Latest Updates:
Halloween- Carved! |
| October 9th- We harvested the rest of the big fruit and put them out front on display. |  |
| October 5th- Took the green S-12 to the Oswego weighoff; it weighed in at an official 280 lbs!! That was 21% heavier than the measurement. While not the largest "squash" there, it sure was the prettiest- it was grass green and shiny; all the others were grey-green-peach colored. |  |
| October 2nd- S-12 now at 232 lbs. est., putting on 2" in circumference in the past 3 days. Y-6 held at 160 lbs. est. X-1 is up to 182. |
| September 28th- S-12 now at 224 lbs. est. Y-6 is up to 160 lbs. est. I've been putting a blanket on S-12 at night to keep it warmer so it'll continue growing fast. |
| September 18th- Drenched the vines with kelp extract, plus 20-20-20 through the soaker hose. S-12 now at 192 lbs. est. This very late season growth is remarkable. The fruit is way, way out on the vine, maybe 40 feet, and while the oldest part of the vine has no leaves due to age, there's plenty of vibrant, younger leaves out past 20 feet to drive this fruit. |
| September 14th- Put on 0-0-60 granules, plus 20-20-20 through the soaker hose. As long as S-12 is growing so well, I might as well keep up the fertilizing. I cut off 2 female flowers and a baseball-sized fruit on the Stellpflug plant. |
| September 12th- Green S-12 fruit now at 166 lbs. est. |
| September 11th- 3 days of 90 degree temps broke- it's mid-60s today. I discovered that the small unknown pumpkin is on a 128 secondary. |
| September 8th-
Fertilized with 20 TBS 20-20-20, + dumped a gallon of dissolved 0-0-60
on the 771 stump. Thanx to Dave Steele for suggesting I soak
the "insoluable" 0-0-60 granules for a long time (days)- this did the
trick, and they indeed broke down. So right now I have 4
fruit total in the garden- green S-12, orange Y-6, orange X-1, no longer gaining, and one smaller orange one, also not gaining. I'm having trouble finding 20-20-20; I suspect it's been discontinued and I'm finding only last year's stock. |
| September 5th- Cleaned out the garden- cut off between 75-100 dead/dry/or mildewy leaves. Much to my surprise, I cut off 2 unopened females and 1 pollinated fruit that was about pool ball sized from the 771! I also found 2 new 771 tertiaries growing like crazy; I terminated them. I can't believe the number of female flowers this plant's produced- surely over 20 of them. I took new pix of the fruit & garden leaf damage today; send me email if you'd like to see them. |
| September 4th- S-12 at 105 lbs., just great weight gain. X-1 still at 173; I think it's done growing; the fruit is still sound. Y-6 at 140 lbs. and growing. I fertilized w/50 TBS 20-20-20. |
| September 3rd- The middle of the garden is heavily damaged- dead/dying/yellow leaves. The green neighbor to S-12 is aborting. |
| August 30th- The leaves in the middle of the garden are looking poor/dying. I think it's the powdery mildew that's doing them in. |
| August 28th- Y-6 now at 115 lbs. S-12 is at 46 lbs. X-1 is at 173. Hmm, no increase in X-1's weight. Nothing seems wrong with the vine or the fruit. I drenched 4 gallons of kelp fertilizer on each end of the garden. Ran the soaker hose with 20-20-20. |
| August 26th- Put on 4 lbs granular 0-0-60, and watered it in. this is the strength specified on the package for my square footage. |
| August 25th- S-9 has stopped growing- aborting at about 36" circumference. S-12 is now at 28 lbs. There's a nearby fruit to S-12, but on a different vine that's 23 lbs. X-1 is at 176 lbs. Y-6 is now up to 102 lbs., really gaining fast. It's changing shape from pear shape to a nicer rounded shape as it grows. This is a nice fruit. |
| August 20th-X-1 now at 165 lbs, green S-9 at 25 lbs, Y-6 at 71 lbs. I ran 50 TBS of Peters 20-20-20 fertilizer in through the soaker hose, and also terminated the 771 Stellpflug plant vines. I shot new fruit pix. |
| August 17th- Another green female opened today on the main vine, a 5 lober flower; I let the bees pollinate it. I found a bunch of small ones aborted: S-13, S-10, Y-5, S-11, S-8, and an unnamed one from 8/2-3. I put a shade cloth over the green S-9. The neighbor green one is yellowish and aborting. I put some blueboard styrofoam under Y-6; it's at about 49 lbs. I discovered a big KINK in the X-1 fruit's vine- it had grown to push up against the post holding up the shade tent. I moved the stake & cut another tap root to relieve the stress. X-1 fruit now at 157 lbs. est. |
| August 15th- Y-6, S-6 aborted. It was 95 deg. yesterday, cooler today. I cut off K-2 fruit- it clearly aborted; it weighed exactly 52 lbs., right on the chart. It wasn't even hollow yet. I have a nice picture of it, but am currently at my size limit for this web site, so have to do some cleaning up before I can put up new pix. I did save a few seeds to experiment with to see if they germinate. I removed the entire Kournikakis plant today as this was the only fruit on it. |
| August 14th- X-1 fruit now 142 lbs est., K-2 fruit still 53 lbs. |
| August 13th- Another green female opened today (what else is new? :-) ). K-2 stem is going rotten; I'll surely have to cut off the fruit this week. I'll probably cull the entire 547 plant as this is the only fruit, the main is terminated, and it has undesirable brittle vine/stem characteristics anyway. I still have not put any Sevin on; with the hot weather I'm a bit afraid it'll kill the plant. Cuke beetles everywhere. :-( |
| August 12th- X-1 now at 182.5 OTT, approx 133 lbs. K-2 at about 53 lbs. Another green female opened, S-12. I've had probably 15 females thus far on this one 771 plant, and more are coming; wow! I pruned many weak or borer-infested small vines & dead leaves. I am starting to terminate vines now too, as they get in the way or climb above the leaf canopy. It's been in the 90s for several days now. |
| August 11th- Another green fruit pollinated today (S-11). |
| August 8th- Put up a shade tent over the X-1 fruit. I trimmed off several weak/small vines; it's time I started to cut down on vine growth. Noticed that K-2 had a weeping stem crack at the vine. I ran in 40 TBS of 20-20-20 Miracle Gro via the soaker hose. |
| August 7th- Pollinated another green female (S-10) |
| August 6th- X-1 measures 163 OTT, approx 97 lbs. K-2 is around 41 lbs. X-7 aborted at about plum size. |
| August 5th- I pollinated a *6 lobe* flower (Y-6) on the 128 plant today; this is the first 6 lobe I've ever had! S-7 fruit aborted. I also noticed a 5 lobe green female (S-9) open on a big secondary, but it was too late to hand-pollinate - the bees stole all the pollen! |
| August 4th- Measured X-1: 155.5 OTT, approx 86 lbs. X-4 and Y-4 aborted. |
| August 3rd-
Pollinated a perfect 5 lobe on the 771, using 2 males from my 411.
It's about 35 feet out, but I still don't have a green fruit
going yet. Compare today's photo of X-1 with the one from just 11 days ago... |
 |
| August 1st- Measured X-1: 140" Over The Top measurement, approx 65 lbs. Measured K-2: 38" circumference, about 26 lbs, basketball sized. S-3 aborted. I drenched both stump areas with fish extract fertilizer. I've still backed off on the fert as I'm trying to set fruit. 93 degrees today. |
| July 31st- X-2 fruit aborted; was almost soccer ball sized. |
| July 30th- Dug out 3 big SVBorer grubs from the stump of the 194. X-6 aborted. Cut off many old/dead leaves, chiefly around the stumps of the 128 and 194. I noted the 547's fruit (K-2) stem has cracks/splits- brittle. |
| July 29th- Pollinated 4 lobe S-6 w/1 411 male- it's on a secondary vine. Pollinated a perfect 5 lobe S-7 w/1 411 male- on a different secondary, but the vine's broken half way through right at the fruit, so I have low expectations for this one. Pollinated 4 lobe X-7 w/1 128 male. |
| July 28th- K-1 aborted. Self-pollinated 5 lobe on 128, Y-5. I have 2 females on the 771, however by 10:45, neither female had yet opened- very weird. I forced them open and pollinated S-4 with a 411 male, and S-5 with a 128 male. I noted the first powdery mildew on 2 leaves of the 128 plant. S-2 aborted. It's noteworthy that while the fruit was 5 1/2" in diameter, the stem was a huge 1 1/2" in diameter. Boy, if only the heat would calm down so I can set fruit on this 771 plant. High winds came in and broke 6 or so big leaf stems- they were up off an unburied vine (thus no root anchors). I put up a temporary windbreak. |
| July 27th- Y-2 aborted. The S-2 fruit is looking yellowish, rather than the normal green. It's aborting too. |
| July 26th- I noticed that the 771 Stellpflug plant has absolutely HUGE secondary vines- as big as the other main vines. X-3 aborted. |
| July 24th- Cuke beetles!! Saw my first ones today. I had to cut 3 tap roots near the X-1 fruit- it was starting to pull down on the stem, stressing it. |
| July 23rd- Got my
digital camera back... to the right is a photo of my biggest fruit thus
far, next to a standard size basketball. 11 day circumference measurements: S-2= 19.5" (green fruit) Y-2= 12.75" X-2= 24.5" -this is even better than the X-1 fruit was K-1= 15.75" Obviously, some of the fruit are slow. I suspect they're starting to abort due to all the heat we've had recently, or perhaps due to the fertilizer. The weather broke again, it was in the 70s by dinnertime. |
|
| July 22nd- Pollinated a green female flower on the 771 (S-3) with 3 males off the 547. This is only the third female to open on this plant. Pollinated a flower on the 194 (X-6) with 3 males from the 128. I killed 2 SV borers in the main stump of the 128, plus a couple more in leaves. They're about 1/2" long now. I've never had this many before; perhaps the warm winter was to blame? Maybe it's my not using any insecticide yet this season? |
| July 21st- Killed 2 SVB moths, and 4 or 5 actual borer grubs in my leaf stems. The 547 main vine has at least 2 and maybe up to 4 very damaged areas due to borers. |
| July 20th- Pollinated a flower on the 128 (Y-4) w/2 547 males. It was a 5 lobe, but with huge lobes, bunched together. Still lots of bees. I started 20-20-20 fertilizer, run in through an inline feeder and the soaker hose. I took an 11-day measurement on the X-1 fruit- 21". |
| July 19th- BEES!! The honeybees are here today! This is the first time I've seen any bees; there are tons of them! Perhaps it's because I have tons of (male) flowers open now. I discovered a female on the 194 SECONDARY open today (X-4). This is my first female to open on a secondary. I didn't bother to hand-pollinate it because it is only a foot from a chain link fence and won't have any room to grow anyway. I also found another female on the 194 main (X-3), likewise, I didn't pollinate it, just too busy. The 194 is very prolific in generating female flowers. |
| July 18th- Cut off a tiny secondary from the 547- I suspected a borer was in there- I could see a little damage. Yep it was in there, very small, only a bit bigger than 1/8" long at this point, too small to even generate any "sawdust" evidence. The garden is really a jungle of vines now, very difficult to step in there- I have to be very careful when pollinating. |
| July 17th- Pollinated a 128 female with 2 194 males (Y-3). Hot/humid, 90s today. |
| July 16th- Checking out the plants this evening, I see that the main vine on the 547 has broken off (at least it was past the 2 fruit that I've pollinated). A thick secondary on the 194 similarly broke. They broke because I'm behind on burying the vines, and they crawled up other foliage, curving up and above the leaf canopy, then broke under their own weight. I will have another female opening tomorrow on the 128. |
| July 15th- I pollinated another 4 lobe female today on the 547 (K-2); I was able to use 2 males (off the 771) for the first time. I noticed that another female (X-3) had opened yesterday AM, but I had missed it; maybe the bees found it, we'll see. The plants are very vigorous- some of the secondaries- on the 128 and 771- are as thick as the main vine. I have run a soaker hose for 3 days straight, stopping it today. The first male flower opened on my 411 today. I haven't been caring for the plant- I just want to see what color fruit it throws, plus want to use the male flowers for pollination. After I'm done with this, I'll cull the plant- I just have no room, and certainly plenty of these seeds. I cut off a few "old" leaves and tertiary vines today. 3 of them had SVBorer damage, so the eggs from the moths I saw back in late June must have hatched. I'll really have to keep my eyes peeled now. I have not yet seen any Cucumber Beetles, and have not yet needed to spray any insecticide! I think I have seen only one bee. |
| July 12th- I
indeed pollinated 4 females today- S-2, 5 lobe, poll. with 1 194 male Y-2, 4 lobe, poll. with 1 547 male X-2, 4 lobe, poll. with 1 547 male and K-1, poll. with the 3 "used" males from above, and then left open. In other years, I've always had so many males I could use 4-5 per flower. My fruit naming scheme: S-? = fruit grown on the Stellpflug 771 squash plant K-? = fruit grown on the Kournikakis 547 plant X-? = fruit grown on my Inzero 194 plant Y-? = fruit grown on my Inzero 128 plant Where the "?" is the number of the female flower that has opened on that plant. |
| July 11th-Yipes! I went out to bury vines (by lantern-light) and discovered *4* females are going to open tomorrow AM- one on each main vine!! I bagged them all, and likewise the males- I could only find 3 males, so I can see I'm going to have a problem. I hope I run across another that I didn't spy tonight. I have a serious dirt shortage now... I have so many leaf nodes between the main and secondary vines that I just don't have any more loose dirt. I'm going to have to start stealing dirt from another part of the yard. |
| July 9th- I pollinated my first female today (X-1)! A 5 lobe flower on my 194 that had survived the 90+ degree heat wave. I pollinated it with one male from the 547. I only had 2 other males open today, one on the 128 (same genetics as 194, but reversed), and one on the 771 (squash). It was pouring rain all morning, but I had covered both flowers with plastic ziploc bags the night before, so they were pretty dry when a break in the rain came and it was time to pollinate. |
| July 5th- More male flowers opened today, on the 194, 128, and 771. The hot weather has finally broken; high should be only in the 70s today. The 771 female blossom is looking poor; I'm certain it's a goner due to the heat we've had. I buried a lot more vine today- mains and tons of secondaries. I had gotten a few days behind due to the hot weather. I discovered the 771 has 2 new females, green again! :-) There's other females around the patch now; I even saw one on a secondary. I finally got the chicken-wire fencing up today. |
| July 4th- I found the first male blossom today, on the 771. The female blossom on the 771 is looking yellowish- I think the extreme 90+ temps the past few days have killed it. I've now installed a soaker hose. |
| July 2nd- 94
degrees today! I watered once in the morning by hand, and
NONE of the leaves drooped- a good sign that I have plenty of roots to
support the plants and then some. I buried more
vines today, a daily task now that they are growing so fast. Vine measurements: 771- 11' 547- 11' 6"; female flower now almost shooter-marble sized 128- 14' 6"; female flower now marble-sized 194-12'; female flower now marble-sized The biggest leaves are 21"+ across, nearly full size now. Some of the 547 leaves have been chewed by some bug that I have yet to see or catch in the act. No idea what it could be. I took these with my older cheap-o digital camera just so you can get an idea on the size of the plants compared with the pix from 11 days ago below (6/21). |
|
| July 1st- I found the first teeny tiny female blossom starting on the 547. It was very oblong, and yellowish. I can't tell yet whether it'll be a squash or not. |
| June 29th- I discovered the first baby on the 128 today- it was yellow! The vines have grown 20" in the past 2 days- see the two marker sticks in the ground to the right. They slowed down a bit as the temps were milder, only in the low 80s. I'm starting to bury secondaries on the 194 and 128 now. I saw one SVB moth. I hope we have some cooler weather when it's time for these to pollinate. (Too hot and they don't set.) The digital camera broke today, so it'll be a while before I get new pix up again. :-( |  |
| June 27th- The 128 has grown 15 inches in a day, the 194 grew 11"; quite amazing to watch them go. By contrast, the 411 has a 14 *inch* long main vine. It is the exact same age as the other 4 plants, but was kept in a pot 11 days longer. This is a vivid example showing that you should not keep the plants in pots for very long- get them into the garden as soon as possible after germination. Saw another SVB moth. |
| June 26th- I saw the first squash vine borer moth today, flitting around and touching down to lay eggs right at the dirt line. I tried to swat it 3 times, but it was too wary. Then I came up with Rick's Patented SVB Killing Technique (TM). Sneak up as close as you can, then take a handful of dry dirt and throw it at the moth. It'll get knocked to the ground where you can do what you wish with it. Now I'm a little concerned that the vines I buried just yesterday may have some eggs on them. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for larva evidence (the yellowish sawdust stuff) during the next couple of weeks. 89 degrees again today. |
| June 25th- mid
70s yesterday, but back to about 90 degrees today; phenomenal plant
growth. I have more free time now, and am keeping up with the
vine-burying nicely. Vine measurements: 771- 5' 547- 4'8" 128- 6'10" 194-6'+ While measuring the vines, I was quite surprised to find two baby female flowers at the vine tips- a yellow one on my 194, and a GREEN one on the Stellpflug 771! Yee ha! I was HOPING that I'd get a green one this year!! I'm very anxious to see what color the 547 throws. Now that I've got fruit, I've got to get the chicken wire fencing up to keep out the wascally wabbits. They like to chew the female flowers the day before they open. |
|
| June 23rd- 91 degrees and humid! A few of the leaves wilted a little bit in the afternoon heat, recovering in the evening when it got cooler. |
| June 21st- Vine
measurements: 771- 2'8"; largest leaf 16.5" 547- 2'6"; largest leaf 14.5" 128- 4'2" long; largest leaf 16.5" diameter 194- 4'; largest leaf 15" Some of the oldest leaves are broken and floppy due to damage from being jammed in the cloche.
|
|
| June 16th- I
noticed the 711 main vine has sent down an extra big fat tap
root. Time to start burying the vines, I guess! You
should keep up with burying them as the plant grows- as soon as a leaf
gets as big as your hand, bury the vine up to that spot, taking care
not to entomb the new vine/flowers sprouting there. Main vine
measurements:
128- 33" long The 411, while the same age as the other plants is far behind due to being kept in the pot much longer. |
| June 15th- Until now, I've had the plants covered with vented mini-greenhouses made out of old storm windows. Looks like it's time to remove them now!! It's been raining hard for 2 days. I just need a spare moment to get out the bamboo sticks to pin down the plants to protect them from the wind once I remove the enclosure; perhaps tomorrow. The leaves are growing over an inch in diameter each day now. I got a digital camera for Father's Day, so updates will include pix from now on! | |
| June 6th- In the past 2-3 days, I've noticed that all the plants have really picked up in growth. My smallest plants have leaves about 5" across, the largest about 7 1/2". I've left them in the (vented) cloches for the past couple of days- it's been cloudy. I found a way to avoid my sunburned stems on the bigpumpkins.com web site- bury the stems up to the hilt. Too bad I didn't run across that gem 2 weeks ago! |
| June 2nd- Because the other plants have burned stems, I decided to plant the 411 in the garden despite it being root bound. I'm considering starting another new seed directly in the garden; maybe it can do better than the damaged ones, even with a late start. |
| June 1st- I've made the mistake(?) of tipping the cloches off on sunny days, and the direct sun has sunburned, dried and split open the upper half of the flopped-over seedling stems. Now it's coming back to me- this is what happened last year, and I got mediocre results with the size of the fruit. The plants are alive, but I imagine they're slowed due to the damage. The 194 is the least damaged since I had some sticks propping it upright, and the leaves partially shaded the upright stem. |
| May 30th- Some progress seen in the last few days- leaves are getting bigger, finally acclimating to the transplant. All plants have 2 true leaves open, ~4" across, and a third starting. |
| May 22nd- I put the plants out in the garden- the 547 and 771* at the west end, the 128 and 194 at the east. I had wanted to hold them in pots for only a couple days, then get them in the ground to avoid getting root bound like prior years. But they wound up growing in the pots for 16 days because of several days of drenching rain and a spell of freezing temperatures. They immediately flopped over due to the weight of the leaves and length of the stem. I was unconcerned, as they dropped in the direction I had wanted to train them anyway. The 411 I left in the pot, intending to take it to work, the 847.5 I threw out. The garden is in the sunniest spot in my yard, and it gets full sun from about 9am-7:30pm. |
| May 18th- The 847.5 had germinated very slowly, and now (still) only has dicot leaves, and they're small- it's not getting any true leaves. Must be a mutant. It turns out that my 128 and 194 are the biggest seedlings. I guess I'll keep the 194 after all. | |
| May 8th- I tilled in 1,120 pounds of composted cow manure- 28 forty-pound bags! |
| May 5th-6th- With
high hopes for growing a big one, I filed the edges, soaked them in
warm water for 4 hours, then put them in damp paper towel in a ziploc
bag in the oven with the light bulb on. This worked really
great,
with most everything germinating within 36 hours. Tje 547/128
went first, then 411/194, and 771. Finally (after 3 long
days) the 847.5 germinated.
My seed choices for this year:
|
 <was seeds2000.jpg> |
