Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 49 Entries. Tuesday, July 3 View Page A late start to my first diary entry ever, but after constantly checking other growers diaries for the past 2+ years, thought I might as well make my own. I'm 15 years old and I've been growing giant pumpkins for 4 years now in my backyard in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2017 I took the season off to experience a "normal" teenage summer, but it was nowhere near as much fun as I thought so here I am, back at giant pumpkins! My PB is a 1348.2 pounder in 2015. I'll never forget that year right after all the pumpkins were weighed, a man asked me who the winner was. I told him it was me (13 years old at the time) and he laughed and genuinely didn't believe me. I guess he thought it was my parents. Truth is, my parents are supportive, but it's all me - all they do is pay the water bill! Ha! I won't even let them get near the patch! I was only 31 pounds shy of the provincial record that year, and just last year it was raised to 1474 pounds. My goal is to grow one over 1500 pounds.   Tuesday, July 3 View Page Currently, I've got two plants growing in my 38' x 32' garden. Here's a photo of the 1877 Kline. Planted indoors on April 29th and moved outdoors May 11th.   Tuesday, July 3 View Page Here's my second plant - 1775.5 Brungard   Tuesday, July 3 View Page 1775.5 Brungard x 1877 Kline. Pollinated on June 26th - 5 lobes. About 12 feet out.   Wednesday, July 11 View Page So far so good. Here's the 1775 Brungard x 1877 Kline at 15 DAP.   Monday, July 16 View Page A "normal" 15 year old like me would be thrilled to get the latest iPhone or an Xbox. I'm thrilled to have just gotten a 4 gallon backpack sprayer!!   Saturday, July 28 View Page I wish there was an OTT estimation app on iOS for those of us that have Apple products - so I decided to make one myself. There's an app like that for Android devices, however, it uses an older OTT chart than the one from 2017 for its calculations. By no means do I know how to write apps, but after some time browsing the internet I found an app called "Open as App". You can download it for Android devices AND iOS devices. The app allows you to turn any excel spreadsheet into an app! Also, I decided to add the estimated weight in kilograms in addition to pounds. The app also works even if you don't have a connection to the internet. HERE ARE THE STEPS TO INSTALL IT: 1. Download "Open as App" (iOS and Android compatible) 2. Once installed, click "https://oaa.app.link/Vhh5xJttVO" to install it. Unfortunately, the icon for the app displayed on the device is the "Open as App" logo (unlike a pumpkin on the GPC weight estimator app for android), but you just click on the app and it takes you directly to the estimation app. Email me if you got questions, problems, suggestions, ...   Saturday, July 28 View Page Here's a photo of the excel spreadsheet I made to give you an estimated weight of your pumpkin. I got the inspiration from a post last year by Jay Yohe who did a similar thing. You enter the values of your circumference, SS, and EE and it adds it up in the box next to OTT. From there, I use =(((14.2/(1+7.3*2^(-(OTT)/96)))^3+((OTT)/51)^2.91)-8)*0.993 to give me the weight in pounds, which I round to one decimal point. To convert it to kilograms, I multiply it by 0.45359237 and round it to one decimal point as well. Email me if you want a copy of this in excel spreadsheet.   Monday, July 30 View Page Biggest one ever at this time of the season. Here’s the 1775 Brungard x 1877 Kline at 34 DAP. About 600 pounds.   Monday, July 30 View Page Very happy with the positioning on the main vine. Because of the long stem I was able to keep the secondary right next to it.   Monday, August 13 View Page 1877 Kline x self at 49 DAP. Nice orange colour to it.   Thursday, August 16 View Page 1775 Brungard x 1877 Kline at 51 DAP. Disappointed that it’s not an orange beauty, but at least it’s big!   Thursday, August 16 View Page Another angle of the 1877 Kline x self   Thursday, August 16 View Page Woops! Sorry for the sideways & upside down images!   Thursday, August 16 View Page Woops! Sorry for the sideways & upside down images!   Friday, August 24 View Page I built a greenhouse last week over the plant with my most promising pumpkin of this season to fight against the cold temps. The average low at night for this time of the season is 12 C (54 F). It doesn't cover the whole plant, but a good chunk of it. Better than nothing. I got two 1500 W heaters in there as well as a Mr. Heater Big Buddy propane heater. It can do 4000, 9000, or 18000 BTU per hour. It also automatically turns off if it detects that the oxygen level around it is low.   Friday, August 24 View Page 1775 Brungard x 1877 Kline. 58 DAP   Friday, August 24 View Page 1877 Kline x Self. 56 DAP   Friday, August 24 View Page Main vine of the 1877 Kline   Saturday, August 25 View Page Had an awesome time at the Roland Pumpkin Fair Patch Tour Today! In 1976, Edgar Van Wyck, a long time giant pumpkin grower from Roland, grew the world's largest pumpkin at 423 pounds and earned himself a page in the Guinness Book of Records. He also grew a 560 pound pumpkin in 1986. In 1990, they built a giant fiberglass pumpkin at the town's entrance in his honor.   Saturday, August 25 View Page First off we toured Jason Terwin's patch in Carman, Manitoba. He was in the middle of constructing a massive greenhouse - he had 5 pumpkins, with his largest estimated at over 1000 pounds.   Saturday, August 25 View Page Here is Jason's big one   Saturday, August 25 View Page The second patch we toured was Henry Banman's from Schanzenfeld, Manitoba. Henry's been growing giant pumpkins for almost 2 decades and holds the Manitoba Provincial Record (1474.5 pounds set last year). He had two beautiful orange ones - one estimated around 900 pounds and the other one at 1080 pounds. This photo is of his larger one.   Saturday, August 25 View Page The third and final patch of the day was Cornie Banman's - Henry's brother. He had three giants growing and we ended the day with some snacks on the patio and pumpkin talk. There were about a dozen growers who attended the patch tour as there is roughly every year. Truly a great bunch of pumpkin growers.   Saturday, August 25 View Page Cornie estimated his largest to be around 1030 pounds   Monday, August 27 View Page Hooked up a WiFi camera today that's overlooking the patch. Now I can see live footage of my patch anywhere and any time with my iPhone or Android tablet. Awesome!   Tuesday, August 28 View Page Powdery Mildew is officially here. Time to get out the sulfur and garden sprayer!   Wednesday, September 5 View Page It’s supposed to go down to 2 C (35.6 F) with a chance of frost tonight. Got the frost blankets out and in place.   Wednesday, September 5 View Page Propane heater set to high in the greenhouse. 18,000 BTU / hour   Wednesday, September 5 View Page 80 pounds of propane for the heater. It’s super cheap to fill up a 20 pound tank at Costco compared to anywhere else.   Friday, September 7 View Page 29 days until the Roland pumpkin fair!   Friday, September 7 View Page Leaf problem - I got a few affected leaves that look like this, however I have leaves that are much older and look great.   Sunday, September 9 View Page A friend of my mom knows I grow giant pumpkins and gave me these photos. They're from the Howard Dill patch which she got to tour - taken on September 8th, 1999. The man in the photo is her husband along with Howard Dill's cat.   Sunday, September 9 View Page On the topic of Howard Dill... there's a book titled "The Pumpkin King" (1992) that talks all about him and Atlantic Giants. An awesome book that was well worth the read!   Tuesday, September 11 View Page Biggest one in the patch is estimated at just a tad over 1400 pounds on the 2017 chart. Averaging 16 pounds for the last 7 days. 24 days left until the weigh-off. Assuming it goes to chart, I need 75 pounds in 24 days - so 3.2 pounds a day to break the provincial record (1474.5 pounds). Sounds reasonable? Sure hope it keeps growing and goes heavy.... fingers crossed.   Wednesday, September 12 View Page 46.6 mm (1.83 inches) of rain in South Winnipeg in 50 minutes. Most rain in that amount of time in at least 3 years.   Wednesday, September 19 View Page Low of 1 C (33.8 F) tonight and low of 0 C (32 F) on Saturday night. Ugh. Heaters are on full blast and frost blankets are out.   Saturday, September 22 View Page Sad day for pumpkin growing today. The low for last night was tonight 1 C (33.8 F), and there was half an inch of slush/snow on the ground (yes, it's only September 22nd). My most promising plant is 2/3 covered by a greenhouse with a propane heater and it's nice in there (alive) - as for the rest of my plants... not good. All dead. I covered the stumps with frames with plastic on top and heaters inside - as well as the main vines with frost blankets than a tarp on top. Had a power outage for 5 hours.   Sunday, September 23 View Page Snow!   Tuesday, September 25 View Page 10 days left!   Friday, October 5 View Page Lifting my two pumpkins this evening. Roland Pumpkin Fair is tomorrow morning - should be interesting!   Friday, October 5 View Page Was super wet and even started to snow as we lifted them out of the garden, but we managed. All ready for Roland tomorrow!   Saturday, October 6 View Page OTT estimate put mine close to the current provincial record, but it went light and ended up at 1369.5 pounds. Really hoped for something more heavy, but that’s part of the game and not everything can go the way you want it to. 3rd place. 1775 Brungard x 1877 Kline   Saturday, October 6 View Page 1344 Lukes (1877 Kline x self). 4th place   Saturday, October 6 View Page Charlie Bernstrom from Lancaster, MN got 1st place with a giant 1753.5 pound pumpkin! Wow! Congrats Charlie!   Saturday, October 6 View Page 2nd place came in at 1522 pounds from Cornie Banman. New Manitoba provincial record and first one over 1500 pounds.   Friday, October 12 View Page Harvested seeds from the 1369.5 and 1344 Lukes today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USrSifgEvX8   Wednesday, October 17 View Page Counted 7 of them. Give them three weeks and all 2500+ pounds of pumpkin will be gone.   Friday, October 26 View Page It's only been 2 weeks since the deer started eating the pumpkins and they've easily eaten over 2000 pounds between my two pumpkins already! There's almost nothing left! Here's a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdL7SiKF3eQ