Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 52 Entries. Monday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year everyone! Hope your 2018 is safe and prosperous. Think I need to move to Anchorage Alaska. Feels like 54° warmer up there with a wind chill of 20° and our wind chill is -34°. Brrrr.   Friday, January 19 View Page Southern Iowa Giant Pumpkin Growers AsThe sociation will be holding our second ever seed auction on bigpumpkins.com tomorrow night Jan. 20th at 8 pm Eastern. We would appreciate any support that you can give to our club.   Saturday, January 20 View Page Additional lots on late arrival seeds for SIGPGA Auction Lot 32 B / Wagler Field Pumpkins “All the way from Germany” (3 sets) 181.7 Wagler ’17 (103 Wagler x 71uow Wagler) / 2 seeds 175.5 Wagler ’17 (103 Wagler x 71uow Wagler) / 2 seeds 111.5 Wagler ’17 (71uow Wagler x Sibb) /3 seeds 108 Wagler ’17 (71uow Wagler x 103 Wagler) / 3 seeds The 103 Wagler produced the 182.1, 181.7 and 175.5 Wagler all on the same plant!!!!! Hottest Field Pumpkin seeds going!   Saturday, January 20 View Page Lot 38 B / Paton Pumpkins 2269 Paton ’17 (2624 Willemijns x 1949 Paton) 2nd heaviest ’17 / 6th all time 2048 Paton ’17 (1949 Paton x 2624 Willemijns) +1   Saturday, January 20 View Page Lot 38 C / Paton Pumpkins 2269 Paton ’17 (2624 Willemijns x 1949 Paton) 2nd heaviest ’17 / 6th all time 1944 Paton Dmg ’17 (1949 Paton x 2624 Willemijns)   Saturday, January 20 View Page Lot 38 D / Paton Pumpkin (2 sets) 1949 Paton ’16 (1781 Zywiec x 2096 Meier) +2 (1 seed) Grew the 1944 Dmg Paton’17 and 2048 Paton’17   Sunday, January 21 View Page I would like to thank all of you that participated and bid on our SIGPGA Auction last night. A big thank you to Ken D and bigpumpkins.com for hosting. Also a big thanks to Don Young, Venari and Eddy Z. Also to all the growers that donated to our auction.   Sunday, February 11 View Page Planted 1200 Tomato plants in 3 greenhouses yesterday during a snow storm. Sun's shining today and greenhouses were 94 degrees inside and it was 14 degrees outdoors. Let the work begin!   Sunday, March 11 View Page Just had 4" of heavy wet snow over night. That's more snow than we've had at any single snow event in the last 3 years around here. Not complaining. Any moisture we get is a good thing since we are still showing drought signs around here.   Sunday, March 11 View Page One month picture after transplant on tomatoes. Didn't get alfalfa hay tilled in last fall. Plants are good, just a little leggy and not as bulky as a green house where I did get the hay tilled in. I'll post a picture of that greenhouse next. You can seen the difference.   Sunday, March 11 View Page Colorado alfalfa hay tilled into this soil. Much nicer tomato plants. Humus levels really climbed to help hold moisture and nutrients. Added a lot of calcium and potassium once it broke down. Colorado has high calcium soil compared to what I have in southern Iowa.   Tuesday, April 10 View Page Here we go. 2004 Vander Wielen.   Tuesday, April 10 View Page Maters growing like crazy. Having to feed a ton of wood this year into 3 wood stoves. Some maters are changing colors now. BLT taste testing next week. Can't wait!   Sunday, April 15 View Page Picked 6 maters yesterday. Its getting ready to get crazy around here.   Sunday, April 15 View Page Yummy. Blt's are in the very near future.   Wednesday, April 18 View Page I have picked some Maters over the last 4 days that I had to do some quality control on. I ate 3 BLT'S and they passed the test!   Saturday, April 21 View Page I can't believe how nervous I was sanding edges on these 3 this morning. They're just pumpkin seeds right?   Sunday, April 22 View Page Winter rye is doing well. Going to spray some molasses, beneficial bacteria and an inoculate on and till it in.   Sunday, April 22 View Page One patch tilled down, 2 more to go.   Sunday, April 29 View Page 2004 Vander Wielen stretching out.   Sunday, April 29 View Page Things are taking off around here.   Sunday, April 29 View Page Picked 150 lbs of these "Beorange" tomatoes this morning. Amazing flavor. Very expensive seeds.   Saturday, May 5 View Page Well my busy season has started! Selling the heck out of fresh soil grown Maters.   Sunday, May 13 View Page 2004 Vander Wielen getting in a hurry! 6 foot out on the main. Not doing anything with it, but good to see the 1st female bloom of the year. Just have to be patient and be ready for the couple coming up in the near future.   Friday, May 25 View Page Got to love Iowa. These temps are coming a week earlier this year. I am still in a drought and no rain of any significance forecasted in the near future.   Sunday, May 27 View Page And this is 5 pm on a wonderful southern Iowa SPRING day today. What the freak! Pumpkin plants are not liking this.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 2004 Vander Wielen pollinated 3 days ago. Had to train a secondary to be a main. Sun and heat fried the main vine and a little female at 12'. I like this long stem and long pumpkin look.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1235 Davis a while back.   Thursday, June 14 View Page 1450 Steil a while back.   Sunday, June 17 View Page And a normal feel like temp. again this year.   Monday, June 18 View Page Oh ya, getting much nicer. What the heck!   Thursday, June 21 View Page 2004 Vander Wielen, very nice shape and long stem!   Thursday, June 28 View Page Pollinated this 2269 Paton x 2004 Vander Wielen yesterday. 110 degree heat index expected tomorrow. I actually think the upper 90 degree heat is the key. No aborts yet on 3 pollinations.   Thursday, June 28 View Page Did get 4 tenths of an inch of rain today, which is much needed. My friends in central and northern Iowa don't want to see another drop of rain for a month. I didn't need 70 mph winds though.   Sunday, July 1 View Page Liking the long stem and shape of this 2004 VW pumpkin.   Monday, July 23 View Page My wife didn't want to do much around her pumpkin plant yesterday morning. The words of harmless and small didn't seem to comfort her either.   Sunday, August 5 View Page Day 10 on my 181.7 Wagler field pumpkin. Huge plant with about 6 others on. Decisions on culling coming soon.   Thursday, August 9 View Page Loaded for the Iowa State Fair. The orange one is my wifes from the 1450 Steil. Tough growing in this drought again this year. It smacks like a rock.   Friday, August 10 View Page Well lucky to win the Iowa State Fair weighoff today. 3 years of drought has made growing extremely tough. 795 lbs on my 1235 Davis seed. Not happy that it went 11% light , but I'll take it.   Friday, August 10 View Page My wife pulled out 2nd place at 717 lbs at the Iowa State Fair today. I told her it would go heavy after giving it the Don Young spankin. It went 5 % heavy. Seed from the 1450 Steil.   Monday, August 13 View Page Culled the last of the 181.7 pumpkins from first 6 sets that pollinated on July 27th. This is the biggest pumpkin out of the 3 on tape, but had a slight indentation and it seemed a little thin walled in that area. Taped at 31 lbs. and weighed 30.8 lbs. Love my drought stricken brown yard.   Friday, August 24 View Page Got 1.6" of rain this morning. Man what a blessing that was. I'm in the extreme drought area here in Iowa. It won't do much for me this year, but we need subsoil moisture in a bad way. Keep the rains coming.   Friday, August 24 View Page I'm in the center of the dark red or extreme drought area of this map. Not much fun. I know too much rain can ruin your griwing year as well, but my water bills have been exceptionally high and not big growths at all. Heat was a huge factor as well.   Wednesday, August 29 View Page Well I got 2.5" of rain overnight. That's the most rain I've had at a single rain event since June of 2015. Won't do much for this years pumpkins, but need to get our subsoil moisture back.   Tuesday, September 4 View Page Had fun at work today. I pulled this 4 1/2 foot Prarie King Snake out of a bedroom for a guy. He for some reason thanked me multiple times!   Friday, September 7 View Page With his permission, Steve Geddes said I could put this out. He grew my 867 Davis 2017 seed (1756 H/J x 1625.5 Gantner) and lost it in August. It had an OTT of 447" or 1,868 lbs at 65 DAP. it was still doing mid 20's at that time. Steve had a 25 day ave. of 48.5 lbs a day with this pumpkin. Go to my next post.   Friday, September 7 View Page Steve Geddes said his 867 was a slow growing plant and he healed up a couple stem splits. Lost from blossom end split. My 867 had stem splits as well. I grew my 867 Davis a month late last year, in a drought and on a secondary about 8' from the stump hoping for genetics. Steve felt that his 867 would have made it to around 2,200 lbs or more with 30 or more days to grow. It's not the the 2145, but it is the same cross. Steve said he'd grow it again and contact him with ?'s on the 867.   Thursday, September 13 View Page The 3rd annual Bloomfield Giant Pumpkin Bash is approaching fast!   Sunday, September 23 View Page The Bloomfield Giant Pumpkin Bash is on Saturday Sept. 29th 2018 Prize Structure: Giant Pumpkin / $1500,1000,750,500,250,150,100,75,50,50 !st Plaque, 2nd-10th Ribbons. Howard Dill Award $100 & Plaque. Squash weighed against AG'S for placing Largest Squash Plaque. Watermelons $300 Ribbon,200,100. Field Pumpkins $300 Ribbon,200,100. Long Gourds $150 Ribbon,100,50. Bushel Gourds $150 Ribbon,100,50. Largest Tomato $50 Ribbon.   Tuesday, September 25 View Page Get ready for a great weigh off. Spectators will see some amazing fruits this year. Please make plans to attend. We have growers from several states heading to Bloomfield this Saturday! The Southern Iowa Giant Pumpkin Growers Assoc. is offering up $50 to the grower that travels the longest distance to participate in our contest. Little gas money for the pocket. Also offering up a very nice prize structure for contestants!   Sunday, September 30 View Page Man we had a great weighoff yesterday at the Bloomfield Giant Pumpkin Bash. Growers from 7 states. 4 state records broke. Capped off with Barlow / Jacobus' 2,283 record pumpkin!   Tuesday, October 2 View Page Getting next years possible lineup sorted out. Think I might have a couple others to choose from in the near future. Praying for better weather next year!