Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 30 Entries. Wednesday, April 15 View Page Cow manure heading into the patch. It's a bit less composted than I would like. Any big clumps I put off to the side. Friday, April 17 View Page 8 seeds seeing dirt today! Tuesday, April 21 View Page We have life! Wednesday, April 22 View Page I have my work cut out in terms of getting amendments in. Thursday, April 23 View Page The nursery is underway. Monday, April 27 View Page A bear has come to visit my pumpkin patch! Tuesday, May 12 View Page I've been away from growing for 10 years because of college and work, but I am thrilled to be back. I've established a new patch over an existing grass field. It is 60 ft by 25 ft. I tilled it, sent the soil off to Western Labs and made my amendments. I have 3 plants in the ground with 500 square feet each. I have 2 Connolly 2310s and one generic Wallace whopper I grew as a backup. Sadly my two Wallace 2344.5 plants both died right after their first true leaf started. I still have another Wallace whopper generic backup inside. I'm doing it on a budget but trying to do all I can. My plants are inside amazon greenhouses with small heaters, lamps, and heating coils. I learned today reading here I need to reposition my lights to get the plants to lay down and not grow upwards. This one plant named white spot (it had a white spot on one of its cotyledons) now has these yellow spots on one of its leaves. Do any readers have any guesses what might be causing it? Next on my to do list is to put up a silt fence to cut down on wind and keep the varmints at bay. With the warm weather coming this weekend the greenhouses will be going away. Wednesday, May 13 View Page 3 plants surviving in this cool, wet, and overcast weather. Looking forward to the warm temps coming soon. I hope to put some landscaping fabric over the patch so I don't have to weed. I like the perlite under the main vine idea too. Trying to get these 3 to lay down with some encouragement from wooden skewers and putting the light low. Thursday, May 14 View Page The silt fence is up to keep varmints out and some wind block (terrible west wind here off the lake). This is so the plants will be in good shape when the greenhouses are removed for the nice weather! Friday, May 15 View Page Looking for some advice from the sages. What am I to make about these small leaves and other growth? Do I prune that? Also how far down my main stem do I want my secondaries? This plant has yet to "lay down", working on that slowly. Sunday, May 17 View Page Back from a weekend trip 2/3 look good. This guy is well. what is the best way to intervene? Or will this figure itself out? Tuesday, May 19 View Page These plants are getting bigger, but having to tough out this heat and high wind. I will feel a lot better when they lie down, and I can get the main vine burried. All good info to keep in mind for next year. Wednesday, May 20 View Page Do we think this is sun scorch from these 95 degree days or something else? Regardless I covered the ends with the chair today. Thursday, May 21 View Page Good news these are starting to lie down! Bad news: Do we think this is sun scorch from these 95 degree days or something else? The only other thing I can think is the new leaves getting splashed by a magnesium feed. Regardless I covered the ends with the chair yesterday after seeing this. Saturday, May 23 View Page Right: Like everyone else in the area I've been forced to pull the greenhouse back out for the cold temps. Poor things have to be shoved into these small greenhouses. With 47 as a low on the long range I'm a bit upset a Mother Nature but we play the cards we get. Left: An unexpected "weed" from the manure. I have about 8 of them sprouting up. I took one into a pot and will try to grow it to see what it is. Was very surprised to see them. Tuesday, May 26 View Page Well I think the plants have officially outgrown their greenhouses but the good news is that the next few days are warm. I really want to see these three palmst pack on the feet on the mains and secondaries this week. At the recommendation of some here I got some 30% shade cloth and am using the greenhouse frames to shade the ends. Not looking forward to the low 40s dip at night coming up this next weekend. Grow plants grow! Thursday, May 28 View Page Two interesting things I noticed that I circled in this photo. The first is a flower with a tremendously long stem that grows out of the side of one of the leaf stocks. The second is a leaf growing out of a flower. Do people ever notice things like this? I don't know the genetic lineage of the seed, but I'm curious if there is inbreeding here or if these freak things just happen. Friday, June 5 View Page Plants really took off in the past few days. Have my first female flower about 10 feet down a main vine. One plant the main and secondaries got a bit twisted up. I'm burying vines every day now. My concerns are that one plant has yellow leaves, I have some aphids showing up, one plant got pretty tangled up a Im in the process of getting it squared away, but my biggest concern is that as I'm loosening up soil in front of the vines I'm seeing grubs, white worms, and all kinds of creepy crawlies. What can I do to combat that? Sunday, June 7 View Page First male flower opened today! Mains and secondaries are really taking off big time! Monday, June 8 View Page Good growth happening. I've ordered some Merit online. Regarding the Merit insecticide I'm reading that it's not good for use on crops, which is discouraging because I had hoped to plant some corn adjacent to the patch. I'm a bit hesitant to use it now. Is there another alternative that would keep my corn food safe? Tuesday, June 9 View Page This will be my earliest chance at pollination. It's sitting at 10 feet out which isn't awful, but I'm hoping on my 3 plants I'll be able to get some going at 14+ feet. How many days do we think until this one opens? I'm guessing just a few more days. Thursday, June 11 View Page So these are two of the first two true leaves that have obviously seen better day. What is the best practice here? Let them be or prune them to keep the leaf decay from spreading to healthy leaves? If so what is the best place to cut the leaves from without exposing the plant to a wound? Or do you cut it and cover it over? Saturday, June 13 View Page First pollination today on a 5 lober! About 9 feet 8 inches out. Have another one a few feet down waiting in the wings. I'll let them duke it out. Excited to have come this far. Tuesday, June 16 View Page 3 pollinations so far. I feel like I'm spending many hours a day working on the patch and only half the things I wish were accomplished are. 2 plants in great shape about 18 feet long and the other is lagging. This week I've started a more robust insect and fungus control program. My leaves are having a variety of issues and I'm hoping that helps. I'm also brewing compost tea. My biggest concern is that my patch has become dusty and it seems like the top inch of soil is dead. It's now showing hydrophobic characteristics. I'm putting in a drip irrigation system this week to combat the affects from using the hose. Any recommendations on soil rehabilitation would be welcome! Friday, June 19 View Page Any ideas why this flower has not opened? Did I miss it? I had it covered with a strafoam cup every morning and it basically looked the same as this yesterday. Friday, June 19 View Page Also this guy is 6 DAP. I took the flower off late (but I didn't know what I was doing as with everything after 10 years of not doing this). Do I have a rot issue on the blossom end? And did I take too much off on the fruit and I see that ring there? It also doesn't look very big. Between the size of a baseball and softball. Saturday, June 20 View Page More pollination oddness here on this one this is a. 4 & 1/2 lober? Plants seem to be in a funk. Not sure my best move. I did compost tea and fertilizer yesterday to try and encourage them to straighten out. A lot of my secondaries either look like ribbon vines or the ends went crazy (lots of small leaves and flowers) and stopped growing (some but not all). Praying for some warmer weather. Really inconsistent this year in central MA. Sunday, June 21 View Page The plants are looking good. I put in a drip irrigation system for the first time ever (was sick of watering by hand plus I know the benefits). I highly recommend not trying to add drip irrigation to existing plants lol. I'd like to say I really appreciate everyone who has been answering my questions in my diary. It's great to have some real experts to turn to coming back after a 10 year break not growing. I'm feeling good about where I'm at this season. Plenty of notes already on what to improve next year. Another question for the sages. Is this a ribbon vine secondary? See it seems like it started flat and the flower stem grew alongside the other stem. Is this something I should just call or does it look like it's growing out of it because it looks like it has normal shape now at the end? Trying to decide to clip it or let it go. Tuesday, June 23 View Page 10 DAP on my first pollination. I'm not overly impressed but I'm still waiting to see what the others on the plant do. I'm curious if it will take off in the heat. Slowly getting it in the right position with that stake. I'm open to suggestions of better ways to do it without snapping it off. Friday, June 26 View Page Big plant now no just need some exciting pumpkins growing on it! My worst performing plant has the biggest so far at around the size of a bowling ball.