Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 41 Entries. Sunday, April 24 View Page First time grower. Here's my patch for one pumpkin.   Sunday, April 24 View Page Here's the front-runner of my plants. Started last Monday - 1544 DeNigris '13   Wednesday, May 4 View Page Made a greenhouse at the weekend   Wednesday, May 4 View Page Pumpkin coming along nicely   Friday, May 6 View Page 1544 DeNigris   Friday, May 6 View Page 1415 Breznick 14   Friday, May 6 View Page 471 Fleming   Tuesday, May 17 View Page 1544 DeNigris, 3 1/2 weeks after seedling emerged   Thursday, May 26 View Page Took the hoop house off today   Thursday, May 26 View Page Panorama of the patch   Sunday, June 5 View Page This weekend - moved the fence, buried vines with some Great White fungi, positioned secondaries, fertilized with nitrogen/calcium,   Sunday, June 12 View Page Pumpkin got some wind damage in the past few days, especially when my break fell down in one place. Had to trim off some very damaged leaves, taped a split secondary back together, and did lots of extra staking.   Sunday, June 12 View Page First female is developing   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Pollinated 1544 DeNigris x self at 12ft this morning   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Another photo of female at 12ft   Saturday, June 25 View Page Pumpkin at 12ft is tennis ball sized. This week I've pollinated three pumpkins on side vines. Today I pollinated one on the main vine at 14 or 15 ft.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Here's the plant   Thursday, June 30 View Page Main vine at 12ft. Day 10   Tuesday, July 5 View Page Day 14 - 41" circumference   Tuesday, July 5 View Page Day 14   Monday, July 11 View Page Day 20: 64" circumference. Has been gaining 4" per day, but seems to have slowed down a little - maybe due to the cloudy, rainy weekend.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Day 25: 80" circumference, 51" sidetoside, 52" stemtoblossom. 183ott. Team pumpkin 2013 est weight: 142 lb   Thursday, July 21 View Page Day 30: 91" circumference, 57" sidetoside, 57" stemtoblossom. 205ott. Team pumpkin 2013 est weight: 197lb (179-214)   Thursday, July 21 View Page I had hoped this pumpkin would be growing faster than it is, but not bad, and lots of lessons learned for next year: 1) do a soil test 2) plant for a Christmas tree shape (right now all the side vines are at 45 degrees 3) use mycorz from the beginning (only learnt about them a month after transplant) 4) stake down vines (didn't realize the importance of that until after some high winds) and make sure my wind fence doesn't blow down More lessons to come I think!   Tuesday, July 26 View Page Day 35: 100.5" circumference, 59.5" sidetoside, 62" stemtoblossom. 222ott. Team pumpkin 2013 est weight: 248lb (226-269)   Tuesday, July 26 View Page Day 35: 100.5" circumference, 59.5" sidetoside, 62" stemtoblossom. 222ott. Team pumpkin 2013 est weight: 248lb (226-269)   Wednesday, August 10 View Page August 10th was day 50. Ott is 243.5. Est weight is 324lb. The pumpkin has really slowed down to a few pounds a day. It's been hot with very little rain. The leaves are dying all over the place. I'm hoping that I still get some gains and reach 350lbs so that I can take the pumpkin to Topsfield. I'm sure I'll be last but I'd love to go for the experience and to meet other growers. I think that the golden number is 250 inches.   Thursday, August 25 View Page DAP 65. 259ott. 388lb or 354-421. As long as nothing goes wrong I'll be taking it to experience Topsfield.   Wednesday, September 21 View Page Pumpkin has ott measurements of 266, coming to 419lb estimated. I'm looking forward to taking it to Topsfield at the end of next week and meeting as many people as I can.   Sunday, October 23 View Page Haven't posted in a while, so here's my update. I took my 1544 DeNigris to Topsfield. It was taped at 266" and was estimated at 419lb. Topsfield was awesome. I was part of the measuring team and helped rig up some pumpkins for lifting too. It gave me a great chance to meet a lot of people, as well as come in direct contact with some awe inspiring pumpkins. My pumpkin weighed in at 482.5lbs (15% heavy), which I never expected to happen. Ended up 21st/24 which I was very pleased with (seeing as I fully expected to be last!). Everyone I met was so nice, and I left feeling even more inspired about pumpkin growing. My thanks go out to Mike Fleming for kicking me off in the hobby with a batch of seeds.   Sunday, October 23 View Page Started work for 2017. Here's my soil test for the patch that I grew my pumpkin in.   Sunday, October 23 View Page I'll be growing 2 pumpkins next year. Here's the soil test for patch #2 which has been used for tomatoes for the past 2 years.   Sunday, October 23 View Page Got a load of leaf compost from my local farmer.   Sunday, October 23 View Page Added the leaf compost as well as chicken manure compost that has been sitting for a year.   Sunday, October 23 View Page Added some amendments to the whole garden. The garden is 2000 sq ft total. Of which approx 1000 is now devoted to pumpkins. 100lb Dolomitic Lime for ph, calcium, and magnesium 25lb Fast-Acting Agway Calcitic Lime for ph and calcium. I used this begrudgingly because I couldn't find regular Calcitic Lime anywhere. The bag say that this small bag is equivalent to 5x regular bags of lime which is why it's such a small amount. 6lb Muriate of Potash for potassium. I also bought 24lb of Bone Meal for phosphorus but think I'll apply that in the spring as I read that it acts for 1-4 months. My preference was to used Jersey Greensand, but that's another thing that I can't find anywhere. Anyone know where to find this in northern Massachusetts/southern New Hampshire?   Sunday, October 23 View Page Finally, I put down this cover crop.   Sunday, October 23 View Page The cover crop was inoculated with this for the peas. Not sure if it will have time to do much, but it was only a few dollars. My patch was very nicely and evenly raked until the heavy rain came on Friday and turned some parts of it to rivers, but it's raked out again and the cover crop has started to sprout a little.   Saturday, October 29 View Page Had a great time harvesting seeds and carving up the pumpkin   Saturday, October 29 View Page Lit up   Saturday, October 29 View Page Lit up   Saturday, October 29 View Page Seeds