Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 29 Entries. Sunday, January 27 View Page The soil has been turned. New plastic on hoop house. Added a few amendments. Sitting at 20% OM. Intention of adding clay loam to this sandy soil. Can see the 20 -24" pit.   Monday, January 28 View Page Pump house shed. Built this to house the waters pumps and fertilizers. I've had some things go walking from the back yard.   Saturday, March 9 View Page thank you Dave for the wonderful seed assortment. 1803 hoelke is the front runner. I got the electricity and water running into the pump house. Also turning the soil, bury drip line 8" off base, about 13" below surface.   Monday, April 15 View Page Here is my hopefully. Soaking today in humic/ kelp mix as per bottle recommendations. In heated pots tonight. Used plugs this year and potting mix on top of soil in each pot. Have been sprouting for a week now, one seed everyother day. Mostly for back ups and testing. All though a 1043 Chan has been thriving........   Monday, April 15 View Page A lot of upgrades this year. Installing heating cables - a lovely gift from santa ;). I should be getting soil results back any day, so I can add amendments to top 7" before shovelling back in and closing off far end. Slowly getting overhead sprinklers hooked up. Two 8 foot fluorescents, (400w) should help in the spring and fall....... and during smoke season. Heater with a blower and cooling fan. Fingers crossed it doesn't keep blowing the upgraded breakers.... 150 sqft comp....... look out!   Tuesday, April 16 View Page Here is the official 150 square foot layout. It's exactly 8 feet between the two outside boards, and 18.75 ft long. I'll remove the plywood once I'm finished walking on it.   Sunday, April 21 View Page Irrigation pump house. Blue pump below the rain barrel will feed the drip lines using the mixture in the barrel. The Venturi pump on the wall will draw the fertilizer from the 5 gal pail. That will service the foil feed. Thankfully I had the pumps donated (dave and jo) and habitat for used fittings. Overall, little financial investment and hopefully big rewards. With my busy schedual many days can pass without hand applying foil fert, and PM spray. Hope to get it in operation this week   Thursday, May 2 View Page Damned if the hoelke 1803 bound itself and didn't grow up. I uncovered it, it may still go. I would use it as a pollninator. Otherwise I had great germination success. Beautiful back ups that will go in the green house this weekend. I've been tweaking the irrigation system, and hopefully should be functional by the end of the season.............psi, g/m, I think am getting it.......   Saturday, May 4 View Page Here it is....... the overhead/ misting system functioning. The intention is to mist underneath the leaf and spray from above. Don't think I'll miss the watering can. Transplanted the two plants today. 1043 on the right which is the one if all goes to plan. Send it directly kitty-corner. 1379 in the center as back up. I still have a few in the house in case these ones decide not to go. Now that it's functioning, I didn't the effective microorganisms and soon to pile on the nitrogen   Monday, May 13 View Page Operations seemed to work while in Vegas. starting to grow, and the secondaries are showing. Lots of weeding and we'll save the volunteer peppers, tomatoes and beets. I hope to be Vine burying shortly   Tuesday, May 21 View Page the two girls transplanted there giant pumpkins yesterday. Ralins on the left is love, and Daria is on the right is the chan 1379. Started to bury nodes on main plant. Still ironing out little details, but overall the system is functioning well. Only watering the bottom drip system to encourage the roots down.   Wednesday, May 22 View Page This is what a backup plant and the amount of real estate looks like when all you have is 150 square feet for my main plant. this is the 1043   Sunday, May 26 View Page The 1379 is the chosen one. Six feet out......   Sunday, May 26 View Page The 1379 is the chosen one. Six feet out......   Monday, June 10 View Page Opened between 6:20 and 6:55. Pollinated itself.   Monday, June 10 View Page It is filling up fast. Main is about 19'. Curling the main back on itself in case this one doesn't take. Meanwhile running the secondaries, pre-fruit, along the sides past the little girl. If this one takes, I will commit and remove all post-fruit vine and fill the remaining area in with those runners. Been pinching ends amd burying the tips of secondaries. Letting 75% of tertiaries go and will prune and/or train as needed. I need to remove the plastic in the next few days to tend to the front side of thr plant. The conditions are awesome in the greenhouse. Mid 20's at night. But it is time for the salad to soak up some uv.......   Saturday, June 15 View Page Before   Saturday, June 15 View Page After. It was hard to remove the plastic. It was doing so well with ideal conditions. Bring on the aphids And direct sunlight. Going to cover with remay so it doesn't get too burned. Kind of worried the leaves are tall super delicate. But letting lots of tertiary come up. 5 days after pollination and has yet to abort. Fingers crossed   Tuesday, June 18 View Page LESSONS: last Saturday the plastic was removed, I pruned hard, and buried vines. The lesson? Too much stress. This whole process should have been dragged out over two weeks, starting with lifting the plastic slowly. The leaves, too tall + too big, = High center of . As well as too fragile because it's been protected from the elements. About 25% has fallen over. Good thing I have not pruned the tertiaries and Promoting their growth. Fairly certain all this stress has caused the first pollination to abort. Which causes sadness and tears, but a hard heart. Open pollinated an outside secondary on the 16th, the next one on the Main with itself on the 17th, and another one on a secondary today with itself.   Saturday, June 29 View Page This is the biggest one so far. She's been beaming with energy ever since pollination. But not ideal. it's at the tip of a secondary, and with all the confusion behind it I don't know how far to the stump it is. There's a few on the main that are starting to take. 1st day in the patch since Removing the cover. I'm really liking the idea of tertiaries growing in. more root and fresher leaves. although I wonder if you can have too much root?   Saturday, June 29 View Page 13 DAP.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page Ray and Cole pollinating. It was open for THE morning, a few bees buzzing about and she used Daria's 1043 to pollinate. This for me is what it's all about. (Well, and gunning for a 1000 lber.....)   Friday, July 5 View Page Pollinated this for lober on Daria's plant. Sad she's not here, one of the downfalls of shared custody. pollinating is one of her favorite things. It's been open for a while so I'll leave it open and used 8 males from my plant   Friday, July 5 View Page Did some manicuring. Was hard not to terminate tertiaries as I have been trained and believe to do so. Instead was mostly taking slightly "older" leaves out. Got me thinking "what is the optimal life span of a pumpkin leaf?" Sure doesn't take long to fill in the gaps. Although pruning needs to be a little at a time as the whole structure could fall over easily If I take too much. As you can see these leaves are tall. there is an overhead light on from 5 a.m. till 9 at night to supplement. spray for aphids for first time. Off to Ontario today for 10 days. I hope it's all good when I come back.   Saturday, July 6 View Page 79 OTT. Couldn't resist.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page This better be the one. It's probably about 25 feet out. On the mainline. I chopped off the wine afterwards, so I can start positioning it so it doesn't grow outside the designated area. The other one has not grown much in the 10 days. A few signs of powdery mildew. Starting to spray it.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page if the name of the game was about abortions, I feel a lot more relaxed. So far nothing has taken. Triple boo. I have cauled 4 about this size. Now she gets mineral pruning, and no fertilizer for the next four weeks. It's either stress, or unproven seed. Considering the genetics of the seed l'm going for the former.   Friday, August 23 View Page Can't get any pumpkin to stick. Out of the 3 plants, daria has the only pumpkin to hold. The rest are aborting. Makes me think it's something on the soil?? I have cried my tears, I have a slight hope one can hold...... tarp, heat and dehumidify the green house..........   Sunday, September 1 View Page Another lineup of abortions. there are two more that are holding but I don't have much hope for them. 2019 season a write off. It's sad because the weather has been awesome to last week with lots of sun and heat and no smoke.