Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 80 Entries. Monday, February 12 View Page Love this picture Tom and the new England club came up with   Monday, February 26 View Page https://www.iowapbs.org/shows/gardeningsteil/episode/10883/plant-passions   Sunday, March 3 View Page The GPC committee in our Matchy Matchy.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Cindy with Quinn and Andy   Sunday, March 3 View Page my version   Sunday, March 3 View Page USA show attendees.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Earned a new Gen 2 jacket for making the 5700 lb. club, 5th time I qualified for a jacket or patch. pretty happy with that but need to get better!   Sunday, March 3 View Page Luca getting his! got to know him this past year while he interned with the committee, and now replaces mario.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Accepting Stillwater's Top 10 average Record, still cant believe i was the anchor at 1965   Sunday, March 3 View Page Cindy getting her new Jacket   Sunday, March 3 View Page Quinn 5th place Grower of the year, and me 6th place grower of the year. WR's are nice, but i want this top spot just as bad! 2nd year in a row for making top 10, finished 5th last year.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Luca, right about the time he said "F$%# you guys" to the German club. LMAO   Sunday, March 3 View Page Expert Grower Panel, not going to lie, very cool to be apart of, but damn   Sunday, March 3 View Page Some great people up there, Love this community   Sunday, March 3 View Page Spent a couple of days in Bruge with the committee, Amazing   Sunday, March 3 View Page At night   Sunday, March 3 View Page First piece I've seen done by Michaelangelo "the Madonna."   Sunday, March 3 View Page all i drank from Tuesday through Sunday night, plus 5 hour energies. Our beer is crap here   Sunday, March 3 View Page last pic was Pumpkin beers, this one was a pipeline beer. every beer got its own glass.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Friday's get together.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Jos Ghaye   Sunday, March 3 View Page another Goty picture   Sunday, March 3 View Page we spent Sunday night in Brussels.   Sunday, March 3 View Page This statue was very popular, could even by a choclate mold of it. lol   Sunday, March 3 View Page one of the nicest people you could ever meet, Mehdi Daho   Sunday, March 3 View Page Ran into this guy in Brussels. Seemed like a pretty nice guy, very interested in Giant Pumpkins lol   Sunday, March 3 View Page and this guy as well!   Sunday, March 3 View Page and Anna Belle   Sunday, March 3 View Page https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3cE5U7/   Sunday, March 3 View Page https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR33ege5/   Sunday, March 3 View Page https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3cKade/   Sunday, March 3 View Page So here's a ticktok on how I prepared the patch for this upcoming season https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3cgB7Y/   Wednesday, March 6 View Page so i made a new grow area in my basement basically put reflective material over my old area, added a couple leds to my t5's, got a space heater, closed off with curtains. keeping it in the 80's. in the past my basement always got down to low 60's at night. seeing a huge difference and should be ready to rock and roll here in a month. these are either my 2088 or 1935.5 seeds are identical and dont rember what jar i got them out of lol. TEST   Wednesday, March 6 View Page nice looking plants 8 days later. I use to go paper towel to peat pots to 2-gallon bags all in a weeks' time. now paper towels to grow bags.   Wednesday, March 6 View Page correct picture maybe? i am trying to do my diary from my computer this year rather than my phone.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page so, this is the edge of my basement, should handle all my plants, going to have probably 12 2-gallon growbags, and some tomato plants here in a month.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page 2 weeks old yesterday. need to move lights up quicker next batch, and keep better airflow. all better after those adjustments.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page Been watching marketplace since last year. already had one I was emptying daily, now I got 2 with a total of 1100 gallons capacity.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page cut a couple loads off wood this past weekend, closest call I've ever had. no blood thank goodness.   Sunday, March 17 View Page Went up to Rothschild Wi, for the Wisconsin Giant pumpkin growers' seminar. It was a great time as usual, should have some more pictures towards the end of the week, gave out a bunch of the central region GPC awards. Best part about this volunteer position rewarding those who worked their tails off!   Sunday, March 17 View Page They really did a heck of a job with door prizes, everyone got something pretty cool. i got one of the 8 or 10 grow lights they had to give out.   Sunday, March 17 View Page for club awards, I had the 18th largest pumpkin weighed at a Wisconsin weigh off. thanks Charlie and Jake for not getting that membership in time!   Sunday, March 17 View Page Test plants are 20 days old and vining out. I shut the T5's off on Friday before I left but left the Led's on. haven't fed anything but water, and think they look amazing. We're getting Closer to Go time!   Tuesday, March 19 View Page nervous, but should go good, hopefully someone picks one thing up and turns it into a new PB. then i get to speak with some guy named Travis the following week up in the st croix region.   Sunday, March 24 View Page hopefully the last round of this crap. got 5" while at work Friday morning. I see Minnesota and Wisconsin are getting blasted today. Iam sure it's because of a couple growers getting their hoops out to early lol.   Sunday, March 24 View Page had to drop a check off at the Bank for the GPC. Closest one to me is in Iowa City, this is on the same building. heard she's quite popular.   Thursday, April 11 View Page Went to the small town of Farmington IA last weekend, talked pumpkins for over 2 hours. Great time, now i need to get same presentation under a hour, for this weekend up with st croix growers. my whole presentation was recorded on their fb live page, and is available on my facebook page if anyone wants to give it a listen. Thanks to Marty for the Pic!   Thursday, April 11 View Page https://www.facebook.com/share/v/SQ5g6SdKn4HHFYNY/?mibextid=oFDknk   Tuesday, April 16 View Page seed selection i did Friday, was 7 of 10 with #8 being questionalble. my 1707.5's gave me a fit for the first time. one had a short nub for a root after 3 days, and one did nothing . i did start another plus a 1975.5 fleser and a 2131 Wuersching on the 15th, so we will see what happens.   Tuesday, April 16 View Page St Croix Seminar in Hudson Wisconsin. I got to present along side some guy named Travis, i know i went to fast and skipped a bunch, but had people say i did well so ill take it.   Tuesday, April 16 View Page Travis gave a excellent presentation on Products, and i am going to try some things this year   Tuesday, April 16 View Page Left my house at 1:20 am to get to Plaisted companies to get 3600 lbs of vine burying mix. travis told me about it when he grew the 2560. finally made it up there. made for along day but hopefully we see results!   Tuesday, May 7 View Page Went down to Indianola Iowa and got a Ton of worm poop from central Iowa Organic Fertilizer. going to mix in with my vine burying   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 1959.5 Anderson, moved outside on April 22nd started Easter sunday   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 2025.7 Rodenbaugh started Easter Sunday, Out the 22nd.   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 2501 Bernstrom Started april 12th out may 3rd   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 2088 started april 12th out may 3rd   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 1707.5 started april 15th out may 3rd   Tuesday, May 7 View Page 1935.5 started April 12th out May 3rd. This one is named Culver, I gave a few out at the Wisconsin Seminar, and we broke for lunch. Culvers restaurant was across the street someone dropped one I gave them, and Kristina Schmit found it, so mike gave it back to me. See if its Iowa's next 2400 +   Sunday, May 12 View Page Got it done Ken! Last day of season   Sunday, August 11 View Page Well been kind of busy year, but here are some mid season photos, my daughter and I took 2nd at the iowa state fair, lost to sheriff by 8 lbs 1959.5 Anderson x 2025.7 Rodebaugh. Was 62 days at harvest, basically went to chart.   Sunday, August 11 View Page 2025.7 Rodebaugh x 2501 Bernstrom DAP 61, has some main issues but over 3/4 ton   Sunday, August 11 View Page 2501 Bernstrom x 1707.5 Caspers Dap 59, she's a beast with baby skin yet   Sunday, August 11 View Page 2088 Caspers x 1935.5 Caspers only half a plant since birth. Would have to refer to my fb or tiktok post, main just fillet itself open the whole length early. She's around 400 at 41 dap   Sunday, August 11 View Page 1707.5 Caspers was a dud from the beginning, developed some skin bacteria and pulled it today, was only flesh deep.   Sunday, August 11 View Page 1935.5 Caspers x 2501 Bernstrom I believe 53 dap despite loosing part of the main a few weeks ago and saving by fileting the main length ways in between nodes has averaged around 30 for last 25 days and is over a half ton   Thursday, August 15 View Page YouTube There will be a part 2   Friday, August 16 View Page YouTube part 2 from the fair   Sunday, September 29 View Page 644 at cedarburg grown off my 2088, plant was a pain the butt, so let Bloomfield drop it from 150 ft   Sunday, September 29 View Page 3rd win in a row at Bloomfield, 1,844.5 +6% (2025.7 Rodebaugh x 2501 Bernstrom) and won hd as well! Great day was expecting a bigger one to show up. Now do I try to repeat beauty of north at stillwater?   Thursday, October 10 View Page Well rough season in the Midwest, lucky to have 2 decent ones make it to the finish line, 1933.5 on my 2501 Bernstrom x 1707.5 Caspers 1st place at Anamosa. I was also honored as this year's Hall of Fame inductee   Thursday, October 10 View Page Stem view   Monday, October 21 View Page Had the honor of picking up Earl Thompson's 2670 for the new york botanical gardens this year, that thing was impressive! It's the talk of the Gardens. Great Job Earl. She's a beauty   Monday, October 21 View Page Barry Leblanc's 2457 looking absolutely fabulous   Monday, October 21 View Page Ron and paps 2207, even the spectators were a fan of the orange ribs. This one will be carved this next weekend.   Monday, October 21 View Page So pretty, just love sitting on a bench and listen to people's first experience around these things   Monday, October 21 View Page Woody and Matt, doing the fun stuff while I talk pumpkin. How many pumpkin pies? " nobody knows" love that Saturday night live bit   Monday, October 21 View Page From the observatory   Monday, October 21 View Page When I learned i was picking up Earls, I decided it was time to upgrade pumpkin haulers finally, worked perfect but the jack did get ripped off on a raised fuel lid mound at a gas station in Allentown pa, easy fix , ready to haul a monster to half-moon now! Thanks Tim Parks for storing and loading for the gpc!   Monday, October 21 View Page Matt Debaco, woody Lancaster, master pumpkin carver Adam Bierton, and me. Adam was one of the 3 artist that did my dragon a couple years ago, he along with 2 others will be doing the 2207