Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 107 Entries. Sunday, January 7 View Page John barlow first fish on a tip up, and it's his birthday. Happy 56th john   Sunday, January 7 View Page Johns 2nd fish on a tip up   Sunday, January 7 View Page Pic 1   Sunday, January 7 View Page Pic 1   Sunday, January 7 View Page Pic 2   Sunday, January 7 View Page Johns first large mouth on a tip up   Sunday, January 7 View Page Found this on the shore where we were fishing   Sunday, January 7 View Page John brought me a present for his birthday, 250 bubbles. Thanks john.   Saturday, January 27 View Page Wisconsin 2100 lb club   Saturday, January 27 View Page Glenn and margaret   Saturday, January 27 View Page More of the gang   Monday, February 19 View Page Just picked up me new pumpkin hauler, driving it home from vegas. ;)   Monday, February 19 View Page Kudos, to you arizona growers if you can grow in the soil here.   Tuesday, April 17 View Page More issues to contend with and more research to do.   Tuesday, April 17 View Page Here's a list for hot water disenfection of seeds. As I understand it, you can not treat cucurbit seeds in this manner. The heat and length of time to do it would kill the seed inside. I may have just start growing flowers instead of pumpkins.   Friday, April 20 View Page Last year's test for disease in our patch   Friday, April 20 View Page This years test, how we were even able to get a pumpkin to scale is beyond me. We are just plane screwed. We are taking 1/3 of our patch out of comission this and we will still be growing some kins. Crossing our fingers at this point. Next year we may take the year off or move. Good luck everybody.   Tuesday, April 24 View Page 248 cubic yards of perlite, I hope it does some good   Tuesday, April 24 View Page My new spreader, left bags on my snowmobile trailer and cut holes in bags and pulled it around with my 4 wheeler   Tuesday, April 24 View Page All done   Tuesday, April 24 View Page Patch looks awesome, the problem is I know what evil lurks beneath.   Wednesday, April 25 View Page Walking boards are down, time to get the hoops up.   Sunday, May 6 View Page Planting day, throwing all my biologicals from last year at them. It may be all dead who know but it's going in the hoops. Then watering it in with compost tea. Good luck everybody..   Sunday, May 6 View Page Plants are in, a little later than I had hoped.   Friday, May 11 View Page Temps are not good here today   Friday, May 11 View Page So far I've been able to keep temps around the plants above 60. High of 45 today   Saturday, May 12 View Page 1756 h/j it's getting g pretty leggy from not having alot of sun for the last 5 days. I broke down and put my t5 in the hoop to supplement some lighting. Hopefully things will turn around   Saturday, May 12 View Page 1989 daletas, put my other t5 in there. Snapped off a few roots getting the light in there and she wanted to fall over. I'm hoping she recovers.   Saturday, May 12 View Page 1928 daletas, I have a l.e.d light in there. I hope it helps somewhat. First time I've had to use lighting while in the hoops. I have cords running every where.   Saturday, May 12 View Page 1965 brandt, all my plants are leggy from lack of sun light.   Saturday, May 12 View Page 1965 brandt #2   Saturday, May 12 View Page Here's 1928 pic   Wednesday, May 16 View Page I'm guessing these may be from a marmorated stink bug, kinda early for squash bugs. They aren't very smart because the eggs were on my green watering can that I bought 2 weeks ago. Must have thought it was a leaf.   Friday, May 18 View Page My new tool in my arsenal against the evil professor pythium and frank the fusarium. It's not the broad fork I wanted, but it will do. I'm am not turning my soil I am actually just lifting it a bit and breaking it up to let air in and help with drainage. I usually have poor draining soil. I also get a crust on the surface of my patch that prevents alot of air from entering the soil. So by doing this I'm hoping it also kills of some of the fusarium and pythium. I doubt it could be so easy, but what the heck. It can't get much worse (I hope). I will be doing this out ahead of the plant even though I don't like digging in the dirt when I have plants going. Also will be done in the part of the patch we are not growing in. I will have soil sampled at the end of the year and see if it has made a difference at all. Oh yes, I'm blaming gary gantner for all this extra work I have to do.   Thursday, May 24 View Page Plants looking pretty good considering it's 105.6 in the hoop with no shading but the plastic, this 1756 h/j   Thursday, May 24 View Page 1989 daletas   Thursday, May 24 View Page 1965 brandt #1   Thursday, May 24 View Page 1929 daletas   Thursday, May 24 View Page 1965 brandt #2   Saturday, May 26 View Page I'm getting a few of these for watering the pumpkins   Sunday, May 27 View Page Took the grandson fishing, caught some decent bass, looks like some shading is in order for the plants, even though the thermometer said high temp in the hoops was 135, plants took it pretty good except for some sun scald on a few leaves.   Sunday, May 27 View Page 1756 not looking to bad considering it's 107 in the hoop, temps supposed to return to normal in a few days   Monday, May 28 View Page My new system for vine burying, should work good if I put cables 4 ft apart. Now all I need is about 30 telephone poles.   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1989 daletas, about 5ft long. I'm guessing I may not be able to keep plants in hoops for 2 more weeks. Plants are about 33 days old from rime of germination and have been in the hoops for 15 days now.   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1756 doing good, plants either have mag deficiency or fusarium. I'm leaning towards mag, but I've never had fusarium this bad.   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1756 wanting to throw some roots already, I better get some dirt for vine burying   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1965 brandt #1   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1928 daletas   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1965 brandt #2   Thursday, May 31 View Page 1965 with a baby on board, I won't be taking this one. It will only be about 7 ft out.   Friday, June 1 View Page Extended the hoops 3ft today, temps will be in the low 50's tonight. I would of went 4ft but I didn't want people to think I was crazy or something. Plus I know Mike has taken down his hoops and I have some catching up to do.   Monday, June 4 View Page Here's a picture of my shed with alot of my pumpkin growing stuff , I have a bin full of fans, 1 of lights, 1 of extension cords and about 8 with sheets and blankets and my buckets of stakes   Monday, June 4 View Page Any body know what this may be from, I know it's not p.m. but I get this often on my grow tips   Tuesday, June 5 View Page From hoop house   Tuesday, June 5 View Page Bam, to stump cover. I'll trim the plastic back when I feel the plant has established better rooting.   Tuesday, June 5 View Page 1989 daletas is at 8 ft now and secondaries are wanting out of the hoop.best plant yet but 4 others aren't far behind.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page I retro fitted my garden weasle on to my extendable true pruner. Now I can loosen up the crust without stepping in the dirt. Now I just need one that's about 3ft wide so I can get it done faster. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box.   Thursday, June 7 View Page I'm getting really good at growing weeds, just look at the rooting on this one :)   Thursday, June 7 View Page Fence is 85% up, had to snatched a few zip ties from pete. Don't nobody tell him.   Thursday, June 7 View Page Pic   Tuesday, June 12 View Page I finally have figured out why I have so many issues with my patch   Tuesday, June 12 View Page The spark plugs in my patch were bad, got some new ones and threw them in there. 2000 lbs here we come.   Saturday, June 16 View Page Got hit with some hail yesterday, first time we ever had hail in our growing career. There's some holes in the leaves but all the vine were unscathed.   Sunday, June 17 View Page 5 lobe on the 1965 brandt x sibb   Sunday, June 17 View Page She's got a nice stem, only 9.5 ft out. Not optimal but we will see if it takes. Expected temp today is 94. Our earliest pollination ever.   Sunday, June 17 View Page I sprayed the weeds in my patch a week ago and about the only thing left standing was 2 mustard plants from seeds I put in last year and a stalk of corn. I'm guessing the squirrels buried it last fall. It must be round up ready corn.   Sunday, June 17 View Page I found another reason I why I may be having patch issues. I broke my pumpkin mirror, 7 more years of bad luck for me. Really pisses me off my father didn't raise a quitter ;) R.I.P. Pops, I love you. Happy father's day to all and have a great day.   Sunday, June 17 View Page Put a second in line filter in, hopefully it will help keep iron levels in the water down, I went with a carbon filter and a 1 micron filter hopefully to make our water a little better for the plants.   Sunday, June 17 View Page Here's the pic of my filters, dumb smart phone   Monday, June 18 View Page Pollinated 1965 #2 with the 1756.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page 3 lobe on the 1928 daletas, crossed it with the 1625 gantner. About 10 ft out.   Tuesday, June 19 View Page Worked the top of the soil a bit after all the rain we got. Hopefully will help with the crusting issue I've had. Topped dressed with some magnesium sulfate and micro nutrients, leaves were looking a little lighter green than I like.   Thursday, June 21 View Page Ha, my sticky traps finally paid off. Caught a squash bug in one   Thursday, June 21 View Page Looks like I have some decent rooting, these are about 8 ft out from the stump   Friday, June 22 View Page PolLinares 1965 #1 and #2 today, both with the 2363   Saturday, June 23 View Page Cut off an older leaf near the stump and found a root growing inside the leaf on our 1756. Weird, now I have to bury my leaves ;)   Sunday, June 24 View Page 5 lober on our 1756 h/j, pollinated it with pollen from a 2145. It's at about 15.5ft out   Tuesday, June 26 View Page Pollinated 1989 daletas with 2145, about 19ft out.   Wednesday, June 27 View Page Split between the main and the kin on 1989 daletas, hoping the 1st one took. Been another frustrating year with new issues as always. I had 2 males open today 1 was good the other deformed and no pollen. To bad I didn't have any thing to pollinate.   Saturday, June 30 View Page Most of our pollinations are done, males finally started opening. Pollinating an extra one on the 1989 daletas in the morning just incase. This maleads had an extra female part to it.   Thursday, July 5 View Page Pulled a plant today, it was looking like it had the onset of yvd. My fault as I did not spray enough because of high heat conditions and not trying to do more damage to the plants. This may be the on set of either fusarium or pythium, im not positive and with out testing I won't know for sure. Plant is pulled anyway.   Sunday, July 8 View Page Our biggest one so far, it's dap 19 today. Had some nights below 60 degrees. Slowed her down a bit. Purchased some p.h. down to hopefully help things out. Our water was about 8.0 p.h. now it's down to between 6.2 and 6.8 I need to get a good p.h. meter so I can be more accurate.   Monday, July 9 View Page 1928 daletas down and out due to yvd.   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Dap 21 for the 1928 daletas not bad size, unfortunately it won't get any bigger   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Dap 16 for our 1756, she's a bit of a slow grower   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Dap 18 for the 1965 brandt   Sunday, July 15 View Page 1756 dap 20, 181.5 ott   Sunday, July 15 View Page One of the gates blew down in the storm we had 2 days ago and I neglected to put it back up yesterday. So Bambi and his mother decided to do some pruning for me on the 1756 main. I will train a secondary to be the new main.   Sunday, July 15 View Page Caught this little bastard before he made it into the secondary, svb grub   Sunday, July 15 View Page Me and toni decided this 1965 won't amount to much, so we will be pulling it and concentrating on our last 2   Sunday, July 15 View Page This is a cross section of the 1965's main from about 10ft out, the brown discoloration I believe is from fusarium, I also cut open the stump and that looked perfectly fine.   Sunday, July 22 View Page Day 30 for the 1965 brandt, 216" ott - 233lbs. Pretty poor numbers bit we will try and keep them going for as long as we can.   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1756 day 30 213" ott   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1756 day 31, cut the vine off with yvd, we will give it a day or 2 and see what happens but I believe other parts of the plant are showing signs.   Wednesday, August 1 View Page Down to 1 plant, it's day 40 today est. 365 lbs. We're not doing great this year. She's been doing an average of 12.8lbs a day since day 30. Plant is only about 350 sq ft.   Sunday, September 2 View Page Last time this one was taped, it was 463" ott   Friday, September 7 View Page Rot spot on our last pumpkin, would be a dq if taken to the weigh off   Friday, September 7 View Page Good thing it wasn't any bigger, me and toni were able to roll it onto a piece of plywood and pull it over by a tree for lifting.   Friday, September 7 View Page 297" ott - 605 lbs est.   Friday, September 7 View Page U.o.w is 700 lbs, she went a little heavy to chart   Friday, September 7 View Page Inside was 5" to 6" thick   Saturday, September 22 View Page You know your bushel gourd is big, if you need pic it with a lifting ring   Saturday, September 22 View Page Pic   Wednesday, October 3 View Page I planted 8 packs of marigolds around the patch, to keep rabbits away from plants this year. I havent seen a rabbit near this "1" all year.   Friday, October 5 View Page UH OHHH!!!!!   Saturday, November 24 View Page Finally had our 1600 h/j tested. 1600 h/j = 1385 h/j x 1756 h/j. Still waiting on squash mosaic virus results to come back.   Wednesday, December 12 View Page Finally received disease results back on seeds from mr. Pickles. 1600 h/j = 1385 h/j x 1756 h/j. No disease, happy days.