Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 17 Entries. Monday, March 18 View Page I will be growing indoors this year. After the tragic season last year I began building a 30’ x 65’ greenhouse and customizing it to what I believe will be the best set up for my needs. I will only be growing two pumpkins inside. Each will receive a little over 900 ft.˛   Monday, March 18 View Page Today for each plant I put together 240’ of gutter de-icing cables. Each plant will have a 12’ x 12’ area of heated soil.   Monday, March 18 View Page Here’s what they look like in the soil. This is just one, lots of digging today……   Tuesday, March 19 View Page Today I added all the amendments: kelp, blood meal, humic, gypsum, boron, and some small amounts of micronutrients needed according to the soil test. (Thanks again Cecil)   Tuesday, March 19 View Page After all amendments were added and tilled in I rolled out the Dewitt landscape fabric. I’m a huge fan of this stuff, no weeds here!   Saturday, March 23 View Page 2024 seeds are selected. 1109 McMillin 2245 Andrusz   Saturday, March 23 View Page March 23. 0001 am. Seeds filed and soaked. -1/8 tsp WOW 5/2 for soak. March 23. 0530 am Seeds were placed tip down in small pots in Miracle Grow Seed Starting mix. Heat mat is set on 88 degrees. LED grow light is set at 300 ppfd. Clear plastic tote placed on top to keep the mix from drying out and better control heated environment. -1/8 tsp WOW 5/2. -1/8 tsp Azos. -1/32 tsp DPH. All mixed in 1 gallon of water. -1/4 tsp Wow granular Mycorrhiza was added to starting mix also.   Monday, March 25 View Page 68 hours from the time I started sanding the seeds all 4 are up and have shed their seed coats. 2245 Andrusz / on Left 1109 McMillin / on Right They have been transferred to my Mars Hydro grow tent where they will be at 300 ppfd for 18 hours a day LED on / 6 hours a day LED off. This is the recommended DLI for pumpkin seedlings. They will be in this container for a total of 8 days from the time the seeds were sanded. On the 8th day (April 1st) they will be transplanted outside to my greenhouse.   Wednesday, March 27 View Page Here’s a look at this years soil test   Wednesday, March 27 View Page Here’s what was added, again thanks Cecil.   Monday, April 1 View Page Plants are officially in the ground!!! Here’s a YouTube link to the 2024 McMillin Giants season kickoff.. YouTube   Tuesday, April 9 View Page Not much to show this week. Here’s a look at the 2245 Andrusz and 1109 McMillin, They are both chugging along slowly and lighter green than I prefer, but we had a really cold and cloudy week plus the Motherboard on my new pellet stove went out after only two weeks of use, so I wasn’t able to maintain the perfect temperatures inside the greenhouse for about 5 days (that really didn’t help!) but were up and running now, the sun has came out, so things should definitely pick up now. Outside of the greenhouse I dug out a 6’x6’ area for heating cables then amended the soil and put a hoop house up for the 1783 New seeds we started. 1783 was started 4/4 and broke soil 68 hours later. It will be planted outside of the greenhouse in about 5 days.   Saturday, April 13 View Page 1783 New planted in outside patch on 4/13/24. 2 Seeds were sanded and soaked 6 hours in Wow5/2 at 88 degrees on 4/4. Seeds Broke ground/seed coat off in 68 hours. Planted one outside in auto-opening hoop huts with 60’ gutter cables and 750 watt heater with thermostat on 4/13. The other 1783 New was transferred to a 5 gallon pot and placed in Mars Hydro grow tent in case something would go wrong with the main plant.   Wednesday, April 17 View Page Today I added grow lights in front of the plants to try and draw the main vines forward. Right now both are reaching for the stars! I was amazed how bright 2 grow light can make a greenhouse! Here’s a link to a short April 17th patch update video. YouTube   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1783 New weekly update. Healthy growing well in it heated hut.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page 1109 & 2245 are finally down and running. 2245 is in the lead with a 40” main vine. 1109 is bringing up the rear with a 28” main vine.   Tuesday, April 30 View Page 4/30/24 Plant update. I was kind of down and thinking I didn’t have as of good starts this year as I did last year, until I went back and looked at photos from last season, to my surprise my plants are several feet longer this year than they were last year on this date. I completely opened up the center of my greenhouse. The plants are out of their cozy warm area and are on their own now, they may suffer a few cold nights, but I’m sure they’ll be fine. I also ran my new overhead watering system for the first time today watering 300 gallons of all biologicals throughout the entire greenhouse giving the soil a good drench of good stuff.