2010 season:

Oct 9- Harvested the fruit.  The plants still had a little green growing, but 90% of the plants are dead.  The big fruit in fact still has a vibrant/good vine.  I traced them out, and the fruit are on two different plant vines- until now I wasn't sure if they were off the same plant or not. Biggest fruit= 223lbs, orange, peanut shaped and very nice.  It has one old wound/scab on it from where a walnut fell and hit it when it was little, on the far east side of the garden.  This big one is growing off the plant on the west side of the garden, the 507 Pukos.  Yet again, the plant at the west end has produced the largest fruit. Older, smaller fruit= 82 lbs, orange, w/some cantelouping and green at very top.  It was quite done growing, with the stem very soft, almost rotted.  This is off the 1180 Pukos, and was hand-pollinated by me with the 507, then left open.  Oddly enough many of the seeds inside the pumpkin were cracked; I've never seen anything like it- not split open as if they sprouted, but cracked. Sept 18- We got 1.5-2" rain in the past couple of days; it's also been cold at night, low 50s 90"circ 53 1/2"SS, 59.5TB so ~187lbs OTT, or ~209 lbs circ Sept 3- 86" circ, 49" SS, 57" TB = 192" so ~160 lbs OTT, or 186 circ method. Aug 31- 82.5" circ ~167 lbs Aug 25- 78" circ ~145 Aug 24- 75" circ ~132 lbs Aug 21- 70" circ., ~111 lbs.  Weather continues cool; it's only 71 at 10:30 AM Aug 17- 60.5" circ.  Temps much, much cooler now, 63 at nite. Aug 15-  54 3/4" circ ~60 lbs Aug 14- My first fruit this year, 1180#1 is now at 50" circ and is maturing.  It's orangish, and getting cantelouped on top.  For some reason the plant never really realized this fruit was growing. Much better is the fruit growing at the far east end of the garden.  This AM, it's 51" circ (4" growth overnite)- that makes it ~51 lbs est.  Watered for 2 hrs w/overhead sprinkler + 20-20-20 Jack's fertilizer PLUS put down 3.5 cups of Phos. Aug 13- The fruit at far east end of garden is 47" circ at 7:20 AM, really taking off. It's about 14 days old today. Aug 9- I now have 3 more pkins going- two bowling-ball size, 1 canteloupe size.  The original one is *still* alive, and growing now; it's perhaps beach ball sized.  FYI, this has been one of the hottest Julys on record.  We got a lot of rain in the afternoon today. I continued to find SVB grubs in the vines this past weekend; dug them out. Aug 3- Noticed powdery mildew on the leaves; on lilacs too.   Went in garden and culled out dead stuff (it's been a while) and killed a bunch more SVB grubs in vines and leaf stems.  I have more this year than I've ever had before, but I never saw a single moth itself.  Super hot today, around 91 and mostly sunny. Aug 1- Oh, wow.  I discovered a pollinated fruit bigger than a grapefruit about 8' from the east end of the garden, near the fence.  I didn't know about that.  Also, there's a pollinated fruit, looks like it went 7/30, at the very east end of the garden about goose egg size.  And TWO females opened today, one surely on the 507, the other I'm not sure- by 8:45 when I noticed, there was no pollen left and a ton of bees.  The plants are vigorously growing. It's been pleasant the past few days. July 24- We've had ~3" of rain in the past 2-3 days.  Tons of SVBs being dug out July 19-  Discovered 2 females open; 7:20AM!  Virtually all the pollen was gone by now though, taken by the bees. July 14- I finally found some 20-20-20 fertilizer today, at Harris Garden on Rte 250. Peters brand fertilizer is no longer in business, but the same guy still makes it, just marketed under the new name "Jack's Classic", made by J.R. Peters.  It now comes in a round plastic container rather than a yellow box.  The 1180 #1 fruit may no longer be growing.  the 1180 #2 fruit cooked in the heat and croaked, along with another female flower that didn't even open.  I've started to cut off tertiary vines.  I've kept up with vine burying pretty well so far. July 12- Noticed first evidence of squash vine borer damage to vines and leaf stems :-( July 11- 11 day measurement:  20 1/4" circ at 8:45AM for the 1180 #1 fruit.  #2 fruit is about goose egg size. July 13th?-  Pollinated second female on 1180 main using 2-3 male flowers from the 507.  Then I tied it closed.  VERY HOT the past several days, mid 90s every day.  I immediately shaded it with blueboard and am watering every evening.  I've been shading the other one w/white plastic trash bag.  The heat has killed a female on the 507 main before it could open. July 3- Noticed my American Chestnut tree is blossoming!  This is the first year it has blossomed!  I grew this myself from a nut.  Unfortunately,  there's no other tree nearby, so I won't get any viable nuts. The 1180 pollinated fruit looks like it took, but it's going to be hot for the next few days- I need to protect it while it's small. July 1- Pollinated first female on the 1180 main vine using 1 male flower from the 507.  It was very cool this morning, only in the 50s.  I brought the male inside for an hour beforehand. June 29- Weeds were getting out of hand, Hula-Hoe'd the whole garden, buried lots of secondaries. I noticed that the FIRST FEMALE will open TOMORROW AM on the 1180.  Unfortunately, it will be very cold overnight, so I'm worried it won't be open before I have to go to work.  I think this will be the earliest female I've ever had open!  I see a male ready on the 507 too, so this will be good. June 27- 507=12'9" noted small pea sized female on secondary, 1180=13'5" vine lengths. We got 1.5" of rain today June 24 or 25- First male flower opens on 507.  Noted each vine has a pea-sized female out on the main!  Noted secondaries growing. June 23- First male flower opens- on 1180. June 22- Measured vines: 507=8'8", 1180=9'3" June 16- vines are running strongly now, I'm burying vine, they're maybe 4' long.  Been sort of cool, 70s.  The 507 is clearly a bigger plant now, with bigger dia. vine; this is expected since I planted it on that side of the garden that gets more sun. June 7- Started burying the vine on both plants.  Noticed white roots under ground at least 2' away from seed! June 4- Both plants have now outgrown the mini greenhouses.  Started to stake vines down with bamboo sticks to keep them from blowing over and getting damaged. May 31- 5th leaf just opening on both plants.  VERY HOT today, high 80s, sunny. We've been in a bit of a drought lately; started watering the lawn in fact.  The 507 is nearly outgrowing the mini-greenhouse. May 28- both plants doing excellent, almost ready to lay over and run.  Largest leaf bigger than my outstreched hand May 24- 507 (on west end) has 2 1/2 leaves out               1180 (on east end) has 3 1/4 leaves out May  16, 2010- re-weeded the garden, re-rototilled, and planted both plants, watered and and put in mini greenhouses at about 6pm.  It was absolutely the perfect time to plant them- the plants were NOT root-bound AT ALL; I peeled away the peat pots without any trouble. I put the 507 at the west end of the garden, hoping my biggest will be nice orange. The 1180 is at the east end. May 15, 2010- Too late to try and start other seeds, I called my friend Dave S. and he happened to have not one but TWO extra plants that I could have- already in pots, already growing (THANKS, DAVE!).  He had already planted his two choice plants (all he can fit), and one more for his neighbor, and he gave me two...    507 Pukos (nice orange pumpkin. Cross was a 1385 Jutras 07 X 1156 Hunt 08    1180 Pukos (1068 Wallace X 998 Pukos. Light orange in color. They were started around April 25th. May 14, 2010- None of the seeds have sprouted.  I had one 411 that popped open, but the root rotted immediately.  This is big trouble at this point. April 27, 2010- 7:30AM started soaking a bunch of my 411 squash seeds plus one Stellpflug squash in warm water, for 1/2 hour, then put in damp paper towel on a dish in a plastic bag, then into the oven with light on at 8:00AM

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