Howdy! I'm growing Atlantic Giant (AG) pumpkins near Rochester, NY, on the south shore of Lake Ontario.
Click here here for my main pumpkin page, with links to other years' growing logs.
Latest Updates:
| Oct. 8, 10- I picked the watermelon- 46 lbs., and all pumpkins- 57, 239, and 71 lbs. My friend Carl G. grew a pair of 100+ pound watermelon from the same seed! (He used heating cables early on to keep the plant warm.) It turns out that it wouldn't have mattered if the pumpkin stayed green this year, as the 15 year old NY State squash record was broken at the weighoff I would have entered... new record is 897 lbs!! I cut the watermelon to eat it, and while "ok", I guess Carolina Cross watermelons aren't very flavorful; it tasted more like water than melon. See my pix below: | |
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| Sept. 22nd- Note to self: when trying to make a fruit greener, MORE sun only turns it more ORANGE!! Oh well, it's surely not a squash now, guess I won't be taking it to the weighoff. At least I still HAVE a fruit though... my good friend Carl has lost all 3 of his giant pumpkins- two to splits after extra-heavy rains, and one to a rat! He does have TWO watermelons around 100 lbs each, though! | |
| Sept. 17th- The M-1 surface skin crack is nicely healed now; I'm glad the fruit was still on the vine when it happened, it was still alive & growing. | |
| Sept. 10th- Measured M-1, now at an estimated 224 lbs. It's pretty much done growing. I removed the shade cover today, hoping to make it greener so I can enter it in the squash contest. I accidentally kicked the fruit, and cracked the surface a bit. The watermelon is estimated at 41 pounds. | |
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Sept. 3rd- Went out in the garden
today, to cut out more mildew-killed leaves. Maybe 2/3 or more are gone.
The 2.5" of rain that we had a few days ago beat the brittle mildewed
leaves into skeletons, so I just cut them out. I measured all the fruit! M-1 is now about 221 lbs. As you can see from the picture, it's turning greenish now- it had been yellow/orange so far. If it's going to do this now, I hope it goes all the way so I can enter it as a squash! :-) The watermelon is about 38 lbs, and still growing nicely. Thumping it, it's not yet ripe, which is good. The two other latecomer yellow pumpkins are 63 and 48 lbs. I finally got a green squash on m 411; it's about softball sized. |
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August 27th- (I've
been pretty busy, so haven't updated the log in a while.) It's been
cool all this past week, with nights in the 60s or even 50s. Powdery
mildew is in full force; I missed my window to spray Daconil and control
it, so now it's killing leaves. I took out 2+ leaf bags full of debris
today. I've cut off all the growing vine tips, but may stop this now that
the mildew is damaging the plants (new leaves aren't affected by the
mildew), so that the plant stays alive longer. The M-1 pumpkin has
started to mature this week, turning a bit orange this past Monday, and
today (Saturday), it's showing signs of green/grey on the sides, apparently some
of its squash background coming out. It's estimated at 212 pounds right
now, and is still growing (slowly). I now have two other pumpkins
that started this month; one is 30 lbs. and the other is 44 lbs, both
growing like a house afire since they have full-size plants pushing
nutrients in. I
think there's enough time for them to get to be nice carvers, but probably
less than 200 lbs. I have
not sprayed any insecticide nor mildew chemicals so far this year. I
may have a bee-pollinated green fruit (finally!) started on my 411 plant,
as it's been cool enough for good pollination. In the next few days
I'll know for sure whether or not it's growing. WM-4 is the only watermelon I have, and it's growing nicely, currently 47" in circumference. I just got some watermelon growth charts, but they are Over The Top, so next time I measure it, I'll have to take the other 2 measurements in order to estimate. Eyeballing it, I'd say it's 20-35 lbs right now. It's growing about 1/2" in circumference a day. See pics below... NOTE they were taken 8/27 (today), NOT 8/2 as it says on the image! |
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| August 7th- I noted that cuke beetles arrived yesterday, but not very many. I fertilized the 380 Maness plant with 0-0-60 fertilizer, 1 1/2 cups, then I applied some Fish/Seaweed on this plant, plus the watermelon plant. Boy it smells fishy; no wonder Carl Greene had raccoons eating it like salad! | ||||
| August 2nd- I found two squash vine borers today; I dug them out and inspected the rest of the plant, but found no others. Bugs certainly have been very light this year. | ||||
| July 31st- I saw my first bit of powdery mildew today; I'll have to start spraying Daconil very soon. I have yet to see a single insect pest- no cuke beetles and no squash vine borers so far this year; this is extremely unusual; maybe they had it tough with all the hot weather we've had. I also bit the bullet and culled out one whole plant, the 847 , leaving 3 AG plants now. I needed some room to walk around- it's so tangled in there when I get a flower, I can't tell what plant it's on. I also needed a little room for the watermelon which seems to be doing really well. The 847 only has one maybe-fruit on it. Another melon flower opened today; I let nature pollinate it. WM-4 is now deli-pickle sized. | ||||
| July 30th- I took the watermelon pic in the right half of this photo this morning; it's now 3" long. By late evening, it was noticeably bigger though. Despite the 2.5 inches of rain 2 days ago, the garden was bone dry by evening and I had to water it. |
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July 28th- M-1
measures 52" in circumference today at 20 days old; approx. 53
lbs. See left half of photo above. We got over 2.5" of rain here on the 27th, wow! It looks like I have 3 pollinated watermelons!! One was 2" long, 7/8" thick today, at 2 days old. |
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July 26th- I
pollinated a female on the 847 with 2 males, one from each 847 and 807.
I put a piece of blueboard foam under M-1; much longer and I wouldn't be
able to lift it myself and put the foam under at the same time. This
blueboard is to prevent moles, chipmunks, etc. from coming up under the
pumpkin and wrecking it. I pollinated *two* watermelon females (WM-3, WM-4), using half a male flower each, and leaving other males on the vine for bees/ants to find. Hot again today, upper 80s, but we're in for a cool spell in the forecast. Curiously, the WM-2 fruit is moving back and forth from one side of the vine to the other during the day. I bet that will stop when it gain some weight, but it was quite cool to see- it moved 2" perhaps from morning to evening. I'm not quite sure what naturally pollinates them- I see red ants furiously crawling in and out of all these flowers, but never any bees. Plus, I never really see the female watermelon flowers fully open. One day I caught one at about 11:30 am. I need to go on the watermelon list and ask. |
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| July 24th- I hand-pollinated a nice female watermelon flower today (WM-2) using one male; lots of pollen came off. I started with 20-20-20 fertilizer all throughout the garden. I'm considering culling the 807 & 847- I just have no room in the garden to move. Leaf stems are forced to grow over 4' tall just to get sunlight (wasting the plant's energy growing that tall). I already have M-1 growing quite nicely, and don't need another pumpkin. I broke the tip off the 847 main vine by accident. | ||||
| July 23rd- Aha! M-1 is still doing just fine! At 15 days old today, it measures 37 1/4" in circumference- bigger than a basketball. I cut 4 or so tap roots under the vine near this fruit to relieve stem stress because it's so big now it was starting to tip the pumpkin down. |
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July 20th- The
M-1 fruit looked a little white to me yesterday, so I thought I'd measure
it over the next few days to see if it's still growing (...or killed from
the high temps we've had). Today, at 12 days old, it measures 27.5"
in circumference. The high heat & humidity has killed all the new
female flowers- I even had two that were supposed to open on Saturday, but
instead they stayed closed and died. I've never seen that before. Saturday
was near 100% humidity and warm. The garden is getting to be a real jungle; I can't keep up with the pumpkin vine burying anymore- I have 4 plants stuffed in there. I hate to cull any out until I'm sure I have a couple of fruit set. I don't see any progress with the 7/17 watermelon flower; I don't think it's growing. |
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| July 17th- The first female watermelon flower opened today! I've never seen one before, so it was pretty cool. It was very hot & humid today (dew point in the 70s!), so I'm not sure the pollination will work. | ||||
| July 15th- Pollinated one female flower; doubtful it will take due to hot weather. | ||||
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July 14th- M-1 is
now softball-sized, with a VERY long stem, and the fruit is yellow (not
green :-( ). Much to my surprise, M-2 may have been pollinated by
bees; it seems to be growing, and is pool ball sized. I should have
another female open on the 807 tomorrow. The 7/12 female on the 807
has not grown; perhaps the pollination didn't 'take' due to the
heat. The watermelon plant now has 3 vines, growing like crazy. The plant is about 6' long end to end. |
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| July 13th- First male flower opened today on the watermelon plant!! It was light yellow, and about an inch or so across. | ||||
| July 12th- Pollinated the first female on the 807. I couldn't tell how many lobes it had- they were sort of squished-looking. I used 4 males from the 847. I immediately shaded it w/blueboard since 90+ degree temps are forecasted. M-1 is baseball sized. | ||||
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July 11th- The
garden hit 105 degrees today under the leaves. I'll have the first
female open on the 807 tomorrow, but it's supposed to be 92 degrees out,
which is probably too hot for the pollination to stick. M-1 is about pool ball size today. The watermelon plant is developing a secondary vine now and growing rapidly. |
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| July 10th- I put up a piece of blueboard to shade the M-1 blossom; I really want to hold onto this early fruit. M-1's about the size of a goose egg, and yellow- not looking very squashy at all. | ||||
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July 9th- MUCH to
my surprise, I discovered that a second female (M-2) had opened yesterday on the
308- it was on a secondary, hidden under some leaves. I didn't
hand-pollinate it, and I'm pretty sure there weren't many bees out, so I
bet nothing will come of it. Oh well, the 380 looks to be pretty
prolific with female flowers so I'm sure I'll have many more to work with
in the future. The plants at both ends of the garden crossed in the
middle today. Boy, yesterday's rain really soaked the whole garden
and lawn nicely. Here's a photo of the CC watermelon plant today; it's more than doubled in size since the last picture. |
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July 8th- I
pollinated my first flower this year today, on the 308
squash plant; I labeled it M-1. This is one of the earliest
I've ever been able to pollinate in all the years I've been growing.
I
used 3 flowers from the 807, since I didn't want to self pollinate it, and there
were NO males open on the 411 squash (RATS! I really wanted to cross
these two!). The 807 pumpkin plant's female flower buds are looking
awfully green to me (for a pumpkin plant) anyway, so I was happy with the cross. I tied the female flower shut again with a fresh tendril to
keep out any stray bees. It was very overcast this morning, in the 70s at about 8AM when I pollinated, and it hadn't rained all night. There were NO bees out, so I'm glad I had planned on bagging the flowers the night before and then hand-pollinating. I rained & T-stormed like crazy most of the afternoon starting about noon; I hope that was enough time for the pollination to set. It's going to get pretty hot early next week, so I'll have to be sure to keep the little fruit cool so it survives; I'll probably shade it somehow. Conversely, the 308 squash plant's fruit is looking awfully yellow for a squash! The 847 has yellow female flower buds, as expected- good for an orange fruit result, and the 411, just like the other years I've tried, are very green. See picture below. The giant Carolina Cross watermelon plant is growing nicely, about 3 feet long now. Over the holiday weekend I finished surrounding the garden with chicken wire so the rabbits can't get in. |
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July 5th- First male flowers open on the 411, 847, and 807 plants
today. I measured the vines too: Green: -411: 12'0" main vine -380: 14'8"" main vine, some of the secondaries have pea-sized female flowers now too. A fine plant! Orange: -847.5: 10'3"" main vine -807.5: 11'3" main vine; the tiny female flower bud looks suspiciously greenish to me... |
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| July 4th- The 1st female flower of the season (on the 380) has roasted from the heat and died at about marble-size, before it opened. The second female bud still looks good though. We haven't had rain for 17 days now, and it's been near 90 almost all the time. I'm watering daily though. | ||||
| June 30th- The 380 has another pea-sized female, 2' down from the first one. | ||||
| June 29th- The main vine on the 380 grew 12 inches in 24 hours yesterday... wow! | ||||
| June 28th- Wow, my first male blossom opened- on the 380!! That means about another 10 days and I'll have a female flower open- just perfect timing to hit the golden zone for pollination. It looks like another male will open tomorrow as well, on the same plant. Now I've got to watch out for bugs as they'll be able to smell the plants for miles! :-) Up around 90 again. | ||||
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| June 27th- Still around 90 deg. today, hit 103 again in the garden. I noticed that each squash plant has a tiny female flower visible at the end of the main- a little smaller than a pea right now! Nothing on the orange plants yet, but the vines aren't quite as long as the green ones. Boy, I hope these work out as it would likely be the earliest I've ever pollinated. | ||||
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June 25th- 90+ degrees today; very hot yesterday too.
In the garden, it got up to 103 (I have a wireless digital thermometer out
there). I'm glad I never found the time to put up the larger hoop houses-
I didn't need them with all this warm weather we've had the past few
weeks. Even with the heat, I haven't had any problems with flagging
leaves; that means the root system has grown nicely, and I'm watering
adequately too. I finished weeding the garden; I wound up with 4 leaf bags
full of weeds! I put up the chicken-wire fencing around the
perimeter to keep the rabbits out. The CC watermelon plant now has 5 true leaves but is still tiny compared to the AGs! I suppose this is how the melons grow. I took measurements of the AG plants: Green: -411: 5'2" main vine with 3 secondaries, the longest is 10" -380: 7'5" main vine, with 4 secondaries; the longest is 2'4". This is my best plant right now. Orange: -847.5: 4'7" main vine, one 8" secondary -807.5: 4'4" main vine, along with one 19" secondary main vine (it started out thick, then split in two). This is the first time I've ever had a plant do this. I've read about other growers having more than one main, but I never have. |
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June 20-22nd- Fertilized each morning with 15-30-15 Miracle
Gro via the inline feeder and a hose. I did not lay down the soaker
hose I've used the past few years because it makes me lazy with watering,
and just doesn't provide the coverage that hand watering does. I'll
try it by hand this year. On 6/22 I culled one of my 411 plants, so
now I have 2 squash plants at one end of the garden, and 2 pumpkins on the
other. I started the weed harvest; looks like a good crop; some are
knee-high! I've started burying the vine on both plants in order to encourage additional root growth at the leaf junctions. I keep it buried up until the leaf that's as big as my outstretched hand. This needs daily attention (more burying) now as the plants are growing rapidly. |
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| June 3rd- One of the two watermelon seedlings mysteriously died today. The other one has a tiny true leaf peeking out. I see that David Bhaskaran of Minnesota reports that his pumpkin plants have vines 3-5 feet long! Wow, I guess I should've started my seeds earlier after all! | ||||
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June 2nd- The pumpkin seedlings are growing nicely with the
exception of the 801.4 which still has only 2 seed leaves (no true leaf);
I suppose it's defective and won't do much. The past couple of days
I've tipped the greenhouses off because it was getting up over 100 degrees
F in there, even when vented. I've been watering the seedlings every
morning because the garden is otherwise bone dry. There's not much
movement with the watermelons. Both seem healthy, just not much
growth. Maybe that's normal for watermelons, I don't know yet.
At least I've succeeded in hardening them all off enough so they aren't
getting sunburned. What's growing well: West end of garden, green Atlantic Giants: East end of garden, orange Atlantic Giants: |
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May 25th- For the past couple of days I've had the seedlings out
in the backyard during the day, getting some filtered sunlignt under a
tree, and on the cool enclosed porch at night to start to harden them
off. I planted the healthy seedlings in the garden today: 2
watermelons(!), 3 squash, and 3 pumpkins. I only have room for two
plants (barely at that), so I'll have to cull some later on. When I
planted the best seedling, the 380 #1, the dirt snapped the stem right in
half, ruining it. Boy, I'm glad that I planted a backup of
this seed now!! I put the Atlantic Giants in the storm-window
greenhouses for now; I hope to build bigger hoop houses in a week or two
if I can find the time. There's nothing over the watermelons, just a
cage to keep the rabbits out. I had to plant the watermelons
particularly deep as they were tall and spindly and wouldn't stand up
otherwise. I have a wireless digital thermometer
inside the (vented) greenhouses, and it gets a little over 90 in the
daytime, just perfect. I have put some white plastic over the glass
on one side for a while until the plants harden off further. I've
had problems with sunburning the seedling stems in the past, and I know
better now. Since last year's fruit sizes were not that great, I decided to save some $$ and not put in any manure. I've tilled in 2 truckloads over the past 2 years, and put in a lot of maple tree leaves last fall. I don't think that it's manure that's kept me from bigger fruit, it's gardening practices- the (not) daily attention paid to the garden. I don't think I'm going to put in the soaker hose at all, instead relying on hand-watering as I did the year I grew my biggest fruit. Hand watering will force me to pay more attention to the garden on a daily basis. Ok, I broke down and bought 4 bags of composted cow manure, and split it among the 3 planting areas (pumpkin, squash, watermelon). |
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| May 15th- The 807.5 has it's first true leaf, and is my 2nd best seedling. The 411s and 380 #2 have tiny first leaves too. | ||||
| May 14th- The 380 #1 has it's first true leaf, ~1" diameter! It is my best seedling, not bad for one with a broken root tip. | ||||
| May 8th- I put all seedlings into pots tonight. I found at the last minute that the only store that had larger peat pots doesn't carry them anymore, so I cut down some 1 liter soda bottles and gallon milk jugs and planted them in there. Somewhere in here the second 380 seed has sprouted. |
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| May 7th- A I now have 3 more 411s that sprouted, the 676, 847.5. The 807.5, while it has germinated, it has no root tip, some sort of genetic defect I guess. The damaged 380 root is growing like crazy, much to my surprise. | ||||
| May 6th- A second melon has sprouted! Also: two 411s, the 801.4, and the 807.5. | ||||
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May 5th- A MELON has sprouted! Woo Hoo!! Watermelons
have always been tough for me to germinate. The 380 Maness has sprouted as well, but the very tip of the root broke off. I'll let it grow and see how it goes, but I'm starting a new one today as I'm not too hopeful. |
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| May 3rd- SEED START- I tried to pick some older
seeds (that would throw deep orange) as I'm afraid they won't be good
much longer; I'm sure some will not germinate, so I've planted more than
I can use. I filed the edges, soaked them in warm water
for about 3 hours, then put them in
damp paper towel in a plastic bag in the oven with the light bulb on- this keeps
it at about 84 degrees F. I put the Carolina Cross watermelon
seeds half again as close to the bulb, as they seem to like much warmer
germination temps than the pumpkins. I'm about 2 weeks late in starting
the seeds, but only 1 day later than last year! Things were just
too busy to get it done sooner. My seed choices for this year:
PLUS 3 Carolina Cross giant watermelon seeds from: |
