Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 55 Entries. Tuesday, March 21 View Page 2023 season begins….. 8 sets of heating cables are made up   Tuesday, March 21 View Page Holes are dug and Heating cables are buried.   Tuesday, March 21 View Page Planting holes are filled back in and empty pots are in place to make transplanting easier. It will also make it easier to find planting holes after weed fabric is rolled out on the patch tomorrow.   Tuesday, March 21 View Page Soil test for 2023   Tuesday, March 21 View Page Amendments that were added are: 600 lbs. Gypsum 50 lbs. Humic 16 lbs. Borax I ran out of daylight today, so tomorrow I will cover entire patch in Dewitt Landscape Fabric again this season. No more weeds for me!!!   Tuesday, March 21 View Page First photo of 2023 soil test uploaded blurry, so hopefully this one will be clearer.   Wednesday, March 22 View Page DeWitt landscape fabric is on a 30’ x 150’ area of the patch. Hoops will get secured to the ground over growing holes next week, and hopefully I can get the wind fencing completed also, hopefully.   Thursday, March 23 View Page 3/23/23. Starting a little earlier this season, pumpkin seeds have been chosen, filed, and are soaking. Special thanks to Emmett, Scott, Dale, and Tim, hopefully I can do your seeds justice this season.   Sunday, March 26 View Page 58 hour later…. 4th one is just breaking soil, its still on the heat mat, but it germinated also.   Thursday, March 30 View Page Spent last two day digging holes for 4x4 post to make a better wind fence set up. Still got alot to go…. But it’s getting there.   Monday, April 10 View Page 222 McMillin’22 Watermelon is off and running.   Monday, April 10 View Page Its go time… Pumpkins were transplanted outside today.   Wednesday, April 19 View Page Got in a hurry and forgot to add shade cloth on hoops the first day outside, and they got a little sunburn. Aside from my dumb mistake plants are starting to vine. I got 6-12” main vines on all of mine. I imagine they laid completely down today in the hot sun. I’ll look at them in the morning. Earliest and best start I’ve ever had so hopefully I don’t screw something up and can keep this pace up all season, hopefully….   Thursday, April 20 View Page 1819 Marshall. This was my best and fastest plant last year on 5/13/22. Beside my best plant from this year on 4/20/23. It would’ve looked better minus the sunburn I gave it..oops. Dale again thanks and I sure hope I can do your seed justice this year!   Tuesday, April 25 View Page 1819 Marshall has really taken off. My hut are only 5’x5’ and it’s got a 5’ main vine already, had to order a 12’ long hut off of amazon in a pinch to keep it covered for another week or two due to weather.   Tuesday, April 25 View Page 1747.5 Bailey is really taking off also. Main is about 3’ will be moving it to a larger hut tomorrow or the next day.   Tuesday, April 25 View Page 2147 Marshall is a really nice looking plant.   Thursday, April 27 View Page 1747.5 Bailey is my second largest plant, it had to be moved into a larger hoop house today also. Main vine is 5 1/2’. Actually had to bury 5 nodes on this plant today and 7 on the 1819, crazy to think I’m burying vines in April.   Thursday, April 27 View Page 2147 Marshall has about a 36” main vine and is a nice looking plant.   Thursday, April 27 View Page 2554 Andruz started on 4/4/23 transplanted outside today. Sadly had to pull my original one it had two of every leaf. This one looks great and I’m really excited to see what this plant produces!   Thursday, May 4 View Page My 11 year old started the 2350 Gienger seed and transplanted it all by herself. She wants to completely grow a pumpkin without any help from dad. I’m really proud of her! Her 2350 didn’t look very good so I gave her my 1819 Marshall backup and she put it in the ground beside the 2350. 2350 Gienger on left. 1819 Marshall on right.   Thursday, May 4 View Page My wife is also trying her own plant this year, She told me she’s going to grow a green Squash bigger than my pumpkins. This is the 1298 Dietrich.   Thursday, May 4 View Page 2554 Andruz main vine is starting.   Thursday, May 4 View Page 2147 Marshall 6’ main   Thursday, May 4 View Page 1747.5 Bailey main is almost 9’   Thursday, May 4 View Page 1819 Marshall has a 10’ main and 12 secondaries starting, Not including the two secondaries I trimmed by the stump.   Thursday, May 11 View Page 1819 Marshall is officially outgrown its hut and is now exposed to the elements….yikes!   Thursday, May 11 View Page 1747.5 Bailey also has officially outgrown its hut and is now exposed to the elements….yikes!   Thursday, May 11 View Page 2147 Marshall has about 2-3 days left to grow before it has to be removed from hut and exposed to the weather.   Thursday, May 11 View Page 2554 Andruz has really kicked it into high gear trying to catch up to his 14 day older brothers! I moved it out of the small huts into the larger huts today.   Thursday, May 18 View Page Well last night was a scary 32 degrees. So here’s what I did and it worked out much better than I expected. I used 20’ 2x4’s duck ?? taped to upside down tposts so the board could lay on the flat piece . Either surrounded heaters with 4 driveway markers or tposts so it wouldn’t catch remay or tarps on fire. Then landscaped staked covering air tight to ground making sure it wasn’t touching the canopy anywhere. That little heater on low (750watt) kept it around 55 degrees when it was 32F outside, (which surprised me because that is a 20’x12’ area that was covered.) Soil is still 75 degrees from heating cables. The biggest lesson than I learned from this is if the hut is just barely above the canopy even a small heater can maintain way more heat inside the hut, even if the area is quite large. I will be rethinking my hoop house design for next season.   Thursday, May 18 View Page Here is what they looked like covered with Remay or tarps. Both worked well   Tuesday, May 23 View Page Between the fences is 32 feet wide. The 1819 is 19’ is from the stump to tip, not from where the vines are pulled back past the stump. The plants are nowhere near as narrow as they seem I pull the vines back and I keep my vines 6 to 8 inches apart to protect from the Highwinds where I live, I’m well aware this reduces airflow and leads to other problems but it’s necessary in my patch This vine pattern focuses on the new growth of the plant My last three secondary by the pumpkin will go out 13,14,15’ and then will be turned backwards for an additional 28 feet of growth so essentially my last side vines will be 35 feet long and every tertiary off of the last side vine by pumpkin will be grown forward And never be cut off till the end of the season I could pollinate one tomorrow on the 1819 at 19’ , but I’m not going to. There’s one in the tip that should be ready to pollinate May 31 to June 3 and it’ll be closer to 23 foot with an additional five secondaries. In the past I always pollinated too soon and didn’t get as big of a plant as I wanted. This year I’m going to be more patient. I’m going to take down that fence in the front and let that 1819 and till more area up, then go about another 10 feet out of the yard.   Thursday, May 25 View Page 5/25/2023 1819 Marshall pollinated by 2147 Marshall at 19’. This will likely be culled and I will go with the next pumpkin in about 6 days it leaves me 5 additional secondaries. I only wanted to pollinate this as a test to get an idea what shape the pumpkin would be.   Wednesday, May 31 View Page 2147 Marshall pollinated at 15’ with 20 secondaries behind it by the 1819 Marshall. I broke the main vine in front of this pumpkin so I’m going with it, definitely not by choice, ain’t she pretty. Looks like some kinda Frankenstein creature…….   Thursday, June 1 View Page June 1st. 5 lobe. 2nd pollination on the 1819 Marshall, both were pollinated by the 2147 Marshall. I hope to keep this one if all goes well, it gives me an additional five secondaries over the first pumpkin. And with the pretty major fungicide and insecticide damage I caused to the leaves by being in a hurry and adding the wrong mixture, more vines with healthy leaves would definitely be helpful.   Friday, June 2 View Page 6/2/23 1747.5 Bailey pollinated by 2554 Andruz at 17’ with 24 side vines.   Sunday, June 11 View Page 1747.5 Bailey x 2554 Andruz 6/11/23 -2nd pumpkin on Side vine in center of plant. -4 lobe This plant is almost completely dead from my mistake. I sprayed all my plants with Fungicide and Insecticides at 5x their recommended dose. (I added my 5 gallons dose to one gallon by accident) That’s why I’m going to attempt pollinating on the sidevine in the center of the plant. Sadly this maybe my only option to get a pumpkin. And I desperately want seeds from this cross for next seasy, so instead of pulling the plant, a smaller pumpkin on a side vine that I can get the seeds from is probably what I will have to settle for on this plant.   Sunday, June 11 View Page 3rd pollination attempt, 1st aborted, 2nd looks like it may abort. (I’m sure this was due to my spray dosage mixup, plants leaves were BADLY damaged and extremely stressed) 1819 Marshall x 1747.5 Bailey. 2147 Marshall had no flowers with pollen for this pollination. (1819 x 2147 was the cross I was trying for on the first two pollinations) 6/11/23 5 lobes at over 25’ out main (didn’t get exact measurement, if this pumpkin ends up being the keeper I’ll get accurate numbers) with like 30 secondaries behind it.   Sunday, July 2 View Page 1747.5 Bailey x 2554 Andruz DAP 20 64 lbs on scale Slow starter, kinda ugly, but also long and it is actually on a side vine in center of plant. The GOAT Ricky Carmichael always said you don’t win Championships on your best day, but your bad days….Well, in this case, it’s been a lot of bad days, so maybe this pumpkin will preserve and keep fighting till the end!   Thursday, July 6 View Page DAP 20 1819 Marshall x 1747.5 Bailey 78lbs.   Friday, July 7 View Page 2147 Marshall x 1819 Marshall DAP 20 101 lbs.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page All 4 pumpkins plants have aborted. The plants have been pulled and soil is being treated with 5 gallons of Oxidate 5.0. Then a cover crop of mustard will be planted this week. I don’t believe there was any disease in the soil because the roots and vines were extremely healthy, but not going to take any chances after this year. I gave it my all to heal the plants from my damage, but the plants had to much damage and kept aborting all the pumpkins.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page On a much better note, my daughters 1819 Marshall is doing amazing. She is growing 4 pumpkins growing on one plant! This one is DAP 30 and quite large considering there are 4 pumpkins all over 200lbs on this plant! I have let her completely do everything to this plant 100% by herself and she’s really showing dad how it’s supposed to be done, proud dad moment! 1819 x 2147 DAP 30 124+68+68=260 405#   Wednesday, August 2 View Page This is my wife’s first year growing and I couldn’t be prouder she is doing an amazing job! She is growing the 1298.5 Dietrich Green Squash. It’s been a great plant so far! 1298.5 Dietrich DAP30 106+73+75=254” 378lbs. 8/01/2023   Wednesday, August 2 View Page Here’s a close up of the 1298.5 Dietrich Squash.   Thursday, August 3 View Page One more photo of 1298.5 Dietrich squash.   Thursday, August 3 View Page My daughters 1819 Marshall plant. She has another pumpkin on this plant which does take energy away from this pumpkin, the other is just over 400lbs. There were 4 pumpkins on the plant, the other two aborted at around 50lbs. I’m definitely more excited watching her grow than I’ve ever been for anything I’ve grown! 1819 Marshall x 2147 Marshall DAP 40 8-3-2023   Monday, August 14 View Page My princess is growing a princess chair..lol 8/13/2023 DAP 50 (1819 Marshall x 2147 Marshall) My daughter is definitely knocking it out of the park with this Giant! I think I’m gonna ask her for growing tips next year!   Wednesday, August 16 View Page This is my daughter’s second pumpkin on her 1819 Marshall plant. It’s not as big as the other Monster she has on the vine, but it truly amazes me a plant this small (400sqft.) can make a monster (..hint probably bigger than anything I’ve ever grown) and support this average size DAP 40 pumpkin! This 1819 Marshall is a really special seed, I really wish I could have grown it to full potential this season!   Wednesday, August 16 View Page My wife’s 1298.5 Dietrich Squash.   Thursday, August 24 View Page My Daughters 1819 is starting to turn orange. It’s actually more orange in person, the photo kinda washed the orange color out. 8/23/2023 DAP 60 (1819 Marshall x 2147 Marshall)   Wednesday, August 30 View Page Stem side view of daughters 1819 Marshall.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page Harvested my Field Pumpkin. It weighed 118lbs.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page I can’t even explain how proud of my daughter I am for growing these two beautiful pumpkins off of Dale‘s 1819 Marshall seed! Both of them were purchased today by Gus the Squashcarver to be professionally carved for festivals! The one plant was approximately 400 ft.² and yielded two pumpkins totaling almost 1900 pounds!