The late update

Every time I think nobody is watching this blog, I get a note from someone who says that they enjoy it. I appreciate your interest!

It has been a tough year for giants. Let me give you the 30,000 foot recap.

I grew the 1240 Bogie. Unfortunately the plant seemed stunted. Likely it was my cold weather that stunted it. The nodes on it were very small, and the plant just wouldn't grow. A few weeks ago I started up the tractor and cleared the ground. Harsh, I know, but if I can't grow the plant, I'd like to at least remove the weeds.

Still in the patch is a 1211.5 Toftness. This was a fantastic plant, good to grow. The fruit on it has good color, but about one week into the life of the fruit, it developed a huge sag. Right now it looks like a bean bag chair that the big bad wolf has been sitting in. It collects about one cup of water every time the sprinklers come on. It will likely go down early. Unfortunately, I was not able to get another fruit to grow on the plant.

The 1467 Perham also has a deformed fruit. It's high on the stem end, and very low on the blossom end.

I'm growing the 1725. This plant just didn't want to get big. The fruit is there, and it's VERY small. I almost don't want to talk about it because it's NOT the seed, it's the grower. The fruit is currently white with a green-ish hue.

The 720 Warren is also a tiny plant. It had one node of a double vine early on. I was able to get the plant to come out of it, but because of that double vine, the plant has no dominant first secondaries. That is, instead of a Christmas tree shape, the plant has an egg shape. The fruit is a nice color, but looks malnourished and has not ribbed out at all. I doubt this fruit has a chance to be 300 pounds, but it's really my only candidate for the fair. (Unless I take the bean bag.)

Finally, the 1505 Holland has been an excellent plant. I really like it. The fruit looks nice, but as of yesterday it was only at 360 pounds! I guess that's what cold weather and late pollinations will do to you. I have a decent shot at hitting 500 with it. But I'm honestly getting tired of 500 to 700 pound fruits.

For next year, if there is a next year, I need to consider larger hoophouses and putting heaters in them. I'm starting to think that things like double-vines can be environmentally triggered. That is, some plants when subjected to cold might react differently than if they never saw that cold. I don't know. I want to cut down to four plants, and use two large hoophouses to start them back to back. And finally, grow them in a huge mound of well composted manure.

Two years in a row we've had terrible cold spring weather. And two years in a row I've had deformed fruits and small plants that don't want to grow. This is in different soil each year. I just wonder if repeated exposure to the low 30's causes a plant to just shut things down? Please tell me what you think.

1505 Holland

This has been my best plant, the 1505 Holland. Most of my chance to get a PB this year rest on this fruit. I didn't expect this great color, if it gets better from here, which is normal, it should be great.

Raising the vine

This first fruit on the 1211.5 is the one that has me worried. About a week ago I saw this gash and some "malnourishment" on one side. Usually this isn't good. But I have no other prospects on the plant, it will have to be this fruit, or an August pollination! Click on the image to see it larger.



The fruit on the 720. Like the others, tonight I added styrofoam blocks under the main vine, to help it rise with the fruit.



People always ask me why we bury vines. Why don't we just grow the whole thing under one massive piece of black plastic? This is why... Those little white things on the underside of the vine are the formation of roots. This vine tipped over in the tempest we just had. I need to fix it.

Plants

Here we go. First up is the 1505 Holland, I'm growing it in a spider pattern:



Next, the 720 Warren. This plant had double-vine for one node, early on. After that, it went normal and has been fine ever since. But because of that double-vine, the plant doesn't seem to have a dominant set of first secondaries. I'm hoping this plant will produce the fair fruit.



I like this 1211.5 Toftness. I have a really good feeling about this plant. It's almost as big as the 1505, and the fruit on it is nicely shaped.



The 1467 Perham. In the picture it looks like the main is coming toward you, but in reality it is going out the left side of the picture.



Finally, the 1725 Harp. This is a good plant. I worry about the soil in this spot. It's now growing over an area where we had peas... we have other banks of peas that are truly awesome. This particular bank of peas turned yellow and shriveled up and did nothing. It's good for the plant that I can send the main out farther, but I wonder what's going on? There is a possibility that I will pollinate another fruit on this vine to experiment with fruit farther out on the main.

Pictures

Fruit on the 720, and an open flower, not a controlled pollination.

1725

This morning the 1725 opened, and I hit it with the 1467. That should be a great cross if I can get a good result from each plant.

It was 42 degrees this morning! Those flowers did not want to open!

There was an error in the previous post. The 1467 fruit was pollinated by the 1211.5, not the 1725.

Pollinations

Yesterday the 1505 opened. Pollinated with the 1211.5 Toftness. These two are my best two plants, so that's why I put them together.

Then this morning was the crest of the wave. I had pollinations on the 1211.5 (by the 1505), 1467 (1725) and the 1240 (720). The 1725 is still a few days off.

Pollination update

I pollinated the first fruit at 10 or more feet out today, on the 720. This was already the third on that vine, a six lobe fruit and I pollinated it with the 1725. I think I'll keep this one, as I really like that cross.

Tomorrow the 1505 should open, at 11 feet out. Next up are the 1211.5, 1467, and 1725. I'm not sure which one to cross the 1505 with...? My only plant that just isn't working out is the 1240. It's small and wilts every day in the sun.

Pictures

Here is the 1505 Holland, my best plant so far. It's nearly 11 feet and has a female at exactly 10 feet.



Next is the 1211.5 Toftness. It's growing well.



I should mention that I actually pollinated a female on the 720 yesterday. It's not 10 feet out. But this plant is the one that I hoped would be the fair plant. It's an open pollination, followed up by one male from the 1240 and one from the 1211.5.

Measuring

Normally I would be pollinating in about one week. July the 4th is normally "peak" time for me. This year I'm about two weeks behind.

The longest vine I have right now is a little over 9 feet on the 1505 Holland. Best case scenario, this one is at least two weeks away from setting a fruit. The 1211.5 Toftness and 1725 Harp are also in the running. The other three are good healthy plants, but probably three weeks out. I hope we have a good September.

If you are in my area, please make a comment on how you're doing! Thanks!

Two weeks behind

Judging by previous years I think I'm about two weeks behind at this point. I will not, under any circumstances, set fruit at less than 10 feet out. This means that I might not be pollinating this year until mid-July.

Of course, one never knows. Once we finally heat up the plants could catch up in a hurry. We're heading for 85 today. Finally! My longest vine is on the 1505 at about 7 or 8 feet now. I certainly can't pollinate what doesn't exist yet. But I'm just going to wait on it... let it come if it ever does, and hope that we have a warm September. I just don't know what will happen for the fair.

It's been said, to not pollinate until there are 100 leaves on the plant. Right now I'd say that most plants are averaging 35 leaves. But, The number of new leaves is now probably eight per day.

Close call

They were saying 42 as we went to bed last night. It ended up getting down to 32! That's right, 32 here on June 18th. We survived, but barely. I could sure use some global warming right now.

June 5th Roundup

No, not that Roundup, just a roundup.

For diehards, here are pictures from today. After working all day on various things, I didn't have the energy to weed these good before taking pictures.

Here is the 1505 Holland, which has the longest vine to this point. (Remember, I've had record lows and the coldest May on record.)



Next is the 720 Warren. This one had a double-vine for one node, then split in two. I pruned one. Based on last year's experience, that worries me a lot. Other than that, great leaves as always.



The 1211.5 Toftness is the biggest plant in the patch:



The 1467 Perham is looking good. I'll need to do a little main vine re-direction, but it's not bad.



Here's the world record 1725. It was the second to touch down. There is a little damage on some of the early leaves. That was from a 25 degree night, when the plant was covered only by a sheet.



Finally, the 1240 Bogie is the smallest plant so far, but that is a good indication that it will produce the largest pumpkin. It's heading in exactly the right direction.

Six healthy plants

Well, we still haven't hit the 70's. Most of this week has been cloudy and rainy, although a little bit warmer.

The good news is that I have six healthy plants. The only anomaly (normality?) is the 720 Warren. It was a double-vine for one node, then split in two. I took one off, and maybe it will be OK if it doesn't split again. Other than that, the plant is gorgeous (as all 720s are). Every plant is small, healthy and pointed in the right direction!

The 1505 Holland is crawling and will be to three feet long tomorrow. The others haven't even touched down yet.

May 28, 3:30 pm, 54 degrees and cloudy

The good news is that next week we are finally going to hit the '70s. The bad news is that we haven't done that before this time.

I went out and cut the upper half of the plastic off the hoophouse covering the 1725. My theory is that with cloudy days AND plastic, the plants just don't get enough light to grow. The weather is starting to change. By cutting the top off, I keep the wind protection but lose the heat, and gain sunshine. I don't know. But I figure insanity is to keep doing the same thing when it isn't working.

I want to watch closely the 1725 vs. the other plants, and see what it does over the next few days.

Still cold

29 degrees, night before last. Tonight is supposed to be 35. Today is May 24th! Finally after today we might actually get some sun and warmth. Maybe. I think we've had one day over 70 degrees all year. As bad as last year was, this year appears to be worse.

Soil temp measurements

I just found out something very interesting.

Normally (or this year at least) I put a black weed mat down to raise the soil temp around each plant. This is it's only purpose, as far as I'm concerned. Well, I just went out and did some soil temp measurements.

Outside the hoophouse, baseline measurement: 70 degrees.

Inside the HH, under the weed mat: 77 degrees.

Inside the HH, not under the weed mat: 79 degrees!

I then went to another HH and repeated the measurements. They came out as 78 and 80 degrees, respectively. That is, under the weed mat is cooler by two degrees! Not what I expected.

It may not seem like much, but us giant pumpkin growers really want any extra degrees we can get. I think I'll remove the weed mats.

Mid May pic

I seem to always start taking pictures of the plants in mid-May. This is the 720, probably the best overall looking plant. It looks good, but it's pretty small for this stage. Really small.

Still cold

Not much is happening, or growing. The hoophouses help during the day, but the cold nights continue and I wonder if I'm not missing the boat by not trying to heat the HH during the night. I don't know. This was the year that I wanted to "put it all together", but the cold weather (I assume) is holding me back.

I'm also in the midst of 11 or 12 days straight with some sort of event to attend, every night. I need to get busy, the only thing growing in the hoops is... weeds.

Well, I may be a little over-dramatic. We are finally supposed to hit 70 this weekend. That should get things moving in a hurry.

Another record

We had a record low for the morning of May 7, 24 degrees. It snowed all morning yesterday, about 3 inches. Today is looking much better. Full sun all day, no wind, and while it's only 31 degrees here at 9:15 am, it should only get better. I need some good growing weather soon, or all my efforts to get them out early will have been in vain.

My patch

It would have been better to get the manure earlier, but I do what I can. I'll try to compost this a little more and have mid-season stuff to work with.

Click the image to get a bigger view.

Bad weather

I built all six hoophouses on Monday. Since then our weather has been bad.

It's now Thursday and I hope to get the plants out by Friday night or Saturday. The plants are in one-gallon pots and are looking fantastic. But, they face no challenge indoors. Right now I can't even harden them off......... it has me worried. Maybe I should call home and have my wife move them into the garage for an hour or so. I don't know..... plants can really be thrown for a loop if they go from 72 degrees and under grow lights, to overnights in the low 30's.

Spring update

So much to catch up on. The focus now is doing the work, not blogging.

I now have temporary housing for six small families. If I get no takers, these plants will go out in the hoop houses. These are bigger domes, and the biggest that I've had in the last five years.

All of the plants germinated, but the 1087 Bhaskaran's seed leaves were rotten. The stump is still there, and turning green. It could actually come around. The other plants all look great.

For backups, I decided to try the "paper towel method". This was a bad idea. I have no idea what I'm doing, and here I am trying to start backups? It's been bad. None of them have germinated. It goes to show that you should always practice something before "going live". Part of my problem is that all of my pots that are the proper size are in use.

Seeds are up

Well, if you haven't noticed, I make it hard for you to find information on what I'm doing. You need to go to Facebook, bigpumpkins.com, and also this blog to find out what's happening. The real problem is that I can't decide where to post stuff.

Last Sunday I started this: 1725 Harp, 1505 Holland, 1467 Perham, 1240 Bogie, and 1211.5 Toftness. Also, a pure orange 1087 Bhaskaran. I also started two of my own 720 seeds. All of these are up, at 4.5 days. Everything looks good except that the 1505 has funky multiple seed leaves. I doubt it's a problem.

Flatviners always disappoint

Today's entry in the digest suggests a change in thinking from just one year ago. If you go back in the archives, you will see that I "performed surgery" on the 998 plant that was double-vining.

There is a subtle difference between a flat and a double-vining plant. But, the result is the same.

In the case of the 998 from last year, I had no backup plant in that spot. So I tried to rescue it. That never works. Over the winter I read in the latest Don Langevin book a statement that now makes a lot of sense. There has never been a world-class (or even an Idaho class) fruit from a double or flat-vining plant. After seeing this first-hand on a number of occasions, I'd have to say that I agree.

In the case of the 998 Bowles plant from last year, I kept nursing it along. Aside from the doubled main vine, the plant was good. It still grew well, was dark green with handsome leaves. It was my best looking plant! It was one of the few plants where I could set a fruit on the main (or what was left of it).

And, that fruit grew, really, really, slow. I needed to nurse it along until a week before Halloween, as the local farmer's market scheduled a weighoff on Oct. 24th. Well, when it was time to go I was estimating 350 pounds. Really quite small for a fruit on the main at around 10 feet out, growing all season on a nice looking plant. When I was lifting the fruit with the tripod, I had a mishap and dropped it. As it hit the ground it split in two pieces right down the middle, and after I came to my senses I noted that this fruit was EXTREMELY thin. I doubt it would have made 250 pounds and it would have been a serious disappointment, not to mention embarrassment.

So, the lesson here is, if you get to late May or early June and find a double-vining plant, just rip it out and go fishing. ;-)

Things to remember

For those of us who live with four seasons with winter being the longest, there is an interesting phenomenon that happens each year. At the end of the growing season your mind is focused on all of the things that didn't go as planned and more importantly, a list of items to improve for the coming season. Then, we have winter. Four or five or six months of winter, depending on how you want to measure it. And when spring finally arrives, you're so excited to finally get started that you have forgotten all of the things that you were going to fix.

So, here's a list for giant pumpkin freaks like me. And, if you're just into gardening I'll bet you can find parallels in what you do.

Number one, you WILL have a double-vining freak plant. If you have five or more plants, you could have two. Plan for it by double planting each site, and leaving enough space between the two plants so that each can get to the vining stage before needing to cull one of them.

Number two, you WILL have cold weather and wind challenges! Hoophouses are essential in southeast Idaho. It's impossible to be competitive without them. Consider also, if your local area is like mine, you need a hoophouse and also a fortress around it built from wood pallets to slow the wind around the HH.

Three, get in the habit of checking the weather closely each evening. Whatever they say the temp will be, subtract X to be pessimistic. For me near Pocatello, I subtract 7 from whatever number they say. So if they say the low will be 37, plan on it being 30. It isn't always so extreme, but just one freeze can end your season before it gets going. I don't want to be the only one at the fair this fall. Watch your plants carefully and don't let them freeze!

Having said that, it's amazing how close I came last year to loosing them. One night a few years ago, I woke up at 2am and realized that I had forgot. I went out at 2am and covered, and saved the season.

Well, that's just the quick fundamentals. I'll be back with other tips. Please use this page to post your own in the comment section.

OK, time to get to work!

Good news, maybe. I'm going to maintain this blog for another year.

Yesterday I was able to burn all of last year's left over debris. That can be significant with around 50 trees on the property. Now, I've already started creating this year's debris. Oh well.

Today I hope to do quite a bit of tractor work. We will see how it goes. Can you believe it? Above 50 degrees. Incredible. (Tongue in check statement.)

Hello out there...

Should this blog be resurrected? I may be having second thoughts...

Time to change

No, I'm NOT giving up growing. Far from it. I hope next year to put forth my best effort ever.

If you've known me for a while, you know that I can't stay in one place very long with this giant pumpkin blog. Over the past year, I've become somewhat of a Facebook junkie, and I also see better things happening over at bigpumpkins.com. Or at least, that site is REALLY stable.

So, because I already put more pictures up on FB, I'm going to discontinue this blog at this location and move my efforts to Facebook and bigpumpkins.com. I will probably do a regular "Grower Diary" on bigpumpkins.com and will also put updates on Facebook. Doing a diary on BP.com gets me MUCH more visibility to giant pumpkin growers across the world, while Facebook brings in a much more diverse audience.

Also on Facebook, I have created a page called "Southeast Idaho Giant Pumpkin Growers." You can go to FB and just do a search. If you like it, please join. This gives you the instant ability to send an email to everyone on the page, share photos with the group, stay involved in what's going on, etc.

I've found FB to be really "worthwhile"... it is so cool to catch up with old friends there. Who knows, maybe in a year from now FB will collapse under it's own weight, or maybe it will be passed by another hot thing... but for now it's the place to go.

Fruit cut

OK, finally an update.

I should (or maybe shouldn't) mention the Farmer's Market weighoff. Unfortunately, it was a non-event. On several levels. Oh well.

I cut the 423 orange fair fruit and the 617 yesterday. Each was thick and had lots of seeds. I'm saving all of the 423 seeds, even though they are "open" pollinations. A lot of people have asked about them, and they are perfect for beginning growers.

Now, really is busy time. I need to do everything possible to add organic matter. Last year I was really held back by my soil. Next year I'm returning to the "good side" of the garden, and I want to add everything possible to it. I'm starting in on collecting Starbucks coffee waste.