Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 47 Entries. Tuesday, January 18 View Page This will be my lineup this year. I’ll grow my 1990.5, the 1347.5 Rodebaugh, and the 2030 Tobeck squash. I’ll have my 1533 has a backup. 3 more months till I start the seeds, hoping for great year! Good luck to everyone this year!   Saturday, April 16 View Page I was able to get the greenhouse plastic on yesterday. The winter that won’t quit, the greenhouse should be able to warm up the soil pretty fast. Hopefully start the seeds April 21st.   Thursday, April 21 View Page Daddy daughter pumpkin and squash planting night! We’ll be growing the 1990.5 Bernstrom, 1347.5 Rodebaugh, and 2030 Tobeck squash this year! After we had to go enjoy the 80 degree weather in the greenhouse and find some worms! Will add the fertilizer and till on Monday and hopefully have the plants in the ground next Friday! Hopefully records will be broken this year!   Thursday, April 21 View Page 2-1990.5 Bernstrom, 2-1347.5 Rodebaugh, 2-2030 Tobeck Squash, and 1-1533 Bernstrom. Will plant one of each and the 1534 will be the backup.   Thursday, April 21 View Page It’s 80 in the greenhouse so the girls love to find worms!   Thursday, April 21 View Page As me here’s Harper, she’ll be the new helper in the patch this year!   Monday, April 25 View Page All the amendments are tilled in, I’ll put the soil cables in tomorrow. The 2 plants will go in the greenhouse on Friday. All the seeds popped up in 3-4 days. Hopefully I’ll be able to till the outside spot on Thursday and get the hoop house and soil cable in. It’s been really cold and wet here the last week, and this weekend sounds wet again.   Monday, April 25 View Page 1990.5 Bernstrom, 1533 Bernstrom, 2030 Tobeck squash, 1990.5 Bernstrom, and 1347.5 Rodebaugh.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page The soil cables are in and little hoop houses over the growing spots to really warm up the soil. It’s 33 outside and 90 in the greenhouse so it should warm up fast!   Wednesday, April 27 View Page The outside patch has all the fertilizer in and tilled up. The soil cable should have the soil warmed up in the hoop house for the plant on Friday. Just have to put the wind fence up and drip line down and will be all set!   Tuesday, May 10 View Page 1990.5 Bernstrom, Briar and Blake were helping in the greenhouse last night!   Tuesday, May 10 View Page 1533 Bernstrom on the right, 1347.5 Rodebaugh on the left. The first 1347 grew funny so the back up one is in. Blake’s happy to help in the patch!   Tuesday, May 10 View Page 2030 Tobeck squash, starting to do good!   Saturday, May 14 View Page Harpers trying out her gardening hat for the first time in the greenhouse, future little pumpkin grower! The 1990.5 Bernstrom plant is doing good!   Sunday, May 29 View Page My 1990.5 plant is growing really good, around 8 feet long. The secondaries are all growing really good too. It’s been cooler here this year so I can really manage the temperature in the greenhouse good.   Sunday, May 29 View Page 2030 Tobeck squash. This plant was behind the others for quite awhile and now it’s on a mission growing like crazy!   Sunday, May 29 View Page My 1533 is growing good too, just a little behind my 1990 but the side vines are growing good as well. So far I’ve just been giving the plants, Neptune’s seaweed and fish, Wow 5-2 humic seaweed, Mykos, Azos, Versity, essential, and companion. Nothing to hot yet, I’ll start some 15-5-15 plant marvel pretty soon.   Sunday, June 5 View Page 1990.5 Bernstrom. Blake was helping this morning and happy to get dirty! This plant has been growing great considering the upper 30s to low 40s for night time temperatures. A couple days a head of schedule with it!   Sunday, June 5 View Page 1533 Bernstrom. This plants doing really good, just a little bit behind the 1990.5. All the secondaries are growing good!   Sunday, June 5 View Page 2030 Tobeck squash. This plant was doing awesome until a super windy day of 40mph+ winds blew the plastic off the hoop house and ruined the main vine tip. It came back surprisingly quick and I’ll make a side vine into the main, still really excited about this one!   Saturday, June 11 View Page 1990.5 Bernstrom. The plants are still doing really good, considering the cool nights we’ve been having. The girls had their gardening hats ready! Should have a baby pumpkin pollinated in a week or so on this one at 14 feet.   Saturday, June 11 View Page 1533 Bernstrom, this plant is doing good as well. Probably have a mid June 20s pollination on it.   Saturday, June 11 View Page I put an electric trolling motor in my watering tank this morning, worked great keeping the fertilizer mixed during watering.   Saturday, June 11 View Page 2030 Tobeck squash. This plant is starting to get back to normal after the wind damage. A side vine is starting to be the new main vine.   Thursday, June 16 View Page I pollinated my 1990.5 Bernstrom this morning with my 1533 Bernstrom (2114 Wallace x 2416 Haist) at 14 feet. A nice 4 lober, the temps are good so it should hopefully set.   Thursday, June 16 View Page Looks like it should have a nice long stem.   Thursday, June 16 View Page The 1990.5 plant is doing good, should be in good position to push the pumpkin. Been making sure to water the plants each day to keep the dirt moist. Still been mainly just fertilizing biologicals, Neptune’s Seaweed and fish, Wow 5-2, and planet marvel 15-5-15. Been rotating foliar spraying neptunes, Wow 5-2, and Cal Carb every couple days. I also applied 20 ozs of TKO through the drip line yesterday.   Monday, June 20 View Page My 1990.5 plant is loving the heat, been putting around 250 gallons of water down a day in the greenhouse between the drip line and overhead sprinklers to keep the ground good! The plant has about half its area filled in.   Monday, June 20 View Page Blake wanted to come with to see the baby pumpkin it’s 4 days old and looks like it’s starting to grow! Leave it to her to pick out a Santa hat to wear haha! 1990.5 Bernstrom x 1533 Bernstrom 4dap   Thursday, July 14 View Page The 1533 Bernstrom pumpkin is doing good, it’s just going at it’s own pace haha! It’s 27 days old. I grew the plants differently this year so I’m expecting them to kick into high gear pretty quick! All 3 girls were excited to get their pictures taken by them!   Thursday, July 14 View Page The 2030 Tobeck squash is doing great, it’s almost a week ahead of my last years 1429 squash.   Thursday, July 14 View Page The 2030 Tobeck squash, 20 days old! The plant and squash are really aggressive growing.   Thursday, July 21 View Page Here’s the girls with the giant squash, it’s 26 days old! They named it hulk smash, it’s only a day behind the pace of my 1990.5 pumpkin from 2 years ago! 2030 Tobeck x self 26 dap   Thursday, July 21 View Page Here’s the girls with the 1533 Bernstrom, it’s day 34. It’s been a pretty slow growing pumpkin so far. Hopefully it decides to kick in pretty soon, we’re going to keep trying to get it to grow more!   Thursday, July 28 View Page Here’s the girls weekly squash and pumpkin pictures! Blake was happy that they’re big enough now so she can sit on them instead of Harper haha! Hulk Smash gained 240 pounds since last Thursday for an average daily gain of 34.3 pounds and is 501 pounds at 33 days old. Hopefully we start getting some warmer sunny weather again!   Thursday, July 28 View Page The pumpkin is still doing it’s own thing and gained 180 pounds for an average of 25.6 pounds and is 41 days old. 1533 Bernstrom. Hoping for a long steady growth on this one.   Thursday, August 4 View Page The girls are all smiles and shrinking! Blake couldn’t find her Hulk toy so she brought the Ironman one instead haha! Even with the cloudy cool days the 2030 Tobeck squash averaged 34 lbs/day for the last 7 days to get up to 740 pounds at day 40! #hulksmash   Friday, August 12 View Page The girls got the Hulk to come down and see Hulk Smash tonight! He keeps shrinking the girls at a fast pace, he’s gained 240 pounds averaging 30 pounds a day since last Thursday, he’s up to 978 pounds at day 48! 2030 Tobeck x self, 350”.   Friday, August 12 View Page The pumpkin keeps chugging along around 20-25 pounds a day, at day 56. I guess slow and steady it is this year for the pumpkin haha! 1533 Bernstrom x self   Friday, August 12 View Page The pumpkin keeps chugging along around 20-25 pounds a day, at day 56. I guess slow and steady it is this year for the pumpkin haha! 1533 Bernstrom x self   Friday, August 19 View Page The girls brought their gardening hats down to the squash and the pumpkin today! Harper had to show off her new standing skills haha! Hulk Smash is still on a mission gaining 32 pounds a day for the last week and up to 1200 pounds, it’s starting to get huge! Day 55 2030 Tobeck x self   Friday, August 26 View Page The girls were excited to get home to see the squash! Hulk Smash had another great week gaining 175 pounds, averaging 25 pounds a day to get to 1370 pounds! The weather looks good coming up, it has almost a month left to grow!   Friday, September 2 View Page I got to take my pictures with the girls this morning before work! Hulk smash is still doing good, it gained 122 pounds the last week and is almost 1500 pounds with 20 days to grow! I tried to move it today with a come along and it bent the handle on it so it must be heavy!   Thursday, September 8 View Page We have a shrinking baby problem going on haha!   Sunday, October 9 View Page Stillwater was a success! I’ve grown lots bigger pumpkins, but this was the first time the whole family has been to a weighoff so that was special! The pumpkin weighed 1451 pounds, and it’s always so much fun seeing all the growers! 1533 Bernstrom x self. Went about 6% heavy.   Sunday, October 9 View Page Blake doing a Hulk Smash before the squash got loaded!   Sunday, October 9 View Page Hulk Smash got weighed on September 24th in Altoona Wisconsin and weighed 1595 pounds, which set the Minnesota State record! The 2030 Tobeck seed was sure fun to grow!