Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 65 Entries. Sunday, March 13 View Page Put the shack out in the North patch. Fair bit of digging was required.   Sunday, March 13 View Page Thinking about trying the South patch again. Luckily it was +2 on Saturday instead of - 25 the morning I dug this in. Today it’s snowing so that should help.   Thursday, April 21 View Page Woke up to this.   Thursday, April 21 View Page Transplant day for the only greenhouse. Luckily it made it through the storm. Again.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Late starts this year. Been pretty cool. Still have snow in the ditch and a fair bit in the bush.   Saturday, May 7 View Page This is a melon I grew for the cross. Carolina Cross x 205 Kent Black Diamond Doing fine considering the crappy weather.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Having some worry with the 1797 Wolf. Noticed the second leaf was stunted before I transplanted. Then the next leaf was too. Brought a backup plant out but I’ll give it a few days. Wednesday and then today are the pics. Looks like it might be ok. Might. Maybe.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Managed to get one seed from my 1002 Veitch x 1597 Hunt (that I’m going to call the 300 est.)to sprout. Its a little slow but the weather sucks. I’m being cheap on heat too. Power prices seem excessive and dont get me started about carbon taxes and $2.00 a litre diesel.   Saturday, May 7 View Page 2365 Wolf in the greenhouse. Have my peppers in the little shack because its still freezing pretty hard some nights and we have some cool ones forecast.   Saturday, May 21 View Page 1797 Wolf. Looks good now. Still cool at night. -2°c last night.   Saturday, May 21 View Page 2365 Wolf Used about 60 litres of fuel for heat over the last 4 days. That was $1.90 a litre. Our electric rates doubled too. I try to zig zag the vine to alleviate stem stress. When it lifts as the pumpkin grows it has some built in extra space. Easier said than done though.   Sunday, May 22 View Page The Watermelon. Getting a bit behind on the weeding and mulch laying.   Monday, June 6 View Page 2365 Wolf   Monday, June 6 View Page 1797 Wolf   Thursday, June 16 View Page 2365 Wolf x 300 est Crews 300 was 1002 Veitch x 1597 Hunt   Friday, June 24 View Page Pollinated the 300 est Crews. Cold and rainy outside. This is why the hoophouse is here. +8°C, hopefully it warmed up some later. This plant has no pruning whatsoever. I did run the drip lines finally so it can have drink.   Friday, June 24 View Page 300 Crews x 2365 Wolf   Friday, June 24 View Page The 1797 Wolf x 2365 Wolf. Turned the heater on. Big bucks for diesel but it needs it.   Friday, June 24 View Page Pollinated the next one on the 2365 Wolf. Getting close to the end of the greenhouse. Some critter problems here so more fruits are better though its not something I like to do. 2365 x 300 lets get orange.   Monday, June 27 View Page 2365 Wolf 10 dap a little bit pear shaped   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Second pollination on the 1797 Wolf 1797 Wolf x 2365 Wolf   Sunday, July 3 View Page 1797 Wolf is looking like the first set took. Its in a bad vine position but I should be able to manage it with a sand pile. The whole patch is a little slow but its been raining since the day I complained that it wasn’t.   Sunday, July 3 View Page 300 Crews fruit looks like it may have set. Minimal pruning. Interesting that the tertiaries don’t develop as long as the secondary vines are allowed to grow. Cut off some feral sets.   Sunday, July 3 View Page 2365 Wolf has just about filled the greenhouse. Always amazed that it only takes 3 weeks to fill up from the time I first notice the tiny fruit on the vine tip.   Sunday, July 3 View Page One of the 107 Crews field pumpkins   Wednesday, July 6 View Page The first pollination on the 1797 Wolf isn’t the one. Obviously a pollination problem. Too cold that day. Moving on.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Pollination #2 on the 1797 Wolf. The bright side, much more plant to drive it.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page 2365 Wolf 20 Dap 68” circ Hopefully the shape stays. The flower had a slight deformation and theres an area that looks a little flatter right there. Pumpkin paranoia is alive and well.   Sunday, July 10 View Page 1797 Wolf 10 Dap Looks better than the first one but I remain somewhat skeptical. Last chance coming up.   Monday, July 11 View Page 2365 Wolf 25 dap 103” cir but I’m thinking that I must have mismeasured.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Under the film…   Saturday, July 16 View Page 2365 Wolf 30 Dap 130” cir   Tuesday, July 19 View Page 1797 Wolf 20 Dap 76” cir   Thursday, July 21 View Page 2365 Wolf 35 Dap 146” cir   Sunday, July 24 View Page 1797 Wolf 25 Dap 96” cir I usually measure late in the evening so the number may be conservative.   Sunday, July 24 View Page 300 Crews 25 Dap I left my tape in the other patch. 200 yards away. Didn’t expect it to look this good, it’s really shaped up in the past day. I know what colour it will be lol. Not sure what this will do as a pollinator. Still no pruning and not much watering.   Sunday, July 24 View Page FP on my 107. Have a bunch of 107 plants. This one is the furthest along but on the worst looking plant.   Sunday, July 24 View Page 107 FP in the melon shack. Pollinated on the 22 I believe   Tuesday, July 26 View Page 2365 Wolf 40 Dap 160” cir   Friday, July 29 View Page 1797 Wolf 30 Dap 116” cir. Shape is that of a pear.   Friday, July 29 View Page 300 Crews, the neglected plant 30 Dap 81” cir.   Sunday, July 31 View Page 2365 Wolf 45 Dap 174” cir as near as I can tell. Getting difficult to measure. Has a real inny which worries me a bit.   Wednesday, August 3 View Page 1797 Wolf 35 dap 130” cir Its doing as well or better than any pumpkin grown in this particular patch.   Wednesday, August 3 View Page 300 Crews at 40 Dap Not the biggest but its doing it all on its own.   Monday, August 8 View Page 1797 Wolf 40 Dap 141” cir   Monday, August 15 View Page 2365 Wolf 60 Dap…tape is now too short. I don’t want to guess. Maybe the tape was around the stem or something.   Wednesday, August 17 View Page 1797 Wolf 50 Dap 156” Long and low.   Thursday, August 18 View Page 300 Crews 55 Dap I think if I’d have actually grown this one properly it could break 1000 lbs. it was the orange 1002 Veitch crossed with 1597 Hunt so there is definitely good big genes. Now it has the 2365 Wolf mixed in. Who knows what that will do…   Thursday, August 25 View Page Dealing with powdery mildew on the 2365. Yesterday I cut off a leaf. I need all the leaves I can get because I’ve cut off a lot of leaves because of the mite problem.   Thursday, August 25 View Page Today the plant looks ok. Just need to keep it under control for a few hundred more pounds lol.   Saturday, August 27 View Page 1797 Wolf 60 DAP 165” cir It’ll be a 4 digit weight in a couple of days.   Thursday, September 8 View Page 1797 Wolf 72 Dap 172” cir   Sunday, October 2 View Page Time for season wrap. Here is the 300 Crews fruit. This is its good side but the others aren’t too bad. It was pollinated by the 2365 Wolf and was the pollinator for the now 2537 Crews. The 300 was a 1002 Veitch x 1597 Hunt. The 1002 split last year when very young. Seeds were immature, only got one seed to germinate this spring so I felt I had to grow it, even without any attention. It weighed 510 lbs on my scale. Really good considering. Not sure what it means for the offspring but there are some good genes there.   Sunday, October 2 View Page The 510 Crews uow The blossom end   Sunday, October 2 View Page 1797 Wolf Sound Fruit. Took it to Smoky Lake and confirmed the 1141 lb weight, although they left the harness on. There was another fruit getting some attention and time. This one was pollinated by the 2365 Wolf. This one suffered all season long from lack of water. There are caraganas all around this patch and between them and the trees there isn’t enough water to split between them. I even doubled the drip lines. Patch was dry when I lifted the fruit. May have to give up Ags here. And of course, the pollination didn’t give the best shape. Some stray pollinations had much better shape. Oh well. More potential here, I can feel it.   Sunday, October 2 View Page 1797 Wolf patch that grew the 1141 Crews   Sunday, October 2 View Page 2365 Wolf hanging out late in the season. I had been taking OTT measurements. On 50 Dap it was 411” so I knew pushing it hard was working. Day 65 it was 469” then powdery mildew hit. I’d already hacked all the leaves off the the first few vines to take care of spider mite infestation that was killing the plant. Some systemic fungicide slowed the mildew and by 90 Dap it was sitting at 487”OTT. The skin was cracking so I knew growth was happening. So I did what everyone would do. I watered more.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Lifting the 2365 Wolf. This would turn out to be the easy part.   Sunday, October 2 View Page We needed to reposition the fruit on the pallet. Feeling confident in the rig, I put the scale on.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Then the hard part. 2365 Wolf fruit fought back.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Its old and low tech but it started and saved the day.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Ready to move out. Felt pretty heavy.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Eddy and I gave it a good measurement 491” if we added it right.   Sunday, October 2 View Page 2365 Wolf is now the 2537 Crews. I’ll be honest, I was a little surprised.   Sunday, October 2 View Page Feels good. Thanks everyone, I’ve stolen so many ideas from every one of you. Hopefully everyone feels free to tell me which ones are the good ones lol.