Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 29 Entries. Monday, March 18 View Page Its that time of year again! This Year I will be growing three of my own seeds. The prime spot in my patch will go to my 639.5 Radach pictured in the back. It was pollinated by my 1461 Rodebaugh plant that grew my 835.5 Radach pictured in the front.   Monday, March 18 View Page My second plant will be the 1931 Turner. I just love the shape, texture and color of this pumpkin. It was pollinated with an orange pumpkin as well so it should have great potential to carry through the orange genetics. It's got Tiger King and 2365 Wolf on both sides of its family tree.   Monday, March 18 View Page My third plant will be another of my own seeds my 784.5 Radach grown in 2022. The genetics are 1872 Sippel x Tiger King.   Monday, March 18 View Page In my small patch, I will be growing my 144 Radach. This one was also pollinated with the 1461 Rodebaugh that produced my 835.5 pound Pumpkin from last year. The 150 square foot challenge has added a Howard Dill award so I am going to throw my hat back in the ring for that.   Monday, March 18 View Page My soil test came back looking pretty good. I added some horse manure in the fall and that sent my Potassium up a little higher than I like but I think its manageable.   Monday, March 18 View Page I will be making minimal adjustments this year adding some Manganese, Some copper, some boron and some liquid gypsum to boost the calcium.   Monday, March 18 View Page We had some nice weather this weekend so I got out in the patch to get things underway.   Monday, March 18 View Page The cover crop is looking pretty healthy way better than last year at this time so hopefully that is a sign of things to come.   Monday, March 18 View Page Made my first pass with the tiller. I am pretty happy with the way the soil is looking texturally. It appears that the Puyallup Fair is no longer going to be an option for giant pumpkins so I will be starting my seeds a bit later than I have in the past. I will probably get started in another 10 days or so.   Tuesday, March 26 View Page I rebuilt the armature for the greenhouse. The ends were ripped out of the ground by a windstorm last summer. I used 4×4s this time. Also used the opportunity to slide the whole thing a couple feet to the south. Should have about 4 feet of extra width for the two plants in the big green house.   Tuesday, March 26 View Page I added two yards of pumice to the patch. It is similar to perlite in its capability to improve drainage and aeration in the soil. It's heavier and more durable though so it's supposed to stay mixed in better to the soil and last longer. We will see if this helps out.   Friday, March 29 View Page And were off! Started 3 of my 639.5 Radach seeds as well as the 1931 Turner in the germination chamber.   Saturday, March 30 View Page got most of the plastic on the greenhouse just need to get the other end closed up.   Saturday, March 30 View Page I am really happy with the way it turned out.   Tuesday, April 2 View Page All 4 seeds have germinated and have been transplanted into 1 gallon pots. In the past I have just used dirt out of the patch in my one gallon pots. This year I am going to try to get a quicker start so I mixed in some peat moss along with some azos and mycho. I am hoping that a little looser soil allows the roots to get off to a robust start.   Wednesday, April 3 View Page I got the soil heating cables into the green house. I use gutter de-icing cables plugged into a thermostat that has a soil temperature probe. I also mixed in about a cubic foot of peat moss into each planting site.   Saturday, April 6 View Page After 12 years my T-5 grow light bit the dust. I am kind of glad it did. I purchased a new LED Light and it's much brighter than the old one. Plants are looking strong with the first true leaves out. I also watered in some essential and some companion today. Trying to get that Biology ramped up early.   Saturday, April 13 View Page Time to put the plants in the ground.   Saturday, April 13 View Page The root growth is looking about as good as I have ever had at this stage. Glad I added that peat moss in with my soil.   Saturday, April 13 View Page I planted 2 of my 639.5 Radachs next to each other. Which ever one starts out stronger will be kept and the other one will be removed. The 1931 Turner is on the other side of the walking board and will grow in the opposite direction.   Saturday, April 13 View Page I am trying something diferent with the 1931 Turner. I experimented the last couple of nights with putting a large plastic tub over the planting site with a heavy quilt over it. The heat radiating up from the soil heating cables kept the air temp in the tub above 60 degrees while the air temp in the greenhouse was in the low 40s. I am going put the tub over the plant once the sun goes down and take it off again in the morning. I'll try that a try for a few days and see how it works. Obviously I won't be able to do it too long before the plant out grows it. The 639.5s will get the heat lamp on them. I am also putting the grow light over them for a few days.   Saturday, April 13 View Page I started 4 of my 784.5 Radach seeds today as well. This will go in the smaller hoop house to the south of the big greenhouse. I forgot how small these seeds are. The cross is 1872 Sippel x 2350 Gienger. Nothing but 1501 genetics in this bad boy.   Wednesday, April 17 View Page All 4 784.5 Radachs germinated successfully.   Wednesday, April 17 View Page The two 639.5 Radachs are doing pretty well 4 days in the ground and they have grown. Third leaves are opening up. We had some frost on the ground this morning but the heat lamp kept them warm enough.   Wednesday, April 17 View Page The 1931 Turner is growing well but is not quite as healthy looking as the 639.5s. Not sure if it is from the tub I've been putting over it at night or because I had the grow light over the others. I will put a heat lamp on this one as well starting tomorrow.   Saturday, April 27 View Page The 639.5 Radach in the foreground and the 1931 Turner in the background are both doing well. They should be vining out soon.   Saturday, April 27 View Page These are the 784.5 Radachs under the grow light. The two on the left have some genetic issues and threw doubles for the second true leaf. The one on the right seems to be growing perfectly normal.   Saturday, April 27 View Page Got the soil heating cable in and the small hoop house up. The 784.5 Radach will be going in this spot. I'll probably put it in the ground tomorrow.   Saturday, April 27 View Page I started 3 of my 144 Radachs and 3 of my 658 Radachs on the 25th. They are in the germination chamber and should be up in a couple of days.