Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 24 Entries. Tuesday, April 23 View Page Seed selection. This is my fist year trying to grow a big pumpkin.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page This is a seed that I received from the Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers seed exchange. I am excited about this one.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page I planted the 1974 McKonkie and 1864 Wallace on April 12th. I used smaller quart sized containers to start them in. I also planted a few long gourd seeds on the same day. As of today the McKonkie seed is the only one that has sprouted. I have read that the long gourds seeds can take anywhere between 2-6 weeks to germinate. We will see how it goes. Fingers crossed.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page Here is the hole that I dug for the heat cables. I only have around 8 inches of good topsoil with compost added into it. The ground below that is a little hard so I drilled a number of holes and filled them with sand to help with drainage before I laid the cable in the hole.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page This is a photo overlooking our garden. The heat cable is buried. I set out a number of walking boards to help get around without compacting the soil too much. I built a trellis for our long gourds. I made it 12 feet high. Possibly a little overboard for our fist year trying to grow them. Off to the right is my hoop house in the works. I hope to transplant my pumpkins the first week of May. I am going to try to use some Azos and Mycos when I transplant them. The footprint of my garden is smaller than is ideal for growing big pumpkins based on what I have read from other people but hopefully we can get a decent one this year.   Tuesday, April 30 View Page My 1974 McKonkie plant has a hole in one of the cotyledon leafs. Any thoughts on if that will have a major impact on the overall health of the plant? Please email me your thoughts at projectinnovations@gmail.com. Thanks in advance!   Tuesday, April 30 View Page My long gourd seeds finally started to germinate. I was getting nervous. They took much longer to germinate than my pumpkin seeds did. A few of them did not make it.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page 1974 McKonkie still doing well. I also had 2 out of 6 of my long gourd seeds finally germinate. This is my first season trying to grow long gourds.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page I installed my grow lights in my hoop house this last weekend. I cant help but wonder what my back yard neighbors think I am growing over here. ;)   Friday, May 17 View Page 1974 McKonkie update May 17th. I was out of town for a week on a work trip. My daughter was kind enough to watch things for me until I got back. Plant is still making progress. I have one leaf that is angled down and keeping the vine pointed towards the sky. I am going to try and carefully persuade it to twist enough to lay down properly.   Tuesday, May 21 View Page Pumpkin plant update 5-21-2019   Tuesday, May 21 View Page I finally got my long gourds plants in the ground.   Wednesday, May 22 View Page I have a question for any of you experienced growers out there. I did this soil test last fall. My first question is; should I have done it closer to the spring? Second question; at what stage in the growth of the pumpkin plant should I do a tissue test? Last question; I used UMAss for my soild test, any recommendations on other labs? Thanks in advance for helping out a rookie!!! My email address is projectinnovations@gmail.com   Thursday, May 30 View Page One of my long gourd plants died yesterday. I was pretty bummed about it since I have struggled with successful germination with the seeds I am using. I pulled it out of the ground, and to my joyful surprise, one of the other seeds that I had planted in same spot (and that I thought was a goner) wast emerging right underneath the dead plant. Yay!!   Saturday, June 1 View Page 1974 Mckonkie moving along. Took down the hoop house. Main vine about 4ft long.   Thursday, June 6 View Page 1974 McKonkie has been in the ground for 30 days now. The plant seems to be a little unruly looking compared to some of the other plants that I am seeing. I wonder if I it is the plants genetics or how I am pruning (or not pruning) it.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page Another week goes by. This plant seems to be growing in width more so than in length.   Sunday, June 16 View Page Here are two of my backup plants. The close one is a 1864 Wallace the furthest one a 1277 Gebert. I will probably cull the Gebert soon. I have limited space to grow my backup plant if my main plant stays healthy. If it were up to you, would you try to grow the back up long enough to pollinate the 1974 McKonkie, or would you bag the backup plant and self pollinate the 1974?   Wednesday, July 17 View Page Took my family on a trip for a week to Bear Lake Utah. Fun trip but when we got back home we found our pumpkin plants severely under-watered. My neighbor had accidentally turned off the water hose that was hooked up to my timer. Bummer!!!   Monday, August 19 View Page Ever since then all of my pumpkins have been dropping like flies. They get about the size of a softball and then turn white and soft.   Monday, August 19 View Page The squash bugs showed up with all of their extended family as well.   Monday, August 19 View Page My patch is apparently quite the hang out place.   Monday, August 19 View Page A couple of months ago I transplanted one of my back up plants to my brother's house. He has never tried to grow a pumpkin before. He and his family have really had a great time watching it grow.   Monday, August 19 View Page Needless to say, his plant is doing much better than mine. He has not had the same issues with the squash bugs or grasshoppers as I have. I am just glad that one of us will have something to show for all of the efforts this summer. Lessons learned for next year I guess.