Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 64 Entries. Monday, April 9 View Page Started seeds today!!! May the force be with me. #TeamTobeck   Friday, April 13 View Page Plated in peat pots yesterday. Now just waiting for 'em to pop!   Tuesday, May 8 View Page Extremely disappointed in how my pumpkin is progressing :( Have such high hopes for this year   Wednesday, May 9 View Page The leaves are growing all goofy. ??? Hope it's just an awkward phase. The third looks better that the first two. Maybe she'll grow out of it. Added some shade cause I think she got a little sunburnt & can't handle the heat   Tuesday, May 15 View Page Feeling much better now! Think she's back on track. Very strange about the first true leaf though! It completely stopped growing. ??? Debated removing it but I figure it's still collecting energy for the plant & isn't really doing any harm...   Tuesday, May 15 View Page See what I mean, What's up with that?   Monday, May 21 View Page My plant is growing at a snails pace :( I don't think I have the patience to ever be successful at this...   Friday, May 25 View Page She's starting to vine out! Headed 180 from where I planned :| Guess that whole "opposite the 1st true leaf" thing isn't 100% guaranteed... The Battle Begins. Still haven't got her fully layed down yet, so that should help   Friday, May 25 View Page No pics. Raining   Tuesday, May 29 View Page First BIG Problem :( I think. A few of the leaves ( the 3 oldest of about 10) have developed some necrotic patches. Can't tell if it's sucking damage from the couple of aphids I found or if it's some kinda virus or bacterial infection from the soil or something.   Tuesday, May 29 View Page What is this? The rest of the plant looks pretty good. Hope this isn't the start of something really bad   Tuesday, June 12 View Page Don't ever use pyrethrum on pumpkins! Fried the $**T out of my plant :( I even rinsed it off afterward but it still burnt it up. Would have been better off just letting the aphids do thier thing   Thursday, June 21 View Page 1st day of Summer update: She's growing out nicely after our little incident :) Luckily I didn't spray the tips. I'm figuring on about 2 more weeks of letting her veg out (still 110+ days until Weighoffs) before its time to start blooming her.   Thursday, June 21 View Page She really seems to love the ALASKA brand fish fertilizer (5-1-1) I've been giving her every other day!! Wonder if that's what Dale uses??   Thursday, June 21 View Page Trying a new tactic to combat the aphids   Friday, June 22 View Page Release the hounds!   Tuesday, June 26 View Page It's heating up here! Been growing under shade cloth all year but added a mister for the little miss. Going to mostly break it out at only the hottest part of the day but thinking about running it for a little while in the mornings too to simulate those nice foggy mornings near the coast that pumpkins seem to enjoy   Thursday, June 28 View Page 100 days 'till Elk Grove   Friday, June 29 View Page Finally found the first female forming!!!   Tuesday, July 3 View Page Got lots of vine burying to do today. I was always kinda afraid to. Always kinda thought it was just a joke y'all big hitters play on the new growers! Im really going for it this year though   Friday, July 6 View Page Open! Open! Open!   Friday, July 6 View Page Checked back 1 hour later & it was open! Beautiful 4 lober. Pollinated X Self w/ 3 males.   Monday, July 9 View Page My main vine is standing straight up like a pi$$ed of cobra! Too Much N?   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Sea of Green   Wednesday, July 11 View Page Well she didn't shrivel up but she's not growing either   Wednesday, July 18 View Page 13 days & pretty much ZERO progression. All the work I've put in for NOTHING...   Wednesday, July 18 View Page White flag waving   Thursday, July 19 View Page Ok, not quitting, but crossing Elk Grove off of my calendar :( Dang! Really wanted to be competitive this year...   Thursday, July 19 View Page She can't handle this heat! Going to stop pushing & let her just do her thing. Maybe when it cools down she'll cooperate   Monday, July 23 View Page Giving her a lil FLOWER POWER to try to light a fire under her ... New wave of sets coming :) Another wave of heat coming too :(   Friday, July 27 View Page 9 pollinations on the 2002 in the last few days! 1 of 'em has to stick, Right???   Friday, July 27 View Page I just absolutely can not win. I'm my own worst enemy. Aphids attacked again so tried using soap & water this time, thought it would be gentler on the plant. Still fried the mofo leaves! They are super sensative. Again, would have been better off just letting the little suckers suck   Friday, July 27 View Page Going on Hiatus, Just like Josiah   Monday, August 20 View Page 2002 Tobeck Update: Got one to stick finally. It's been a Loooong,Hoooot summer.   Wednesday, August 22 View Page Growing so fast she's literally Bursting At The Seams! Keeping the splits sulphured but it will be a miracle if she holds together   Sunday, August 26 View Page #2002Tobeck ~ Passed my personal best thanks to The Queen giving me the good genetics! Named the pumpkin "Cindy" in her honor :)   Tuesday, August 28 View Page Well there goes The HD Award :( Some critter used my pumpkin for a scratching post   Sunday, September 2 View Page Cindy is cruising right along! Might see you folks at The Grove after all   Sunday, September 2 View Page She's getting freckles! I love a gal with freckles!!!   Tuesday, September 4 View Page I don't get it. Huge healthy plant. Great genetics. Halfway decent weather recently, but no BIG gains. 10 pounds, 10 pounds, 10 pounds day after day. What's the secret to getting those 30-40 pound a day numbers?   Monday, September 10 View Page Expanded my sand pad in hopes of having a BIG finish coming down the stretch! 25 days to grow   Wednesday, September 19 View Page Update on the 2002 Been foliar feeding as per The Holland Method; alternating calcium, seaweed & blossom booster. Seems to be doing the trick! Should have started earlier in the season...   Wednesday, September 19 View Page 2002 Tobeck   Wednesday, September 19 View Page I was starting to wonder about this one. She does want to be orange after all, Or at least orangish   Wednesday, September 19 View Page Side-view of "Cindy." Nowhere near as pretty as her namesake ;) She's beautiful in her own way though :)   Friday, September 28 View Page Beep! Beep!   Tuesday, October 2 View Page In quite a conundrum here :( Would be harvesting for EG on Friday but she's not even ripe yet! She'll only be about 70 DAP. I really wanted to get an official GPC weight this year but I'm not sure I can bring myself to cut it off early. Thinking I should see it through to the end... What would you do??   Tuesday, October 2 View Page My lil miss managed to max out my measurer this morning!!   Wednesday, October 17 View Page Small local weighoff on Saturday. Not GPC unfortunately, but Cindy will be seeing a scale!!! IF I can persuade her out of the patch in one piece that is :|   Wednesday, October 17 View Page She's not the biggest but she is actually a pretty cool specimen. She deserves to be shown off. Kinda got this giant cantaloupe look going on :)   Friday, October 19 View Page She's loaded!! Not without a bit of a fight but Hey, that's pumpkin' growing ain't it? Think I'll celebrate & get loaded myself :)   Friday, October 19 View Page No fancy tarps or tripods. Just plenty of pumpkin juice to get her in Stay tuned for final stats tomorrow...   Sunday, October 21 View Page Glad I waited. Was worth it for the five minutes of fame! Cindy got to be Champion Pumpkin instead of 27th place @ Elk Grove   Sunday, October 21 View Page Final weight was 466 pounds!!! By far the biggest & best to Ever roll out of my patch :) OTT was 272 inches- almost exactly the chart estimate of 464.   Wednesday, October 24 View Page Cindy was simply in a class of her own at the weighoff last weekend! Showed these folks up here what a Real pumpkin looks like ;)   Wednesday, October 24 View Page My Moms pumpkin, grown from the 692 Arnold, would have been the HD winner or prettiest pumpkin IMO had that been part of the contest   Monday, October 29 View Page Answered a lot of questions about my pumpkin recently. Most common one being What Are You Gunna Do With it Now?!? Think I'll try my hand at carving it...   Monday, October 29 View Page Can't promise any pictures! Ain't no Picasso   Tuesday, October 30 View Page Retrieved roughly 150 seeds. My pollination method must be ok :) She wasn't HUGE, which I mostly chalk up to it being on a side vine, but if anyone wants to give it a go or is in need of a seed just drop me a line. The genetics are good (2002 Tobeck X Self (2145 McMullenX Self))   Tuesday, October 30 View Page Should be dry soon   Wednesday, October 31 View Page Ok, I might have gotten a bit carried away... Happy Halloween Everybody!!!   Sunday, November 4 View Page Crunching the numbers on if/how I can grow 2 plants next year. Thinking I could squeeze in another one if I expand the patch a bit   Tuesday, November 6 View Page Sectioned up Cindy before she started stinkin'! Last season is officially over Now but the Next one starts Today...   Tuesday, December 11 View Page There's a lot of B.S involved in growing BIG Pumpkins!!! But it's worth every bit of it