Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 84 Entries. Monday, July 3 View Page I decided to grow all my different pumpkins in pots with holes for drainage in them this year because I felt that I would keep my weeding to a minimum. Over Memorial Day weekend I put a Jarrahdale, Porcelain Doll, and a seed from a white pumpkin my wife had bought at Walmart last fall into their own separate 3 gallon pots. I put a Dill Atlantic pumpkin seed into barrel pot. I put them in the spot where they would all get lots of sunlight despite a big shade tree in my yard. When vines were starting to come, I moved them to an area that would get at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. I water them every 2-3 days so that the dirt doesn't become a mud pie. I started using Schultzes 20-20-20 fertilizer once a week. The vines are growing well. I am expecting a female flower on them in the next 10 days or so.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page Atlantic Giant in its on July 4,2017. Found unexpected female flower at 4 feet. Hopefully I can self pollinate or use another pumpkin. Otherwise I will use a squash or zucchini flower. Could be my earliest set.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page Jarrahdale pumpkin in its pot on July 4, 2017.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page Porcelain Doll in its pot on July 4, 2017.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page White pumpkin seed from purchased white pumpkin last fall at Walmart in its pot.   Friday, July 14 View Page Checked out my patch today. Last 3 days hectic and unable to properly monitor patch. Found several bees moving from male giant flower to female giant flower that had bloomed at 7 feet. Hopefully will set and only pollen from giant plant. Female flower at 4 feet died without blooming. Jarrahdale had 2 female flowers starting. One on side vine at 4 feet, other on main at 7 feet. Porcelain Doll had 2 4 feet vines growing from the stem in opposite directions. White pumpkin had female flower starting at 7 feet.   Sunday, July 16 View Page Attacked by bugs when putting up Japanese Beetle Trap. 2 Dragonflies came to my rescue and ate/chased away bugs that were attacking me. When the bugs were gone, They sat on the fence staring at me while I was finishing putting the trap together. The just bloomed Atlantic Giant flower looks like its going set. The flower at 10 feet is a day away from blooming. The white and Jarrahdale female flowers continued to grow. I am expecting a female flower to come out of the Porcelain Doll as one of its vines is approaching 7 feet. Its on a growing mission now that I fertilized all pumpkin plants a few days ago and the long vine is going to an area of the yard that gets lots of late afternoon and evening sun. Gave all plants extra water today because of heat the past few days.   Tuesday, July 18 View Page Atlantic Giant looks like it is going to set. Propped up vine with a brick to try to grow upright instead on its side. May be adding additional bricks as pumpkin gets bigger.   Tuesday, July 18 View Page Atlantic Giant female flower bloomed at 8 feet. Most likely pollinated by Porcelain Doll pollen carried by bees. Male Flowers were blooming on that plant and bees were in the flowers. No male Atlantic Giant flowers were blooming today. Note in background a female flower at 8 1/2 feet. I would be very happy to get 2 of the 3 female flowers to set and grow 100+ pound pumpkins from this seed from Jungs. Why waste good seed when experimenting?   Tuesday, July 18 View Page Female white flower approaching blooming time at 7 feet. Don't know how long or if it is going to die before blooming. White and Atlantic Giant vines are running over each other.   Tuesday, July 18 View Page Jarrahdale Female flower at 10 feet. Waiting for it to bloom. Jarrahdale has 5 secondary vines coming of main.   Thursday, July 20 View Page Atlantic Giant possible set 2. Propped up vine with brick to help grow pumpkin upright. Board is used to cover air conditioner during winter months. Sand is from damage sandbags we put in the bed of my wife's truck for traction in the winter. Note another female flower in the background.   Thursday, July 20 View Page First Jarrahdale bloomed female flower. Don't what bees pollinated with because there are other types of pumpkins with male flowers open.   Thursday, July 20 View Page White female flower aborted. Looks like new one starting to grow. Porcelain Doll continues to grow long vine. Waiting for female flower to appear.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Giant Set 1 not growing as fast as I want. Smaller than Set 2. I am wondering if it is going to abort or growth is being slowed by Set 2. I've been watering the plant more than normal because of 2 sets on the plant.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Giant set 2 is doing well. It is larger than set 1. I added another brick today to raise the vine more to try to get pumpkin to grow upright.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Looks like Jarrahdale will be setting at 10 feet. Will be adding a brick to try to get it to grow upright. Main vine is longer than Atlantic Giant. Another female flower growing at 15 feet. Waiting for female flowers on all the secondary vines.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page Set looks good but I don't know what happened to pumpkin. Maybe hit by debris when I was mowing the grass near it.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page Set 1 looks like it is aborting. Time to get out the scissors and trim this off and all other things on plant to maximize size for Set 2. Main vine will get cut at 25 feet.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page Giant Set 2. Now comes the fun of maximizing size now that I am going to take my scissors to the plant to get rid of other female flowers, gripping vines, etc.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page Porcelain Doll first female flower. Hoping it will bloom because want a good size pumpkin. White aborted another female flower.   Wednesday, July 26 View Page Possible set 2 for Jarrahdale. White has another female flower going. Waiting to see if Giant Set 2 starts to grow or aborts now set1 has been cut off. Another Giant female flower growing at 20 feet. Didn't cutoff just incase set 1 and set 2 aborted. Porcelain Doll female flower starting to grow.   Saturday, July 29 View Page Jarrahdale Set 1. I think it is aborting. Set 2 at 18 feet looks ok.   Saturday, July 29 View Page Giant Set 2 looks like it is aborting. Noticed a critter bite into pumpkin. Thankfully I didn't clip the female flower at 20 feet. It is ready to bloom. I want something to start growing now so I will have something for Halloween.   Saturday, July 29 View Page Porcelain Doll female flower ready to bloom at 15 feet. Finally the first one.   Sunday, July 30 View Page Self pollinated Porcelain Doll. Self pollinated Giant. Trimmed female flower at 22 feet to hopefully get a pumpkin growing. Jarrahdale set 2 looks like it is setting and growing. trimmed female flower at 21 feet to help it grow/set. Set 1 is aborting and I will trim it off. White has a female flower a few days away from blooming.   Monday, July 31 View Page White first female flower ready to bloom. Will self pollinate.   Monday, July 31 View Page Jarrahdale set 2. It looks like it is going to set. Noticed a female flower starting on a secondary vine. It would be nice to have that flower bloom and cross with Atlantic Giant for next year.   Monday, July 31 View Page Found a female Atlantic Giant flower 2 days away from blooming on a side vine coming off the stem while looking for a white male flower to use for self pollination. I didn't realize how many vines were in my patch of 4 different pumpkin varieties when trying to find a white male flower that was about to bloom. Following a vine could be a challenge when they are running over each other. The male flower is at 2 feet.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Waiting for Giant Set 3 to occur. Flower doesn't look like it is doing anything after self pollination. Maybe it will abort again. Waiting for female flower on side vine to bloom. Waiting for Porcelain Doll to set. don't know what's up or will it abort? Self pollinated white. Jarrahdale Set 2 is about the size of an apple now.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Giant Set 3 that was hand pollinated. Note in background another female flower on side vine. Hopefully I can get a Giant to set with all these female flowers that are coming on side vines along with on the main. Fertilized and watered today.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 1 that has hand pollinated. Another female flower is starting further down the vine in case this one aborts.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page My Mammoth Russian sunflowers that I am growing.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page Set 3 looks like it could take because pumpkin is starting to grow. Female flower on side vine next to this set will bloom tomorrow. Female flower on vine from stem still growing. It would be nice to get 3 pumpkins to set on 3 separate vines. Hopefully at least one of the three flowers will actually set.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 1. Looks like it will abort because of bites in pumpkin. Female flower starting to grow a few feet further down the line. First sets always seem to abort for me.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page White set 1 that I hand flower. Hopefully will break tradition of first set aborting. Female flower growing a few feet down the vine.   Thursday, August 3 View Page Jarrahdale Set 2. Doing well.   Thursday, August 3 View Page Giant Set 4 Female flower I self pollinated. Last 2 sets had little green pumpkins and huge female flowers. First 2 sets had little yellow pumpkins and small female flowers and aborted. Maybe sets 3 & 4 will set because they are different than sets 1 & 2. Set 3 has changed from a little green pumpkin a slightly larger yellow pumpkin. Hopefully both pumpkins will set but Set 4 is on a secondary vine coming off right before set 3. It wouldn't surprise me if one ends up being aborted.   Thursday, August 3 View Page White Set 1. Female a foot down the vine continues to grow.   Friday, August 4 View Page White Set 1 looks like it is a go! Jarrahdale Set 2 continues to get larger. Rest of side vines continue to run wild. Will be burying the main. Set 3 has bloomed. Waiting to see if Giant Set 3 & 4 actually set. Set 5 female flower is aborting. Waiting to see what is going to happen with Porcelain Doll. Set 1 hasn't aborted yet but not getting larger and Set 2 has bloomed.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Giant Set 3 was aborting so I cut it off. Hopefully Set 4 on side vine will then start growing. Female flower 2 feet down the vine from Set 3 is 2 days away from blooming. Hopefully the distance between the 2 sets will allow both to set. White set 1 is continuing to grow so I cut off the female flower growing next to it to keep it growing. It think lesson learned of having side by side sets on same vine is not good. Let the next flower grow to bloom incase your set aborts. Waiting for Porcelain Doll set 1 to abort. Set 2 isn't doing anything now. Jarrahdale set 2 continues to grow. Waiting to set what happens to set 3. Waiting for side vines to start producing female flowers.   Tuesday, August 8 View Page Giant Set 4 on side vine looks like it may set. Set 5 female flower on main vine bloomed today. Still hoping to get 2 100 + pound pumpkins from this plant from non competition seeds. White Set 1 is about the size of a baseball and turning white. Waiting for another jarrahdale to happen on a side vine. Waiting for porcelain doll to decide when it wants to set now that it is producing female flowers.   Wednesday, August 9 View Page Giant Set 4 looks like it will be setting since it is starting to grow bigger on its own vine. Waiting to see if female bloom on main vine will set. Another female flower will be blooming on another side vine near Set 4. I will be watering every day now to try to get all 3 to set.   Wednesday, August 9 View Page Jarrahdale set 2 doing well. Waiting for a set on a side vine.   Wednesday, August 9 View Page White doing well. Size of a baseball.   Thursday, August 10 View Page Giant Set 4 looks like it grew overnight. Set 6 female flower bloomed today. Bees were at work. Time to bury all vines if I want to have 3 sets on this plant. Porcelain Doll set 2 was eaten by a critter over night. It was gone. It gives me an excuse to bury the main and wait for the female flower on a side vine to bloom. Jarrahdale female flower bloomed today. Time to start burying vines to get this flower to set.   Friday, August 11 View Page Buried all the vines on the giant plant where female flowers have bloomed and cleaned up vines with the scissors. Maybe I will get 2 additional sets on giant plant besides the one that is set. Glad to bury the Jarrahdale main. I think it was 30 feet long. Discovered a Porcelain Doll female flower had bloomed on the other vine coming off the stem. Have better hope of this one setting since this vine moved into an area that gets lots of sun. I am not sure what it is pollinated with because I thought it was a Jarrahdale at first but now that I took a closer look today and it was definitely a porcelain doll. It is next to the Jarrahdale vine and male flowers were blooming. I hope genetics are compatible.   Saturday, August 12 View Page Get Set 4. Paint can is pint size. I am happy to one giant pumpkin set. Hopefully by burying the vines for sets 5 & 6 also, they will set also.   Saturday, August 12 View Page Jarrahdale pumpkin next to gallon of paint. Waiting for female flowers on side vines.   Saturday, August 12 View Page White set 1 next to pint size can of paint. Buried end of main vine to hopefully make it grow bigger.   Saturday, August 12 View Page Buried Porcelain Doll main vine #2 from stem. Female flower has bloomed. Hopefully this will help pumpkin set. Main vine 1 and side vine on main vine 1 have a female flower ready to bloom in a few days. Once they bloom, I will bury the vines.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Porcelain Doll female flower on side vine from main # 1 bloomed today. Many male flowers on main # 1 bloomed today and saw bees doing their job. Too early to tell if burying main #2 is going to force a set on the female flower that bloomed a few days ago.   Monday, August 14 View Page Looks like Porcelain Doll has finally set a pumpkin. Buried and trimmed main #2. Female on side vine on Main #1 bloomed. Pretty sure it was pollinated by self since many male self flowers were bloomed today. Buried the vine to try to force a set. Female flower on end of main # 1 is set up to be hand pollinated tomorrow. Trimmed and buried Main #1. Left a few side vines on incase these forced sets don't work.   Monday, August 14 View Page Giant Set 5 that is forced. Waiting to see if forced set worked.   Monday, August 14 View Page Giant Set 6. Giant Set 4 in background. Both were forced sets. Waiting to see if Set 6 worked.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Giant Set 5 looks like forced set may work.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Giant Set 6 in foreground, Giant Set 4 in background. Waiting to see if set 6 is going to take.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 1 has taken. Hand pollinated a female flower today on main vine #1. Waiting to see what happens on pollinated female flower on side vine from main #1.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page My Russian Mammoth Sunflowers with heads starting to appear. Had to do an intervention today because they were on the verge of falling over. Put hanging basket stands in front of them to get them to stand up straight again.   Thursday, August 17 View Page Patch survived severe thunderstorm last night with no damage. Porcelain Doll on main # 2 continues to grow. Set on main # 1 on side vine looks like it is starting to set. White looks like growth has stalled. Waiting for additional female flowers from Jarrahdale. Giant Sets 4 & 6 are growing slowing. Female flower on new side vine bloomed. It doesn't matter if it sets. I am going to let the vine grow a bit before burying it.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Jarrahdale Set 1. Looks like it stopped growing. Disappointed that there aren't other sets with all the side vines it was putting out.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 1. Now as big as a baseball.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Porcelain Doll Set #2 at end of main vine #1. Even though the flower is still on, it is starting to grow.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Porcelain Doll Set #3 on side vine of main #1. At the beginning of this month I was starting to think that I wasn't going to get any pumpkins from this plant because female flowers weren't coming out and setting. Now I have 3 sets going !.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Giant set # 6 on a side vine. Continuing to grow.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Giant Set #4. Now almost as big as a paint can. Cut off set # 5 because it was getting bigger and I felt it was taking energy from set #4. Set #7 & #8 are on side vines away from this set. Very happy with the way things are going now. Last year almost had to do drive of shame to Costco to get pumpkins for JOLs for Halloween because of pissing contest on 2 plants between my dog and critters that killed one plant and severely damaged the other. Was able to save a plant to get pumpkins big enough for Halloween.   Sunday, August 20 View Page Removed Giant sets 7 & 8. Cleaned up their vines with the scissors. I am going to let these vines grow to about 8 feet before burying them. Cleaned up 2 new other side vines and will them grow to about 5 feet before burying them.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Giant Set 4. Hope growth isn't stalled because of being surrounded by vines.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 1. Getting bigger every day. Can start to see ribs in pumpkin.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 2. Getting bigger everyday.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 3. Hopefully critters won't finish eating it. Female flower on side vine next to this set almost ready to bloom.   Thursday, August 24 View Page Buried 4 side vines from Giant. Want to force energy into growing pumpkin. Fertilized all pumpkins with Alaska 511 Fish emulsion.   Tuesday, August 29 View Page Giant Set 6 aborted. Cut it off with Mr. scissors. Hopefully set 4 will finally start growing again now that it is the only pumpkin on the plant. White is in the process of aborting and no new female flowers. Porcelain Doll set #1 continues to get larger. Waiting for set # 3 to abort since it is not getting any bigger. No news with Jarrahdale.   Thursday, August 31 View Page Giant set 4 is getting bigger now that there are no other pumpkins on the vine. Porcelain Doll Set 2 is aborting and will be cut off with Mr. Scissors. Set 3 is getting larger. Jarrahdale is still there. White is starting to grow another vine. I am in much better shape than last year. I had a female flower that had to set and grow big in the next 6 weeks to avoid the drive of shame to Costco. Fortunately everything went right after a whole season of problems and I was able to get a good sized pumpkin for Halloween. Starting to compile a list of do s and don'ts for next year based upon this year's experiments.   Monday, September 4 View Page Checked in patch today. Giant growing slowly. At least I don't have to worry about the drive of shame like last year. Both Porcelain Dolls are almost as big as a paint can. No change for Jarrahdale. White is trying to give me a pumpkin before the end of the season after aborting its pumpkin. Female flower blooming on a new side vine along with another female flower growing on another side vine.   Tuesday, September 5 View Page The Wile Coyote Trellis. When designed and built by Wile Coyote, it finds or creates a way to collapse.   Saturday, September 9 View Page I have some fun left in the season. A Jarrahdale and walmart white pumpkin both set on the same day. Now its a race to see if both get large enough to carve for halloween. Everything else is no change but growing slowly. Bought worm casings, lime, and fish fertilizer for next year on clearance at Walmart today. I'm a low budget grower. Big expense next year will be good seeds since this year's experiments have given me the best plants ever.   Monday, September 11 View Page Porcelain Doll Set 3. It survived an attack by critters. When I carve it, I should be able to get rid of scarring caused by critters. I had a what the hack is going on in the patch feeling this morning. First, I noticed that some plants had crawled through the fence into the neighbor's yard and was now climbing the fence trying to get back into my yard. I though I had buried those vines weeks ago and a tertiaries sprung out and I wasn't paying much attention to them the past few days. Second, I checked on the white female setting and noticed 2 other females were in the process of setting. It made me think more porcelain dolls or whites were on the way. I'll let the plants sort it out for me when I see things starting to abort. Porcelain Doll Set 2 is starting to turn pink. I think I am going to have some interesting hybrids to try grow next spring because of the lack of male flowers blooming when these late female flowers bloomed. I can see whites with porcelain dolls, Jarrahdale with porcelain doll or giant.   Thursday, September 14 View Page White pumpkin making valiant effort to give me a good JOL pumpkin for Halloween after aborting the only one on plant. Now I have 2 baseball sized on 2 side vines. Jarrahdale #2 is about the size of a baseball. Waiting for colors to change on Jarrahdale and Porcelain Doll pumpkins.   Saturday, September 16 View Page Race is on between white and Jarrahdale to see which will have largest late season pumpkin. White has 3 sets going with largest bigger than a softball and smallest bigger than a golf ball. 3rd one is seize of baseball. 2nd Jarrahdale set is size of baseball. No changes on other pumpkins.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page Having new roof put on my house. Roofer will be leaving wooden pallets behind for me. I don't have to go looking for new ones for growing giant pumpkins on next year..   Wednesday, September 20 View Page White pumpkin is leading race against Jarrahdale pumpkin. White is bigger than white that aborted. Noticed that a Jarrahdale had set on the other side of the fence when the vine ventured there. My neighbor will appreciate it.   Monday, September 25 View Page White still larger than Jarrahdale. Big enough for JOL. Big Jarrahdale is finally starting to turn from green to blue. golf ball white aborted and the baseball white looks like it will abort also. Good learning experience that only 1 pumpkin per plant except for Jarrahdale and Porcelain Doll. Next years patch will have 2 open pollinated Jarrahdales, 2 open pollinated Porcelain Dolls, 1 Open pollinated White, 1 Lumina, and 2 AG from good seeds. I am curious what kind of pumpkins the open pollinated ones while bear. I can picture a white jarrahdale or porcelain doll, an orange jarrahdale or porcelain doll, or larger jarrahdale or porcelain doll if it was pollinated with the AG.   Wednesday, October 4 View Page Looked at my patch that had been unattended for several days. Looks like hell but I am happy with all the pumpkins in the patch including the one that grew in my neighbor's yard. He gives me lots of stuff from his garden so I figure its time to give something back. I'll be putting up some chicken wire fences for the jarrahdale and porcelain doll pumpkins next year. I see how much fun the jarrahdale is having on the fence now. It will also help keep my plants under better control with as many that I am growing next year.