Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 51 Entries. Wednesday, April 20 View Page It's the start of the season thanks to some great guys I met here at BigPumpkins.com Bart Toftness and Glenn Peters. This is my second season and I finally have some great seeds thanks to these guys.   Wednesday, April 20 View Page After a 6 hour soak in mother natures love H2O... these ladies are planted in worm castings with a splash of miracle grow to moisten the soil. Fingers crossed at this point   Wednesday, April 20 View Page 1A and 1B 1453-Toftness (1622 Young x 1103 Young) 2A and 2B 1258.8- Peters (Glenn) 3A and 3B 1097- Toftness (2323 Meier x 1916 Barron) 4A and 4B 1118- Peters   Tuesday, April 26 View Page Six days later we have germination!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page 13 days after SOW and we have some strong looking plants.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Another shot of these ladies!   Tuesday, May 3 View Page patch prep in full swing. Full sun south facing hill. hard to tell but should be plenty of room for two giants. The plan is to have them grow up the hill and fruit on level ground. I will be laying in the ground watering system with soaker hose and PVC this weekend for a transplant from the green house Mid month.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Patch site start of preparation   Tuesday, May 10 View Page My oldest and me preparing the plant site for the pumpkins. We dug a little over 3 feet down and about 3 feet wide and added the goods. we used a mixture of worm castings, compost, pig manure, straw and miracle grow potting soil.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page Another Pic   Tuesday, May 10 View Page Another Pic   Sunday, May 15 View Page The weather Here in Southern Maryland has been horrible. 2 weeks with rain everyday and we finally got a day with sunshine, these ladies had to get in the ground.   Monday, May 16 View Page Made these hoop houses to help with the temp and give some protection until I can get them fenced in.   Monday, May 16 View Page Another Pic with my Youngest   Monday, May 16 View Page Another view.   Friday, May 20 View Page The 1453 toftness looking good, will make the decision on which one to keep. I found the man to ride out the grow season for size comparisons   Friday, May 20 View Page 1097 Toftness. Also found the purple monkey to ride the season out..   Friday, May 20 View Page nice glow from the back deck...My neighbors probably think I'm crazy....They might be right   Friday, May 20 View Page convinced the wife to let me have a little of the front yard,, only planned on choosing the best looking of the bunch to grow in two spots, couldn't let these go to waste, 1258 Peters   Tuesday, June 7 View Page Haven't updated in awhile, and a lot has happened, I culled one of the two plants at each location, and it has definetly been a tough decision. I reached out to a fellow grower for advice and this is what is left. The 1453 Toftness is looking good. I was told to "Pick the longer one" lol   Tuesday, June 7 View Page And this was my favorite of the bunch with a very nice thickness and length. and then I believe my do or a deer went through the site. There were two and the other one that was pulled was cracked down the vine and twisted and this one I kept only had a split on the vine about 4 inches long. I thought they were both done, but waited a couple days and she seemed to have a couple bad days but is picking back up. sprayed the crack with Daconal and in a few more days I plane on covering the vine with soil.   Tuesday, June 7 View Page This is the crack on the 1097 Toftness, everything I have read tells me it should still be fine. Any suggestions from anyone please email me. This is my second year and I have high hopes.   Tuesday, June 7 View Page was tilling up the ground again, and I pulled the starting pull cord out of the engine. Hopefully I can get back to it soon.   Tuesday, June 7 View Page Another shot of the patch, I will be adding the fence very soon.   Friday, June 10 View Page Finally got my fence up.   Friday, June 10 View Page This is a shot from the back of the patch. You can really see the hill from this angle. Hopefully I can get the pumpkin to set on top of the hill. fingers crossed and prayers sent!   Tuesday, June 14 View Page The 1453 Toftness is at about 10 Ft and some secondary's are starting to shoot!   Tuesday, June 14 View Page A secondary Vine Shot! on the 1453   Tuesday, June 14 View Page This is the 1097 Toftness, She did take a hit when I had a split in the vine. Took some good advice from some fellow growers and she seems to be back on track. Thanks for the emails and advice fellas. 8ft long   Monday, June 20 View Page 5 days later I had another shot at three on the one plant. One on the main and 2 on the secondary's. I consulted the oracle(Bigpumpkins.com) and found some good advice on keeping the temp down...so I busted out the fans and froze some water jugs and BAM! all three took! Now I know why there isn't a lot of MD growers.   Monday, June 20 View Page I like what I see. Hopefully what I've read...this is a good thing!   Thursday, July 14 View Page Been awhile since I updated my Diary. A lot has happened; had my main vine crack on the 1097 Toftness around a few weeks back and she has bounced back and the weather here in MD has been horrible for pollination. All kins were aborting before reaching maturity. This was my first one that opened on the 14th. She didn't take...I was worried   Thursday, July 14 View Page These are the males that I used to try and seduce that lady...3 days later she was real soft..The weather the whole week was in the high 90's   Wednesday, July 20 View Page My wife said....Awhhhh those are beautiful...Are they for me....lol ...sorry babe, these are my flowers..   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Sorry bees, This flower isn't for you either..   Saturday, July 23 View Page 3 DAP on the 1453 Toftness, This is the one on the main vine. The stem was running parallel with the vine so I have been slowly pushing it out.   Saturday, July 23 View Page One on the secondary 1453 Toftness   Tuesday, July 26 View Page 6 DAP and all three look to be growing so far..   Tuesday, July 26 View Page Another Shot 6 DAP on a secondary   Friday, July 29 View Page Another on a secondary 3 DAP 1453 Toftness   Saturday, July 30 View Page 10 DAV on the main vine of the 1453 Toftness. I decided that this will be the keeper. started to cut one off that's a little bigger. Bry and Sanbbagus gave some good insight...I will slowly cut the others off, a little a day   Saturday, July 30 View Page it's been very troubling at times growing on a hill next to the forest.   Saturday, July 30 View Page the chosen 2 on 2 plants less than 10 ft apart..don't know if this is good thing or bad...only time will tell.   Saturday, July 30 View Page 10 DAV on the 1097 Toftness. not very pretty but growing well..I think...lol this was my only one that took. curious to see the outcome shape.   Saturday, July 30 View Page hard to see but I finally got my foam board and sand in place. I have found that people are eager to help when a pumpkin is set. nobody was eager when it was just a plant..lol   Monday, August 1 View Page Pics that didn't upload from the Mobile Version.   Monday, August 1 View Page more PICS that didn't upload   Monday, August 1 View Page 11 DAP 1453 Toftness   Monday, August 1 View Page 1097 Toftness I think about 8 DAP   Monday, August 1 View Page Not sure if this a good thing or not...lol At least they can keep each other company, or when I want to stare at them I can stand in one place....lol   Friday, September 23 View Page I haven't kept my diary up because I have been crazy busy! but I wanted to give an update to my first year growing. There have been some ups and downs with this but I cant wait until next season. I would like to take the moment and thank everyone that has helped me along the way from the chats to the emails and phone calls. I would like to thank Bart Toftness specifically for the one on one. I live in southern Maryland and growing giants here is really hard and growers are almost non existent. With that being said my first year growing I was successful in harvesting a 485lb pumpkin and had the honor of growing the largest pumpkin ever taken to the fair in my area in 70yrs. I know 485 isn't much compared to some others but I couldn't be more proud. Again thank you all for everything. The site says the goal is to promote the hobby and when I stumbled onto this site last year people have had nothing but encouraging words and I am thankful for everyone!