Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 52 Entries. Monday, March 10 View Page I decided to keep a grower diary here to track my first year attempt at giant pumpkins. Goal for this year is to get one pumpkin to a GPC weigh off. I started the season by applying well composted beef feedlot manure in March. We raise our own beef so I have a good supply of manure. The site I selected for my pumpkin patch was sweet corn last year and crop field for many years before that. Soil samples were pulled at this time.   Saturday, March 29 View Page Soil results showed a need for calcium more than anything else. Here I am blending some gypsum, pel lime, alfalfa pellets and granular boron as I load the spreader.   Saturday, March 29 View Page This is how everyone spreads amendments on their patch right? The spreader is equipped with scales so I can get the rate dialed in just right. My 5 year old son is all about helping on the farm and the pumpkin patch.   Monday, April 21 View Page Seed starting day, here is the lineup. I put up simple hoop houses, no heating cables this year. I am starting a little later than some to avoid some cold weather.   Friday, April 25 View Page Had a stuck shell on the 2021 Hoornstra. I was able to remove it by squeezing the sides with a pair of pliers enough to get it to crack.   Monday, April 28 View Page This 2344.5 Wallace is pretty slow and wonky looking.   Monday, May 5 View Page 2344.5 Wallace still looking weird. The first and second leaf are coming out at the same time. I have 2 of these so this one is not going in the patch.   Wednesday, May 7 View Page Planting day. I wanted to have these outside soon, but the weather has been awful. This spring has been so incredibly wet. I think this 1727 Jacobus is looking pretty good.   Saturday, May 10 View Page Finally some sun, hoops are vented and I am watching the temp. I need the ground to dry out so I can give the whole patch another burndown spray to hit a few emerged weeks and final till. Deciding on wind fence is the next thing to figure out.   Tuesday, May 13 View Page Seeing some yellow speckling on the leaves on a couple of the plants. Not sure if it is related to excessive moisture or what. A storm came up the other day while I was at work and a bunch of water came in through the open end of the hoop house. Overall the plants seem to be growing pretty well.   Friday, May 16 View Page 2196 Zappa is looking good. 25 days after soak, in the patch for 9 days. We have had come cool nights and cloudy days. This plant and the 2344.5 Wallace are on the east side of the patch and are doing better than the 2 plants on the west side.   Friday, May 16 View Page 2344.5 Wallace   Friday, May 16 View Page 2021 Hoornstra On the west side of the patch I have struggled with excessive water running into the hoop houses. This plant and the 1727 Jacobus look a little yellow, haven't been able to get the nitrogen in them like the other 2 plants.   Friday, May 16 View Page 1727 Jacobus 25 days after soak, 9 days in the patch   Friday, May 16 View Page 1727 Jacobus 25 days after soak, 9 days in the patch   Friday, May 16 View Page We are under a severe thunderstorm watch with the possibility of 75+ mph wind, large hail and tornadoes this evening. Added some additional protection inside the hoop house, hopefully we don't get much in the way of storms. We need it to stop raining for a while.   Tuesday, May 20 View Page Got some weeding done yesterday. Noticed the roots at the soil surface on the two plants that are a little behind. I'm not happy with how cloddy the soil is, but that is a product of trying to work it too wet. I have decided next year that I want to try adding material to the area of the hoops to improve my drainage. Maybe a bunch of perlite.   Tuesday, May 20 View Page 2021 Hoornstra, color is improving though still not the dark green I would like to see. Here you can see the roots at the soil surface   Tuesday, May 20 View Page My 12 year old daughter is growing a 2250 Schmidt, I gave her an area 10ft x 20ft to work with. No hoop house, we planted it late enough that the weather should have been ok but there has been a lot of rain and this week the highs are in the low 60s. This also gives me another option for pollination.   Saturday, May 24 View Page Laying down and really starting to take off in spite of the cold and cloudy weather.   Sunday, May 25 View Page Yesterday and today have been getting ready for the pumpkins to come out of the hoop houses. I have had a big flush of weeds since the initial till for incorporating amendments, yesterday while the plants can still be sealed up in the hoop houses I sprayed with Glyphosate and Glufosinate to kill any emerged weeds. I gave them 24hrs to take in the herbicide before I tilled. I considered applying Dual as a pre-emerge herbicide since it does have a pumpkin label but ultimately decided against it. I also sprayed Ridomil Gold fungicide with my herbicide application. I applied Urea at about 35 units of nitrogen per acre ( as a farmer I have to think in terms of a rate per acre). I applied 9lb urea on 5200sq ft. My thinking this gets me a base rate down then I will make applications of a 28-0-0-5S UAN/ATS blend in my irrigation water for the rest of my nitrogen. I broadcast a granular Imidocloprid product. Today I tilled everything, I was happy with how it worked up, this spring has been a real challenge with very frequent rain. But the patch got dry enough to get a nice result. Plans for the coming week are to get walking boards down, hoop houses off and the wind fence around the patch. The forecast looks to be cooler than average for the better part of a week yet so I am trying to keep the pumpkins in their hoops as long as I can but I think the 2344 Wallace will be out of room by about Wednesday.   Tuesday, May 27 View Page I pulled a new soil sample last week and got the results back today. Phosphorus is very high, just a result of using manure, I'm wondering if this will tie up zinc. Maybe potassium should be a bit higher? Though I had added potash not long before I pulled this sample. Boron appears to be lower than I need. Based on my research I was shooting for 3-5ppm. I am trying to decide on the best way to address this. I'm not going to be able to have drip irrigation so I can't add it evenly that way. Maybe I can get the sprinklers setup soon and add it that way. For today I'll add some borax to my watering cans along with my nitrogen. I'm thinking my pot   Sunday, June 1 View Page I got the wind fence up, walking boards down and pulled the hoops. Got most of the irrigation setup done, lacking a couple fittings to get that finished up. The patch ended up bigger than originally intended, plenty of room I guess.   Sunday, June 1 View Page I need to weed where the edges of the hoop houses were. My plants are smaller than a lot I see on here but I think they look healthy.   Sunday, June 1 View Page 2344 Wallace   Sunday, June 1 View Page 2196 Zappa   Monday, June 2 View Page Crazy to have 44 degrees on June 2nd. Weather looks to be better this week thankfully.   Thursday, June 5 View Page Looks like cucumber beetles have made their appearance. Talstar has been applied a few times and there was soil applied imidicloprid. I need to make another application for these things. I have Assail I will use next.   Sunday, June 8 View Page 2021 Hoornstra was the fastest out of the ground and probably best plant when transplanted but is the smallest plant now. I think it's coming into it though. It had my first female to open but I wanted to let the plant get bigger before I pollinate one.   Sunday, June 8 View Page 2344 Wallace There has been a tremendous amount of growth this week   Sunday, June 8 View Page 2196 Zappa   Sunday, June 8 View Page I got the irrigation system all setup and tested. We have had an inch of rain the last couple days so soil moisture is good. I need to figure out what the proper level is, I'm paranoid about over watering so I may have been letting the soil dry a bit more than ideal between waterings.   Monday, June 16 View Page This week I have been trying to catch up in the patch. This spring has been one of the 10 wettest ever recorded so conditions have been challenging to say the least. This is bad enough when it comes to the pumpkin patch but it has really caused issues for me on the farm. Normally I would like to be done planting corn and soybeans by mid May. Last week we had a few days without rain so I was able to fertilize corn, spray for weeds and finish planting soybeans, this means the pumpkin patch was largely neglected other than spraying once and fertilizing with some nitrogen. It was absolutely incredible how the weeds took off in a week, I am embarrassed by how they took over, lambsquarter sure loves the fertility level I have in the patch. Monday I sprayed the weeds with Glufosinate and Clethodim. I picked Glufosinate because it is a non selective contact herbicide, it requires good coverage to kill and has no systemic or residual activity. My thinking was this shouldn't cause any issues with the pumpkins if a tiny bit ended up on a leaf.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page First pollination today. A bit more than 16 ft out with 21 secondaries behind. There is another female at 18-19 ft out that looks to open next week that I am hoping can be the one based on the distance from my sprinkler riser. Nice 4 lobe flower on this 2344 Wallace. I pollinated with the 1727 Jacobus, I think that could be a good cross for next year. I'm behind on updates and work in the patch, hopefully I can catch up tomorrow.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page This morning I pollinated this flower on the 2196 Zappa x self. It's 13ft out with 18 secondaries behind. I want the next one that is coming at 16 ft but figured I would pollinate this one just in case. The temps next week are looking 90-95 all week.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page 2021 Hoornstra. This plant is the smallest in the patch, the vines are long but kind of skinny and leaves are smaller than the others. I think this is the wettest spot in the patch so that is likely causing issues. I pollinated on this morning. 2021 Hoornstra x 2344 Wallace   Wednesday, June 18 View Page 1727 Jacobus, this plant is really taking off now. It was stunted by excessive moisture when it was little but seems to be catching up now.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page 2344 Wallace This plant just wants to grow. I will likely be ready to terminate the first secondary tomorrow.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page This is the flower at 18 ft on the 2344, how long until this is ready?   Wednesday, June 18 View Page 2196 Zappa This onr has the biggest leaves and shortest internode space. There is a flower at 16ft that I have my eye on. I need to figure out what to do to ensure successful pollination in the heat that is coming up starting 3 days from now.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page I made a couple rookie mistakes with my vine management on the 2196. Somehow one early secondary ended up sort of coming out the bottom on the main vine and it ended up on the wrong side of the main. I trimmed a secondary off the stump that seemed in the way and was left with this big open space on one side.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page I am trying to train a tertiary to fill in the blank spot that resulted from my errors   Thursday, June 19 View Page Feeling a bit down about the patch and the field crops. There is standing water everywhere and everything is waterlogged. The excess moisture is really starting to hurt. I think I'm starting to run short on nitrogen, the plants are yellowing slightly. Saturday starts nearly a week stretch of 90+ degrees with no rain which is a mixed blessing. After talking with another local grower I'm concerned about how my plants will fare without shade cloth in the upcoming heat.   Friday, June 20 View Page Pollinated this one on the 2344 Wallace this morning. One lobe looks a little wonky. Hope it takes, this is 18ft on the main. 2344 Wallace x 1727 Jacobus   Saturday, June 21 View Page Pollinated what I hope is the keeper on the 2196 Zappa, very nice looking 4 lobe flower. 2196 Zappa x 1727 Jacobus   Saturday, June 21 View Page First day of at least 8 in a row forecast to be above 90. Didn't have a foam cooler so I slapped a box together from some foam scraps and put some frozen water bottles under there. Temp inside the box didn't get above 80. It may not look good but it seems to work.   Saturday, June 21 View Page I forgot to take pictures so no photo on this one. I don't have shade cloth up. With all the stuff I've already bought and the time spent it just hasn't happened. This year one of pumpkin growing has gotten pretty in depth lol I decided to use my sprinklers to keep the plants cool. I know the risk I run with fungal diseases but I've got to chance it and will potentially move to every 7 day spray instead of 10. I was having some issues with my irrigation so I ran to town for parts. By the time I got back the plants were flagging quite a bit. I got the irrigation running correctly and have the sprinklers run for 30 seconds every 10 minutes, the plants looked great once I got that running. I'll have to keep an eye on them and see what interval of on and off is the best.   Sunday, June 22 View Page Second pollination on the 2196 Zappa today, about 16ft out the main. Hoping this one takes, the last one is at only 13 ft. Looks like there is another chance on the main in 4-5 days. 2196 Zappa x 2344 Wallace   Sunday, June 22 View Page Second pollination on the 2021 Hoornstra, 18-19ft on the main. 2021 Hoornstra x 2196 Zappa   Sunday, June 22 View Page Mostly handling the heat well, a little sunburn is evident on a few leaves. I had to turn the sprinklers off for a little bit to work on a check valve that was allowing water past when the pump was off and after 15min I could see them starting to droop. Trying sprinklers on for 30 sec every 5 min. It is 96 and breezy, the leaves are about dry after 5 min.   Sunday, June 22 View Page Something isn't right with the 1727 Jacobus. You can see one side of the plant is growing much slower than the other, I've noticed that for a while and attributed it to that spot getting late afternoon shade before the rest of the patch. But now I can see the leaves yellowing and a bit of margin burning across the younger growth on the whole plant.   Sunday, June 22 View Page You can see the yellowing and the leaf margins here. Going to send out another soil sample tomorrow. The weather has been extremely wet. I am wondering if I am running short on nitrogen, although the other plants look better. Other thoughts were maybe I overdid it on Boron. Also could be more of a soil compaction issue here due to early moisture. I've tried broadforking a bit around the plant the last couple days. Just hate to see this as I was really excited about this plant and originally thought this would be the best spot in the patch. Or maybe this plant is more sensitive to the heat and sun than the others? Lots of things to consider.