From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Honesdale, Pennsylvania

I lost another pumpkin to the soggy summer of 18'. The weather was not kind in PA this year.. either to hot or to wet. Of our 6 plants this year.. nothing ended up on the main vine and most were after thought pollinations. I am not sure if the other PA growers faired better as it has been pretty quiet out there. Maybe some sand bags have saved the season. I think the GPC should give out Participation Awards this year for anyone who can get one to the scale in one piece.

9/20/2018 3:13:03 PM

Westmoreland, KS

I feel your pain...but now's a great time to start planning for next year! Best of luck Ned.

9/20/2018 4:03:56 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

It has been pretty quiet here in Iowa. It has been very hot, and either too dry or too wet. Southern Iowa had been a 2 year long drought, but got drenched a few days ago. Northern Iowa has been dealing with floods for 2 years. If you read Pete Caspers' and my diaries, you can see things have been tough for us in the eastern part of the state. I think we might have something real huge in the middle of the state, but Mr. Young is being real quiet.

I agree with Jake about starting on next year. I already have a hoop house up to try to keep some soil warm for an early start on the state fair pumpkin. I have treated spots with mustard and have cover crops going. Maybe next year will be better.

9/20/2018 5:34:42 PM

Northern Cambria, Pa.

Dang Ned I was thinking the same thing about participation awards...lol. Over 40" of rain here since May 1st. Patch flooded 4 times, so far.

9/20/2018 7:47:53 PM

Pittsburgh, PA

Been dealing with the tough weather in Western PA as well. Still have 3 big ones holding on for now but they’ve been sitting on wet sand for a solid two weeks so not sure what’s gonna happen with them. I’m sure we will see some big ones out of PA. Harvest day in 2 weeks for Altoona. Can’t wait for the season to wrap up.

9/20/2018 9:09:05 PM

Pittsburgh, PA

Oh and sorry to see you lost that kin Ned.

9/20/2018 9:09:34 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Yeah Ned I’m worried about having enough pumpkins at grims next Saturday. I lifted my Oley fair pumpkin and it was soft on the bottom so I figured screw it I’ll take my last remaining one to Oley and not have one for grims. Lifted that one and it was soft too. They just can’t sit in pond water week after week. Last year was the wettest on record until this year. A one two punch, very discouraged. This is the first year I have ever not finished in pumpkins.

I do have a tomato with the right timing for once, a field pumpkin and a long gourd, which is more than a foot more than my PB. so if you’re coming with a gourd, come heavy... errr... long I mean.

Ps please don’t come beat me with a really long gourd. Jim

9/21/2018 8:18:57 AM

Lexington, Ky

Even though I'm not in PA, our weather has been identical. This is the first year that I've never hand watered. Never even knocked the dust of the pumps.

9/21/2018 9:36:00 AM

New Berlin, PA

I half expect the bottom to fall out of my pumpkin, if it even makes it to lifting day. Constantly wet conditions causing lots of issues. I said this in an earlier post, any pumpkins grown outdoors in PA that make the scale this year deserve applause.

9/21/2018 9:43:34 AM

Pittsburgh, PA

Anybody know how Quinn Werner is doing this year?

9/21/2018 10:28:45 AM

Upper Strasburg, PA

We just had 2 nasty splits tear through our pumpkin about a week ago- they aren’t through to the cavity, but they’re bad enough to disqualify us from competition

9/22/2018 12:10:26 PM