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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 91 Entries.
Friday, January 1 View Page
Happy New Year everyone. Hope we all get a personal best in 2021.
 
Friday, April 23 View Page
First pass, soil looks great!! We did things a bit differently this year and killed the cover crop before the rototilling. We also pre-added all the recommended amendments including all the regular cast of characters that we use in the patch. Kelp meal, alfalfa meal, granular Kmag, granular gypsum, 8-6-8 prilled granular, calpril, 0-0-50 and I think we are ready to roll.
 
Friday, April 23 View Page
Now we will reinstall the walking boards and build a couple temporary hoop houses for the seedlings. We will be growing 3 competition plants and then a patch of Prizewinners for fun!! I’ll get the hoops up, install the heater cables and have plants in the ground by our usual date of April 29th. Last year we didn’t use enough heat and a couple of the plants got a bit of a slow start. We won’t let that happen this year as we dust d to fix all the soil heat cables, heaters and heat lamps and will get them all setup on timers and an automated program.
 
Monday, May 3 View Page
We are a couple weeks behind this year, but are happy that the competition seeds selected, all germinated. Left to right we have 2114 Wallace, 2469 Daletas, 1989.5 Daletas, 2269 Patton. Soil cables, heater and heat lamps will be used this year, we didn’t use soil cables last year, or heaters and had a cold May and got a slow start. Weather here is awesome right now, almost opposite we had last year, go figure.
 
Monday, May 24 View Page
No soil cable, no heater and only a 175 Watt heat bulb inside the hoophouse.
 
Monday, May 24 View Page
Soil cables and a heater, no comparison with the previous photo. Experimenting is over, heat cables and heater for April and May from now on and I know I have to build or buy a bigger spring hoop house.
 
Thursday, May 27 View Page
Always a nervous week in the growing season when it’s time to take the ends off the hoophouse, and ultimately remove the whole structure. It’s windy here every day on the tide changes and until the plants can set more roots along the vine, we have to use bamboo sticks to make sure the plants are cradled and safe from the swirling winds.
 
Sunday, May 30 View Page
Looking up at a bookshelf, notice a binder and realize I haven’t read this one in years. Hey look Marv, your on my living room coffee table.
 
Sunday, May 30 View Page
2469 Daletas coming towards and 2269 Patton going the other way. In front are my 2 favourite pumpkin patch soil loosening tools. The large broad fork goes wide and deep while the trusty garden claw fluffs the top and is used to incorporate any additional amendments before the vines take over. Richmond Dave covertly planted super early this year, and subsequently is in the lead for now. He must be planning on going to the Washington State Fair (we still call it The Puyallup Fair) or even worse sneaking over to the Island to attest the Saanich Fair crown off some newbie who lives in Victoria. Either way, I’ll hopefully have an entry for the Saanich Fair, Old Farm Market Weighoff and the Vancouver Weighoff.
 
Saturday, June 5 View Page
2 Prizewinners plants will occupy the far space and the 2118 Wallace in the foreground still has the hoophouse on ir but the ends taken off.
 
Saturday, June 5 View Page
2114 Wallace is of course what I meant. Hoop will come down, irrigation has been installed, ready to go.
 
Saturday, June 5 View Page
2469 Daletas left and 2269 Paton right. Overhead sprayers and irrigation installed, also ready to go!!
 
Friday, June 18 View Page
Summer Chinook are in the local waters, but the season is not open yet so it’s catch and release, single barbless hook. The JPod Orcas (killer whales) only eat salmon and 80% of their diet is Chinook salmon since they grow so large. Our local waters are closed to any retention and it’s very hard (but still fun) to catch and release these beauties.
 
Friday, June 18 View Page
2469 Daletas pictured, the 2269 Paton went double vine/ribbon vine on all the secondaries and nothing I did could straighten it out so it got pulled.
 
Friday, June 18 View Page
So I’ve trained the first couple of secondaries on each side and will grow tertiary vines backwards into the vacated space (I think it’s called spider pattern or pitchfork pattern) so plant can get massive and I may allow 2 pumpkins to grow on it. In the back left are 2 prizewinners pumpkins sharing a spot (thanks Glenna and Richmond Dave for the seeds) and to the right you can see the leading edge of the Wallace plant that has decided to kick into high gear. We are on target for late June or early July pollination which is great timing for us with most Pacific Northwest Weighoffs later in the year.
 
Monday, June 21 View Page
2114 Wallace up front and 2469 Daletas in the background. Summer heat has arrived but we still have a nice cooling ocean breeze to keep away most wilting and heat pressure.
 
Monday, June 21 View Page
Wallace plant secondary covering and pre-trenching happening at a furious pace. This time of the season is critical to maximize root growth and secondary rooting.
 
Monday, June 21 View Page
2469 Daletas from the front.
 
Monday, June 21 View Page
2469 Daletas from the rear where the Paton plant was. 2 rear secondaries are angled over and will allow us to grow tertiaries to fill in the vacated spot. Pollination will be soon.
 
Thursday, June 24 View Page
Wallace in front and Daletas down below. Only difference when starting was heat cables. All pants get heat cables hence forth (yeah I’ve said that before only because it’s a bunch of work).
 
Thursday, June 24 View Page
And yes, umbrellas in our patch mean only one thing, it’s pollination time!! The 2469 Daletas will be first, there are 2 pumpkins on the main that will be ready in 3-4 days and the other in about a week. Of course I’ll give both of them the rub and tickle, but I’m hoping the second one will be the chosen one just because it’s a little further out and will make things easier for plant maintenance and to re-install the rain/shade cover for the growing fruit.
 
Tuesday, June 29 View Page
2114 Wallace in front will be pollinated in the next few days, growing nicely despite a few scorched leaves. 2469 Daletas down below is stretching out like a good thing and now there are 2 umbrellas...yup 2 pumpkins. No backups on secondaries yet (always have an “ oh shit” pumpkin on a secondary for awhile).
 
Tuesday, June 29 View Page
No luxury of a remay structure like Richmond Dave or misters borrowed from Scott (I guess I’m outa that club since moving to Vancouver Island) and the result has been some minor scorching on the Daletas plant but the others are all OK despite the record setting heat in this area right now.
 
Thursday, July 1 View Page
The deed is done, 2114 Wallace X 2469 Daletas.
 
Thursday, July 1 View Page
Of course this pollination is right next to the perfectly placed sprinkler, guess that moves. 2469 in the back is gobbling up ground and hard to keep up to. Trenching, amending and burying as the plants are aggressively rooting from all spots and we don’t like missing any roots!! Happy Canada Day to all.
 
Thursday, July 1 View Page
Patch overview. There are 2 prizewinners sharing the upper patch and one is featured here to the right. It has larger leaves than the Wallace plant and looks like the plant will grow to the same size as an Atlantic Giant. First time growing prizewinners so I’m just treating them the same as the AG plants except we going to pollinate more than 1 pumpkin per plant.
 
Saturday, July 3 View Page
Prizewinners. Vine burying technique is to rake trenches ahead of the secondaries and then we use Promix HP with Mycorrhizae mixed with the native soil for any additional vine and root burying. I stockpile a bit of Promix/native soil/compost for additional roots that pop up from the tops of the vines so that we don’t have and new roots exposed to the sun.
 
Saturday, July 3 View Page
2114 Wallace is already getting the first few secondaries terminated and it looks like the pollination was successful. I’ll hook up the tank watering system and get everything in place with fertilizer injector for applying some goodies.
 
Saturday, July 3 View Page
I wanted to show the tertiary vines that we have trained from the back of the 2469 Daletas into the open space in the patch. The first secondary on both sides now have 6 tertiary vines each (total of 12) that will fill in the best part of the patch. I’ve attempted to grow this way in the past, but in a much smaller space. I don’t want too big a plant, but this is getting exciting.
 
Saturday, July 3 View Page
Soon it will be decision time as the 2469 Daletas now has 2 fruit set on the main vine. Second one out was pollinated this morning, both are in good spots so when it’s decision time, I won’t worry about needing to trim secondaries out of the way to accommodate the growing pumpkin.
 
Wednesday, July 7 View Page
A great example of a Hermaphrodite pumpkin flower. These happen from time to time and in my opinion don’t matter much, they just happen in most plants that have male and female flower types.
 
Wednesday, July 7 View Page
Perfect pollen inside the Hermaphrodite flower, I did not use it to pollinate anything. All the plants are filling in very fast and all 4 plants have pumpkins set. Down to 1 fruit on both competition plants and multiples on the Prizewinners.
 
Wednesday, July 7 View Page
Daletas from the front, filling in nicely.
 
Wednesday, July 7 View Page
Daletas from the rear, also filling in nice and I’ll let it tell me when to start terminating.
 
Wednesday, July 7 View Page
Wallace in the front also filling in, gotta install the pumpkin shade covers while I’ve still got room.
 
Monday, July 12 View Page
Day 9 for the Daletas pumpkin, umbrella comes down and plywood and mill fabric get installed today. I usually like to have all the secondaries terminated at 15 feet bu also like to time it correctly and be doing the vine terminating between day 20-30. This year, this plant is larger than usual and pollination is further out on the main vine.
 
Monday, July 12 View Page
The Wallace pumpkin at day 11 is 28 inches in circumference doing 4 inches per day and the plant is the total opposite of the Daletas. Set at about 15 feet on the main vine, this plant has 9 secondaries on each side and luckily the plant had some decent size at pollination because this plant has really slowed down in favour of pumpkin growth and has essentially self terminated. There are only 3 secondaries on each side and the main, still creeping along and will not fill in its allotted plot, so the 2 prizewinners will be allowed to eat up that space, they are thriving in the patch now also.
 
Wednesday, July 14 View Page
Hooptie hut back in action and will keep the growing pumpkin dry. We will install some remay or shadecloth on top to cut down some of the heat. Daletas plant is ripping along and secondaries are approaching some termination dates. I’ll termiante slowly over a 10 day to 2 week period.
 
Wednesday, July 14 View Page
Donkin (Carl), you can see I terminated the main vine on this plant as well as the closest secondary on each side. I did this because the main was not cooperating being trained out of the way properly and was being difficult, so it got the chop. The closest secondaries on each side also got eliminated so that I don’t have to deal with any vine stress from them as the pumpkin starts to lift the vines back up off the soil.
 
Thursday, July 15 View Page
Carl, here is the 2114 Wallace with pumpkin at day 14 today with main vine swung over out of the way. Unfortunately, the plant has switched gears and the vines, including the main vine have shut down almost completely. I’m not sure it’s worth keeping the main vine past the pumpkin, since I’d only be losing out on about 10-12 leaves. Time will tell but I bet I terminate themain past the fruit once I decide to put up a rain/watering protection hut.
 
Saturday, July 17 View Page
Patch overview with the prizewinners growing like AGs to the right, Wallace in the foreground and Daletas down below. We did a big row of multi coloured dahlia plants down at the bottom of the patch that will look great once in full bloom.
 
Saturday, July 17 View Page
Back end of the engine on the 2469 Daletas plant will start to get vines terminated over the next 14 days so r until they fill the allotted spot. This plant has 31 secondary vines with 16 on one side and 15 on the other. Secondaries are all about 15 feet before I will terminate them. As Smallmouth said recently in a post about plant size “we aren’t growing salad” and while that is true, I’d sure like to finally pop a large pumpkin from a large plant but everytime I try, they either explode or underperform. Time will tell and proof will be in the pudding as the 2114 Wallace pumpkin is growing on a much smaller plant at around 400 sq ft and right now has our biggest pumpkin....by far!!
 
Tuesday, July 20 View Page
Star of the show so far is the 2114 Wallace. I always like this time in the growing season as the pumpkins start to rise above the leaf canopy. This pumpkin will be day 20 tomorrow and is already at 65 inches in circumference this morning.
 
Wednesday, July 21 View Page
2114 Wallace x 2469 Daletas at day 20. First OTT of the year and she comes in at 70-56-56. Shortly after this photo we did the vine to blossom end equidistant adjustment, added sand and then pulled out and away to straighten the main vine into the fruit which had a bit of bend to it because of the way the stem was pointed down to the ground. Will need to build a rain/sun shelter, for now I’ve mostly been hand watering this pumpkin using my hose end sprayer a lot like I did when I first started growing. We are also using the backpack mister a lot more often, and as a result the other trees on the property look healthy with very little to no disease pressure.
 
Wednesday, July 21 View Page
We’ve got 20 day Prizewinners that are as big as some of our Atlantic Giant pumpkins from previous years that all went over 1000 lbs. Is a 50” circumference normal for Prizewinners at 20 days? These are fun plants to grow, they have the thickest vines and are the tallest and biggest leaves in the patch this year.
 
Wednesday, July 21 View Page
Our watering system pump can only spray 3 heads at a time, so we’ve got a manifold that controls different zones. Pictured is the top end of the Daletas plant, it also has 3 heads in the back end of the plant. Since we are at day 20 on the Wallace plant and day 20 in a couple days on the Daletas, we will likely update every 10 days. Happy growing everyone.
 
Friday, July 23 View Page
Day 20 for the 2114 Wallace and she comes in with modest waist measurement (circumference) of 50” and has not qualified for an OTT measurement yet. Stem end looking good, blossom end looking good and minor adjustment made with sand to lower the stem angle and start with the blossom end and stem end more equidistant. We have an “oh shit” (backup) pumpkin pollinated on a really good secondary and will wait it out to see who becomes queen of the Wallace plant.
 
Friday, July 23 View Page
2114 Wallace in front and the 2 prizewinners behind.
 
Friday, July 23 View Page
Small plant has a big pumpkin and big plant a small pumpkin...hmmmmm. These 2 fruit are only 3 days DAP apart, I wonder how long it will take for the big plant to switch gears and increase the daily inches significantly...the next 10-20 days will tell me I’m sure. I’ll have all Secondaries except 1 terminated over the next 10 days, there are 10 secondaries left so that makes it easy unless we run out of room first.
 
Saturday, July 31 View Page
Day 30 today for Mr. Wallace and it measured 108-83-83 and has averaged 34 lbs per day for the past week. A whopping 40+ lb gain in the past 24 hours. We have spectacular weather in the Pacific Northwest and I’d expect a bunch of mo stars, records and personal bests for growers in British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon and California. Mr. Daletas will be day 30 tomorrow, but is certainly not setting it on fire like the Wallace fruit is. Look out Richmond Dave, North Shore Boyz is looming large and chasing you down again.
 
Monday, August 2 View Page
Dap 30 for the 2114 Wallace and the numbers are getting better, but the shape is not. Gonna be one lumpy and bumpy gal. Still haven’t culled the backup pumpkin on a secondary and kinda forgot about it. We might wait another 10 days and see how the main vine pumpkin is doing. The Saanich Fair is the first week of September, so I might leave the backup pumpkin on the vine until then because the one on the main vine will only be Dap 65 and if it’s still in one piece, there is slim chance we would cut her off so soon. The backup pumpkin will be DAP 55 and the likely option for the Saanich Fair.
 
Tuesday, August 3 View Page
Previous entry was of course the 30 DAP for the 2469 Daletas. This is of course the 2114 Wallace plant, king of the hill at the top of the patch at day 33 and doing numbers that are surprising. Will not be cutting this one early for the Saanich Fair, unless things change drastically in the next 30 days.
 
Tuesday, August 3 View Page
The 2469 Daletas plant filled the space allotted for 2 plants, when the 2269 Paton plant went all catywompus on us. We were experimenting with hormone therapy, root stimulatants and may have over excited the early Paton plant with too much, too soon. Regardless, what a beautiful plant this Daletas seed has given us.
 
Tuesday, August 3 View Page
Again, 2469 Daletas growing super well now and has ramped up the daily inches. Will it catch the upper king of the hill Wallace fruit...
 
Tuesday, August 3 View Page
My patch helper deep in the foliage and I think, is she burying vines? No, all done. Is she applying Mycorrhizae or a fungicide? Nope, all been done. Ah, she is practicing her other artistic talent behind the lense. We planted a long row of dahlias at the end of the patch and they are spectacular right now and in full bloom.
 
Tuesday, August 3 View Page
Here are some of them, so pretty.
 
Wednesday, August 4 View Page
2 of the 5 prizewinners we have, these have outgrown their golf umbrellas. Hey Andrew H. What’s up with the pumpkins in Saanich? For a regular Instagram poster and Bigpumpkins.com lurker, you sure have gone under the radar, keeping a low profile, stealth mode or whatever form of social media sandbagging you are doing is suspicious not a single pumpkin update or picture...sup with that? How am I gonna know what pumpkin to bring to the Saanich Fair and snatch that trophy you didn’t allow me to win.
 
Sunday, August 8 View Page
2469 Daletas to the right will be day 40 in 4 days, prizewinner in the background. Calling this pumpkin PB, and no one hat isn’t intended to be Personal-Best, it definitely is for Pucker-Butt!! Growing like a good thing and closing the gap in inches on the 2114 Wallace fruit that is leading the charge and will be day 40 in just 2 days.
 
Sunday, August 8 View Page
What is that starting to rise above the canopy down below on the Daletas plant?
 
Sunday, August 8 View Page
Ahhh crap, it’s the “oh shit” backup fruit that I simply cannot cull now since at day 28, it’s alr day over 100 inches in circumference and growing fast!! Kinda makes it easy for me to decide my 2 pumpkins that will go to the Saanich Fair on the first weekend in September. We have 8 pumpkins on the go this year and a bunch of Fairs and Exhibitions we can enter. Will be a busy and fun Weighoff season this year, looking forward to it already.
 
Tuesday, August 10 View Page
Day 40 for the 2114 Wallace and the tape said 127-98-98 for 323” OTT. The daily average has slipped down to 27 lbs per day, but if it can keep up that pace, we should have a pretty decent sized pumpkin by the end of August.
 
Thursday, August 12 View Page
Day 40 for the 2469 Daletas #1 is ripping along nicely, getting some orange despite having a blanket on pretty much 24/7. Tape measurements are 121-93-93 for OTT of 307 inches. The #1 pumpkin gained 318 lbs a day last 10 days so a moderate 32 lbs a day. Daletas #2 on a back secondary, is day 30 today and won’t get a tape measure put around it until closer to our first Weighoff at the Saanich Fair. I’m at a crossroad, because I won’t be able to harvest The #2 Daletas if it’s over 800 lbs at day 50. Might just have to take prizewinners to the Saanich Fair instead.
 
Saturday, August 14 View Page
2469 Daletas is lumpy bumpy and a pretty curvy gal, the last thing we expected was...
 
Saturday, August 14 View Page
...a career ending stem split on top and below. Was in the process of slicing the stem to relieve any additional pressure and dropped the blade into the cavity. Proceeded to do an official probe test with a long zap strap, and sure enough the Daletas #1 is s done.
 
Saturday, August 14 View Page
So we removed and saved the sand underneath the pucker bum on the fruit and it eased itself down and is now a blossom down pumpkin. Honestly, with all the curves and creases, stem split was last thing on my mind and in fact as loose as possible. Tough hobby.
 
Monday, August 16 View Page
The dreaded stem crack from the inside. Very obvious large internal crack. Go figure.
 
Monday, August 16 View Page
The backup fruit on the 2469 Daletas will likely suffer the same fate as its plant mate, but luckily an ounce of prevention might help me get this pumpkin to the scale. On a side note, I thought our bigpumpkins.com diaries were meant for just that, following other growers, techniques, tips and awesome photos and not political statements or beliefs or rambling about government or personal issues and problems outside of pumpkin growing. I see that there are growers now trying to use the grower diary as a platform for something else, and it’s really too bad and a shame that it has come to that.
 
Friday, August 20 View Page
Smokey morning sunrise in the patch and a raven flew by at the perfect time. Day 50 for the 2114 Wallace and it sits at 356 inches OTT and a gain of 240 lbs over the past 10 days. Our personal best was 365” OTT at day 50 and was still doing 32 lbs per day, so as expected with the smaller plant, has slowed down to a more moderate pace. I’m not sure we will be able to squish out another 44” and get to 400” OTT, but that is always the goal. Scott Carley set the BC Record with a fruit under 400” OTT, but his techniques grow everything 10 percent or more heavy. Largest prizewinner pumpkin is around 315 lbs.
 
Sunday, August 22 View Page
Day 40 for the Daletas backup pumpkin that has taken over from the split main fruit. 121-86-86 and has gained 247 lbs in the past 10 days, doing a nice 24.7 lbs per day.
 
Monday, August 23 View Page
Andrew H, Here are our 2 entries for the Saanich Fair on September 4th. Do you think these will fit into your VW van? 2469 Daletas on the left, and a pretty orange pumpkin from a prizewinner seed.
 
Monday, August 23 View Page
By far, the healthiest, and easiest care plants have been the prizewinners. Here is the plant with a pumpkin at 6 feet on the main and there are only 4 secondaries on each side, about 15 feet long each. This size plant is supporting 2 fruit at 200 + pounds each.
 
Tuesday, August 24 View Page
Mama and her 3 babies. 2114 Wallace looks just like the prizewinners, only a bit larger. The weather is still sunny but much cooler and far less evaporation is happening from the soil. Sure glad we use soil moisture probes and I’ve decreased the amount of water accordingly. Growth and daily gains have remained the same.
 
Wednesday, August 25 View Page
2114 Wallace and some patch mates. Go figure, since the main pumpkin got eliminated from the main vine, the secondary fruit has really ramped up the growth. After cruising along as the backup fruit, now the plant has given all its energy to the other pumpkin, last 3 days have been 37 lbs per day and its harvest time for the Saanich Fair in 8 days. I can still change my mind and take 2 prizewinners to the Fair, but this one was earmarked for it, so likely it will get the hoist.
 
Thursday, August 26 View Page
Hanging in there after some slice and dice preventative work on the multiple stem splits on the 2469 Daletas fruit. Richmond Dave and I worked closely together over the years (and advice from some heavy hitters) and have a good strategy to alleviate stem cracks and splits as they happen. Doesn’t look pretty but none of these splits and tears are into the cavity, good to go for now.
 
Friday, August 27 View Page
Yes, I really like my whizzer sprinklers that we got from Joel Holland about 10 years ago. I’ve got these 2 hooked up in series and runs off our regular water pressure hooked up when I want to our fertilizer injector. Just these 2 wizzers, with the watering area overlapped cover about 55’ x 30’. Yes, I have to treat with a fungicide program on a scheduled rotation (companion, TKO, Bravo, Cabrio) every 2 weeks, but it is well worth it because I can also use the wizzers on a timer and we would not have survived the heat wave that hit BC for 2 weeks this summer. I’m going to hook up 4 wizzers together for next year and get almost full coverage on our growing area. The vegetable growing area within the pumpkin patch will get its own drip system, since we grow the veggies as organically as possible.
 
Friday, August 27 View Page
2114 Wallace has entered the rare category for me, this seed is a do-over!! Thanks Eddy Z for this seed and Ron and Pap, please may I have another? This plant has all the traits I look for in giants that we like to grow. Small to medium sized leaves, smooth, some orange colour. This compact plant (350 sq ft) has produced a fruit that continues to amaze us. Day 50 is in 4 days and its already slightly bigger than our PB from a few years ago. Likely won’t be contending with the likes of Jeff and Richmond Dave and despite only growing a couple of plants this year, we all know that Scott Carley is a force with everything he does in life. Also, sure hope that Kate’s pumpkins keep on growing like they are, we would sure like to hand out some more 1000 lb patches at the Weighoff.
 
Monday, August 30 View Page
Day 60 for the 2114 Wallace in front and harvest day for the lower 2469 Daletas in a few days. At 370 inches OTT, we’ve got about a month to go till the big Krause Berry Farm and Estate Winery Contest. Might not catch Richmond Dave and I hear footsteps from Jeff P and his nice pumpkin in North Vancouver. Seems that not many growers in British Columbia post diaries any longer, Facebook and Instagram have lured them away.
 
Tuesday, August 31 View Page
Big, round, mostly smooth and dappled brilliant orange is the 2114 Wallace. 198 lb gain in the last 10 days and only 39 lbs a day for the last 3 days. 19 lbs a day for 7 days and then 13 lbs a day for the last 3 sounds reasonable especially considering our weather really cooled down over the past 10 days.
 
Thursday, September 2 View Page
So, today we assembled the tripod lifter with the custom Steve Handy coupler head and one of the guys said “oh that’s a really neat contraption for lifting your giant pumpkins”. It immediately reminded me fondly of Steve, even though we only met twice in person, we chatted by email and text quite extensively and through another mutual friend, we arranged for me to have my own tripod lifter head that he made, thanks again Steve!!
 
Thursday, September 2 View Page
We loaded the 2 pumpkins on the left and delivered to the Saanich Fairgrounds for Weighoff this weekend. Affectionately known as JLo, this pumpkin was on a tertiary vine 6 feet off the first secondary on one side. Amazing!! Taping 700 lbs-ish, DAP 50 today. Was hoping to get to 800 but that will have to wait for next year. I’ve already got my new Saanich Fair hoophouse that will get installed for an earlier month next year.
 
Wednesday, September 8 View Page
Bling bling and some cold hard cash. 2nd place ribbon and $20 cash for the 698 lb pumpkin and 3rd place ribbon and $10 cash for 3rd place and the orange ribbon and $10 cash for most beautiful pumpkin with the 262 lb orange beauty.
 
Sunday, September 19 View Page
Finally, no longer the bridesmaid. Not only is we take first place for largest pumpkin with this beautiful 350 lb Prizewinner, but was voted Outstanding Exhibit for the very successful 153 rd Annual Cowichan Exhibition.
 
Saturday, September 25 View Page
Harvest day today, rain coming so that is decided. 2114 Wallace is a looker, orange lovers will appreciate this beauty.
 
Saturday, September 25 View Page
Finally get a photo from the front of the 2114 Wallace. Off to Krause Berry Farm and Estate Winery for the October 2nd Weighoff. After the Weighoff, we are donating this pumpkin for the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver. We (The BC pumpkin growers) are proud to help and support Ronald McDonald House and all they they do. https://rmhbc.ca/about-us/
 
Saturday, September 25 View Page
If they will both fit in the truck, I’d like to also bring this pumpkin to the Weighoff this year. This is our largest Prizewinner and the plant had 3 pumpkins on it. It tapes 103-76-73 for around 350 lbs. Both other pumpkin on the plant went around 260 lbs each.
 
Saturday, October 2 View Page
In our 20 years of growing big pumpkins, this was a highlight day as my good friend Dave Chan shattered our Provincial record in British Columbia by a whopping 24% weighing in his 1911 Chan 2021 in front of a big crowd and lots of reporters. Our other good friend Jeff Pelletier also set a new B.C. Record for Field Pumpkin with a 122 lb whopper from his own seed.
 
Saturday, October 2 View Page
1099 Dixon 2021 (2114 Wallace x 2469 Daletas). Howard Dill Winner and 3rd place overall. We are honoured to finally win a Howard Dill award!!
 
Tuesday, October 5 View Page
Just a little colour difference here! Our biggest prizewinner and another Atlantic Giant contender going to The Old Farm Market Giant Pumpkin Weighoff on October 26th in Duncan BC.
 
Saturday, October 16 View Page
We had to forge ahead with a pumpkin show/event of some kind because the event was widely advertised. Local radio station was broadcasting on-site and the main Sponsor The Old Farm Market also had free cake, free coffee, free mini pumpkins and decorating for the kids, live music and a couple of mascots running around handing out the cake.
 
Saturday, October 16 View Page
So we just used the OTT estimates for display purposes and ribbon awards. I’m sure this prizewinner would have been heavier than the estimate, but we will never know. All the other prizewinners were 8-10% heavy and I expect this beauty would have done the same thing. Pretty happy with 395 lb, 350 lb, 219 lbs and 191 lbs all from the same plant = 1155 lbs of prizewinners from one plant.
 
Sunday, October 24 View Page
Fall is upon us and the pumpkin patch and vegetable garden are ready for next year. Garlic is planted, soil sample taken and rye cover crop has been spread. We plan on bringing in more soil and need a slinger truck to spread it. So far I’ve sourced a chicken manure compost, bison manure compost and a black earth type of fish and forest fines compost that I’d like to incorporate into the patch. What I’d really like is bulk perlite, but so far I can’t seem to find the right supplier but I’m going to keep trying. Now that Richmond Dave has set a new bar at 1911 lbs for the new British Columbia record, I’m gonna likely continue to work on my golf game.
 

 

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