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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 18 Entries.
Saturday, June 22 View Page
Here's our plot, a beautiful place a couple of miles north of Dahlonega, Ga.
 
Wednesday, June 26 View Page
It's been a long time since I had a pumpkin blog, but the season is very promising so far and I thought that there might be other Georgia growers who might find it interesting. You can see the pumpkin we culled today. Yikes - she was a beauty but I just didn't think the plant was quite ready.
 
Sunday, June 30 View Page
Irrigation is going strong, it's drying out again. The main pumpkin's circumference increased from 34" to 40" from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. Normal for you northern growers but pretty exciting to us Southern boys. (That's not the main plant, we haven't let any fruits set on this one yet.)
 
Monday, July 1 View Page
That's right, we like to irrigate upside down. I wonder why the pic posted like that? The circumference increased from 40" to 46" in a day in a half. I'll get a new picture soon but while we wait why don't you meet Bessie, who lives and loans us fertilizer.
 
Wednesday, July 3 View Page
The girl has grown from 32 pounds to 59 pounds in 36 hours. It's about to really take off. Gotta give her a name ASAP!
 
Thursday, July 4 View Page
Weeding, watering, bug killing, it's a busy time of year!
 
Friday, July 5 View Page
Jeanne and Freddy have front row seats to watch all the action.
 
Saturday, July 6 View Page
This one is about to take off. She was 59 pounds on Wednesday and 113 pounds Saturday so she's putting on close to 20 pounds a day like she should. Now we've just gotta keep that going! You know, bigPumpkins is a great site and the diary is easy to use so I can't complain. But there is no preview and no editing once you post so I never know when a picture is going to post sideways or upside down. Just wanted y'all to know why that's happening.
 
Sunday, July 7 View Page
Tiny the Pumpkin grew from 113 to 143 pounds yesterday. But the graveyard is full of the culled babies who didn't make the cut.
 
Tuesday, July 9 View Page
Tiny has coasted over the 200 lb mark, contentedly laying in the shade, chewing her cud and doing all the other things pumpkins like to do.
 
Friday, July 12 View Page
I couldn't find a copy of that awesome spreadsheet that the Maine growers used to have, so I finally made my own. It's crude but good enough for the moment. The second sheet has the 2013 weight table data. It'll be interesting to measure tomorrow morning when I get back up to the patch - it was getting dry before we had over 2 inches of rain yesterday.
 
Saturday, July 13 View Page
Tiny liked the rain; she's now estimated at 315 pounds. So I guess that means that's an 800 pound thumb that snuck into the picture.
 
Sunday, July 14 View Page
Today was one of those moments when you wipe the mud and sweat out of your eyes and ask, "Am I insane?" Nope, we know that answer to that is 'no'. But is there maybe a chance that this garden thing is out of control?
 
Tuesday, July 16 View Page
I was able to move Tiny one last time, I'm not sure how. Just 2 or 3 inches to relieve the stem stress. I can't give the plants the attention they deserve since I don't live where we plant, but still. I've way underestimated the stress that vine placement would down the road. Stress to both me and the pumpkin! The stem did crack and leak a bit a few days ago but it's healed well. May have to cut off the main vine past the pumpkin soon. Here's an interesting situation, 2 leaves and 2 female blooms at one node. I don't guess this is a good setup but this plant is still waiting to set its first pumpkin.
 
Wednesday, July 17 View Page
Today's topic in naming. I don't understand how anyone can grow a giant pumpkin without naming it. Just can't wrap my head around it. Tiny was named after the huge sidekick in the old western films who always seemed to be named... Tiny. Moving on, Olive has been declared the winner on the second plant; Pumpkin C was cut off last night. Olive has actually overtaken Amok as the second biggest pumpkin in the patch at ~200 pounds. Yeah that's right, I think naming the things is Jeanne's favorite part of the sport! And Tiny just rumbles along; she's over 400 pounds now.
 
Thursday, July 18 View Page
'Pumpkin C' was the last major cull from plant Lady Jane. Or whatever Jeanne named the damn plant. Naming pumpkins is required. Naming plants? I'll never understand women. Anyway Pumpkin C was too big to just cut off and toss; it had to be cut into sections and removed in pieces. Yes we waited too long to do it but we wanted to make sure that we kept the best one!
 
Monday, July 22 View Page
What a roller coaster - it's been a week of ecstasy and despair, pestilence, drought, flood, and... Tiny doesn't care. She continues to do her thing, which is grow - topping 500 pounds this weekend.
 
Sunday, July 28 View Page
The growth is starting to slow a bit but there's no denying it - I'm gonna have to learn all the secrets and techniques for weighing these things. 'Cause by Georgia standards, Tiny is gonna need to be weighed!
 

 

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