Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 54 Entries. Tuesday, January 17 View Page 1055.5 Laginess 2022... It seems this one has yet to appear on bp, but its in one of Keep it a Secret Home & Garden's videos titled "Spongy Pumpkin Seeds Germinate?" Congrats to this grower on a lovely pumpkin! � Saturday, June 24 View Page Touchdown immanent, just 1/2 inch to go. 1133 Yohe squashkin @ 10 DAP quite small, but looking healthy. It should have a good week. � Saturday, June 24 View Page This is an offshoot from my main diary... Email contact for this diary: [email protected] (same as Little Kins) � Monday, June 26 View Page Heckuva stem crack, it had to go into the pumpkin, of course. It's just been that kind of a year. Maybe it will heal, maybe it will get worse. � Wednesday, June 28 View Page The cuts I made widened which shows that some stress was removed from the big crack? But maybe I should have cut it on the other side as well? So I added a few more cuts tonight. I heard a little pop when making one of the cuts, and I don't know if thats good or bad. � Saturday, July 1 View Page Deficiencies & excesses may end my season. The kin is showing some faltering xylem/calcium/boron. But even worse seems to be the chronically low phosphorus. So I need to dump a lot of phosphorus on, basically. Preferrably without adding any nitrogen or potassium. � Monday, July 3 View Page Here is the plant. The pumpkin has not been growing well. I've been going crazy trying to figure out how to fix this. The plant seems to have responded well to manganese, but perhaps its short on zinc and sulfer. Despite the size of the plant, the extremely slow pumpkin growth has cost me more pounds than I care to think about... I'll post the numbers and a picture in a few days. � Thursday, July 6 View Page DAP 20 or so, mid June pollination, idk exact day with any certainty. Small daily gains, haven't gotten it above a 3.75" circ gain yet, est. 48 lbs. Some calcium issues is the main problem... � Monday, July 10 View Page It's storytime, kids! Let me tell you a story called "Goldilocks and the three little Borons"... Kids: "Oh no, not THAT one!!!" � Monday, July 10 View Page Its difficult to see, but I am using a lot of dirt to buttress the pumpkin, the dirt goes all the way around it. This could be a mistake, but its now or never. It is close to 100 lbs and very soft skinned, so all of it is mostly beyond my control now. In hindsight, a bigger access hole under (and through) the pallet (airflow under the pumpkin) and maybe a thin layer of sand, (a flatter bottom) would be better than all this dirt. Or maybe use the mill fabric, idk. There's a lot I really don't know, but I do know dirt has worked in the past. � Monday, July 10 View Page Approximate plant layout. Decided I was done guessing so tonight I measured the plant, the sides measured at 25, 25, 25, and 30 ft, then used an online area calculator which says thats approx 700 square feet. I scribbled on their sample quadrilateral to show where the vines are... on the south side the vines got screwy because of the freeze damage. If my soil was better, then that's enough plant that I ought to be pushing 40 lbs per day. I am hopeful for about half that amount. � Saturday, July 15 View Page A good week/ past 10 days. Its a scorcher, so no strip show today, boys... Doing more things no one else has ever done: Ive excavated two holes on either side, and am blowing air under the pumpkin all day. Im filling the holes back in at night to keep some warmth in the kin, and the critters out. Nights still dropping to low 50s, but the pumpkin is getting big enough to hold its own heat now... Estimates @180 lbs. � Saturday, July 15 View Page Hungry for hydroxide (the opposite of acid) and phosphorus... my 6.0 ph water is constantly at war with these minerals. Also seeing some possible zinc and copper deficiency, but I already applied some and I dont want to overdo it... � Monday, July 17 View Page This salad is cranking out 25 lbs per day now, yay! I'm doing everything in my own (flaw-riddled) way, and for now I'm perfectly satisfied with that number. The main thing is, I will have to improve the soil, and the rooting, if I want to resch bigger 30 -40 lb./ day numbers. � Wednesday, July 19 View Page Goldilocks is huge and gorgeous. She is on her way to being the Marylin Monroe of pumpkins... I am totally amazed right now! Wow. Just. Wow. This is a #ing amazing hobby!!! � Wednesday, July 19 View Page I dont even need the measure, I can see she did an insane gain over the past 2.5 days! Trellis up, for the only vine after the kin. Its a secondary, but effectively the new main. The plant is fully pruned now, except this one vine. � Monday, July 24 View Page Leaf burn associated with low magnesium...? This article seems to think so: http://agroanaliz.ge/en_magnesium/ One way or another its partly due to sun because its only on the surfaces that get the most intense sun. � Monday, July 24 View Page The leaves after the kin seem healthy enough... but I learned last year that with certain nutrients, like phosphorus, leaf appearance means next-to-nothing? (Leaf size might mean something, though). There can be a deficiency despite a healthy appearance, the leaves might have enough xyz for their needs... but the pumpkin might be short??! Deficiencies that can only be seen by pumpkin growth measurements... And speaking of those... � Monday, July 24 View Page Modest Marylin (pumpkins 3rd name? wuwt) is up 185 lbs for the week/ 26 lbs per day... 400 lbs. day 40. Those numbers are about the best I can hope for at this point, a lot of missing pounds already due to my ongoing pumpkin growing malpractices. This plant is such an addict, it never stops wanting more of this or that. I guess its doing the pregnant momma thing... Understandable. And if it was doing 56 lbs per day, it would basically require that twice as much food be available?! � Monday, July 24 View Page Moderate maintenance Modest Marylin... say that five times fast. Anyhow, a few errant vines pruned, a bit more fertilizer, (boron copper zinc and epsom salt) and some h202 on the stump... and she is done for today. Calcium on the menu for tomorrow...? � Tuesday, July 25 View Page I continue to be impressed by this plant, it has reached 30 lbs per day. I didnt expect this, pretty good for no till & no walking boards, its far from a Paton sized root system but its managing to get most of what it needs. A bit short on calcium, just doing leaf diagnosis at this point, nothing seems so badly off that I would want to break the bank on another one. � Monday, July 31 View Page Up 160 lbs for the week/ 23 lbs per day. I think I'm losing some pounds to less-than-full amounts of water and fertilizer, but I just want to get her to a scale. Temperature, water, and fertilizer are the main variables in her equation. I need 20" circ. more... cmon, sweetheart. � Saturday, August 5 View Page I figure the yellow marks is where I've lost pounds, the growth having dropped on these days due to drought, cold, or deficiencies. The higher spikes are the days where it got everything it needed. Its about DAP 50 now, so the growth is slowing. � Sunday, August 6 View Page On track to hit exactly 1,000 by the WA State Fair. (This is driving me nuts because I do want to hit 1,000, not 999!) Pumpkin looks great, plant looks great... maybe Modest Marylin will flash a little leg one more time before the big show... idk. I figure that should be up to her, not me?? I am a respectful pumpkin pimp, lol. � Monday, August 7 View Page Feed me! (Some leaves got burned by excess iron?) The only deficiency its showing is magnesium, in the new growth, but I'm not sure adding more will improve anything. Its critical for health and energy, but overall both of those things are ok right now, and its not an actual building block of the pumpkin. Long story short, I dont think its a limiting factor at the moment? Or maybe it is... � Tuesday, August 8 View Page Baby sister kin to Modest Marylin. Her name is Lilly Putty, she's a late bloomin" love child... I'm exuberant over this one. I think it will be a good cross. It will be 1133 Yohe squashkin x 378 Clayton squashkin. It will have four unique lineages (2 squash and 2 pumpkin) with very different but very good traits, mishmashed into one seed. Doing the Mendi thing here, 2 on one plant, the plumbing going to this one is good its a tertiary or quaternary coming off the back of the plant which has always had too much energy, I think there will basically be zero pounds stolen from the kin (Modest Marylin) at the other end. Lilly Putty has lots of growing up to do... as do we all. � Tuesday, August 8 View Page Modest Marylin at the doctors office today. Her temp 62.1. Her weight? Well, lets not discuss that in a rude way, suffice it to say, the doctor thinks maybe she has been eating her feelings lately... will she confess to running to the refrigerator for some midnight magnesium? � Tuesday, August 8 View Page No confession, just a silent & very hungry look... (Were those calcium crumbs under her bedsheets?) Pumpkins... who can figure them out! � Monday, August 14 View Page It's gonna be a hot day... � Monday, August 14 View Page The trellised vine turned out nice, I think it was worthwhile. This was the only vine after the pumpkin. Perhaps its a morale boost for the plant to have one vine still going. And, it could act as a relief valve, if I hit the plant with too much of this-or-that? It allows me to monitor the nutrient flow to the pumpkin because if there was an excess or a deficiency, it would show up accurately here on this vine. Looks to me like there's huge nutrient excesses in the back of the plant, but everything's just about perfect at the front of the plant... Probably still short on zinc and phosphorous. � Monday, August 14 View Page 18 days left and 18" left to go before my poly line (for measuring circumference) is at the end. 18" in 18 days? Probably not, but thats the final goal I'm gonna set. � Tuesday, August 22 View Page Stump a bit of a disaster. I had planned to pick the kin in 10 days for the Washington State Fair so my plant care, or lack thereof, was all planned around that date. � Tuesday, August 22 View Page Immodest Marylin says she is attracted to rough, tough & burly, pumpkin men, and that she is feeling lonely cuz her show got cancelled. � Tuesday, August 22 View Page Oh and what IS that... looks like the plant thinks its a hen & started laying eggs or something. Turn out it was another of those sexually ambiguous male blossoms that got caught/stuck down there in the dense foliage and vines. Anyhow I ripped out that plus about 30 lbs of excessive growth. I now understand why growers don't allow their stumps to just throw a party all season long. � Sunday, August 27 View Page Stem had lots of cuts made in it now they are healed. Looks like with the warm weather Marylin will make the 18" in 18 days goal, she's been a good grower for sure. That probably equals 15 lbs per day or so, but Im not keeping exact measurements. She isnt thumping very heavy though, probably my bad for low calcium/boron early on... I dont think its the genetics. Lilly Putty the little sister kin... is growing well, not sure if ahead or behind Marylins growth at the same DAP. I do think some nutrients are missing or out of balance but without knowing which ones, theres not a whole lot I can do. Iron, nitrogen, are probably excessive. � Tuesday, September 5 View Page 2nd kin on the 1133 Yohe plant, "Lil' Putzer" is slow & steady. Could make a decent pumpkin by Halloween, but her vines are half rotted. Have lost all the main vine leaves now. Not the longest lasting leaves I've ever had, but the plant never stopped pushing new growth, so there's still plenty of salad... dense foliage, so I cant see where the missing leaves were. � Tuesday, September 5 View Page Way over on the other side of the plant: my roomate Rachel in front of Marylin. Marylin is 1133 Yohe x self. I wasnt too impressed at first, but now I can see the 1133 Yohe (1838 Jutras x 2145 McMullen) has good traits & good potential... Marylin the Squashkin has nice orange color & nice sized ribs... a bit heavily canteloped. � Tuesday, September 5 View Page Goal for September would be to gain 12" circ. But not really, really its just to make it to the weigh off, which is just 26 days from now. Less and less certain about that. We'll see... � Saturday, September 9 View Page Mid September, when the rain & cooler weather usually sets in. Pumpkin peep here are gonna have 500 + lb month I think. Not me though. Day 80 or so. Slow and steady, is all I can hope for. I hope to reach day DAP 80 myself someday??? The 2nd kin, Lilly Putz, will appreciate a little more summer. � Saturday, September 9 View Page Added some calpril to the plant. Aka, the lowest octane fuel possible. Gave a bit of magnesium sulfate & micronutrients too. I'm sure the plant would happily soak up some phosphorus as well, but how do you add phosphorus without adding more nitrogen or potassium? Idk. I'll have to boost the zinc and phosphorous and calcium under the plants early on next time, because I can't seem to add it successfully later. � Friday, September 15 View Page The 2nd kin is doing an impressive 15 lbs per day and just reached 200 lbs. I could be wrong but I dont think its detracting from the main pumpkin. There is a lot of plant in between them. I think it is however keeping the extra suckers under control, which is great. The rampant growth coming from the stump seems to now be tamped down/ mollified/ subdued. Choose your verb. I could hope that both ends of the plant are doing 15 lbs per day, but coming up on DAP 90, so thats wishful thinking. Will probably keep adding boron and calcium and some epsom salt. I could add npk too, but I think the n and k are fine still, so I think its basically got what it needs already. If I wanted a different growth trajectory, the time to make that happen wouldnt be now; it was 3 months ago. � Friday, September 22 View Page 2nd kin on the 1133 Yohe up 50 lbs for the week. Plant is looking quite ratty now, its ready to be worm food. � Saturday, October 7 View Page Taping 1700 lbs. Hard to believe. � Sunday, October 8 View Page Grew it on a pallet, the rigging is my attempt to pull the pallet. I guess if the pallet would rather break than budge, its a good sign. What could I do better next year? I want to give this some thought. The vine layout, the late frost damage, the nutrients being off (mostly as evidenced by the underwhelming results of the giant tomato "companion" plant the poor fruit/flower development indicates there were some serious nutrient problems)... these are the obvious errors. Were there any less obvious errors? Maybe some more organics on the soil surface as a food source for the plant... I never mulched the ground surface (between the vines) with compost the way I originally intended, and it might have helped. Down to a few hours of sun, trees are casting long shadows now. Its an old but mostly still happy plant. The part up on the trellis, is quite healthy. A minor thing I could improve would be to be super vigilant for cucumber beetles. � Monday, October 16 View Page Excellent pumpkin growing weather!!! Sort of kidding... temps are good though. The difference in health between the elevated vine and the ground vines is becoming more stark... I dont know if nutrients are flowing into, or out of, the pumpkin... The pumpkin might be just a bit older than I thought, I think it was pollinated between June 13 and June 17, most likely on the 14th or 15th... so its probably 120 days old. Will measure at the end of this week to see if it has grown at all in the past couple weeks. I doubt it'll have grown more than 1". � Monday, October 16 View Page This was 9 DAP... painfully small. I guess it was pollinated on the 14th. I dont think the size matters much early on, I think its more a matter of getting dense cell division than rapid growth. I wonder if warmer temps that might be objectively ideal for growth rate, arent really ideal for cell-division "density"... my temp guess for that would be upper 60s to low 70s � Monday, October 16 View Page This is from bayer crop science regarding tomatoes. I think I will try to use this info to my advantage. It fits with my practical experience... while higher temps would give faster objective growth rates, I think the tortoise could beat the hare. My pumpkin was only 40 lbs at DAP 20. And by that measure, if it was just 80 lbs at DAP 20, it could be estimating at 3400 lbs now, so I dont really need a pumpkin to estimate at 100 lbs by DAP 20, I just need one to estimate at 75 lbs or so... but for it to have a high cell density associated with slower (but actually optimal) cell division. I think this is do-able. � Wednesday, October 18 View Page My makeup may be flaking But my smile still stays on Yeah, yeah Oh, oh, oh My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies Fairytales of yesterday will grow, but never die I can fly, my friends The show must go on, yeah The show must go on I'll face it with a grin I'm never giving in On with the show Ooh, I'll top the bill, I'll overkill I have to find the will to carry on (3 more days) On with the show... On with the show... ^ Queen song lyrics, perfect for an old pumpkin so turn up the volume! Lets get this party started? � Thursday, October 19 View Page As expected, it only gained an inch or so the past 12 days or so, maybe 20-40 lbs. The lack of sun is the limiting factor. Shaded all but 2-3 hours it takes a whole week to supply about one days worth of "summer-level" sunshine. The small gains reflect this... exactly as expected. � Saturday, October 21 View Page Pumpkin looks like a pile of garbage, using cardboard "pumpkin protectors" because the nylon lines can be harsh on the skin. Worked well. � Saturday, October 21 View Page Didnt top the chart, didn't hit 1700, but good job to Elsa/ Marylin/ grown off the 1133 Yohe... she was a good pumpkin (actually a squashkin, genetically speaking.) � Saturday, October 21 View Page Making a friend. � Thursday, November 9 View Page Little Putzer came in at 527 lbs. 1677+527= 2204 lbs. So, right around 3 lbs per sq ft. Just have to push all that production into one pumpkin rather than two... A really good season though. Not sure the seed count yet on this 2nd pumpkin. It was a controlled cross with a different squashkin. � Thursday, November 9 View Page Stump. Contact email for this diary is [email protected]. Thanks everyone who "parlez"ed pumpkins & stuff with me over the past few years on here... what a fun endeavor. B.C. �