Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 58 Entries. Sunday, March 3 View Page Digging holes and moving old mulch, leaves, and dirt from the woods to a sunny spot in the yard.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Hole #1.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Thinking that this hole within a hole will give the Taproot room to grow   Sunday, March 3 View Page Holes 2 and 3 in the background. Still working out what I will fill them with. My friend offered me horse manure (last time I used it I got way more weeds than I could handle)...thinking about using purchased organic compost for the mounds   Tuesday, March 5 View Page The guy at veteran compost gave me a free sample of seed starter mix...nice fella   Tuesday, March 5 View Page Got these as a gift. Not sure if they will germinate. Maybe too old? Not sure.   Thursday, March 14 View Page 1 yard of compost from veterans compost in hole #1. Great experience getting it from them...may or may not try different "mound mediums" on the other two. Thank you to grandma for helping shovel!   Wednesday, May 15 View Page Soaking 3 seeds. Filed lightly, 4 hours in warm water.   Wednesday, May 15 View Page Top of slope. Half compost, half native soil.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page Ack.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page Tried to fix the split.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page Top of the hill by the rock wall. No splits on this one. Expecting a female to open soon.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page This is early in the morning, but jeez. Not sure how I miscalculated the shade. I think I see a tree coming down soon...except it gets full sun for the rest of the day and has a female flower getting ready in the shade...maybe that wouldn't be so bad...we shall see   Thursday, July 4 View Page Happy fourth of July! My first female has opened up on the plant at the top of the hill by the rocks.   Thursday, July 4 View Page Pollinated with some sparse looking male flowers at about 9:45 a.m.(self pollinated)   Thursday, July 4 View Page Tomorrow we might be better prepared for a lady   Friday, July 5 View Page Plant #2 got a female flower in the shade of the redbud tree.   Friday, July 5 View Page So I self-pollinated it at 6:30 a.m. with my flowers from the mug.   Friday, July 5 View Page I removed the zip ties from the vine where it split. It sort of closed. The ties were strangling the plant, though, so they had to go.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page 6 DAP I think. Not too bad. Wondering what to do now. Put sand underneath...or a pallet...or something. I feel like the stem will snap if I try to lift it up on a pallet. Spent the day cutting squash vine borers out of one of the other plants. Got 4.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page He looks ok Tried to get the coffee in there to see the size.   Thursday, July 11 View Page First pumpkin on a pallet with sand and hard insulation. Didn't like cutting the roots. Oh well.   Friday, July 12 View Page This is the one I pollinated on July 4th. So...8 DAP. It is growing. I'm questioning my choice to out it on a pallet. I don't have a lot of other pumpkins...one decent one on another vine, but that one is growing at an acute angle and looks a bit odd. Hope this guy in the picture works out.   Friday, July 12 View Page This is the main vine of my worst pumpkin plant. He got chewed on by a whitetail deer when he only had his seed leaves. He lived, but while the other two plants thrived and set pumpkins, this guy is only now showing female flowers. I'm going to let him keep whatever he sets.   Friday, July 12 View Page The stump of my "best" plant. This guy seems ok, but has only set one pumpkin...the one I put on a pallet.   Friday, July 12 View Page Hot out there. Might have to shave my beard. Mwhahahaha. This is why I can't spray for evil bugs.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Growing.   Sunday, July 14 View Page Getting bigger each day. Nice to see one doing that. The other ones I have don't seem to know how.   Monday, July 15 View Page Still there. Leaves wilting a bit. Hot around here. 90s. Growth slowed slightly. I think it is about 43-44 inches around.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page Growing. Again, this seems to be the only pumpkin I have that wants to grow at all. Hope it keeps it up.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page Cut out about 5 squash vine borers from the stump of the only plant that is plumping up a pumpkin. Got at least three out of each of my other plants. Learning curve. Hopefully the plants will live. No doubt I missed a few borers if there were that many. 91 degrees today with a heat index of 105.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page Growing despite the borers. Took this picture this morning. Did borer surgery in the early afternoon. There was a borer in the leaf at the stem of the pumpkin as well. Not 100 percent sure I got that one. Frustrating. I didn't feel too bad about cutting a lot of that out since what the borer ate can't transmit nutrients anyway...hopefully growth continues.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Borer Wars continue...pulled a couple more out of the main vine of my best plant. My "worst" plant has a couple decent looking new pollinations though...could be interesting.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Still growing despite the many, many borers chomping away at the vine. I find more every time I look, which is all the time.   Friday, July 19 View Page Cut off the leaf and secondary vine coming off of 1648 pumpkin stem. Sprayed with Daconil. I don't know if the hole I see is where the borer went. I shoved a stiff wire in there...but I am worried he went into the pumpkin. I didn't see him in the secondary vine and I split that all the way open when I took it off to check for the borer. Very disappointed. I have no idea if this kind of damage can heal.   Friday, July 19 View Page Found this guy on my whitetail-deer-bitten plant today. Maybe will grow.   Friday, July 19 View Page Found this guy on that plant too. These might make up for the big one that may die and the other plant that aborts everything that pops up.   Sunday, July 21 View Page This looks pretty good. 1648 (all of my plants are 1648s because all three seeds germinated).   Sunday, July 21 View Page Still growing. Also good. But...   Sunday, July 21 View Page This is not good. I cut the leaf off the top, the secondary off the side, and that tendril is now gone as well. After I took this picture, I went to Lowe's and bought sulphur dust. Then, I took a melon baller and scraped as much goo out as I could and dusted it well with sulphur. This giant, rotting wound on top isn't the whole problem. There is also a stem split on the left side in this picture ( though you can't see it). The split is pretty bad and is getting worse. Also, this plant wilts like a little you know what in heat. I have no idea how it still puts on inches every day. I think the OTT today, 17 DAP, is about 172. Not too shabby. Too bad he's not long for this world. I'm curious how big it will get before the stem rots off. Lots of rookie mistakes for this rookie.   Sunday, July 21 View Page This one grew 4 inches in circumference overnight. Hope I didn't rush into anything here...   Tuesday, July 23 View Page 72 inch circumference 19 DAP. But the stem is still fading. Heat slowed the growth on this guy.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page This one grew 8 inches in circumference since last night. 30 inches around at 10 DAP. I put it on a pallet because that's what I decided to do with all of them this year.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page 20 DAP. 75 in circumference. 185 OTT. Everything I've read says that is a decent size. Too bad the growth has slowed, the stem's all messed up, and the pumpkin vine got mauled by borers. I'll be pretty happy if this guy makes it to day 30. This is my first year growing big pumpkins. Already thinking about next year.   Thursday, July 25 View Page Yellow plant   Friday, July 26 View Page Yellow plant   Friday, July 26 View Page New guy is at 43.5 circumference. This is slower growing than the other one, but if it keeps this pace up it will easily surpass the bigger one on the other vine.   Friday, July 26 View Page My biggest pumpkin's vine vomited this white stuff. Awesome. No idea what this is.   Friday, July 26 View Page Main vine to biggest pumpkin.   Friday, July 26 View Page Another shot of yellow   Friday, July 26 View Page Yellow vine?   Friday, July 26 View Page Yellow leaves   Friday, July 26 View Page Scraped out the foam and other gooey material. Sprayed with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Soaked up liquids with paper towels. Sprayed again. Soaked up with paper towels. Dusted with sulphur. Took picture. Checked on other stuff...then stuffed more paper towels in there because it keeps filling with liquid. I will remove the paper towels in the morning, most likely. Thank you to those who replied to my post on the other thread (pests, diseases, and other problems)! I went to the link provided and did my best with what I had. Thank you.   Wednesday, July 31 View Page 27 DAP. 220 OTT.   Wednesday, July 31 View Page 18 DAP. 144 OTT. Odd shape, so the measurement might not be that useful. Thicker at the stem. Looks like a giant strawberry.   Friday, August 2 View Page Tiny bit of rot gets a tiny little fan. Regatta!   Sunday, August 18 View Page Started to rot. Cut it open. Estimated 300 pounds.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Trying to save seeds... Didn't get huge, but the potential might be there