Sunday, April 8
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We have lift off (2008 Neptune)
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Sunday, April 15
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Just have to install hinges and plastic and the greenhouse will be ready
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Saturday, April 21
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Plastic tarp is stretched over the frame.
I’ll give it 3-4 days for the soil to warm up then I’ll plant my 2008 Neptune
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Tuesday, April 24
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Finally... 2008 Neptune planted
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Wednesday, May 2
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Starting to vine out a bit (2008 Neptune) -
Going to treat this plant with some watered down fertilizer soon.
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Monday, May 7
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2008 Neptune
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Wednesday, May 9
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Growing and a healthy pace - hopefully if I can grow a decent size pumpkin, I’ll take it to the -old farm market- Vancouver island.
>>>>> hi Glenn —hi Dave
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Monday, May 14
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2008 Neptune is liking the hot weather >>>>>high of 26c today
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Saturday, May 19
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2008 Neptune doing fine - The vine is about 5’ long now >>>>> Added 3.5 yards of well composted horse manure to the patch today.
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Thursday, May 24
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Nice weather coming up, so I freed the beast - plant is close to 8’ long now
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Saturday, May 26
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First pumpkin
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Sunday, May 27
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Mixing 1 litre of well composted llama manure with 5 gals of water and feeding it to my 2008 Neptune. Hoping for good results. >>>>> Pic of last years pumpkin
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Tuesday, May 29
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Nice day so I buried some vines. A bit windy today >>>>>>dog in the pic is named Major, he just finished a birthday snack...lol
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Wednesday, May 30
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Vine is about 10’ long now (2008 Neptune)
A few male flowers opened up today
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Saturday, June 2
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Buried more vines today - rain expected by tomorrow
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Sunday, June 3
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Little pumpkin at about 8’ ... not sure if it’s worth pollinating but I will anyway.. just in case
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Wednesday, June 6
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Cold today with super high winds, I’m surprised the patch didn’t get torn up by it.
Hoping for warmer weather to kick things into gear -
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Thursday, June 7
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A 5 lober opened today at about 9 feet but no males to pollinate with except a dead flower from yesterday that I cut off.
I used it anyway...lol ...who knows maybe it’ll work
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Friday, June 8
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Vine is 14’ now —— I’m surprised it’s still growing at a good clip with how cold June has been so far
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Sunday, June 10
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Buried more vines and noticed some of my first born leafs are dead around the edges.
Don’t know why ... ugh
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Thursday, June 14
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Looks like the pollination took -This is my back up pumpkin.
There is another one @ 14+ feet but won’t by ready to pollinate for another 10-12 days.
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Saturday, June 16
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Blazing hot today- even hotter tomorrow *
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Wednesday, June 20
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Put up some shade netting. Still needs to be joined better in the centre but it’s working perfectly.
The plant went from wilted bad, to looking normal within an hour after putting up the net
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Friday, June 22
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Pollinated 2008 Neptune x self
Sure hope it took. My pumpkin at 8 feet flopped
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Saturday, June 23
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Pollinated one on a side vine with plenty of fresh males... yesterday my hopeful kin on the main had maybe one fresh male flower>>> who knows what’s going to happen
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Monday, June 25
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Pollinated last Friday @ about 16’ ...sure hope it took
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Thursday, June 28
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Pic on left is at about 3 dap ..... pic on right is 7 dap —— (I’m wondering if the pollination took)
It’s still shiny and making micro gains, but the weather has been really cool for this time of year ..with little sun. Fingers crossed
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Sunday, July 1
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Happy Canada day !!
Did a bunch of vine burying today ....whew!
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Sunday, July 1
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A 3 lober ? Never seen one before myself
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Monday, July 2
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This pic is from day 9 (yesterday) ...Small but we’ve had rainy cool weather
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Wednesday, July 4
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Waiting for my pumpkin to grow is the hardest part..haha ———— Here’s a pic of a male flower from 2016 ( iphone5s )
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Thursday, July 5
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Another cool and rainy day for July, nothing new to report —— Here’s a pic of my 655lb pumpkin from 2016, I came in second at the garden centre
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Friday, July 6
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Making small but good gains each day now. Not growing super fast like a lot of others but I’m happy for now.
Gave the leaves a foliar feed today with cal/mag
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Sunday, July 8
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Spent a good part of my day off spreading a load of compost/soil on my patch and also burying vines.
I use the 25 gal pail and a pond pump to drench my patch with amendments.
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Tuesday, July 10
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Pollinated this one @ about 24’ (this morning)
——There was already a bee inside ..but whatever
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Thursday, July 12
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Grew 3” in circumference in the past 24 hrs — Finally a stretch of good weather —- contemplating culling my back up pumpkin
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Friday, July 13
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Culled my back up pumpkin today. It was growing on the 4th side vine —- nothing else to report except hot weather forecasted for the next several days.
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Saturday, July 14
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Love this hot weather!
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Sunday, July 15
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Bought myself a new 4 gal backpack sprayer for foliar feeding my pumpkin plant (an early birthday present) —-
My old 1 gal sprayer was lunched
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Tuesday, July 17
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11 days growth (2008 Neptune)
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Friday, July 20
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Starting to lose its roundness — I’ve started backing off the water a bit because I don’t have very good drainage, hardpan is only about 18” from the top of my soil.
2008 Neptune- (watch out Richmond Dave) .. haha
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Saturday, July 21
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Compost tea - 2 tbsp of molasses, 1 litre of llama manure per 25 gals of water/
Recirculated with a pond pump
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Tuesday, July 24
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Bought a cheap-o moisture meter from amazon and it doesn’t work. The reason I bought one was because I was wondering if I was overwatering being that my soil has a high content of clay. I cut back watering as a precaution and right away pumpkin kicked into gear :)
Everyone’s patch is different indeed
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Thursday, July 26
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Gave plant a drink of seaweed extract (1/2 strength) ———- Really hoping to break my personal best (655lbs) this year.
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Saturday, July 28
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Leaves are smallish and kind of unhealthy looking, its been that way since I started growing (3rd season)
This fall I’m going to send in a soil sample and see what the scoop is, maybe it will reveal something.
Shade netting was a good investment but I need more
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Tuesday, July 31
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2008 Neptune 204 lbs
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Wednesday, August 1
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Shade netting came down as we’re going to have at least a week of cloudy /cooler weather.
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Friday, August 3
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My first Atlantic “giant” (2014) 48 lbs - haha
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Monday, August 6
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Shade netting back up,hot weather has arrived. >> Was only a few hours away from watering time so I decided to check the soil to see if I was overwatering, and according to moisture meter I was.—— pumpkin has slowed down in growth to 1/4 of what it was, maybe I’ve been overwatering it all along....that would explain a few things.
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Thursday, August 9
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Slow grower, but that’s ok. Measures to 311 lbs
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Monday, August 20
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259ott 400 pounds — Recently been pounded hard by powdery mildew and the pumpkin has all but stopped growing
Going to deal with the mildew today
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Monday, September 3
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Increasing the size of the patch for next year considerably. I’m also going to bring in a lot of high quality top soil after the season is over, then plant fall rye.
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Saturday, October 6
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Had lots of problems this year with my one and only pumpkin, leaves were thrashed by early aug.
Also a vast majority of Sept was wet and cold.
Anyhow I got it loaded for next week in Duncan B.C. @ the Old Farm Market weigh off.
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Tuesday, October 16
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Going to try a greenhouse in 2019. Bought this frame a few weeks ago 12x20’
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