Oct. 14th- Surprisingly, the powdery mildew has not killed the
plants- they are still in fine shape. I picked all the fruit today. I
weighed each on a scale:
F-4 = 210 lbs
K-1 = 171 lbs. (the green/peach one below)
three others: 102, 95, 81 (grew completely upside-down!)
|
(All weights below are estimates, from the AG growth chart:)
Sept. 10th- F-1 = 223 lbs., K-1 = 149 lbs., F-3 = 90 lbs.
Aug. 24th- F-1 = 202 lbs., K-1 =122 lbs. 4-day cool spell broke; should be 96 today. Noted powdery mildew on many leaves.
Aug. 17th- F-1 = 170 lbs., K-1 = 99 lbs. Very cold weather starting today; 70 deg for high.
Aug. 12th- F-1 = 132 lbs.
August 9th- F-1 = 116 lbs. |
August 6th- F-1 measures 62
1/4" in circumference (~85 lbs) at 7:15AM.
It measures 62 1/2" at 7:45PM, showing
that the fruit puts on its weight at nighttime.
Notice that the F-1 fruit grew about 1 pound per
hour last night. Since pumpkins are 90%
water, that's 0.9 lbs of water per hour going into the
fruit thru the stem from the vine. Converting
this... 0.86 pints PER HOUR are flowing into the
fruit- just amazing!
Here's a sequence of pictures of the F-1 fruit taken
on: 7/15, 7/23, 7/31, and 8/6.
|
August 5th- Fertilized today
with Peters 20-20-20. I discovered that the K-1
fruit is big! I'd forgotten about it until
today. It was bigger than a basketball and
hiding under some leaves. So I actually have 2
fruit on the 547 plant.
I saw 2 Squash Vine Borer moths (groan). F-1
measures 59" at 7:30PM. |
| August 4th- Noted powdery mildew
spores & dust on the underside of some mature
leaves! I need to spray for it ASAP. Cut
off some vines in the way of growing fruit; the garden
is quite a tangle in the middle. I have 3 good
fruit on the 1248 and 1 on the 547. |
| August 3rd- F-1 measures
53" at 20 days old, approx 56 lbs. Measured
at 7:20AM. |
| August 2nd- F-1
is now 49 1/2", approx 47 lbs. F-3
is 33" in circumference. Note I haven't
found any squash vine borer grubs in the leaf stems
& vines for about 2 weeks now- I see damage, but
no grubs. It was very hot today, in the 90s. |
| July 31st- F-1 fruit
is now 40 1/4" in circumference |
| July 27/8th- I
pollinated the ninth fruit on the 1248 Ford; this is
an amazing plant, very prolific and healthy. I
also pollinated the first fruit on the 547 Kournikakis
plant! |
July 24th- I had
another female open on the 1248 yesterday (F-6), and
another TWO today (F-7,8); this 1248 Ford is a really
prolific plant!
I got a 10-day measurement of the F-1 fruit- it's
19" in circumference- about cantaloupe size. |
| July 23rd- I
hand-pollinated a 6th fruit on the 1248 plant (on a
secondary) |
| July 22nd- Two more
females opened on 1248 secondaries; at 8:25 I
pollinated each with 2-3 flowers off the 547, but by
this time there was little pollen left, so I left the
flowers open, hoping the bees help out. It was
in the 50s again overnight, but the sun is out
now. The second main vine on the 547 snapped off
due to its own weight. Hopefully the K-1
pollination from 7/19 will work! The vine broke
off a foot past this flower. I do see some tiny
female flowers on secondaries though. I noted
that the 547 females are yellow. I was hoping
for green; maybe it'll turn green in the end, who
knows? |
| July 20th- The cloudy
weather has cleared now. |
| July 19th- The first
female opened on the 547 today! But it was so
cool & overcast that it had not opened by 9AM, so
I couldn't hand pollinate it; hopefully the bees found
it! |
| July 17th- Pollinated
F-3 on the 1248 main with 4 flowers from the 547 at
7:50 AM. The flower was fully open; it's amazing
what a little daylight will do (compared to
yesterday's clouds). One (of 2) main fines on
the 547 snapped clean off due to its own weight; it
had started to curl up while growing. |
| July 16th- Wow, it's
very cool at night, in the 50s. This morning, it
was overcast as well, and another female was trying to
open on the 1248 and by 9AM it STILL wasn't quite
open! I pulled off the petals and pollinated F-2
w/3 males from the 547. Saw 2 cuke beetles. |
| July 14th- At 9:30 this
morning, I was out weeding and burying vines when I
was surprised to find an open female flower on the
1248!! It was on a secondary vine- I had been
watching the main vines only! It's got 4 lobes;
I've labeled it F-1. Although it was a bit late, I did find
three 547 males with pollen in them and pollinated
this flower. We've got good cool weather, so
hopefully this will stick. Another female flower
on the 1248 main perished from the heat last week; it
never opened. I still don't have any females
ready to open on the 547. |
| July 8th- Well, the first
female on the 1248 wilted before it opened. It
wasn't a surprise as it didn't look quite right after
the couple of hot days we had last week. We're
into another heat wave (90s) for the next couple of
days. Another 1248 female may open, but it's
really too hot for it to survive. |
July 2nd- First male
flower opened on the 1248. Fertilized w/Miracle
Gro, normal strength.
-1248= 11'8" main.
I now have 3 tiny female flowers on this plant.
2 are on the main- one of these is a bit larger than a
marble. 1 pea-sized one is on a secondary.
This is a very nice plant- vigorous and
productive.
-547= 9'8" main,
x2. One main is about 8" shorter than the
other now. I have my first pea-sized female
flower, on the longer main today. |
| July 1st- First male
flower opened on the 547. |
| June 29th- I have
several leaves that were severely damaged by the heat
and will have to be cut off- they just turned grey and
shriveled up on half the leaf. It dawned on
me that I've been watering the garden in the morning
only where the plants are laying. I'm missing
the whole rest of the garden where roots COULD be
growing. So this evening, I put up a sprinkler
and doused the whole garden. |
June 27th- Heatwave the
past 2 days, ~90 degrees F! It will be back in
the 70s tomorrow though; I'm bracing for a
thunderstorm. I noticed a pea-sized female
blossom on the tip of the 1248 main vine.
-1248= 9'9" main
-547= 7'8" main,
x2 |
June 24th- -1248= 8'
long main vine, ~22 leaves.
-547= 5'4" long main vine (Times two!), ~30 leaves. |
June 20th- -1248= 6'
2" long main vine
-547= 3'8" long main vine (Times two! I have 2 true main vines
now since I slit the flat vine.) |
| June 19th- A big thunderstorm
broke a few of the leaf stems and beat up the large
leaves on the 1248, but
not too bad because I had buried both plants' vines a
few days ago. The rain was very welcome.
May was the driest Spring month on record. |
June 14th- Regular-strength
Miracle-Gro today and for the next few days.
It's been very dry lately. I measured the vines
today:
-1248= 3' 3" long main
vine, 9 true leaves
-547= 2'2" long main
vine (actually, I have 2 main vines since I slit the
flat vine), 12 true leaves total. |
| June 13th- I discovered the 547 is double-vining, so I slit the tip about 2"
with a pocketknife. |
| June 11th- I had to take off
the mini-greenhouses as the plants have outgrown them
now. There's not much sense in putting up the
large greenhouse now as it's been 80s in the day and
high 50s or better at night. |
| May 31st- I noticed that the
plants have really taken off now. Both have 5
true leaves. The last 2-3 leaves are as big as
my hand. The 1248 is showing no ill effects from
the damaged stem that I buried and the leaves are a
bit larger than the 547 at this point. |
May 20th- I put the 1248 and
547 plants out in the garden, inside the storm window
mini-greenhouses. While planting, I
severely bent the 1248 stem- but it didn't break; I
buried it up to the dicots, so hopefully it'll
survive.
Since the 547 was started so late, I took my winter
ice-melting roof heater cable, and coiled it around
the plant inside the enclosure. Even though some
nights are in the 40s, it keeps the inside about 85-90
degrees, nice! I'm hoping to catch the 547 up to
the 1248 as I really want a squash. Once I'm
sure that these two 'take', I'll give away the other
seedlings to friends who are interested in growing
AGs. |
| May 10th- I put the 535* and 547
in pots today. |
| May 8th- the 547 has
germinated! I think the 535* germinated some
where around here as well. |
| May 5th, 11:40PM- Ok,
I've now picked a 535* Wolf 99 and a 547
Kournikakis 2000. While the 547 is from
an orange fruit, my notes say that it has always
thrown green for other growers. I put them in a
damp paper towel on a dish in the oven. |
| May 4th- Uh-oh! My plan
was to grow the 522* to get a green fruit. I had
started 3 squash seeds- the other 2 didn't germinate,
the 522* was the only one I have now. I just got
an email from Andy Wolf, and he said that the two
times he knows of it being grown, it threw ORANGE both
times! Oh no! I think I'd better go back
to the seed bin quick! lol :-) |
| May 4th- The 1248 has outgrown
the oven- too tall. I took it out and staked it
up so it won't fall over. I can't put it outside
yet as I don't have the garden ready yet. |
| May 2nd- Wow! The 544
dicots are ouf of the ground already, and the 1248 and
522 have 2" long stems with 2" tall
leaves! Put the 574.8 in a pot. All are
still in the oven. The 720.5, 823.8*, and 681
are not germinating it seems. |
| April 30th- 574.8 has
germinated. Put the 1248, 544, and 522* into
milk-gallon pots, and left them in the warm oven. |
| April 29th- 1248, 544, and 522*
have germinated!!
|
| April 27th- My seed stock is
getting a bit old as there hasn't been a Round Robin
Seed Trade in a few years, but some seeds should still
germinate. Here on 4/27, I got a little bit of a
late start, but not too bad as long as I get them in
the garden soon after sprouting. So at
11 PM this
evening, I started soaking the following seeds in warm
water, then a half hour later, put in a damp paper
towel on a saucer covered with Saran Wrap. I put
them in the nice warm 85-90 degree oven, heated by
just the oven light bulb. This technique works
very well.
My seed choices for this year:
Green:
- 522* Wolf 01
- 720.5 Welty 99
- 823.8* Edwards 00
+added: 547 Kournikakis 2000
+added: 535* Wolf 99
Orange:
- 1248 Ford 05
- 574.8 Mongeon 00
- 544 Wilbers 02
- 681 McEachern 98 |
