Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 15 Entries. Friday, April 5 View Page Well the start of the 2019 season is here. Huts are out to start warming the soil. Hard to believe they are out considering 2 weeks ago there was still 12+ inches of snow on the whole garden. Let the season begin! Good luck to all growers.   Friday, April 5 View Page Looks like my home grown compost from our cows and horses is plenty HOT! Some of the numbers on the soil test are quite high. Hopefully the plants don't start on fire when it comes time to transplant.   Friday, April 12 View Page Well, due to Mother Nature being Bi-Polar and off her meds. 2019 season has been delayed a bit, and get to start at square 1. That was some storm. We had 14+ inches of snow along with 55MPH wind gusts. Also a thunderstorm that was lighting up the sky like the 4th of July all while dropping hail along with it. There were areas with power lines taken down and lots of people without power. It's hard to get to excited about the season for now, but hopefully things will shape up soon. I guess if this pumpkin growing was easy and not a constant battle, everyone would do it. Good Luck to everyone.   Friday, April 12 View Page Picture for the first post.   Monday, April 22 View Page Well finally had some beautiful weather for Easter weekend. Garden was dried out from the blizzard we had a week and half ago. Was able to get some minor amendments added and spring tilling done on Saturday along with getting the veggie garden started with a few hills of potatoes. Got the main line up of seeds put in the germination tank late Friday night, assuming they will germ. Looked this morning and it looks promising so far. Line up for this year if they germinate will be: 2043.5 Clementz '17 2075.5 Connolly '16 1852.5 Qualley '18 1576.5 Johnson '17 I also have 5 more each of my 1576.5 Johnson and 1256 Johnson DMG for backups.   Thursday, April 25 View Page Well after soaking seeds and putting them directly into pots with seed starting mix on Friday night at 2 a.m. On Tuesday evening, about 80 hours later, all were pushing dirt. This morning all had their cots opened up soaking up the glow from the grow light. 100% germination. That's a nice feeling to start the year. Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come the rest of the year.   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Well what can I say?! It's been a whirlwind start to the season. With the weather mostly. The plants were put in the garden May 4th, and haven't got the proper care that I usually strive for. But that's OK, no matter what happens in the garden this year, the season is a success. As my wife and I unexpectedly welcomed our first child 5 weeks early on April 28th. He is our own little pumpkin! All in all the plants are a bit behind, but should start coming around. Here is the 2043 Clementz L and a 1852 Qualley for backup on R   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Here is 2075 Connolly L and my 1576 Johnson as backup on R   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Here are 2 of my 1576 Johnsons   Tuesday, May 14 View Page And finally here are 2 1852 Qualley. Plants will remain for another week or so before 1 plant will get removed from each spot.   Thursday, May 16 View Page 10 day weather forecast just looks amazing for west central MN...(facepalm)...will it ever get nice and stay nice?   Thursday, July 18 View Page Season is probably over. Have to see how the plants recover, but didn't look good this morning. Was supposed to be clear, but mother nature was a real B***H this morning. Had a popcorn storm come right over the garden. 40MPH winds, 1 inch of rain, and dime size hail all in 20 minutes. Of course my best plant, the 2075 Connolly took the brunt of it. Lots of leaves broken and cut. It had the best pumpkin I've ever had going on it, a 7/2 pollination. which was DAP 15 last night with an OTT of 149, putting on 15" per day, all with a backup 5' down the vine. UGH!!!   Monday, July 22 View Page Here is a pic of the plants 4 days post apocalypse. In the middle is the 2075 Connolly(best one going and took the brunt of it). The 2075 plant was 38ft wide at the back and the main was about 35ft long, with the kin set at about 18ft. As you can see most of the leaves over the main are layed over/ snapped. Back left is my 1576 Johnson(pumpkin really slowed down). and far right 1852 Qualley(not much going on, was a slow plant from the start).   Monday, July 22 View Page Here is what dime/nickel size hail with 40mph winds does to a kin even with a sheet on top. All of the spots are dried out now.   Monday, July 22 View Page To my surprise the 2075 has maintained it's pace, sort of. Here it is on DAP 20 - EE-54 SS-56&1/2 Cir-84&1/2 OTT-195. It has had a 5 day average of 18.5 lbs/day since the apocalypse.