.5 Rea13 is on the left and has been my fastest growing seed so far. I am hoping for a lot of bright orange in the patch this year! Thanks again Glenna for the seeds, can't wait to see how they do.   Wednesday, June 8 View Page The 1213.5 Rea has been in the ground for a month. It's just starting to run but is pretty small for this date. I'm thinking my mushroom manure isn't broken down enough and I have some major salinity issues ??. Will just have to be patient and see how it goes.   Wednesday, June 8 View Page The 1327.5 Rea is in the same boat. Small but growing at least.   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Plants are still behind last year but are growing. I do see some females coming along....will just have to be patient!   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Out doing some giant pumpkin maintenance. My plants are still quite small but the secondaries are coming along and I'm burying them as they grow. I'm also trimming off tendrils, extra male flowers, and tertiary growth. There is a female at about 8ft that I'll pollinate in a few days just because. Hopefully they'll be a few more to come!   Wednesday, June 29 View Page My other giant pumpkin plant. This is the same seed that I grew last year that won me the HD award (thanks Glenna Rea!!!) My friend who owns a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch is also growing this seed and we're both hoping for huge bright orange pumpkins! The female is only at 8ft but it should open in 2-3 days and I'll see if it takes. There are more coming so hopefully I'll have a few to choose from. My assistant was also giving me a hand in the patch tonight. He tends to stick to my walking boards so he's allowed to hang around.   Saturday, July 2 View Page Pollinated the 1213.5 Rea with the 1327.5 Rea this morning. Hoping for a female further out to take but this one is just in case!   Sunday, July 3 View Page Here's a comparison shot of the patch from last year to this year. I've had major problems in all of my garden beds this year with the mushroom manure I used. Ah well, we'll see what happens!   Friday, July 8 View Page Giant pumpkin update. Both plants are growing better now. On the 1213.5 I have one pumpkin pollinated at about 7 ft, and two more to come at 10ft and 13ft. Am bending the main vine to keep it away from my other plant and to bend the vine away from the developing fruit. Now we just need some heat! (And for the aphids to go away!)   Friday, July 8 View Page The other giant pumpkin the 1327.5 is coming along too. One fruit pollinated at 8ft out and another coming at about 11ft. Aphids will be sprayed for tomorrow and a preventive PM spray will happen soon too. Thanks to Richmond Dave for the PM alert texts!   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Giant pumpkin update. Thanks to my wonderful friend and neighbour Vicky for pollinating the pumpkin on the right for me while I was away this weekend! It's at about 12' out. The one on the left is at 10' but has a terrible stem angle. Once the fruit gets bigger it would break off of the vine. So hoping pollination worked on the newer fruit even though it's a bit late in the season.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page And the other giant pumpkin..... Nice long stems on this plant but there is a stem crack on the fruit on the left. Not sure if it will get bigger or not? So will keep both fruit on for a while and decide in a few weeks which one to keep. Spraying for PM regularly now too.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Adding in a picture from my friend Cheryl's patch. I gave her one of the 1213.5 Rea seeds to grow this year. Her plant is huge and she has a nice fruit set on it, not quite sure how many DAP this is. She's got her 'hillbilly' shade tent set up and is good to go. I'm hoping she gets a huge bright orange pumpkin off this seed....looks like a Howard Dill winner to me!   Saturday, July 23 View Page 1213.5 Rea at 7 DAP So far no fruit have survived on this plant past 2 weeks....we shall see about this guy!   Saturday, July 23 View Page This is the 1327.5 Rea at 6 DAP and 11' out. It has a nice long stem and seems to have a better shape than the other fruit on this plant.   Saturday, July 23 View Page And here's the larger fruit on the 1327.5 Rea at 18 DAP only 7-8' out. Watching the stem crack on it and may choose to keep the pumpkin further out. Will leave them both on for a bit just to see how they grow and which will be the better choice.   Thursday, August 11 View Page This was the 1213.5 Rea on Day 21 at about 78 lbs. Should be a nice shape and colour if it would just grow already!   Thursday, August 11 View Page This is the second pumpkin I've lost on the 1327.5 Rea. They get to about 35 lbs and rot. Any suggestions out there? I've increased my calcium and sprayed some directly on the backup I still have growing.   Thursday, August 11 View Page Third time lucky on the 1327.5?!   Thursday, August 11 View Page Day 26 on the 1213.5 Rea. Sitting at 151 lbs. Still way behind last year but hoping we at least get over 500 lbs. Look out Glenn...it should be a nice bright orange HD contender if it gets big enough!   Thursday, August 18 View Page The 1213.5Rea at Day 33. Just under 300 lbs.... About 100lbs behind last year at this time. But she's still pretty and will be VERY orange!   Thursday, August 18 View Page The 1327.5 Rea. This is the third pumpkin I've tried to get going on this plant....so far this on is hanging on. DAP- unknown but it's 71 lbs.   Tuesday, August 23 View Page Will update with a pic of my own patch later in the week. I had to post a few pictures from a friends patch. We shared some seeds from my gvgo package this year. I don't remember exactly which Kline seed this was but it's doing well!... This one is 'Calvin'....with my friend's lovely daughter for scale ;)   Tuesday, August 23 View Page Cheryl and I are both growing the 1213.5 Rea this year. Whatever she's doing I need to take notes! It's growing like mad and is going to be a beauty! (And is twice the size of mine....*sigh*). They've named this one 'sugar'.   Friday, August 26 View Page Woohoo! My 6x6 lifting tarp just came from P&P Seed Co.!   Friday, August 26 View Page The 1213.5 Rea is sitting at 400 lbs today. We have just over a month until the weigh-off on October 1. I've been getting tips from Richmond Dave on fertilizing....lets hope they work!   Tuesday, August 30 View Page I shared a bunch of my GVGO seed package with friends. Cheryl grew this 4.78 lb giant tomato. Anyone know if there's a giant tomato record for British Columbia?   Friday, September 2 View Page The rain has finally stopped so I went out to measure both plants. This is the weird looking 1327.5 Rea. No idea what DAP it is.... Sitting at 263lbs and still gaining around 13lbs a day. Will make a nice carver for Halloween!   Friday, September 2 View Page The 1213.5 Rea has been covered with a sheet all season but is still colouring up! Day 48 and it measures out at 496lbs. Looks like we'll easily make 500lbs since there's still 1 month until weigh-off. Phew! The leaves are looking better than they have in previous years too. I've been diligent with the fungicide sprays because of our cool season. 4 weeks to go!!!!   Saturday, September 3 View Page Ok so I didn't read all the rules before we weighed the last tomato. There was too much stem attached when we weighed it, but it got eaten before we realized! So here's the next largest, not as impressive but looks like it could still be a provincial record for BC.   Thursday, September 8 View Page The 1327.5 Rea is still gaining! I'm going to leave this one growing until closer to Halloween and see just how big it gets. Sitting at 326lbs today.   Thursday, September 8 View Page Day 54 for the 1213.5 Rea. Still gaining but am hoping for better numbers with the warm weather coming next week. Just can't say how much it weighs now.......have to keep the competition guessing a bit!   Sunday, September 11 View Page Ahhh the fame that come with growing giant veggies.... Too bad there's no fortune to go with it! The Food Network Canada has done a photo gallery and we're #2! http://www.foodnetwork.ca/fun-with-food/photos/giant-vegetables-grown-canada/   Thursday, September 22 View Page Just over a week until weigh-off. Gains have slowed way down but the orange level has gone way up!   Thursday, September 22 View Page The raccoons finally discovered my pumpkins and did a little damage. This pumpkin is now locked down like Fort Knox to keep those little jerks out!   Wednesday, September 28 View Page 3 days until weigh-off with this beauty. We'll see ya there Glenn......   Saturday, October 1 View Page On our way to weigh-off this morning. The husband needed his coffee.....   Saturday, October 1 View Page Giant line up. Always nice to see everyone, such a great group of growers!   Saturday, October 1 View Page This is my smaller funny looking pumpkin the 1327.5 Rea that we brought just for exhibition. It weighed 498 lbs!   Saturday, October 1 View Page And it's now on display at the local Save-On Foods for a few weeks. They were one of our weigh off sponsors.   Saturday, October 1 View Page My big pumpkin ended up going a bit light at 617 lbs but look at that colour! It was definitely popular with the crowds today for pictures. We ended up 6th overall.   Saturday, October 1 View Page And it won the Howard Dill award!!!! Huge thanks again to Glenna Rea for her fantastic seeds and encouragement throughout the season! Also thanks to my husband who is my pumpkin mover/trailer driver/general pumpkin labourer! I couldn't do it without him!   Saturday, October 1 View Page A pic from the night before the weigh-off. Both pumpkins all loaded up thanks to good friends and neighbours. My new P&P lifting tarp worked wonderfully!   Sunday, October 9 View Page Super excited for my friend Cheryl who broke 1000 lbs this year! Her 988 Crews weighed in at 1080 lbs. This giant will now be on display at their family farm. (www.willowviewfarms.com anyone local should go... they have the best apples and dozens of pumpkin varieties!). She still has two more giants to weigh and I think she may get another that breaks 1000!