Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 51 Entries. Wednesday, March 29 View Page Its been a super busy spring. I have a bit of free time to toss up some updates so lets hit it! Patch upgrades include a new cover, stronger sides, and + 600sf giving me about 1500 total SF so I can do 3 plants. 2 at the size I 400SF I have been doing and 1 at almost 800sf. This will allow me to see if size really matters with how I grow.   Wednesday, April 19 View Page 3 plants will be grown. I started the: 2145McMullen 1317 Clements 1367 New 1865 Harnica 8 bulb T5 set up which I can raise as the plants grow. Good enough for who its for.   Tuesday, April 25 View Page Frame is all done at this point, putting all of my amendments down and then tilled them all in. The dirt in the patch is starting to finally look nice after in its third year!   Thursday, May 4 View Page Hot huts are up, soil is warming. Plants will go in this week!   Friday, May 5 View Page Last year I had a heat problem.... My plan this year is to combat that with more shade (me installing my new 30% alumanet), misting system and additional shades that can be pulled onto the frame during HOT days. The main downside to this that the weave will let hail hit the plants. It will stop big stuff, but not the little pea sizes hail well. I am also trading airflow for allowing bugs to have easy access to the plants. I may enclose the ends but again, the weave will let bugs in. Not too happy that I will have to use more chemicals - but oh well.   Friday, May 5 View Page I will secure it 100% Sunday morning. I just had to see it over the patch before I lost my light. :-)   Saturday, May 6 View Page Plants, meet patch. Patch, meet the plants. Patch... 6 of them will be in you tomorrow or the next day. Get to know one another a bit for a day or two. Out of the gate my 1367 is looking to be the most aggressive followed by the 1317 and then the 2145. My 1998 Miller (forgot this in the list) is going to see dirt but not totally happy with it. I have asked several not pumpkin to point out the best plants and most said the 1367 - trying to not be bias to myself. haha. But defiantly nice to see!   Sunday, May 14 View Page I have some time to catch up! Plants went in the ground this day. Should have waited another 10 days... https://youtu.be/mfxJOJS0XMw   Wednesday, May 17 View Page The 17th called for rain on the Friday I had time to get ready for snow after work on Thursday. Or so I thought...   Thursday, May 18 View Page Morning of the 18th I woke up to snow on the ground already. Screen house taking the weight but not happy. After wet heavy snow ALL DAY LONG with about 10" total in my area the screen could not take it. Disaster... Thankfully the hot huts inside the screen house were somewhat ok despite them also collapsing.... They kept the snow off the plants and warm enough not to freeze. At this point I called in two of my Dr. Friends (hooray for normal work hours) who were able to go start to remove the snow so the hot huts could be NOT smashing the plants.... I arrived to this... Several broken on the VERY unhappy plants - but they were alive...   Thursday, May 18 View Page https://youtu.be/cP8TcmkHTrg THANKS weather man... The snow never did show up on the 19th... Lesson learned here.   Monday, May 22 View Page Fast foward a few days which Denver saw baseball size hail, crazy rain and SUPER strong winds - I said screw it and decided to build 3 nice hot huts that would not blow away or open in the wind... Should have done this a long time ago... MUCH BETTER.   Wednesday, May 24 View Page Finally it warmed up a bit... But wait, no it got damn HOT... Air temp of 85 this day with no shade. REALLY???? Went from freezing to roasting in less than a week? SON OF A (@*#&! I had my girlfriend take a picture of the plants at lunch time. They looked like death due to the heat - then simply have not had any time with weather good enough for them to root in and establish.   Friday, May 26 View Page FINALLY - at this point we have had 2 days of good normal weather and a week worth of good weather in the forecast. THANK GOODNESS. I was getting very discouraged, but seeing a few days of plant growth has perked me back up. Plants... 1367 New plants are still by far the best looking plants. the largest took the most damage, but seems to be perking back up. 2145 had the best looking roots but is the smallest plant by far... Hopefully it just didn't like the cold weather. 1317 looking good, it got smashed but starting to perk back up. I will give all the plants at least a week to establish before I pick the winners, but those are what I am hoping for. Lesson learned in not giving the 'best' seed the best spot rather than the best looking plant. Time to start to push them a touch and fix everything during the holiday.   Monday, May 29 View Page And then after 2 days of nice weather I get this... No, not a truck load of perlite, thats hail, LOTS of hail...   Wednesday, May 31 View Page May 30 - we get new hoops made and the shade put back up AGAIN... At this point I basically consider my plants in the ground at this point because the weather is not back and forth. Basically 2 weeks behind where I want to be. DOH.... Aw well, better late than never!   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Fast foward to now. Spot #1 my 2145 is beating the 1985, they are SMALL plants. But - my 2145 has a crap ton of males at each node. Anybody else have this or did I just get 'lucky'? I have not seen this - anybody have hints what the heck this is? Send me an email. Spot #2 1367 New's are still winning all 3 spots I have made the smaller plant do a U turn just incase the 2145 never takes off. Spot #3 1317 Clements I REALLY want to pick up but the 1865 Harnica is winning.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page FINALLY starting to grow. But small. So small. I have 120 days till my weigh off so I have time. . .   Thursday, June 8 View Page And just when you think the summer was going to stay. HAIL. LOTS OF HAIL!   Friday, June 9 View Page And then just a few days later... Just about 100 in the patch. CRAZY!!! Plants roasted a little. They just want to die basically.   Tuesday, June 13 View Page Drip tape down, shade cloth BACK UP, misting system up. FINALLY starting to grow a little... https://youtu.be/thb-dvC-ctM   Tuesday, June 13 View Page 1376 New starting to finally establish and roll. Sheesh. Better LATE than never.   Wednesday, June 21 View Page Starting to bury my vines. Trying harder this year with all that jazz.   Thursday, June 22 View Page all 3 plants are doing about 12" every 24 hours. They need to GROW if I want to pollinate the first week of July!   Friday, June 23 View Page 10 days worth of growth from last picture. Pulled 3 plants 2 days ago... Spot #1 2145 McMullen - PULLED. The tip roasted and never got established + weird flower thing going on. 1985 Miller, Kicking ass currently. Spot#2 1896 Harnica had to go, tip roasted, this was the better plant but did not want a pumpkin on a side vine. 1317 Clementz is the winner. Smaller plant, starting to grow but still had the main vine. Spot #3 1367 New is still the best grower out of the 6 and now 3.   Friday, June 23 View Page Laying down getting into the plant to bury all those nodes!   Friday, June 23 View Page Fall came early. LOL... Damn weather. Jeebus.... Insane.   Monday, July 3 View Page Not much time for updates... I do most of them on YouTube as it's easy to watch what I have going on. July 3. plant is looking good. The mist is helping LOTS AND LOTS. With this I can start earlier and not worry as much about OLD looking plants at the end of they year.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page 1367 - July 4th - 4 lobe 1317 - July 4th - 4 lobe   Wednesday, July 5 View Page soil is happy. I am happy...   Tuesday, July 11 View Page The 1317 wants to grow Pumpkins. LOTS of pumpkins...   Friday, July 14 View Page 1367 - best plant, best pumpkin...   Friday, July 14 View Page I FINALLY got a pumpkin set on the 1985 Miller plant. I missed one July 5th as I was VERY VERY hung over from the 4th. My bad... This one was started on 9th.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1317 Clementz. I am bummed with this plant and pumpkin... Hopefully it kicks it into gear!   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 7 days of growth on the 1367 New. I want to be at 100lb by day 20. I think I should make it.   Thursday, July 20 View Page Had some major rain yesterday with a little hail mixed in for good measure. Lots of little holes but nothing TOO bad. 30% alumanet - not good for small hail. :-p   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Been super busy lately. For whatever reason you want to follow my grow look at my Facebook page /coloradogiants that is easy to keep up to date on-ish as I can just post from my phone. Tim, 1367 New. Day-40 = 650 pounds. Been rolling at 25 pounds per day. Starting to turn a nice orange color.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Been super busy lately. For whatever reason you want to follow my grow look at my Facebook page /coloradogiants that is easy to keep up to date on-ish as I can just post from my phone. Tim, 1367 New. Day-40 = 650 pounds. Been rolling at 25 pounds per day. Starting to turn a nice orange color.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Joffrey, 1985 Miller. Day-30 = 515 pounds. He has been doing about 30+ pounds per day. He is a big blob, crossing this with my 1367, I'm thinking this seed will grow some nice plants!   Thursday, August 17 View Page The shape of this pumpkin was making him to try to pop himself off of the stem. A little tug to make it a bit better.   Friday, August 25 View Page 1367 New X Self - Day 50. The plant is looking great with just a touch of PM, eagle 20 has been sprayed, the pumpkin is starting to cantaloupe, rib and take on a nice peach orange color. Current Est is 795lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 14.5 pounds per day.   Friday, August 25 View Page 1985 Miller X 1367 New – Day 40. Plant is doing great, just a bit of PM, not as much as the 1367. I hated this plant earlier in the year but now I am a fan… I crossed this with my 1367, I think that this will make a nice orange fruit with heavy tendencies. Current Est is 787lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 27 pounds per day.   Monday, September 4 View Page Time for the 10 day update... Tim the 1367 New X Self - Day 60. The plant is still looking great, the pumpkins that I failed to cull are rocketing in size. The PM is still around, just trying to control it with the Eagle 20. The cantaloupe look is getting ‘worse’, and the peach orange color is getting nicer... Current Est is 845lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 5 pounds per day. BIG slow down, but he is still growing. I hope to get to an Est of 900 and then go 100lb heavy. A guy can hope. Haha   Monday, September 4 View Page Joffrey the 1985 Miller X 1367 New – Day 50. Plant is still doing great, the PM is under control as best as it can be. The last 10 days have seen the skin of this pumpkin start to cantaloupe drastically. The blossom is now totally under the pumpkin but all seems well. The pumpkin is thumping hard so hopefully it will too go heavy… The pumpkin that is 10 days younger is now larger that the older than his brother – We will see in the next 10 days how it lines up with the other pumpkin and hopefully the plant size to weight gain ratio I can figure out. Current Est is 933lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 14.6 pounds per day. A little more of this, and it I go heavy maybe I can do as well as I did last year..?..   Friday, September 15 View Page Tim the 1367 New X Self - Day 70. Even at 70 days old his plant is still looking great. PM is still around – nothing I can really do at this point. Not much to report really… Current Est is 902lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 5.8 pounds per day, still growing. I still have at least 20 days of growing left with this guy, so if I am lucky I can get to about Est 950 and then go heavy. Maybe?   Friday, September 15 View Page Joffrey the 1985 Miller X 1367 New – Day 60. Plant is still doing great, starting to show a little age of the secondary vines, the PM is around the old part of the plant. Not TOOO bad though. The skin is continuing to get a really gnarly look. He looks heavy and is thumping hard so hopefully it will go heavy too… Thus far I don’t see a massive benefit with the larger plant, I may stick to my 400Sf plants as this 800 footer is not THAT far in front of the plant about half it’s size. Current Est is 1012lb. The last 10 days have had an avg of 8.4 pounds per day. I think this pumpkin will also go heavy. We are also in that time of the year where you have to wonder how close to the truth I have been telling. ;-)   Friday, October 6 View Page Early morning loading. Come to find out a whole mess of 1998 Miller seeds were grown in Denver this year. This pumpkin was 1022. Not what I wanted but not my worst. Will be trying harder next year!   Tuesday, October 17 View Page I got the patch tilled nice and early this year. The idea was to put down a cover crop but went out of town and it did not take. Poo. 947 waiting to be loaded. I cut the plant on this one about 10 days before the weigh off.   Tuesday, October 24 View Page A few updates on this for my own notes to close out the year. :-p The 947 New went to the Denver botanic garden for a few weeks. I let them have the seeds to give away to any and all who wanted them. Both of my pumpkins went really light to chart. DOH....   Wednesday, December 20 View Page I learned lots this year in my 3d year of growing... #1 - Automatic mist is my friend, this really helped my plants keep cool. I set up a time lapse camera for a few days just to see the difference. Days with no mist Vs. mist, BIG BIG BIG difference. Love em! #2 - Shade. I went with a 20% alumanet this year rather than the bug screen. I liked the amount of shade it put down on the patch. #3 - Bugs. Hate em... The BIG down side to my new Vs the bug screen was the bugs. I will be going back to my bug screen next year. The bug screen with the added mist system should not give me the heat trouble I have had in the past. #4 - SNOW! Don't put my darn structure up until June! May snow showers have almost taken me out 2 of my 3 years. Lesson learned. Oh. And heat cables. Note to self: If I am reading this in the spring time and wondering if I really want to dig up the patch and do it the answer is yes. Get off your lazy ass and do it.   Wednesday, December 20 View Page And santa. I want a flame weeder and a larger tiller for Christmas!