Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 79 Entries. Monday, January 6 View Page This year we have done no amendments and we will see what the soil sample says when it comes back.   Tuesday, January 14 View Page I'm going to run through all of our soil samples and try to explain how we look at plant nutrients. So the first soil sample is about normal and fairly well balanced. We have told many growers that we stopped all feeding last year around the time the pumpkins were a little bigger than the size of a beach ball. We have also made no amendments before tilling. Looking at the first recommendation some Triple super phosphate is advised. This is the only recommendation, in our eyes worth considering for our patch. The potassium is fine and both of these can be gently added later on if needed. We have always had high magnesium but it's not the end of the world. Sulphur is just Witchcraft, we have plenty but a leaf sample would probably say that the plants short of the stuff. Boron is good but if it starts to drop we will add more. Between 4 and 6ppm is, I think the sweet spot. You certainly don't want much less at pollination. Molybdenum really should be addressed if only just to look good. The Nitrogen is too high but we can soon flush that away if needed. If that Nitrogen was perfect at 95ppm the EC would be probably just below 2.4. Please remember that there are many ways to deal with soil fertility. The way we deal with soil amendments will not be for everyone.   Friday, January 24 View Page It's really important to make sure that drip irrigation waters your soil correctly. By this I mean the cone effect. If you are on a clay based soil you will be able to get away with less runs. However if you're on a sandy soil you will have to put your soaker lines much closer together. We have had to add more soaker lines which is expensive but we have to pander to our plants needs.   Friday, January 24 View Page All of the clubs have been sent two sets of our seeds and we have just 4 sets left that we are going to sell for £100 per set. It has been brought to my intention that there is someone in Eastern Europe selling our seeds and many more for inflated prices. While this is not illegal it is frustrating especially has some of the seeds apparently are not what they say they are. My recommendation is to buy them from a club auction or us.   Friday, March 14 View Page After 72 hours in our nice warm boiler room   Friday, March 14 View Page Looking good   Friday, March 14 View Page It's looking like 100% germination   Saturday, March 29 View Page Here we go and here's our line up. Don and Cindy kindly gave us six seeds and they are all in. Be kind to your seeds, don't put them seed collections. We couldn't really work out a date to sow them but it was always going to be the end of March. Normally they would be going on the back of our boiler but as it's out of action this week they are going in my airing cupboard. It's probably 5C cooler so germination should be a little slower. The 2020's are white seeds with nice soft seed coats so the cotyledons push out fairly easily. The 2144's are orange which make them a little more challenging to get going. I sanded the edges to help them push their out of their seed coatings.   Saturday, April 5 View Page I put some of our seeds on top of the boiler in my airing cupboard but didn't realise that when someone took a shower the dam thing came on and cooked a load up our seeds. The beauty of putting seeds in tissue paper is that you can quickly react to any cock ups. This is a 2020 from the second batch seed coat removed.   Tuesday, April 8 View Page The two early plants for the Spanish are in which are the 2641 and the 2639   Tuesday, April 8 View Page This time last year the 2020 germination looked like this batch of 2641's but for some reason their germination is poor and extremely disappointing.   Saturday, April 12 View Page A very healthy 2020 and two more that have taken four days in my airing cupboard, with a heater to germinate!!!!   Saturday, April 12 View Page 6 Barron's looking very healthy and I will plant them tomorrow or Monday   Saturday, April 12 View Page Back ups on backups   Thursday, April 24 View Page One of the big improvements this year is to grow all of our pumpkins back to back rather than from the concrete side wall.   Thursday, April 24 View Page Another change is to put perlite under the main vine. This is to see if we can keep the vine drier and therefore have less chance of rot later on in the year.   Thursday, April 24 View Page And a photo   Tuesday, April 29 View Page The first of over 6 to 7 thousand pots are on and I'm already liking the perlite. We originally wanted to just use it on the main vine but we have a huge pallet of it so I guess we will cover as much of the patch as possible. Our first soil sample had really high nitrogen and as usual it has all but gone already. It's most likely been washed through with the drip irrigation. We have sent a soil sample away and I will run through for everyone when we get the results.   Tuesday, April 29 View Page First of all NO amendments should go on any patch without testing the EC first. For a general rule of thumb if you keep below an EC of 2.2 your plants will be very happy. For now we are putting on 32 ounces of Calcium nitrate. To keep the EC down we are splitting this into two 16 ounces doses. This gives us an EC of 1.8. Please remember that there are many ways to amend soil and this is just the way we do it.   Tuesday, April 29 View Page Now I definitely put this photo on the last text   Friday, May 9 View Page First of all I really hope that you can read our second soil sample. You will need to scroll back to our first one to get where we're coming from. Even though our first sample showed too much nitrogen we have put 3 X 16oz of calcium nitrate through the drip lines. We need to get planted into our heads how easy it is to wash nitrogen through the soil by drip lines or rain. To be honest soil samples just confirm what we can see in the plants habits which is just down to experience We have added 15ml per patch of molybdenum though the drip lines with no change but we will keep gently spoon feeding it until it's in the guide lines. The boron is fine but in the coming weeks we we probably add a little more. The 1.8 to 2ppm recommended by labs no where near enough.   Friday, May 9 View Page As I feared the last soil sample photo was a little short of information   Saturday, May 10 View Page Here's a very nice 2641 and I'm loving the perlite   Saturday, May 10 View Page Both Barons looking great   Saturday, May 10 View Page 2020's are also looking great. They are slightly smaller the 2641 and Baron as we started them deliberately later.   Wednesday, May 14 View Page Our labs are making a right mess of our results so please ignore the Sulphur and Iron. The Molybdenum is going to take a while to get right but just remember, it's difficult to remove fertiliser once you put it on. Just gently spoon feeding is the right option.   Wednesday, May 14 View Page Both of the Barron's are looking very tasty. We had to move the 2641 around the stanchion. The roots were great so the pertite is going well   Thursday, May 15 View Page It's a little early but I've started a bunch of FP 's off and they are nice and warm in my airing cupboard   Monday, May 19 View Page I use a knife to flick out the small side shoots and as a bonus this one's orange which helps me find it.   Monday, May 19 View Page We sweep our side vines back gradually to make room for the pumpkins   Tuesday, May 20 View Page I think that the perlite although expensive could be a game changer. So well done Ruben for coming up with the idea.   Wednesday, May 21 View Page Please don't break off your tendrils. If they are in the way just crack them.   Wednesday, May 21 View Page We're already putting in the 5ft bamboo canes. We just push them through the ribs of the leaves and it keeps them all nice, upright and neat.   Wednesday, May 21 View Page This is our latest soil sample and another has already gone. You can see that the nitrogen is higher than we would like but it's extremely difficult to get perfect. We normally rely on our past experience and reading our plants. The molybdenum is beginning to creep up and we will also raise the boron by about 1ppm   Thursday, May 22 View Page So here's a rare leaf sample that I've done to help share my thoughts with you all. So let's go through it and try to pick out the bones. Nitrogen. High, it's always high in the leaf, our plants are pigs for the stuff. Calcium, super high and super happy with the results. However if you take a leaf sample after the pumpkins are about the size of a beach ball the calcium will always be low and there's little that you can do about it. At this point all the calcium is transporting water to the pumpkins and the leaves don't get a look in. Phosphate and Potassium is perfect. Sulphur is witchcraft but okay. Boron is bang on the money. Please just believe me, your boron needs to be between 4 and 5 ppm before you pollinate. Forget what labs say when 1.8 to 2ppm is good. They don't understand the huge amounts of water that our pumpkins need. Calcium is a lazy bastard and it needs boron to move it. Water is moved by calcium. Enough said. Magnesium and Iron are high in the soil and leaf but are not a problem. Molybdenum is surprisingly high in the leaf but still low in the soil. At a total guess the plants are grabbing some of the 30ml we put on every 10days. So all good. Finally, leaf samples should only be used to satisfy your mind that you have a problem. It's far better to spend your money on extra soil samples. Ron found out about the benefits of Boron so he should take the credit for this. All we have done is thrown away the recommendations and come up with between 4 and 5 ppm before pollination. We have had 7ppm before but I wouldn't recommend it. So I hope this is not too confusing and helps you all.   Saturday, May 24 View Page A couple of days ago these vines has way too much attitude but the 30 gallons of plain water they get each day has washed away some nitrogen. As the soil sample showed slightly low potassium we will probably give each patch a potassium nitrate feed next week. They will also get a little molybdenum and boron.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page We're going to put all the pumpkins on perlite as well this year. This is the 2639 X 2639 at 7days old.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page You can see how aggressive our S bends are and you can't just do this in one day. It's going to take us up to a week to get our pumpkins in the right position. We move them a little in the morning and again in the afternoon. This is a good looking 2641 X 2144 at two days old.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page Very happy about everything in the patch at the moment. We would like to add some more potassium but that's normally in the form of potassium nitrate and looking at the plants at the moment they don't any more nitrogen at the moment. This is a 2144 X 2020 and, for me, a really nice cross.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page And another really nice cross the 2144 X 2641   Wednesday, May 28 View Page And finally for the day a 2020 X 2641. We do put on Floral 48hours after pollination. Whether it helps or not, time is out but it's doesn't appear to have any adverse effects. A word of warning don't overdose them (check Ruben's diary) I tend to take this as a plus because it shows that Floral clearly can affect pumpkins. We now have to decipher if the effect is for the good or the bad   Wednesday, May 28 View Page And a photo   Thursday, May 29 View Page For us this is about the right time to remove the one leaf by the pumpkin. I know some people will leave these leaves on but they tend to scratch the skins which can become nasty scars. The top tip is to ALWAYS cut away from the pumpkin. It seems obvious but I've screwed up in the past.   Saturday, May 31 View Page I hope that you can read this sample okay. We have just given the plants plain water for the last couple weeks and all is fine. If we had the opportunity to give a little more potassium we would but there's enough in the soil for now. We will definitely but working on the boron this coming week and that's about all. By the way, starting to ramp up the feeding once the pumpkins start to grow is an urban myth. If anything you should possibly be putting on less as the plants finish filling out their growing space.   Saturday, May 31 View Page Some very happy plants.   Sunday, June 1 View Page My field pumpkins got planted yesterday with a little more wind protection   Sunday, June 1 View Page A little bit of bad news is that we decided to pull the 2639. Both pumpkins set were growing extremely slowly and we decided to concentrate our efforts on the last five plants. I can bury the vines on one plant in 30min but by the time you add up the time spent making pots, sticking leaves etc it works out at about 1hour per plant per day. There's plenty left in the patch to have a chance at the WR. I'm really liking the 2641, by the way.   Tuesday, June 3 View Page The plants look fantastic and probably the best we've ever seen. We do throw out the last year's blueprint and add all of our improvements and it adds up.   Tuesday, June 3 View Page We are still working our way around the plants with the canes to keep the leaves up.   Friday, June 6 View Page Roots love perlite   Saturday, June 7 View Page At last some pumpkins to show you. The oldest is the 2641X2144 at 12 days old   Saturday, June 7 View Page Then we have a 2144x2639 at 10days old   Saturday, June 7 View Page Across the patch we have a 2144x2020 also at ten days old.   Saturday, June 7 View Page And the last for now is the first 2020x2641 also a ten days old. It's time to warp and bend nature.   Saturday, June 7 View Page And a photo   Monday, June 9 View Page It's probably still about 3hrs a days each in the patch at the moment with no days off.   Tuesday, June 10 View Page If you're lucky you can get a secondary across the main vine and out the other side.   Tuesday, June 10 View Page Even the best of us can let a cut leaf fall on the pumpkin. Plenty of bad language but they are our babies.   Saturday, June 14 View Page Finally we are starting to tape our pumpkins and super happy with all of them so far. DAP20 the 2641 is 139lbs which is better than average for us.   Sunday, June 15 View Page You want to get your fans on early. If your outside get a clear cover and we also pull the drip tubes to one side.   Monday, June 16 View Page I noticed on a diary that stem brakes on the main vine have been an issue. So this is how we avoid cracking. We simply move these two sticks ideally twice a day so that the vine gently drops onto the patch.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page The smallest 2144 DAP20 is 139lbs and looking great   Tuesday, June 17 View Page The biggest 2144 DAP20 is a sensational 170lbs   Tuesday, June 17 View Page The first of the 2020's DAP20 is also looking fantastic at 155lbs. The last 2020 is, I think from memory around DAP10 and DAP20 will probably be the biggest in the patch. So all good.   Tuesday, June 17 View Page Now as this next post is going to be long here's a photo of Polly harvesting some honey from our hives. A few years ago we started to look at cell division and expansion. The only research we could find was on cucumbers. After many articles we found that a cucumbers first 8 day period was spent on cell division and cell expansion. This was followed by another 20 days of just cell expansion. So how do we use this to help our pumpkins? They already had the best soil conditions so we started to look into temperatures   Tuesday, June 17 View Page So this is the blue for this year and we raised the heat and ventilation temps by 1C from last year. Unfortunately the pumpkin house is on the tail end the nursery so if it cold outside we don't always reach the heating temps which is why the 2641 was a little slow to start. The night temperature has improved in the last 10 days which is why we are predicting that the last 2020 will be the biggest DAP20 in the patch. It's all a bit touchy feely but I think we're getting there.   Thursday, June 19 View Page Hopefully you can read the latest soil sample. They seem to take longer and longer before we get them back which is extremely frustrating when you want to react to the plants. We are currently also waiting for some more potassium nitrate so that we can put 20oz per patch through the drip irrigation. The nitrogen being this low at this stage of growth is not essential but with this application it should balance the soil out nicely. If you look back at our last sample you will see the boron levels have risen by just over 2ppm. It only took 2oz per patch which is why it needs to be applied through the drip irrigation.   Thursday, June 19 View Page I decided to name them all this year.   Thursday, June 19 View Page   Thursday, June 19 View Page   Thursday, June 19 View Page   Thursday, June 19 View Page And last but not least Ravenclaw   Friday, June 20 View Page You can see now how the bamboo canes are working.   Friday, June 20 View Page The 2641 is looking fabulous.   Saturday, June 21 View Page This exactly what we're looking for.   Saturday, June 21 View Page The 3 biggest game changers in our patch in the the last two years are the 5ft canes holding up the outside leaves, the perlite underneath the pumpkins and vines and the automatic watering.   Saturday, June 21 View Page A beautiful sight. They all just have that look about them. We're now just about to hit the crazy numbers   Saturday, June 21 View Page The smallest sting ray I've ever caught. So far we have done 7 soil samples and only put on a total of 48oz calcium nitrate 16oz potassium nitrate 60ml molybdenum 2oz borax There will be no more feeding for the rest of the year. Considering there was no winter top dressing it's ridiculous how little we have put on. I have had one email, let's just say, strongly disagreeing. Spend your money on soil samples, not feed and leaf samples. Leaf samples should only be used to satisfy your curiosity of a deficiency.   Tuesday, June 24 View Page I'm going to grow 2 plants "outdoors" in 2025. I am going to start them in a gigantic hothouse. It is going to be 24' wide x 40' long. I've been playing around with how I'm going to build the frame. I'm planning to build it from 2- 10'x20' Harbor Freight car port frames & 16' pieces of pvc I've been using for years.