Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 43 Entries. Monday, February 19 View Page 7 of 8 of the 5.2 Ailsae onions (bigger and marked with tooth picks) from seed exchange germinated and 27 of 28 Glazebrook onions are up, they were planted over a week later. Wanted to try a couple of each. Will give some to local friends, maybe get someone else hooked on big veggies, lol.   Monday, April 16 View Page Still plowing out today after close to 30 inches of snow this weekend. Cell phone picture probably doesn’t do it justice, but this drift was close to 6 feet deep.   Monday, April 16 View Page Figured it would come off when I went down the road. It did.. forward at the first stop sign when I hit the brakes.   Friday, May 4 View Page Seeds planted Sunday, April 29th. Still a few small snow piles left today, but nice and warm finally. This years lineup for year number 1 is for size, keep fastest two growers of the 4: 1904.5 Steil 1666.5 Steil 1521.2 Cutrupi 627 Holland Also for Orange: 681 UOW House 407 EST Hamilton First one out of the gate is.... the 681 House.   Sunday, May 13 View Page The bigger Steil and the Cutrupi are the ugly looking ones in the corners. The House and Hamilton I’m growing for orange are by far quicker out of the gate. My two best “size” seeds are the two slow and ugly... Still mid 40’s at night here, but should be able to get them out soon.   Sunday, May 20 View Page 1666 Steil, House, 1904.5 Steil pictured L to R. Cutrupi, Hamilton, and two Treece FP planted in 4 of the 6 spots I have set up. House going in tomorrow as my second orange. That leaves the two Steil plants for the last spot. Both are smaller than my other plants. The 1904.5 has by far the best genetics, but is by far the smallest plant. The picture doesn't do justice to the size difference. The 1666 has a very odd second true leaf. Small with large tight wrinkles. Anyone know what would cause the odd second leaf? Which Steil plant do I keep?   Friday, May 25 View Page So, we had a 30 inch snowstorm in mid April and nothing since. We are actually very dry in my area. Top 2 inches are completely powder/dust. It hit 90 today which is unusually warm. I picked a crazy year to start this. A few scattered storms floating around but nothing hit us yet here. I have not watered since planting out, and won’t unless I see signs plants are suffering. Droopy leaves and I’ll give them a soak, but were in gallon pots so deep roots. If they don’t need it, I’ll let the plants send roots down which should help later on. Here is the Hamilton I’m growing for orange.   Friday, May 25 View Page House- Second orange plant   Friday, May 25 View Page Here’s the problem child.... everybody has one right? 1904.5 Steil I considered not planting it because of how slow it started. Like the genetics too much so made room for it. Now the last two leaves, one is small and goofy shape. The other looks to be a “double” leaf, two grew together as one. The stem to that leaf is flat and wide. Is this possibly going to be a ribbon vine?   Friday, June 1 View Page 6 of my glass gem corn were wilting and found one of these little pricks in each one. Guessing it’s an immature cut worm.   Saturday, June 2 View Page Birds eye view of the patch... I climbed about 1/3 of the way up a silo. Probably need to climb higher next time, but here’s what I have going: To the left of my sons excavator right in front of a fence post there are 2 giant sunflowers. From there wrapping around the bend on the outside are 3 rows of popcorn, glass gem, giant indian corn. At the end of that near the last fence post are about 20 more giant sunflowers. After that some tall corn. The plan was for these wrapping the west edge would cut down some wind. There are my 6 main plants: bottom/near excavator the 681 House and 1666 Steil. Middle pair is the 1904 Steil and a Treece FP, and top pair 1521 Cutrupi and 407 Hamilton. These 6 have approx 30x30 each. Far half, tip of patch has all decorative, mini, gourds, etc. Planted about 10 ft apart and will let them grow randomly through each other. Everything in between is weeds. I’m only clearing 3-4 feet around each plant as they grow for now. The fence is up to keep geese out, those pricks will eat anything. They don’t wander far down that trail, so no fence on the far end. Guinnea hens have been through patch daily and don’t bother plants, hopefully eating bugs. The patch itself was a spot we raised 6 pigs in 2 years ago. Hopefully some nitrogen is broke down enough now to be used by plants, that’s why I decided to grow there this year. Next pic I will climb higher, but it’s a 120 ft silo and I’m not as spry as I once was. I basically stopped and took this pic when I started to get winded from climbing, lol.   Saturday, June 2 View Page Above picture is sideways, I took it with my phone vertical. I will get higher next time and take a camera. I think it will be a cool time lapse shot as they grow if I get a good height. Hard to see things right now with small plants.   Monday, June 4 View Page May have gone from 6 plants to 4. My Cutrupi completely snapped off. My 681 House is pictured. Bent and cracked stem. Hopefully there’s enough left to sustain it until I get enough vine buried to root. Lesson #1 I guess. I had a small wind fence, but must have been too short or too far away. It was extremely windy for the past 24 hours. The other 4 plants look good yet.   Wednesday, June 6 View Page I got up a little higher, still not to the top. You can see the empty spot from the Cutrupi. My 681 House is bottom left spot. The leaves are not droopy at all yet, so I think it will make it. It’s just starting to vine, so will get the main buried as soon as I can to get more roots. The Cutrupi spot will be filled by a Treece FP this week, best back up plant I have left. You can sort of see the spots down at the end with the decorative pumpkins and gourds. Corn and sunflowers still pretty hard to see, but hopefully this view gets better as the summer goes on   Friday, June 15 View Page Updated picture from above. You can see the missing spot from the broke Cutrupi on the far end of my 6 big plant spots. I filled in the spot with a Treece FP, but it is quite a ways behind the other plants. I started vine burying on 4 of the 6. The vine on the 1904.5 Steil is coming out completely backwards from where it is supposed to. Also a very flat/wide vine. I'm not sure if it's a ribbon vine, but whatever it is will have to do a 180 somehow.. My biggest plant is the 1666 Steil which is the bottom right plant of the big 6 spots. The vine is about 5 feet right now. Not bad considering no heat coils or hoop houses. Would like to start earlier next year, but for this year and the messed up spring, I'll take it. Far end you can see the decoration pumpkins/gourds/squash starting to fill in. In the previous pictures you couldn't really even see them. Biggest sunflower plant so far is the one on the close end of the patch (Bottom Left of the picture). That is a Walmart seed. Some of the sunflowers growing at the end of the corn (Top Left) are from the seed exchange box. Smaller plants right now, but probably better genetics for head size.   Sunday, July 1 View Page 1666 Steil is my biggest plant at just over 12 feet long. My area is extremely dry. I’m just getting most to pollination this week and temps close to or in the 90’s every day. The top 2 inches of soil are completely powder right now. Terrible weather so far for my first year, and a LOT of lessons learned so far. My 500 pound goal is going to be hard to reach. I will try to get an over head shot again soon. The decoration pumpkins and gourds are really spreading out and filling in the end of the patch.   Sunday, July 1 View Page 681 House that got wind damage earlier. The stump was bent in half and cracked. The plant laid down completely when it happened. It’s now just over 9 feet long and stump healed. Roots on buried vines must be taking hold because it’s just starting to take off with growth. I’m really glad it made it, curious to see the color it will produce. I’ll get a picture of the healed stump next time I’m out in the patch.   Tuesday, July 3 View Page The healed stump on the House. When it got wind damage it was the size of a quarter, cracked all the way so you could see completely through it, and laying down flat. Now that knuckle is the size of my fist. Totally solid. Plant is a week or so behind in size, but doing great now.   Tuesday, July 3 View Page It’s my first year with no heat cables, hoop houses, or watering system. I’m weeks behind with my AG’s just getting to pollination, which is fine, it’s a learning year. However, I started two field pumpkins the same time as my AG’s. My biggest is a Treece which is over 16 feet and a beautiful plant. There’s a chance I could get a pretty nice FP this year. I have 3 females within a span of 4 leafs. They’re at roughly 13, 14, and 15 feet. The stem is attached at completely different spots for all three. I took this picture from the plant tip. The first, farthest out from stump, comes right out of the side The second comes out of the bottom and curves up The third comes out the top and sticks straight up If all things are equal would you keep the one attached to the side of the vine? In this case it’s also the farthest out.   Thursday, July 5 View Page Update from above. The decorative pumpkins and gourds are filling in the end. Middle left big plant is the 1904.5. Was a mutant, flat wide ribbon tye vine was actually a double main. Double leafs, flowers at each node. Eventually split to two separate mains about 8 feet out, but was way behind. Now took wind damage in a storm yesterday. I’m going to leave it for male flowers till I’m sure all plants are pollinated. Sunflowers and corn around the edge are about 6 feet tall in spots.   Saturday, July 14 View Page One of my favorite weeks of summer. We have always had groups of black raspberries around our shed. Have loved them since I was a young kid. I haven’t seen them many places, grow like crazy here.   Wednesday, July 18 View Page First sunflower of the year to open. Was awesome to watch honeybees turn themselves completely yellow with pollen.   Wednesday, July 18 View Page Gete Osokomin squash. Planted a couple purely because they looked cool in the picture. Already about a foot long, will be curious to see how big they get.   Wednesday, July 18 View Page Forgot the picture.   Wednesday, July 18 View Page Japanese Striped Corn has added some nice color. If only we would get some rain. Most of my corn varieties are tasseling or close to it, and we are dry as a desert. Leaves are curling, some starting to burn on the edges. Need rain badly.   Friday, July 20 View Page This is on a hill, so not all is this bad, but this gives you a little idea of the level of drought in my area. 20 miles away is a lot better, seems like every thing just misses us.   Friday, July 20 View Page Rain floating all over WI today and this is what we got. I kicked the ground and still dust under the top layer of wet soil.   Friday, July 20 View Page Found this guy growing about a foot from the stump. I had long stopped checking vines there, but it had new growth some how. That stem is crazy! I have pretty big hands, impressive stems on the Treece FP.   Friday, July 20 View Page Cut it in half, let these guys pick away at it.   Friday, July 27 View Page 1666 Steil - 83 inches OTT Almost on the chart, lol. Starting out very pear shaped, I will be curious to see how it develops.   Friday, July 27 View Page 1904.5 Steil - small wind damaged plant set on a side vine, and still the biggest I have right now at 124 inches OTT. The 1666 is twice the size plant and set 17 feet on the main. Guessing it will pass up the 1904 pretty quickly.   Friday, July 27 View Page Treece FP - 88 inches OTT right now. Was a beautiful pumpkin, but a leaf scraped it up a little during our last storm. I’m sure it will heal fine but will mark up an otherwise perfect pumpkin. Both my Treece plants are huge, and our summer has been rough for growing.   Monday, July 30 View Page 1904 Growing slow but steady. Still the biggest right now but I think will be passed up. Nice shape and looks like it will go orange.   Monday, July 30 View Page Hamilton My healthiest plant. Still crazy dry here, this one is actually slowly catching my 1904 in size. Really nice shape and lots of orange genetics. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Chances for rain this week, we need some.   Monday, July 30 View Page Came back to the shed to find this. The jack is too heavy for him to move, so he had to drive the tractor onto it. Routine maintenance, bang on it with a spark plug wrench for a while and good to go.   Monday, August 6 View Page My Hamilton is now my biggest pumpkin. Pollinated on July 15th it now measures 187” OTT. It has an almost perfect shape and a pretty dark shade already. I’m almost positive it will go orange. We finally have had a substantial amount of rain and now warm but not crazy hot temps. It’s really increased growth the past few days. Should be a good looker!   Monday, August 6 View Page The 1666 is really growing in an odd shape. It’s my biggest plant by far, but so far growth hasn’t matched. Rain and warm weather might kick it into gear. I’m hoping it doesn’t sit down on it’s blossom end. Measures at 171” although the odd shape is kind of hard to measure.   Friday, August 10 View Page Lost the 1666 today to a soft spot forming on the blossom end. Broke it open and the walls were very thick except for a baseball size spot. There the wall was less than a half inch thick. It’s like that one little spot never grew. No rot inside yet, but it would have been coming.   Friday, August 10 View Page Thin wall from the 1666. Like I said above, only a spot about the size of a baseball, everywhere else the walls were normal thickness.   Monday, August 13 View Page The Hamilton still chugging along. 227 inches OTT so about 265 pounds.   Thursday, August 16 View Page 1904.5 Odd shape but still slowly gaining. Up to 229 inches. Mutant plant to start eventually straightened out the took a bunch of wind damage, and grown in extremely dry conditions. This is already more than I expected to get.   Thursday, August 16 View Page Never grew Bule gourds before, turned out pretty cool.   Saturday, October 20 View Page Year 1 goal 500 Year 1 weight 557 This is from early October. Beat my coworker who was also growing for the first time. The 557 was off my 1904 which took crazy wind damage twice. The nice orange 467 was off the Hamilton I got from Andy H. This was a beautiful shape and color. My part of WI was brutally dry through June, July, and August. I don’t have water at the patch. I hauled some 100 gallon sprayer loads once in a while to basically keep them alive, but not nearly what they needed. Top 2 inches were pure dust for most of the summer. Was rain all around us at times but just never got to us. There are a LOT of things I will change for next year. Very good lessons learned this summer. Even making a billion mistakes the plants produced pretty big pumpkins. Goal is to go over 1,000 next summer.