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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 57 Entries.
Thursday, June 15 View Page
1795 McCracken on the left 1929.5 Barlow on the right. These were set out around May 20th. I had them in two gallons and they did not do much until recently as I pretty much left them exposed to the cold wet weather we had this spring.
 
Thursday, June 15 View Page
My plan for the 1929.5 Barlow is to run it over the sugar snap pea vines. First I will harvest the peas, then after they are done I will roll the vines to kill them. Then I will grow the pumpkin vine out over the pea straw mulch. No-till. Hopefully this will work. I am hoping to not have to do much weeding too.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
Cucurbita ecuadoriensis. I will hopefully cross this with an Atlantic Giant. I don't know much about these. I have a friend at the New York Botanic Garden that got me the seeds. I am not sure if they have ever been grown before in the US. Anyways I hope they weren't planted too late. We will see.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
1929.5 Barlow, on the right growing over the pea straw mulch. On the left it is the 1795 McCracken. Growing over traditionally tilled soil. Sweet corn in the background. Mostly supersweets.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
A close up of the 1929.5 Barlow on the mulch. The peas were rolled around the fourth of July. So far so good. There is an old saying in the garden world about weeds. "1 year of seeding equals seven years of weeding." Well if that is true I have enough weeds in the soil to last for a century. LOL Hopefully the mulch will keep down the weeds. I don't see any pigweed in there, yet. Mostly just dead pea vines and a type of low growing smartweed (polygonum) I aint scared of that,
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
1795 McCracken. Nothing to report yet for pumpkins. All mine were set late (after the fourth of July) and are not big enough to even warrant a picture. I am more interested in finishing well, than starting well. I have had many, many good starts only to fizzle into mediocrity. I want to grow a pumpkin that finishes well. The 1929.5 Barlow and the 1795 McCracken are my big and ugly hopefuls. Although the Barlow has yellow vines so I would not be surprised with a little color on that one. I have been surprised by color before. I am growing the 1998 Jutras and my 1063 Ciesielski for color.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
Grafted cantelopes and melons. All are on Shintosa Camelforce rootstock. The weather is so wet I am very worried about disease. There is only so long the plants can take this. Plus you can't possibly cultivate a garden and keep weeds out when you get a huge downpour every night. Once you lose that loose (scratched) cultivated soil the weeds will germinate.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
Tall corn. Thank you Doug English for the seed. He sent me a smorgasbord of seed types from Central and South America. Unfortunately the ink ran off the seed packs in the garden before I had a chance to make proper labels. So I don't know what is what. There were at least 7 different packets of seed that he sent. I wish I knew what was what. Such is life when you grow more stuff and juggle more crops than you can possibly manage in a detailed way. It has been very, very wet here and this weather is darn near perfect for growing tall corn. After last years drought I should have guessed this was coming. I should be grateful, Water is sort of important and this should help to replenish some of the ground water.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
It looks to be a heavy fruit crop this year. This is a 'Granny Smith' apple.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
A 'Red Haven'peach touching the ground. Sorry, I don't have time to thin.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
'Jubilee' melons in the foreground. Down at the far end of the row I have two competition 'Black Diamond's' and a 'Carolina Cross'. (spaced 15' apart) Maybe these will not get choked with weeds. I Have used hay and black plastic as a mulch. All of these are on grafts too.
 
Friday, July 14 View Page
You know it's crazy.... I was just looking at my first diary entry taken on the fourteenth of June, then I took a look at my 6th entry, that I just posted today. One month apart and I almost can't believe how different everything looks. Change is always happening and sometimes it happens faster than others. When we are able to take a step back and look at things it can often amaze us. Look at how different the World is today than it was just 25 years ago. The internet has come out of nowhere, who could have predicted it back in the 80's? I thought by now we would be vacationing on the moon or Mars. That is not going to happen, but we could probably do a virtual tour of the moon or Mars on the internet.
 
Thursday, July 27 View Page
Has this happened to anyone? After choosing your "keeper" pumpkin you go and clear the vines away, then you lay down a 4' x 4' piece of mill fabric. A day or two later you find your pumpkin has aborted and you are left with a big hole in the plant. It has happened to me more times than I would like to admit. Here is what I do now to avoid this; I cut up my mill fabric into 4 equal sized pieces. I can easily slide a piece under the pumpkin when it is still small and as the pumpkin grows I just slide another piece underneath. As the pumpkin needs them I just keep adding them. I no longer have to worry about keeping the pumpkin in the center on a 4x4 piece of mill fabric. Another benefit is, I can keep the side vines on as long as possible before removing them. I find this to be a better way to do it.
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
My melons look great! It's been a few years since I have had them look this good. Go figure the weather has been cooler and wetter than normal. I will give the credit to them being on grafted rootstock.
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
A nice Black Diamond type underneath the leaf canopy. I hope to break 100 pounds with a Black Diamond this year. 150 would be even better!
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
A 'Jubilee' I bet I get a few that go 40-50 pounds. They are good eating.
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
A nice melon under a couple of pieces of row cover.
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
A long row of melons. It is nice to see such healthy plants. Mostly 'Jubilee' in this row
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
Cucurbita ecuadoriensis. I have seen a few male blossoms but that is it. I am hoping to cross with an AG. Maybe they are daylength sensitive.
 
Saturday, August 5 View Page
1929.5 Barlow growing over the pea vines. Sorry no pictures of the pumpkins. I will post some later on. I haven't measured yet either.
 
Saturday, August 19 View Page
I found this on the 1998 Jutras this morning. R.I.P. This one wasn't doing much growt-hwise. It had stopped growing a while ago. Final measurements are 290"
 
Saturday, August 19 View Page
1998 Jutras stem end. This is a very wide pumpkin. Early on this pumpkin was growing like crazy. Then it stopped.
 
Saturday, August 19 View Page
1998 Jutras, It was going to be a nicely colored pumpkin. Too bad. I probably won't take seeds from it. It was crossed with my 1063 from 2015. (the only hand pollinated cross I made this year, the rest were done by the bees.)
 
Saturday, August 19 View Page
A monster 'Jubilee' melon. The melons look fantastic this year. I thought melons liked hot weather. It seems they do just fine with the more moderate temperatures we have had this year. Highs in the mid 80's lows in the 60's. All of my jubilees look like this, it has to be around 40 pounds or so. It is probably the best crop I have ever grown. All on grafts, the plants are gorgeous. I am sold on grafting. That is a 32 oz. Gatorade next to it for size reference. I am chilling it right now, I'll let you know how it tastes.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
I harvested my big Black Diamond for the Bethlehem Fair. It weighed 106.2 pounds. A new personal best for Black Diamond type melons.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
106.2 Ciesielski Black Diamond. It's blossom end was assymetrical. Other than that I was quite pleased with the shape of it.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
A close up of the 106.2. It was off my 95 Ciesielski 2013 seed. The 95 was off of a Cliff Knight line of Black Diamond. I think this line has good potential for big size. If I can grow a melon that weighs 106.2 pounds in a cold wet year. Imagine what it could do down in Tennessee with Chris Kent growing it.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
Here it is on display at the fair, covered with dust. People thought it was a pumpkin or something. To me a 100 pound Black Diamond is equal to a 175 pound 'Carolina Cross'
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
More melons are coming all over the place. I stopped culling melons after the growth slowed on the 106.5. I have got dozens of nice sized Black Diamonds that are still coming.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
Bob Ellis' first place 1178 pound pumpkin.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
Peter Sweet's second place pumpkin. It was 879 pounds.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
80 pound field pumpkin grown by Logue farms.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
This is my 1795 McCracken. I had plans to take it to the fair. I think it may have been a personal best for me.(My pb is 1063) It went down a week before the fair. This was the first year I didn't have a single pumpkin to bring to a weigh off. I thought I was doing so well too. A lot of stuff can go wrong in August and September.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
A close up of the 1795 McCracken. A real beast. It's father went over 20% heavy too. I wish it had made it to the scale.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
This is what I found. It hurt, to find this.. Just about every giant pumpkin grower knows the feeling. It is when we ask ourselves this question, "Why do we do this?" In the big scheme of things we must remember that these are just pumpkins. They are supposed to be grown for fun and competition. It is a blessing just to be able to compete and do this hobby. We have to try to find enjoyment along the way. Not just at the finish line. (weigh off)
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
A short but fat stem on the 1795. Nice and healthy too.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
I even built a tarp cover for it.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
This is my tall corn from Doug English. Some of the types still have not tasseled and they are over 15'. Pretty cool. Thanks for the seeds Doug.
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
'Summer Pearl' peach
 
Sunday, September 10 View Page
Prune plums. These are good. This is the first year I have gotten any of these. There is only one tree and I was beginning to wonder if I would need a pollinator for it. I guess not.
 
Tuesday, September 19 View Page
Here is my Carolina Cross Watermelon that I grew this year. It is on a grafted rootstock. The rootstock was either a lagenaria or a C. ficifolia. Total ott 170. I plan on bringing it to Durham tomorrow night.
 
Tuesday, September 19 View Page
Argggh!!!! Maybe not. This is the cherry on top for my season.
 
Tuesday, September 19 View Page
Last hope for the fair. The question is which one do I bring? They are all taping between 180-190.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
I am cleaning up the garden so I can possibly plant some rye in the next few weeks. This is whats still left of a Black Diamond melon plant grown off of my 85 Ciesielski '13. I stopped culling melons when I saw that the chosen melon wasn't going to attain any great weight. There were 3 or four more melons that I harvested off this plant (to eat) that aren't in the picture. You can see that healthy melon plants will really load up if you let them. The melon plants were huge and they had no trouble supporting all this growth. Too bad I only grew one Carolina Cross plant this year. I think I would have had my best year for sure. All my melons were on grafts.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
These Jubilee's grew out onto the lawn. Most of the 150' row row was comprised of 'Jubilee'. The method I used to grow them was the following; The melons were planted in the garden around Memorial Day on a raised row. Once the plants started to run I laid out hay in a strip two feet wide right up the middle of the row. I had to lift the vines up to do this, because I had waited too long. After laying hay up the middle I rolled out 4' wide black plastic on each side of the hay. So between the mulch and the hay the melons had about ten feet of weed free growing area. The plants were so healthy they took about 4' more on each side. Plant spacing was 15' in the row. Each plant then occupied a space of about 15'x18'
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
I had missed culling this Carolina Cross melon, It had hidden from me under a big pigweed. With YVD becoming such a problem for me, it is nice to grow melons, as they don't seem to be affected by the disease. (at least not for me.)
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
This is a Cucurbita ecuadoriensis fruit. The plant grew and even resembled a C. ficifolia. Taking over everything in it's path. The only difference being that the C. ecuadoriensis did not fruit for me. I only got this one fruit off of the massive plant. Maybe it has some seeds in it.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
I wanted to show a picture of the melon set up. You can see how I did it with this picture. Plants were just given basic care. In fact all the work was in laying the mulch and the plastic.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
Note: I like to wait, to lay down the plastic and the mulch. BECAUSE once it is laid, the mice\voles start to move in. This is the one beef I have with the back to Eden method. My beef is that it provides a very good and safe home for rodents. So as much as we want to we can't go back to Eden,we can't Not yet... anyways.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
This is a Roselle plant. I did not know if this would grow in the North or not. Apparently it does. I would say that if you can grow Okra, you can grow Roslle. (aka Sorrel or Jamaica) The latin is Hibiscus sabdariffa. A friend in Oklahoma had sent seeds and it did very well. You can make a tea or juice from the Calyces that surround the seed pod. The juice is a bright red color and looks and tastes a little like cranberry juice or maybe pomegranate juice. You have to add sugar though if you want it to be sweet.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
The variety is called 'Thai Red'. These could be gorgeous if used in the background of a flower bed. The plant has a lot to offer besides being edible. I will be growing it again.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
Thank you Doug English for the mix of corn seeds. I am not sure what variety the indian corn is, but it produced the biggest ears I have ever seen. Even bigger than the 'Boone's County White' Which it is pictured next to. These ones were 16 inches. If anyone knows the variety or type please let me know.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
A wheelbarrow full of the 'Boone's County White'. Such a high yielder of grain, and it grows on 12-15' stalks. It has been my dream to see a field of this planted somewhere. People would marvel at it. They would probably speculate that it was GMO or something. Ignorance abounds!
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
Another shot of the pretty corn from Doug English. I think the corn with the pretty colors and the small ears is 'Glass Gem'? It had shorter stalks, maybe about 7'tall.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
Giant Sakurajima radish. These need water if I want them to reach there potential. It has been very dry this fall. Gorgeous weather!
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
A close up of the beautiful Sakurajima radish.
 
Sunday, October 22 View Page
Hot peppers. These are seeds from Tennessee Dreamer, he sent me these many years ago. Dennis, I still have enough hot pepper seed to last for the next twenty years! LOL
 

 

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