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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Friday, August 04, 2006
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Tony Pumpkin
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Abbotsford BC
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Entry 148 of 229 |
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Well, today was a good day for gains. I hope it is a signal of things to come. The main pumpkin was up between 14 and 20 lbs! Looks like going back to my regular watering schedule has helped—although it was quite a bit hotter today too. Good to see the fruit might still have some good gaining left in it. It was also interesting for me to ease off on the water to get a feel for controlling fruit growth—definitely a growing experience, and one that may serve me well in the future. A little bit of “sap” leaking from the stem end, but no major problems. Genetics and shape may have contributed to the other pumpkins split—afterall, it was only gaining about 10 lbs a day not 30-40 lbs. The fruit shape is changing, getting fuller around the blossom end, and the pumpkin seems to be “thumping” harder and bending towards the vine again (this could become a problem again as the pumpkin continues to weigh more. It is at about 476 lbs right now—but it is not resting on a flat surface, my feeling is it could be a good bit heavier. Still, I am about 50-75 lbs behind where I wanted to be, but slowing growth down was an interesting experiment—let’s just hope it was really me slowing the growth down and not the plant! Still early in August. Hope to make up more ground—700-800 is starting to look more possible now. Will need to do a lot of aphid spraying and mildew preventative spraying (which I still have not started). Might start up the foliar feeding again soon too—but not if the pumpkin keeps gaining good.
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