Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 21 Entries. Tuesday, April 17 View Page To grow or not to grow, that is the question. I'm still on the fence about if I'll grow giant pumpkins this year. It's a tough decision, that I'll have to make very soon.   Thursday, April 19 View Page I wasn't sure about growing giant pumpkins this year, because it could be a busy growing season for me. I decided to start some seeds anyway. Maybe I can be better at time management, and give the plants adequate attention. I started one 1317 Clementz, one 1109 Borgers, and three 1912 Carter seeds. My plan is to see what germinates, and narrow it down to two competition plants.   Saturday, April 21 View Page The 1317 Clementz, 1109 Borgers, and the three 1912 Carter seeds all germinated. 5 for 5! I started soaking them on April 17. I used the moist paper towel in a plastic baggie method. One of the 1912 seeds had a considerably more vigorous root than the other two. I put them all in pots filled with potting soil today.   Wednesday, May 9 View Page On the evening of May 5th I planted out one plant of each of the following: 1317 Clementz, 1912 Carter, and 1109 Borgers. I'm going with 2 competetion plants. My two competition choices are the 1317 and 1912. The 1109 is planted as a backup to the 1912. If the 1109 isn't needed in it's backup role, I may grow it as a small plant, and make a genetic cross. I think crossing either the 1317 or 1912 into the 1109 could be promising.   Tuesday, June 5 View Page I'm down to two giant pumpkin plants now. About 10 days ago we got high winds one evening, and it blew the greenhouse off of the 1317 Clementz plant. It cracked the stem of the plant about halfway through, perendicular to the direction of the mainvine(against the grain so to speak). Maybe I could have braced it, and it would have healed over, but the leaves of the plant were drooping quite a bit, so I decided to pull the plant. So the 1109 Borgers is now the other competition plant(insead of backup), along with the 1912 Carter. The 1317 was the plant I was most keen on growing. Oh well........ 1109 X 1912 could be a nice big/orange cross. The 1109 is selfed 4 generations(? not sure); and the 1912 is selfed once. Crossing the two might result in some hybid vigor possibly. Hopefully I can grow a bigger pumpkin on the 1109 than Mr. Borgers does this year. I'll be watching his diary closely:-)   Friday, June 8 View Page Compared to many growers(such as Qtip), my giant pumpkin plants are way behind. But actually this is one of the best starts I've ever had. I don't use heating cables, and this may be one of the reasons that I don't get big plants in early June. I measured the mainvines of my two plants yesterday evening. The 1912 is 6' in length and the 1109 is 3'5" in length. In the 1109's defense, I didn't have a greenhouse over it for as much time as I did over the 1912. Both plants look fine so far.   Friday, June 29 View Page The first pollinations on the mainvine of both the 1912 Carter and 1109 Borgers occurred on June 27th. Both were open(uncontrolled) pollinations. I knew this could be a busy summer for me, so I'm not stressing about making controlled crosses. Both were had 4 lobes. Bob, both your 1109 Borgers plants look good! Best of luck to you with them. This year should be a good test for this seed.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page A plethora of rain clouds matriculated over my garden over the past two weeks or so. It resulted in copious amounts of rain. The garden soil has been quite saturated with moisture during this time interval.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page July 7th was day 10 for the first pumpkin sets on my plants. The day 10 circ. was 23" on the 1109, which looks to be my keeper. It's currently a round pumpkin, maybe slightly wider than long. Day 10 for the 1912 pumpkin was either 20.5 or 21.5", going from memory. I'm planning on culling this pumpkin this evening though. It has a fairly large hail scar on top of it, and the shape of it at the shoulder area is getting somewhat asymmetrical. I have a later set on the main(I think it was pollinated on 7-6), that looks to have taken. It will have more plant behind it, so hopefully it will grow well.   Thursday, July 12 View Page Yesterday was day 15 for the pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers. It had a circ. of 40.5".   Friday, July 13 View Page Grow my pumpkins, grow like you mean it; and then grow some more!....................If you don't mind.   Monday, July 16 View Page Day 10 for the pumpkin on the mainvine of the 1912 Carter. The circ. was 23.5". I have another pumpkin, about the same size, on a secondary that branches off of the main, a few feet before the pumpkin on the main(if that make sense lol). I should decide on which one to go with sometime this week.   Tuesday, July 17 View Page Today was day 20 for my pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers plant. It's circ was 67.25". Based on the early color of the pumpkin, I'm thinking it will go quite orange. It's shape at this point is pretty close to it's mother, the 1109 Borgers. The pumpkin is in between the 9 and 9.5' mark on the mainvine. The plant size is on the small size for this time of the season. Too much rain, awhile back and likely low soil fertility are likely to blame. The plant is growing slowly. I plan on adding a granular fertilizer to the plant area soon.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page Yesterday was day 26 for the pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers. It's circ. was 86.5" Using the 2005 circumference chart, I figured it averaged 14.5 lbs./day for the past 6 days.   Sunday, July 29 View Page July 27th was day 30 for my pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers. It's day 30 circ. was 97.5"   Thursday, August 16 View Page Yesterday was day 49 for my pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers. It had an OTT of 271", for an estimated 442 lbs. Circ. was 119", s-to-s was 77.5", e-to-e was 74.5" Not the fastest growing pumpkin by any means. I don't blame the slow growth on the potential of the seed, but on the growing conditions and likely low soil fertility(as well as my own shortcomings in tending to the plant). Many of the secondaries before the plant grew only so far, and then stopped, much shorter than I would have liked. One guess on why is maybe too much rain during that growth period, coupled with a not very fertile soil to begin with.....just a guess though. On a positive note, it has very good color IMO, one of the best colored pumpkins I've grown. The shape is pretty decent as well. I'll try and get another OTT measurement on it in about 10 days or so.   Thursday, August 16 View Page I haven't measured the 1912 Carter pumpkin for quite awhile. It is starting to get a little more orange, but is quite dull and quite light orange in color, and not shiny like my pumpkin on the 1109. It doesn't have a very nice shape. Kind of bell-shaped, with big shoulders, and a sunken in middle before the blossom end. Not very large either. I'm sorry I haven't been posting pictures, but a few years back when I got a different computer, I didn't learn how to post pics on it. I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to learn, but I just haven't took the time to figure it out, or get help with it. Right now, in my mind the only pumpkin I would take to a weighoff is the one on the 1109. Gale Woods is my preference. There's still somewhere around 50 days before that weighoff I think). Hopefully my 1109 keeps growing for most if not all of those days. I should add that the 1109 had some splitting around the stem area(not the actual stem), which oozed a yellow milky liquid, which worried me. It has stopped for awhile now, but hopefully those splits won't be a problem going forward.   Friday, August 31 View Page About 6 or 7 days after the last measurement in my diary, I measured the 1109 pumpkin again. I figured it averaged 5.7 lbs./day for those 6 or 7 days. I'd be quite happy if it got to 600 lbs., but it will most likely fall short of this. The color is a very nice shiny orange IMO. Mr. Borgers has a nice one growing on his 1109. It also appears to have nice color and is sizing up well. Keep her going Bob!   Wednesday, September 5 View Page My pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers plant has such nice color, I'm tempted to wisper sweet nothings to it. Don't worry my pumpkin, I'll fight these temptations vigorously.   Wednesday, October 24 View Page I had my pumpkin on the 1109 Borgers plant weighed at the Gale Woods Farm weigh off. It weighed 538 lbs. It was about 4% light to the estimated weight. It won the Howard Dill Award there. This is the first time I won this award, so it was a nice honor. I have won the "prettiest pumpkin" a few times in the past, but not the actual Howard Dill Award. It was nice seeing and talking to the other growers at the weigh off. We get a nice bunch of growers that attend this event.   Wednesday, October 24 View Page If I keep growing these giant pumpkins, I think I might name the next pumpkin I grow Evangeline, after the little blond-haired girl that I last saw during my 4th grade school year. My family moved quite a distance away, to the Osakis area, the summer before my 5th grade year, so I never saw her again. Evangeline didn't strike me as the future cheerleader type, but seemed more like the introspective, deep thinking type. Maybe if we never moved away, she would have become my wife, and we would have spent long evenings pondering and discussing life's greatest mysteries over a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon or maybe she would have preferred Merlot. Then again maybe she would have preferred a taller dark-haired boy, to a shorter, light reddish brown-haired boy, with a cowlick on the right side of his forehead, such as myself. Maybe I won't name my next pumpkin Evangeline after all.