Rick's 2000 Pumpkin Patch!

I'm growing Atlantic Giant pumpkins near Rochester, NY, on the south shore of Lake Ontario.   As most giant pumpkin weighoffs are the first weekend in October, the time to germinate seeds (indoors) for me is around the 3rd week in April.   This year, I got a late start, not germinating until May 11-12.   I'm currently growing seed from a 535* Wolf 99 (very green "squash"), a 434 Stephenson 99, and a 417 Andrews 99.   We've had an unusually cool summer; for only the 2nd time in 100 years it never hit 90 degrees F in July.   Despite my being 3 weeks behind schedule, the garden is full and the pumpkins are growing.   The garden is in the sunniest spot in my yard, and it gets full sun only from 9am-7:30pm.   Last year (my first year growing AGs), I grew 4 pumpkins totalling 771 pounds of pumpkins in here; the largest was 245 pounds.   Here's a few recent photos from THIS year...

Here's a side view of my small garden.

Here's a top view of my small garden, and an early view of two small plants being protected by my storm window mini-greenhouse. Note the top corner of the plastic (on both ends) is pulled down for ventilation- this must be done whenever the sun is shining, no matter how cold it is outside. If you close it up, the temperature soars over 100 degF and cooks the plants!

Here's my largest pumpkin so far, at 18 days old, on the main vine of the 417 Andrews 99 plant. Note the "belly button ring" around the blossom end.   Some AGs have this, some don't; it's genetic.

Here's my second largest, at 15 days old, on the main vine of the 434 Stephenson 99.   Note that the vine on this entire plant is yellow (just genetics, nothing wrong).   This vine also seems to be more brittle (less flexible) than my other 2 plants, experiencing some partial breaks due to rapid growith.

Here's my largest green "squash", at 10 days old, growing on the main vine of the 535* Wolf 99.

Here's my second largest green "squash", at 9 days old, growing on a secondary vine of the 535* Wolf 99. Note the very nice long stem.   All fruit on this plant are displaying this characteristic. [Unfortunately, this nice fruit aborted about a week later.]

A "blown" secondary vine- this is what happens when the plant grows too fast- maybe too much fertilizer and too much water.

--All images, text, copyright 2000---