Rick's 2004 Pumpkins!

Oct. 16- I pulled out the remaining 3 fruit, 2 orange off the Pukos plant, 111, and 133 lbs, and 1 green fruit off the Welty plant, 106 lbs.  The Welty fruit is good-sized considering it only had a month of growing time, pollinated around 9/10!   So this year, I grew roughly 695 lbs of pumpkins in the garden.  Too bad it wasn't all in one fruit! :-)

Oct. 11- I pulled one fruit off the Pukos plant that has picked itself; it weighed 92 lbs.; I forgot to get a photo.  Remarkably, the garden is still fairly green and healthy; powdery mildew did NOT kill it like it did last year; Daconil works great.  Some of the leave are starting to flop over from age, but only in the last week or so.  New vines are even still growing!  

Oct. 2- Well, today was the big day- the Oswego weighoff.  The biggest overall in my garden is still the green fruit on my 411, growing out on the lawn.   I wasn't even going to bring it to the weighoff, thinking I'd just go and talk with friends and see their fruit, then I thought, what the heck, it's not much trouble, I'll bring it just to have it with me, but not enter it.  So I kept it in the van and parked on the street, not wanting to spend the $15 entry fee and get no prize (only 1st, 2nd place squash are awarded).  Much to my surprise, there was only ONE squash entered, and as it was only a half hour until the end of the contest, I hauled mine out and entered it and won 2nd place at 179.5 pounds, good for $200!  Very cool!  What a great decision that was, to bring it along!  I later measured the plant- the fruit was grown on the main at 13' out, and the whole vine was 35' long.  In hindsight, I should've truncated the main.  I had very few leaf junction roots as the lawn was hard and I didn't bury the vine.  I'll surely grow this seed again next year. I've still got 3 orange fruit growing in the healthy garden, and a really nice green one growing fast on the Welty plant (this one is why the other fruit aborted).  I wish this one had gotten going back in July!

179.5 lbs- good enough for second place at Oswego!

Sept. 29- I cut off an aborted 26 pound green fruit on the Welty plant, from the middle of the garden.  This was one of the ones we discovered on 9/26.  It was watermelon-sized.  I also noticed that one of the small Pukos fruit had completely picked itself off the vine due to a bad stem/vine angle- no wonder it wasn't getting bigger!  It weighs 62 lbs.

Sept. 27- I-1 approx 143 lbs; see photo.  The "brand new" green one from 9/21's note is now 45" in circumference.

Sept. 26- We discovered 2 "surprise" green fruit growing on the Welty plant.  One was baseball sized, which I cut off, and the other is bigger than a basketball!  I didn't even know it was there!

Sept. 23-Fertilized again., plus 0-0-60 as well.

Sept. 21- I-1 approx 125 lbs.  P-3 (orange fruit) is roughly the same est. weight.  I found a "brand new" green fruit, on the Welty plant (the only fruit on there).  It measures 29.5" circumference.

Sept. 17- Fertilized w/50 tbs 20-20-20, applied with the soaker hose and inline feeder. + put 12-14 gallons 2x strength all along the Inzero plant vine.  Sprayed Daconil on tops and bottoms; this is the first time I've ever used this particular funcgeide.

Sept. 14- I-1 approx 110 lbs.

Sept. 10- I took fruit measurements today on whatever I could reach:
    I-1 (green)= 66 1/2" circ, ~92 lbs. 
    P-3= 62 1/2" circ., ~80 lbs
    P-6= 56" circ., ~63 lbs.
    Fruit next to P-3= 56 1/2" circ., ~63 lbs., BUT the vine is 80% broken off the stem because of stem stress
        compounded by a vine borer. 
    I have one more on the Pukos plant, bigger than a basketball, but I can't get to it to measure.
    I culled a fruit bigger than a football that was aborting on the Pukos vine.

Sept. 9- LOTS of rain- at least a couple of inches today- the final remnants of hurricane Francis.  The garden was fine; very well drained.  The creek behind the house flooded, but back out the other direction, not onto my property.  Some neighboring towns declared states of emergency with some people with 6' of water in their basements.      I-1 measures 64 1/2" circ, around 86 lbs.  See new picture to the right: It's difficult to get into the garden to get a good picture or frequent measurements of the orange fruit due to the thick vegetation.  The main vine has grown nicely, but has very few secondaries for some reason.  The leaves are a LOT shorter than the ones in the jam-packed garden- I suspect that they don't have to reach/grow up to get to the sun, not competing with other leaves.

Sept. 6- The powdery mildew is settling in now; I trimmed off a couple bad leaves.  The leaves are so thick I really can't get in there to spray, but I ought to try.  I fertilized with 0-0-60 near the base of the Pukos and Inzero plants, plus put on 50 TBS Peterson's 20-20-20 via an inline feeder hooked to a soaker hose.  

Sept. 1- Measured the larger fruit:
  I-1 (green)= 54 circumference, ~58 lbs.
  P-6= 36" circ., ~24 lbs, very round, compared to the other oblong fruit on this plant
  P-3 = 42.5" circ., ~34 lbs
Two cantaloupe sized fruit on the 805's secondaries may be aborting; we'll see.

Aug. 31- Under the leaves of the 805 Pukos plant, I found there's AT LEAST 13 fruit that have been pollinated.  Culled *6* fruit, ranging from pool ball to cantaloupe size. 

Aug. 30- VERY heavy rains yesterday and today- well over 2".  I'm glad my soil is well drained.

Aug. 29- The secondary fruit on the 805 Pukos are starting to pick up steam now.  Currently between cantaloupe and bowling ball size.

Aug. 26- Here's a photo of the very nicely shaped and colored I-1 fruit, grown from my own 411* Inzero seed, on a very late/small plant. I only grew this plant as a male pollinator, but it's got my biggest fruit at this point.  At 19 days old, it's about 35 lbs.  It's starting to shape up just like its parent- wider at the shoulders.  Another fruit on the same vine aborted itself at about pool ball size because this one is growing.

Aug. 25- I fertilized with 20-20-20 again; the temperature has soared; over 80 today for the first time in many weeks; a week-long warm spell is here.  The watermelon plant I have is alive but buried under the canopy of pumpkin leaves and is so small that it will surely never have any fruit; I'll have to start one on time next year.

Aug. 24- Hooray!  The first female (green) to open on the Welty plant was pollinated this morning- I protected the female and 2 males from the Inzero plant, hoping for a good genetic cross to produce green fruit.  All the other females on the Welty plant aborted about marble size and never opened.  This one looks good.  The I-1 fruit is now 37" in curcumference.

Aug. 23- Wow, the female flowers are really coming out on the 805 Pukos plant- I have lots of them on the main and most secondaries.  The bees have been finding them, and I now have at least *9* pollinated fruit on this plant.  I need to cull some off this weekend.

Aug. 22nd- The green I-1 fruit is now at 31" circumference- approx 17 lbs.

Aug. 13th-19th- Hand pollinated 5 flowers on the 805 Pukos and one on the Inzero over the past week. The first one was on 8/13, right on the main vine, the "P-3" fruit.  It's been very cool- 50s at night, 70s during the day.  On 8/19 I poured a couple gallons of 20-20-20 fertilizer on the Pukos and Inzero plants- the first fertilizer in 5 weeks- I had been holding off, hoping to get orange fruit pollinated.

Aug. 10th- Wouldn't you know it, it looks like the 411* pollination took!  Not much will come of it because the plant is so small due to the late plant date.  I wish I could get something going on the other (HUGE) plants!  I should have a few flowers opening over the next several days.  Still spotting the occasional SVB.  There's no sense posting pictures yet as all there is to see is green leaves!  :-)

Aug. 7th- In the corner of the garden  I have one of my own 411* squash seeds that I put in there very late- mid June.  I've run the vine out onto the lawn, intending to use the male flowers for the 720.5 Welty, to strengthen the green line.  A female opened on this main today, and I hand pollinated it- the "I-1" fruit.  The plant is only about 15' long, and has 3' secondaries.  

Aug. 6th- Another female opened on the 805, on a secondary.  I didn't notice it until 8pm; hope the bees found it!

August 4th- Checked the garden; 7/24 pollination did not take, MUCH to my surprise.  I've also had many tiny fruit die before opening.  Perhaps I have too much nitrogen.  Suspecting this, I stopped fertilizing a while ago.  I need to get a test kit...  Perhaps it was the Sevin.  The plants have now filled the garden; there's no room to walk.  I saw 2 SVB moths flying around today.  No female flowers in sight, and I still don't have any fruit growing.  It looks like the 805 has a couple mains, and my garden isn't really set up for that, so I'm curving them around behind the plant.

July 24th- First female opened on the 805!  I hand pollinated it and then went on vacation, hoping that when I get back I'll have a soccer ball sized fruit.  I'm leaving a soaker hose running while I'm away.  I sprayed for bugs and powdery mildew last evening.

July 22nd- First powdery mildew seen on the lilacs.  They are always my early warning indicator.  When you see it on the lilac leaves, there's spores in the air and you'd better start preventative spraying on the pumpkins.

July 17-8th- Spotted my first squash vine borer (SVB) moth today; killed it. 1st male flowers open on the 720.5.

July 15th- I spotted a green pea-sized fruit on the 720.5 Welty, plus many pea-sized ones on the 805 secondaries.  

July 10th- I spotted 3 pea-sized female blossoms on the 805. One's on the main, the other 2 are on secondaries. No sign of cuke beetles, heh heh.

July 6th- I measured the vines today- the 805 is about 9 1/2 feet; the 720.5 is about 3-4 feet.

July 5th- 2 male flowers opened up on the 805 today!  In about 10 days, I would expect a female flower; not too far off schedule!!.

July 4th- re-weeded the garden, and put up my famous chicken wire fencing to keep the rabbits out.  This works really, really well for me.  The 2' tall roll fencing is held up by bamboo gardening sticks along the length, with a heavier stake at each corner.

July 1st- TONS of cuke beetles are in the garden!!  I've never seen this many in all the years I've been growing!  I sprayed Sevin.  The next morning, I counted 23 dead cuke beetles on ONE 12" LEAF alone!  The 805 is about 10' long now, with secondary vines ~18" long.  I culled 2 of the 3 extra 411* plants.  I doubt they would've caught up with the original 720.5 plant now, which is around 2' long.

June 28- A rabbit ate the delicious 170 watermelon seedling.  I put a hardware cloth screen cage over the 121 now (duh).

June 23- Planted both watermelons in the ground.  Both are lanky seedlings with only dicot leaves, ~6" tall overall.  Leggy seedlings like this are never good as there's a good chance they'll get sunburned and thus grow slowly at first.

June 14th- Put 3 of the 411* sprouts in the garden.  One had huge roots, 2 had "normal" roots, and 1 had no roots (threw this one out).  This was quite interesting for me to see; all 4 seeds came from the same plant, were stored and germinated under identical conditions, but one was clearly a LOT better than the others.  Hmm, food for thought.  I HAD been picking just one seed to germinate each year, but now perhaps I'll germinate several of the same parentage and plant only the most vigorous.  My 2 original squash plants are still small, just getting their second leaves, steadily recovering from their roasting.  Boy, am I way behind on this now.  I got a wireless digital thermometer that I've put in the garden.  Daily highs have been 90+, with lows around 50-60.

June 6th- I started 4 of my own 411* seeds.  If they take off and surpass my existing squash plants, I'll keep them and cull the others.  I also started more melon seeds, a 170 and 121 as my only one croaked somewhere along the way.

June 5th- My friend Carl Greene needed some replacement CC watermelon seeds as his croaked due to the cool and wet weather.  I had recently gotten some from Dewight Blanton, so I was able to help him out.  As luck would have it, Carl had an 805 Pukos 2000 pumpkin plant that was still in a pot in his shed, never making it into the garden.  He offered it to me, and I gladly took it.  The vine was already 3' long, far, far better than my 1-leaf wonders.  I dug out the 544 Wilbers (it just wasn't growing) and put the 805 in its place.  I heard that the Oswego weighoff now has a web site... cnypumpkinfest.com, and has changed their rules, increasing prize values among other things.  Their web site has rules & prize structure.

June 4th- The seedlings in the garden are doing terribly!  I had forgotten that I should remove the mini-greenhouses on sunny days, and I cooked the plants even though they were well vented.  They're really tiny, still with only 1 leaf!

[Too busy to to write anything from 5-7 to 6/3.  Apparently too busy to watch the garden, too; see 6/4 entry.]

May 7th- Rats!  The 170 CC melon seed sprout broke its own stem- it grew too fast in the paper towel!  I started another.  The watermelons seem to like it warmer to germinate, approx. 90 degrees.

May 4th-6th-   GERMINATION- The oven bulb's warmth worked really great, with the 535*, 544, (and 170 melon) seeds germinating within 48 hours.  The 720.5 germinated 5/6.  The 986* doesn't appear to be germinating.

My seed choices for this year:
Orange:
    -544 Wilbers 02 (I grew this last year- nice fruit!)
   -986* Hester 00 (from a squash, but throws orange)
Green:
    -411* Inzero 00 (my personal best, 535 Wolf 00 x self)
    -535* Wolf 00 (815 Anderson x self)
    -720.5 Welty 99 (from a pumpkin, but throws green)

PLUS 2 Carolina Cross giant watermelon seeds:
   170 Deshong 03 (white seed)
   121 Blanton 03 (brown seed)

I'm trying to grow a nice really-green squash and a nice really-orange pumpkin.  I enlarged the garden a little, so will try a watermelon if they sprout.