Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 107 Entries. Thursday, July 19 View Page Well it's better late than never to start a diary for 2018. I am super busy as usual and nothing is getting the proper care and attention it needs. I am always juggling with too many balls. This is a picture of the 200 foot row of Black Diamond x Carolina Cross. Chris Kent gave me the seeds. All of these are on various sorts of grafted rootstocks. (bushel gourd, C. ficifolia, 'Rampart', 'Shintosa Camelforce',Caveman's club' and sponge gourd. They were spaced 15' apart and allowed to sprawl over 12' of black plastic. They have already outgrown their alloted space and are growing out onto the dirt. These are being grown without sprays. So they are at natures whim. Fortunately they are on "new soil". They will all be good for eating. Hopefully I am able to grow some big ones too.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This is what all the fruit look like on the Black Diamond x CC cross. I have not seen any other types. They are all F1 hybrids. Too me this is a nice looking melon. I love the dark background. It is very similar to what an 'Iopride' melon looks like. Except these will be able to get much larger! Iopride is an old open pollinated variety that is very, very hard to find these days. The only place that still sells it that I am aware of, is Sand Hill Preservation Center.   Thursday, July 19 View Page It has been very dry here and as a result the meadow mice have been eating the vines to get water. Large sections of vine have collapsed on me in various portions of the row. At first I thought it was typical graft failure that causes the vine to collapse. In a way I was slightly relieved to find physical damage. Hopefully I will get the mouse problem under control soon. These melons are being grown in an isolated field without access to water or anything else. Fortunately the soil here tends to be on the damp side and we get some good capillary action coming up from down below. The melons seem to be loving this weather.   Thursday, July 19 View Page One other problem that is just starting to show, a few of the plants have some mite damage that is starting to manifest in the crown of the plant. I will not spray these with Avid as I hope to enjoy eating these.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This is a 'Caveman's Club' gourd. Bred and named by Chris Kent. It is a Bushel gourd x long gourd cross. These are really cool. I haven't done much scouting to see if I have any clubs yet. They will kind of hide on me until they get some more size. It is fun to grow new things, thanks for the seeds Chris!   Thursday, July 19 View Page This is a 52 Kent CC x BD cross on a sponge gourd root stock. The plant is definitely small and it is obvious the sponge gourd lacks the power of other root-stocks. Still you can see a large melon tucked under a piece of row cover.   Thursday, July 19 View Page A 52 Kent CCx BD melon on a 'Rampart' Root-stock. This plant is probably twice the size of the one in the previous picture that is on the sponge gourd root-stock.   Thursday, July 19 View Page It has a nice looking melon on it too. I love the look of these CCx BD hybrids.   Thursday, July 19 View Page Now it's time for some AG pictures. All of my pumpkins this year are from Andy Wolf. Five in total. I have two 1971.5 Wolf plants. Two 667 Wolf plants and a single 716 Wolf plant. All have the potential for big and orange. The one in the picture is a really nice long 1971 Wolf pumpkin. Looks like it will be orange too.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This one is on my other 1971 Wolf plant. It looks like it will not be very orange. At first I thought it was going to be orange, but as it has grown it has become very white. I like white pumpkins a lot too. Unfortunately, they rarely stay white.   Thursday, July 19 View Page One of my 667 Wolf plants completely surrounded by corn. The pumpkin under the sheet is on a secondary and is the oldest pumpkin I have. I will probably grow two or three nice orange ones on this plant. This year I did zero vine burying and no tertiary pinching. As long as you don't deadhead the vine the terts don't have tons of vigor.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This is what that pumpkin looks like on the 667 Wolf. In the picture it looks prettier than it is. It is developing a sag in the middle. Still, I don't care..... It will be orange!   Thursday, July 19 View Page This pumpkin is on the main vine on one of my 667 Wolf's.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This pumpkin is on a secondary on my son's 667 Wolf plant. It also has a weird shape. I have had lots of aborts this year. As pollination time coincided with a heat wave. Plus it didn't help that I did not have a ton of roots that anchored and fed the plant.   Thursday, July 19 View Page 716 Wolf plant, this plant is enormous! If I can get a fruit to grow on this plant it should have lots of power.   Thursday, July 19 View Page This is what is on it. Not too late. Grow baby grow!   Thursday, July 19 View Page You are now up to speed with my 2018 season.   Sunday, July 29 View Page A major storm went through here yesterday about 4:30 pm. Many huge trees were snapped or uprooted. The garden is flattened. It was very localized, the major damage was concentrated in about one square mile around where I live. Yet, I have seen worse. Back in 09 a major hailstorm shredded every leaf I had. I think many things will bounce back.... I lost my biggest AG on the 667 Wolf to a BES. I also lost one of my 1971 Wolfs to YVD. Whatever I get I will be happy with it. Sometimes I wonder if I am insane to keep doing this hobby. I need a new patch with fresh soil, far away from YVD infected squash bugs.   Monday, August 13 View Page A CC x JBD melon. This one has some sunburn on it. My guess is it is somewhere around 100 pounds. This one is in the big field.   Monday, August 13 View Page There are lots and lots of melons in this row. I didn't keep up on the culling as much as I had hoped for. Anyone know anyone in the market to buy some giant melons? I will have lots and lots in the 100 pound range. Hopefully they don't rot on me because of all the rain we have been getting for the last month.   Monday, August 13 View Page You can see the melon plants are in decent health still.   Monday, August 13 View Page Here is a nice sized melon. They are nice looking melons. Nice and wide.   Monday, August 13 View Page One last picture of the CC x JBD melons.   Monday, August 13 View Page A Caveman's Club gourd. These are really cool. This plant is definitely nitrogen deficient but it still has churned out some nice sized gourds.   Monday, August 13 View Page Another Cavemans Club on the same plant as the previous picture. These are impressive sized gourds.   Monday, August 13 View Page Some Cinderella pumpkins.   Monday, August 13 View Page A row of mixed sunflowers planted late (mid June) The late planted ones always seem to have such nice clean foliage. No holes and other defects   Monday, August 13 View Page This is an AG x Red Kuri squash hybrid. I got the seed from Bill Foss from the exotic seed exchange. Really, really cool. I hope they color up nice. I have two plants and I will have lots of these come fall. Too bad the squirells want to take a nibble out of these when they are small.   Monday, August 13 View Page and another one.   Monday, August 13 View Page Looks like it will be a good year for this Red Haven peach tree. I love the way this variety colors up nice and red.   Monday, August 13 View Page My late planted sweet corn. The variety is 'American Dream' planted on July 4th. This is a new variety. It is very good. I have a block of it ready now. It is very sweet and also very tender. The ears are small and blocky. Not much husk protection on it either, so the birds are having a field day with it. I grew a white corn called 'Argent' this year. It had great husk protection, worms and birds couldn't even get at the ears, they are buried two inches down in the husk! I will grow that one again. It is an SE type.   Thursday, September 6 View Page With July and most of August being so wet, I didn't want my sheets just laying on the pumpkins. I used step-in electric fence posts and just tied the sheet to it. Simple and easy, No sledge hammer involved!   Thursday, September 6 View Page This pumpkin is on a secondary on my 667 Wolf plant. I set two other pumpkins on this plant. I couldn't get one to keep on the main so I kept three fruit all spread out evenly over the plant. One of them got a blossom end split and was left to rot in the field. So I was left with two on this plant. The 667 Wolf did not disappoint for it's nice orange color and glossy skin.   Thursday, September 6 View Page This 667 Wolf pumpkin is the one I decided to bring to the Goshen Fair. It weighed in at 554 pounds. This was a very young pumpkin set sometime in the latter part of July. It surprised me how fast it grew. I am sure it had at least a couple hundred pounds more to grow when it was harvested. I don't feel too bad about harvesting it. I am very pleased not to get skunked again this year. It makes for a long winter when you don't have a single pumpkin to bring to a weighoff.   Friday, September 7 View Page In a few sections of the 667 this disease showed up. It didn't take the plant down. Does anyone know what this is? Phytophthora? Fusarium? I get it almost every year on some of my plants.   Friday, September 7 View Page Aphids tend to show up on my plants in August. I need to be ready for them.   Friday, September 7 View Page This pumpkin is on the same 667 Wolf plant that the 554 was grown on. It was an Open pollination that I let grow. It was on the edge of the corn patch so I didn't even bother to throw a shade cloth over it. The corn is now brown and withered up, yet the pumpkin seems healthy and unaffected. Perhaps the weeds are shading it. LOL   Friday, September 7 View Page A close up of the same pumpkin in the previous picture. It is growing on it's blossom end. Corn stalks are natures way of growing a blossom down pumpkin.   Friday, September 7 View Page 554 Ciesielski side view grown off the 667 Wolf.   Friday, September 7 View Page 554 Ciesielski, blossom end view. This pumpkin is for sale. Anyone know anyone looking to buy a nicely colored pumpkin?   Friday, September 7 View Page Our Red bone coon hound, boxer mix. This dog is super athletic.   Friday, September 7 View Page 554 Ciesielski last picture of it, I promise   Friday, September 7 View Page This pumpkin was on a different 667 Wolf plant than the the 554. This pumpkin weighed 584 and it was carved up into a fancy display at the Goshen Fair.   Friday, September 7 View Page In this photograph you can see the 667 Wolf pumpkin has some sort of rot. I have had this problem in my patch for many years now. I don't know what causes it. I call it "clear" rot. The surface of the pumpkin still appears firm but it gets these darkened areas that grow and grow. Eventually taking over the pumpkin and rotting it with in two to three weeks. That is the reason this pumpkin was donated to be used as a carving pumpkin. It might as well get used for something!   Friday, September 7 View Page This plant had some aphids on it too. On this leaf the aphids appear to be on the top side of the leaf. I think that this is because the leaf was fully shaded underneath the pumpkin's leaf canopy.   Friday, September 7 View Page This leaf had so many aphids on it when it was young and still expanding that the shape of the leaf was compromised and it was deformed.   Friday, September 7 View Page This is a CC x Black Diamond cross melon. It was grown on a sponge gourd rootstock. The plant was very small, Probably 10'x10' without any pruning. The melon plant sunk all it's energy into the fruit. This melon grew over a long season. Circumference-74 Side to side-46 blossom end to stem end-49 Total 169 for an estimated weight of 141 pounds.   Friday, September 7 View Page It did have a pretty decent sized hollow heart. (in my garden that is pretty normal) I then took the seeds out and put them in the big bucket. I pulverized the flesh and let it ferment for a couple of days up to a week. Once the flesh is fully fermented it will be a liquid. I just add some more water and stir. Most of the seeds will sink to the bottom. I then pour off any remaining pulp. Add water again and repeat. The last step is to pour the seeds into a colander and wash thoroughly. With this batch I even rinsed them quickly in some bleach water. Hopefully this will reduce any surface pathogens.   Friday, September 7 View Page There are lots of seeds! I will have a virtual seed company this winter if anyone wants to give these cool melons a shot. Shoot me an email and you can send me a bubble. I plan on getting lots more seeds before I am done. Some of the other melons in the field are even bigger than this! Perhaps we can advance both the Carolina Cross genetics and Black Diamond at the same time.   Friday, September 7 View Page A little trivia, just for fun. Does anyone know what this plant is that I am growing? Here is a hint; it is not a plant that is commonly grown outside the tropics. First person to guess correctly will win a packet of seeds of the plant pictured.   Monday, September 10 View Page 1971 Wolf ready for harvest for the Bethlehem fair.   Monday, September 10 View Page This 1971 Wolf plant was planted on the late side and it didn't get a pumpkin set until around the fourth of July. (In the midst of a heat wave.) This plant was given minimal care. It was allowed to grow over a hay mulch. The plant stayed small and did not require much pruning at all. No vines were buried, no mycorrhizae, very low input over all.   Monday, September 10 View Page This pumpkin grew un-noticed until harvest day. Maybe 150 pounds or so. I am letting it grow out.   Monday, September 10 View Page 1971 Wolf with the shsde cover removed.   Monday, September 10 View Page The vine got kinked in a few places. I should have pulled it back.   Monday, September 10 View Page Another shot of one of the kinks.   Monday, September 10 View Page It had a kink close to the stem too. Did this cost any pounds? I don't know. My guess is probably not, not with a slow steady grower.   Monday, September 10 View Page A Bill Foss Cross (AG x Red Kuri)   Monday, September 10 View Page A young AG x Red Kuri   Monday, September 10 View Page You can see the AG X Red Kuri Cross is very vigorous. It was direct seeded on June 14th, after one of my 1971's went down to YVD. This pumpkin took over that whole spot!   Monday, September 10 View Page This is the 1971 Wolf a long low "three lober" pumpkin.   Monday, September 10 View Page It has a nice wide blossom end.   Monday, September 10 View Page Final on Pallet measurements. Side to side 90.5 Blossom end to Stem end 93.5 Circumference 157 Total 341" 831 # is the estimated weight   Monday, September 10 View Page Actual weight at the fair 931.6. It went heavy.   Monday, September 10 View Page Pete Sweets first place entry.   Monday, September 10 View Page Gary Vincent's second place entry   Monday, September 10 View Page Steve Maydens squash. Well when it arrived at the fair it was a squash. I guess it is a chameleon type of pumpkin so it decided to blend in with the other pumpkins! It was crazy to see it change color over the weekend. Steve it was nice to finally meet you after all these years of growing.   Monday, September 10 View Page This was the highlight for me, a new personal best melon. 163 pounds! This melon grew with very little care. It was just one of many in a 200 foot row of Black Diamond x Carolina cross melons. Thank you Chris Kent, I believe this was off your 52.   Monday, September 10 View Page 92 pound caveman's club created by the Mad scientist breeder Chris Kent. These are really neat. It is a Bushel gourd x long gourd.   Monday, September 10 View Page One more shot of the 163. Was it really just a good year for melons or is there something to these hybrids?   Monday, September 10 View Page Final ott measurements 179" It went right to chart.   Monday, September 10 View Page That's it for now!   Sunday, September 16 View Page Yikes! The 163 cut open. Quite an air bubble. For some reason it still went to chart. The rind was super thick. The melon was nice and crisp still, not starchy. It could be sweeter though. IT was good but not great...   Sunday, September 16 View Page You can see how thick the rind is here. In my opinion, and from memory. I think the Carolina Cross is a better eating melon than the black diamond. It is a little sweeter. They both suffer from fibrous strings in the rind and their color is a light pink, not a dark red. If you want a good eating melon see the next entry.   Sunday, September 16 View Page This is a 'Farmers Wonderful' These are as sweet as sugar. One of the best I have tasted. They are sweet from the heart right down to the rind. (they are seedless, so buying seed is not cheap.) John Williams told me about this variety many years ago when I ran into him at the Durham Fair. I finally grew it this year. He was right!   Sunday, September 16 View Page This is a picture of the 200' row of CC x JBD melons. This row exceeded my wildest imagination. The cultural details of how I grew this row will be in my next entry.   Sunday, September 16 View Page The plants were spaced 15-20' apart. I thinned them down to 12 plants total.(I started with 24) The soil in this field is on the wet side. It is a very rich and dark loam it has a pH of 6.0. I layed black plastic in early May. (The soil was very wet and sticky but I layed it anyways.) In the second part of May I set the plants out in the field. The only fertilizer I used was a stinky organic one called Pro-Gro from North Country organics in Vermont. Each plant got a handful of Pro gro when it went in and then another handful about a month later. That is it! No other fertilization needed. to be Continued....   Sunday, September 16 View Page Once the melons started to run, I lay down a 4' sheet of Black plastic on each side of the row. This gave about a 12' area that weeds would not be able to grow on. Of course the melons outgrew the 12' wide swath in a relatively short time, but at least I knew that the plants would have a 12' section that stayed weed free. Weeds are a big problem for me. Especially with melons! Initially I thinned all the culls,then I fell behind and the plants loaded up with melons. THe smaller plants with the bigger melons wound up growing bigger melons becuase they were able to devote all their energy into the melon. The bigger plants wound up fruiting so heavily that it compromised ultimate fruit size. BUT the yield of total pounds of fruit was insane. I am beginning to wonder if a laid back grower like me would do better with smaller plants and less culling.   Sunday, September 16 View Page I loaded some of the biggest ones into my pick up truck. The field was so wet I thought the truck would get stuck. I am surprised the melons grew so well in such a wet spot. You can tell the field is wet because it has large sections that are loaded with Reed canary grass. That stuff grows really well on rich wet soil. Other common weeds in the field are large leafed burdock and of course goldenrod.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Some of the larger CC x JBD in the truck.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Here they are laid out on the lawn.   Thursday, September 20 View Page This one is the biggest one.   Thursday, September 20 View Page The second biggest.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Third biggest, A big fatty.   Thursday, September 20 View Page These are the AG x Red Kuri cross pumpkins from Bill Foss. These were all grown on two plants. They were direct seeded in mid June. One of the plants was transplanted into a new spot in the beginning of July and it had to catch up. It wilted badly at first but I had a timed sprinkler that went off every hour and ran for five minutes. This helped the plant survive those High mid day temps and sun until it grew a new root syestem. The plant that was transplanted produced the longer lighter colored pumpkins on the left.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Here is another shot of the AG x red kuri. These are the longer type from the transplanted one. The lighter color is most likely due to the fact that they needed some more time. It has been a long year, and the way things are going, chances are the mice and squirrels would have eaten them before harvest. So I got them out. They can ripen off the vine in the sun. LOL   Thursday, September 20 View Page These are the AG x red kuri off of the other plant. They are more square in shape and slightly smaller in size. Both have that nice red/orange color that I am sure Bill was shooting for. This would probably be the more desirable shape for Jack O Lanterns and fall pumpkin sales.   Thursday, September 20 View Page This is the last AG of the season off the 667 Wolf, grown with out shade cover sheets in the corn patch. A blossom down one.   Thursday, September 20 View Page The only successfully dried bushel gourd from last year. I think this one dried successfully because of the big hole in it. I am starting to wonder if we should be cutting these in half or drilling drain holes to help in the overwinter drying process. I have not had much luck drying them.   Thursday, September 20 View Page A side shot of the blossom down 667 Wolf.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Late planted corn, I was looking forward to eating this stuff.   Thursday, September 20 View Page This is squirrel damage. I lost most of this patch to them. Plus I caught a few rats in the trap too. I was wondering if they were climbing the stalks at night and eating them just like the squirrels from the tip down. Shredding them up almost like a bird does.   Thursday, September 20 View Page Another shot of the damage.   Thursday, September 20 View Page I've had enough, patch got stripped corn season is over. I will freeze what I can of it. I would have had to plant a week, later possibly two weeks later to get corn to go right through 'til frost this year. Warm days and warm nights. This was 'American Dream' corn planted on the Fourth of July. I thought that was a fitting date to plant it. It's been a rough year dealing with all the critters, I have seen things I have never seen before. I have been doing this since I was a kid. You never know it all. Just when you think you do, look out you have got a lesson coming!   Thursday, September 20 View Page This popcorn got knocked over in the storm at the end of July. It was nearing 9' and still growing. I have never seen popcorn grow so tall. It was a multi-colored ear type. Almost like a dual purpose popcorn/indian corn type. The rats,squirrels who knows what else... went through it and ate all the ears. Usually they leave this kind of corn be and just mess with the sweet corn. Instead the popcorn just wetted their apetite for more sweet corn!   Thursday, November 8 View Page I have harvested seeds from a few of my CC xJBD melons. Chris Kent made the original F1 cross. I grew Chris' seed, so the seed you would be growing from me will be F2(second generation) hybrid seed. The melons were grown in an isolated field so all the crosses will maintain only the CC and JBD genes. The gentics may just be a little re-shuffled. I had my best melon year ever with CCxJBD cross. I grew 12 plants and allowed each plant to load up with melons. I counted 70 melons total from the 12 plants. Even the smallest ones weighed around 75 pounds! Who knows how big these could have gotten with proper care and pruning!   Thursday, November 8 View Page I have the following seeds available, anyone looking to give these a try, shoot me an email. I will give you my address to send a SASBE to. 163 175est. 141 est. 165 est. 135 est. And a mixture of seed from several 100 plus pound melons.   Monday, November 26 View Page I am keeping this pumpkin in a heated building this winter. It has gotten to be an even darker orange.   Saturday, December 1 View Page I Broke a new piece of ground this fall, hopefully I will get some AG's in here next year. I still need to get the soil beefed up with some organic matter and I am sure I need to boost the pH with some lime as well. Typically an un-limed field around here will have a pH between 5-6. It can even get lower than 5 sometimes. I would definitely be able to recognize a soil that is that bad by what is growing there. If I have the time I will take some samples before the ground freezes up.   Saturday, December 1 View Page A few crops that you can grow over the winter are 'Bridger' onions and Spinach. One of the onion rows has a row cover on it, the other one is bare except for the very end where I am using pine needles as a mulch. I am interested to see if it is worth the trouble to put on the row cover. I will have the results come spring. Half the spinach row is covered too. I will see if there are any benefits to covering it over the winter. I usually just leave it bare and have a crop in the early spring. It works out well because the early spinach does not get leaf miners. Also the onions are great fun because they are ready by the first of June! What else is ready from the garden that early? The onions went into the ground as transplants on Labor day. The frost acts as an herbicide and cleans everything up really nicely for the winter.   Thursday, December 20 View Page I pulled a soil sample from the new plot. I got it right before the ground froze earlier this week. I put down 5 bags of pelletized lime. I am sure I will have to add a lot more. I will follow the recommendation for limestone that the lab gives. They usually give a recommendation in pounds per 1,000 square feet. The new patch is 6,500 square feet, the soil type is a sandy loam. It has a few trees to the south, but should get plenty of sun overall. From my point of view a little shade, especially late in the day is not a bad thing. Sometimes a nice shade tree on the western side of the patch can help the plant escape some heat stress in the late afternoon.   Monday, December 24 View Page This caveman's club gourd was sawed in half and the insides were scooped out. It dried very nicely this way.   Monday, December 24 View Page It could make a nice canoe for a toddler.   Monday, December 24 View Page 667 Wolf pumpkin, I have this pumpkin in a heated shed. I am hoping to find a buyer for it at some point this winter or spring. It is a beautifully colored and shaped cinderella style pumpkin.   Monday, December 24 View Page This is the style of misting head I use for my propagation timer they are Nan Dan Jain sprinklers with the grey nozzle size. I Purchased them from Nolt's greenhouse supply in Lancaster County PA. They are really nice people to work with and have a ton of knowledge about what they sell. I highly recommend them to anyone, especially if they are within a driving distance. (shipping is expensive)   Monday, December 24 View Page My Propagation bed, it's pretty much empty right now but I hope to get more stuff in it before the end of winter. The rooting media is 50% pro mix bx/50% horticultural grade perlite. Right now I have the timer set to go off every half hour for about 5 seconds. There is a very low demand as the rate of evaporation is really low this time of year. Plus the hardwood cuttings are quite tough.   Monday, December 24 View Page Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2019!