Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 81 Entries. Sunday, April 24 View Page 2nd year - got a 454 pound bright orange last year. Scored 30th out of 31 entries at the DelVal Pumpkin Festival and Weigh in. Lost by 1,160 lbs. This year will be better. Rototilled 3 trailers of mushroom soil with 10-10-10 and first grass cut clippings. Patch is a bit small for 3 hills, but that's all I got. Started 7 seeds 4/22 in the method of cnrtyboy, Circleville OH, except didn't soak in peroxide for 1/2 hr (seemed risky), just wiped. Keeping soil 80-88 deg. 1969Haist14; 1725Haist'14; 1625Huydic'14; 1614Brady'15; 1531Fulk'15; 1514BradyU.O.W'15 and 1405Rauch2014 - hoping for the best.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page Mixed a full bag of commercial potting soil into each hill. Spread more fresh grass clippings. No sign of seed sprouting yet. 4 days. A bit nervous. Cold frame almost done for first hill.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page First spout of the year. 1625Huydic2104; 2009Wallacex1725Harp. Very exciting. The WILL be a vine in the patch this year! 6 more seed primed to make an appearance. Cold frame almost completed.   Wednesday, April 27 View Page 2nd sprout; 1725Haist2014; 1512Brownellx1756Lancaster. The 1625Huydic2014 already has 2 sturdy leaves. Cold frame delivered to the patch. The season almost seems assured.   Thursday, April 28 View Page Finished and placed cold frame over first mound. No plans for more - that was a lot of work. Weather lousy - cold and damp with no relief predicted for a week. Nuts.   Friday, April 29 View Page No further seeds from first batch have sprouted since the first 2, 3 days ago- total 7 days, well, that's enough patience. Restarted 4 more: 1299Wolf'14,1480Wolfx2009Wallace;1291McCracken'15, 1625Huydicx1844Rose; 1625Huydic'14, 2009Wallacex1725Harp; 1725Haist'14, 1512Brownellx1761Lancaster. Now ONE of them oughta hatch. Only looking for total of 3   Sunday, May 1 View Page Decided to move the 2 sprouted seedlings and 2 of the newly planted seeds out of the heated indoor greenhouse to a southern bay window. The seedlings were growing too fast and 5 of the original 7 seeds failed to sprout in the greenhouse, leave 5 original (now 10 days in the pots) and 2 newly planted seeds (4 days in the pots) in the greenhouse. Repotted seedlings deeper into larger pots. Weather terrible - 45-52 deg and misty rain last 2 days and predicted for rest of the week. Nuts - really wanted to move the seedlings to the cold frame in the patch before they get too leggy.   Monday, May 2 View Page Attempting to warm the soil before transplanting a seedling with a 120w grow lamp. Current outside air temp 52 deg, air in cold frame 82 deg and soil 57 deg. Soil outside 55 deg - meager benefit. Cloudy with misty rain. Will test conditions in the frame with a pepper seedling and butternut squash seedling currently on a widow sill before committing one my only 2 pumpkins to the cold ground.Afraid more time in on the sill will create a really weak leggy seedling scary stuff.   Tuesday, May 3 View Page Testing a pepper plant and a spaghetti squash in the frame. Planted yesterday, looking good today. Air and soil temp 60 deg inside frame, 49 deg outside air. Now they predict cloudy cool rain for rest of the week. Nuts. Started another 2 seeds, 1188Haist'14,996Haistx1264Pierpoint; and 1281Snyder,1744Fulkx2323Meier. This time soak 18hr in only water, didn't file, just cut a little of softened edges. Nothing fancy. Not letting indoor greenhouse reach more than 82 deg this time.   Friday, May 6 View Page Success with minimalist seed treatment. Just soaked for 8 hours in tap water, cut distal half seed edges and planted in Miracle Grow potting soil with some mycrochizia and kept air and soil at 70-72 deg. None of this soaking in sea weed solution, or baking 88 degree air where only germinated 2 out of 7. Now have a team of 6 and so the season is assured! Still cold and rainy, but expect first sun in 8 days Sunday - then the first and best seedling goes to the cold frame. Testing cold frame with a pepper plant and spaghetti squash at 60-75 deg air and soil temp up to 62 deg with black plastic. Both plants thriving, so in goes the 1725 Haist '14, already 10" after repotting into a deeper pot last week.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Finally. weather improved and sun came out - 1st in 8 days. Planted 1725 Haist with amendments and a drink of dilute fish meal. The 1291 McCracken is teed up for planting in the adjoining loop tent tomorrow. Sunny days ahead!.   Monday, May 9 View Page Oops - planted the Haist backwards - put the first leaf forwards. Good think I caught in now and replanted correctly, lest the vine would have grown straight through my gladiolas and lilies. Nuts. Put a companion back up in yesterday in case #1 falters. Planted 2 more in the hoop tent next door. One of those was in backwards as well. There's just too many things to do right here. How does ANYBODY finish the season with a success?!   Friday, May 13 View Page And now there are 3 - lookin' like a homeless camp out there, especially at night with the heating lights on. Frame 1 - main plant- 1725Haist'14 by 1512 Brownell x 1756 Lancaster and back up - 1299 Wolf by 1480 wolf x 2009 Wallace; Frame 2 - main plant - 1969 Haist'14 by 1756 Lancaster x 1995 Steltz with backup-1291McCracken'15 by 1625Huydic x 1844Rose Frame 3 - Main plant 1513 Fulk by 1744Fulk x 2323 Meier with back up 1405 Rauch by 1744Fulk x Self (a beautiful yellow pumpkin) It's going to be painful to sacrifice any of the back ups, especially the one out of Grandpa Meier. Whole team growing beautifully - everybody has the advantage of mycochyzia + 10-10-10 + kelp upon planting and then added WOW packets when they came in the mail (with a personal thank you from Ron for the purchase)a few days later. Throwing grass clippings on the patch from first lawn cuts of the year, containing all that expensive fertilizer my lawn guy puts on there, to rototil in later. Goal: something >900 lbs, last year, my first year, 454 which seemed plenty huge to me (and the neighborhood)   Friday, May 13 View Page And NOW I read that the 2009 Wallace was the mother seed for the past 3 world champions, and it's my backup! Thanks, Don Black, but couldn'ya 'ave mentioned that a few days ago!?? Maybe it'll overtake the 1969 Haist and become the main player.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Grandpa 2009 Wallace on left not likely to surpass 1725 Haist in middle. Spaghetti squash outrunning everybody.   Sunday, May 15 View Page 44 degrees with a 15mph wind gusting to 40mph. Black clouds with intermittent driving rain. Miserable. The team remains warm and toasty - 68 deg and no wind. Life O' Reilly.   Sunday, May 15 View Page Storms past, maybe better weather soon. Predict 36 deg tonight. It's been a tough spring   Wednesday, May 18 View Page Near Disaster today!! Only a stroke of luck that I was home and heard the farmer's massive tractor lumber along the just seeded corn field, only 15 feet from my back yard and my entire team exposed - the huts and covers removed earlier for a breath a air. Would like to say some sun too, but that hasn't been very common here lately. The wind was blowing my way from the corn field. He beat me to the edge of the patch and by the time I got there, I smelled the stench of herbicide wafting over the patch. ARGHHH!   Wednesday, May 18 View Page The solution to pollution is dilution, and so I drenched all the plants with buckets of water and put back under protection from any more contaminated drafts. The picture of frame #2 , the 1969 Haist and 1291 McCracken taken a few hours later was reassuring, and as I write this, 6 hours later, everybody looks healthy. WHEW! How does ANYBODY finish the season with a success?!   Friday, May 20 View Page 2 days of sun!! In a row!! 74 deg today. That oughta get the juices flowin'. Rototilled all the grass clippings collected over the last month into the patch. Media looks great. No visible problems with any of the team at this point. The 1969 Haist continues to look the best (frame #2). Spaghetti squash trying to make a break for it out from under the big frame #1.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Finally got the first deer/gopher fence up. Small space to start, close enough to layer on wind break. Will expand to limits of the patch when the vines demand. 55 deg today, predicting 88 by the end of the week. All screwed up.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Regular ole garden doing well -- rototilled in a load of mushroom soil and for first time dusted root balls of each plant with mycorrhysae and kelp meal. Garlic looking funky, lower leaves turning brown - hope we don't have that onion/garlic fly that's wiping out the professional growers - if that takes over, a glove of garlic may cost a full bitcoin by July..   Thursday, May 26 View Page Set up support for trip irrigation to be installed. Also spread a full lawn mowing of fresh grass on the patch - already rototilled in the last 2 mowings last week. Plants doing well, but I have a few funny looking leaves that may have been affected by the farmer's herbicide spray on a few feet from my patch last week. New growth is fine. Vines nearing limits of the loop house and almost to the limit of the frame. Spaghetti squash is going bonkers. watering with 1/2 strength fish emulsion and seaweed liquor every 3 days   Saturday, May 28 View Page Installing a wind break on the temporary interior fence. Saw all the important growers do that on BP.com, and so I figured I oughta too. Neighbors and wife now looking strangely at the endeavor.   Saturday, May 28 View Page The 1725 Haist soundly outgrew the Grandpa Wallace and laid down today, and so first culling set for the morning - kinda liked a scheduled hangin'. Spaghetti squash outgrew the frame, and so I had to lift the base onto 2 x 4's to let the growing tip out. Great color. Watering daily, and every other day adding 1/4 strength fish emulsion and 1/4 strength seaweed solution. Temp here in Allentown at 8:15 pm is 86 deg - crazy. going to leave the frame top open and loop house ends open tonight for first time. Lowest temp expected 66 deg at 0600.   Monday, May 30 View Page The Frame #2 1969 Haist (left plant) wins. The 1291 McCracken on the right set for culling in the morning. Sorry, Alex.   Monday, May 30 View Page Interior wind break complete. Now just have to wait for some wind. Really hot last 3 days, 88-91 with bright sun. Plants growing nicely. First vine burial of the season - 1725 Haist Frame#1 - mycorrhizae, kelp meal and fish solution. Neighbors are mumbling.   Tuesday, May 31 View Page Culled the 1299 Wolf - boy that was hard. Actually, couldn't bare to cut the vine, so I dug it out and transplanted it into the adjoining corn field, amidst the just-sprouted corn (rows and rows of 4" corn plants). Here's a case where I didn't "Plan to the End". I'll figure something out. Kept plants still have leaves showing heat stress - I've worked out better shading situation with all this hot bright sun we've had. New leaves and growing tip look fine. Shouldn't be and issue.   Thursday, June 2 View Page 1725 Haist has now reached the limits of the cold frame, day 35 since germination. Vine buried today - will be hard to shade from hot sun without the frame but expect only clouds next few days. Going away over weekend and plan to buy bigger PVC hoop stuff for burlap support upon return. Ground temp up to 76 deg.   Thursday, June 2 View Page 1969 Haist frame #2 is appearing to become the big boy - stem thicker and leaves bigger than all the rest despite being 5 days younger (day 30). And he gets the best soil, right in the middle of the patch. High hopes for this guy. All 3 back up vines transplanted to the adjoining farmer's corn field, with 4" corn sprouting all around - don't know how I'm going to handle this item.   Monday, June 6 View Page 1969 Haist -regular feeding with fish emulsion, seaweed solution and a little miracle grow - vine growing rapidly - 18" in 2 day (of rain).   Monday, June 6 View Page 1969 Haist starting to show it's muscle   Sunday, June 12 View Page Fence and wind shield moved out the to full patch perimeter. Very windy all day today - gusts >35mp - and hot - >80 deg. Not good for anything. Watered vines twice - hardly able to keep up with wilted leaves and the soil drying out so quickly, especially with the recent re-tilling to get all the dried grass clippings installed. Done with tilling. On May 31, I ordered wind shielding mesh and sun shield mesh from Ecologic Technologies - not only haven't I gotten it yet, but when I called and asked about when will it be delivered, they said it hadn't even shipped yet. They would call me when it did - haven't heard from them since. Not a good company to deal with. Look elsewhere. When, and if, I ever get the stuff, I have to redo all that plastic shield - 3 hours of wasted work. Buncha bums.   Sunday, June 12 View Page My 3 vines are doing fine - 1725 Haist, 1969 Haist and 1513 Fulk. Growing 4-6"/day. Adjacent spaghetti squash looks like it'll take over the whole patch - training to grow to the back and plan to install a trellis. That was only supposed to be a test plant for the heated cold frame during those first really cold days in May - can't bear to pull it out. Timed soaker irrigation to be installed tomorrow. Very exciting   Friday, June 17 View Page The team is growing nicely, 1725Haist (day 48) at 9.5feet with biggest leaf 15" and 1969Haist (day 46) at 8' with biggest leaf 18". Both growing about 6"/day now. Only additives have been every 2 or 3 day watering with half strength fish emulsion and seaweed solution, adding a little Miracle Grow once a wee, The vines were planted into a heavy percentage mushroom soil and inoculated with mycorrhizae, kelp meal and WOW packets at planting. Buried vine nodes inoculated with mycorrhizea, kelp meal and 10-10-10 mixture. Irrigation system almost completed.   Saturday, June 18 View Page Irrigation system complete - now if I could only figure out how to work the timer.   Saturday, June 18 View Page It works!   Sunday, June 19 View Page A candidate has appeared on the 1969 Haist - The vine looks super healthy, the vine diameter greater at 8' than at the stem. Big green healthy leaves leading to a tiny female flower at 9.5 ft - a little short on vine, but a candidate. Looks like we have every chance to be successful passing the 2015 454 pounder - maybe double. The vines look waaaaaay better. Very exciting.   Monday, June 20 View Page The spaghetti squash originally placed in the cold frame in Early May to test growth conditions has carried on with a free ride to the point of taking over the place. His days are numbered   Monday, June 20 View Page Spaghetti squash now sleeps with the fishes (err - corn)   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Time for some Phosphorous! P.S. I've known Jack Peters for over 30 years - sold his Peter's Fertilizer business about 10 years ago so can't use the Peters name any more. This stuff is waaaaaay better than Miracle Grow.   Thursday, June 23 View Page The team: L to R - 1725 Haist; 1969 Haist; 1513 Fulk. Burying vines now noticeably time consuming.   Sunday, June 26 View Page First candidate of 1725Haist at 10'. Plan to pollinate off a flower on the 1969Haist today. This plant is growing secondaries at almost a foot a day.   Sunday, June 26 View Page First candidate has 4 symmetrical units - rather have 6 but take what we can get to get started. Best part is that this fruit is on the main vine, not a secondary. Most of the secondaries emerging from 8' and further down the main vine have tiny female flowers near their growing tips. Clipping off tertiary in earnest now.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Oops - on closer inspection, first candidate does not have 4 symmetrical lobes - but 3 lousey looking asymmetric lobes. Great observational skills.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Dad from 1969 Haist - lucky to have him this morning - the only open flower on the vine   Thursday, June 30 View Page Vines are growing beautifully. But how about a few pumpkins!   Sunday, July 10 View Page Just got back from vacation and found the vines had nearly reached the limits of the available space. The smallish 1531Fulk put on 10 feet in 8 days. While away, my daughter and neighbor managed to pollenate a 1725 Haist at 17' on main vine (now 24')by the 1969 Haist and a 1969 Haist on main vine by the 1725 - tied the flowers. Vines look great with leaves almost up to my chest. Unfortunately my new irrigation system failed - timer somehow got water logged and soaked the batteries and shorted out the dial screen. So much for all that effort and expense. Luckedly, had several rains this week. So I moved the fencing further out into the corn field (which is now as tall as I am.)and got another 3 feet of potential forward growth on the vines, but have exhausted the tilled mushroom soil. many female flowers on all of the secondaries.   Sunday, July 10 View Page Day 4 after pollination of the 1725Haist. Flower tied but not yet fallen off. Fruit looks good. Turned the vine outward to let it room to grow.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Leaves on the 1969Haist chest high - growing fruits on all 3 vines. The 1531 Fulk has a surprisingly nice one. Nutrition Summary: Ground prepped with only 3 loads of mushroom soil last fall and rototilled this spring with 10-10-10. Later roltotilled in 3 cuttings of spring grass mowing. Seedlings installed with WOW starter packets and Wtreme gardening Mykos mycorrhizal fungus spores and Neptune's Harvest Kelp meal. Then every other day watering with 1/2 strength fish emulsion and seaweed solution. Every other week Jack's (Peters) 10-30-20 commercial fertilizer. Nodes buried with a teaspoon of Jim's special secret sauce - 40% mycorrhizal, 40% kelp meal, 20% 10-10-10 and a pinch of dry Jack's 10-30-20. Tried to to every node on all 3 plants. Did not add any gypsum or other stuff that comes in big bags. Sprayed weekly with copper based fungicide and twice sprayed Bonine "Eight" along the vines as an insecticide for vine borerer - which I haven't seen yet. 5 small pumpkins started with cross pollination between the 1725 and 1969 and on on the 1531 Fulk against the 1969. Very exciting for year 2. cntryby from circleville my idle.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Big Day - gave up on letting the vines grow any bigger - consumed my total available space - even after stealing a couple of rows of corn from the hapless farmer to expand the fence. Reluctantly cut growing tips of all secondaries and the growing tip of the 1531 main vine. Going to give the 1969 and 1725 another day or so to get every ounce of energy available for the starters fruits. - have 5 nice ones among the 3 vines, each about the size of a softball EXCEPT on the 1969 - all the females came at once way out at the tips. Tried to pollenate one last week on the 1969 but it failed. Finally pollenated a fruit on the 1969 today with the 1725. see next entry.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Pollenated 1969 using the 1725. This is the only currently available female on this massive vine and close to the limit of the fence at 23'- this better work.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Pollenated 1969 using the 1725. This is the only currently available female on this massive vine and close to the limit of the fence at 23'- Pictured here, Mom 1969 & Dad 1975 --this better work.   Saturday, July 16 View Page (Hopefully) pollenated 1969Haist - on the main vine. Wish me luck   Saturday, July 16 View Page 1725 8 DAP   Saturday, July 16 View Page 1725 9 DAP - unfortunately very close to the 8 DAP, and so will have to be sacrificed - will wait till one has a 48" circ.   Saturday, July 16 View Page 1531 5 DAP   Monday, July 18 View Page Something to do with your spent male donor flowers. Instead of ripping the pedals off, simply cut the flower off the stem around the base and lift it off, keeping all the pedals intact and giving an easily used pedestal.   Thursday, July 21 View Page 1725 has produced 3 nice fruits, this the best with an OTT of 77. Pictured are the 3 fertilizers I've used (Jack's used sparingly) plus a little 10-10-10 and Kelp meal mixed in with Mycorhysea with each node burying. The bed is mainly mushroom soil. Tried to bury almost all the nodes on the main vine and all the way out along the secondaries. Ruthlessly cut every tertiary I could find. Now that sufficient fruits set on all 3 vines, starting to cut the blossom off as well. All vines have reached the limits of the fence, and so growing tips have all been cut. I never enter the patch without my scissors.   Monday, July 25 View Page Strategy Decided. the 1531 will provide back up to the 1969 for biggest even though it was the smallest parent, but the biggest grandparent, the Meier 2323. It was slowest to get started, likely due to more shade and least mushroom soil. Currently has the biggest in the patch, Duke as named by granddaughters an so referred in future posts, est 55 lbs, pictured here, growing 11 lbs a day last 2 days. Has 2 small back ups.   Monday, July 25 View Page Strategy: The midsize seed, 1725Haist will provide the most pumpkins - here the biggest on that vine, 40lb Gilbert, gaining 9 lbs/day for last 2 days. Close behind 36 lb Festus and lessers Wilbert and Angelina.   Monday, July 25 View Page FINALLY - 1969Haist has made a showing - 3 small fruits have taken hold. This vine has the biggest and tallest leaves of the 3. This where the boy boy will come, either Peaches or Max and a third candidate.   Monday, July 25 View Page FINALLY - 1969Haist has made a showing - 3 small fruits have taken hold. This vine has the biggest and tallest leaves of the 3. This where the boy boy will come, either Peaches or Max and a third candidate.   Saturday, July 30 View Page Duke, on the 1531 Fulk, still by far, the biggest I have at 135 lbs today. Gained 18 lbs today (15% gain). Rest are in the 50-80 lb range. Gilbert, on 1725Haist, gained 34 lbs in 3 days, now 80 lbs. Applied copper fungicide and Fish/Seaweed solution with some Jack's 10-30-10. Met with major growers of the MidAtlantic Pumpkin Growers Association today for a couple of patch tours. Saw some 400-500 pounders. Long way to go. I learned I needed systemic insecticides and fungicides. They don't come cheap.   Sunday, July 31 View Page First sign of insect damage - little brown holes in the older leaves. Sprayed "Eight" by Bonide and a fungicidal product called Serenade Disease Control whose sole active ingredient is the QST713 strain of Bacillus subtilis which apparently eats powdery mildew and adheres to roots to become systemic as well. Cost 18 bucks, so it better work.   Monday, August 1 View Page Duke 30 DAP off the 1531 Fulk - est 164 lbs. Funny shape   Monday, August 1 View Page Insect damage - ? potato beetle? - attacked with Bonide "Eight" last night.   Monday, August 1 View Page Oh Oh - looks like vine borer on the Fulk 1531 I look at this vine every day and didn't see a hint of borer until this and it appears already crippling. Attacked with Direct application of Bonide "Eight" and Raid Ant and Roach killer. Nuts   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Can't tell if this is further sudden damage from vine borer or the treatment - direct spray of Raid Ant and Roach killer. These leave were upright and unnoticed 6 hours ago this morning. This is the Kulp1531 vine which feeds my biggest fruit - Duke - 165 lbs. Worried. They say "Good judgement come from experience, and experience come from bad judgement". I think I'll reserved the Raid for the sidewalk.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Sudden wilting of leaves on the same secondary as prior picture. Each has badly damage stem right where it comes off the vine with decomposition and splitting. Looking more the vine boroer than my improvised treatment of adding Raid to Bonide Eight. An order of Merit should arrive in the mail tomorrow - none too soon.   Thursday, August 4 View Page First Fatalities - 2 starters, on 2 different vines, found with flower end rot this morning - the smaller with discolored shell that I could easily stick my finger through and the other was wide open and rotten - slime exuded when I cut it off to throw away - yuk. Suspicious that I fertilized with calcium nitrate yesterday. Response: Heavy irrigation today. The solution to pollution is dilution. Hope this isn't a harbinger of what's to come. Biggest pumpkin is on the 1531 Fulk - est 215 lbs. The 1725 Haist has 6 fruits totaling 540 lbs (40-145)and each are growing about 2-3" in circumference/day. Shoulda picked that vine to grow the big boy. Assuming the 1969 would provide the fruit to take to the weigh in may have been a mistake - best I have there is a 50 pounder - all the female blossoms were very later and far down the vine. This sport promotes too much anxiety.   Friday, August 5 View Page Duke off, the 1531 Fulk, growing about 15 lbs/day - about 8%/day, now est 222 lbs. Carry 8%/day forward to weigh-in on Sept 24, we have a 15,000 lb pumpkin. That should do it. 3%/day gives me a 1000 lb pumpkin - adequate. The Merit Insecticide has arrived - look out you vine borers - you're history.   Friday, August 12 View Page Duke, on the 1531 Fulk remains the leader - est 330, gaining 10--15 lbs/day, but the vine is showing signs of despair with vine borer and deterioration. BIG storm last night - many leaves knocked over. Sprayed copper and Serenade fungicide today - WPM not much of a showing so far this year. Pithium fungus, however, taking out many leaves. It's a race to weigh-in. Long way to go.   Friday, August 12 View Page 4 - 100-150 lb matched pumpkins on 4 consecutive same-side secondaries on the 1725. largest 160 and growing nicely. The vine is in good shape and supporting 6 kins totaling 750 lbs - 2 of which petered out at 60 lbs. Letting them go for quantity, banking on Duke to take the prize. Gotta beat that 454 from last year but likely not going to make the 900 lb goal I set - Never know. Max, the only fruit on the big seed - 1969 Haist growing well - 160 and doing 15%/day right now - maybe he's the guy.   Saturday, August 20 View Page Came home after a week away and found dripping mush coming out of the stem of Gilbert, one of my better pumpkins. A mushy hole right at the connection to the fruit. Referred to Don Langevin's "How to Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins" pg 158 - "patching" I cleaned out the hole and made a paste of captan to fill it. Because there was a container of Sevin dust right next to the captan on the shelf - I added that too. Figgured "why not". Don says the stem will heal. Let's hope. Biggest pumpkin est weight 403 today, but also had some stem mush and got the same treatment. Wiped all fruits with 10% bleach. First time, but shoulda been doing that weekly right along. Finally - I was giving up on an orange pumpkin - everybody is yellow, when I found some tinges of orange around the stem end of Gilbert (the pictured repair job), now about 210 lbs. Yea!.   Tuesday, August 23 View Page First Fatality - Filbert, stalling at 138 lbs. Today noticed a wedge of discoloration and softness arising from the ground up to the flower stub. Turned it over and found this. My own fault - this was the only pumpkin lying right on the ground without matting or anything. The cost of bad judgement. Won't happen again. What they say? "Good judgement is based on experience, and experience is based on bad judgement" So chalk up some more experience. Remaining Players (est weights) 1531Fulk: Duke 434 1725Haist Gilbert 228 Festus 214 Fred 164 Wilbert 157 Angelina 76 Peaches 44 1969Haist Max 187   Tuesday, August 23 View Page Duke - est 434 lbs, circ 121". Plant has significant fusarium - been using typical copper fungicide and Serenade organic fungicide, controlled the WPM but not the fusarium; sent for Cleary's fungicide on advice of fellow grower. Unfortunately, also has significant vine borer damage - likely too late to do anything for that - will pay more attention next year. Duke still growing about 2-3%/day so should get over 600 lbs if the vine holds out. Not bad for a 2nd year grower.   Monday, August 29 View Page Topped out at (est) 434 and now shrinking - stem fenestrated and broken strings. Only a single tap root still attached to stem. Party over (see next photo)   Monday, August 29 View Page Stem caput. Season over for a big one. Hope it lasts till the weigh-off just for an excuse to go. Bunch of 200-250's still left on the other vines for show, none orange. Hardly a prize for all the work that transpired. Exactly WHY do people do this to themselves?!! :-(   Tuesday, September 6 View Page The section of my 1531 vine leading to my main player rotten off. No sense taking care of the vine - so it's gone - hope to keep this guy in shape for the weigh off in a few weeks. Seems OK now. No plans to be competitive, but just to have an entry. Last year was 30th out of 31 entries. At lease I beat some other guy with a grapefruit size entry. This one is a few pounds bigger than last year - maybe I'll beat 2 others.   Thursday, October 27 View Page End of Season - Never grew a monster - biggest 450 from the 1531Fulk, rotted before the DelVal weigh-off - Nuts. Best I could do was a 285 just to have something to weigh and still got a round of sympathy applause (because, being the smallest it was the first weighed) Lost to the winner by 1,510 lbs. The 1725Haist produced 5 beautiful, symmetrical simultaneous fruits of 250-285lbs which are currently on display outside my wife's business. Shoulda used that seed for the big one. Patch all set for the winter with 4 fresh loads of mushroom soil tilled with grass clippings, maple leaves and slow release lime. Just wait'll next year!