Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Friday, April 1 View Page First post of the year! Meant to do better, but that's life with kids. Going to post a handful to get caught up, first post is soil test from last fall   Saturday, April 2 View Page Growing three plants this year, so here are my amendments, divided by thirds/per plant. Many thanks to Cecil for his help here, trying to find the Langley Excel sheet he put together for me, but having a hard time finding a format of it I can post   Sunday, April 3 View Page Very disappointed with my start. 3 awesome seeds, none germinated. It's always a possibility, but very sure it was my fault. I started three from my 693 easy, once those sprouted a root, I transferred them to pots and put them into a closed box to continue germinating, along with my main seeds. The closed box plus the heating mat raised the temp too high, the Ziploc bag was over 100 when I checked after three days of no progress. I cooked them. Stupid.   Monday, April 4 View Page Final decision is the 1157 zaychkowsky, which should go orange, the 693 kueny (2114x2416), double planted, both started april 10th and the 2416 haist, which was started late and only planted out on May 7th. Feel good about the seeds, should get at least one, maybe two solid orange. Three spares still in big pots, will probably keep at least one for a pollinator   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Double 693   Friday, May 6 View Page 693, looks a little yellow. I've given it CaN+ and magnesium, but no real change. The father is the 2416, so I believe it has the b gene, but I dunno if that explains the poor color. If it doesn't improve, I still have some solid back up plants   Friday, May 6 View Page 1157 looking good, just a little behind. Counting on this one too throw orange   Friday, May 6 View Page 2416 haist, just planted out today, a bit behind.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Final post. Plan for the year, three plants, going to try and repeat last year's success with pests and disease. Going with systemic insecticide and fungecide early and often. Improving with a soil test and correcting amendments. Will be using cloneX on vine burying again, I'm convinced it helps the plant hold up to the heat and makes up for more marginal soil to some degree. Will also be trying flornel on at least one plant. The theory makes sense to me, but we'll see.   Thursday, May 12 View Page One of the double planted 693. I've pulled this plant, and will likely pull the other soon. Replaced the one I pulled with my third 693, which I potted up the same time I planted the first two. I've decided the most likely cause for the poor start was leaving the plants in too small pots for two long, waiting for the soil to warm. Then I planted root bound plants just as we got hit with an unseasonal hot spell, and they just didn't stand a chance. The back up was the smallest of the three, so I think i potted it up just in time, and it seems to be doing well. So three good plants a few days from starting to really go. I planted the 2002 tobeck on the other end, growing towards the 693 as a back up, and also planted my last backup, the 852 toboyek growing away and out into the yard, so I may end up with four plants if that one looking good.   Tuesday, May 24 View Page 1157 Z, looking good here. The 693 is leading the pack, and the 2416 coming along. Still have the two backup plants, both are doing well, so I may try and divert them onto the lawn and claim a little more space. Less to mow!   Thursday, May 26 View Page Last good picture of the 2416 before a dog mauled it.   Saturday, May 28 View Page Last picture of the 693 doing well, something happened to it and the main was snapped, nearly all the way through. I let it try and recover, but it's pretty clearly doomed. Reasonably sure it was a dog, as the vine was already laid down. Pretty unhappy about it. Especially since one of my dogs definitely ripped several leaves of my 2416, setting it further behind.   Saturday, May 28 View Page After losing the biggest leaves, it's been very slow to get going again.   Monday, May 30 View Page A few days after the break, I was still optimistic at this point, it looked okay in the morning, but wilted in the afternoon. No dice, it's dead. I've got a backup planted at the other end, but it's still a set back   Saturday, June 4 View Page So I still have 4 viable plants, even if most aren't where I want them. My middle plant however is doing great, will post a pic later today. Already have 4-5 nodes buried, using clonex to encourage rooting, she's gaining 5-6 inches per day and starting to throw secondaries. Probably just a tad behind where I'd like, but since I'm not going to be able to pollinate until the last week of June anyway (traveling during the prime window) it's probably about where it needs to be. Will only give my ~90 days of fruit growth, but that should be enough   Tuesday, June 7 View Page Storm came thru and rolled a few side vines, after a bit of damage control and giving the plant a day to sort itself, only lost two leaves on the main. Got caught up on vine burying, using clonex on primary and secondary nodes until pollination. This plant will be the front runner by far, aiming for a late June pollination, maybe early July on the other plants   Monday, June 13 View Page 1157 Z, definitely the best plant, by far. Looking good under the shade cloth, vines running well, about 12 ft long. Should throw solid orange. Burying vines with clonex, first female a few days from opening. Not going to be in town, but I was going to pass on this one anyway to get a bit more plant. Just hoping the next one doesn't arrive too early, I'm going to be traveling during prime pollination window. The rest of the plants are all fairly behind, I'm growing two that should favor heavy and two they should favor orange   Monday, June 20 View Page First pollination on the 1157 Z, on a back side vine. Poll on the main in a few days, will be out of town, so depending on the wife to do the deed while I'm gone. Main vine may have scorched the growing tip despite shade cloth, but well just have to deal   Monday, June 20 View Page 2416 is still struggling, along with the other two. Gonna be tough to get a good pollination in time for the first weigh off mid September. Sprayed for bugs, mold and fish a week ago, rinsed in the morning, but had some spray damage on the new leaves. Just going to be more careful, hopefully they grow out of it   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1157 Z, 14 dap. Got a handful of other pollinations on the rest of the plants, but the next best is on the hd tobeck, which should throw a nice orange. It's a great torpedo shape, not quite enough plant behind it, but it's filling in. Thinking of growing two on the 1157,;I have one about a week old on a back vine, which I treated with florel, while the main vine poll wasn't treated. I think I have enough plant to support two, even if I do lose a few pounds, they should both be nice orange. Will try to get the rest documented soon   Thursday, July 21 View Page A few days out of date, but my 1157 Z at 30 dap. 33 dap today, measuring right around 450lbs. Should hit 500 in the next few days, so on pace to match last year's success. Three other plants have a pollination, one just a few days behind, but this will be this year's leader. Got another pollination on a back secondary on this plant as well, fairly slow going, but a nice shape.   Saturday, August 6 View Page Here's my patch leader on the 1157 Z, estimated 777 at 46 DAP. Very happy with the color and shape here, I've surpassed my best fruit from last in terms of dap, so I'm optimistic. I feel like the shape of this one may go light to chart, but it's not something I can control. Going to try and get the diary up to date here, so a few more incoming   Saturday, August 6 View Page Here's the back vine fruit for the 1157, sitting around 335 at 40 dap. It's on a secondary and the later set, so I don't expect it to be a real giant, but I also treated it with florel, which as I understand it may allow a longer growth period at the expense of early growth. So we'll see, I'll be happy if it clears 500 lbs, I'm mostly looking for biggish, but nice orange   Saturday, August 6 View Page Here's the fruit on my toboyek plant. Also treated with florel, and appears to have side effects that look like early maturation and disfigured fruit, which I knew going in were a possibility. Don't have a picture of it, but of the four pollinations I tried florel on, two look good, this one is weird, and another didn't make it past day 20. Plus several aborts.   Saturday, August 6 View Page 2002 tobeck, at 215 lbs at 23 dap. Also treated with florel, with no apparent side effects, nearly my fastest start ever, on a secondary. Only about 55 days left, so I'm not sure it'll get the benefits that the treatment may offer, but happy with progress so far   Saturday, August 6 View Page Since I lost my pollination on the 2416, I'm going to try and set one or two and grow them blossom down. With only 45-50 days left, I figure I might as well take a chance for a porch pumpkin and preserve the line. I grew a couple blossom down my first year using straw bales, so I'm going to try they again   Saturday, August 6 View Page Final update, for myself or anyone else thinking about using florel. Jury is still out, but after speaking to a friend in the Agri chemical business, he confirmed that basic idea, a similar chemical is used in the cotton industry to produce bigger yields, although it's used a bit differently commercially. I added one teaspoon/gallon of water, which I adjusted the pH of with a half shot of vinegar to get to around 4.5-5 with very alkaline water. Of the plants, I had multiple aborts ( during an incredibly hot spell) two look great, one looks weird and one went down around day 20, with a weird shape. So best case 50/50 it caused damage. Hard to say if it'll help, since I think the best results would be had with a longer grow period, which I don't think I'll have with my late pollinations. Anyway, mostly happy with the season so far, I knowingly took some risks here, we'll see how it turns out   Monday, August 22 View Page Somewhere around 950 lbs on the 1157, 62 dap. Slowing down quite a bit, and it's so hard to get a consistent measurement, I'm probably going to cut back on frequency of measuring. Decided the problem I was having with my leaves was likely spider mites, so I ordered up some Avid and sprayed yesterday, seems to have been pretty effective, had a lot of dead bugs this morning.   Monday, August 22 View Page The fruit on my toboyek plant, I'm really pushing this plant hard, trying to get it to inflate the bottom end. My HD last year had something similar and eventually grew out of it. This is more severe though, so I'm not holding my breath, but it's not going to be huge either way, so I'm okay taking some risk with it   Thursday, August 25 View Page Found a small split on the blossom end, opened up sometime between 7am and 4pm on day 65. Hadn't reached the cavity, but looked like it could try to expand, so I made a couple small relief cuts, cleaned it up with peroxide and rubbing alcohol and dusted it with sulfur. Hoping it holds, just hit 1000 lbs and thirty days to go! From the little this line has been grown, they seem to go light, but I'd love to see it make 1200   Tuesday, September 6 View Page Lost my "proven orange" toboyek seed. No knock on the seed, it went super orange, I just got an incomplete pollination, neglected the plant, planted it growing out into unamended grass, and then pushed the plant really hard to try and get the narrow end to inflate. It was always going to end this way, but it still sucks to lose one this late. I should be able to get good seeds from it, the toboyek plant crossed with the 1157 Z. I went ahead and caulked it up to try and keep it alive for a few more weeks . It ultimately ended up splitting hard making the sixth and final relief cut for some pretty knarly cracks   Thursday, September 8 View Page 1157 Zachykowsky from Sept 1   Thursday, September 8 View Page 1157 Z, profile, from September 5   Saturday, September 24 View Page Weighed 845, 24% light! Beautiful pumpkin though, and good enough for HD! Chalk it up to growing two on a vine and light genetics. Couldn't believe how light this thing went, but I can't complain. Good enough for 7th and brought home another plaque. Gunning for another with the second fruit on the same plant next week!   Saturday, September 24 View Page Same fruit, seen here with a girl and her pumpkin for scale, with evening light and polished up for display!