Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 60 Entries. Tuesday, March 12 View Page Time to officially start the 2019 diary. Didn’t get my samples pulled in the fall like I would have liked.   Thursday, March 28 View Page Stocking up...   Thursday, March 28 View Page Getting there, still a few more things on my list   Saturday, April 13 View Page 50 pounds SOP, 25 pounds starter plus, 20 pounds kelp meal, 15 pounds epsom salt, 4 pounds urea, 1 pound borax, 1 pound zinc sulfate. Saved about 1/3 of the SOP for amending later. Also plan to use some additional epsom salt in my feeding program.   Wednesday, April 17 View Page Took advantage of one of the few rain free days we have or will have for awhile. Cables have been in and now plastic is up on the cold frames.   Thursday, April 18 View Page Got the fence installed around the patch today, and started some seeds. One of these years I’ll try earlier but for now I’m still going with first week of May for transplant.   Monday, May 6 View Page 1810 Werner   Saturday, May 11 View Page 1501 VW vs. 2112   Saturday, May 11 View Page 1810   Wednesday, May 22 View Page 1501 VW. 2112 was culled.   Wednesday, May 22 View Page 1810   Thursday, May 30 View Page 24 hours with the cold frame plastic removed. Luckily I had just got done putting plastic back up in preparation for strong winds. We got more than wind...   Thursday, May 30 View Page 1810 with a few leaves damaged.   Thursday, May 30 View Page 1501 came out even better.   Thursday, May 30 View Page With 3 straight days of severe thunderstorms, risk of hail, and tornado watches/warnings even the snakes are seeking shelter to mate. Kind of creepy but good rodent control I guess. They used my patch like a cheap motel and were gone in a few hours.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page Feeding time   Wednesday, June 12 View Page 1501   Wednesday, June 12 View Page 1810   Wednesday, June 26 View Page 1810 in front, 1501 in the back.   Sunday, July 7 View Page 1810   Sunday, July 7 View Page 1501   Sunday, July 14 View Page 1810   Sunday, July 14 View Page 1501   Sunday, July 14 View Page Patch overview   Sunday, July 14 View Page Tomatoes and Sunflowers. Tomatoes - 2 of each: 5.11 Dunn, 5.95 Konieczny, and 6.23 Konieczny (sorry if I butchered the spelling of that last name). Sunflowers are big head Zappas. They are labeled, but I can't recall the sizes at the moment.   Monday, July 22 View Page 1501 July 14 to 21   Monday, July 22 View Page 1810 July 14 to 21   Friday, August 2 View Page 1501 VW. August 1 = DAP39. CC 137.5”   Friday, August 2 View Page 1501 pic   Friday, August 2 View Page 1810 Werner. August 1 = DAP36. cc 145.5”   Sunday, August 4 View Page Hey tomato guys. Any chance this could make an October weighoff? Looks cool with that ribbon vine or whatever you call it!   Monday, August 5 View Page 1501 vw DAP 43.   Monday, August 5 View Page 1810 Werner DAP 40. Records aren’t in front of me, but this is probably somewhere around 200-250 pounds over my best by DAP or by calendar date.   Sunday, August 11 View Page 1501 VW showing a little color. Not quite what I had hoped for but no complaints.   Sunday, August 11 View Page 1810 Werner.   Sunday, August 18 View Page My helper coming out to give me a hand on Friday.   Wednesday, August 28 View Page 1501 VW getting color   Wednesday, August 28 View Page 1810 looking good. Should be approaching PB territory in about a week.   Saturday, August 31 View Page Patch overview. Bring on September!   Saturday, August 31 View Page 1501 VW. DAP 69.   Thursday, September 12 View Page Didn't time these quite right for fall weighoffs. Ranging unofficially from 2.5 to 3.5 pounds. I have no idea how I got one to 4.4 pounds and timed perfectly for Altoona, PA weighoff last year. Needless to say I have a lot to learn, but I do have a few late sets that might make a fall weighoff or two.   Friday, September 27 View Page First lift of the season went well. 1501 Vander Wielen.   Monday, September 30 View Page Took a road trip with my family to Ridgefield,CT weighoff. Excellent event, very well run, and a great group of growers. The 1501 Vander Wielen went 1318.5. Was not the easiest plant to grow and throw in some grower errors, I am happy with the result. Ended up 3rd place.   Thursday, October 3 View Page Of course it rains the day before loading day.   Thursday, October 3 View Page Hang in there pumpkin!   Friday, October 4 View Page 1810 is out of the patch. Sitting on the trailer waiting for the ride to Altoona PA in the morning   Friday, October 4 View Page Stem end view   Saturday, October 5 View Page My first ever first place finish: 1810 Werner now 1780.5 Wagner. Great day at PGPGA weighoff with great people. Many PBs and a new PA state record squash-congrats Jay Yohe.   Saturday, October 5 View Page First time in years it didn’t rain!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Second place tomato. Edged out by ounces! Late set on a ribbon sucker on a 6.23 plant. Had potential but ran out of time. Picked the night before frost.   Monday, October 28 View Page Took the annual trip to VA to harvest seeds from the 1780.5   Monday, October 28 View Page Nice flat bottom. We recruit kids there with their families shopping to climb in and collect seeds   Monday, October 28 View Page Took my mother down this year to see what it’s all about.   Friday, November 22 View Page I found some pictures I took that I wanted to post back in October, but realized I never did. Here is a picture of a secondary vine tap root on the 1810 Werner plant that grew my 1780.5   Friday, November 22 View Page Same 1810 plant. Here is an example of double tap root on the bottom side, and what you can't see is there was one on the top side as well. So really this node threw 3 tap roots. Maybe not uncommon, but it was a first for me.   Friday, November 22 View Page Comparison between the 1501 VW stump and the 1810 stump.   Friday, November 22 View Page The tomato that could have been. So, on this plant, I had already selected a nice blossom and grew the tomato to maturity. A sucker grew from the topped plant and was one giant ribbon that produced a giant blossom at the tip. Here is the fruit pictured August 29. I pushed it, but ran out of time.   Friday, November 22 View Page The resulting fruit on October 4   Friday, November 22 View Page Another angle   Friday, November 22 View Page All in all it was a fun season. Pictured is the fruits of my labor - 1318.5 Wagner (1501 VW x 1810 Werner) and the 1780.5 Wagner (1810 Werner x 1501 VW). The 1318.5 was the result of a few problems: slow growing plant, lots of leaf burn, I broke the main at one point and had to retrain, and tough to pollinate. I took what I could get at around 11-12 feet as nothing else would take. Happy to have one for the scales. The 1810 was a lot of fun to grow. It was very aggressive and loved the heat. The pumpkin was a fast grower out the gate, and was 1002 pounds at DAP 40. Unfortunately, I couldn't maintain that growth curve later in the season. Don't get me wrong I'm thrilled with the results, but needless to say I was cautiously optimistic at day 40 for what was to come. Well that wraps it up for 2019.