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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 88 Entries.
Sunday, January 14 View Page
First compost turn of the new year!
 
Sunday, January 14 View Page
Added "secret spices" to our magic compost pile. Will kick it around again in a few weeks.
 
Thursday, February 1 View Page
Special thanks to our wonderful PGVG club secratary Lori Sherwood for all her great work and for keeping everyone on task!
 
Saturday, February 3 View Page
PGVG held their spring board meeting and seed packing party today.
 
Saturday, February 3 View Page
Jim Sherwood drooling over all the fantastic seefs the PGVG members are going to get in their club packets this year.
 
Saturday, February 3 View Page
No seed party would be complete without pizza!
 
Tuesday, February 6 View Page
Good Times! Dani has agreed to team up with me this year in a joint effort to grow the biggest Gadberry pumpkins ever. She has whooped me in one on one competition for the past 20 years... She grew a 1112.5 in 2006 when the WR was 1502 so I am thankful for the chance to work together with my sweetie (a world class grower) to take it to the next level!
 
Sunday, February 18 View Page
Early spring snow for the pumpkin patch yesterday. 3 to 4 inches, hopfully it kills all the dang stink bugs!
 
Sunday, March 11 View Page
Day light savings = 1st patch till.
 
Sunday, March 11 View Page
Missed the photo...
 
Sunday, March 11 View Page
Spring time in the PNWest!
 
Sunday, March 18 View Page
Farming Pacific North West style! Pruned and sprayed the apples, cherries and peach trees. Love the glives Dani!
 
Sunday, March 18 View Page
Best cure for St Patties hang over, fruit tree pruning!
 
Wednesday, March 28 View Page
Second soil sample after amendments and first deep till. Took this one from samples across the 5 planting sites.
 
Wednesday, March 28 View Page
Will hand deliver to A&L Labs in Portland tomorrow. They do an awesome job and are local!
 
Wednesday, March 28 View Page
Note to self, turn android camera 90 degrees to left so photos are oriented corectly, pesky Merlot....
 
Monday, April 9 View Page
Got a break from the rain today so made the best of it. Dani and I laid out the 1st hoop and heater. 4 to go. Supposed to pour rain for the next week Uggg.....
 
Saturday, April 21 View Page
Started these babies on 4-15-18 with 100% germination. Tossed a couple more hotties in tje box last night as backups, (sometimes I do stupid things and accidents happen...).
 
Saturday, April 21 View Page
Final till today to work in amendments from last soil test. Next step, drip tape lay out.
 
Friday, April 27 View Page
Planted all 5 main plants in the competition garden this afternoon. Went trom 4 days of record heat (85) to 60 today which is perfect for transplanting in my book.
 
Saturday, May 5 View Page
Dusted off my old dancing shoes.
 
Saturday, May 5 View Page
Dancing shoes are handy when setting up drip tape!
 
Tuesday, May 8 View Page
Four back up plants in 2 gallon pots one will be planted into our 150 sq ft space this weekend. They are all Gadberry seeds. 1803, 1748, 1405 and 1532.
 
Wednesday, May 9 View Page
Laid out the 150 competition patch tonight after work. 12'-6" long by 12' wide = 150 sqft.
 
Wednesday, May 9 View Page
Laid out major amendments for the 150 patch, perlite, worm castings, Promix. Minor amendments tomorrow then till and mini hoop!
 
Friday, May 11 View Page
Pasture grass was getting out of control!
 
Thursday, May 17 View Page
All my photos are at dusk b-cuz thats when I finish working the patch after my real job. It also coinsides with when the skeeters are attacking at their peak... Heres our final plant lay out design for 2018.
 
Thursday, May 17 View Page
Six plants, all are looking good, here is a snapshot of what they all basically look like and the techniques Dani and I use in the early stages.
 
Thursday, May 17 View Page
Guess I forgot to share a pic of our soil heating cable set up, probably cuz we were wiped out after burying them all! All plants have one with independent ( not built in ) adjustable digital thermostats.
 
Sunday, May 27 View Page
Long day standing up and dialing in the three seperate irrigation systems. Plants seem to enjoy the extra water though!
 
Friday, June 1 View Page
Yea, the sun finally came out! Heare's a quick pic of the southern patch. Not too bad but a little behind where we want to be this time of year.
 
Wednesday, June 6 View Page
150 contest update. 0ur 1803 plant is doing well and has a female out at about 8'. Useing a stress technique to keep the plant small but healthy so as not to produce a mass amount of plant.
 
Thursday, June 14 View Page
On a happy note... Got a sweet pollination on our 1245-B at 15' today crossed with lotsa boys from our 1748. Yea Happy Soltice everyone!
 
Thursday, June 21 View Page
Aphids, cuc beatles, and skeeters oh my, DIE Bastards!
 
Sunday, July 1 View Page
Our 1803 plant in the 150 sqft patch is almost filled in now, began culling the first pumpkin in favor of the second set. Cross is 2145-B
 
Sunday, July 1 View Page
Our 2145-A pumpkin will be difficult to manage this year as its on s ver flat main...
 
Sunday, July 1 View Page
Here is a picture of the bacside of the 2145-A flat vine. We were able to get a fairly decent S-Curve all things considerd.
 
Tuesday, July 10 View Page
Patch is filling in nicely, slowly terminating secondaries.
 
Sunday, July 15 View Page
Max the Beagle finally caught the pesky boar mole thats been terrorizing the pumpkin patch. What a great dog!
 
Sunday, July 15 View Page
With the photo....
 
Saturday, August 18 View Page
Finally got our custom trailer today! Dual torsion flex 3500 pound axles, led lights, removable sides, pressure treated deck and more. Dani says about damn time (13 months wait time). Made in the good old USA in Portland OR. Economy is good here!
 
Sunday, August 19 View Page
Heres our 150 squate foot plant update. Its been a chore keeping it confined in its alloted space! All in all plant is really healthy.
 
Sunday, August 19 View Page
Our 150 pumpkin measured 315" or 699.5 pounds. This plant is growning in a rough patch of new garden but gets good irrigation. Another grower lost a pumpkin off the same seed (1803 Gadberry) a couple weeks ago hat was over 1600 and super thick so hoping it hangs on.
 
Sunday, August 26 View Page
Our 150 pumpkin at 328" up 126# for the week for a total of 784#. Plant is really healthy no issues other than a couple pesky minor stem splits...
 
Tuesday, September 4 View Page
Well this sucks.... Our 1405 seed rib split today at 388". It was a late July open pollination which may be part of the reason for the huge dill ring (incompl ete pollination)? None of our past 1405 seeds had that trait. Still pushing 5 competition plants. Cheers!
 
Sunday, September 16 View Page
150 sqft pumpkin 348" dealig with minor stem split issues but all is good!
 
Wednesday, September 19 View Page
150 plant on 9-16-18, not the most flattering picture ( of my butt that is). Pumpkin is measuring 933ish....
 
Friday, September 21 View Page
Pumpkin loading safety tips step 1. Build a sturdy tripod. We place the leds 11' apart for maximum stability
 
Friday, September 21 View Page
We built "tripod shoes" to prevent sinking into the soil and anchor them from kicking out with small t-posts.
 
Friday, September 21 View Page
Get your patch partner model to slowly lift the pumpkin with the 2-ton chainfall.
 
Friday, September 21 View Page
Back the truck or trailer in between the triod legs and lower it down into the bed, easy peasy!
 
Friday, September 28 View Page
Fruits of our labor Team Gadberry GPC win at Skagit #1322!
 
Friday, September 28 View Page
Team Gadberry loading up for Elysian tomorrow. I'm eirher getting old or just forget how much work it takes to get these things picked up!
 
Saturday, September 29 View Page
Elysia leader board, 35 pumpkins and one big squash. Joel took first place with another beautiful specimine. Elysian is getting expodentially bigger / better every year!
 
Saturday, September 29 View Page
Heres a hoto of Steve & Sherry Handy with a beautiful orange pumpkin grown fromtheir own seed. Ps Steve makes tripod heads and awesome lifting rings if your looking. Photos in my diary
 
Saturday, September 29 View Page
Heres Dani and I with our 2nd place Elysian pumpkin 1571.5 (Jack LaRue took the photo)..
 
Sunday, September 30 View Page
Loaded and ready to drive to Elysian
 
Monday, October 1 View Page
Soaking my nuts.... Carpatian walnut harvest is in full schwing! Bumper crop in our orchard this year.
 
Friday, October 5 View Page
Dani lifting our 1803 for loading in the pouring rain. We are taking both 1803's we grew this year to Central Market. The one in the trailer was grown in 150 square feet.
 
Friday, October 5 View Page
Heres a picture of our 1803 grown in 150 square feet just befor harvest.
 
Friday, October 5 View Page
Both 1803 Gadberry's loaded up for Central. Dani needs 1106 for her trifecta GPC jacket.
 
Saturday, October 6 View Page
Wow our 1803 went way, way heavy and we finished 1st place at 1454! Our 1803 grown in 150 square feet weighed 982 also heavy to the chart.
 
Saturday, October 6 View Page
Team Gadberry at Central. Awesome weigh off and fantastic club leadership. Thank you Joyners and all who contributed to making this fun event a sucess!
 
Saturday, October 6 View Page
Dani with our 1454 pumpkin at Central.
 
Wednesday, October 10 View Page
Three weighoffs down one to go, stadTV ing on clearing the pat h for fall tilling.
 
Wednesday, October 10 View Page
Good lord, amazing the amount of effort spent over the course of a season to grow these beasts!
 
Wednesday, October 10 View Page
Dani and I still have a couple nice ones in the patch. The "Crimson Avengers" Terminator regatta yacht is moiling in the far reaches in back of the patch.
 
Friday, October 12 View Page
Cleaning out the patch and getti g ready to add fall amendments. PH was a bit liw on our cheap hand held tester so thinking about adding a bit of doloprill. Sending in soil sample to A&L labs tomorrow.
 
Friday, October 12 View Page
Amazing the amount of stuff that goes into the garden when growing these beasts!
 
Friday, October 12 View Page
Dani and I pulling the lasy of yhe drip tape. 25 pieces 100' long each....
 
Friday, October 12 View Page
My texting skills are suffering.....
 
Friday, October 12 View Page
Got our seeds back from our 1571 Elysian pumpkin yesterday. The brewery turned her in to a giant beer keg and the beer was fantastic (or so I was told). Only in Seattle! The cross was 1748 Gadberry x 2145-B.
 
Saturday, October 20 View Page
Terminator line up is looking good! Weigh off starts in a couple hours.
 
Saturday, October 20 View Page
My wimpy pumpkin ( on the ring ) next to Daletas and LaRue's monsters. Glad I am not paddeling theirs!
 
Saturday, October 20 View Page
Terminator leader board. Wow what a great showing by Steve Delatas! A lot of big beautiful pumpkins from our NW growers community.
 
Saturday, October 20 View Page
Here's a picture of Steves massive 2469# Terminator pumpkin. It dwarfs the fork lift!
 
Monday, October 29 View Page
October 18 2018 A&L lab soil test. Added the following before tilling on 40# of Hollands prime Winter Rye over our 55 x 110 sq ft patch. 20 yards of coarse builders sand; 16# Muriate of Potash; 14# Blood meal; 2.5# Hollands Sulpher Flowers; 100# Dopril; mixed 6 teaspons in 3 gallos of water and sprayed over entire patch. Cover crop germinated in 7 days and is already about 5" tall! Will take a photo of patch tomorrow and post.
 
Monday, October 29 View Page
Ok, so I guess you cant up load pdf files so here's a jpeg photo of our fall soil test....
 
Tuesday, October 30 View Page
Cover crop pic on west end of patch. 6 teaspoons in last diary entry was Boron....
 
Tuesday, October 30 View Page
Heres a shot of the east end of the patch tucked away for the winter.
 
Tuesday, October 30 View Page
Heres a secret weapon, maple leaves from the forest mixed with grass and veggie garden debris. All pumpkin vines get hauled off site to a secrete forest composting facility for future retrival.....
 
Saturday, November 3 View Page
Compost building....
 
Saturday, November 3 View Page
2 yards of chicken poop litter from Tyson farms down the road just far enough we cant smell it (6 miles).
 
Saturday, November 3 View Page
Dani collected several yards of mapel leaves today and mixed in with the chicken litter. Yea!
 
Saturday, November 3 View Page
The compost heap has spoken.
 
Saturday, November 17 View Page
Beautiful day for working on the property, love the smell of steaming compost in the morning!
 
Sunday, December 9 View Page
Winter maintenance, been in the 20's at night all week and was going stir crazy so Mellowed it out by tuning up farm equipment! Come on Winter Solstice....
 
Tuesday, December 25 View Page
Merry Christmas!
 

 

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