Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 48 Entries. Tuesday, January 30 View Page Here pictured are broad beans and phacelia as a cover crop with a nettle mulch in the foreground. Seed line up for the year is as follows: 1949 Paton 2016, 968.9 Oliver 2017 and 965.6 Oliver 2017.   Thursday, March 29 View Page Like many others, I'm just itching to get growing and have done quite a number of test germinations, also with a view to harvesting the soil from those seedlings as a mycorrhizal inoculant to be used for the competition plants.   Saturday, April 7 View Page 100% germination so far. New mini green house finished and soil preparation almost there. Now we just need some warmer weather.   Saturday, April 14 View Page Now the seeds are started for real. I like to plant out as soon as the first true leaves appear so as not to restrict the roots in anyway. Warmer weather seems to have arrived now.   Sunday, April 15 View Page Here is the 968 Oliver ready to go out.   Sunday, April 15 View Page Two plants in the ground. I have two styles of mini-greenhouse this year. I will see which one I like better.   Thursday, May 24 View Page The 1949's are also ribboning on me. One culled but that only leaves me two.   Saturday, June 2 View Page 1949 Seems to be pulling through. Cold week ahead of us.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page Cold was an understatement. We had frost, in June. Only the most tender leaves suffered damage though. Warmer weather on the horizon although the nights continue cool at 10-12C(50-54F).   Friday, June 15 View Page 1949 is filling out well. Still waiting for the first female flower to appear.   Friday, June 15 View Page 1949 is filling out well. Still waiting for the first female flower to appear.   Friday, June 15 View Page First female has appeared on the 968, only 10 ft. out though.   Friday, June 15 View Page First female flower spotted on the 968 Oliver.   Saturday, June 23 View Page Warm weather is finally back. I will pollinate the above flower tomorrow. We are well ahead of last year. This picture was from mid July of last year. The 1949 has at least 8 secondaries on either side of the vine, some of which have been terminated, but the first pumpkin has only just appeared at about 15 feet. Will pollinate within a week or two for sure.   Monday, June 25 View Page Used the 1949 to pollinate the 968 today. Beautiful 5-lober.   Monday, July 2 View Page 968 at 7DAP. My kids have named this one O'Lantern as it has Irish ancestry (918 Sullivan)   Monday, July 2 View Page And here is Jack: 1949 at 7 DAP. A bird or some other animal has taken a bite out of it so it may not pull through.   Monday, July 2 View Page Never mind, today I pollinated another at 18 ft. on the main vine. Fingers crossed this will be the keeper. Yesterday was probably the hottest day of the year so far, but today is not so bad. Oats planted in this corner of the patch to create a natural cooling effect.   Saturday, July 7 View Page The two I mentioned before are chugging along (I've left the one with the bite taken out for now) and I've got loads of backups on the secondaries. The one on the main vine is almost out of the blocks.   Wednesday, July 11 View Page 968 "O'Lantern" at 16 DAP   Wednesday, July 11 View Page 1949 @ 16 DAP   Wednesday, July 11 View Page Loads of backups on the secondaries.   Wednesday, July 11 View Page Here is the most promising backup at 9 DAP.   Wednesday, July 11 View Page This one is on the main 1949 vine @ 18 ft. but not a great shape or position   Wednesday, July 11 View Page Final pollination of the year: 21 ft. out on the main 1949 vine   Wednesday, July 25 View Page Progress report. This is the most promising one but it is growing on a secondary; 1949 @ 30 DAP   Wednesday, July 25 View Page The 968 is showing some color. Also 30 DAP.   Wednesday, July 25 View Page 1949 on the main vine, 23 DAP. Not huge, but a nice enough shape.   Wednesday, July 25 View Page Another view of the 1949 main vine pumpkin. All other backups now culled.   Saturday, August 11 View Page This 1949 is well over 500 lbs.   Saturday, August 11 View Page The inevitable happened, a split. It doesn't go all the way through but this was only ever intended to be a pollinator plant anyways. We picked it and will display it at a local harvest festival this weekend.   Sunday, August 12 View Page We held a "guess the weight" competition (385 lbs.) to raise money for charity. Afterwards I harvested 200+ viable seeds and fed the rest of the pumpkin to the pigs and chickens, who loved it. My wife wanted to make a pumpkin pie so we did that as well.   Thursday, August 23 View Page Wet spot developed on the stem but it is superficial. Estimated weight is over 700 lbs. now.   Monday, September 10 View Page We called this one "Jack".   Monday, September 10 View Page The one growing on the secondary about 8-9 ft. out is still the biggest and is called "Hatchy Patchy".   Monday, September 10 View Page Both pumpkins are are the one plant (1949). Together they are over 1700 lbs   Thursday, September 27 View Page Had been pretty successful in keeping the powdery mildew at bay with the 50/50 water-milk spray, but we have had frost the last three nights so that has pretty much finished off the plant. Not worth a photo. Together the pumpkins weigh approximately 1800 lbs.   Saturday, September 29 View Page Big day. Time to harvest Jack. You can see the extensive frost damage in the foreground.   Monday, October 1 View Page We won third place at the Royal Horticultural Society show in London.   Friday, October 12 View Page Hatchy Patchy all packaged up and ready to go. Just fit in the van with only half an inch of clearance on either side.   Saturday, October 13 View Page Ours is in the foreground with two from the Paton's on trailers in the background.   Saturday, October 13 View Page Getting ready to lift the heaviest pumpkin ever grown in the UK.   Saturday, October 13 View Page It went about 10% heavy and we were very happy with winning second place. Thanks especially to Ian and Stuart for making it a very enjoyable day for the kids and all of us growers.   Saturday, October 13 View Page The moment the big weight was announced. I think we all cheered.   Saturday, October 13 View Page You guys do us proud. Congratulations!   Saturday, October 13 View Page And that pretty much rounds out the season. A lot of PB's today, but as we know, they can always get bigger next year (especially if you don't grow two on one plant).   Friday, October 19 View Page We ended up donating the pumpkin to a local pub who ran a "Guess the weight" competition to raise money for charity. Hopefully none of the villagers are looking at BigPupmpkins.com.   Sunday, November 4 View Page They ended up raising over £100 and the winner guessed within 1 kilo of the registered weight. We decided to have a bit of fun with it before feeding the pumpkin to our pigs and chickens.