Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 15 Entries. Thursday, April 6 View Page The new site. I am removing the asphalt and 2" of gravel. Then 12'x24' raised curb 10" high. Will hold 12-14" of soil.... Once I cart it in. I am excited for this location. Full sun with south aspect.   Sunday, April 23 View Page 2 loads each of compost ammender and garden soil. One load of composted horse manure. One load fresh horse manure for hot bed. Two yards mushroom manure. Soaked seeds over night. 1043 chan and 922.6 hoelke.   Sunday, May 14 View Page Thank you Jeff for providing your backup starters as almost all my seeds failed to germinate. I had 2 come up 12 days after I sowed them. I planted the 1374 Engle as the main plant. And we'll wait a few days until the weather warms up to plant the backups at the other patch. We've had so much rain that I had to dig out the patch and turn the hotbed manure over underneath has it got saturated and compacted and failed to compost.   Sunday, May 14 View Page It's really growing fast now. managed to pollinate a female about 10 ft. Outside On June 28th. I had a female open up on June 13th. I found this odd because no other males I yet to open. I tried pollinating with a random cucumber but no success. I sprayed twice now for aphids and it's about time to cut the secondaries as they are exceeding 2 planter box.   Sunday, July 16 View Page 127 Ott. 18dap. This little girl is perfect. Growing really fast and ideal position. Got another one go on the secondary for backup (97 ott) and a few more pollinated three four feet out from this one on the main. Tailing some secondaries.   Sunday, July 23 View Page Putting on around 12 or 13 lb a day consistently. I mulched it with two yards of Campost yesterday. Powdery mildew starting. Interesting thing with this plant is that I only have had to trim three or four tertiaries. And three females after the big one have allocated the aborted before opening. The future looks bright with two weeks of sun!!!!!   Sunday, July 23 View Page Putting on around 12 or 13 lb a day consistently. I mulched it with two yards of Campost yesterday. Powdery mildew starting. Interesting thing with this plant is that I only have had to trim three or four tertiaries. And three females after the big one have allocated the aborted before opening. The future looks bright with two weeks of sun!!!!!   Sunday, July 23 View Page Putting on around 12 or 13 lb a day consistently. I mulched it with two yards of Campost yesterday. Powdery mildew starting. Interesting thing with this plant is that I only have had to trim three or four tertiaries. And three females after the big one have allocated the aborted before opening. The future looks bright with two weeks of sun!!!!!   Thursday, July 27 View Page My youngest called the last backup pumpkin. I'm all in with this one. It taped 146Ott (74lbs) and the bathroom scale read 84!! 12%heavy. Hope that holds true for "grandfather". I decided to dedicate the big pumpkin to my late father who passed this june. So its name is grandfather Al   Thursday, August 3 View Page Today is a milestone as such. I taped 245 Ott. Which pushed me past my personal best. Assuming it doesn't go light............ And that I can hold it till wiegh off....... I'm really enjoying the Smoky Skies at work but not for the pumpkin.   Sunday, September 3 View Page Just returned from a 10-day trip. I'm happy to see it wasn't a big pile of mush. Average 4lb/day while gone. Awesome mash of vine growth beneath a peice of plywood used to balance an old secondary pumpkin. Load of tertiary vine growth. Finally.   Saturday, October 7 View Page Hired a bobcat to lift it into the truck. I taped it at 3:10 inches over the top. Unfortunately the bottom was punky.   Saturday, October 7 View Page 706 pounds! My goal was 700 pounds this year so I kind of got it but I was disqualified from the rotten bottom. Lesson learned to grow it on sand in a mat. I hope it doesn't turn to mush before Halloween. They tape 327 Ott at the weigh-in.   Tuesday, October 31 View Page Happy Halloween!!!!   Tuesday, October 31 View Page Happy Halloween!!!!