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| 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 perfect time to germinate seeds (indoors) for me
is around the 3rd week in April. My 12'x36' garden is in the sunniest spot in my yard, and it gets
full sun from about 9am-7:30pm. |
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2009 season:
Oct 3rd- Harvested the big G-3 "squash" today!
Measured 100.5" circ, 62.5" ss, 64.5" tb=227.5" => 258 lbs. estimated.
I
wanted to take it to the Oswego, NY weighoff, but I've been unable to
harvest it the past couple of days due to rain. This morning the
rain stopped, and with great difficulty, three of us managed to get it
out of the garden, into a wheelbarrow, and over to the driveway.
We found we couldn't lift it high enough to get it into the van,
so we used a ramp and easily slid it in.
At the
weighoff, I got a few guys to help me lift it out and put it on a
pallet. On the official scale, it weighed in officially at 276.5 lbs, good
enough for 2nd place prize!
At the weighoff, the 10th place orange pumpkin (bottom of the prize payout) was 914 lbs!!
Sept 24th-
G-3: 98.5"circ, 63 SS, 63 TB=224.5 => 248 lbs. est.
Sept 21st-
Keeping the fruit warm is one key to late season growth. I have
put blankets on my big fruit in the past, and wanting to see if putting
blankets on pkins really makes a difference, this morning I put a thermometer under the 2 blankets atop my pumpkin. It reads ~70 degrees.
I
measured the air right next to the pkin, it was 51 degrees!!!
Wow! I did not expect that much difference. I wondered what
watering the plant would do, so I measured cold running tap water and
it was 66 degrees. Tonite starts several days of a warm front.
Only down in the 60s at nite, 70s in day.
Sept 13th-
5:55PM- sun falls off all plants in garden. Discovered some
yellowish damp sawdust stuff- indication of a squash vine borer...
right in the vine right at the stem of the G-3 fruit!! It opens
up into the vine. I don't think I should water the plant overhead
until I get this dried out. I successfully dug the borer out the next
day and put some captan paste on it.
G-3: 94"circ, 62.5 SS, 60.5 TB=217" => 225 lbs
O-1: 54" circ => 58 lbs
Sept 7th-
G-3: 90"circ, 59 1/2 SS, 59 1/2 TB=209" => 202 lbs
O-1: 54" circ => 58 lbs
Sept 4th-
noticed that the sun doesn't start to hit the garden now until after
10AM! It then takes about 35-40 minutes for the garden to become
fully in sun. The weather has been in mid 50s at night, mid 70s
during day, steady for the past week.
Sept. 3rd-
G-3: 85 circ, 57.5 SS, 56 TB= 198.5 => 175 lbs
O-1 51.5 circ => 52 lbs
I'm
seeing yellowish spots on the leaves at the end of the green
plant vine. This is mildew before it turns powdery. Plus
cuke beetles. I haven't sprayed any Sevin all season long, but
they haven't damaged anything.
I'm watering every morning for
an hour or so. Until last night, the past few nights have been in
the mid 40s. Last nite, low 50s.
Aug 31st-
G-3 82 circ, 56 ss, 54 tb=192" => 160 lbs
O-1 50 1/2 circ =>49 lbs
Aug 28th- cool again today
G-3: 77 1/2c, 54ss, 52 tb = 183.5 tl, 141 lbs
O-1: 47 3/4 = 42 lbs
Aug 27th- was very cool last night, into 50s.
G-3: 74c,51tb,53ss=178", ~130 lbs
O-1: 45 3/4"= 39 lbs
Aug 26th- Started out w/sprinkles, turned to sun by afternoon, in the 70s.
G-3: 74" circ, 52" S-S, 51" T-B = 177" total, ~128 lbs
O-1: 44 1/2" circ., ~36 lbs. The growth on this one isn't as rapid as on the green one
because the plant is far smaller.
Aug 25th- Sunny, warm. Watered w/overhead sprinkler hooked up to inline
fertilizer feeder w/Peters 20-20-20. This is the first I've fertilized in months.
G-3, this is a very nice, spherical fruit: 71" circ, 50" S-S, 48 1/2" T-B, =169.5" total, ~114 lbs
O-1: 43 1/2" circ., ~34 lbs.
Aug 24th- Today was a fairly cool day, down to 50s tonight.
G-3: 68" circ, 50" S-S, 48" T-B =166" total, ~ 107 lbs
O-1: 42" circ., ~32 lbs
Aug 23rd-
It's been in upper 70s and humid the past few days. Some rain the
past couple of days- usually 1 good shower for 20 minutes. The
green G-3 fruit is about bushel basket sized today! I lifted it
to put some blueboard styrofoam under it. The O-1 fruit is about
soccer ball sized and perfectly round and butter yellow. It seems
that only the orange plant is experiencing powdery mildew, on the
oldest leaves. I measured the fruit today:
G-3: 66" circumference, 48" side-to-side, 45" top-to-bottom, =159" total, ~95 lbs.
O-1: 41" circ.; this is ~30 lbs
I
noticed that the orange plant is getting a lot of mildew on the oldest
leaves, while the green plant is for the most part clean.
To estimate the weight,
I'm using weight estimation tables from David Martin and Len
Stellpflug. The data is from Len, comprising in-field
measurements of thousands of Atlantic Giant pumpkins. I'm using
the "Over The Top (OTT)" estimation method- what you do is measure the
fruit- circumference (at widest point), side-to-side (down to the
ground), and top-to-bottom (down to the ground). Then you add the
three measurements up, and look it up on the chart. You can use
the circumference method only if you want, but it's not as accurate.
Aug 15th-
finally, it's been "summer" the past few days, highs near 80. The
plants are very healthy. I've dug out a few large SVB grubs here
and there over the past few weeks. The green main vine is now
about a foot longer than the garden. There is another one past
G-3 fruit, G-4 that may catch on. The 8/6 G-3 green fruit
is growing nicely; all the other earlier green fruit, including the
7/31 one have died. The G-3 fruit is bowling ball size this
morning. The 7/19 orange one still seems to be alive, about
softball sized though.
Aug 14th- And another green female (G-5) opened up on the main, just about at the garden edge, 35 feet out.
Aug 9th- Noted first powdery mildew. Another green female flower (G-4)
opened on the main vine. Humidity returns today, temps near 80
and rain. It will be warm/humid the next couple of days.
Aug 7th- the orange female (O-1)
on the main indeed opened today. By the time I noticed it at 8AM,
the bees had pretty much taken all the pollen from the male flowers,
but I tried
with a couple anyway.
Aug 6th- aha! Noticed another female (G-3)had
opened and was open/bee pollinated right on the green vine main, just 2
leaves past the one from 7/31. Looking at it, it opened either
today or yesterday morning. First one on orange plant main should
open w/in next 2 days. It's still cool out each day- in upper 70s
for a high. Sort of dry actually; I watered the plant
tonite. | July 31st- overcast day, found a green 4 lobe flower (G-2)
open out on the main at 7:30. Pollinated it with 4 green males,
still lots of pollen left, left open. About 67 degrees outside.
July 21st-
Hmm, green pollinated fruit about size of a goose egg- still!!
Not getting bigger. Temps have been cool at night, 70s during day.
I wonder if these cool temps have affected the female flower
opening.
July 19th- I
should have the first orange one open tomorrow AM (it never
did...). That orange plant is still slow growing and very compact.
July 18th- the green plant seems to be taking off nicely. High temps still in mid 70s at best.
July 17th- had the first green female flower open today, named it G-1.
I pollinated with the only two male flowers I had- first one from the
green plant, then another from the orange. I tried at 6:40am, and
none of the flowers were open yet, so I tied shut the two males to keep
the bees away and waited until 7:50, where everything was ready.
The female was a 5 lobe. I found several cuke beetles inside the
female flower, and booted them out, then tied the flower shut so bees
wouldn't steal the pollen I'd applied. The high today was about
80 deg, the warmest it's been all week. I've been watering the
plants daily by hand, with the hose hooked up to the Miracle Gro inline
feeder.
July 13th- we tied a record last night for the coldest night in July- 45 deg or so.4/28/09- 9:30PM germination!
July 12th-
noticed birds around the east plant eating bugs. Later discovered
striped cuke beetles. Green plant has another female, almost
marble shooter size. Orange one has a smaller female. The
orange plant is very slow growing in length.
July 10th-
first male opens on the "orange" vine. Noted pea-sized female on
main. On green vine, noted the first pea sized female is dying.
It's been a very cool early summer so far. Today in the low 80s
is the warmest it's been in weeks. I watered the plants heavily, using
Miracle Gro in the inline feeder.
July 8th- first two males opened on "green" vine
July 5th- massively weeded the garden, buried the vine (finally!) It was in danger of rolling over due to the wind.
Green vine= 10'6" (126") with one 24" secondary
Orange vine= 5'7" (67"), a much huskier vine. I keep checking it to see if it's doubled, but no.
July 4th- noted the green one has a decent sized secondary at this point
June 29th-
noticed small pea-sized female on the green plant (west end of garden),
and stem tap roots reaching down off the other (east end).
June 23rd-
outgrew mini-greenhouses; uncovered them today, both are healthy, and
didn't get too crowded in there. I let them out just in
time. Unfortunately, I can no longer read the labels on the
plants so I don't know exactly which orange and which green plants I
have here.
June 13th- now have 5 leaves on each of my two plants. Almost ready for vine to run, almost outgrowing the mini-greenhouses.
May 6th- put seed sprouts in pots. |
April 24, 2009- I started soaking the following seeds in warm
water at about 11:55pm, 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:
-202 Inzero 02
-411 Inzero 00
Orange:
-302 Deary 00
-499 Golat 02
-419 Andrews 99 |
Comments to:
rdi@rochester.rr.com
More genius ideas at: home.roadrunner.com/~srinz/
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This Page was last updated: Aug. 26th, 2009
Text, pictures copyright 2009 by the author | | |
