Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 26 Entries. Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is the 2528 day 2. This is one of my best plants but keeps aborting the pumpkins for some reason. I’ll probably pull the plant if this one doesn’t take   Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is the 2528 day 2. This is one of my best plants but keeps aborting the pumpkins for some reason. I’ll probably pull the plant if this one doesn’t take   Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is a 1916 werner. Plant is healthy but has been slow growing with short nodes and hard to work with thick vines. The plant is a lot like the 2096 plant that grew the 1916 last year but this pumpkin is way off pace. It’s day 20 tomorrow and will estimate less than 100lbs.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is the 2166. I thought the plant was sterile right away because the male flowers were under developed with no pollen. Now the flowers all have pollen. This pumpkin is growing good but I wish I would have went with the next pumpkin on the plant because it was way more symmetrical. I figure this one will split around day 40.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Here is my only shot at a pb. It is my 1305 (2145x2096) from last year. My best plant and best pumpkin. It was pollinated by the 2528. This is day 18.   Thursday, August 1 View Page Here’s the 2528. This is the last picture of this plant. 3 in a row aborted then I left the rest go and the two that took both split.   Thursday, August 1 View Page Here’s the 1916 werner. never was a good grower. It’s day 38.   Thursday, August 1 View Page 2166 day 36 should be 700+   Thursday, August 1 View Page Here is the pumpkin off the 1304 werner day 37. I made an error in my earlier post calling it a 1305. This one made a new personal best day 30 at 527est. To this point it’s the best grower I’ve had. hopefully it will keep plugging along.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page 1916 werner day 50 est about 500lbs   Friday, August 16 View Page 2166 day 50. Est weight 967. I’m currently down to two pumpkins. At least one could be pretty big   Sunday, August 25 View Page 2166 day 60 still doing around 18lbs/day. Earlier I figured it would split but it is still holding together and seems pretty thick on the blossom end so it should make it.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page I was wondering why my 1304 plant went from a 40-50 day average of 38lbs/day to a 50-60 day average of 16lbs a day... I’m assuming it is bacterial wilt and there is nothing I can do. First half of the plant is mush and the 2nd half is infected and will be soon.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page I cut off the stump and the first 6 secondary’s on each side that were rotten.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page Here is the 1304. I was pretty excited about this cross (2145x2096) but it won’t get close to its potential. The pumpkin is rock solid so hopefully I can still get it to a scale.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page Here is the 1304. I was pretty excited about this cross (2145x2096) but it won’t get close to its potential. The pumpkin is rock solid so hopefully I can still get it to a scale.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page The last picture of the pumpkin was a week or so ago before the plant started dying. Now you can see the leaves right on the main starting to die. The main vine full of fluid. What a bummer   Friday, September 27 View Page The 2166 is on the left 1304 on the right. The 1304 was 43% bigger than the 2166 on day 50. I lost most of the 1304 plant around day 60. Now the 1304 is only about 10% bigger. The 1304 could have been very big and heavy if it would have stayed healthy.   Friday, October 4 View Page 1304 loaded for gale woods   Friday, October 4 View Page 1304   Friday, October 4 View Page 1304   Sunday, October 6 View Page The 1304 is now the 1941 dmg. Ended up 12% heavy. Very solid pumpkin. Too bad I damaged it   Sunday, October 6 View Page Here’s the hole. It’s about 3” wide and 4” deep from the high spot and closer to 3” deep from the low spot. According to gpc rules I would have called it damaged too but was close.   Sunday, October 6 View Page Here’s the inside of the hole. The start of the issue was when I lost the stump and first 8-10’ of plant I decided to weigh the pumpkin to see if it was still growing. After weighing I left the lift ring on with the side straps loose but I never loosened the cinch rope on the bottom. I came back after 3-4 days and the pumpkin was still growing so the knot on he cinch rope basically grew into the pumpkin on the bottom. I didn’t think anything of it but it started a soft spot. Looking back I wish I would have dug it out deeper right away because I spent a week chasing rot that was following a split . After I finally got to the bottom and stopped the rot the hole was a little over 2” deep. (from the low spot) then in the last week-10 days as the hole dried and spilt deeper it ended up where it is. But the hole wasn’t the biggest disappointment with this pumpkin. I’ll show details in a later post.   Sunday, October 6 View Page Here is a potential final estimation chart of my last growing pumpkin and it’s 10 day measurements. I’ve been growing giants for 9 years now and I have made a minimum and maximum estimated final tape weight for day 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 day for every officially weighed pumpkin I’ve ever grown. For example my best day 40 tape vs final tape ratio was 245% or x 2.45. My worst ever was 205% or x2.05. Looking back on my pumpkins I know they should end up taping x 2 between day 40 and 50. I believe pumpkins grow relative with heat units so I don’t think my chart will line up with any one else unless your around 2200 gdu per summer average (May 5th - October 1st).   Sunday, October 6 View Page Anyway the biggest mistake was when the 1304 plant was very small in the beginning of May i let it get dry for a few days then drenched it with 5 gals or so of water and the stem of the seedling ending up splitting open the following day. I was going to pull the plant and planted a replacement, but the 1304 outgrew the replacement so I left it go. After a couple months of trying to get the water out of the stump with a syringe and small ploy line the plant started giving up and in the day 50s the gains went down fast. Day 40 for the 1304 that grew the 1941 was 967lbs x2.45 = 2369 estimated tape final high and x2.05 = 1982 estimated final tape low end. Day 50 was 1393 x 1.74 high = 2423 and low was 1393x 1.47=2047. Day 60 was 1554 tape estimated after the plant starting giving up. Day 70 it had the first 8 ft or so plant removed along with stump. I won’t use any of the numbers after day 50 for this plant in any of my future calculations because I know the plant failed. Times those estimates by 13% heavy and you’ll see where it should have been. It should be a seed to explore if you like big and heavy.