Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 119 Entries. Monday, February 13 View Page The favas are liking the warm weather.   Tuesday, February 14 View Page In January, we did seed sanding and sprouting tests. First, we sanded AG seeds from our 409 with light, medium and heavy sanding. Next..........   Tuesday, February 14 View Page We wrapped the seeds in paper towels and soaked the seeds in a liquid seaweed solution. We placed the seeds cover with plastic wrap in our 85 degree oven for 12 hours. Next, the seeds were placed in a seed starting mix and put in three different environments to see what type of seeds would sprout first. We also wanted to see which environment encouraged the seeds to sprout the fastest. 1. in an 85 degree oven 2. on an 85 degree electric seed starting mat 3. in a cooler with a half gallon of water at 115 degrees reheated every 12 hours.   Tuesday, February 14 View Page Within 48 hours all but one seed was up with the cooler method winning by 12 hours. The first seed up was the lightly sanded seed in the cooler. One of the heavily sanded seeds came out deformed and one seed never sprouted.   Sunday, April 2 View Page Our favas grew well....   Sunday, April 2 View Page The boys weed wacking the favas.   Friday, April 21 View Page Today I turned the centers. The ground is still wet but workable.   Saturday, April 22 View Page I decided to get one 4'x 6'center ready to plant today. First, I dug a 2'x 3' deep hole for the gopher wire cage. Next, I added the cage and filled it in with 8 parts dirt, and one part a mix of gypsum, worm castings, organic potting soil and a little scoop of Dr. Earth. The mound the pumpkin will be planted in is 2' higher than the level ground.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page Yesterday, Riley, Brion and I finished rototilling in the last of the cover crop. It was late to till but we've had so much rain the soil wasn't ready until now.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page We have a gopher problem in the patch so gopher cages are a must. First, we dig a 2' by 3' hole.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page Next, the cage is placed in the hole.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page Last, the whole cage is burried which helps form the mound the pumpkins will be planted in.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page We've tilled, prepaired our centers and tonight we are soaking our seeds. The 2006 line up is: 1097 Beachy, 1180 Daletas, 1314 Beauchemin, 1420.5 Larue, and the 695 Handy. It feels like the Creekside 2006 season is officially open.   Saturday, April 29 View Page We've prepared six mounds and will make small 4'x6'greenhouses to go around them. Yesterday, we buried our first soaker hose in one mound and those will be complete before we make any more greenhouses.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page All our seeds sprouted nicely on the sprouting mat in about three days. The only thing I noticed with the sprouting mat was the seed sprouting mix was dry on the bottom when we transplanted to a larger pot. Next year I may soak the bottom of the pot (@ day 2) to help with the dryness. We've added the 1233.5 Reiss to our 2006 line up and will cross it with the 1180 Daletas. It's so beautiful.   Thursday, May 11 View Page All six seeds have their own mini greenhouses and all transplanted well into the ground. We are watering them every other day following Joel Holland's feeding schedule.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 1180 Daletas.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 1420.5 Larue. The first two leaves had brown centers to them but the first true leaf seems healthy.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 695 Handy.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 1233.5 Reiss.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 1097 Beachy.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The 1314 Beauchemin.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1314.8 Beauchemin- It now has large floppy leaves and is growing well.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1420.5 LaRue- Growth is slower on this plant than the others started at the same time. Found our first two spotted cucumber beetles on this plant yesterday.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1097.5 Beachy- Growing very well. We have some leaf burn from too much heat. We are trying agribon roofs on our mini greenhouses and we are having trouble regulating the heat. We are not able to pull the tops off during the hotter parts of the day. Riley and I decided to take the agribon off today.   Friday, May 26 View Page 695 Handy- It's in one of our cooler spots. We may leave some of the agibon on this one.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1180 Daletas- Is located in one of our warmer spots in the patch. I think we burned our first true leaf with too much heat from the mini greenhouse.(see next diary entry to see a close shot) Some of the leaves have yellow areas and we are not sure from what.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1180 Daletas- Leaf burn?   Friday, May 26 View Page 1180 Daletas- yellowing on the leaves.   Friday, May 26 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- Plant is growing well and has a good sunny location. A few days ago, yellow spots appeared on some of the leaves. (see next diary entry for a close shot)   Friday, May 26 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- yellow spots   Friday, May 26 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- yellow spots and ?   Sunday, June 4 View Page 1180 Daletas   Sunday, June 4 View Page 1235 Reiss. I'm sorry to say we toasted a few of the leaves with our mini greenhouses trying to keep the soil warm in our cool coastal climate. We removed the mini greenhouses today from all the plants and put in some bamboo tie-downs to encourage the main vine to lay down.   Sunday, June 4 View Page 695 Handy- A few burned leaves here too.   Sunday, June 4 View Page 1097 Beachy-   Sunday, June 4 View Page 1314 Beauchemin- This is our fastest growing plant and the leaves were not burned.   Sunday, June 4 View Page 1420 Larue- This plant is plugging along. It's our smallest plant at this point but you never know....   Thursday, June 8 View Page A few weeks back we started our 7th AG at our B&B in Santa Cruz. It's the 689 Sandercock. We are going to have guests that stay between mid July and October try to guess the final weight of the pumpkin. The winner will win a free nights stay at the B&B.   Thursday, June 8 View Page All the mini greenhouses are off so now we can't fry the plants ....good thing. The 1420.5 Larue is to the left, the 1314 Beauchemin in the middle and the 1097 Beachy to the right. all are doing well and the Larue is starting to catch up. We have some splits at the main vine where the secondaries take off on the Beachy and one on the Beauchemin.   Thursday, June 8 View Page 1233.5 Reiss closest, 695 Handy middle, and 1180 Daletas farside.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- The Reiss is growing well and the secondaries seem to be coming out slower than the other plants. The Reiss and the the Handy seem to attract the most cucumber beetles. We are spraying all the patch plants with Neem oil once a week and hand picking between. We see from 5 to 10 beetles a day for the whole patch. We have started to bury all the main vines and secondaries.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 695 Handy- The Handy is in the most interesting spot in the garden. It doesn't get full sun until noon but gets lots of afternoon heat. You can see the 1180 Daletas in the background.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 1180 Daletas- The Daletas is a very fast grower. It has a female flower just starting on one of the secondaries but none on the main vine yet. Is placement in the patch is a little confined due to a fence and garage but it can spread out forward. We are training some of the vines back as well.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 1097 Beachy- We've had to remove a secondary vine from the Beachy. It had split near the stump and was putting stress onto the main vine causing a small split there. Presently, we are just letting it heal and it's closing up. All the vines, the primary and the secondaries all need help lying down. They want to head up towards the sky. We have a fold in the main vine due to the vine heading up and then crashing down. A more gradual letting down of the vine may of helped it from creasing.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 1314 Beauchemin- The Beauchemin is our most vigorous plant so far and has it's first female flower starting about 12' out. The female has a long stem for being so small. In the picture the vine coming towards the viewer, is actually a secondary vine that decided to head backwards. The plant is putting out lots of nice secondaries and seems to tolerate the heat better than our other plants. We had a hot day yesterday, 86 degrees, and most of the plants suffered some leaf burn.   Saturday, June 17 View Page 1420.5 Larue- The Larue is catching up to the other plants. It has lots of healthy secondaries and is in a nice sunny location.   Saturday, June 24 View Page We pollinated our first female on the 1314 Beauchemin this morning with pollen from the 1097 Beachy. We had tied up the female and the male flowers the night before. We only had one male flower ready and used that one. Hope there is enough pollen. The pollination took place 12' out on the main vine.   Saturday, June 24 View Page First flower on the main of the 1314 Beauchemin. How many lobes is this?   Tuesday, July 4 View Page The 695 Handy (front and center, 1180 Daletas in back) must be the most ordered plant in our patch. She sends out straight secondarys with lots of females. Tomorrow we will pollinate our first female on her main vine. We've been setting the alarm and getting up early between 5:30 and 7:00 to pollinate. We go back to the patch @7pm and close up the males and females for the next morning. We are spending close to three plus hours a day in the patch with hours more of work to do. It's a big job! Today for the first time since we started pollinating, I started thinking I'll be gland when this part is all ove. We have a few pumpkins at large grapefruit size. Of course the biggest one is on the 1180 Daletas where we missed a female and the bees helped her out.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page The 1233 Reiss with her first pollination on the main vine.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page The 1420 LaRue with the 1097 Beachy to the right. The LaRue started out as our smallest plant but has just about caught up. I think she wins the record for the plant with the most female flowers. We are pollinating 4 females on her tomorrow morning alone.   Friday, July 7 View Page Grandma Syb and Riley in the patch. Today, Grandma Syb came over and helped in the patch for a few hours with tying up females and males, pruning and vine burying. She was a great help and now realizes how we spend our time and how much time it does take.   Friday, July 7 View Page 1420 La Rue. The LaRue and her multiple females. What a flower producer!   Friday, July 7 View Page Opps...here is the amazing LaRue.   Friday, July 7 View Page The early morning pollination is going well. We have been making cards for each cross, covering them with a plastic sleeve and putting them on bamboo sticks by the newly pollinated pumpkins. Here's one that Riley did.   Friday, July 7 View Page The LaRue produced this unusual male flower. We used it to pollinate a 695 Handy female.   Friday, July 7 View Page 1180 Daletas. This is our biggest pumpkin to date. We missed the female opening so this was open pollinated. She's on a secondary and situated on the mound so she will probably be culled later.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Bouquet of male flowers from the first week in July.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1314 Beauchemin- Here is our keeper on the main of the 1314 Beauchemin @21 days out from pollination. The records of the exact pollination date and size are at the patch. After this picture was taken, we put down a half sheet of plywood and two bags of kids play sand and placed the pumpkin on top.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page The sea of leaves. We love it!   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1420 LaRue- Is this a bad split on the stem?   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1180 Daletas   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- We haven't picked "the one" on the main yet but will soon.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page The plywood and sand are down on all six plants as of today. We still have a few to cull but are waiting a little longer to make sure all six pumpkins on all six mains are a go. We had some abort at beach ball size last year.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1420 LaRue   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 1097 Beachy   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Here's our 689 Sandercock. It look good at first, but in the last month all the first leaves turned brown. We had to trim them off because they were dead. Also, many of the leaves are undersized. This plot is not where our other pumpkin plants are and the soil is much different, very sandy! It's a new plot for us and was not amended in the fall. It's never had a soils test eather. We added potting soil, kelp and Dr.Earth to the mound when planting. Any help as to what is happening is apprciated. More pictures to follow.....   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 689 Sandercock   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 689 Sandercock- leaf and my hand   Wednesday, July 19 View Page 689 Sandercock- This is how they start before they turn all brown.   Thursday, July 20 View Page 689 Sandercock. Some of the leaves look like this too.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Do you think this AG could be moved?   Saturday, July 22 View Page Here is our second patch with a variety of other types of pumpkins like: French, Big Max, Italian, Howden, Blue Skin and Blue Hub. We also have a AG squash going, one AG (that we'd like to try and move to the B&B) and our first Marrow plant too.   Sunday, July 23 View Page 1420 La Rue- This is the largest pumpkin on our 1420 LaRue @43" at day 20. Can a pumpkin look like this and make it to 650lbs? Will these cracks typically get bigger? Most have healed over but they seem to be popping up on a daily basis. We have a second pumpkin on the main with a stem crack ( see next photo ). We need to cull one or the other. Both are growing equally as well. What one would you cull?   Sunday, July 23 View Page 1420 LaRue- This is the second pumpkin on the 1420 LaRue 4 days younger than the one above. There is a stem crack that goes all the way to the pumpkin but is not affecting the pumpkin as of today. Does this look bad? Should we keep this one or keep the one above with it's cracking issuses?   Monday, July 24 View Page 695 Handy- We need to decide which pumpkin to cull on our main of our 695 Handy. This is the first pumpkin and it is a week older than the second. (Pictured next) Both are growing well with the younger one on what looks to be on a faster growth pace. Are these ridges a problem?   Monday, July 24 View Page Here is the second pumpkin on the main of the 695 Handy. It is much rounder with no ridges but is also a week younger than the pumpkin above. The ridges have just formed in the last few days on the first pumpkin.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page We finally got our soaker hoses on timers. We were using one spicket and screwing on and off all the hoses to water the six different plants and the three different extra soaker hoses. It took over an hour to water every day. Now the timers go off on their own and water over a four hour period. We have the soaker hoses on every day for 15 min. Thanks Brion- You're the best!!   Saturday, July 29 View Page Riley with the 1314 Beauchemin pumpkin. @185lbs on day 32 past pollination. OTT= 86", 59.5", 60" = 205.5" The 1314 Beauchemin was pollinated with the 1420 LaRue.   Saturday, July 29 View Page 1097 Beachy: This is the stem of the first pumpkin on the main of the 1097 Beachy. Can a pumpkin with a stem looking like this make it? What can we do to move the stem away? When it was a baby it came up and over the vine and has looked like this ever since. The second pumpkin on the main can be seen in the background. Should we keep that one instead? It was about 4 inches in seize behind the first pumpkin at day 20 past pollination. (See a closeup of that pumpkin in the next photo)   Saturday, July 29 View Page Second pumpkin on the main of the 1097 Beachy.   Saturday, July 29 View Page This is the blossom end of the larger pumpkin on the 1097 Beachy.   Saturday, July 29 View Page Riley on bug alert at the patch. Here he is killing cucumber beetles found in the male flowers. He discovered that they not only crawl around in the flower but go through the holes in the base of the flowers near the stamen too. They hide there and are very hard to see. He pulls the stamen off, finds them underneath and that's the end.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 1314 Beauchemin- Day 36 past pollination- 226lbs. OTT= 220"   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 1180 Daletas- Day 28 past pollination. 165lbs OTT 197 Male pollinator: 1420.5 La Rue   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 1233.5 Reiss- 27 Day past pollination. 152lbs OTT=191" Male Pollinator: 1097 Beachy   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 1420.5 La Rue- 27 Days past pollination. 182lbs OTT=204 Male pollinator: 1180 Daletas   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 695 Handy- 22 Days past pollination. 81lbs OTT= 152" Male pollinator: 1314 Beauchemin   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 695 Handy: This is the correct picture. The above picture is the 1097 Beachy.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page 1097 Beachy: 29 Days past pollination. 209lbs OTT=214" Male pollinator: Self We started to run into trouble with the Beachy when the baby pumpkin came straight up on the vine and curved over. Yesterday, the stem was three quarters of and inch from toughing the pumpkin. We made a plywood "push" and attached a two by four back to our garage hoping that we could encourage the pumpkin not to grow its shoulder on that side. I think we would have lost the pumpkin if we didn't do something. We'll see if it works. The following pictures show some close-ups of the device.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page "Push" device for the Beachy.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page Looking down on the Beachy device.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page How we attached the "push" device to the garage.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page 1097 Beachy (close), 695 Handy and 1420.5 LaRue- The LaRue, our slowest out of the gate has caught up and surpassed all the others. Today it came in at 475lbs gaining @ 20 lbs a day over the last 10 days. The Handy is right in there too but @ 8 younger than the La Rue.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Beachy Stem split- What should we do?   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Beachy- Small split on pumpkin. What to do?   Tuesday, August 22 View Page 1097 Beachy- The Beachy is still hanging in there with a big split that hasn't reached the core. It's still growing 20lbs a day even with the problems. Thanks everyone with the help and advice.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page 1420.5 LaRue- Our LaRue went down when we were on vacation for two days. We came back to find a split that went straight to the core. Yesterday, we caulked the split and Thursday we will move the pumpkin with the help of friends. It was sad removing the plant behind the pumpkin yeasterday. It was still so healthy and green.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page 1420.5 LaRue- The LaRue had an offset blossom end.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page 1420.5 LaRue- We came back from a two day vacation to find the the LaRue (@560lbs) split to the core. Yesterday, was a sad day when we took out the beautiful green and healthy plant behind the LaRue. We will move the pumpkin on Thursday to our B & B and put it in the living room.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Riley caulking the split in the 1420.5 LaRue with the 695 Handy and the 1097 Beachy to his back.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Patch picture: LaRue plant hole and gopher cage in front and the 1180 Daletas in the distance.   Monday, September 4 View Page 1420.5 LaRue- We weighed the LaRue yesterday after it started to go soft. It lasted a few weeks after it had split to the core. There were some very thin walls at the blossom end about an inch and a half thick and an inner crack that had almost made it to the surface that was about an 1" thick too. Final weight: 534lbs and our personal best. We still have the Reiss, Daletas and Beauchemin still growing. The Daletas and Reiss are going neck and neck.   Friday, September 8 View Page Riely, getting the pallets sanded and ready for loading.   Friday, September 8 View Page Today, we cut and loaded the Daletas and the Beauchemin for our County Fair Weigh-off on Sunday. We wanted to give ourselves an extra day incase the pumpkins didn't load well. All went very smoothly and 5 hours later the truck was back home both pumpkins and the excavator returned to the rental place. This picture is Riley and me with the Daletas, our biggest to date that hasn't split. It was still growing 3 plus pounds a day but our Fair is early so she was cut.   Friday, September 8 View Page Here is the Daletas with Brion and Riley. The pumpkin lifting straps worked like a charm and the excavator made our backs really happy. You can see the 1233 Reiss in the background. What color!! The Reiss will be kept growing until we take her to the Half Moon Bay Weigh-off on Oct. 9.   Friday, September 8 View Page The Beauchemin is loaded with the Daletas waiting in the truck. We padded the pumpkins well all around and strapped them in. We put no padding under the pumpkins and will drive them the 20 miles to Watsonville that way.   Saturday, September 9 View Page Our cat seems to like our Larue seeds.   Sunday, September 10 View Page Today was the weigh-off at the Santa Cruz County Fair. Riely took the 1180 Daletas and I the 1314 Beauchemin. Riley won the Junior weigh-off with the Daletas coming in at 630lbs with an OTT of 297" weighing 20% heavy. That weight actually got the heaviest pumpkin at the fair. I got the Beauchemin to 475lbs placing second in the senior division after Jeff Johnson's 550lber. It was lots of fun!   Sunday, September 10 View Page Here is the Daletas being weighed.   Sunday, September 10 View Page Riley relaxing after the weigh-off with his feet on the Daletas and the rest on the Beauchemin.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 644 Sprinsock- This pumpkin was grown off the 1233.5 Reiss(f)and was crossed with the 1097 Beachy(m). The flowers were closed off and carefully cross pollinated on 7/5/06. It was the second fruit on the main vine. The first fruit didn't take. Its OTT=304. It was a beautiful round orange pumpkin.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 630 Sprinsock- We crossed the 1180 Daletas (f) with the 1420.5 LaRue(m) on 7/4/06. This pumpkin won our County Fair at 630lbs with an OTT of 297" on Sept. 10th. Easy steady grower with thick walls and no problems. It was a long pumpkin with big shoulders.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 475 Albrecht- The 1413 Beauchemin (f) was crossed with the 1420.5 LaRue(m)on 6/29/06. This pumpkin was grown in a new part of the patch that had very little amending. It was a very fast growing plant with steady pumpkin growth and no problems.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 534 Albrecht DMG- We crossed the 1420 LaRue (f) with the 1180 Daletas (m) on 7/6/06. Although slow to start, the plant made up for lost time and was beautiful when mature. It threw the most females of any plant we grew and the pumpkin was our biggest to date before it quickly split to the core in a short two day period. In one ten day period it averaged 20.69 lbs per day. It's blossom end was off center too.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 430 Albrecht DMG- We selfed the 1097 Beachy on 7/3/06. Nice plant and well shaped pumpkin. It had a short curving stem that caused some early worry and it split near the stem and to the core on Aug. 20th.   Tuesday, November 14 View Page 378 Albrecht est- We crossed the 695 Handy (f) with the 1314 Beauchimen (m) on 7/4/06. It was by far the most ordered and beautiful plant in the patch. The pumpkin developed cracks around the stem end and we culled the pumpkin on Aug. 28th before it spilt to the core.   Thursday, November 23 View Page We snapped a photo of the inner slpits from our 644 Sprinsock grown from the 1233.5 Reiss.