Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 46 Entries. Monday, January 20 View Page Welcome to the 2025 Vineman pumpkin diary! I plan to chronicle the activities in my patch again this year. I hope to make it interesting & more importantly share some things which growers can actually learn from. Of course I have high hopes for the year. I appreciate your feedback too; please share your thoughts in the comments!   Monday, January 20 View Page Yesterday I plowed in my mustard cover crop. It was a little over knee high & just starting to put out blossom pods. I planted this cover crop around October 15 and watered it twice. The greenhouse did the rest!   Monday, January 20 View Page This morning I took advantage of 24 degree temperatures to cover the starting area for my outdoor patch. It is much more enjoyable to walk on top of frozen soil than to slog around in 6 inch deep muck, which is what it would have been if I had tried to do this when it was not frozen. Covering it now will help it become dry for when it comes time to amend & build hoop houses.   Monday, January 20 View Page I plan to grow three plants in my greenhouse: 2560 Gienger, 2465 Sperry & 2144 Barron. These will all be widely planted this year. I’m glad to have the opportunity to grow these three seeds in my greenhouse.   Monday, January 20 View Page In my outdoor patch I am planning to grow the 1865 Werner & the 2177 Ford. They both have grown big, super-heavy, orange fruit. I am planning to build a 30’x40’ greenhouse to get these babies up & running! Each plant will have 45’x45’ to fill out…that is 2025 square feet per plant. They may not completely fill the space, but I do plan to grow big plants. Time will tell how this strategy works!   Wednesday, February 5 View Page Last year I added 20 bags of composted chicken manure to my greenhouse before I did my soil test. I had fantastic early growth in the greenhouse, so I am doing it again this year.   Wednesday, February 5 View Page In also adding 20 bags to my outside patch…I didn’t do this last year.   Sunday, March 9 View Page I just returned from the GPC Conference in Green Bay. I think it was a fantastic place for the conference...but hey, I'm the guy who loves legendary sporting venues! The Lambeau Field tour was amazing. Even in the dead of winter! Living in Eugene, Oregon — where it is gray & wet for what I consider way too long in the winter, it was good for me to see a place where real winter happens.   Monday, March 10 View Page My thoughts on the importance of doing things which help Mother Nature do what she does (except only better) were reinforced at the conference. I have come to realize that by creating the best environmental conditions, that I can help my pumpkins grow bigger. The once-green grass at Lambeau Field is now dormant. As the soil temps rise in the spring, the microbiology living under the sod will come back to life & get back to doing its work breaking down nutrients into forms which can be taken up by the sod. This will happen at its best when the soil temps are between 70 & 85 degrees…just like it does in my patch at home. From the looks of the field, the "frozen tundra" could benefit from at greenhouse this time of year.   Tuesday, March 11 View Page Regular people return from Lambeau Field with a souvenir cheese hat & memories of the historic venue. Ah, if happiness could only be that easy for me!   Wednesday, March 12 View Page I came home with a 2300 pound patch, a plastic medal, a bunch of seeds (my prize from last year's Grower Diary of the Year contest) & a renewed desire to grow the biggest pumpkins of my life.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page I’ve been working on a new greenhouse for my “outdoor” patch which is in my neighbor’s yard. Initially it was going to be built from 2 - 10’x20’ Harbor Freight carports. I bought them on sale about a month ago for $89 a piece. On a recent trip to Harbor Freight I saw what happened to these similar awnings when we had high winds & I realized that I was going to need to beef them up.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page I used the wimpy carports as the starting point for what has turned into this 40’ x 30’ structure. Everyone (including my neighbors) thought I was building a house.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page Yesterday I installed plastic on the center of the greenhouse. And I did it all by myself!   Wednesday, March 12 View Page I figured out that if I cut my big piece of plastic into 3 smaller pieces, used some clamps & had everything laid out & ready to go that I could do it without having to beg someone to help me. It is nice not to use up too many favors at this point of the season.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page What I didn’t realize is that the upper canopy is going to leak where it is joined with the wiggle wire to the lower part. So much for my career as a design engineer. I guess I should have consulted with Brandon Dawson before I executed my plan.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page This morning I started putting on the rest of the plastic. It wasn’t supposed to start raining until noon…but it started raining shortly after I began. I got plastic on one side & put up a couple tarps on the other side while getting poured on. And yes, it does leak some, but it isn’t really too bad. Three hours & a half-inch of rain later I was finished.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page I hope this muddy ladder is not a preview of my upcoming season! What I do know is that I will have 5 really great growing spots this year.   Thursday, March 13 View Page Last week before I left for Green Bay I put in soil heating cables for the 3 planting spots in my greenhouse. The soil temp was just over 60 degrees then.   Thursday, March 13 View Page Here you can see the cables attached to a 4’x7’ piece of wire fencing. I will start two plants side-by-side. I’ll keep the better of the two & will cull the other. I put these plastic jack-o-lanterns in the spots where the seedlings will be planted, just as a way to keep it from filling up with soil that I will have to remove later. For some reason we have lots of these plastic jack-o-lanterns.   Thursday, March 13 View Page This morning I plugged in one set of soil heating cables. In nine hours they raised the soil temp about 7-8 degrees. They seem to work pretty well!   Sunday, March 16 View Page Today the soil heating cables seemed to have topped out at about 82 degrees. It has rained 5 inches in the past three days since I plugged these in & the high temperature has been 44 degrees. There has been absolutely no sun to warm up the greenhouse. I’m impressed with them!   Sunday, March 16 View Page These are the cables I’m using. This is the second year for these particular ones.   Friday, March 28 View Page I have a jury duty summons for today. I’ve been dreading the thought of getting stuck on a jury when I should be busy finishing up things in my patch to be ready to roll soon!   Friday, March 28 View Page Last night I learned that I don’t have to go to jury duty today! That means I have an extra day to work on my patch that I wasn’t counting on…and who knows how long a trial might last??? Maybe this is going to be my lucky year! The good thing about knowing that I might miss a week or so of critical time getting ready for my season has kept me on task with my patch prep.   Friday, March 28 View Page I just replenished my 5/2 supply. The stuff I’ve been using the past few years is from Tea Lab in Mendocino, CA. Five pounds costs $65 and lasts me about a year & a half when I grow 5 or 6 plants. I put a half cup of it in my feeding mix every time I mix up a batch. The key to mixing up 5/2 is to use super-hot water. I mix it with 2 cups of hot water from the insta-hot faucet in our kitchen. It dissolves it perfectly.   Friday, March 28 View Page Kelp & Humic are known biostimulants. A Virginia Tech research team did a ten year study on biostimulants & found that when 5 parts humic are combined with 2 parts kelp it is more than 50% more effective than using each individually. It is easy to use & relatively inexpensive, so why not use it?   Wednesday, April 2 View Page Last fall when I was subsoiling I must have hit an electrical conduit/line that brought power to my greenhouse. I thought I had worn out my gfi outlet & just needed to replace it. When putting in a new gfi outlet didn’t fix the problem, it was time to dig. Not a fun day…but I did locate the problem.   Wednesday, April 2 View Page I got lucky & didn’t have to dig too much. The new wires even went into the conduit pretty easily too. My power is now restored. Maybe this really will be my lucky year!   Sunday, April 6 View Page I got a bit of a rush today when I picked up a walking board & had this little snake strike at me! It is an Oregon Striped Garter Snake. It has a diamond shaped head, which often means they are venomous. These snakes have a mild venom which is not dangerous to humans.   Monday, April 7 View Page I soaked these seeds 36 hours ago for 4 hours in plain tap water. I didn’t file any edges. 100% germination on these 2301 & 2250 Pugh seeds! They were germinated in a moist paper towel inside a zip lock bag. I put them in the small room where our hot water heater is located. The average temperature was about 80 degrees. It doesn’t get much easier than that!   Monday, April 7 View Page You can see the zip lock germination bag on the ironing board. I’m pretty sure this ironing board hasn’t been used for anything other than a germination table since we’ve lived in Oregon. First year seeds are super-easy to start. I recently heard that pumpkins which produce lots of seeds produce seeds which historically have been highly vigorous. My 2250 had 750 good seeds & the 2301 produced 375 viable seeds!   Monday, April 7 View Page These Sensor Push temperature & humidity sensors are fantastic! I recently purchased another one from Amazon.com for $43. They will connect to WiFi & also give you a VPD reading, which is great for greenhouse growing!   Monday, April 7 View Page This is the Sensor Push data from my germination room over the past 25 hours. You can see where the temperature dropped after 8:00 am when I removed the sensor from the germination room to take a picture of it. You can set alarms through Sensor Push so you will receive alerts when temperature or VPD hit set benchmarks.   Monday, April 7 View Page VPD, or Vapor Pressure Deficit, is a measure of how much moisture the air can hold at a given temperature. Plant growth speeds up considerably at higher temperatures because transpiration increases as the plant’s way of keeping moisture on the surface of its leaves. Basically, the plant pulls moisture out of the soil (also bringing nutrients along for the ride) up through its vascular system in order to keep its leaves properly hydrated. This means that you get faster growth! Understanding VPD & its relationship to a plant’s ability to undergo photosynthesis is the key to growing anything to its potential. Any giant vegetable grower who does not understand this concept and doesn’t do their best to use this to their advantage is missing out!   Tuesday, April 8 View Page Yesterday I did a final till of my big greenhouse. I waited to do this until all my lights were hung, soil heating cables were buried & warming boxes were in place.   Tuesday, April 8 View Page I recently discovered vole holes along the base boards of the greenhouse, so I got out the heavy artillery! Voles are relatives of mice. They live in abandoned mole tunnels. Voles always leave the entry’s to the tunnels open. Moles fill the entry holes. I filled the holes after putting Volex in them. Now if I find them open I will know that they are still active in the tunnels.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Today is the day! After 4 hours in warm water these babies will go into moist paper towels enclosed in ziplock bags. This has to be one of the best days of the year!   Thursday, April 10 View Page In total I’m starting 16 seeds which will be narrowed down to 5 plants over the next couple weeks. A sincere “thank you” to the guys who generously donated the seeds I’m growing this year.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Today I will be pulling the weeds on the back side of my big greenhouse. This should be a fun project! I wonder how many more snakes will try to bite me???   Friday, April 11 View Page All better now! 120 feet x 5 feet of weeds pulled by hand in just over 5 hours. Before I built my greenhouse this was part of the patch I used to amend. I was amazed by how many worms I saw. There were massive mats of roots growing from the weeds. I had no idea there would be so much life in the soil.   Saturday, April 12 View Page I’m super happy with my practice germination seeds. I think they have great color & aren’t too leggy. These seedlings are day 7 after soaking.   Saturday, April 12 View Page All of my “keepers” are showing roots 48 hours after being soaked except my 2560 Gienger. I had planned to soak them for 4 hours, but got busy pulling weeds & forgot about them until Travis called me to tell me about the crazy things he has been doing. A half hour into our conversation he asked me if I had started mine. This was about 7 hours after I started soaking them! It is a good thing he called or they might still be soaking!   Tuesday, April 15 View Page This is what all but one of my seedlings look like on day 5. I think I will probably plant them outside on Sunday (day 10).   Tuesday, April 15 View Page This one is the problem child. It also happens to be one of the most proven seeds on the planet: 2560 Gienger ‘22. This is its third year, so it is not old enough that it should be a slow starter. Last year my 2560 started just like all of my others did this year. It is basically 3 days behind the others which were started with it. What are your thoughts???? Should I grow it or should I replace it with one of my 2301’s (2560 x 2501 Bernstrom)???? Give me some actual reasons to back up your recommendation. Thanks!   Wednesday, April 16 View Page Here’s one last pic of Franken-Travis before it goes into an ice cream container pot. Let me know what you think!