Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 58 Entries. Sunday, June 8 View Page A little late getting the diary started this year. I started a bunch of seeds and gave a lot of plants away. It will be cool to see how everyone's plants do this year. I'm growing two, a 1602 Glasier (thanks Glenn!) and an 1175 Holub squash (thanks Scott!).   Sunday, June 8 View Page 100% Germination! Great luck with a heating mat and grow lamp. I only wish I had enough space for more plants.   Sunday, June 8 View Page This years set up, warming up the soil. I plan on making the bed bigger again for next year...just have to convince my husband!   Sunday, June 8 View Page 1175 Holub planted out at the beginning of May.   Sunday, June 8 View Page 1602 Glasier also planted out at the beginning of May. Thanks to Glenn for starting this plant for me!   Sunday, June 8 View Page This guy guards the place...as long as he doesn't lay on the plant....   Sunday, June 8 View Page 1602 Glasier last week, almost laying down, growing like crazy.   Sunday, June 8 View Page 1602 Glasier last week, almost laying down, growing like crazy.   Sunday, June 8 View Page 1175 Holub also a really strong plant.   Sunday, June 8 View Page The weather has been great and both plants are looking awesome.   Monday, June 23 View Page Went away for 2 weeks and the plants more than doubled in size. My husband kept them alive and even staked my secondaries. Two females so far on the pumpkin and one squash coming.   Tuesday, June 24 View Page There that's better.....   Tuesday, June 24 View Page Two of these girls showing up! One small one coming on the squash.   Friday, June 27 View Page First female on the 1602 Glasier pollinated this morning!   Friday, June 27 View Page One female coming up on the 1175 Holub, only one I've seen so far.   Thursday, July 3 View Page The patch on July 2   Thursday, July 3 View Page First female on the 1175 Holub pollinated July 2.   Sunday, July 6 View Page First pumpkin on the 1602 plant at 6 days old. The back-up isn't looking too hot....   Sunday, July 6 View Page One of the first secondaries on the squash is a huge ribbon vine that's standing straight up. Not sure if I should cut it off or just leave it alone?   Monday, July 7 View Page The 1175 Holub on July 7 at 5 days old. Nice long stem on it, now I just need it to lay down.   Saturday, July 12 View Page 1602 Glasier at 14 days old. 34" circ.   Saturday, July 12 View Page And the 1175 Holub at 10 days. Just laying down and now it needs to grow!!!!   Tuesday, July 15 View Page I started quite a few seeds for friends this year. One plant ended up at a co-workers office on the 4th floor balcony. It's a 703.5 Schweigert HD planted in a 20 gal pot. So far it's growing like crazy and seems to like the heat up there. They've set up a watering system and are fertilising regularly....but won't tell me what they're using...top secret apparently. Anyway it's the talk of the office right now. Will be interesting to see just how big the fruit gets.   Tuesday, July 15 View Page This is the pumpkin they have set on it so far. This was pollinated on July 3 and the picture was taken at 11 days old. Nice work Scott!   Wednesday, July 16 View Page The patch on July 15th. Both plants are growing together and I've tried to bury the vines along the way.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page I came out this morning and found that my backup squash had split wide open. So far the keeper is ok and I have a few other backups on the main vine. Any advice? Has anyone had this happen with their squash..too much water? Send me an e-mail if you can help!   Thursday, July 17 View Page Day 20 and a 50" circumference. Just starting to terminate secondaries now.   Thursday, July 17 View Page Squash at 15 days old. Loving the green!   Thursday, July 24 View Page Another pic of the 703.5 Schweigert plant being grown on the office balcony. They lost the first fruit to blossom end rot. Their backup is so far looking good!   Thursday, July 24 View Page The office pumpkin... at 15 days old and 43" circumference. So far so good and a nice shape too, I hope this one works out for them! Will post some pics of my own patch later this week once I hit 30 days.   Sunday, July 27 View Page Day 30 and approx. 160 lbs. Starting to gain close to 20 lbs a day. All other back-ups have been cut off.   Sunday, July 27 View Page The squash at 25 days and around 70 lbs. All of my other pollinations haven't taken so I'm hoping this one stays in one piece! Great shape and colour.   Tuesday, July 29 View Page All of my sheets covering the pumpkin were on the ground this morning and something...either a raccoon or opossum took a few bites out of the pumpkin. We've tried to trap them a few times and only seem to catch the neighbours cat...will be trying again!   Saturday, August 2 View Page The 1175 is doing well and put on 24 lbs in the last day to put it at around 178 lbs. (day 30) All backups have been cut off (not many took at all), and all secondaries have been terminated on the squash plant.   Saturday, August 2 View Page Went out to check on the pumpkin yesterday and found two stem cracks on the 1602. Not sure when they happened but hopefully they've been caught in time and that the crack doesn't go all the way to the cavity. Thanks to Glenn and Dave for their quick response to my texts for help! Did some exacto knife surgery to help alleviate the pressure, I really hope it works! Time will tell.....   Saturday, August 2 View Page The top split the day after... opened up a bit more. Put sulphur on it as well.   Saturday, August 2 View Page The 1602 at day 36. Sitting at 280 lbs right now after gaining 21 lbs in the last day. Looking like it has a dill ring as well as the stem issues. Not sure how this one will do as there's a long time until weigh-off!   Thursday, August 7 View Page The squash is still doing well (fingers crossed). It's gaining steadily and is at 320 lbs on day 38.   Friday, August 8 View Page This pic was taken last Thursday night. The stem split is right into the cavity so I know it's going to rot out at some point and I'll end up with a pile of goo. I couldn't bring myself to cut it open yet so I sealed up the huge splits and am waiting to see what happens. It has gained quite a bit since I found the splits and is now sitting around 397 lbs.   Monday, August 11 View Page The 1175 Holub squash is starting to green up! It's been very light green up until now. Looking pretty cool! Thanks again to Scott for this seed.   Thursday, August 14 View Page The 1602 is at day 47. Still growing slowly after the stem split and is now around 425 lbs.   Thursday, August 14 View Page A picture would help eh?.....The 1602 is at day 47. Still growing slowly after the stem split and is now around 425 lbs.   Thursday, August 14 View Page The 1175 at day 41. Right around 370 lbs and getting more green by the day!   Friday, August 22 View Page 152"   Friday, August 22 View Page It's totally a Friday.... hope this pic shows up the right direction. Great seeds in the GVGO pack!   Saturday, August 23 View Page A picture of the squash from last weekend. Has slowed a bit, now just to keep it healthy until October.   Wednesday, August 27 View Page And the pumpkin..... The 1602 Glasier developed a stem split a few weeks ago and I decided to let it keep growing and see what happened. Bad idea!!!! I ended up with 450 lbs of super smelly pumpkin mush to get rid of. So no giant on this plant for me this year. I did pollinate a few fruit on it about a week ago so I hope to have a couple to carve anyway.   Wednesday, August 27 View Page The final resting place for my pumpkin...the barn manure pile. Seriously that rotten pumpkin is one of the worst things I have ever smelled. >_<   Tuesday, September 16 View Page A front view of the squash. Still gaining around the blossom end. I'm keeping up with my spray and fert schedule but my plant is starting to look pretty tired.   Tuesday, September 16 View Page Seeing a lot of leaf issues right now. I know some of this may be regular senescense (sp?). But other spots look fungal...any thoughts?   Tuesday, September 16 View Page I gave some plants to a friend out near Maple Ridge. They have quite a few black bears on their property...looks like one tried to play with his pumpkin and ripped it right off the vine.   Wednesday, September 17 View Page Pic of my giant sunflower in the front yard. 157" tall!   Monday, September 29 View Page One more picture of the squash taken last week. It's still gaining slowly but not as much as I had hoped. It's gaining mostly around the blossom end so I'm not sure how accurate my measurements are at this point. Weigh-off is OCt 11th so mot long to go.... I guess I should figure out a plan to get this thing out of my backyard now?!   Friday, October 3 View Page Well we made the local paper. 8 more days until the weigh-off! http://www.langleytimes.com/news/277813711.html   Friday, October 17 View Page Heading to the scale at the Aldor Acres weigh-off!.......   Friday, October 17 View Page And we ended up as the new BC Provincial Record for squash at 722 lbs! Pretty happy that it went over 700. Many thanks to Scott Holub for the seed and all of the BC growers for their help all season!   Friday, October 17 View Page My husband helping me unload the squash from the horse trailer. He even built me a heavy duty dolly so that I can move it around easily. Now I just have to decide how to carve it up for Halloween! Hoping there are lots of seeds in it to share. It turned out so nice and shiny so I may try to grow it again next year (1175 Holub X self).   Wednesday, November 5 View Page The squash all carved up for Halloween. The trick or treaters loved it! Dropped it off at our friend's farm the next day for the pigs to enjoy. Until next year.....