Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 26 Entries. Sunday, April 19 View Page Welcome to 2020 everybody, it’s been a doozy already. Pumpkinjesus is back after taking a year off to move and get settled 370 miles north of where I used to be. I’m lucky enough to have found a nice farmer nearby who is letting me use a corner of his field to grow in, so let’s get this started. It’s giant pumpkin seed starting day here, my lineup will be the 2294.5 Noel, the 1864.5 Boyce, the 1832.5 Pierpont and a 1613.5 McCracken (maybe just as a pollinator? We’ll see......)   Sunday, April 19 View Page Doing giant watermelons this year too, hoping they like the sandy soil here and nighttime temps above 60 for a couple days. Started these a few weeks ago, here is the 247.5 Mudd   Sunday, April 19 View Page And the 321.5 Mudd. It’s good to be back doing this, looking forward to getting the most out of a new patch. More to come later   Sunday, May 17 View Page Finally got all the giant pumpkins planted outside May 14. It snowed on May 9, and because of the delay planting outside my transplants are probably bigger than ever before. I don’t have electricity in the patch this year so no heating cables but I did switch the clear plastic this year over the black and that seems to have made a huge difference in soil temperatures. As a result I hope I’m right on schedule for a big one. Here is the 1613.5 McCracken   Sunday, May 17 View Page The 2294.5 Noel. As you can see some of my plants have some funky leaves probably from too much nitrogen which is a mistake I make just about every year ha ha. All the growing tips and the new leaves coming out now look just fine   Sunday, May 17 View Page The 1864.5 Boyce, the nicest one of the bunch   Sunday, May 17 View Page 1832.5 Pierpont. This one germinated funny right off the bat and has taken longer to become normal than the other ones but it seems like it’s getting there   Sunday, May 17 View Page And today May 17 the giant watermelons went in. Here is the 247.5 Mudd   Sunday, May 17 View Page The 321.5 Mudd   Monday, June 8 View Page 1832.5 Pierpont, it has grown out of its weird beginning and is starting to run   Monday, June 8 View Page 1864.5 Boyce. Some of my plants are showing this deficiency, either magnesium or manganese. Both were low when I did my soil test, magnesium was added to the soil about a month ago and I have liquid manganese arriving any day now   Monday, June 8 View Page 2294.5 Noel, my nicest and biggest plant   Monday, June 8 View Page Watermelons are looking fantastic. Here is the 247.5 Mudd   Monday, June 8 View Page The 321.5 Mudd   Monday, June 8 View Page And the 1613.5 McCracken   Monday, June 8 View Page Planted out 2 320.5 Connolly bushel gourds yesterday. Here is plant A   Monday, June 8 View Page 320.5 Connolly plant B   Saturday, July 4 View Page Bushel gourd, 320.5 Connolly A, starting to vine, hopefully on track for a pollination the end of July   Saturday, July 4 View Page 320.5 Connolly B, already running   Saturday, July 4 View Page 247.5 Mudd watermelon, no pollinations yet   Saturday, July 4 View Page 321.5 Mudd, significantly bigger than the 247.5 but still no pollinations yet   Saturday, July 4 View Page The 1613.5 McCracken, the absolute runt of the pack. It does have a female to pollinate at 8.5 feet tomorrow so I’ll do it and see what happens. It’s completely outside and has had squash bugs on it daily   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1832.5 Pierpont. Starting to get the curves ready in the vines, this one has an 11 foot pollination that will be ready on Monday 7/6   Saturday, July 4 View Page 1864.5 Boyce, recovering nicely from the early magnesium deficiency which has left a few leaves crispy near the stump. Has an 11 foot female ready probably on Tuesday 7/7   Saturday, July 4 View Page The saving grace of the patch right now, the 2294.5 Noel. Pollinated a female at 10.5 feet on 7/2. All in all I’m a good week behind where I normally would be, but being my first time growing in Maine and in a new patch with sandy soil the only goal I set for myself this year is 1,000 pounds. As I learn this new location inside and out I expect my weights to go up from there   Saturday, July 4 View Page 2294.5 Noel, 2 days old