Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 54 Entries. Sunday, March 12 View Page time to pack my soil samples off to be tested for 2017!   Saturday, March 25 View Page I got my soil test results back a few days ago. I spent most of the day putting soil amendments down. Sure wish this system would accept my pics!   Saturday, March 25 View Page This is my PB from last year, the 1051.5 Strickler.   Sunday, March 26 View Page Niagara Falls is beautiful in the winter/early spring. Here is a little bit of a rainbow.   Sunday, March 26 View Page Here are some of my rootstock potted up.   Sunday, March 26 View Page Seedlings for my eating maters on the left and Giants on the right.   Sunday, April 23 View Page My AG lineup.   Sunday, April 23 View Page My Giant Squash lineup.   Sunday, April 23 View Page Well, they were up right on my cell.   Sunday, April 23 View Page I soaked my seeds for 4 hours in warm water with kelp, Essential and a little hydrogen peroxide. The thermostat is set on the heatmat for 85 degrees F. The seeds were coated with Azos and sown in 3" Cowpots with Mycorrhiza in the seed starting mix. Once the seeds pop, they will then be placed into 6" Cowpots. The roots grow amazingly fast. Usually by 10 days the roots are starting to breach the 6" Cowpots. I have done it this way to avoid damaging roots.   Sunday, April 23 View Page Hoop house set up on Patch A. Soil heating cable in place. The giant squash will go here.   Sunday, April 23 View Page Hoop house set up on Patch B. My AG will go here. Soil heating cable here also.   Thursday, July 6 View Page My 2048 Willemijns DAP 7   Thursday, July 6 View Page It is on the main vine, 20 ft out. I am rather excited. The last 2 years I could only get pollinations on sidevines. It's from a 5 lobe blossom.   Friday, July 28 View Page This is my 712 Marvin squash. The fruit is 3 DAP and the stem is 9.75 inches long! What is going on here?!?   Friday, July 28 View Page My 2048 Willemijns 24 DAP . OTT is 281 lb.   Friday, July 28 View Page My giant squash at 10 DAP.   Friday, July 28 View Page The stump of my AG.   Friday, July 28 View Page The stump of my giant squash. It was planted out 10 days after the AG and was a younger seedling as I recall.   Friday, July 28 View Page Well, it's a sad day. I had been watching this fruit growing and I swear it was intact 2 days ago but obviously it's not now. 3.85 lb, I had hoped for 4 but that is all academic now. I think I have to get more proactive with spraying down the fruit with Merit and peroxide.   Friday, July 28 View Page Oh, I forgot to say that it was a Delicious, from my 2.06 lb 2014. It was on a ribbon vine and I had hoped it would be bigger but the plant was sick. It was originally from the 6.51 Meisner'11.   Saturday, July 29 View Page 30 DAP OTT 460 lb. Plant is still filling in the patch, probably 4-5 days until all secondaries are terminated.   Sunday, July 30 View Page 32 DAP OTT 285.5 inches 536 lb. He grew 38 lb per day over the last two days. Couldn't be happier if I was twins! Ha!   Tuesday, August 1 View Page 34 DAP OTT 294 1/2 590 lb   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Our Squash, Princess Fiona is at 15 DAP with horizontal circumference 50", should be around 42 lb. I gently lifted her tonight to get a better angle with the main vine. I thought she lifted pretty easily, I must have eaten my Wheaties!   Thursday, August 3 View Page 36 DAP OTT 301 1/2 inches 633 lb   Thursday, August 3 View Page 17 DAP OTT 150" Wt estimated from circumference 65 lb   Thursday, August 3 View Page In addition to the fungicide I was due to spray, the plants got some Fish n Seaweed & Ureamate. And I mean business! Lol??   Sunday, August 13 View Page Here is my plant for my Indiana State Fair winner. As you can see the fruit was roughly at nipple height actually on the 4th truss.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Here is the fruit in its sling with my hand for reference. I thought it was from a 3 or 4X bloom. I count the sepals on my blossoms. The fruit with the most sepals is not always going to be the most rapidly growing but I like to know that as a reference point as to what the fruit might do. This fruit had 23 sepals.   Sunday, August 13 View Page I believe I mentioned in my diary that I had grafted all of my plants. As you can see, this happened to be the one plant that I had double-grafted. Was that a factor in how well the plant or fruit grew? Maybe, maybe not   Sunday, August 13 View Page A group picture of all of the growers.   Sunday, August 13 View Page The tale of the tape.   Sunday, August 13 View Page My fruit was 35 DAP and still as green as a bean as they say. I think I could have kept it on the vine for another 7 days or so & maybe hit the 6 lb mark but I will never know. And I wasn't sure what that crafty Gmay had up his sleeve!   Sunday, August 13 View Page Nicodemus 45 DAP OTT 338 885 lbs   Sunday, August 13 View Page Princess Fiona 26 DAP OTT 235 299 lbs   Wednesday, August 16 View Page Kathy with Nicodemus, 49 DAP & around 950 lbs.   Wednesday, August 16 View Page Lounging with Fiona 30 DAP & around 410 lbs.   Wednesday, August 23 View Page A selection of the Giant maters picked in the last couple days, ranging from 3.5 to 4.9 lbs. Some are Big Zac, Domingo, Brutus Magnum, Catapano & I believe 1 is from the 6.23 Konieczny MZ cross. Many apologies for screwing up your name, Chris!   Monday, August 28 View Page Well, a sad day at our house. I don't believe I had mentioned that we had some fungal infection on the button of our AG. I had cut it out & applied a paste of Captan, Daconil & Sulfur but I must not have cut deep enough & it recurred. Last week it went all the way into the cavity & I knew we were done. This is the same patch that I had lost a pumpkin to a foaming stump last year. So that smile on my face is a fooler, I must have been thinking of something else. If you look closely you can see a crack below the button & some foul smelling liquid is leaking out there.   Monday, August 28 View Page But all is not lost! Here is Princess Fiona at 42 DAP taping out at 697 lbs. This fruit also had some fungus on the button but I found it earlier & did a better job of treating it.   Friday, September 8 View Page Kathy & Princess Fiona at 53 DAP. Kathy won't allow me to release her DAP, hehe!   Friday, September 8 View Page Our "backup" squash, unknown DAP, on a tertiary & not growing as fast.   Friday, September 8 View Page This is a stinkbug pheromone trap I had gotten on a lark this year. At first it did not seem to be doing much but I was gratified this week to see a veritable swarm of the little buggers in there. Alas it doesn't do anything against vile cuke beetles & as I saw 2 earlier, I plan to nuke them with some Warrior T tonight.   Saturday, September 9 View Page My wife put a sign up for me last week.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page 63 DAP OTT 336.5" but growth slowing. We have a heatwave going thru this week with expected highs 90 or so. I am uneasy about this. Yes, we may get more growth, but I foresee more problems with fungal issues.   Monday, October 2 View Page At 76 DAP Princess Fiona is still growing but slowing. She got a drench this morning & will get a foliar spray this evening.   Tuesday, October 10 View Page Help! This first pic shows the crack extending down a rib from the blossom end.   Tuesday, October 10 View Page This pic shows the distal extent of the crack with my hand for reference. More details on the main message board.   Saturday, October 14 View Page On our way to Hamilton yesterday.   Saturday, October 14 View Page 908 pounds got us 3rd place, very happy, great weighoff!   Sunday, October 15 View Page Fiona got turned into a chained werewolf!   Friday, December 1 View Page Pretty excited about these!!!????   Wednesday, December 27 View Page 3 degrees F here this morning... Brrrr!!! On the bright side I registered for the GPC meeting & set up our flights & hotel room yesterday??!