Thursday, February 9
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4.69 Dunn has germinated. Can I outgrow Chris this year? Perhaps.....
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Friday, February 10
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Things are popping up nicely in the nursery! The first batch of tomatoes and some of the peppers are all up. Peppers take a long time to germ. The first of the ghost pepper plants came up and it will be three weeks tomorrow.
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Sunday, February 12
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78 degrees here today. Such great February weather! Time for a little pre-spring patch Work.
Added:
80 lbs worm castings
10 lbs crab shell
3 lbs blood meal
4 cu feet vermiculite and 4 cu feet perlite
2.5 lbs mono ammonium phosphate
5 lbs 0-0-50
1/2 lb of stale Starbucks Christmas blend coffee grounds because it would be gross to drink it
Planted some Kodiak now that there's a little sun on the patch!
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Friday, February 24
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Mustard is coming in nicely. In case anyone loves looking at pictures of baby mustard. Lol
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Sunday, March 5
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Mustard is filling in nicely now;about 3" tall.
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Sunday, March 5
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Red Kirkland Cup
I fill you up
Let's grow a garden,
Let's grow a garden!
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Saturday, March 11
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One of my pepper plants that over-wintered. If they do well and get nice foliage I may leave them. If they look straggly I jerk them out. The replacements are in the nursery and will be ready to transplant in a few weeks.
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Saturday, March 11
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Man I planted this mustard THICK. it's not a bad thing though as I don't have time for it to get tall. I have 4 weeks left before I need to till it. Hoping it blooms by then.
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Saturday, March 11
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This squash came up as a volunteer. Not sure exactly what it is. Zucchini maybe or a cucumber? I didn't plant either one near this area in the past so not sure!!
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Sunday, March 12
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Transplanted this Fresno Pepper seedling. I love these Wow Super Starter Packs! So easy. Two for peppers and tomatoes. One for everything else.
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Sunday, March 12
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I noticed that the cots on some of my mustard crop are yellow. Not sure what is about. It seems to be the worst in last year's planting site.
I emailed the western lab folks. Email me if you have any thoughts on this.
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Sunday, March 12
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Yes. It's 90 degrees. March 12.
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Monday, March 13
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Hey Folks
First of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the donations from the giant pumpkin community. As a whole, you all are out-giving 'friends' on FB and co-workers. It says so much for this community and your hearts.
I posted this picture because this sort of box is what my son Brad came home with when he left the Navy after 8 and 1/2 years of service. It was full of pills for everything imaginable. This is how the military has been treating our vets and specifically, depression and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Many of those pills have warning labels cautioning the patient against suicidal thoughts and feelings. The very thing they are designed to prevent.....how sad is that? Clearly they are/were ill-equipped to do anything. The results on our vets have been nothing short of catastrophic.
Brad was a Navy Corpsman assigned to the U.S. Marines as a field corpsman. He served with 2/7 for an extended period. This unit has been hit by suicide at an extreme rate. Brad lost 3 fellow marines in a week at one point. It about crushed him.
So this is why I am participating in the Out of the Darkness Walk on May 20th. Its a 16-18 mile walk with survivors, family members and other walkers who have been impacted by suicide and want to raise awareness. I set a modest goal of raising $1,000 and thanks in large part to bp.com members, surpassed that goal. So I changed the goal to $2,000 and am getting close. I may change it again because, well, stopping just doesn't seem right!
Here's a link to my page. Please donate if you can. Thank you!
http://www.theovernight.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=22335
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Sunday, March 19
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This alligator lizard showed up today while I was working in the yard. Wish there were a dozen of them. Even if they do eat the praying mantises I'm trying to cultivate. Which eat the lady bugs I bought. At least of ones that didn't fly away!!
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Sunday, March 19
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You can see how irregular the growth pattern is on this mustard. Some is close to a foot tall now while in some pockets it's only about an inch and not growing.
I sent soil samples to the lab on Friday I will have them run an 80 B test for disease also. Crap.
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Wednesday, March 29
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This guy posed for a picture during one of my training walks. Cool right?!
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Wednesday, March 29
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Hiking in Holy Jim Canyon on Sunday. This is in the Cleveland National Forest here in Orange County. Really pretty right now with all the rain we've had
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Wednesday, March 29
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This made me laugh. Solar panel mounted on the outhouse. Lol
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Wednesday, March 29
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Ok this sign at the park made me laugh. Rattlesnakes I get. But toads? Why are they warning us about toads?
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Wednesday, March 29
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Disease results are in. Mostly good news. Except that the verticillium sucks.
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Thursday, March 30
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Added 4.9 ounces copper sulfate and 4.6 ounces of zinc. Mixed in hot water and applied with hose-end sprayer
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Saturday, April 1
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Applied 1 lb 11.5 ounces of manganese with the hose end sprayer. Mixes well.
The potash doesn't mix well and I will hand apply it dry next week.
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Saturday, April 1
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Hand casted 4.14 lbs potash
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Sunday, April 2
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First tomato blossom of the year!
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Sunday, April 2
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Tomato plants hit the dirt today.
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Saturday, April 8
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Time to till in the mustard
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Saturday, April 8
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Getting close now
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Saturday, April 8
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Done tilling and watered in.
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Sunday, April 9
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New shade canopy is up! 30% aluminet fabric to replace the 22% white.
Getting close now!
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Sunday, April 9
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Found some nice planter boxes on Craigslist for less than the cost of the wood. This adds a nice amount of area for small veggies and herbs.
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Thursday, April 13
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Sheer joy! The tree in the park behind my house that's been blocking a big part of my late afternoon sun broke yesterday. About half the tree was lost. It's like someone thinned it to let more light through to my patch! Thank you Jesus!
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Friday, April 14
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This juvenile hummingbird was chilling in my yard today while I was gardening. Really liked the red tomato cages!
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Sunday, April 16
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He is Risen!!!
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Tuesday, April 18
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Time for a few weeks of Solarization before planting
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Friday, April 21
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Can you hear the screaming coming from my back yard? It's the Verticillium dying a slow hot painful death.
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Monday, April 24
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Spent the weekend with my bride in Sedona AZ. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth and showcases God's wonder in every direction.
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Monday, April 24
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While in Sedona I thought "hey some of this red dirt should go in the patch. It probably has some great micronutrients in it. "
If you've done this on a vacation you might be a giant pumpkin grower!
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Tuesday, April 25
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Seeds started! Soaked in half strength WOW humic and seaweed for an hour after a couple minutes in a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution.
777 Young
1223.5 Gansert x 2
1912 Carter x 2
1916 Barron x 2
1297.5 Young x 2
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Wednesday, April 26
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Saturday, April 29
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First germination of 2017! I planted a lot of seeds for the growers seminar next Saturday.
Interesting that this La Rue seed was the first since it wasn't soaked at all.
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Tuesday, May 2
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All seeds have germed except the 2 1912 Carter seeds. The 1297.5 Young looks very strong - as a 1" seedling anyway.
The 777 isn't growing well at this point but it's still very early.
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Tuesday, May 2
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Got a really nice package from Ron Wallace today. So generous of Wallacewow.com to sponsor our growers seminar this weekend!! Thanks Ron - you're the best !
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Thursday, May 4
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Root growth on the 1297.5 Young is very nice!
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Thursday, May 4
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1223.5 Gansert looks very good also!
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Thursday, May 4
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All seven moved from starter pots and grow lights to outdoors into 1 gallon pots. They will be under shade cloth while they adapt. Temperature is forecast at 74 today so it's perfect weather for this stage.
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Thursday, May 4
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After 9 days the 1912 Carter seeds haven't germinated. And this is why we plant more seeds than we can possibly grow!
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Friday, May 5
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Woke up to fresh mounds in the middle of my patch.
Two smoke bombs applied.
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Friday, May 5
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New Kicks.
Adidas Yo.
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Saturday, May 6
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Chris Dunn said my soil should be loose enough to stick my arm down in up to my elbow.
Getting close Chris!
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Sunday, May 7
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Today was our growers seminar at the Irvine Park Railroad in Irvine, CA. I want to thank our host site and our sponsor Wallacewow.com for donating supplies and door prizes. Thanks Ron!!
SoCalgrower Chris Dunn did a fantastic job presenting. We had over 30 new growers attend. Very exciting for the growth of our hobby in Southern California!!
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Sunday, May 7
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Seedlings with Wow Super Starter Paks all lined up to give away!
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Sunday, May 7
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WOW Banner and door prizes along with some demo prizes.
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Sunday, May 7
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Secret ingredient being added to the grow sites!
I would guess I am the only grower in the world using it. Which could be bad. Or good. Or meaningless.
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Monday, May 8
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Last till on Friday 5/5 and went back over and fluffed up the soil with a pitchfork. Today I watered all 7 plants with WOW seaweed, 1/2 strength of WOW Humic and RAW microbes today. It was in the low 40's overnight after just over 1/2" of rain in the past 48 hours. The patch got well watered and enough to deep water the patch so I am excited that I won't have to use any tap water for weeks.
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Wednesday, May 10
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My entry for the ugliest seedling of the year. A 1916 Barron gone wild.
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Wednesday, May 10
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I still have a gopher. He ( or she God forbid) dined on tender tomato greens and baby green onions last night.
This morning I gave a it a reinvigorating garden hose sauna. I also built this subterranean fence to keep it out of the patch.
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Saturday, May 13
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Plants are in the ground. Prepared the site with pumpkin pro and Rootshield. Dusted the rootball with Azos and watered them in with Root.
One corner has the Young 777 and the Gansert 1223.5.
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Saturday, May 13
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The 1916 Barron and the 1297.5 Young are in the other corner of the patch. The 1916 is the strongest of my four plants but they all are doing well so far.
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Sunday, May 14
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Damn gophers took out another tomato plant. Chewed it right off at the base of the plant. Dead in a day.
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Wednesday, May 17
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Just a quick note to say thank you to the bigpumpkins.com community for the support. You guys are great!!
I am walking this Saturday evening, May 20th for 18 miles to support suicide prevention. I am ever so close to reaching my goal of raising $5,000. I've watched my two sons Brad and Jared suffer from watching their friends take their own lives after returning from combat duty in the sandbox. Help is so needed!
If you would like to support me, that would be so awesome. The link is here:
https://www.theovernight.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donate.participant&participantID=22335
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Saturday, May 20
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Sheer Joy!
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Friday, May 26
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Nice looking mega bloom on my 4.69 Dunn!
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Friday, May 26
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All four plants are looking good! Here's the 777 Young and the 1223.5 Gansert side-by-side. These plants are only getting about 4 to 5 hours of sunlight a day right now because of the house and the wall. They are growing more slowly than the other two as a result.
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Friday, May 26
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Here's the 1916 Barron and the 1297.5 young. These plants get a lot more sunlight; as much as eight or nine hours a day right now. I think these plants look better than anything I've ever grown.
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Sunday, May 28
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Drip tape instillation complete and system tested. I will work on my misting system install next.
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Wednesday, May 31
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Just want to remember how great the weather was when this spell is over and I am staring at 100*+.
Plants are loving this.
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Sunday, June 4
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Decision day finally arrived. Four plants became two...
In this corner, the 1916 Barron won the spot. Main vine is about 4'3" now and it's growing well.
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Sunday, June 4
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In the other corner the 777 Young gets the nod. The 1223.5 Gansert was backing it up and both plants were at the same pace. There aren't many 777's left out there so this wasn't a tough choice.
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Saturday, June 10
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Both plants are thriving right now. The 1916 Barron is easily the best I've ever grown. No females have shown yet but it's still under 7 feet so no worries.
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Saturday, June 10
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The 777 Young is also growing but much slower due to the limited sunlight in this area. Still, it looks really healthy.
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Sunday, June 11
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Hot weather is coming and the plants are getting bigger so it was time to get the misting system installed. This year I'm using risers with varied heights so the under side of the leaves can be covered. The system is connected to an EZ flow so I can use it for foliar applications as well as cooling.
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Friday, June 16
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Changed the settings on my misters to run 30 seconds every 5 minutes.
It's hot; about 95 today. The plant really responds well to the new cycle.
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Thursday, June 22
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The first and absolutely HUGE megabloom on the 4.69 Dunn never took. It had leaves growing out of it and only ever got a small amount of flower. Too bad. It was nipple high for sure.
This one isn't huge but it's what the plant has given me so we will give it a go!
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Tuesday, June 27
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Pollination day #1. Nice 4 lobe with good symmetry and no defects. Female is The 1916 Barron crossed with the 777 Young. It's 15 feet out on the vine. Perfect spot.
I'm growing a flag pattern and really needed this to be a left handed gal and it came to be.
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Tuesday, June 27
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1916 Barron on Pollination day #1. 62 days after germination.
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Tuesday, June 27
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Stump is getting a little girth to it now.
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Tuesday, June 27
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The forecast was for an 85 degree high today. I would like to punch the weather person in the face.
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Sunday, July 2
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4 Dap
1916 Barron x 777 Young
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Sunday, July 2
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Nice mega on the 4.69 Dunn!
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Sunday, July 2
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Pollinated 777 Young x self at 10 feet. Likely not the keeper since there's another at 15 feet.
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Monday, July 3
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Day 6 for the 1916. No concerns and like the elongated shape of this fruit.
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Monday, July 3
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Brewing up my first batch of Wow Compost Tea in my homemade brewer.
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Tuesday, July 4
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Pollinated second female on the main @ 18'. 1916 x 777
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Thursday, July 6
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Day 9 1916 x 777
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Saturday, July 8
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Pollinated 777 Young today at 15 feet. Sadly I had no flowers to self it with. Cross is 1916. Nice 5 lobe flower.
First pollination appears to not have taken. At 6 days it's about the size of a racquetball.
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Saturday, July 8
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The 4.69 Dunn plant looks like it's got the funk. Lumpy vine has showed up. What is this? Leaves are all yellowing rapidly.
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Sunday, July 9
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Eat my tomatoes and it will be your last meal!
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Wednesday, July 12
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Tissue test is back from Western Labs. Pretty pleased with this. Just a little minor tweaking and it'll be as close as I can expect.
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Wednesday, July 12
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Day 15 and 55" cc. Good start. Long race. Drenched with Wow Wonder Brew today.
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Wednesday, July 12
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1297.5 Young. 29 Dap. 6" cc.
I think this ones going orange!
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Friday, July 14
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Day 17 for the 1916. Growth is ramping up nicely. Added 21 lbs overnight. Very pleased and trying not to screw up!
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Monday, July 17
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Got to visit Patchmaster's place today. This is what an award wall looks like for a successful long time grower. I took some other pictures of plants and stuff but two guys in black suits took my memory card away. Thanks for the tour Russ. Great meeting you and Sally!
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Friday, July 21
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1916 Barron is growing nicely. OTT 214 inches is on track for a personal best. Our weather has been in the upper 80's with higher humidity but that is better than the norm so we will take it!
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Thursday, July 27
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Third tissue test is back. Decent results. Not much to do here...
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Thursday, July 27
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Getting close to my personal best at the home patch. Day 30 and 249 OTT.
This is my daughter Lauren. She inspired my passion 6 years ago with a simple statement: Let's grow pumpkins! So we did! She's getting married this Sunday.
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Sunday, July 30
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Pretty great day to watch my baby girl get married today. Better yet knowing it was God's plan.
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Friday, August 4
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The forecast today was for 86 degrees. It's 96 in the patch. Crap. Glad I didn't change my misting cycle. 30 seconds every 3 minutes. Please can this go away!?
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Sunday, August 6
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Day 40
OTT = 294
Est 587 lbs
Never had any flashy gains on this pumpkin but it's been averaging 22 lbs a day real steadily. 1916 x 777
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Friday, August 11
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Day 45
OTT is 308 inches. Daily gains are slowing now. Still doing upper teens though. I finally had to terminate the main as there was no place for it to continue to grow. I was able to let it get out 52 feet which is good for a 400 sf patch.
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Wednesday, August 16
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Day 50 90-89-142 0tt 321
Averaged18.33 lbs per day since last Sunday.
38 days until the weigh off. Still an outside chance at 1,000 lbs.
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Wednesday, August 16
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Chris Dunn visited the patch a few days ago. So very thankful for him and his mentorship. He snapped a couple pictures. This is a pretty pumpkin and is still darkening. There's some red coming into it.
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Wednesday, August 16
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Our August weather is typically upper 90's in my patch. I want to remember how great it's been this year when I look back.
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Friday, August 18
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This an interesting photo. You can see the so-called tan line across the lower portion of the blossom end where the pumpkin has been exposed to the sunlight. It's less red here and has turned more of a tangerine color.
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Friday, August 25
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Went for a patch visit at Chris Dunn's place. What a great setup he has!
Check out the size of this stump!!
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Friday, August 25
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His main vine is the size of my calves!!
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Friday, August 25
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Here's Chris with his bigun. This thing has no cavity in it - thumps like a chunk of granite. Taped it yesterday and it's daily gains are strong. I predict this will tape 1,700 -1,800 lbs and go heavy to chart
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Tuesday, September 5
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Vine stress was a little too much for my liking so a friend helped move my pumpkin a few inches.
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Tuesday, September 5
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Patch view. Leaves are getting a bit tired now growth has been stifled by a miserably hot week of 100 plus degree weather. It's back in the low 80's now.
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Saturday, September 16
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Tripod assembled and ready to go!
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Sunday, September 17
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My niece and nephew visited the patch. Always fun to have visitors!
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Monday, September 18
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Checking the pumpkin today with five days before the weigh off. Looked down to find that the blossom end rotted. Had a brief moment of hope as I started scraping that it might not go all the way through.
Sadly it was false hope. Season over.
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Friday, September 22
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Don't worry. I've got a fan on it. It's going to be ok for the weigh off as soon as it scars over.
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Saturday, September 23
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Chris Dunn congratulations!!!
New personal best 1533 lbs!!
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Saturday, September 23
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It's a tie at the Great Pumpkin Weigh Off! Congrats to Scott Henkin and Chris Dunn at 1533 lbs!!
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Sunday, September 24
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The 2018 season started today. Tilled the patch and added crab shell, blood meal, kelp meal and alfalfa. Planted Mighty Mustard as the first of the cover crops.
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Monday, September 25
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Debriefing my 2017 Season. Beginning with what worked - (always start with the positive)
Planting mighty mustard in the early spring and then using soil solarization immediately afterward to control disease was a game changer. Clear plastic was laid and the soil got nice and warm when the weather heated it up. When completed, I did a disease test with Western Labs and it showed some very low levels of verticillium. It never showed up in the patch that I could see.
I did an early soil test and got help with figuring out what amendments, and how much of each was needed.
I wrote every thing down that I did. First time I have kept a diary up.
I spent significantly more time on vine management and vine burying. Starting with a plan on how I planned to grow the plant out worked out well.
For the first time, I developed a regiment for fertilizing, watering, insecticides and fungicides.
I attempted to adjust my watering, shade and misting with the weather conditions. I used misting and shade when it was needed and pulled back from both when not needed.
When it became clear that the 1916 Barron plant needed more room, the second, smaller plant was pulled. It was hard to do, but I think it was a good call in the end.
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Monday, September 25
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Part II debriefing
What didn't work, or what I need to do better at:
I made an early series of mistakes with the placement of the grow matt under the pumpkin. I added some of that insulating 1.5" foam under the fruit, with the mill fabric on top of that and sand on top of that.
Also, The mill fabric wasn't placed in such a manner as to anticipate the growth of the fruit. This was just a dumb mistake.
The problem is that the styrafoam insulation doesn't drain. At all. Moreover, as the pumpkin grew heavier, it sunk down into the very soft soil and made an indentation in the foam. That created the perfect wet environment at the base of the fruit. Bad planning and execution on my part really took down my season.
When I lifted the pumpkin last Friday it had a 14-16" crack in the bottom. I don't know how the pumpkin cracked; it may have been compromised during one of two moves. No way to really know. Based on the level of rot inside, it started a few weeks ago (a guess).
Lessons learned. No more styrafoam as a base. Whatever its on has to drain.
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Sunday, November 12
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The mustard cover is growing well in our warm weather. The height variation is 100% the result of sunshine duration. The patch area near the house and the wall just get way less sun.
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