Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 71 Entries. Tuesday, May 11 View Page Test start to this year's diary. Overwintered last year's 5 gallon challenge plant inside for most of the winter. Was nice having fresh tomatoes into December. Before kicking the plant out of the seed starting greenhouse this spring took some cuttings of 3 of the vines and re-rooted them. All 3 had different shaped tomatoes. This one set 2 doubles, one inside the other. Curious shape.   Friday, May 14 View Page Thanks Porkchop for what you do for the the tomato challenge! Swag from being on the first place draft team last year.   Friday, May 14 View Page Trophy next to previous year's second place trophy   Tuesday, June 15 View Page Had double blossoms before but never a triple. This is on the 203.93 Fortey marrow.   Tuesday, June 22 View Page Time to reduce the number of nighttime garden visitors. First volunteers to relocate were this momma possum and her little hitchhiker.   Friday, June 25 View Page Time for a patch tour. Fortunate to receive more rain than normal for our late June with cooler temps than the hot dry start to the month. This is the 131 Carter FP, 130 Yohe and 134.75 Fleser LG's, and the 203.93 Fortey Marrow. Other than slowing down in the heat at the beginning of the month they all came through in good shape other than the marrow. Main vine tip scorched so in the process of training a new main for it.   Friday, June 25 View Page 2051 Marshall with competition tomatoes in background and a beautiful cover crop of weeds around.   Friday, June 25 View Page 1222.5 Caspers and the 1701 Jutras Squash. Started the 1222.5 as a backup but it germinated stronger and outpaced the 1612 Marintzer that was supposed to go in this spot.   Friday, June 25 View Page 86.4 Harrington FP and 154 Harrington BG in the background. Had a 384.5 Terry BG there that was looking good but it didn't survive a late unexpected frost. Had a leftover BG plant from grafting so it went in it;s place. It struggled out of the gate from being rootbound but starting to find it's legs now. Have a late 384.5 Terry that went into a FP plot and another location.   Friday, June 25 View Page 110.2 Wursten FP and 1774.5 Carter AG. 1774.5 is a 1756 H/J x Self. Plan is to cross it with the 111 est Kisamore which is a 1625 Gantner x Self. Overall the FP plants have outpaced the AG's even though they went in weeks later.   Friday, June 25 View Page 111 Kisamore AG. Wife has claimed this plant as her own for this year. This plant has short stalks and smaller leaves but has also been one of the more aggressive vining plants in the patch so far. Secondaries are kicking in nicely. Also started the 1342 Burchette this year but it didn't make the cut. Like the genetics so will likely give it another shot in the future.   Friday, June 25 View Page Melon patch. Didn't get the cheap landscape fabric covered in time and the sun rotted it quickly. Will have to deal with some weeds now. In the patch are 197 Harrington x 2, 187 Harrington, 146.5 Young x 2, 265 Williams, and 242 Wolf Watermelons along with 52.4 Harrington x 2, 61.85 Davis, 56.74 Davis, 71.5 English, 56.2 English, 69.6 McCaslin, and 64.7 Terry Cantaloupes. Put a little more effort in garden amendments this year which has drawn more worms into the garden. Downside is that they drew some moles which damaged the roots killing a 277 McCaslin watermelon and severely set back one 146.5 Young and one 52.4 Harrington.   Friday, June 25 View Page Have a few giant cabbage plants going this year. Mix of generic megaton, tropical giant, Brown European WR strain, Butler 17 Cornish Giant, Butler 16 Northern Giant, and Red Giant. Also have a Giant Kohlrabi Superschmelz variety in there.   Friday, June 25 View Page 55.5 Brown and 65.1 Brown Giant Butternut Squash. so far the 55.5 has been the stronger of the two.   Friday, June 25 View Page Competition tomatoes. In the patch are the 7.35 Brown, 7.66 Hill, 3.46 Konieczny, 8.83 La Rue, 7.19 La Rue, 6.72 La Rue, 5.98 MacDonald, 9.65 Marley, 6.55 Marley, 5.71 Marley, 5.29 Marley, 4.91 Parenty, 2.0 Parenty, 7.12 Sutherland, 5.23 Harrington, 4.01x Harrington, and 3.52 Harrington. Thought I had lost my last 9.65 last month. During the cool wet stretch had the plants under jugs trying to keep them warm. Had four plants rot off at ground level due to excess moisture under the jugs. Happen to catch in time that the top of the 9.65 was still green so was able to get it into some water and resprouted some roots to save it. As of today can't tell it from some other plants that were germinated from seed at the same time.   Friday, June 25 View Page First pollination attempt on the 111 Kisamore   Saturday, June 26 View Page First pollination on 2051 Marshall. Selfed this one.   Saturday, June 26 View Page First pollination on 1222.5 Caspers. Crossed with the 2051 Marshall.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Promising melon on the 187 Harrington, 13 DAP   Sunday, July 4 View Page One of my hives split and swarmed into a tree by the garden. Was able to recapture them and give them a new home   Thursday, July 8 View Page Big blossom on the 71.5 English WR cantaloupe plant. Big healthy vines on this plant. First few female females were deformed and didn't take but they've come around and looking good now. Normally have to work the male in carefully on these and leave one in the end as a plug when pollinating. This one had room for 3.   Thursday, July 8 View Page Picked a couple eating tomatoes tonight off the 4.01 bucket plant from last year that I overwintered inside and restarted some cuttings from it.   Thursday, July 8 View Page Other one that went with it, little over 3 lbs between the two of them make some good BLT ingredients   Tuesday, July 20 View Page 1774.5 Carter running behind the others. 2nd pollination on this plant, 1st was open as a bee beat me to the blossom that morning. Hopefully this one takes, pollinated with the 111 EST Kisamore.   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 187 Harrington day 30   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 111 Est Kisamore, good news is it already measures larger than it's mother's weight.   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 1222.5 Caspers DAP 25   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 2051 Marshall DAP 25   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 110.2 Wursten, only got 20 days growth on it before it started to turn   Wednesday, July 21 View Page 203.93 Fortey Marrow, early set for our state fair   Wednesday, July 21 View Page Few tomatoes starting to show up in the patch, but too early to tell if any are contenders. 5.71 Lambchop around 18"   Wednesday, July 21 View Page This was a volunteer that came up in the container I grew my 4.01 Big Marley bucket challenge plant in last year. Calling it 4.01x, currently 19"   Saturday, July 24 View Page Wrong date on the 384.5 entry, should be 7/24. Here's the field pumpkin patch the 384.5 resides in   Friday, July 30 View Page Never good when you can smell your pumpkin when you lift the cover to measure. Lost the111 Kisamore this week for some reason. Was our 3rd biggest due to age, but was outgaining the top 2 at each DAP checkpoint. Starting over with an open pollination on the main vine.   Friday, July 30 View Page Bottom pretty much fell out when rolling it out of the patch, lol   Saturday, July 31 View Page 146.5 Young is several days younger, but outgained the 187 by about a lb/day this last period. Will still have to outperform at that rate for another couple weeks to catch the 187   Saturday, July 31 View Page 131 Carter starting to turn now, pretty close to my largest OTT for a FP   Saturday, July 31 View Page 203.93 Fortey still adding some inches   Saturday, July 31 View Page 1222.5 Caspers   Saturday, July 31 View Page 2051 Marshal blossom end pretty much completely rolled over now   Sunday, August 1 View Page 384.5 Terry BG, late plant. Lost my first one due to late frost. This plant ended up in the FP jack o lantern plot so not getting the most care. Leaves on this plant are huge compared to my 154 BG plant at the home plot. Hoping to get something set on this one soon.   Sunday, August 1 View Page Tough week in the garden overall with the high heat we had. Only things that seemed to enjoy it were the melons. 187 Harrington still seeing good gains and it's my biggest ever on this date.   Thursday, August 5 View Page First tomato of the year from the 4.01x Big Marley. Just cracked the 4 lb mark at 4.02 lbs. Was just over 22 3/4" circumgerence.   Sunday, August 8 View Page 2nd tomato for the Three Stewed Domingos team competition, This one from the 5.71 Lambchop. Not very deep and just shy of 21".   Sunday, August 8 View Page 3.175 lbs, hopefully will be able to cull this one out before the end of the year. Others that are set are a ways from being ripe so have a chance to improve on this one.   Friday, August 13 View Page Friday 13th was giant pumpkin day at our state fair.   Friday, August 13 View Page How do you turn a 1200 lb pumpkin into a 600 lb one? Let me grow it, lol. Pumpkin was day 47 and still growing so was a shame to cut before seeing how much longer it would go, but taking a pumpkin to the fair has become a tradition for us over the last few years. Cross was 1222.5 Caspers x 2051 Marshall and went 9.1% heavy.   Tuesday, August 17 View Page We had a decent fair in the other giant categories with 6 wins   Wednesday, August 18 View Page Biggest tomato so far developed a bad spot overnight so time to pick before I lost it altogether. Was still growing at a decent rate at the time. Ended up being pretty light to measure, 24.5" should have been closer to 5 lbs instead of 4. Seed was my 3.52 from last year Big Wixom.   Wednesday, August 18 View Page Must be full of air in there, lol   Wednesday, August 25 View Page Best shot at a big tomato this year on the 7.19 LaRue, time to weigh   Wednesday, August 25 View Page Big round ball with a total weight of 5.16 lbs, just shy of my biggest from last year   Wednesday, August 25 View Page Unfortunately, this mega never totally fused together and ended up as 2 tomatoes sharing a massive stem   Wednesday, August 25 View Page Other half   Friday, August 27 View Page My best effort with a Parenty Canadian cross so far, this one from the 4.91 Parenty   Sunday, August 29 View Page A couple weeks ago it looked like I would have some personal bests this year but things are starting to turn South. This is a state record sized marrow from the 203.93 Fortey that I had stashed in the basement since early August due to it ripening early. Pretty sure it's pure marrow genetics but starting to show some orange as it ages. Know pure zucs will orange up also if they're ripe enough but due to the current rules this one most likely heading for a DQ.   Wednesday, September 1 View Page Personal best field pumpkin from the 131 Carter not going to make it to a weigh-off either. Weighed mid 90's on bathroom scale when first picked.   Thursday, September 2 View Page This fatty on the 146.5 Young still creeping along   Thursday, September 2 View Page Tomato from the 9.65 Marley just shy of being able to help out our team. Milked it as long as I could to let the nose develop more but the rest of the tomato said it was time.   Friday, September 3 View Page Late set on the 1774.5 Carter still putting on some lbs. Plant has been a pain from the start so will be nice just to get a pumpkin that's worth the trouble to haul out of the patch.   Saturday, September 4 View Page Couple weeks ago the 187 had a good chance to push the state record but now has hit a brick wall. Still gaining some inches but at this rate will have to go pretty heavy to pass it's mommas weight.   Saturday, September 4 View Page 2051 Marshall still has a chance to be a personal best if it can add a few more inches. Hopefully it makes it till the end of the month.   Wednesday, September 22 View Page 203.93 marrow week or so before I harvested it early August. Nothing in the shape/surface texture really shows a cross with pumpkin that you can see in some of the examples.   Wednesday, September 22 View Page By end of August you could see some orange starting to radiate out from blossom end   Wednesday, September 22 View Page Along with blossom end had one streak of orange that went the length   Wednesday, September 22 View Page As it sits today. This one by far is the worse case I've had of turning orange. This one is almost full pumpkin orange at this point.   Wednesday, September 22 View Page Following pics are from my cousin and another grower in the area. They split a couple lots of Baggs marrows that they bought at our club and another clubs auction. He said the 187 is one of the ones he is growing this year but wasn't sure which cross he chose for the 2nd plant. Here's one of them.   Wednesday, September 22 View Page This is from the other Baggs plant he's growing this year   Wednesday, September 22 View Page Next two pics from the other local grower my cousin shared the lots with.   Wednesday, September 22 View Page 2nd pic   Saturday, September 25 View Page Finally cracked the 1k barrier with a PB 1091 today. Cross was 2051 Marshall x Self, went 12.9% heavy.