Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 208 Entries. Thursday, March 7 View Page A couple days ago one of my pumpkin growing friends asked me if I was going to do a diary this year. I replied, “Heck no! I want to spend my time growing bigger pumpkins, not writing about the work I’m doing to grow them.” But today as I was working in my patch, I started thinking of things which actually would make doing a diary interesting (to me AND the other people reading it). Now I find myself making my first 2024 diary entry. Funny how that happens sometimes. I’m not sure if I should thank my friend, Jeff, or block his number from my phone.   Thursday, March 7 View Page My first thought was to document the accumulation of dirt on my hands as the season progresses. While I will do this, on its own it probably isn’t enough to make this an interesting read.   Thursday, March 7 View Page I grew a cover crop of mustard in my greenhouse this year with the hope that it will supress disease.   Thursday, March 7 View Page When I started to realize low long it was going to take me to plow it in by going back & forth over a small area to really chop it up and then water it heavily before moving on to another section, I had the thought of why not keep a log of how many hours I spend in my patch this season here in my diary?   Thursday, March 7 View Page I was following this painfully slow plow-then water-then plow-then water pattern because I could think of no better way considering that I had been told that a significant part of the stuff that will kill the bad buys in my soil will “gas off” in the first 20 minutes the mustard is chopped up.   Thursday, March 7 View Page Six hours later, after obsessing on what a waste of time this was, I had another thought: why not use my diary to create a “Crowd Sourcing Forum” to get other people’s ideas on why we do the things we do???? Now I actually do think that is an interesting idea! And thanks to the new “diary comments” it is actually possible here on bigpumpkins.com!   Thursday, March 7 View Page As I kept plowing & watering I kept having visions of mustard gas from World War I wafting across no-man’s-land into the enemy trenches killing the bad guys. Yet I saw no deadly mustard gas doing its job of killing the bad guys lurking in my soil. And the first 20 minutes were supposedly the most important!   Thursday, March 7 View Page Meanwhile, my hands just kept getting dirtier. And I kept wondering if the idea of “it being super important to water it enough during this critical first 20 minutes so the soil will form a crust which will trap the gas so it will hang around & kill the bad guys” was really just a load of crap that had been passed down from grower to grower, and eventually to me??? What do you think? I’m going to do a little research & see if I can learn something…or if someone out there who actually has some factual information on how this works, that would be even better!   Thursday, March 7 View Page I also have been told that the best time to plow in your cover crop is just as it starts to bloom because that is when it has the highest levels of nutrients & is most beneficial for your soil. What do you think?   Thursday, March 7 View Page I think the real reason to plow in a cover crop just before it begins flowering in full force, is because once it flowers & is pollinated you get lots of unwanted seeds which just get plowed into your patch. What do you think?   Thursday, March 7 View Page Anyway, after my first day of actual labor in my patch I have officially logged 6 hours & 21 minutes in my quest of growing pumpkins that I hope will end up bigger than this one, which won last year at Elk Grove.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page I’ve done some “internet research” & found a University of Michigan report which provides an understandable explanation of how “mustard fumigation” works: “the process works as so: when plant cells are damaged such as by chopping, glucose plates are released and come in contact with an enzyme (myrosinase). In the presence of water, the reaction produces the natural gas isothiocyanate (ITC). ITC is responsible for the suppressive effects of the practice.”   Thursday, March 28 View Page Last fall I added 20 yards of composted green waste to my outdoor patch.   Thursday, March 28 View Page I added 20 bags of composted chicken manure to my greenhouse patch. This was the first time I’ve added any manure compost to my patch since moving to Eugene.   Thursday, March 28 View Page I will be using TerraTrove MT-17 which is a biological product that helps convert organics such as manure & compost into readily available nutrients for plants. It is one of the products Travis used last year in growing his world record. Ron Root also used it & had fantastic results too.   Thursday, March 28 View Page I’ve been getting my heating cables ready to go.   Thursday, March 28 View Page I zip tie the cables to a piece of wire fencing. By doing this it makes it possible to dig them up & re-use them the next year. Any that I have ever buried without the fence wire were destroyed when I dug them up!   Thursday, March 28 View Page This year I will bury them with the zip ties up toward the top of the soil which I hope will make it easier to locate them when it comes time to dig them up next fall.   Thursday, March 28 View Page As you may know, Dave Chan set a 300+ pound personal best with his 2212 which won the Hard Rock Weighoff in California last fall.   Thursday, March 28 View Page If you followed Dave’s diary last year you were aware that he used CO2 for the first time last year. At the lunch after Half Moon Bay I sat with Dave & his wife, Janet. While we were sitting there I asked Dave what he did different this year & he responded “Nothing really.” Then Janet jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow & said, “What do you mean? You used CO2!” Thanks for keeping him honest Janet! This is a pic of his CO2 setup from his 2023 diary.   Thursday, March 28 View Page Dave’s success & big jump in his personal best led me down the path of obsessing & learning about CO2 over the winter. Our atmosphere contains about 380-400 ppm of C02. It is a fact that the ideal CO2 level for most plants (including giant pumpkins) is between 750-1200 ppm.   Thursday, April 4 View Page For the past week I have been hard at work amending my patch. I think my dog, Cleo, is the only one who likes the process of adding amendments. She loves to run around like a wild animal in the freshly tilled soil. She really loves rolling around in kelp meal, and she REALLY loves eating blood meal. I'm glad she likes it, because I hate it!   Thursday, April 4 View Page I have two separate growing areas. This is the soil test for my patch in my neighbor's (the Putnam's) backyard. I like the 6.7 pH! I don't like the super-high numbers for Potassium and Magnesium. I also don't like the ratio of Calcium to Magnesium in the CEC. My organic matter is on the high-side as well, but my patch is well-drained & is a sandy loam, so I have been pretty much disease-free in the three years I have grown in this patch.   Thursday, April 4 View Page This is the soil test form my greenhouse which is located in my back yard, probably 75 meters away from the "Putnam Patch." Overall the test results are quite similar to the results from the Putnam Patch. The organic matter percentage is a little lower, which makes sense because I added about 20 yards of green waste to the Putnam Patch last fall.   Thursday, April 4 View Page I am a big believer in the Langley Soil Calculator. For the last 8 years or so I have sent my soil test results to Cecil Weston & he has run them through the calculator for me. I have had great success in the years when I have closely followed his recommendations for amendments. Here are his recommendations for the Putnam Patch.   Thursday, April 4 View Page ...and these are Cecil's recommendations for my greenhouse.   Thursday, April 4 View Page To get my ratios where they need to be I need a LOT of gypsum. 3500 pounds of gypsum! In the past couple of years I've added between 1000-1500 pounds of gypsum each year. At about $12 per 50 pound bag the 3500 pounds of gypsum would cost $840! Cecil suggested that I find a place that I could buy it in bulk totes. So I did, and ended up paying $100/ton. Cecil is the best!   Thursday, April 4 View Page You haven't lived until you've spread 3500 pounds of gypsum by hand.   Thursday, April 4 View Page I spent about six hours spreading gypsum in my greenhouse and another five hours spreading it in the Putnam Patch. I guess I got better at it on the second day.   Thursday, April 4 View Page Then I tilled it in.   Thursday, April 4 View Page Luckily the clearance for my tractor is almost exactly the same as my height. I built an enclosure for the purpose of containing CO2 inside my greenhouse & it is just tall enough so I can walk underneath it without bending over. I left the ends open to make doing my amendments easier. When it came time to till in the amendments I was relieved that my tractor would fit too! Usually the only luck I have is BAD LUCK. Maybe this is a good sign!   Thursday, April 4 View Page This is what my alfalfa meal, kelp meal, & blood meal looked like before being tilled in. You can also see my CO2 enclosure, which is not closed up completely yet. The reason for the enclosure is to decrease the area/volume where the supplemental CO2 will be used.   Thursday, April 4 View Page One of the things I like most about growing giant pumpkins is doing the work. I love the process of executing a plan over several months. One part that I DON'T like is mixing & incorporating micro-nutrients into my patch as part of the soil amending process. But I do it anyway. One thing that makes it fun is taking and using things from the kitchen which my wife thinks are hers. This whisk is an awesome kitchen utensil which can be used for growing pumpkins if your wife does not find out.   Thursday, April 4 View Page Micronutrients like Boron (Borax), Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Ferris Sulfate, etc. generally are added in small quantities & need to be mixed with something to create enough "mass" to cover your entire patch evenly.   Thursday, April 4 View Page I mix my micronutrients with bagged sand. I use a stainless steel measuring cup to measure them out & my wife's favorite whisk to mix them up. If I do it when she is at work she'll never find out!   Thursday, April 4 View Page My final mix of the micro-nutrients is pouring the blend back & forth between a couple plastic flip-top bins several times, just to make sure everything is distributed evenly. I wear a mask when I mix this stuff. I hate wearing masks. Maybe it is needing to wear a mask that makes me not like doing my soil amendments?   Thursday, April 4 View Page I just had dinner with my wife & she asked me what I did today. I told her I did some diary entries about doing my patch amendments. Then she started asking questions about my diary. She never asks about my diary. The next thing I knew she was looking at my diary! I'm pretty sure someone tipped her off about my use of her kitchen utensils.   Wednesday, April 10 View Page The first cucumber beetle of the year!   Wednesday, April 10 View Page The “Putnam Patch” is ready to go! Amended, tilled, & hoop houses built!   Wednesday, April 10 View Page Last night I filed the edges of my seeds with my wife’s emery board. What would I do without her & all of her useful gadgets? These are the seeds I am starting!   Wednesday, April 10 View Page This morning I’m soaking my seeds in water with a little peroxide. I split them into 2 groups: thin/white seeds & thick/tan seeds. The white ones will soak for a couple hours & the tan ones will get another hour or two. I have them all marked for easy identification. I like to mark them mainly with letters rather than numbers (weights). After a few days of being moist 3’s, 6’s, & 8’s, and 1’s & 7’s can look a lot alike!   Thursday, April 11 View Page When I was marking my seeds before soaking them yesterday I put a big “X” on the two 1620 Pritchard seeds. 24 hours later they are the first & only seeds showing their root. “X” marks the spot! I rolled my seeds in moist paper towels & put them in zip lock baggies & then into a giant igloo cooler with a heat mat controlled by a thermostat set to 89 degrees.   Thursday, April 11 View Page To stay one step ahead of the sprouting seeds, I made these up this morning. Each one contains about 7 cups of Black Gold Seedling Mix, 1/4 teaspoon of Myco Seed Treat, 1/16th cup of Wow Mycorrhizae, & 1.5 cups of water. These pots are now in the igloo cooler warming up for what will happen next!   Thursday, April 11 View Page I mixed these two products together before putting them into the seed starting mix. Last year I tried mixing them to use as my seed burying mix…but as I recall the Myco Seed Treat somehow drew moisture out of the atmosphere & caused the mix to clump. Has anyone else experienced this?   Saturday, April 13 View Page Day 3: Here’s what wants to grow! 2-1620 Pritchard’s, 2560 Gienger, & 2501 Bernstrom. I put them in pots after they started showing a root. Of the twelve seeds I started the only one not showing any sign of life is the 1300 Gienger. I hope it starts. I have/had high hopes for it!   Saturday, April 13 View Page This is interesting! 73 degrees, 65% humidity, & 1173 ppm CO2 in my greenhouse this morning. This is without any CO2 supplementation! When the greenhouse is opened up it has been reading about 405-410 ppm. My soil is generating CO2 at nearly perfect levels! That is crazy!!! When my plants begin growing they will quickly use up the CO2 & it will fall. Then my Trolmaster will turn on my burner & keep it up around 1000ppm (or what ever level I set it to).   Saturday, April 13 View Page Over the winter I spent a lot of time thinking about basic science. I focused on how & why things grow. As pumpkin growers the science begins with photosynthesis. Three things are required for photosynthesis: light, water & CO2…actually four things if you count the plant.   Saturday, April 13 View Page Liebig’s Law of Limitation is the next basic concept of science we should focus on. We test pH, we test electrical conductivity, we have soil tests done, we add amendments, but most of us do not take the time to understand the science of what these things mean & how they impact the growth of our plants & the size of our fruit. Most of us just do these things because someone told us we should. I know I hadn’t really thought about basic science since I had been in college many years ago. Shame on us! And shame on me!!!   Saturday, April 13 View Page Organic Chemistry is another topic we should be thinking about. Organic Chemistry is the study of compounds which contain carbon in their structure & how they combine with other elements…such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium & the other trace elements which we test for. It is the “how they combine” part that we should really care about. Some elements are needed in larger quantities than others in order for a plant to grow & produce fruit at its ideal best. That’s why be care about pH & ratios. Yes, it is ALL about science! The better we understand it, the better job we can do of growing plants which will achieve our goals!   Saturday, April 13 View Page Liebig’s Law of Limitation tells us that it is the element (or elements) which becomes scarce during the growing process which will limit our plants’ growth & their ability to produce larger fruit. The scientific fact that our atmosphere contains about 400ppm of CO2, combined with the fact that the optimal CO2 levels for crops is between 700 & 1200ppm, tells me that we need to supplement our CO2 levels up to “ideal levels.” This chart illustrates how CO2 levels in greenhouses fluctuate over the course of the day when there are plants present with photosynthesis occurring.   Saturday, April 13 View Page By understanding this line of scientific logic we can see that our plants are being grown at CO2 levels which are less than ideal…and therefore we should be supplementing our CO2 levels. I can’t believe it took me 22 years of growing these things to grasp this reality & do something about it!   Saturday, April 13 View Page I think most of us consider using CO2 to be similar to athletes using performance enhancing drugs. I know I did, until I started to think about the fact that CO2 is one of the basic required elements for photosynthesis & that every plant already uses it…plants just need more CO2 to grow at “ideal” levels. There are rules which ban PED’s in sports; there are not rules in growing giant vegetables which ban CO2 supplementation. Our society has conditioned us to believe that using things which give its user a competitive edge is cheating. As pumpkin growers we use mycorrhizae, fertilizers, biostimulants, biologicals, & everything else that can help give us an advantage!   Tuesday, April 23 View Page Ah, the age-old question: “Is it better to plant a $50 tree in a $5 hole, or a $5 tree in a $50 hole?” No worries here because these are some of the finest holes time & money can create. If I was getting planted I’d take these holes any day!   Wednesday, April 24 View Page I think these are more like $75 trees (2501 Bernstroms). The holes are at least $500 holes. Between amendments, biologicals, heating cables, heaters, the little enclosure, the 30’x40’ co2 enclosure, co2 burner, propane, lights, greenhouse, and who knows what else, this is about as deluxe a place to be planted as you can find anywhere.   Wednesday, April 24 View Page Here’s a look at the whole set-up!   Wednesday, April 24 View Page After weeks of getting everything ready for planting, it is a great relief to get these plants in the ground!   Wednesday, April 24 View Page These are some serious lights. Thanks to my friend, Sam Felten for loaning them to me for the season! They are LEDs so they don’t require a lot of power to run & they don’t get too hot. They are fully programable. The color spectrum can be changed too. To suit my exacting needs, I have them set to turn on at 6:00am & off at 9:00pm. Just what the doctor ordered!   Wednesday, April 24 View Page To cover my warming boxes over night I am using 2” rigid insulation. I built the boxes so a half sheet of insulation fits perfectly on top. I will re-use the insulation as padding between my pumpkins & the pallets they will be put on to go to contests. I’m either very environmentally conscious or just plain old-fashioned cheap.   Friday, April 26 View Page What’s your VPD? Vapor Pressure Deficit: the difference between the amount of water vapor that is in the air and the maximum amount of vapor the air can hold before it is saturated. As the temperature rises the air can hold more vapor. As it falls it can hold less. Ideally when we are growing plants we want to provide them with a VPD between .8 & 1.1. I had never thought about this before I started learning about CO2. I did know that young plants like warm humid conditions. Now I have a target to shoot for!   Friday, April 26 View Page My wife sent me this today. And I thought she didn’t care!   Saturday, April 27 View Page My friend, Dave Chan, asked me to share a little more about the environmental controller that I am using for my greenhouse. It is a TrolMaster HCS-1. I bought mine used although it appears to be un-used (just pre-owned) on E-bay for $125. They retail new for $328. It comes with a temperature/humidity/light sensor. You can add sensors and switches(solenoids) for lights, fans, etc.   Saturday, April 27 View Page This is TrolMaster’s description of the unit. It does include use of the TrolMaster app, so it can be monitored & run remotely by a smartphone.   Saturday, May 4 View Page I think guys like Chris Rodebaugh are game changers. They’re smart, young, analytical, hard working, & willing to try new things. Many of us “old growers” quite simply are stuck in our ways. You might say that we have become victims of our own success. Lots of us believe that because we have been successful that we should just keep on doing the things we have always done, year-after-year. Meanwhile the Rodebaughs, the Kisamores, the Marintzers, the Giengers, etc., keep learning, trying new things, and raising the bar! This year my focus is to be open to new ideas which scientifically make sense & to fight my tendency to keep doing the same old things…just because they are what I’ve always done.   Saturday, May 4 View Page After my first year living & growing in Oregon I decided to build this greenhouse. I built it pretty much because the best growers in the PNW all grow in greenhouses, so I decided that I should too. This is the view I have each morning when I wake up! My friend, Steve, (who has a greenhouse which is even bigger than this one) likes to remind me that this is also the same view that my wife has each morning when she wakes up.   Saturday, May 4 View Page I named my greenhouse “Pumpkin Henge” because it was my goal to grow really heavy-to-the-chart pumpkins. I’m surprised that Steve doesn’t remind me that it is really going to hurt if one of the concrete pumpkins falls off the “henge” & lands on my head. I’m sure after it happens he will have a good laugh. I do my best to amuse him.   Saturday, May 4 View Page This picture explains today’s rant: I am trying some different things this year. The 8’x8’ “warming enclosure” in the front is where I have a 1620 Pritchard & a 1965 Rodebaugh growing. Behind it is my 30’x45’ super-sealed up CO2 playground where I am growing a 2560 Gienger (with a 1620 Pritchard backup) & a couple 2501 Bernstrom’s.   Saturday, May 4 View Page Here is a look at the 1620 Pritchard (left) & the 1965 Rodebaugh.   Saturday, May 4 View Page This is the 1620 Pritchard which has led the pack since the beginning. It’s enclosure has been at least 70 degrees constantly since these plants have been in it. Unfortunately the 1965 growing next to it will probably be culled in the next several days.   Saturday, May 4 View Page My 2560 Gienger’s main touched down yesterday! The rocket-ship 1620 Pritchard next to it will be culled soon, as space in the 4’x4’ warming enclosure is quickly running out. During warm & sunny days I take the tops off all my inner enclosures, but it still gets REALLY hot & humid in this “CO2 enclosure.” A couple days ago I let it get up to 115 degrees before rolling up my outer greenhouse sides to let some cooler air in. You could see steam pouring out the side of the greenhouse as it vaporized in the 65 degree outside air. It was awesome to see. In just a few minutes CO2 levels dropped from 1285 to 500ppm. Then I closed it back up & it stayed about 100 degrees with 1200ppm CO2 & 70% humidity for the rest of the afternoon.   Saturday, May 4 View Page These 2501 Bernstrom’s look fantastic as too! The one on the left’s main found its way to the ground yesterday.   Saturday, May 4 View Page In my outside patch I have a 16’x8’ & a 10’x8’ greenhouse for getting plants started. The plants in the larger hut are about a day behind the ones in Pumpkin Henge.   Saturday, May 4 View Page This is my 1300 Gienger (reverse cross of the 2560). It was started at the same time as my other seeds! It took 7 days to start growing a root & today it finally has a decent looking leaf (day 24). Every instinct I have developed from growing these things for 22 years tells me to cull it. Travis told me not to give up on it. Last year Tom Montsma had the same bad start going on his 1300 Gienger. He ended up growing a 2360 from it! This is going to be a real test of my patience & willingness to try something I wouldn’t have ever considered in the past.   Monday, May 6 View Page Last night I made my first two culls. These were easy choices as the keepers were clearly better plants than the ones I took out. I wish they were all this easy.   Monday, May 6 View Page I need to decide which of these two plants to keep in the next couple days. The 2560 Gienger has a split in the stem where it folded over as it emerges from the ground. The 1620 Pritchard is perfect & a little more vigorous. The 2560 is what I was planning to grow here…but is it compromised??? What do you think? I’m asking for some bigpumpkins.com crowdsourcing advice here! I really am interested in your input, but ask that you to first take a look at my next couple diary entries which have the “stats” on the seeds these two plants were grown from.   Monday, May 6 View Page The 1620 Pritchard has been grown once. It produced the 2140 Pritchard which was 16% heavy. When John Pritchard sent me this seed he included a long, handwritten note explaining that the 1620 he grew was exceptional. Nobody would take the time to write a note like he wrote me unless they REALLY believed it had great potential. It germinated in less than 24 hours for me & has led all of my other seeds from day one. Plus it grew a beauty for John.   Monday, May 6 View Page “Maverick” the 2560 Gienger grew four pumpkins over 2000 pounds last year & it is going to be grown like crazy this year. It will win many contests this year. It grows gigantic fruit which aren’t particularly heavy. It was grown twenty-one times last year, its first year out. I kind of feel like if I can do some Pumpkin Henge “go heavy magic” with this plant I might be able to give Travis, Steve, & Ron a run for their money at Half Moon Bay this fall. But my plant is already less than perfect on day 26! How much does a split like mine has matter????   Monday, May 13 View Page The first female of the season is always exciting! This one is on my 1620 Pritchard (of course) about 8 feet out.   Monday, May 20 View Page Today is day 39 for my 2501 Bernstrom plant. If everyone who is growing the 2501 Bernstrom this year has one that looks this nice, then there are going to be some real slungers grown off it this year! Remember the guy from the south who used to have a diary & called ‘em slungers???   Monday, May 20 View Page Man these lights are awesome, and I’m pretty sure my electric bill is going to be awesome too. Travis probably has a sponsor that gives him free electricity.   Monday, May 20 View Page I’ve been working on my t-tape. I have a love/hate relationship with t-tape. I love how it evenly distributes water & whatever I put in it. I hate how it can leak unless you get it put together just right. I used to use the end clips you can buy for the t-tape & it drove me nuts for years. Then my friend Jim showed me a better way to close the ends!   Monday, May 20 View Page First you fold up the end of your t-tape. I fold mine four times.   Monday, May 20 View Page Then you crease what you folded down the middle & slide it into a little piece of t-tape.   Monday, May 20 View Page When water fills the t-tape it expands inside the piece that it has been inserted in to & this magically tightens everything up & stops water from coming out of the end! Absolutely brilliant. Real farmers have probably been doing this for a hundred years, but I’m just a city boy. Thanks Jim for sharing the ways of real ag professionals with me!   Tuesday, May 21 View Page If I had it in my hands yesterday but I can’t find it anywhere today, all I have to do is remember to check the dryer & I can usually find it. Just another reason why my wife loves that I’m a pumpkin grower! At least this time it wasn’t something of hers from the kitchen. Ah, that reminds me that I need to grab the nice glass measuring cup before I head back outside.   Saturday, May 25 View Page The 2497 Root & 2287 Sadiq both needed more space & I needed some space to bury their vines so I took down their hoop house today. Both plants look fantastic & are growing crazy fast!   Sunday, May 26 View Page Today the 2501 Bernstrom’s main vine ran out of room in its enclosure inside the big greenhouse. I could have turned the main so it could stay in a few more days, but I realized that if the plant gets much bigger that it is going to be really difficult to take the enclosure down without damaging the plant.   Monday, May 27 View Page These plants have adapted very well from being in the comfy confines of their 20’x 8.5’ hot house to the harsh real world. The 2287 Sadiq is at 13’ (front) and the 2497 Root is at 12.5’. Both plants had floppy leaves on Thursday when their hot house was taken down. Now they have sturdy leaves. It is amazing how that happened so quickly.   Monday, May 27 View Page This is my 1300 Gienger. It was started at the same time as all my others, and it is sooooooooooo far behind! Finally it is starting to act like it wants to grow something. On the envelope which the seed came in Travis wrote: “DO NOT KILL!!! This is 1 of 3 remaining seeds from the 1300.” The 1300 Gienger has been grown once & produced the 2360 Montsma. The plant which grew that fruit started REALLY slowly too!   Friday, May 31 View Page Today I talked with two different growers & the topic of adjusting the pH of the solution we feed to our plants came up. For years I had no idea why we should adjust the pH of our soil (let alone the slurry of things we feed our plants). I just did what I was told to do. This chart is a great way to understand why we should adjust pH! Basically, different elements are more (or less) available to our plants at different pH’s. If your pH falls outside of the range where an element is available to our plants, you might as well not even add it to your soil or feeding mix!   Friday, May 31 View Page Here is a version of the Mulder’s Diagram that Brandon mentioned in his comments on my previous entry. I hadn’t seen this before, so thanks Brandon it is very interesting. This is a great example of what I like about the new “comments” feature in the diary section. I’m a big believer that together we are better & smarter than any one of us.   Friday, May 31 View Page I put up a 30’ x 40’ piece of 30% shade cloth over my two big outside plants today. It is supposed to get hot next week!   Wednesday, June 5 View Page OK, it is contest time here at Vineman’s Pumpkin Diary!!!! The first person who can answer this question correctly will win a set of my 2024 seeds…and they are going to be fantastic! Sorry Jim & Sam you are not eligible for this contest. Here is the question: Why do I have on only one sock?   Saturday, June 8 View Page I got myself a cubic yard of worm castings to add to my vine burying mix. Thanks Pete Casper’s for the great idea!   Saturday, June 8 View Page The worm castings are gorgeous! I’ve been mixing about one part of castings with two parts of my amended & balanced soil for the burying mix. It has a smooth & soft texture & does a great job of absorbing water. This is certainly the best burying mix I’ve ever had.   Saturday, June 8 View Page Here is the five lobe female I pollinated on my 2501 Bernstrom yesterday (June 6). It is sitting at 19’ & has 20 side vines before it. This baby is gonna be an old fashioned SLUNGER! Tomorrow morning it gets its 100 ppm allocation of Florel.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page I have been applying Florel to all of my “keepers” 48 hours after pollination. It needs to be mixed to 100 ppm in distilled water. I use a spray bottle to apply it to the fruit. I leave the blossom on the fruit until after the Florel is applied so the mixture does not get onto the “lobes”. I have not been using Florel on my back-up fruit (the next female on the vine which I would consider growing that has been pollinated). Florel will extend the time the fruit is in the cell division stage…which hopefully means that it will form more cells so that when it moves into the cellular expansion stage there will be more cells to expand resulting in a bigger pumpkin!   Thursday, June 13 View Page My wife’s view of the patch keeps changing! I’m finishing up my pollinations, so it is a good time to use my diary to document what I have pollinated.   Thursday, June 13 View Page A 5 lobe female on the 2501 Bernstrom was pollinated on June 6th with the 1620 Pritchard at 18’. There are 24 secondaries before the fruit & as of today 10 are terminated. In the next week this plant will be at 35’ & all of the side vines before the fruit will be terminated. I’ve never had a plant like this one before! I think it is going to grow a real SLUNGER!!!   Friday, June 14 View Page The 2287 Sadiq had a 4 lobe female pollinated on June 6th. It is at 14’ & was pollinated with the 2501 Bernstrom. It has 16 side vines before the fruit & 3 have been terminated.   Friday, June 14 View Page The 2497 Root was pollinated on June 9th at 12.5’. It is a 5 lobe fruit pollinated with the 2501 Bernstrom. There are 17 side vines before the fruit & 2 have been terminated.   Friday, June 14 View Page The 2560 Gienger was pollinated on June 10th at 18’ with the 2501 Bernstrom. It is a 4 lobe fruit & has 25 side vines before it & 8 have been terminated.   Friday, June 14 View Page The 1620 Pritchard was my best plant…until I cooked its main vine & it stalled out for a couple weeks before it kicked back into grow mode. I re-trained a secondary as the main & was able to set a 4 lobe fruit on June 10th at 13’. There are 25 secondaries before the fruit & 14 have been terminated! Another female will be opening tomorrow at 16.5’.   Friday, June 14 View Page Last, but not least is the 1300 Gienger which is finally growing like it should! It has a female showing at 12.5’ which will be opening in about a week-still historically early for a pollination!   Friday, June 14 View Page I pollinated some back-ups this morning & found this female with seeds in the blossom. If you’ve never seen one of these before, now you have! Personally, I would only grow a female like this as a last resort; you will end up with a pumpkin with a super-thin blossom end that is likely to end up with a blossom end split.   Saturday, June 15 View Page I pollinated what I hope will be my keeper on my 2287 Sadiq this morning. It was a 4 lobe female at 18’ (20 side vines before it) & I used pollen from my 2501 Bernstrom. It will replace the fruit in this pic. I don’t like how the base of the pumpkin’s stem & the secondary are conjoined on the baby in this pic. I figure that irregular things generally lead to problems at some point when growing these things. If I can avoid a problem in the future I will!   Wednesday, June 19 View Page I stopped by one of our PGVG member’s house yesterday to check out his patch. He has done a lot of work amending his soil to follow Cecil’s recommendations derived from the soil calculator. He got an early start & had great initial growth while the plants were in his 8’x10’ hot houses. Since they have been outside their growth has slowed down. The plant shown in this pic is growing leaves with yellow edges after being outside. I have an idea about what the problem is…but we are interested in what your thoughts might be. Post them here! Let’s see if we can help him figure out what’s wrong!!!   Thursday, June 20 View Page June has been an extremely busy month here at Pumpkin Henge. Just ask Cleo!   Thursday, June 20 View Page Last week my son, Owen graduated from his Masters program at the University of Oregon. He was the class valedictorian & even gave the speech at the graduation ceremony. That was super cool! He also has a job waiting for him this fall! Wow!!!   Thursday, June 20 View Page My extremely capable 87 year old father was here visiting from California last week. He may have come because of graduation, but he helped me in the patch a lot! It is always great to spend time with him. He was here for Father’s Day. If you ask me, there is nothing quite like working in the patch on Father’s Day with your dad & son! My dad agrees; my son does not!   Thursday, June 20 View Page We built 5’x5’ raised platforms to grow the pumpkins on. Someone who is smarter than me figured out that by growing fruit off the ground that the blossom end is less likely to disappear under the fruit as it grows and potentially lead to season ending problems. The theory is that the ground temperature generally is colder than the temperature of the air. This causes the portion of the fruit which is in contact with the ground to grow slower than the rest of the fruit…causing the blossom end to roll under. It makes sense, so we built some platforms to give it a try.   Thursday, June 20 View Page Let’s talk about perhaps the most death-defying act we undertake each year as pumpkin growers: setting up our “keepers” for growing. First of all, it MUST be hot when you do this, or you will break vines & potentially end your season early.   Thursday, June 20 View Page It is important to protect your fruit when you are moving it & positioning vines. I like to put a piece of cardboard under the fruit so it will slide easily while protecting its bottom. I also cover it with a piece of a t-shirt. Once I used an old towel & it scratched the heck out of the fruit. Whatever you use it MUST be smooth!   Thursday, June 20 View Page I screwed the corners of my mill fabric to the platform. Then I put about 2 cups of sand on the mill fabric. A second piece of mill fabric will be placed on top of the sand. The only reason the sand is there is to create a surface which will allow us to slide our fruit on when it is large. Think of the sand as ball bearings between the two pieces of mill fabric.   Thursday, June 20 View Page You absolutely will need help when doing this! Don’t attempt to do it alone, or you will be sorry when you break a vine, or crack the space between your fruit & vines. I’m fortunate to have Owen (who has been forced into doing this for many years), my friend/fellow grower/greenhouse expert -Sam Felten, & Owen’s girlfriend -Maya to help with the procedure.   Thursday, June 20 View Page I like to align the fruit with the main vine as it comes away from the plant. Where the fruit, the main vine, & the secondary vine at the fruit all come together I move the main one lateral direction - the secondary the other lateral direction - and the fruit straight ahead. I have ramped up the main vine with soil as it leads up to the platform. Now it’s time to grow some fruit! Hold onto your hat!!!   Thursday, June 20 View Page Of course everything that was uprooted to move the vines gets re-buried with more mychorizae. Then it gets watered well to help it begin recovering.   Sunday, June 23 View Page This morning I had a female open which had “seeds in the blossom.” This is a good pic of what is actually going on when this happens. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”   Sunday, June 30 View Page One of the things I like about growing fruit on raised platforms is the fact that you can run drip lines underneath the platforms. I have always disliked winding drip lines around my pumpkin’s growing spots. Hopefully it will also make rodent damage less of a threat too.   Monday, July 1 View Page It is hard to believe that it is July! 4 of my 6 fruit are at or past the day 20 mark & their plants are kicking over into fruit growing mode, so it is time to make sure they never go hungry! I’m starting to run some 0-0-25 at low levels & will ramp it up over the next 10 days or so. Throughout fruit growing season I use 5:2 Kelp/Humic every day! Since I’ve been using 5:2 & 0-0-25 all of my fruit have been going crazy heavy to the chart. In the past 3 years my big fruit have been anywhere from 9% to 22% heavy when they hit the scales. Yes, I grow genetics which generally go heavy, but I feel like I can usually go twice the percent heavy of the other ones grown from the same genetics.   Monday, July 1 View Page I test the feeding slurry’s pH & adjust it with pH down. I shoot for 6.5-6.8 pH.   Thursday, July 4 View Page Happy Independence Day everyone! I’m celebrating by giving my basal crowns (back in Kansas where I grew up we would have called them stumps) some much needed attention. I had all sorts of new vines starting to grow & broken old leaves starting to rot. I cut them all off & did one of my favorite pumpkin growing jobs: I sprayed the places where I cut them off the vine with Hydrogen Peroxide. It wasn’t your household 3% solution either. It was 34%-spray it on the bad spot & watch it foam up hydrogen peroxide! It was almost as much fun as putting salt on a slug. Then I put a fan on the cleaned up wounds. In few hours everything will be dry & ready for the next three months.   Thursday, July 4 View Page Here at Vineman’s diary we do our best to keep you from making the same stupid mistakes I always seem to make. This is what your hands will look like if you get 34% hydrogen peroxide on them! I poured it out of the gallon jug into my spray bottle & put the lid back on the jug. My mistake was is picking up the jug without rinsing it off. Smart guys like Jim Sherwood & Jim Ford would never make a mistake like this.   Saturday, July 6 View Page My 2287 Sadiq fruit is going to be wheel shaped. I’m not a fan of wheel shaped fruit because they usually blossom end split on me. If you look carefully at this pic you can almost see the dividing line between the thin blossom end and the thicker shoulders. This pic scares the heck out of me. I grew one once on a pallet with the stem down & it made it to the end. I’ll see if I can find a pic of it.   Sunday, July 7 View Page This was my 1578 Pugh from 2013. When I saw it was going to be a wheel I decided to grow it on a pallet with the stem down. Maybe I will do it with the 2287 Sadiq wheel I have going now. I believe that this is the best way to keep a wheel from splitting. It is a real pain to set up, but it worked for me 11 years ago…back when you could be 4th at Half Moon Bay with a 1578 pound pumpkin!   Monday, July 8 View Page Here is another pic of the pumpkin that has been keeping me awake at night. I look at this pic & know in the end it can’t turn out good. Just like a JLo movie. My wife loves JLo movies. I hate them, they are all the same, they are all a waste of my time, but I still watch them with my wife. However, there was one exception recently: The Mother. Maybe this means that there is a slim chance that this pumpkin could turn out good??? I guess I’m going to grow it & hope it isn’t the same bad movie I have seen too many times.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page Jlo came through as expected this morning. At least it was a short movie this time.   Thursday, July 11 View Page Having a day 34 slunger like this one helps ease the pain of losing JLo! After eight consecutive daily gains of 46+ pounds this white beast is closing in on 600 pounds. This pumpkin is now officially known as “The Slunger.” Travis seems to think that if you can string together thirty days of 50+ pounds a day that you have a shot at 3,000 pounds. I’m not greedy; I’d be happy with 120 pounds less (30 days x 4 lbs). The 2880 Pugh has a nice ring to it.   Thursday, July 11 View Page A grower was asking me today about positioning a fruit to grow. Here is what The Slunger’s vines look like leading up to the fruit. The secondary at the fruit is really tight as you can see by how straight it is. I adjusted it right after taking this pic, so now it has some slack, like the main vine does before & after the fruit.   Thursday, July 11 View Page My 2560 Gienger hit day 30 today & measured 259” OTT, which is 400.7 pounds! This is just a few pounds ahead of The Slunger’s day 30. This looks like it is going to be a rare orange 2560 fruit! The pollinating plant of the 2560 grew the orange 1300 Gienger…it has been grown only once & produced the new Wisconsin state record, the 2360 Montsma, which was orange & heavy!   Thursday, July 11 View Page My 1620 Pritchard also hit DAP 30 today. It was 236” OTT which is 303 pounds. Compared to the other two, this is a little disappointing. But historically for fruit I have grown this is a solid DAP number. Last year my 1686.5 Stelts fruit which ended up weighing 1940 lbs (9% heavy) was only taping 177.9 pounds on day 30. There is a long way to go until contest time!   Thursday, July 11 View Page The Slunger’s plant is running out of room! It is still growing like crazy. Usually a fruit which is growing like The Slunger is growing will slow down the vegetative growth to almost nothing, but that is not the case here! What should I do????   Thursday, July 11 View Page This is what I did! I tore out the first secondary on each side of the 1620 Pritchard plant, which I had “swooped backward.” This gives the 2501 plant another 150 square feet to grow vines. This was an easy decision for me. New roots are “hungrier” than old roots, so I think this extra space to grow more roots & leaves will benefit The Slunger more than it will hurt the 1620 Pritchard fruit. If I’m going to get this baby up to 2880 pounds, it is going to need all the leaves & roots it wants to grow!   Tuesday, July 16 View Page Over the years different growers have told me that the little frogs which take up residence on a growing pumpkin are good luck. I’m not a big believer in good luck. Last year I had a “lucky frog” that lived all summer on the pumpkin that became my 1940 Pugh, which won at Elk Grove. Maybe it was a lucky frog & it protected that pumpkin. Maybe it helped it go 9% heavy. Maybe I’m just an old, cynical guy who believes that the only kind of luck is bad luck.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page When we made it back to Eugene after Elk Grove we discovered that although the frog might have brought the pumpkin good luck, it wasn’t very lucky itself.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page This is my 1300 Gienger fruit. Its guardian frog likes to hang out on the pumpkin’s stem. This fruit hit day 25 today. Although its day 25 measurements are not as big as the frogless monsters growing in my greenhouse, it is much bigger than my 1686 Stelts (which grew my 1940 last year) was on day 25! There is a lot of time for this fruit to grow & for its frog to keep it company & provide it with good luck.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page The Slunger hit day 40 today. It taped 332 OTT or an estimated 840 pounds. That is about 130 pounds bigger than my 2023.5 was on day 40 last year. If it can maintain this pace & go 19% heavy (like my 2023.5 did) it is going to be one heck of a slunger! It might need a lucky frog to make that happen.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Just when things are rolling along the way you like them to, something always happens when you are growing these things. I’ve had moles in my yard all year, but they had stayed out of my patch until yesterday.   Thursday, July 18 View Page As I laid in bed not sleeping last night while obsessing about what to do about the varmits that were threatening my plants I knew that I had seen a sign recently which could solve my problem. This morning on my bike ride I found the sign & called the number.   Thursday, July 18 View Page A couple hours later there were 15 traps set by a 27 year old rodent trapping expert who said, “I’ve been trapping these buggers since I’ve been 7.” I think the crisis has been averted. I did learn that moles only eat grubs & worms; gophers eat vegetation. Fortunately I have moles, not gophers!   Friday, July 19 View Page I had this stuff in my garage & it wasn’t doing me any good there. I poked a hole in the run until I felt that I was through to the hollowed out runway. Then I dropped a little piece of this poison worm through the hole. It probably isn’t as satisfying as seeing a dead one in a trap, but I’m not going to be too picky about how they die. I just want them gone!   Saturday, July 20 View Page Today was day 40 for the 2560 Gienger fruit. It taped 336.5” OTT or an estimated 873.9 pounds. It averaged 43 pounds a day for the past 10 days. It is 69 days until the Hard Rock/Bishop’s Ranch weigh off. This pumpkin will be 109 days old then. Maybe it will end up there!   Saturday, July 20 View Page The 1620 Pritchard fruit also hit day 40 today. It taped 300.5” OTT for an estimated 626.3 pounds. This fruit is starting to sap a little bit. I think it will end up very heavy to the chart.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page My mole trapper stopped by today to check the traps he set last week. Now we know that there are three fewer moles in my patch & yard than there were last week! Since Sunday there are no new mole hills or visible tunnels on our property. He did set ten more traps in the hills that they made last week after he set the first round of traps.   Friday, July 26 View Page My 2501 Bernstrom fruit “The Slunger” hit day 50 estimating at over 1200 pounds. It tapes to be about 130 pounds ahead of my personal best at this point in time. Hopefully this long & wide pumpkin will keep doing what it is doing for the next 64 days!   Wednesday, July 31 View Page After a week of cool & sometimes cloudy weather in Eugene, our sunny & hotter weather is back. Hopefully the sun will help keep the great daily gains rolling along!   Wednesday, July 31 View Page Yesterday was day 50 for my pumpkin without a name growing on my 2560 Gienger plant. It is very tall & wide. It tapes about 45 pounds bigger than the Slunger did on day 50! It put on 365 pounds in the last 10 days.   Friday, August 9 View Page I was on a bike ride earlier in the week & came across this piece of foam in the middle of nowhere. Since it surely was the universe telling me that I will be needing a larger piece of foam this fall, after my ride I drove out & picked it up off the side of the road. It is 6’ long & 5’ wide. Imagine that????   Friday, August 9 View Page My 2560 fruit hit day 60 yesterday & taped 240 pounds larger than my 2023.5 was last year on day 60! With 50+ days to go this baby could end up enormous!!! I have high hopes for an unforgettable finish from this one (hopefully unforgettable in a good way) & have named it “Cole Hocker the Pumpkin.” The plant looks fantastic. Man, I sure hope it has a finishing kick like Cole Hocker!   Friday, August 9 View Page The Slunger which is growing on my 2501 Bernstrom is still growing like it wants to win a gold medal too! Day 65 is tomorrow & it will be in the high 1600’s. I hope none of our neighbor’s dogs go missing in the next couple months because if they do it might because they were eaten by the Slunger.   Friday, August 9 View Page Lily, my 1300 Gienger fruit has finally started to get in on the fun of growing rapidly! Lily will be 50 days old tomorrow & will be just over 1000 pounds. I won’t be surprised if she gets really big by the end of the summer too. I really do love growing these things!   Sunday, August 11 View Page The PGVG had its annual patch tour yesterday. The club did something a little different this year. All of the stops were urban patches, with the intention of showing what anyone who has even the smallest scrap of a yard can grow. This pic show’s Olivia Bucks’ patch. It is approximately 250 square feet wedged in between her driveway and the sidewalks which border the front corner of her property. On day 40 her 2501 Bernstrom plant is taping to 540 pounds! I think it could end up at 1250 pounds. That’s pretty cool!   Tuesday, August 13 View Page Now that most of the hard work is finished, it is time to get nervous & excited about what the end of the season might hold. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I currently have a pumpkin sitting in my patch which tapes to the same size as my personal best, and another one which is just a few pounds behind it. So I do things like pick way too many blackberries & make more pies than we will ever eat…just to keep from losing my mind.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page One thing that I keep thinking about when I lay in bed awake at night is: how the heck am I going to load & lift these things if they really do get as big as I think they will???? I guess the answer starts with better/lighter/stronger pallets than the crappy wooden ones that I traditionally have used. I’m hoping that these plastic pallets with a 5’x5’ (or bigger) plywood deck attached to the top are the answer. These pallets are rated to hold 3,500 pounds when being lifted with forks.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page Cleo may be trying to figure out how to get in to my patch, but I’m trying to figure out how to get them (the pumpkins) out! Here is my process: 1. Lift the pumpkin with a tripod & then slide a piece of plywood underneath the pumpkin. 2. Put a super-pallet on the piece of plywood. 3. Use a pallet jack & about 4 people to move the pumpkin on a road of overlapping sheets of plywood to the giant, custom lift gate on my F550 12’ flatbed pumpkin hauler. 4. Hope that the liftgate can lift the pumpkin!   Wednesday, August 14 View Page And here lies the problem! My lift gate has successfully lifted a 2023.5 pound pumpkin sitting on a giant pallet which weighed well over 100 pounds. It struggled to lift it! So if I have a 50 pound pallet & maybe a 2500+ pound pumpkin, what am I going to do if the lift gate won’t lift it??? I can use my tractor to help the lift gate…but will that do the trick??? I am open to your suggestions!   Wednesday, August 14 View Page This is the current stash of nine pies. Should be enough bribery material for loading the two big ones. If you want to be part of my loading crew, let me know! Our first loading date will be Thursday September 26th at noon. We will have burgers for lunch before we start & pie for desert when we are finished!   Wednesday, August 14 View Page Today I rolled back the shade cloth on Slungerville & washed the plastic. It is amazing how much dust accumulated in just a couple months. Our projected temperatures are in the high 70’s & low 80’s for the next ten days with over night lows in the upper 50’s. That should be perfect for the big’uns to start working on their finishing kick.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page Lily must have been inspired by the Olympics, as she is doing her best to catch up with the big boys! Here she is on day 55 at 1100 pounds. She has a long way to go, but certainly has the time to do it.   Thursday, August 22 View Page Today is day 72 for Cole Hocker the Pumpkin. He finally passed the Slunger (which is 4 days older) last week. Now they are cruising along together at a nice, steady 20 pounds a day pace. Both have super healthy 1200 square foot plants & are comfortably growing in the greenhouse. I am comforted by how they keep plodding along. Then I stop and think about what they will become if they can just average an inch a day for the next 30 days & I become quite anxious! I look forward to contest time!   Thursday, August 22 View Page Here’s another pic of Cole Hocker the Pumpkin. Travis keeps telling me that these 2560 fruit “will grow forever.” Let’s hope he is right!   Thursday, August 22 View Page And here is the Slunger! This pumpkin is wide & long; currently measuring 120” for both the side-to-side & front-to-back measurements!   Saturday, August 24 View Page Tonight I made a couple new tapes. They are 250 inches long. That should be long enough (with a few inches to spare) for the circumferences on my big ‘uns! I remember the first time “I reached the end of the tape” on one of the old Don Langevin 192” tapes. I look forward to the day I have a circumference that needs a bigger tape than these!   Wednesday, August 28 View Page This is the plant which is growing Cole Hocker the Pumpkin. I’m only measuring every-other day now because it is just too difficult. It takes me at least a half hour to measure the three pumpkins growing in my greenhouse! Some of my grower friends harass me for measuring as often as I do. But I think it is important. Besides getting the reassurance that the pumpkins are still rolling along, it gets me out & into the plant where I can really see what is going on. If I see anything that needs attention, then I can take care of it. This morning what I saw that stood out was: how absolutely fantastic this plant looks! Hard Rock is coming up in 31 days & this plant is going to enable Cole Hocker the Pumpkin to have a devastating kick! The Oregon state record is 2469. Will Cole be able to take it down??? Stay tuned for the finish of this exciting race!   Friday, August 30 View Page I just made a deal with the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA for Cole Hocker the Pumpkin to be on display at the museum for the month of October! How cool is that?!!!!!!!   Friday, August 30 View Page We have a stretch of excellent weather coming up! Hopefully my big’uns can keep averaging 20 pounds a day. Hot days & warm nights are certainly the key to continued growth through the month of October. I feel like the finishing kick is about to begin!   Saturday, August 31 View Page I’ve been making pallets this morning. I’m screwing two 2.5’x5’ pieces of 3/4” plywood onto 40”x48” plastic pallets.   Saturday, August 31 View Page I used super-beefy screws. They seem to have a really good bite into the plastic. I also like that these screws will not be flush with the top of the plywood deck; this will give the rigid foam insulation I put under the pumpkins something to hold onto & keep everything from moving around.   Saturday, August 31 View Page The finished pallet weighs just over 80 pounds…considerably lighter than the big pallets I have made in past years. Some of them weighed 150 pounds!   Tuesday, September 3 View Page Get out your traps. It’s that time of the year!   Wednesday, September 4 View Page I picked a few cucumbers today. I guess if you can grow big pumpkins you can grow big cucumbers too!   Wednesday, September 4 View Page Charlie Bernstrom just texted me & asked how The Slunger is doing? I guess I’ve been neglecting my Slunger updates, probably because I can’t get a picture that really does it justice. It isn’t tall & photogenic like Cole Hocker the Pumpkin. The Slunger is white with a greenish tinge & is about six feet wide & six feet long. Its overall shape reminds me of an aircraft carrier. My friend Kirk Mombert (2 time Half Moon Bay winner from back in the 1990’s) says it is going to outweigh Cole Hocker by a mile. I guess they used to weigh pumpkins in mileage back then. This pic might give you some idea of how big it is. I’m standing next to it taking the pic with my phone reaching as high above it as possible & this is all that fits in the frame. Yes, The Slunger is a bad a$$ pumpkin. I think it will finish out at about 490” & will be about 13% heavy. I’m afraid to even put those numbers into the OTT calculator. That’s the latest on The Slunger.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page I couldn’t resist. I just ran the numbers on 490”OTT & 13% heavy. I may never sleep again! I’m revising my Slunger estimate to what looks like a pretty achievable 485”OTT & 6% heavy. That’s still 2390 lbs. Too bad that isn’t going to be big enough to win the contest I really want to take it to. I think Travis has it locked up.   Thursday, September 5 View Page I took this pic of the Slunger while doing my rounds this morning. I sacrificed a couple leaves to get this pic. Over the past two days the Slunger packed on another 36 pounds. It will probably be harvested in 30 days…so potentially it could add 500+ pounds during that time. That would just be plain silly. I’d be happy with half of that! This is going to be fun.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Another day, another inch & a half. Cole Hocker the Pumpkin is 4 feet tall!   Sunday, September 8 View Page Cole was feeling neglected after all the attention the Slunger received last week. These pics should keep him happy. I’m afraid if he feels disrespected that he might start his finishing kick too soon. There is still a long way to go!   Thursday, September 12 View Page I’m hoping that my three remaining pumpkins will make it to the end & that these crazy-big pallets will actually be used. They are ready to go & so am I! Remember the song “Basket Case” by Green Day? I am becoming an end of the season, pumpkin-growing basket case. I think the song goes: “Do you have the time to listen to me whine? About everything & nothing all at once. I am one of those melodramatic fools, neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it. Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me. It all keeps adding up. I think I’m cracking up. Am I just paranoid?” I think it just might be part of growing these fickle, fragile things that we like to push too hard & keep too long! But hey, it is one heck of a ride!   Friday, September 13 View Page Since today is the official fabled day of bad luck, I might as well continue expounding on the fear I experience every time I lift the cover off my pumpkins: I’m terrified that I’m going to find something new that scares the heck out of me! As our pumpkins approach the end of their life cycles they crack, change shapes, ooze sap, start to fall apart & morph through the other changes they inevitably experience before eventually rotting. As competitive pumpkin growers we have invested waaaayyyy too much time, energy & sacrificed too much of our souls to push them to this point. All with the misguided hope that they will continue to grow bigger, get heavier & last forever. Or at least until they make it to the scales. And then that they will remain beautiful through the time they are expected to be on display too! We forget that in the end Mother Nature always wins. Meanwhile, we pumpkin growers live in fear & denial. I think that basically sums it up. Happy Friday the 13th!   Monday, September 16 View Page Congrats to Scott Bayuk on his 18% heavy 1986 Bayuk which was weighed over the weekend. It was grown from a 2560 Gienger and did I mention it was 18% heavy???? There haven’t been many orange 2560’s. 18% heavy! That’s a good omen for Cole Hocker the Pumpkin, a fellow big, round, orange 2560 fruit!   Tuesday, September 17 View Page We are loading up next Thursday! I have my stash of blackberry-peach pies in our freezer & got one out today to see how long it takes to bake so I can have perfect pie to serve to my loaders. 3 hours at 375 degrees seems to be the answer! My pumpkins are still putting on 10-15 pounds a day; after eating this pie I’ll be gaining some serious weight too!   Thursday, September 19 View Page You are in denial if you believe you don’t have them. This is the fifth one I’ve caught. Get your traps out!   Friday, September 20 View Page My wife is thrilled that I have another huge piece of equipment that will only be used a couple times a year! But hey, I’m sleeping better now that I have this part of the equation figured out & set up. I found this 2000 pound Presto Lift on Craigslist for $700. When combined with my lift gate I am ready to lift 4500 pounds. That should be sufficient for the next 15 years or so!   Friday, September 20 View Page This thing is pretty cool. Basically it is an electric & hydraulic pallet jack which can lift things up to 73 inches high. It weighs 1000 pounds & is rated to lift 2000 pounds. And it is orange! I probably will never be able to get it out of the 6 inch deep pit I dug for it so my lift gate can still be lowered to ground level. I guess I can figure that problem out after the weigh offs. I remember when we used to load our big ones with tarps. I’m officially old.   Wednesday, September 25 View Page I found this old pic today when I was getting together some of my loading stuff. This was probably 23 years ago. I think we put this one in the back of my wife’s Honda Pilot. It sure was a lot easier then.   Wednesday, September 25 View Page Tonight I went outside to throw the frisbee for my dog & saw this rainbow. It looks like it starts at my greenhouse & ends somewhere far to the south. Maybe it ends just north of Sacramento? Maybe there will be a pot of gold there too! To everyone who is loading up & traveling somewhere for a contest in the next couple days, I wish you the best of luck! Be safe, have fun, & don’t forget that we do this because it is fun!   Thursday, September 26 View Page Cole Hocker the Pumpkin is now safely on the truck! The bottom looks great, there wasn’t a family of mice living under (or in) it, now all we have to do is drive. We also will be towing Jim Sherwood’s big’un, “Hank the Tank.” Our load of pumpkins could be over 5,000 pounds!   Saturday, September 28 View Page Hard Rock Hotel sunrise. It should be a fun day! Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way!   Saturday, September 28 View Page My loading crew!   Sunday, September 29 View Page Cole Hocker the Pimpkin weighed 2301 pounds at the Hard Rock/Bishop’s Ranch contest yesterday. It was almost a 300 pound personal best for me…but wasn't enough to win. Apparently the rainbow really did start at Mulino, Oregon over Jim Sherwood’s patch & not mine!   Sunday, September 29 View Page Here is the champ, Jim Sherwood & his 2453 pound Hank the Tank.   Sunday, September 29 View Page One of my favorite things about the Hard Rock weigh off is that the winner buys breakfast the next day. Unfortunately, I really wanted to be the one who bought breakfast. Maybe next year!   Thursday, October 3 View Page The ‘ole Slunger gonna get loaded in de mornin. Slunger gonna go ta Borchard’s. Slunger gonna break da skale. Dat’s whut ‘ole Burrhead wood say.   Friday, October 4 View Page Here is a pic of the Slunger from the stem end. It is funny how we never get to see this view of a pumpkin until we load it up. As Pete Glasier would say, “It’s a mean looking pumpkin!”   Friday, October 4 View Page We are loaded & ready to drive! The Slunger (2501 Bernstrom) is on the front & my 1620 Pritchard fruit is in the back. I’m excited to see what they weigh!   Thursday, October 17 View Page It has been a while since my last diary post. I guess I’ve been dealing with the disappointment of The Slunger ending up with DMG status. Months before my season started I set the goal of having my 3 largest pumpkins totaling over 6000 pounds in combined weight. And I would have achieved that goal if it wasn’t for a pin hole in The Slunger. I was (and still am) bummed out. We all work so hard for so long, that when we narrowly miss achieving a long-term goal it really hurts. Sometimes it even overshadows the fact that we just had a fantastic season. But eventually we come to grip with the fact that there is always another chance to achieve that goal next year. Like Linus famously said, “Just wait ‘till next year Charlie Brown. You’ll see!”   Thursday, October 17 View Page This is my 1620 Pritchard fruit which was weighed at Bauman’s. It weighed 1745 pounds & was 11% heavy. Thanks for the seed John Pritchard!   Thursday, October 17 View Page This is my 2501 Bernstrom fruit, The Slunger, being weighed at Bauman’s. It is now officially the 2250 Pugh DMG. Thanks Charlie Bernstrom, it was a heck of a ride! Hey, I just realized that Charlie’s name could be shortened to “Charlie B.” And Chris Brown’s name could be abbreviated to “C. Brown.” That’s a crazy coincidence.   Thursday, October 17 View Page The Slunger did end up having just over 700 good seeds. It was pollinated by my 1620, so the seeds should produce offspring with the capability of going big & heavy.   Thursday, October 17 View Page My patch is now cleaned up & the crop is sprouting!   Thursday, October 17 View Page I even cleaned out the trailer where I keep all of my equipment. That’s a new one for me!   Thursday, October 17 View Page Just wait ‘till next year! You’ll see!!!!!   Thursday, October 17 View Page Cole Hocker the Pumpkin is currently on display at the Charles Schulz Museum in my old home town of Santa Rosa, CA. Thanks for the seed Travis!   Monday, October 21 View Page 20 yards of composted green material to replace the soil I used to bury vines in my greenhouse. I really appreciate my friends at Rexius. Not only do they give me a price break, but they even brought over 3 guys to help load up the Slunger! I feel like this officially is the beginning of next year!   Friday, October 25 View Page This fall as part of my patch clean-up/prep for next year I got out my ripper shank & have ripped everything. It is good to do it now because sometimes spring weather does not cooperate. One thing I like about ripping is how it tears up tree roots which have made their way into my patch to steal my nutrients & water! I’m always surprised at how a tree that is “way over there” can grow roots into my patch.   Friday, October 25 View Page One change I plan to incorporate into the plan for next year is to grow bigger plants. Next to my greenhouse I have over 1000 square feet where I plan to have my greenhouse plants spill over into. I was second at two contests this year. That is not going to happen in 2025!   Saturday, October 26 View Page Big & heavy is what it is going to take from here on out. Up until last year you could get away with just being big (480+ OTT). Now the harsh reality is that you have to be crazy-heavy too…if you want to be competitive. One of my goals this year was to grow pumpkins with really big OTT measurements. I feel that I achieved that goal. Unfortunately my expectation that super-heavy would just happen because of my growing practices turned out to be “pumpkin-grower fantasy.” I love 1885 Werner crosses. I also like the idea of crossing the 2560 Gienger (1885 Werner x sib) into these proven super-heavy monster-makers. Fortunately I acquired these seeds before their cost goes through the roof…and that will happen very soon.   Tuesday, October 29 View Page I got my seeds from my 1745 (1620 Pritchard x 2501 Bernstrom) +11% today. It had probably more than 500 seeds. In recent years I have ended up with almost no seeds. This year I used fertilizer with N-P-K for a couple months after pollination. For the past 4 years I didn’t use fertilizer with any P. Most likely my bad seed counts were because I only used potassium (K) in my feeding solution after pollination. During that time I grew some super-heavy fruit, but the fruit lacked viable seeds.   Wednesday, October 30 View Page This year I have been using a battery powered sawzall to cut open my pumpkins when retrieving seeds. It is fast & much easier than the big knife that I have always taken out of my wife’s kitchen to do the job. Maybe everyone else is already using a sawzall, but it is a new idea for me. Give it a try!   Wednesday, November 20 View Page ‘Tis the season to help keep the post office afloat!