Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 53 Entries. Sunday, May 14 View Page Im going to start this years diary with pictures of last years marrows which i didnt get around to putting on here. Here's my best marrow of last year my 151 Baggs 16 (78 Baggs x Fortey line)   Sunday, May 14 View Page my second best last year was this 133 Baggs 16 (Fortey line x 76 Baggs)   Sunday, May 14 View Page and my third largest was this 121 Baggs 16 (115 Glazebrook x Fortey line) all the rest of the marrows either split or were contaminated with field pumpkin so i only saved seeds from these three fruits in the end.   Sunday, May 14 View Page my kids with one of the marrows.   Sunday, May 14 View Page Right moving on, This year im taking a year off pumpkins and am focusing on giant marrows. i have mustard growing in my large tunnel which is just starting to flower so will be tilled over very soon to prevent it seeding.   Sunday, May 14 View Page the mustard outside is a ways behind as it was planted later   Sunday, May 14 View Page in my smaller tunnel I have grown some new potatoes, I have plenty of friends and family to give them to. these will be gone before I plant out marrows   Sunday, May 14 View Page these are the three crosses im growing this year, Will be starting most of my seeds on the 1st of june.   Wednesday, June 21 View Page Not really much going on here yet, my marrow plants are all at this stage at the moment and looking good.   Saturday, June 24 View Page I had some spare plants which my kids wanted to plant in the garden.   Saturday, June 24 View Page :)   Saturday, June 24 View Page watering   Saturday, June 24 View Page watering   Saturday, June 24 View Page watering   Saturday, June 24 View Page i think that cans empty Ellie!   Saturday, June 24 View Page filling up, hopefully the kids will be taking their efforts to a local show. They seem quite interested at the moment.   Sunday, August 27 View Page a long time since ive posted entries on here but I did take some photos which I never got around to putting on here. Heres one of my little helpers doing some watering.   Sunday, August 27 View Page and the other one doing some vine burying   Sunday, August 27 View Page a more recent photo. It hasn't been an easy season here. it got far too hot in the tunnels early on and the plants suffered and I think it was the heat stress which caused all but one of my main vine tips to self terminate. They all twisted up and I had no option but to go with pollenating the marrows on side vines. This is a view inside my main tunnel   Sunday, August 27 View Page Ive several marrows growing, lots of them with dill rings but here are two of my most promising fruits at the moment. Indoors vs outdoors Both 4 weeks or 28 DAP today 151 indoors 37 inches long   Sunday, August 27 View Page 151 outside 33 inches long happy with both of them at the moment hope we can get one to Malvern in 4 weeks time!   Sunday, August 27 View Page and the outside plant. The usual mildew and yellowing off creeping in on the eldest leaves now.   Monday, September 4 View Page well my comparison of 151 indoor vs 151 outdoor is over already. 151 indoor went down to a pin hole on a dill ring but all was not lost as it happened the day before our local show. The dorset county show. As I said before im trying to involve my kids with the growing now so we let young Jack take the glory with this one. It weighed just short of 100 lbs and the walls appeared to be very thin.   Monday, September 4 View Page Ellie took a smaller one that went down to a stem split which you can see in this photo it weighed about 85 lbs I think. There was only one other entry there but im not surprised really as first place gets a card and £5 which is ok but they were too tight to even award a prize card for second or third.   Monday, September 4 View Page Anyways ive another 151 indoors which is at Dap 36 or a day over 5 wks. This guy is 42 inches in length   Monday, September 4 View Page And heres my lovely 151 outdoor grown marrow which is 39.5 inches long also at 36 dap. Im hearing of other growers having troubles with splitting and the weather is not great at the moment so ive everything crossed that these don't end up looking as sorry as that can!   Tuesday, September 5 View Page i lost another marrow. This one weighed 104 lbs and was grown from a 151 seed   Tuesday, September 5 View Page the stem opened up.   Saturday, September 16 View Page 161 dmg. Lost this one to splits on a dill ring. not the best shape it didn't develop properly on one end   Sunday, September 24 View Page in the car traveling to Malvern show   Sunday, September 24 View Page Jack and Ellie took first place with this 174 lb striped marrow - new UK record   Sunday, September 24 View Page me jack and ellie with the marrow.   Sunday, September 24 View Page Kevin handing over the Mike Fortey memorial shield to Jack and Ellie which was awarded to the heaviest marrow this year. There was a good showing of marrows this year, I think the top six were all over 140 lbs.   Sunday, October 1 View Page I forgot to mention that the we took the 151 outdoor marrow to Malvern last weekend also, it went down to a couple of tiny splits on the stem which was a shame but still took it for exhibition. It weighed 178 lbs DMG.   Sunday, October 1 View Page just got five sound marrows left, this is the best I could manage on the 78 seed this year which i think is 150 ish at best. I think this will be the last year i grow the 78 as overall the 151 performed much better, the 133 marrows all split on me so wont be going there again either.   Sunday, October 1 View Page Heres a 151 marrow ive pictured before, 150 lbs +   Sunday, October 1 View Page the other 151, Love this marrow guessing its going to be over 160 lbs and is definitely my best looking fruit for this year. Hope to take my remaining marrows to the weigh off in Southampton just to weigh for exhibition if they remain sound.   Sunday, October 15 View Page well we took the remaining marrows to the xpg weigh in yesterday. I didn't see the point in making the guys weigh all of them as they had lots of other things to weigh so we just weighed the heaviest two. The striped marrow on the far left weighed in at 165 lbs and the third from the left which ellie is sitting on weighed in at 160 lbs. I'll put some better pictures of them on and weights of the others in due course   Sunday, October 15 View Page the highlight of the day was seeing Ian and Stuarts monster weighed   Sunday, October 15 View Page 2269.4 lbs and new UK record. Well done guys!!   Sunday, October 15 View Page We also saw a new UK record field pumpkin from David Maund at 176.5 LBS. Well done David!   Sunday, October 15 View Page This pretty much covers everything else that went on. This weigh off just gets bigger and better every year   Sunday, October 15 View Page back in the patch im already making plans for next year, next year im giving up my smaller tunnel and extending my outdoor patch so that I can grow more plants outdoors.   Sunday, December 3 View Page Right just a few entries to conclude this year which may be of interest to anyone that's going to grow any of my seeds next year. 178 Baggs 17 DMG (151 Baggs x sib) -stem split Pollinator grew 112 Baggs 17 DMG   Sunday, December 3 View Page 174 Baggs 17 (151 Baggs x sib) - UK record Marrow pollinator grew 135 Baggs 17   Sunday, December 3 View Page 165 Baggs 17 (151 Baggs x 78 Baggs) pollinator grew 125 lbs   Sunday, December 3 View Page 160 Baggs 17 (78 baggs x sib) pollinator grew 131 lbs   Sunday, December 3 View Page 154 Baggs 17 (151 Baggs x sib) Pollinator grew 167 DMG   Sunday, December 3 View Page 135 Baggs 17 (151 Baggs x sib) Pollinator grew 178 DMG   Sunday, December 3 View Page This is the one that ended up at 112 lbs DMG and was on the plant that pollinated the 178 Marrow. It went down to a small split on a dill ring   Sunday, December 3 View Page this is the 131 Marrow which was grown on the plant which pollenated the 160 lbs Marrow. Marrow was sound but didn't bother to save any seeds out of this I don't have a picture of the Marrow I grew on the plant which pollinated the 165 Marrow but it was a sound 125 lbs fruit without any dill rings, again no seeds saved.   Sunday, December 3 View Page this is the 167 lbs marrow which I grew on the plant which pollinated the 154 Marrow. This one went down to a split on a dill ring and stem splits. No seeds saved from this either   Sunday, December 3 View Page I hope all that wasn't too boring! I did a germination test on this years seeds, 165 160 154 and 135 germinated 100% Of the four 174 seeds I grew only 1 germinated so 25% and of the four 178 seeds 0 germinated so 0% The 178 DMG split before it was mature so the Marrow weren't ripend fully and the 174 I cut for the show before it was fully ripened, I would have ideally left it on the vine longer but we grow them to show them so it had to be cut. Still hopefull I can get some 178 + 174 seeds to germinate for next season but time will tell. Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and Happy new year.