Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 15 Entries. Monday, June 18 View Page No, what have I done?!?! It was looking like I would get pollinations done around the 20th but the pumpkins on all of my plants shriveled up before they matured. Maybe going way to generous with the Ferts. Better hold off for a while.   Monday, July 2 View Page Holding off on the Ferts really helped. I have pollinated 3 Kins in the last 3 day. 6/30 - my 1577 Johnson x self 6 lobe 20'-22' out 7/1 - 1706 Gehweiler x 1577 Johnson 4 lobe 15' out 7/2 - 1256 Johnson DMG x 1577 Johnson 6 lobe 20' out I am a little later than I was hoping, but still a week or so ahead of last year. Hopefully I can still give QTip's state record a run!   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Overlooking the Patch on a wonderful evening!   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Things are looking up! 1577 Johnson - DAP=10 Cir.=26.25"   Tuesday, July 10 View Page Overlooking the Patch   Thursday, July 12 View Page Little bit funny shaped, but not much choice but to go with it at this point. 1256 Johnson DMG - DAP=10 Cir. 25.5"   Saturday, July 14 View Page Last kin that took in the garden. 1742 Menting DAP=10 25.5" Cir.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1577 Johnson - DAP24 OTT 205 5 day average is quite low(upper teens), due to the fact I've been dealing with a small stem split at the vine that is being stubborn. Hopefully I can get it healed, because I had high hopes for this one. Because it is the seed out of my personal best from last year. Guess I'll see what happens.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page 1256 Johnson DMG - DAP22 OTT =211 5 Day is pretty good(upper 20s, with it really ramping up the last couple). Starting to see a little excitement in the garden. Just hope it holds together. And the little racing stripe coming out of the blossom doesn't give me headaches.   Tuesday, July 24 View Page And last but not least. 1742 Menting - DAP20 OTT=170 5 day average is OK This is the smallest plant in the garden, but I know it has potential to grow large fruit as I saw in a friends patch last year. When he hit 600+ with only about 30-35 days of growing before he got hailed out. Hoping she hits her stride soon. Wishing the weather would be warmer though. We are going into a short cold snap with highs in the low 70's and lows in the upper 50's.   Friday, September 21 View Page Well what can I say, it's been one of those years. Nothing but a roller coaster. For starters we had a late spring, but my new cold frames did the job and my plants were growing good. Then when I was looking at getting pollinations around June 20, I had to much nitrogen in the garden and all females never opened. I ended up pollinating around July 1st. It wasn't easy as we got rain every day for a week right during that time. I had 3 set in good spots, one on each of my 1577 Johnson, 1256.5 Johnson DMG, and 1742 Menting. But I couldn't get one set on the 1706 Gehweiler that produced my 1577. And I let that plant go wild, and now there is about 2000+ lbs of fruit on that plant between 5 fruit. I lost the 1577 to a stem split around day 25, now down to 2 fruit. 1256.5 gaining nice and 1742 slow and steady. About day 50 1256.5 developed stump/main vine split that I had to trench water away from and couldn't get dried up right, and 1742 was still crawling along. And NOW about 10 days ago the 1256 got a tiny rib split, and turns out must have went through. Soft spot is starting to get much bigger. So guess QTip and Hobbit have one less to worry about at Stillwater, not that it was as big as theirs. Quite the depressing season, but I'll have a better game plan for next year. Pictures and unofficial weight to come.   Friday, September 21 View Page Well here is the 1256.5 Johnson on the trailer heading to my neighbors seed farm to get an unofficial weight. Before it turns into a pile of slop in the garden.   Friday, September 21 View Page Another view. 1256.5 Johnson DAP 81 BS-111 SS-118 CIR-199 OTT-428 EST WGT-1680   Friday, September 21 View Page Here is the culprit.   Friday, September 21 View Page Here she is on the certified scale at the neighbors seed farm. 1256.5 Johnson DMG '17 is now the 1651 Johnson DMG '18 unofficial. Really a bummer to have it go down as it would have been a PB!