Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 22 Entries. Sunday, February 28 View Page Well, after a year off the time has come!!! Most close to me know but for those that don’t, last year I midway through the season I was laid on my back for 2 months with pneumonia. In and out of the hospital and by far was the sickest I have ever been. So July and august I didn’t go to the patch once. I was either in bed or in the hospital. Once better sometime in September a couple local growers came to help me try to salvage my season and they did an amazing job!! Thanks guys and you know who you are!!! It was an absolute jungle in the greenhouse and they spent hours cleaning up things and making the plants look halfway decent!!! All that happen while I was gone for those 2 months was water on a timer and that’s it. We still ended up with one at 1483 and the other 1109,,, the 1109 had stem rot in July so I knew it wouldn’t do much. After fully recovering I decided to take 2020 off and just grow mustard after mustard crop. I did 2 crops that touched the top of the greenhouse, cut down, tilled in, watered heavy then followed that crop with another mustard crop the same size. Honestly, taking a year off was really nice!:):) Well, it’s now 2021 and I’m ready for the madness again! This crop will get tilled in soon then it’s planting time!!! I can’t wait, we’ll be finishing the documentary this year and I just can’t wait to get into the dirt again!!!! Thanks for the calls, emails and text while I was down!! 2021 here we come!!!   Sunday, February 28 View Page Just a beautiful crop and I’m use to yellow spots throughout my cover crop and thanks to Rons mustard I’m pretty sure we knocked back the disease fairly well!! I’ll do a soil pathogens test soon. So glad to be back and I’ve been watching everyone and the great years they had!! Jim Fredricks’s and his 1705 at our local weigh off blew my mind!! Congratulations my friend, that’s a huge accomplishment down here on the Mexican border!!!! 2021 here we come!!!!   Sunday, March 21 View Page Getting closer and closer! 2021 here we come! Today was a day to till the last cover crop in of the 3 grown while taking the year off.   Sunday, March 21 View Page 3rd and by far the smallest of the mustard crops I’ve grown while resting. This stuff is super easy to cut and turn under when it’s small! Cut and tilled like butter!   Sunday, March 21 View Page Chopped it up in less then an hour and spent another hour doing the edges by hand. You don’t want to risk hitting the greenhouse with the weed wacker! Soil seems to be the best it’d ever been but I’ve thought that before! That fusarium and other diseases lurk deep in the darkness and just wait for that water and summer heat to come!!   Sunday, March 21 View Page Done! Everything hurts, back, knees, shoulders, head, you name it but things got finished today so ready for the next phase!;)   Sunday, March 21 View Page Thanks to the man everyone should try to be like in this hobby! Always willing to help and never holds back! A true leader of the pack and not a jealous bone in his body! I’ll try and do you proud big man! With what I’m up against disease wise we’ll need a lot of God watching over this patch! I’m fired up and that’s a good thing!!!   Sunday, April 25 View Page Test,,, it’s been awhile so just making sure which way I have to hold the camera. Lol   Sunday, April 25 View Page Same   Sunday, April 25 View Page Ok, it’s still the same! I got this! Lol   Saturday, May 8 View Page Any of the Southern California growers know what the darker soil is and what it represents in all who added a little to their patch.:) Just added mine today,,, thank you Kevin for making this possible for us all!! We lost our oldest grower this past season at 102 years old. All she wanted before she died was a 500 pound pumpkin in her patch and with a little help from a few growers she surpassed that this last season with a fruit just under 800 pounds!!! She passed shortly after that.:( What an amazing women she was and will surly be missed by all who knew her!!! Miss your calls and talks Mae, you were a very special lady!!   Saturday, May 8 View Page The leader of the patch, this is the 2469 Daletas. Like the patons I start 3 or 4 of the same seed I want in my patch, plant 3 then cull down to the final plant once I see which plant is going to put out the best secondary vines and a few other things I’ve been taught to look for. Each spot is down to 2 plants and will soon only have the chosen fruit. I run things really dry the first month to force those roots to search for water. The bad part is those roots also find that fusarium that is always lurking in my patch. Some how some way Rick spread his disease all the way across the country to my patch! Lol   Saturday, May 8 View Page From just outside the greenhouse. Here we go again!!!! Dosatron is up, tanks are clean, soils been rested just under 2 years, water lines are flushed and laid out! Now if I can just manage that disease 3 to 4 weeks longer I’ll have a chance at a personal best! Let the madness begin again!!! Loving all the new YouTube guys!! Fun stuff to watch and interesting how everyone grows a little different. Rick, how come the top 3 or 4 growers doing videos don’t deal with the disease we have??? Man that makes me jealous! What I wouldn’t give to not have to deal with the 4 big ones!!! They start to show in August and it’s a battle from that point on!   Friday, May 21 View Page Plants are out about 5 feet so time to choose the chosen one this weekend. It’s very clear on the 1928 Daletas which plant I’m going with as one has perfect secondaries, bigger vines and just all around looks much better then the other 1928. The 2469 I still have no idea because they’re both growing identical and it seems which ever I choose will be great! Still running things as dry as possible until we start seeing pollinations coming. I was that guy who would water every day seeing that the top of the soil was dry. A few years back I was told not to water that much this early and ever since have had much better success. Make those roots run down and out looking for water then when it comes time as Don young would say “ hammer down “ and watch that pumpkin grow!!   Friday, May 21 View Page Plants are out about 5 feet so time to choose the chosen one this weekend. It’s very clear on the 1928 Daletas which plant I’m going with as one has perfect secondaries, bigger vines and just all around looks much better then the other 1928. The 2469 I still have no idea because they’re both growing identical and it seems which ever I choose will be great! Still running things as dry as possible until we start seeing pollinations coming. I was that guy who would water every day seeing that the top of the soil was dry. A few years back I was told not to water that much this early and ever since have had much better success. Make those roots run down and out looking for water then when it comes time as Don young would say “ hammer down “ and watch that pumpkin grow!!   Tuesday, June 8 View Page Slow and steady!   Tuesday, June 8 View Page Trying something I haven’t tried in 11 years of growing,,, a new vine pattern. It’s different when you switch things up and you question everything your doing because it’s completely different then anything I’m use to. It’s either been the Christmas tree or pitchfork,,, not sure what to call this one I just hope it gets me a few more pounds come weigh off day!!! It goes against the grain of everything I’m use to and that makes me question things every time I go to the patch. Lol   Tuesday, June 8 View Page Lots and lots of room to still fill in. Vine burying full speed ahead for the next 6 to 7 weeks!   Saturday, June 19 View Page Lots of room to still fill in! All pollinated and the calcium is getting raised! Here we go!!   Saturday, June 19 View Page Trying a different vine pattern and it goes against everything I’m use to doing. I’m staying the coarse and we’ll see how things go. I have a good felling if I can keep the fusarium away just 3 weeks longer then usual!   Saturday, June 19 View Page This pattern gives me a lot more air flow to help combat disease along with the 39 fans! Lol   Saturday, June 19 View Page I have 2 or 3 of these on each plant. I’ll be picking next week which will be the one for each plant. This may be the first year I go with a secondary fruit but man I have a nice one going on a beautiful secondary.